Forever Bound Series 1-4(52)

Right then, Paige’s skin was still flawless and pure, giving no hint to her real age.

What did her age matter? She was right. There was no going back. Not for either of them.

“Are you going to glare at me all night?” Paige asked. “Or do you want to know why I’m here?”

Why she was there…and still wearing his medallion. Or she had been wearing it, until he’d taken it from her neck. It was on the floor now. He’d dropped it when he’d pushed her onto the bed. Paige’s neck was bare, and…why the hell did he want to bend down and lick her flesh?

Because I still want her. More than breath. More than life. He saw her, and he needed.

“Why?” He didn’t lift his body off hers. Paige would feel his aroused flesh pressing against her. So what? If she wanted a favor from him, she’d pay the price he demanded.

And I demand her.

Vampire or not, she was still his.

Even death couldn’t change some things.

“I’m being hunted,” she told him in that low, husky voice that made his cock swell even more. He could just see the hint of her fangs behind her red lips. The sight should have repulsed him. It didn’t. “If you don’t help me, I’ll die.”

“You’re already dead.” That knowledge made him feel as if his chest had been ripped open. Since Paige had been human when he’d known her before, she must have been made into a vampire.

A rare few, the purebloods, were actually born as vamps, but the rest of the parasites out there? They’d been turned. They were bled until the point of death, then brought back as a vampire.

Drake would kill the one who’d turned her. He couldn’t wait to hear the vampire’s screams.

“Don’t say that,” Paige snapped at him, then she showed him just how strong she really was. She twisted beneath him and yanked her hands free. A fast roll sent them tumbling across the bed. Then she was on top of him. Her knees straddled his hips, and her hands slammed down against his chest. “I’m as alive as you are!”

Color stained her cheeks. Her breath heaved out. For an instant, they just stared at each other. Then she grabbed his hand and shoved it against her breasts.

“My heart still beats,” she told him and he could feel the frantic beat beneath his hand. That fast beat…and that sweet, plump flesh. Paige was curved in all the right places.

“I breathe,” she told him and he heard the rush of her breath. “I feel. More than you can imagine, all right? So stop treating me like shit!”

Maybe if she’d stop clawing his heart out…

But then, she was doing that just by breathing. Just by being there. Close enough to take…

So take her. The growl was from his beast, one that was never far from the surface these days.

“You want me to protect you.” He held the beast back, barely, because they had a deal to strike. He knew how these bargains worked in the supernatural world. So much could be bartered and exchanged. Flesh. Blood. Sex. Souls.

Sure, humans might be shocked by a deal like this–but then, humans would be shocked to see a man turn into a wolf.

Deal with it.

“You came to me, to my pack,” he said slowly, determined not to let his rage escape, not yet, “because you want us to keep you safe.” And he would. He–

“No.” She shook her head.

Drake frowned. If not for protection, then–

“I want you to kill the bastard after me.” Her fangs seemed to lengthen. “I want you to rip his head off, and I want you to make damn sure that he never rises again.”

Never rises again.

“You’ve got a vampire you want me to fight.” He’d grown used to battling them. In this part of Alaska, where the cold could creep straight to the bone, where darkness could reign for days and days…this part was home to all manner of supernatural beasts.

The ones at the top of the food chain? The wolves…and the vamps who kept trying to fight them for supremacy. A supremacy they weren’t ever getting.

“I’ve got a vampire I want you to behead.” Her breath rushed out. “A vampire named Gabe is the one who made me, he’s–”

Drake’s claws burst from his fingertips and sliced into the bedding. “He’s f*cking already dead.” As far as Drake was concerned, the vamp–Gabe–had died the instant he put his fangs in Paige.

Her gaze held his, and he saw the worry there. “Gabe is a pureblood. He’s strong, he’s–”

“No match for an alpha.” Didn’t she get it? He wasn’t the boy she’d left behind. He was a warrior. A monster. A walking nightmare.

Since she’d left him, he’d seen more blood and hell than she could possibly imagine. No, he’d always known the blood and hell…Paige had been the only thing that had been good in his life.

Sweet. Pure.

Then she’d left him, and he’d gone back to the darkness.

She won’t leave again.

He stared up at her. He could move her easily enough, but he didn’t want to do so. He wanted to keep her just where she was, only he’d like to remove a few of her clothes. Or all of them.

But business came first. “What will you do for me?” Drake demanded.

She blinked. Vampires weren’t supposed to look so innocent. “I…um…”