Bound by Blood (Bound #1)(6)

She lunged forward, but a hard hand wrapped around her arm.

“Easy, there, cher. ” The man’s voice rolled with a Cajun accent she’d once heard during Mardi Gras in New Orleans. “Don’t go gettin’ between wolves. If Mike wants a challenge, then Jace will give him one…”

As she watched, the other wolves circled and howled. Jace tore into the white wolf. More blood. Her nose twitched at the smell.

Didn’t they know better than to fill a room with blood when a vampire was around?

Her teeth began to burn as they stretched in her mouth. What would it be like? To have that fresh, wolf blood? Would it truly be as powerful as the Council said?

Jace went for the white wolf’s throat. His powerful jaws caught the flesh, caught, held…

Mike sagged beneath him, the fight gone. Surrender.

Submission.

Jace tossed his head back. His howl filled the bar.

Then the black wolf turned and stared at her. His teeth were bloody. His eyes wild. What have I done?

The Council was wrong. There was no way she’d ever be able to control him. The wolves were running around now, some human, some animal, and it was chaos. Jace transformed as he approached. Fur melted. Bones shifted. By the time he reached for her, he was a man.

Even if his stare was still the wild gaze of the wolf. He came to her, caught her hand, and said, “Mine.”

She knew that it was too late to run.

***

Mike raced away from the bar even as Jace’s howl filled his ears. Bastard. He’d hated that * for years and now Jace was pairing up with a vampire?

Another reason to hate the SOB.

Mike had shifted, transforming in order to heal. Jace had sliced him too deep. Even now, the blood spilled down his neck.

“So sweet…”

The whisper had Mike slowing. His gaze swept the dark shadows. A row of broken buildings waited on the left. Empty. Faded.

His nostrils flared, and he scented… bloodsucker.

Mike slapped a hand over his throat, and he began to back away. Normally he wouldn’t run from a vamp, but…but he’d already gotten his ass handed to him once tonight. “Stay away from me!” He shouted.

Laughter floated in the air.

“No…” The voice was closer now. “I saw you…I watched it all.”

Mike spun around and came face-to-face with the vamp. Tall, as pale as the woman had been, but muscled.

And the vamp’s fangs were out.

“You were going to kill the female, weren’t you?”

Talk about being screwed. He should have known the bitch hadn’t come in alone.

“No.” He could be honest here. Maybe it would help his cause. “I was going to kill him. ”

More laughter, and then the vampire closed in. Mike didn’t even have a chance to scream.

***

“This is…ah…your place?” Morgan paced in front of the fireplace. “It’s not quite what I was expecting.”

Jace pulled his gaze off her ass. The rush from the shift still fueled his body. No, not just from the shift. From her.

He had her taste now. Knew the feel of her body. Knew the sound of pleasure on her lips. He wanted more.

“What did you expect?” His voice was rough. Always was. Like sandpaper when hers sounded like silk.

Morgan stopped her pacing. She slanted him a quick glance from beneath lowered lashes.

“A cage?” He tossed out.

Her small jaw tensed. “And I suppose you never once wondered if I slept in a coffin?”

He laughed. “No, princess, I know better.” She just needed to stay out of sunlight because the light made her weak, almost human. Not because it set her skin on fire. That was just a Hollywood myth.

“And I know better, too.” Her voice came even softer than before. She turned to stare at the heavy bookshelves that lined his walls. “But I did expect pin-up queens and at least one big screen TV.”

Yeah, well, they were all on the other side of the house. Jace shrugged. Then he took off his t-shirt.

Her gazed immediately dipped to his chest. Her hand lifted and rubbed the curve of her shoulder, the tasty spot he’d sampled less than an hour before. He’d be sampling a whole lot more of her soon.

The f*cking princess. He’d asked for her because, hell, yeah, he knew the power that she wielded in her blood. If he got enough of that vampire blood in him, he’d be near invincible.

He wanted that power. Would need it if he was going to stop the demons. But there was…

more.

He’d wanted her. Had, for a very, very long time. The lady didn’t even know how long he’d been watching her.

“I remember the first time I saw you.” He hadn’t meant to say the words, but they broke from him. How many nights had his vampire princess haunted his dreams?

Her eyes widened. “Wh-what?” There it was again. That small stutter. The hesitation he hadn’t expected from her. He’d thought that the years would have made her harder. Perhaps they hadn’t.

Or perhaps she was just playing him. Time would tell.

“You stopped aging ten years ago.”

A slight inclination of her head. Freshmeat, or at least, that’s what the pack would have called her.

Jace just thought of her as—

Mine.