His to Bind
Charlotte Byrd
Byrd Books
Contents
His to Bind
Prologue - Aiden
Chapter 1 - Aiden
Chapter 2 - Ellie
Chapter 3 - Ellie
Chapter 4 - Ellie
Chapter 5 - Ellie
Chapter 6 - Ellie
Chapter 7 - Ellie
Chapter 8 - Ellie
Chapter 9 - Ellie
Chapter 10 - Ellie
Chapter 11 - Ellie
Chapter 12 - Ellie
Chapter 13 - Ellie
Chapter 14 - Ellie
Chapter 15 - Ellie
Chapter 16 - Ellie
Chapter 17 - Aiden
Chapter 18 - Ellie
Chapter 19 - Ellie
Chapter 20 - Ellie
Chapter 21 - Ellie
Chapter 22 - Aiden
Chapter 23 - Ellie
Chapter 24 - Ellie
Chapter 25 - Ellie
Chapter 26 - Ellie
Chapter 27 - Ellie
DEBT
Chapter 1 - Sophia
Chapter 2 - Sophia
About Charlotte Byrd
Copyright
His to Bind
Are you ready to meet the real Mr. Black?
Our love wasn’t like everyone else’s.
There were no flowers or firsts dates. I bought her. I do bad things to her.
Innocent, gentle, kind Ellie loves every last dirty thing that I do to her.
But beyond the lust, there is the love.
Deep. Passionate. Mad.
So, when they take her from me at the altar, right before she is to become my wife, everything breaks.
I will do anything to free her. I will do anything to make her mine for good.
But is that enough? Will we finally have our happy ending?
* * *
Praise for Charlotte Byrd
"The story is dark and enticing, taking me deeper into a world from which I never want to emerge." - Lover of Alpha
"Addictive and damaged, their love burns slowly but deeply." - Heroes and Alphas
“Their chemistry sizzles right from the beginning. He's the gorgeous and dangerous stranger we all need in our life." - Making Words Up
"Her words made me fall in love. It slayed me!" - Sizzling Books
"Left my head spinning! I never wanted it to end!" - Heartbreakers and Heroes
"Her words make me ache and yearn for more." - Dancer in the Dark
Prologue - Aiden
When snow starts to fall…
I’m holding my breath. My heart is pounding in my chest. About to pop out. I inhale and my throat seizes up. She’s about to be my wife. It’s almost time. We’re going to be together. Forever. Despite everything. In spite of everything. We’re finally going to have our happily ever after.
Snow is starting to fall, covering the ground in pure white. Seconds melt into minutes. Time is passing like molasses and flying by at the same time. I’m about to see her. We’re about to begin our lives together.
My thoughts drift back over everything that has happened since I met her. I remember the way she looked standing on that stage on my yacht. She was the last person in the world who would have auctioned herself off to the highest bidder. It’s just not the type of game that she was going to play. But I’m glad she did. As soon as I saw her standing there, the bright spotlight blinding her, I knew that I had to have her. I had to make her mine. And that was before I even got to know her.
As we started to spend time together, I got to know a whole different side of her, Ellie. Kind. Sweet. Loving. A wonderful friend. Someone who did not deserve any of the heartbreak that followed. It’s the darkness that pushed us apart at first, but then brought us closer together. I was there for her. Through what happened to Caroline. And she was there for me. Through me losing my business, the thing that I’d built up from the beginning and the thing that I’d thought was my whole life, until I met Ellie. And then she was there for me after what happened with Blake. He tried to push us apart. He tried to take her away from me. Agh, just thinking about this now, makes my blood boil. He put me in a coma, nearly taking my life. And then…then he did something even more unforgivable. He went to take Ellie’s life. Ellie’s, and our unborn child’s life.
My throat clenches up with anger. I ball my fists. I shouldn’t be thinking about this at a time like this. It’s in the past. It’s all over. I’m standing at the altar waiting for my love to walk down the aisle and begin our lives together. This is a good day. I’m going to put Blake out of my mind. Completely.
I wait and I wait. Then I wait some more. People start moving around in their seats looking around. The atmosphere in the garden is starting to lose its magic. She should be here already. Why isn’t she coming? My heart sinks. Is she having second thoughts? Cold feet? What if she doesn’t want to marry me at all?
No, that’s not it. I know that she wants to be with me. Deep inside, beyond all the doubts, I know this much is true. I may not know much about anything anymore, but I know that Ellie loves me.
Of course she loves me. But marriage? A sudden wedding? I sprung that on her out of the blue. I was so happy to be alive again, to be breathing and talking, that I needed to grab life by the horns. The trauma had left me feeling lost. I needed to get back my confidence. My arrogance even. I wanted to be Mr. Black again. And in order to become Mr. Black, I needed to make a statement. To make her my wife.
And now, standing here at the altar, waiting for her, I wonder if that, too, has been a mistake. In my long line of mistakes. Perhaps, I was forcing her. Pressuring her to make this commitment that she didn’t really want to make. I know she loves me. She wants to be with me. But marriage? That’s not necessarily something you want to jump into after a near-death experience. Or maybe she did want to jump into it at first, but then she started thinking about it all in more detail and that’s when all the doubts started to creep in.
My hands are starting to freeze. I press my fingers against my sides to try to warm up. The guests are no longer hiding their concern. Some are straight out standing up and looking around. My mom, the perfect specimen of a mother (I’m being sarcastic, of course), is twirling around and whispering to whomever will listen. I can’t really make out what she’s saying, but by watching her lips move I can tell that she sure is saying Ellie’s name a lot.
I inhale deeply and exhale even longer. How long should I stand here before giving up? I don’t really know. I peer into the back of the aisle in search of a sign. What if the hold up has nothing to do with cancelled plans? What if she had some sort of wardrobe malfunction and I ruin the entrance by leaving my post too early?
No, if that was the case, someone would’ve come up here and told me. Right? Okay, i’m going to give it a few more minutes. That’s probably as long as I can bear standing up here with all of their eyes on me. Pity. Sadness. Sympathy. That’s what the guests are all saying with their downcast looks and their jittery bodies.
I glance at Brie, who gives me a brief shrug. I search the room for Lizbeth. She was just here and now she’s not. Suddenly, she re-appears. No smile. Not even a wink. There’s a sadness that’s settled onto her porcelain face. A heaviness that’s resting on her shoulders. What is it? What’s wrong? I want to yell out. Her walk down the aisle takes what feels like forever. Finally, she’s within earshot. She leans closer. I can see her labored breaths against the cold air. Puff. Puff. Puff. Little clouds that escape her lips and disappear before reaching mine.
“What?” I ask, not fully grasping what she says. She repeats herself.
“What?” I ask again.
“Ellie has been arrested for murder,” she says again. This tim
e, I hear her. I hear her, but I don’t exactly process it.
Chapter 1 - Aiden
When I surprise myself…
Though I don’t quite understand the words that have come out of Lizbeth’s mouth, my body seems to. For a moment, everything turns to black. My vision gets blurry and disappears completely. It’s as if I am looking through a telescope and I close my eyes. But then a moment later, I open them. At this moment, everything becomes crystal clear. My thoughts come into focus. And I know exactly what to do.
I open my mouth and start rattling instructions.
“Call Bill Whitney. He’s with Whitney, Thompson, and Rodriguez.”
Lizbeth nods and starts to type everything I say into her phone. Bill doesn’t sound like much of a name, but he’s one of the best criminal law attorneys out there. My business lawyers are always going on about how great he is. I’ve met him on a few occasions, social fundraising events. But I haven’t had the opportunity to see him in action yet.
By the time Lizbeth dials his number, we are back in my room at the hospital. I’ve given instructions to her and pretty much anyone else who would listen about cleaning up the wedding party and made brief apologies about the postponement. They are no longer my concern anymore. Only Ellie is. She’s the only thing that matters right now.
“Hello, Mr. Whitney—“ Lizbeth starts to say when she gets him on the phone. I take the phone away from her.
“Bill, this is Aiden Black. We met a few times back.”
“Yes, of course,” he says in a groggy distant voice.
“My fiancée has been arrested for a murder she did not commit. And I need your help.”
The details are ironed out quickly. He says he will be here soon. He will be taking a private plane out of New York, which I of course will pay for. In the meantime, he will be sending another attorney to meet me at the police station right now.
“Our goal is to make sure that she does not say anything incriminating to the cops, which would make all of this much harder.”
“Incriminating? But she’s not guilty,” I say, quickly jumping to Ellie’s defense.
“Yes, of course. But that doesn’t mean that the police can’t turn her words around and make her say something that she doesn’t mean. Innocent people incriminate themselves all the time.”
I arrive at the police station ready for a fight. I’m wearing a well-tailored suit. My hair is brushed. My armor is up. I’m here to rescue Ellie, if that’s the last thing I do. Bill’s proxy, Thurston Daniels, is already here. They say I have to wait in the lobby. I can’t go in the back. I can’t talk to the cops. I just have to wait and wait. And then wait some more.
When I thought that time was passing slowly at the altar, now it’s positively crawling by. I read all the magazines. I drink ten cups of shitty, lukewarm, yellow coffee from a vending machine. A few people who work at the station come over to tell me how much they like using Owl. None of them are cops, but I appreciate the compliments. One of them even goes so far as to say that they were assholes for firing me in the first place.
I continue to wait. Lizbeth joins me. I ask about going to see Ellie again. Again, I’m not allowed. She tries as well, but the police officers remain unwavering. I get another big lump in the back of my throat. But my faith in Bill and in the legal system remain steadfast. She is innocent. Blake attacked her after he attacked me. He was going to kill her. She killed him in self-defense.
All of that is true. But how did they get enough evidence to arrest? The District Attorney had to sign off on this. So, what is it that they have on her that I don’t know about?
Chapter 2 - Ellie
When I’m inside…
The cell smells of urine and sweat. I’m alone here, but it’s definitely big enough to hold more people. But tonight there is no one else. Is that a good thing? I don’t really know. Perhaps. But it would be nice to have someone to talk to. To vent about the fact that they arrested me at my wedding. Right before I walked down the aisle. I’m still wearing my fucking wedding dress, for crying out loud!
How could they do that? Who gave them the right? They stopped me from even telling Aiden what’s going on. They just snatched me up, leaving him all alone up there. What if he thought I had cold feet? What if he thinks that I don’t want to marry him?
I bury my head in my hands. This isn’t the time to think about any of that. Sitting here, in a fluorescent bright room, without a ray of natural light or even a sense of what time it is, the last thing I should be thinking about is how they ruined my wedding. I should be thinking about the fact that I was wrongfully arrested for killing a man who attacked me. Who tried to kill the love of my life and put him in a coma. But somehow none of that matters that much now. All that matters is Aiden. I close my eyes and take my mind back to him. To his beautiful face and his luscious lips. To the way he possesses both kindness and toughness at the same time. I have to hold onto him to get through this. I have, I need to believe that this is all a big mistake, in order to survive.
I look down at my stomach and cradle it in my hands.
“It’s going to be okay, baby,” I say to my unborn child. “Your daddy is going to make everything okay. I know it.”
* * *
My attorney, Thurston Daniels, arrives sometime later. There’s no clock here and they took away my phone, so it could’ve been half an hour later or four hours, for all I know. He’s a serious, no nonsense type of man with gray hair and dark eyes. He introduces himself and asks me if I talked to anyone about anything. I shake my head no. He asks me again, just to double check. Suddenly, I’m relieved that I didn’t have anyone in the cell with me. I probably wouldn’t have been able to abstain from talking to them.
“What about the cops?” he asks. “What did they ask you?”
I shrug and gloss over the details. “They asked me stuff, but I said I was waiting for my lawyer. I’m sure glad that you showed up. ‘Cause that was a total lie.”
I smile at him, trying to break the ice. But he’s either not the type to smile or isn’t in the mood. Instead, he excuses himself and disappears for a while. I’m left all alone again with nothing but dark thoughts circulating around me.
How do people spend years here? Let alone, how do they do time in solitary confinement? Especially the innocent ones. The ones who were convicted of crimes that they didn’t commit. How do they spend years sitting here in these bright, windowless rooms and wait their life away on appeals? It has barely been a few hours and I’m ready to claw my eyes out. My only consolation is my baby.
“I’m here, honey,” I speak out loud. “We’re going to get through this. Daddy is going to help us. We won’t be here for long.”
But no matter how much I talk or stare at the textured concrete walls, Thurston Daniels doesn’t return. Not for a while.
Long after I get tired of waiting, I finally give up and lie down on the cot. I’ve fought against this. I’ve sat on the edge, as if that would somehow make the time pass more quickly. Lying down is some sort of defeat. It’s accepting my fate of spending the night at the police station. But the pregnancy and all the ups and downs of the day - getting arrested at my own wedding and all - have sucked all the energy out of me. I lie down and close my eyes. And just like that, I’m somewhere else. I’m walking down the aisle. I’m beautiful and radiant. And since it’s my imagination, we are not getting married in the hospital garden in the middle of a snow storm, no matter how nicely it’s decorated. Instead, we are somewhere warm. The sun is shining and the water is so blue and clear that you can see all the little yellow and blue fish swimming around the bottom. Aiden is waiting for me.
When I walk up to him, he gently lifts up my veil and I lose myself in his eyes, which are wet with tears. He tells me he loves me and vows to always be there for me no matter what. I promise the same thing in return. The details of the vows aren’t clear to me now. The only thing that is, is how much I am loved in this moment. And how that love we feel for each other
will never vanish or fade. But only grow stronger.
“Ellie. Wake up. Ellie.”
There’s a pounding on the door. Brutish and loud. A harsh disagreeable voice yells my name. When I open my eyes, I’m back in jail. My head is pounding. Throbbing. My mouth is parched and I realize that I haven’t had any water in a long time. As soon as I sit up, I feel queasy.
“You’re out on bail,” the same voice says, hitting something metal against the door. The sound is so shrill that it sends shivers down my body.
“You’re outta here,” he says, opening the door. When I walk past him, he hisses, “at least for now.”
Blood drains from my extremities and my fingers turn to ice. What does he mean by that? What the hell does he have against me? Thoughts start to swirl around in my head, making me feel even more sick to my stomach. I follow him out through the double doors into the main room. That’s when I see him, Aiden. My Aiden.
He’s sitting on the bench at the far end of the police station with his head hanging down. His fingers buried in his hair.
“Aiden!” I say meekly. My voice breaks in the middle of his name, but he still hears me. When he looks up, our eyes meet and the defeated expression on his face vanishes immediately. He jumps up to his feet and practically teleports himself across the room.
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