Bound by Danger (The Alliance, Book 6)

by Brenda K. Davies

  “Anywhere you want to go.”

  The gruffness of his voice pulled at her heart, and she stepped into him. Lucien finally released her hair to hug her. He pressed her head into his chest and closed his eyes against the swell of emotions flooding him.

  She was so beautiful, caring, and strong, and she was his, but he didn’t dare get his hopes up too much. “Does this mean…. Does this mean you’ll stay with me?”

  The hesitancy of his words caused Callie to dig her fingers into his back. “Yes.”

  Lucien closed his eyes as he sighed in relief.

  “I’m not…. I’m not exactly ready to become a vampire.”

  Lucien kissed the top of her head as he rested his cheek against her silken hair. It was becoming increasingly difficult to control himself around her and to keep his impulse to turn her at bay, but she was giving him her life; he could give her more time.

  “I understand,” he murmured.

  Callie clung to him as love swelled inside her. He hadn’t said the words, but she needed to say them. She’d grown up surrounded by love; her father had always been free with his words, emotions, and hugs, and so had she.

  Lifting her head from his chest, she looked up at him. Those black eyes filled her vision, and he gazed at her with a look of wonder that only reinforced her feelings for him.

  “I love you, Lucien.”

  Lucien’s mouth parted as her words sank in, and a wave of emotion flooded him. Words he’d never spoken to another caught in his throat. Unable to respond, he bent and claimed her mouth.

  CHAPTER 30

  Lucien lifted her off the ground as her mouth parted and her tongue met his. They’d done this dance often, but her kiss still excited him to the point of making him nearly mad with desire.

  His heart raced as he carried her to the bed while her fingers pulled at his shirt. She tugged it up to his stomach and over his chest. He broke the kiss long enough to set her down and pull it the rest of the way off.

  Grasping her shirt, he pulled it off and tossed it aside. Following her afternoon training session, she smelled of sweat and baby powder from her deodorant, but neither of those scents could mask her increased pomegranate aroma as it grew thicker on the air.

  He ran his fingers over the silken skin of her shoulders and along her black sports bra. Her ample breasts swelled along the top of it, and he couldn’t resist dipping his finger into the cleavage it revealed.

  “You’re beautiful,” he murmured as he grasped the bra and tugged it over her head.

  Callie looked up at him as his ravenous gaze ran over her body. Her toes curled as his fingers dipped into the waistband of her black yoga pants.

  “And so sexy,” he said as he tugged her toward him.

  The rigid evidence of his arousal prodded her belly as he started sliding her pants down. Callie remained unmoving as he knelt before her to pull them lower.

  When she lifted her foot, he pulled off her sneaker and sock before turning his attention to her other foot. When he finished, he could pull off her pants. His hands caressed her calves before rising higher to her thighs; he nudged her legs apart.

  She spread her legs wider as he teased her with his fingers while kneeling before her. His eyes latched on her face as he watched her reaction to his touch.

  And oh, how she reacted to him. His touch made her come alive as her skin became electrified and her hips swayed toward him.

  Lucien drank in her full breasts, rising and falling with each of her rapid exhalations. He’d gotten so he knew her well and could tell when she was nearing her breaking point.

  When he pulled his hand away, he relished her groan of disappointment as he rose before her, grasped her hips, and guided her to the bed. He didn’t put her on the mattress but stopped her at the edge of it. Grabbing his sweatpants, he pulled them down his legs and kicked them off. She reached for him, but he gripped her hips and turned her away from him.

  Callie started to protest, but her protest died when he bent her over the bed and stepped behind her. Turning her head, she rested her cheek on the mattress as his thighs parted her further and his hands lifted her hips.

  Her heart raced as he guided his shaft into her. Closing her eyes, she moaned at the exquisite sensation of having him inside her again. It had been too long since she felt him filling her. The rest of the world ceased to exist as she became centered on the hardness of his body and the thickness of his cock throbbing inside her.

  “Fuck,” he growled. “You’re so fucking tight.”

  His words and the hoarseness of his voice thrilled her more. He placed a palm between her shoulder blades and pulled most of the way out before slipping in again. When Callie lifted her ass higher to give him better access, his other hand squeezed her hip.

  Lucien slid his hand further down her back and then up again as he savored the feel of her silken flesh while her sheath clenched around his cock. Leaning over her, he stilled within her as he kissed her shoulder before turning his mouth to her ear.

  “You’re mine, Callie. From now until forever, you’re mine.”

  His words caused her heart to stutter a little with apprehension. She loved him, but the idea of signing her life over to him was more than a little terrifying. However, what wasn’t terrifying in this life?

  He released her hip to run his hand around to stroke her breast before sliding his hand between her legs. The exquisite sensation of his finger stroking her clit, while his body pressed her into the mattress, was almost unbearable.

  When he kissed her shoulder, his fangs scraped her skin, and her breath hitched. Was he going to bite her?

  She held her breath while she waited to see what he would do, but she realized he wouldn’t do anything without her permission. Was that something she was willing to give?

  Her fingers twisted in the bedspread as her mind spun and her body became his. When his fangs grazed her skin, her heart hammered in anticipation. She was petrified of experiencing that pain again, but she was desperate to know what made the motel clerk sound like she did.

  “Do it,” she whispered.

  Lucien froze as her words penetrated his thick haze of lust. Had he heard her right? “Callie?”

  “Go ahead, bite me.”

  Excitement hammered through him, and his pulse pounded in his temples as saliva filled his mouth. He should resist; he’d already tasted her, but doing so again would only accelerate his instinct to claim her completely. Even as he considered denying himself, the demon part of him roared to life.

  “Don’t resist; don’t fight it in any way,” he said.

  Callie bit her lip as she braced herself.

  “Relax,” he murmured and kissed her ear before running his tongue along it.

  Callie tried to relax, but her fingers remained twisted in the bedspread as her body tensed beneath his.

  Knowing she would react badly if he bit her in this state, Lucien kissed her shoulder. Gradually, she relaxed, and her breathing came faster as her hips pushed against his and her body neared climax. Just as she was splintering apart, he sank his fangs into her shoulder.

  Callie jerked from the sudden intrusion, but a fresh wave of ecstasy washed over her as he consumed her blood. She was so lost to the pleasure he gave that it took a minute to realize there was no agony from his bite this time.

  There was only pure pleasure, and as he drank from her, she experienced his joy. He kept her pinned to the bed while he drank from her and his body became more demanding within hers.

  Tremors still shook her, but she lifted her hips to meet his thrusts. His hands seized her hips as he fucked her harder than she’d ever been fucked in her life.

  It was amazing. It was everything, and she craved more as they became animalistic in their desperation to satisfy each other.

  When she came again with a loud cry, her legs gave out, but he held her up. He wasn’t done with her.

  The taste of her blood, the feel of her body, and her eager cries became all Lucien exp
erienced as he found his release.

  CHAPTER 31

  He shouldn’t have tasted her again. The thought ran through his mind a thousand times over the next three days. It had only accelerated his need to turn her and make her his, but he didn’t have to ask her to know she wasn’t ready yet. He sensed it every time he was inside her and every time he drank from her.

  And he would wait. It was the least he could do for her after everything else she’d endured.

  The taste of her blood and the strength of it had seared itself into him. She’d infused him with power and woke the demon. Before, he was content to let her come to terms with everything on her own.

  Well, not content, but able to do so because she was safe. He was drinking more blood in a day than he used to drink in a week, and he still wasn’t up to full strength. The influx of her blood had changed all that.

  It had strengthened him back to the man he was before the Savages took him. And with that strength came an increasing instability over the bond being incomplete.

  He’d drank from her before, but it was only a small taste, and it was before their relationship deepened to this point. Now that he’d had a bigger taste and experienced the joy of her, he wouldn’t be satisfied until he had it all.

  He’d told her about mates and what they meant to a vampire, but he hadn’t told her about the loss of control that could happen to a vampire before the bond was complete.

  However, she wasn’t ready for the change. She was still trying to adapt to her place here, their relationship, and the fact she would become a vampire; he couldn’t add more burdens onto her.

  Sitting on the edge of their bed, he tugged at the ends of his hair. He needed to get out of here so he could kill and destroy and sate the demon. If he could kill, he could buy her more time.

  The only problem was, he didn’t trust himself in the field right now. He was up to full strength and capable of fighting, but he worried that once he started killing, he would destroy everything in his path.

  “Shit.” He tugged at his hair again and tapped his foot.

  The rattle of the knob caused him to release his hair and sit up straight on the bed. He lowered his hands as Callie opened the door and swept into the room. Her loose ponytail bounced against her shoulders, and her formfitting yoga pants hugged her legs while her loose-fitting T-shirt fell off one shoulder.

  Her face was flushed from her workout; she’d become more toned since arriving here and lost a couple of pounds. She looked beautiful, healthy, and vibrant. And every beat of her heart reminded him that she was human.

  His hands fisted as he sought to keep the demon under control while it coiled and slithered inside him like a viper looking to escape captivity. She had a spring in her step as she crossed the room to kiss him on top of his head.

  “I’m going to take a shower,” she announced before vanishing into the bathroom.

  As he listened to the water running, he didn’t picture her nude or imagine everything he would do to her. Instead, he pictured sinking his fangs into her throat, draining her, and replacing her blood with his as he turned her.

  When the water turned off, he was still sitting in the same place with his hands on his knees. The door opened, and a puff of steam wafted out. She emerged with a towel wrapped around her torso and another around her hair.

  “If it’s possible, I’d like to go get my things soon,” she said without looking at him.

  Lucien’s teeth scraped together as she crossed the room to the dresser. He’d taken all his clothes out, moved them to the armoire, and given the dresser for her things.

  Callie sorted through her clothes as she searched for something to wear. Her things fell neatly into place in his room, just as she’d fallen neatly into place in his life. But then, she didn’t have many things to clutter up his space.

  Her clothes weren’t hers, or at least they weren’t clothes she’d picked for herself; she didn’t have any of her pictures or the things her father made her. She was happy here, but she wanted her things and to officially say goodbye to her old life and start her new one. And she wanted to make sure she got those things before something happened and her landlord gave her apartment away.

  “That’s not a good idea,” Lucien said.

  “It’s been almost a month.” Callie removed a T-shirt and a pair of shorts from the dresser. “I doubt the Savages are still looking for me there. And if I don’t go back soon, my landlord will toss all my stuff onto the street.”

  She couldn’t stand the idea of any of her things sitting on the corner, getting rained on, or hauled away to the dump. The possibility caused a knot of anxiety to form in her chest.

  “I paid the rent,” he stated.

  “I have things there that I want here, with me.”

  She tossed the towel she’d been using on her hair onto the chair before digging out some underwear and pulling it on. She tugged on her shorts and removed her towel to don her bra and T-shirt before turning to face him.

  “It’s been long enough, Lucien.”

  Lucien kept his eyes on the door. “It’s dangerous out there for you.”

  “We’ll go in the daytime; it will be safer then.”

  “No.”

  At first, Callie wasn’t sure she’d heard him right. She stood there, waiting to see if he would start laughing at his own joke. When he didn’t, anger rose to replace her disbelief.

  “No?” she asked.

  “No.”

  She couldn’t be hearing him right, but how could she possibly hear him wrong when it was the only word he was saying? She willed him to look at her, but he kept his gaze on the wall as his fingers dug into his knees.

  Something wasn’t right here. A part of her said to proceed with caution as he looked like he was about to snap, but she didn’t understand why. The other part, the far more annoyed part, didn’t care about caution.

  “You promised me that I would be able to get my things,” she reminded him.

  “You have everything you need here.”

  She did a double take, and her mouth opened and closed a couple of times before she finally found words again. “I have memories there—”

  “And you’ll have memories here too.”

  It was taking everything she had to keep control of her temper as she resisted the idea of punching him in his face. And she knew how to throw a punch now, a good one that would knock some sense into his thick skull.

  “There are things there that mean a lot to me,” she grated through her teeth.

  When Lucien’s head turned toward her, the hair on her nape rose as she studied the harsh countenance of his face. There was nothing of the man she loved in the glittering pools of black ice that were his eyes. His mouth compressed into a thin line, and the set of his jaw caused his chin to jut out.

  She had no idea what was wrong with him or why he was so stubborn and cruel about this, but she refused to back down. She thought of her horses sitting on her shelves, and fear churned within her at the possibility of never seeing them again. If something happened to them, it would break her heart.

  And he could keep her from them. She was trapped here. She hadn’t felt trapped until now, but she felt like a cornered mouse surrounded by a bunch of cats.

  “You’ve always known I wanted to go back for my things. It’s time,” she said.

  Lucien dug his fingers into his knees as he tried to control his temper. “I won’t have you placed in unnecessary danger.”

  “Last time I checked, you don’t control my life.”

  “You are my mate, which means I have to keep you safe.”

  Callie lifted her chin to glare at him. “I might be your mate, but that doesn’t mean you get to make my decisions for me. You promised me, Lucien.”

  Those words caused some of his ire to ebb, but not enough of it for him to relent. “I will go and get your things.”

  “I’m going with you.”

  “I will bring everything back here for you.”
r />   “No. I am going to pack my things and say goodbye to my life. I have every right to do that.”

  “You have no right to place yourself in danger.”

  She had no idea what was wrong with him, but her patience was running out. “And you do? The last time I checked, you were working your way back up to going out there to hunt Savages again. You think it’s okay for you to put yourself at risk, but not me?”

  “I’m a vampire; you’re a mortal. I’ve been fighting these creatures my entire life.”

  “Maybe so, but they already caught you once.”

  The hostility in the room ratcheted up to the point where she understood how a butter knife could cut it. The air thickened as they stared at each other.

  “That will not happen again,” he said.

  “You can’t know that. I’ve given up my life, and I’ve agreed to stay here, but I will not tolerate you trying to control my life.” She’d already had one man try to do that, and no matter how much she loved Lucien, she would not allow it to happen again. “I would prefer to leave than to ever let that happen.”

  A small part of Lucien realized he was being unreasonable, and she wasn’t asking for much. A small part of him told him to take her to her apartment and let her say goodbye, but it was drowned out by the thundering roar of the demon who heard the word leave and broke free of the tenuous cage Lucien had locked it in.

  CHAPTER 32

  Blood thundered in his ears. The unraveling started in his chest and spread into his belly before seeping into his limbs. He rose from the bed. “You would leave me?”

  Callie didn’t know how to respond. She’d never considered Lucien unreasonable before, but he was utterly irrational now, and she wasn’t sure how to handle it.

  The red in his eyes unnerved her, as did his unnatural stillness and the flare of his nostrils. Something was wrong here, but she had no idea what, and she refused to be pushed around or intimidated by him.

  “Before I let you command me around like a dog, yes, I would leave you,” she said and lifted her chin.