[The Alliance 01.0] Eternally Bound

by Brenda K. Davies

  A new inner strength pulsed within her, and with the next beat of his heart, her fangs lengthened. She recalled sinking those fangs into Ronan earlier, but feeling them now startled her.

  She would never change what had passed between them, but she felt thrown off now. She hadn’t experienced as many changes in her body as a human would have, but there was no denying she was no longer the woman she’d been before.

  She was also extremely aware of another change in her. She felt Ronan at the edges of her mind, and she could feel the edges of his. “We will both have to get used to the mental bond,” he said as he ran his hands over her. “It can be shut off again, if you would prefer.”

  “No,” she said. “I will get used to it.”

  He smiled and kissed the tip of her nose. “We will get through this together, and I will do what I can when it comes to your brother.”

  Her breath caught in her chest as his pure brown eyes gazed back at her. “Ronan, your eyes, they’re completely brown.”

  “When I was younger, they used to be brown all the time, but as time went on and the urge to kill became more incessant, the color of my eyes changed.”

  “Why are they different now?”

  “Because you calm me more than all the blood and death in the world ever could. They may not remain brown all the time, but I didn’t know they could ever be purely brown again until Declan told me they were when I first held you in the alley.”

  She drew her lip into her mouth to bite on it and winced when she pierced it with one of her fangs. “Easy,” he murmured and bent his head to lick the blood away. “It will take time.”

  “I know,” she said and sniffed at the air again. Now that she was adapting to his strong scent within her, and hers within him, she was beginning to smell herself more. “I could really use a shower.”

  He chuckled and rose to his feet with her locked securely in his arms. “Of course.”

  “I smell really bad.”

  He dropped his head down and inhaled deeply. “I think you smell like me, and I smell fantastic.”

  She couldn’t help but laugh as he grinned at her. She’d never seen this side of him; he was almost jovial as his brown eyes twinkled. “Ronan, are you teasing me?”

  “I think I might be,” he replied, sounding more surprised by it than she was.

  “I like it.” She rested her head against his chest as he carried her into the bathroom.

  “Then I will try to do it more often.”

  “Good.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  He didn’t bother with the light in the bathroom as he strode toward the large, gray tiled shower. Kadence savored the feel of his skin beneath her and the power of the muscles enveloping her. The solid beat of his heart sounded in her ears as her fangs throbbed.

  “You need to feed soon to complete the change,” he told her when he sensed her hunger.

  “You mean it’s not complete?”

  “Not normally no, but you’re not exactly normal.”

  “No, I’m not.”

  Bending, he kissed her forehead. “You’re hungry.”

  “I guess I am,” she murmured.

  “You’ll only ever have to feed from me,” he assured her as he adjusted his hold on her to pull back the glass encasing the shower. He fiddled with the water until steam rose to swirl around her. Setting her carefully on her feet, he gripped her nightgown and pulled it over her head.

  Kadence’s nose wrinkled when the sweaty scent of the clothing hit her. Her gaze fell on the toilet when he threw it onto the closed seat cover.

  “Will I still have to go to the bathroom?” she asked.

  “You will. Even us purebreds have at least some human in us, though you will probably have to go far less than you did before.”

  “Hmm,” she murmured. “So, am I now considered a turned vamp?”

  He unbuttoned the pants he wore and tugged them off. Stepping closer to her, he ran his hands over her sides, enjoying the feel of her silken skin. “Technically, yes,” he replied. “However, you are so much more than that. I could always sense power within you, but now it is far stronger.”

  “Maybe that’s your blood in me that you’re sensing.”

  “I definitely sense that too, but this is more.”

  She stepped into him, sighing when her breasts came into contact with his chest. Even with the knots in her muscles, desire for him bloomed within her. She rested her fingers on his chest as his hand cupped her cheek.

  His other arm wrapped around her waist and he lifted her against him. Kadence draped her arms around his neck. She nibbled at his bottom lip, drawing it into her mouth as he stepped into the shower with her. A blissful groan escaped her when the hot water beat against her skin and eased some of the soreness from her.

  Ronan lowered her to the ground and reached behind her to grab the bottle of shampoo. “Close your eyes,” he said gruffly.

  Despite her displeasure over the loss of contact between them, Kadence closed her eyes as he guided her around. He worked the shampoo into her hair with a tenderness she never would have suspected from him as he massaged her scalp.

  “Marta said women like conditioner,” he said after he’d washed the shampoo from her hair and lifted another bottle.

  She turned her head to look at him over her shoulder. The water running down his face and broad chest created rivulets she longed to lick away from him. “You asked Marta about women’s things?”

  His mouth curved into a smile. “I am not well versed in what women require.”

  She laughed as she brushed the wet hair out of her eyes. “I could argue differently about that, but yes, conditioner does help with the tangles in long hair. I doubt you have to worry about that.”

  “Not in years, and there was no conditioner the last time I had long hair.”

  “You had long hair?”

  “At one time. I cut it off the first time it got in my way during a fight and never let it grow long again.”

  “I see,” she murmured as he worked the conditioner into her hair.

  She closed her eyes as his hands kneaded her cramped muscles afterward. He stepped closer to her, his erection rubbing against the hollow of her back while he worked over her body until all the knots were out of her muscles and her entire body felt electrified with its need for him. He washed the conditioner from her hair before positioning her so that her back was flush to his chest.

  Stretching above her head and behind her, she ran her hand over the stubble lining his cheek. His lips pressed into her palm as one of his hands skimmed down her belly while the other rubbed the underside of her breasts.

  “We should get you back to bed,” he whispered against her palm.

  “You read my mind,” she replied. She lowered her other hand to grip his rigid shaft. “I want you, Ronan, now.”

  He should deny himself, she needed rest, but for the life of him he couldn’t get the words past his constricted throat. She turned into him, and her gaze latched onto his mouth. The scent of her arousal grew stronger on the air, ensnaring him within its intoxicating depths.

  Her fingers threaded through his hair as she rose onto her toes. He gripped her ass as her wet breasts slid over his skin, and she rubbed enticingly against his cock.

  “You’ve been through a lot. You should rest,” he said.

  “There is no rest for the wicked,” she murmured as she ran her tongue over his lower lip before nipping on it. “And I have more than one hunger right now.”

  Releasing her, he reached behind her to turn the water off. He opened the shower door, lifted her up, and carried her out. He removed a towel from the rack near the shower and enclosed her within the soft, terrycloth material. Her damp hair fell about her shoulders as she wiggled against him and bit at his lip again.

  Her fingers glided over his chest, her gaze following everywhere she touched. The muscles of his stomach rippled as she traced them and delighted in the feel of him. He was everything she coul
d have ever wanted and more.

  Kadence pushed the towel away from her before gripping his shoulders and lifting herself so she could circle her legs around his waist. His eyes swirled a burgundy color as she rubbed her sex teasingly against the head of his cock. When he went to lower her onto him, she lifted herself away and shook her head as she gave him a playful smile.

  Ronan lifted an eyebrow at her when she rubbed teasingly against him again, but didn’t take him into her. Stalking forward, he set her on the marble counter near one of the sinks and pulled away from her. She went to grab him, but he caught her wrists and pinned them over her head to the mirror behind her. Her breasts heaved with her inhalations as she gazed at him from passion-darkened eyes.

  “Do you enjoy teasing me, Kadence?” he inquired.

  A smile curved her mouth as she slid her hips toward him. Her legs parted in invitation to him, but he held back from entering her.

  “Now it’s my turn to tease,” he murmured.

  Bending his head, he licked his way down her breast toward her nipple. Kadence’s back bowed as he drew the puckered bud into his mouth and ran his tongue around it before turning his attention to her other breast.

  Her breath came in shallow pants, the ache in her spread from between her thighs and into her belly as he suckled on her other breast. Then, he sank his fangs into her breast just above her nipple. She cried out, her body bucking on the counter, her wrists jerking in his grasp as overwhelming pleasure speared her.

  He kept her wrists firmly within his hold as his tongue laved her nipple while he drew on her blood. Shifting his hold on her wrists into one hand, he kept them pinned as his fingers skimmed over her flesh in a touch so faint that she barely felt it, but it left her skin electrified.

  Ronan slid his hand between her thighs, spreading them wider. Her wetness slipped over his fingers as he stroked her, causing her to cry out. He kept his mouth on her breast while he dipped a finger into her.

  She writhed against him, her head moving back and forth as he parted her further and slid another finger into her. Her muscles clenched around him when he rubbed his palm over her clit, stoking the fire within her higher.

  “Ronan!” she gasped. “I can’t!”

  He released his bite on her breast and lifted his head to meet her gaze. Leaning closer to her, his mouth brushed over hers as he spoke. “Can’t what?”

  “I can’t take anymore.”

  He slid his fingers away from her and grinned when she moaned and pressed her hips forward on the counter. “I thought you enjoyed teasing,” he said and pulled her wrists down so that he held them against her belly.

  Before she could respond, he trailed his fingers up the inside of her thigh in a wispy touch that she barely felt, but her body begged for more of it. She tried to pull her hands from his grasp again, but he kept them firmly in place as he pushed her thighs further apart and knelt before her.

  Her eyes widened when he bent his head between her legs. “Ronan!” Any protest she’d been about to utter died on her lips when his tongue stroked over her aching center.

  Her head fell back as he worked his tongue into her in penetrating thrusts. Finally, he released her hands. Kadence grasped his head, not to push him away but to pull him closer.

  Ronan growled as her hands curled into his hair and her hips surged toward him. Grabbing her ass, he dragged her closer to his mouth as he tasted the heated wetness of her core. Her hips moved faster as she fucked his tongue with a wild abandon that had him growing impossibly harder.

  He sensed her impending release in the tightening of her muscles. Pushing her closer and closer to the brink, he pulled away before she could plummet over the edge. Her hands tugged at his hair as she groaned her disappointment. He rose before her and seized her wrists again with one hand. Drawing them over her head, he pinned them to the glass once more as he met her dazed gaze.

  “I love to tease too,” he murmured before taking hold of his dick and guiding it to her entrance. He held her gaze as he buried himself within her.

  “I love the way you do,” she murmured as her eyes drifted closed.

  Ronan pulled back to drive into her again. He lost himself to the frenzy of his need as he thrust into her again and again. He was on the brink of spilling, but he gritted his teeth and held back his release.

  Kadence’s eyes opened, and his breath caught as he found himself gazing into their startling white-blue depths once more. She most certainly was something more than a normal turned vampire, and she was starving.

  Releasing her wrists, he wrapped his hand around her head and pulled her face into the hollow of his throat. “Feed,” he commanded.

  Her fangs slid over his skin before sinking into his vein. His body jerked as she pulled hungrily on his blood and her body kept rhythm with the demands of his. The muscles of her sheath clenched around him and she cried out against his throat. This time, he didn’t hold back his own release, but followed her over the edge.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  “My brother would never hurt me,” Kadence said for what felt like the thousandth time that night.

  Ronan barely glanced at her as his eyes remained focused on the trees around them. He tuned out the clacking of the branches in the breeze swirling through the park as he listened for any other sounds. The hunters would come, he had no doubt, but he didn’t know what would happen when they did.

  Kadence searched the woods for her brother, her hands twisting anxiously before her. She’d spent the past week adapting to her new vampire status and training with Ronan. She’d always been fast before, but now she moved with a speed that still startled her, and her reflexes had amped up.

  She’d managed to avoid having Ronan take her down once, but it had been a big improvement. He’d reluctantly admitted to her that she was doing better than he’d expected and, with more training and her added vampire strength, she would be able to take down a Savage on her own. He’d even admitted that, if she kept working as hard as she had been and completed the training, she would make a good Defender one day.

  Finally, he had agreed that it was time to contact Nathan, and she’d called him earlier today. She was surrounded by over eight hundred pounds of solid vampire flesh as Ronan and the others stood close by her, yet a shiver of unease raced up her spine. The swings across the way swayed back and forth, their creaking chains adding a creepy air to the already tense night.

  Her brother would never hurt her, but the eerie playground, coupled with the fact she knew Nathan wasn’t going to react well to what she had to tell him, made her feel like screaming. She’d told Nathan he could bring some of the other hunters with him, but no more than ten. She really hoped he’d listened to her. Otherwise, this night could end badly, and she desperately wanted everything to go right.

  The two men she loved the most could die if this blew up in her face.

  Killean kept muttering about killing hunters, and Lucien looked like someone had taken away his favorite toy as he studied the woods with a sullen expression. Declan idly twirled a lollipop in his mouth as Saxon tapped a foot while his hand rested on one of the knives strapped to his side. Ronan stepped closer to her.

  “My brother won’t hurt me,” she insisted again.

  His hand settled into the small of her back. “You are not one of them anymore, Kadence. There is no way to know how they will react to that revelation.”

  “I may be a vampire now, but I will always be one of them.”

  “They’re here,” Ronan said.

  “Where?” Kadence asked as she searched the woods. A fresh, subtle scent wafted from her right, and she turned in that direction as Nathan emerged from the woods with Asher and Logan flanking him.

  “There are others still in the woods,” Lucien said.

  “Yes,” Ronan replied.

  “We didn’t expect them to be brave enough to reveal all their numbers,” Killean said.

  Kadence glared at him before focusing on her brother. Her heart leap
t as joy and love swept through her. She took a step toward Nathan, but Ronan blocked her from going any further with his arm. She turned her angry gaze on him.

  “I told you before we came here that you were to stay by me,” Ronan said.

  “He’s my brother.”

  “And if he wishes to come to us, he can, but you will not go to him.”

  She opened her mouth to protest, but when his eyes shifted to a more volatile red color, she held it back. Everyone was on edge enough without her pushing it to a breaking point. Nathan stopped ten feet away from them; his gaze ran over the vampires before settling on her.

  “Are you okay?” he demanded.

  “Yes,” she assured him. He studied her, as if trying to figure out if she were telling the truth or not. “Really, Nathan, I’m fine.”

  Logan glanced at her before focusing on Ronan. His lips flattened when he saw the protective way Ronan stood against her. Kadence’s heart twisted, and unexpected tears burned her eyes. She’d never loved Logan the way she loved Ronan, but she cared deeply for him. She’d never wanted to hurt him or her brother, but she knew she had, and she would have to live with that for the rest of her life. She could only hope that one day they would forgive her, but she didn’t expect it from them.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, keeping her gaze focused on Logan as she spoke. “Know that the last thing I ever wanted was to hurt anyone. I just…” She trailed off as she tried to think of how to explain what had happened without making it worse. “I broke out only to see Joseph die, but once I was free, I decided to try to see more of the world.”

  Logan’s eyes finally slid to her. “You didn’t get very far.”

  Kadence winced at the accusation in his voice. “I was going to go to Ireland. I was there, in the airport, getting ready to board the plane, but I couldn’t do it.”