Forever Bound Series 1-4 Part 26

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 b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

"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 s.h.i.+t!"

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. s.e.x. Souls.

Sure, humans might be shocked by a deal like thisbut 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 b.a.s.t.a.r.d after me." Her fangs seemed to lengthen. "I want you to rip his head off, and I want you to make d.a.m.n 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 f.u.c.king already dead." As far as Drake was concerned, the vampGabehad 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 h.e.l.l than she could possibly imagine. No, he'd always known the blood and h.e.l.l...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 a.s.sa.s.sins wouldn't touch a vamp for less than fifty grand.

Unless those a.s.sa.s.sins were werewolves.

Sometimes we do those hits for free. Depending on the vamp...and the blood and death that the b.a.s.t.a.r.d 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 canI 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 p.i.s.sed 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 f.u.c.k you." Endlessly. Again and again until the ache for her, that d.a.m.n gnawing ache that had kept his body tense and hungry for herfor yearsfinally vanished.

She stared down at him. Swallowed.

And nodded.

Chapter Three.

So, what? Did the wolf think that she was gonna pull some kind of shocked, Oh, no, you can't have s.e.x 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 pa.s.sion 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 whispered with affection, and not held the tight, tense edge that honed the endearment now.

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

His eyes burned up at her. His c.o.c.k was also shoving right at the junction of her legs. It was all she could do not to rub against him. If she told him that there'd never been anyone since him, Drake wouldn't believe her.

Even if the words were the truth.

Her body was starving. She was already wet for him. Just the touch of his hands had sent a s.h.i.+ver sliding over her. She wanted more. Just how much more would she get?

"As many times as I want," Drake told her, voice rough and dark. "Until you can't breathe without feeling me on every inch of your body."

Her nipples ached. She wanted his hands on them. His mouth.

Did he smell her arousal? Those wolves...

His lips curled in the faintest of smiles. d.a.m.n him, he did.

His hands rose and tangled in her hair. He began to pull her toward him. Toward his mouth.

Her heartbeat drummed in her ears. They had a deal, and finally, she'd have him.

His lips were so close. She could already taste him on her tongue. Would taste him. And he'd taste her. He'd A shrill alarm cut through the room.

Sonofb.i.t.c.h.

She blinked, confused, aroused and Drake pushed her to the side of the bed and jumped to his feet. "Stay here," he ordered and rushed for the door as the alarm kept shrieking.

Stay? She was a vampire, not a dog. Paige jumped up and raced after him.

He was already thundering down the stairs. More men and women were out now, all racing toward the main level of the house. She joined them, and hoped no one decided to attack the vamp in their midst.

"Fire!" Someone shouted even as she caught the scent of smoke drifting in the air.

Then they were shoving open the front doors and hurrying into the darkness that waited outside of the main house. She saw the flames then, rising quickly, burning right up that thick wall that surrounded their compound. Red and gold flames, burning in a world of snow.

Paige stumbled to a stop even as the wolves fought the blaze. They had buckets of water. Hoses. The water blasted at the flames, but the fire kept attacking all around the compound walls. To the left. To the right.

"You can't escape me." Gabe's words rang in her ears. He'd warned her of this, so many times. He'd said, "I'll find you and destroy anyone who gets in my way."

Someone b.u.mped into her and Paige jerked, then she realizedI can't just stand here. She'd seen this type of attack before. It was Gabe's specialty. Distract and conquer. He'd been using this technique for centuries.

Gabe...or rather, Gabriel, had been born long ago, in the midst of battles and carnage. War was what he knew, what he craved.

When it came to fighting strategies, he liked to think he was a master. The pureblood vamp was always plotting and planning.

The wolves didn't realize that this was just a trick. They were scattering. Each going to a different spot to fight the flames. Eachvulnerable.

"Stop!" Paige screamed.

No one listened to her.

More water. More fire.

"Stop! They're coming for you!" An attack that had been planned for far too long. She ran forward and grabbed the arm of one woman, a chick with long red hair. "They're coming!"

The woman spun around and her eyes widened. "Vampire."

Yes, she was. "And more of my kind are coming. Move away from the walls! Get ready."

Because Gabe didn't fight fair. He never had.

Thunder rumbled. Someone screamed. No, no, that wasn't thunder. In the wild confusion of the fire, that was someone shooting. A man fell to the ground as blood covered the snow behind him.

Gabe always planned so well.

She looked up, her gaze flying along the length of the burning walls. There, to the left. Covered in darkness, she could just see the outline of the shooter.

Only...he wasn't the only one up there.

Paige pushed the woman away. "Get back!" Paige yelled because she knew those guns would be loaded with silver bullets. The fire was just the bait. Carefully placed and targeted to draw out the wolves...

So they could be taken out easier.

She raced forward and leapt up that wall. As a human, she never would have been able to make that climb. The wall was at least fifteen feet high. As a vamp Two seconds. That was all it took.

The gunman turned on her. Fired.

The silver bullet tore right through her shoulder. She gasped at the pain, and, somewhere below her, she heard a roar. "Try...harder," Paige gritted out to the shooter as she s.n.a.t.c.hed the gun from him. Then she shot him, right in the heart.

He fell off the wall, tumbling down below.

The vamp wouldn't be dead, not from a silver bullet hit. He'd just be stunned for a while.

More gunshots. More screams.

She whirled around, balancing easily on top of the wall. More vamp shooters had positioned themselves, carefully hiding away from the flames. But the wolves were seeing them now. They were launching at the vamps, trying to take them out.

They just had to take them out faster.