To Darkness Bound Box Set

by Zandria West

  Irena rolls her eyes then checks her watch. ‘You’ve got twelve minutes. Tear the dress or mess up the make-up, and I’ll have your hide for a rug.’

  The glare she gives me is so intense that I absolutely believe her. She slowly backs out of the room and closes the door.

  4

  LANA

  It’s strange to feel shy after everything we’ve been through together, but I do. I’ve barely been alone with Reuben since he took me for that walk in the forest back when we were with the Grey Pack. Since then, he’s mostly seemed to see his main purpose in our relationship as to take point on guard duty. He’s spent sleepless nights watching the doorway of every room I’ve slept in. He’s been on the alert anytime we’ve been around other people. Other than when we completed the Binding in the hotel room near the airport, he’s barely touched me. And now it’s just the two of us. Somehow the make-up that’s thickly covering my face doesn’t feel like enough of a disguise. I feel naked and exposed.

  ‘Lana,’ he says, his voice low and husky. My god, why does he have to sound like that? I’m trying to keep my cool. But that voice – it literally makes me melt.

  Reuben stands, and I find myself gazing up at him, taking in his height and the muscular power of his build. It’s just the two of us, him and me. No Alex cracking jokes or Gabriel brooding distractingly or Grayson… I shiver just thinking about whatever the hell Grayson does to me.

  ‘Come here –’ Reuben growls.

  It’s not a request; it’s an order, imbued with the full force of will of a man born to be Alpha of a wild werewolf pack.

  My legs obey before my brain even has a chance to catch up. I take a step, and then another, closing the distance between us. Reuben watches, the usually sparkling green of his eyes darkening to something closer to gunmetal grey. I reach out a hand and he takes it. To my surprise, instead of pulling me across the gap separating us, he spins me around and steps in close behind me, his body pressed to the back of mine.

  ‘I want you to see what I see,’ he says.

  I look up and realise he’s positioned me carefully so I’m facing directly into the full-length mirror at the far side of the room. I shiver. I can’t remember the last time I really looked at myself. I only ever used the mirror in my apartment to do a quick check-over before I left for a shift at Hell on Earth – to make sure my hair wasn’t too crazy and I didn’t have toothpaste smeared over half my face, that type of thing. It’s been longer than I can remember since I’ve been to a fancy dinner or out on a date anywhere that required me to look nice. The last formal dinner I went to… I shudder and push the memory away.

  Immediately, Reuben’s strong arms are around me, pulling me closer into him. ‘What’s the matter, Lana? I felt that. Are you worried about going out into the village? If you’re scared, we can –’

  I shake my head. ‘No, it’s not that. I mean I am but… it’s just, I was thinking about the last time I got dressed up.’

  He studies me questioningly but doesn’t say anything.

  I swallow. ‘It was for my Dad’s fiftieth birthday. He’d booked dinner at his favourite restaurant. It was a really nice place. Fancy, black tie, you know?’

  Reuben nods but I can tell from his blank expression that he has no idea what I’m talking about – of course he has no idea. What would he know about human dress codes? He’s spent most of his life running naked in the forest, and the remainder hunting stray demons in the shadier regions of Darktown.

  ‘Anyway, I bought a new dress. Got all made up. Got my hair done. Bought him a present, wrapped it in shiny paper. I just… I wanted him to have a great night. At dinner he introduced us to his new girlfriend. Clarissa.’

  ‘Clarissa. You mean Garenda?’ Reuben asks. He says her name like it’s poison, and not without reason. Garenda is the witch who tried to kill me – twice. She took advantage of my father’s kindness and generosity and just about drained him dry. She also tried to kill my brother, and damn near killed Alex and Reuben. I hate her more than I ever imagined I’d hate anybody.

  ‘I wanted Dad to be happy, and he looked like he was, but I just knew something was off with her. From the moment I met her, I could sense it. But Dad was beyond besotted. He thought he was in love.’

  Reuben nods, his expression inscrutable.

  ‘I went home that night and cried. I felt like I’d lost my father forever.’

  ‘You could never lose him,’ Reuben says gently, squeezing my shoulders. ‘He loved you more than anything.’

  ‘He’s gone now though, isn’t he?’ I say, my eyes filling with tears. ‘And that fucking bitch is still alive.’

  ‘Hush, Lana, hush…’ Reuben turns me towards him and pulls me into a tight embrace.

  I snuffle against his chest. ‘Sorry. Bad timing. Here’s me getting upset when you were planning to sex me up until my brains were mush so I’d have the right kind of aura to pretend to be a Goddess this afternoon.’

  Reuben’s laughter is like a gentle earthquake inside the mountain of his body. ‘Hmmm,’ he agrees. ‘I was considering something along those lines.’

  I take a deep breath and inhale his warm, reassuring, familiar scent. ‘Irena is going to kill me if I’ve cried and made my eye makeup run.’

  ‘Let’s check then, shall we?’ He gently lifts my chin and studies me, then uses one finger to trace the path of a tear down my cheek.

  I close my eyes and focus on the bond between us. I feel the Bondmark on my back tingling at Reuben’s closeness. As I concentrate, I can sense, not his thoughts exactly, but the timbre of his feelings: pain mixed with longing; gentleness fused with anger. Patience. More than anything else, Reuben is patient. He would never rush me, never try and convince me to move faster than I might want to. He’d wait forever, I realise, sensing it with certainty. He wouldn’t even ask, he’d just wait.

  I open my eyes again, place my hand on his, draw his fingers to my lips and kiss them gently. Peace and calm flow through me. It’s like the feeling you get when you reach the top of a hard mountain climb and finally see the view. In an instant you realise that everything you’d felt and thought and worried about on the way up is miniscule compared to the grandeur of what lies before you.

  ‘Are you alright, cub?’ he asks gently, stroking my cheek again.

  I nod and draw him closer. I see the momentary flare of tension in his eyes. He’s unsure. He doesn’t want to do the wrong thing. He would hate to take advantage of my vulnerability.

  ‘I want you,’ I whisper, the words coming out as little more than a breath.

  He studies me, his expression so serious that for a moment I think he’s going to turn me away. His eyes soften as he smiles. He leans in. His lips press mine gently at first. I close my eyes and enjoy the kiss, letting all worry and strain wash away from me. It’s nothing like how I felt when I woke up this morning with Alex and Gabriel. Then, it was like I’d been drugged. I was exhilarated, reckless, carefree. I knew there was something I was supposed to know, something I was supposed to do, but it was just out of reach. Now, everything is still here: the weight of responsibility, the fear I feel about the future. I haven’t forgotten any of it. I just know that right now, in this moment, I am exactly where I’m supposed to be. Reuben grounds me.

  ‘Lana…’ he murmurs, kissing my eyelids, my jaw, running his fingers down the length of my arms.

  I fumble until I find the bottom of his t-shirt, then pull it up. He has to help me with the last bit because he’s so tall, I actually can’t reach high enough to get the t-shirt over his head. He drops it on the floor and I step back, holding him at arms-length. I want to see him. His body is frankly stupendous. I can’t believe that somebody so physically powerful, with a structure of rippling muscle and towering bone, with scars and tattoos, evidence of a life hard lived, could be so gentle with me, and so loving. I trust Reuben completely, I realise.

  He’s looking at me with a pained expression.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ I ask, sud
denly worried.

  He frowns. ‘I have no idea how to get that dress off you.’

  I scrunch my forehead and look down. ‘It went on easily enough. Can’t we just pull it off?’

  ‘But if I tear it –’

  ‘Irena will have your balls for breakfast? Yeah probably. But if I tear it, she’ll just have to find me another one,’ I say, grinning and hoping for the best as I find purchase on the material. I manage to tug it up and wriggle a bit, then pull it over my head. It comes off smoothly, and I suddenly find myself standing, almost naked, before a very intense-looking man-shaped werewolf.

  ‘Now,’ he says slowly. ‘My task was to make you feel like a Goddess. How did you put it? I’m supposed to sex you up?’ He tilts his head to one side as he says the words, like he’s speaking a foreign language and is not sure if he’s getting it quite right.

  ‘Ah…’ I seem to have forgotten how to speak altogether.

  ‘Come,’ he takes my hand and pulls me over to the huge bed that occupies one corner of the room. I have no idea whose bed it is. This seems to be a spare room, but I’m hoping that Irena doesn’t stay here. She would not appreciate us doing what I think we’re about to do if this was in any sense her bed.

  Reuben bends over and buries his head in the pillow.

  ‘What the hell Reuben?’

  Then I realise – he’s sniffing. He’s sniffing the goddamned pillow.

  ‘Is this normal werewolf behaviour?’ I ask, not sure whether to laugh or curse.

  ‘The pillow hasn’t been used. The sheets are clean. I just thought I should check. To put your mind at ease.’ His lips twitch in a half-smile, and I can tell that he knew exactly what I was thinking.

  He takes my hand again and pulls me towards him. A moment later I find myself laying on the bed looking up at him.

  ‘May I take these off?’ he asks with gruff politeness. He’s looking at my underpants, which are egg-shell blue, cotton, with little daisies on them. I nod, still not able to form words with my mouth. He hands look huge on my hips as he pulls the scant material down. He makes a rumbling noise in his throat as my body is revealed to him, and I feel a sudden shiver of excitement move through me.

  ‘I want to see you,’ he says. His throat moves as he swallows, his eyes hungrily taking in the length of my legs, the curves of my hips. ‘Spread your legs.’ His voice takes on that Alpha-tone again that makes me want to obey him without question.

  I raise my knees up and then let them drop wide apart and see a glassy expression in his eyes as he watches. I’m completely exposed. I’m also getting wetter by the second, as Reuben’s gaze takes in the delicate folds and creases of my sex.

  ‘Touch yourself,’ he orders.

  I lick my lips, feeling suddenly, intensely aware of every inch of my body – the prickling of the hairs on my forearms, the hardening of my nipples, the quickness of my breath in my throat. I reach down and begin to touch myself, watching him the whole time. His eyes darken.

  ‘Lana…’ he growls.

  I feel a kind of lightness inside me, like I’m made of pure energy, and that energy is humming and glowing and building as my body responds to Reuben’s gaze and my own touch. I slide a finger into my opening and hear Reuben let out a low, involuntary moan. It’s not enough. I need more. I need him to fill me.

  ‘So fucking beautiful…’ he murmurs. I see his fingers going for the button of his pants, as he releases the zip and draws out his powerful, throbbing cock. ‘Get on your hands and knees,’ he says tersely.

  I only hesitate for a second, then do what he says, settling myself on the bed. He catches hold of my hips and lifts them up higher.

  ‘You can watch now, Lana. See how beautiful you are…’ I turn and understand what he means. The mirror is angled so that it gives a view of everything that’s happening on the bed. Positioned as I am, I can see perfectly as he kneels behind me and adjusts himself, then eases his cock into me. I gasp as I see and feel his entry both at the same time. He’s huge. I’m aching, expanding to take him into me. He moves slowly and carefully, but doesn’t stop until he’s fully sheathed, his cock pressing against secret places inside me that I barely knew existed. Suddenly, it’s like the Bondmark on my back explodes. Reuben’s never been inside me before, and the magic on my skin and in my blood responds powerfully.

  ‘Oh god…’ I moan, a haze of pleasure shrouding my thoughts.

  He starts to move. I watch in the mirror, see how even on his knees he towers over me, his undeniable power making me shiver with longing.

  He moves faster, harder, reaching forward with one hand to stroke my breasts and pinch my nipples, the contact sending startling jolts of pleasure through my spine and into my core. He’s growing bigger inside me, if that’s even possible. I thrust my hips back against his, feeling the slap of skin against skin, the smooth motion he makes inside me. He runs his free hand down my body and begins to stroke my clit, moving in me all the while. I turn my head and watch, fascinated. I’ve never seen what I look like having sex before. My cheeks are flushed, my nipples are small, dark peaks, my breasts are bouncing with every movement. I see my ass lifted in the air, raised to him, and the slickness of his cock as it slides in and out, wet with my own juices. There’s something about watching it like this that heightens my pleasure and increases every sensation. A wave of delicious heat flows through me.

  Oh shit.

  ‘I’m going to come,’ I moan.

  ‘Don’t hold back…’ He urges me on with his voice and his body.

  It’s like an explosion that starts slow and builds to something so intense that there’s nothing left of me but light and heat. I cry out, my voice unfamiliar, the scream sounding almost like pain, though the only pain I feel is that already the moment is slipping away from me. A second later, Reuben comes too, gripping my hips tighter for a few more powerful thrusts, then collapsing onto my back, our sweat mingling, our breathing synchronised.

  I feel magical, there’s no other word to describe it. I feel like I climbed to an incredible height and looked out and jumped, and instead of crashing to the ground I’m floating down, defying gravity, lighter than air.

  Happy, I realise. I’m happy.

  ‘Did I hurt you?’ Reuben asks, a strangled tone in his voice.

  I wriggle free of him and roll over onto my back. I look up at him. His hair is clinging from sweat, his stubble-darkened cheeks glowing from pleasure and exertion. His eyes are even darker now, almost black.

  ‘You were incredible,’ I say. The afterglow is enough to allow me to say the thing I’ve been wondering about but have never had the courage to ask him. ‘Have you ever been with a woman before? I mean, a human woman?’

  He shakes his head. ‘I was scared I would break you,’ he whispers.

  I grin. ‘Not even close. We’re tougher than you think.’

  He rolls over to lay beside me and closes his eyes. I watch his chest rising and falling in a steady, slowing rhythm.

  ‘I was scared…’ he says again. ‘My instincts… when I mate, I can become very – possessive. It’s a wolf thing. I didn’t want to risk losing control. I was worried that afterwards, I wouldn’t be able to share you with the others...’

  That was something I’d never even considered. Of course, werewolves are fiercely possessive of their mates. No wonder Reuben has held back, not wanting his wolf instincts to cause trouble among the five of us. I sit up and lean my weight on my elbow and study Reuben’s face. The pale scar along his eyebrow. The strong line of his jaw. Those lips that have explored just about every inch of my skin.

  ‘How do you feel now?’ I ask, trying to sense him through the Bond.

  ‘Different. Not like I expected.’

  I wait for him to continue.

  ‘I feel connected with you, deeply, more than I’ve ever known before. But I feel the others too. Alex. Gabriel. Even Grayson. It’s like their Bondmarks on you made them present.’

  I know exactly what he means.


  ‘Does that bother you?’ I ask, weighing my words carefully.

  He pauses a moment then shakes his head. ‘You need them. And they need you. We are more together. They’re my brothers…’

  He looks away, seeming to run out of words.

  5

  LANA

  Graciela doesn’t say anything when she sees me emerge with Reuben by my side in the dress he chose. She gives a small nod which I take for satisfaction with Irena’s efforts, then looks away to continue preparing her own contribution to this afternoon’s illusions – a bottle filled with a potion that she’s muttering incantations over. I wonder if I should ask what it is, then quickly decide I’d rather not, just right now.

  Reuben takes my arm and leads me into the living room where Gabriel, Alex and Grayson are gathered. Just as I predicted, I can hardly walk in the dress. It’s the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever worn, and also the least practical. If for any reason I needed to run, Reuben would have to cut me free with one of his many knives. I look across to him and the small smile he directs towards me makes me glow with pleasure. I’m warm with the intimacy and trust we just shared.

  Alex chuckles, ‘Oh yes, we all felt that one, Reuben. You did us proud brother.’

  I cough and frown, glancing across at my mother and hoping to god that Alex can take a hint. The woman already knows far more about my sex life than I would ever, in a million years, want her to.

  ‘It’s a daytime moon today,’ she says, apropos of nothing in particular.

  ‘Okay,’ I say.

  ‘An auspicious sign,’ she smiles. ‘If it wasn’t for the moon, I’d make you wait until nightfall, but I think that this should work. Izushi’s power is unification – she brings together the darkness and light, day and night, hope and despair...’

  I swallow. This is all sounding more serious than I feel in any way prepared for.

  ‘Will I need to speak?’ I ask. ‘I wouldn’t really know what to say.’

  I’ll be nervous, and when I’m nervous the things that tend to come out of my mouth aren’t the things that are going to help me maintain an appearance of being an all-knowing, all-powerful Goddess.