Fated Desire: A Paranormal Romance Novel (The Twisted Destiny Saga Book 1) (10 page)

“Don’t stop it until
I
tell you.”

“Okay.”

He swiped his claws across her wrist, drawing a deep wound. She cringed at the searing pain.

“You okay?” he asked, worriedly.

“Yeah,” she responded distractedly as she cradled Ryan’s head and pressed her wrist to his mouth. “Drink, baby,” she purred.

She watched him sniff at her blood. He looked up at her through glazed eyes and she saw the recognition there. He knew it was her. He knew what she was trying to do.

He tried to move away.

“Drink, Ryan. Now. I need you to live. Your pack needs you to,” she said, tightening her hold on him and forcing his mouth tighter to her wrist.

Several excruciatingly long seconds passed before he finally gave in and she felt his tongue lap at the blood.

“He’s taking it,” she said, looking back at Josh.

Josh nodded with relief.

“Fuck,” she gasped as Ryan started to suck hard,
really
damn hard as he drew more of her blood into his mouth. She gritted her teeth against the awful pain and ignored her instinctive reaction to rip her wrist away. She could feel herself sweating from the effort. “Oh God,” she gulped. “Shit.”

“Cora!” Josh cried, reaching for her. She felt hands on her shoulders, rubbing them gently, taking care of her. Him and the pack.

Josh took her hand in his. “Use me.”

“I’ll hurt you.”

“I know. It’s okay.”

She smiled and then squeezed his hand against the pain that Ryan was causing her. She tried her best to hold back her full strength, so she didn’t break his hand.

Moments passed and she watched as Ryan’s wound slowly started to close.

“It’s working!” Josh called out as much to the pack as to himself.

Cora smiled dazedly. She could feel herself getting weaker by the second, her life slowly draining away. It was an awful feeling, a terrifying feeling. She wavered, but the pack was there to steady her.

“I need to pull him back now,” Josh said.

“No!” she choked out. “The wound must close completely, or it’s pointless.”

She forced herself to stay awake against the overwhelming light-headedness and the need to sleep that plagued her. She watched the wound close completely.

And that was when she passed out.

CHAPTER 17

Cora opened her eyes slowly. She smelled him before she saw him. Ryan. She groaned and tried to sit up, but strong arms held fast around her. He was holding her tightly against him, his head nuzzled against hers.

“Cora?” he called softly. “You’re awake! How do you feel?” he asked in an urgent rush.

“Drowsy,” she said, leaning back against him exhaustedly.

She glanced around and realized that she was on his lap on the couch in the living room of the military base. Josh sat in the chair beside them.
And
the entire pack was gathered around the room, some sitting on the other two couches, some standing. They were all there, staring at her.

“What? What’s going on?” she asked, confused.

“You passed out. We were worried,” Ryan informed her.

“How long?”

“A couple of hours.”

“And you’ve all just been standing here and waiting for me to wake up?” she asked, amused.

Josh rubbed her arm and told her, “You saved the Alpha wolf, sweetheart. We would have stayed with you for hours more until you woke up. These boys will die for you now—so will I.”

She smiled shyly and said, “It was just a bit of blood.”

Ryan laughed and kissed the top of her head. “So modest. It’s unlike you. You
must
be tired.”

She craned her neck to look at him and asked worriedly, “You’re okay, though? Completely healed?”

“Thanks to you, my love.”

And for the first time, Cora saw emotion in his eyes. Deep, gut-wrenching emotion. He looked away quickly to avoid anyone but her from seeing it.

“Don’t ever do that again,” he scolded her. “Ever. Do you understand me?” he spoke in a harsh, commanding tone.

She heard gasps from several members of the pack as they recognized the sign of their Alpha’s temper, the warning in his tone. She shifted her weight, breaking his hold on her. She grinned broadly as she said, “You could just say “
thank you”
instead of being such a heavy-handed asshole.”

Ryan met her gaze, looking completely floored by her words. He looked out at the pack, seeming at a complete loss for a few moments. She supposed it was because no one dared to talk to him that way. He drew his gaze back to her and a broad grin played on his lips. “Thank you,” he said, sincerely.

She laughed and lunged at him, pressing her lips to his in a passionate kiss. His hands fisted in her hair and he deepened the kiss, moaning into her mouth with pleasure.

The pack howled and hollered around them.

He pulled back, laughing, and scooped her up in his arms. “Excuse me, boys, but I need to take my wife to bed.”

Cora gazed up at him excitedly.

He shook his head at her. “To
sleep
. Why are you always at your horniest when you’re drunk or exhausted?” he asked as he carried her down the corridor to his room.

Moments later, he had her tucked up in bed. He perched on the edge and just looked at her for a long while.

“What?” she asked, her dazed eyes meeting his intense stare.

“Nothing. I’m just keeping an eye on you, my love.”

“I’m fine, baby. Don’t worry.”

“Mmm…I think I like you calling me
‘baby’.”

She smiled. “Yeah? Me too.”

“You saved my life tonight.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “I had the power. I used it. That’s all.”

“
That’s all?
You could’ve died.”

“No, Ryan. I couldn’t.”

“How do you know that?”

“I just know. I can’t explain it.”

He heaved a heavy sigh as he said, “What happened tonight…it should
never
have happened. I put you in jeopardy.”

“Luca did, not you.”

“I should’ve gone into the house with you. It was the safest option for us both. If I hadn’t engaged Luca, you wouldn’t have left the house to help me and risked your own life to save mine. My emotions got the better of me. That is not acceptable. Luca was right. I
am
weak right now.”

Cora shook her head. “Don’t you get it? Your emotions are what make you strong.”

“No.”

“Luca said that to get under your skin.
He
doesn’t feel anything. He doesn’t care about anyone—doesn’t
love
anything or anyone. But you do and that scares him,
because
of the power that it gives you. The power of conviction. You fight for something real, for those you care about.
Nothing
can overcome that. Nothing can break your will to win. It makes you unstoppable, Ryan.”

“But, for all that
will
you speak of, he beat me tonight.”

“No. You’re still alive.”

“Only because of you.”

“Right. Together, he can’t stop us. Do you see?”

She watched him taking her words in. And then he nodded slowly, “Yeah. I hear you.”

She smiled. “Besides, he won’t be able to
almost kill you
again now. You have my blood coursing through your veins. A lot of it. No wound can kill you now.”

He chuckled. “We’re
assuming
that’s true, darlin’. We don’t know for certain. Let’s not test that theory. How did you stop him anyway? The last I saw of him, he was going in for the bite.”

“I kinda…zapped him.”

“Really? And he was wounded?”

“Yeah, I watched him struggle to get up.”

“How did you summon it?”

“I’m not sure. It was just an instinctual reaction.”

“Sounds like the effect of wolf’s blood to me,” he said, winking at her.

“You think?”

“Attacking without thinking? Just reacting instantly? Yeah, that’s wolf mentality.”

“Well, I like your blood in me then. It was a good feeling. Powerful. Plus, I can read your thoughts.”

“Yeah, about that….”

“What? You can read mine.”

“I see many problems with this new development. My thoughts concerning you tend to be anything but gentlemanly, Cora. And when you piss me off, you really don’t want to hear what I’m thinking.”

“My thoughts aren’t as tame as you think either.”

“Really? A good girl like you?”

“Try me,” she said, raising her eyebrows in a challenge.

He gazed at her and concentrated, drawing her thoughts to him.

Fuck, I want to rip his clothes off right now and run my tongue all over that smoking hot body of his. His lips, his chest, his cock, until he’s panting with need. And then I’ll take him in my mouth like I know he’s been craving and give him the best blow job of his life. He won’t know what’s hit him. Tongue swirling, my mouth devouring every inch of his impressive length. Tasting him. Swallowing every drop of cum when he comes apart around me.

He withdrew from her head quickly. He blinked hard and drew in a sharp breath before saying, “You did that on purpose.”

“What?” she asked innocently.

“You were controlling your thoughts.”

She laughed. “Yeah. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”

“I can do it to you too, you know.”

“Go ahead.”

“No. Not right now.”

“Why not?” she asked, disappointed.

He crossed to the bed and perched beside her. He took her hand in his as he told her, “Because, my sweet, formerly-innocent wife, you need to rest. You’re exhausted and you’re not yourself.”

She nodded. “All right. Seeing as though you said it so nicely.”

“Thank you.”

She smiled tiredly and she gripped his hand tightly as he sat with her, waiting for her to fall asleep. It wasn’t long before she did.

CHAPTER 18

Luca stood in the shadows of Michael’s bedroom, watching him through eyes black with fury as he slept. Sunrise was more than two hours away so he knew he’d likely engaged in something involving dark magic that had drawn so much energy from him that it had forced him to sleep already.

“Are you trying to decide whether or not to kill me?” Michael spoke all of a sudden.

His eyes snapped open and he sat up in bed and looked directly at Luca, knowing exactly where he stood, out of sight, in the shadows.

“No. We are beyond the black and white of that, are we not?”

“That would be an understatement after our conversation earlier via telepathy. It would have been less taxing if you had a damned phone. I trust that you understand now what I was saying the other night during our confrontation with the princess and her wolf?”

Luca stepped from the shadows and said, “Yes. And, remember what I told
you
? The pureblood wolf is dead. I killed him.”

Michael smiled and shook his head. “No, you didn’t.”

“What?
I
was there, Michael. I know what I did. I know what I saw.”

“The wound was fatal, yes. But he still lives.”

“Impossible.”

“Her blood has made the impossible possible, Luca.”

“You’re saying that she saved him, brought him back from
death
?”

“Near-death, but, yes. And now he knows that you
can
actually kill him. The secret is out, Luca! I gave you the power to transcend your inability to kill your blood kin, thinking you would use it responsibly and actually kill him when the opportunity presented itself!”

“He would have died, if she hadn’t interfered!”

“You should have taken her, instead of walking away!”

“I couldn’t. Her magic…it was…it’s getting stronger.” He lifted his shirt and said, “See? This is her doing.”

Michael failed to stifle a gasp as he looked at the wound in the center of Luca’s chest. Luca wasn’t surprised. It was disturbing to look at. It was six inches wide, a deep, gaping hole that was oozing blood and…something else. He knew it couldn’t be puss, because vampires couldn’t become infected with anything. They were dead, after all.

“I came here because I need you to heal me,” Luca said. “It’s been several days and it’s the same. It won’t close. And it’s glistening with silver magic.”

“I can see that. Hmm…it looks painful.”

“It is!”

“Have you been feeding?”

“Of course.”

“Then this magic
is
extremely powerful,” Michael said as he swept his hand over the wound.

A shimmering, black glow emanated from his palm and spread to the wound in Luca’s chest. Luca growled in agony against the assault. As Michael brought up his other palm to assist, Luca collapsed to his knees, grunting.

Michael pulled back and shook his head with disbelief. “It’s not working.”

“What?”

“I can’t heal you. Her magic is too strong. I can’t breach it. You’ll have to let it heal naturally—well, supernaturally. Give it another few days.”

“Try something else. I can’t go another few days in this much agony, Michael!”

“You have no choice. There is nothing else that I can do.”

Luca growled and struggled to his feet.

“When you are healed, you need to bring her to me. We can’t allow her power to grow any more than it already has.”

“She’s at the wolf compound. I can’t breach it. No vampire can. It’s invitation only.”

“Draw him out. You do that and she will follow. She is his mate. It is in her nature to stand by his side. You saw that for yourself a few nights ago.”

“I will take her first, Michael.”

Michael released an exasperated sigh. “Luca, let it go.”

“Let it go? I will make Ryan pay for his father’s actions. It’s because of his father’s treason that I am burdened with a brother that is wolf. Wolf! I am a laughing stock because of it. Banished to this human realm as a result, so my father doesn’t have to be tainted by the same shame as I. I
will
take her, Michael.”

“Fine. But make it quick. I need to drain her power before she gets much stronger and it becomes impossible. If I fail, we both lose. If I can’t draw her power into myself, then we won’t have the means to attack the Dark Realm and unseat your father. Don’t you want to be king?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Then hurry the hell up and take the whore already! Soon, Luca!”