Forever Bound Series 1-4(100)

She waved away his apology with an angry swipe of her hand. “And you think I’d just let you waltz out there and face Latham alone? If he kills you, I’m dead, too.”

He realized the enormity of just what he’d done to her. Like an apology was gonna cut it. “I don’t plan on dying. I’ll kill him, and when this is over…”

“What? We’ll stay together, because you’ve bound us?”

He shook his head. “I’ll give you as much blood as you need, anytime you want it. You don’t have to stay with me. You can…” He stopped and cleared his throat. I want her with me. But he wanted her happiness more. “You can go anywhere you want,” Jamie forced himself to say, “do anything you want, and I’ll make sure the blood is always sent to you.” He’d be her personal donor, for as long as she wanted.

Forever.

She closed in on him and put her hand on his chest. Right over the heart that just seemed to beat only for her now. “And what about you? If you don’t get my blood, you won’t be the all powerful werewolf that you so desperately want to be.”

“He also won’t live forever without your blood,” Sean pointed out as he crept closer to them. His voice was controlled now, but Jamie knew the control was an act. I’m sorry, Sean. He’d kept the secret about Sean’s parents for too long. But if he’d told Sean the truth back then, the guy would have gone after Latham.

And gotten killed.

Sean was just a foot away now. Shoulders up. Head back. Eyes too determined. “All my research showed—”

Iona’s head jerked toward him. “Research? What research?”

Sean’s face reddened. “There’s…ah…a few mated werewolf and vampire couples these days. When they share blood, they stop aging. We even found one couple that had been together for seventy years, and the werewolf doesn’t look a day over twenty-five.”

Iona’s gaze came back to Jamie. So much suspicion in that gaze. He hated that look. I want her trust.

She didn’t appear to be in the mood to give it to him.

“So as long as you have my blood, you get to live forever, huh? I’m betting your brother,” Iona said the word like the curse it was, “knew all this, too. That’s why he just wouldn’t take my hell, no for an answer when he asked me to mate with him.”

“I’m killing him…” Latham would never touch her again.

“No, I’ll do that. I can fight my own battles, and pick my own mate.”

A mate that isn’t you. He knew exactly what she meant. His fingers lifted. Curled around the hand that she still had pressed over his heart. “It isn’t just your battle. He took my family.”

“Mine f*ckin’, too,” Sean snarled.

Jamie flinched.

Iona’s small, pink tongue slid over her bottom lip. “I-I know.” Her gaze darted to Sean. Jamie saw the sympathy in her stare, then her stare returned to him.

“I won’t let him keep hurting and torturing. I will stop him.” Then, he confessed his shame, “As I should have stopped him years ago.” Because if he had, then none of this would ever have happened. His parents’ deaths. The slaughter of the wolves in their pack. Her imprisonment. “I won’t walk away this time.”

He was alpha now. He’d been ten when Latham killed Sean’s family. Jamie’s father hadn’t believed his tale. He’d said it was a child’s wild imagination.

Latham had been furious with Jamie for trying to reveal his slaughter. His brother had found him, separated him from the others…As soon as I’m alpha, I’ll take your head, brother. Latham’s threat had whispered through his head so many nights when he’d been a child.

But now…I’m coming to take your head, Latham.

Jamie had fought to be strong. He had his wolf, a fierce, powerful beast that knew how to battle. How to survive. How to conquer.

And his blood had woken Iona. Only an alpha’s blood could have woken her. He was an alpha. The power was inside of him, as it had always been. Maybe that was why Latham had hated him so much. Maybe his brother had known that, one day, the life-or-death battle would come between them as they fought for dominance.

That day is now.

“I thought you were different.” Iona’s voice was so soft now. Not soft because of sadness, but because of the fury he saw blazing in her eyes. “Why couldn’t you have been different?”

“I am different.” He pressed her hand harder against his chest. “I’ll prove that to you.”

But she laughed and the sound cut into him. “There’s nothing to prove. I’m in your blood, wolf. I know you.”

He pressed his lips to hers. Kissed her hard and deep and wild. Kissed her with all of the consuming passion and lust that he felt for her. “And you’re in mine,” he gritted out against her lips. “I feel like you’re a part of me.”

Sean cursed and backed the hell away from them.

Jamie’s gaze searched hers. Her breath heaved but she didn’t speak.

He did. “You’re a part that I didn’t even know was missing…the best part of me.” His heart.

Then, because it was what he had to do, Jamie stepped away from her. He turned to face Sean. “I’m sorry about your parents. I didn’t tell you…because I knew you. Even at six, you would have challenged him. You would have died.” He hadn’t been powerful enough to save Sean. Not then.