Bound In Sin (A Vampire/Werewolf Romance) (2 page)

He advanced. She backed up once more. The last thing
she wanted was for him to put those big, warm hands of his on her
again. When he touched her, her body went into sexual overdrive.
She’d gone
way
too long without a lover.

No one but him.

Right. Too damn long.

But lust had to wait. For now.

“Do you know how long I looked for you?” Drake
demanded.  She could see the edge of his fangs. Probably not a
good sign. What was that saying in the vamp world?
When you saw
a wolf’s fangs, you were about to see hell.
He shook his head
slowly and said, “You
vanished.”

It wasn’t like she’d wanted to leave him. But he’d
been marked to be the next alpha of his pack and she’d been–

Bitten.

“I didn’t think you wanted a vampire turning up on
your doorstep.” Some of her own anger–the anger she usually worked
so hard to keep in check–broke through her fraying control. “Even
if I was a vamp that you used to screw.”

He pounced. She should have expected the move, but
she’d been around humans too long, and werewolves, damn, they could
move fast.

In two seconds, he had her on his bed, sprawled
amidst the covers, while he held her arms penned to the
mattress.  “You weren’t a vampire then.”

His muscled body pressed against her. No, correction,
his
aroused
body pressed against her. There was no
mistaking the bulge of his cock. 

“You were human then,” he said, and his hold
tightened around her. “Not vampire, not–”

What she’d been didn’t matter. “I’m a vampire now.”
His sworn enemy.  Only…he still wanted her.  She’d
thought werewolves were supposed to be repulsed by her kind. She’d
sure been told that often enough.

The voice from her nightmares whispered through her
mind, saying,
“Do you think he’ll ever want you again? 
One look, one taste…as soon as he knows what you are, you’ll be
dead.”

And she wouldn’t be able to rise again. 

She waited to feel claws at her throat again. Because
she didn’t want to see this end, Paige closed her eyes.  She’d
remember him as he used to be. If only Drake could remember her the
same way.

Some dreams just weren’t meant to come true.

Paige took a breath, tasted him–strength, power,
man–and waited for her second death to come.

A ghost lay beneath him. A ghost who’d haunted more
nightmares than Drake could count.

She was as still as a statue, her features pale and
perfect. High, curving cheekbones, a small, pert nose, and lush,
red lips made for sin. Her hair–dark as the night he’d always
loved–tangled around her face.

And she didn’t move.  Barely seemed to
breathe.

Why?

“Do it,” Paige whispered, her voice still that same
combination of sin and seduction that had driven him to the edge
too many times in the past. “Just…make it fast.”

He really hoped she wasn’t talking about sex. With
her, fast hadn’t ever been an option. He’d always needed to take
her again and again, to erupt inside of her, to lose himself.

She lifted one eyelid just a bit. Her green gaze
darted over him. “You’re not…you’re not killing me?”

What. The. Fuck.
It took every ounce of his
will-power to hold back the rage that threatened to swamp
him.  “Not yet,” he managed to snarl. 

Paige trembled beneath him. Her slender body had
trembled beneath his before, but back then, those little shivers
had been from pleasure.

Not fear.

He could all but smell the fear covering her. He
hated that smell on her.

“
How.”
Drake bit off the world. How had she
become a vampire? Had she chosen this life? Some humans wanted to
be vampires. They went out seeking the bite because they wanted to
live forever.

Fools. The price of forever was a river of blood and
death.

He hadn’t thought Paige would be like those desperate
humans.  He also hadn’t thought she’d vanish and leave him
aching for her–
ten damn years.

“It doesn’t matter,” she told him and both of her
eyes opened fully as she gazed up at him. “I can’t change what I
am.”

The scent of her blood filled his nostrils. When he
got hold of Michael again, he was gonna give that claw-happy
werewolf some marks to remember him by.
You don’t touch
her.

Drake caught both of her wrists in his left hand and
raised them over her head. She wasn’t fighting him, and as a
vampire, her delicate form was hiding one hell of a lot of
strength.

She just stared up at him, reminding him of all the
stupid dreams he’d once had…and lost.

He’d almost left his pack for her. He’d wanted to be
human.
For her.

But now, the beast was in charge. There was no going
back. There was only blood, death, and darkness.

For both of them.
 

He gazed down at her, trying to figure out when she’d
stopped being human and become a vampire.  She’d been nineteen
the last time he saw her. He’d been twenty-one.

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 fucking 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…”

He smiled and knew that his own sharpened teeth would
flash. “Death doesn’t come for free.  In the supernatural
world, there’s always a price.”

He heard the slight hitch of her breath. “And what do
you want?”

You.

But he wanted to play the game longer and see just
what she’d offer him. “What have you got?”

Her gaze fell to his chest, but while she wasn’t
looking at him, her slender shoulders straightened in a move he
remembered. Pride. “I have some money.  Not much, but a few
thousand that I can pay–”

Drake laughed at that.  A hard, deep laugh that
sent her bouncing on him. Really? A few thousand to take out a
vamp?  She didn’t quite understand the paranormal market
value. Most assassins wouldn’t touch a vamp for less than fifty
grand.

Unless those assassins were werewolves.

Sometimes we do those hits for free.
 
Depending on the vamp…and the blood and death that the bastard had
left in his wake. 

But she didn’t need to know about the free
hits.  That knowledge wouldn’t work in his favor.
  

“I can–I can fight with you. Help your pack.” 
Her gaze rose to meet his and a light flush still covered her
cheeks. Her voice had hardened, probably because she was pissed by
his laughter. “Having a vampire on your side wouldn’t be a bad
thing.”

The laughter faded away and Drake knew his gaze
hardened as he said, “I don’t want your strength.”  She’d
always had strength, even as a human. A solid core that had drawn
him to her.  Paige’s parents had both been killed when she was
just thirteen. They’d only been in Alaska for a little over a year
before their accident.  Her parents had promised her that
they’d all get a fresh start in America’s last frontier.

They’d only gotten death.

After their funeral, he knew that she’d bounced
around the foster care system and never found a real home. But all
that pain, it had never weakened her.

Wolves were attracted to strength. 

“Then what do you want?”

Did she realize that her nails were digging into his
shoulders?  The wolf inside growled.

He liked that.

Time to take what he wanted. Drake stared up at her
and said, “I want to fuck you.”  Endlessly. Again and again
until the ache for her, that damn gnawing ache that had kept his
body tense and hungry for her–
for years
–finally
vanished. 

She stared down at him. Swallowed.

And nodded. 

So, what? Did the wolf think that she was gonna pull
some kind of shocked,
Oh, no, you can’t have sex with me!
routine on him? When she’d been dreaming about him for so long?

Guess again, wolf.
If he beheaded that sick
freak Gabe
and
gave her the passion that she’d been
yearning for, well that was just win-win in her book.

But she didn’t want to look too eager. A girl had her
pride, after all, and she’d already had to come dragging into his
compound looking for some werewolf strength.

Paige swallowed back that eagerness and slowly said,
“Well, I guess once we can–”

“Not once, sweet, not even close.”

Sweet.
He’d called her that, so long before.
Only then the word had drifted with affection, and not held the
tight, tense edge that honed the endearment now. 

“H-how many times?” So she could plan. Savor.