Bound In Sin (A Vampire/Werewolf Romance) (10 page)

When Drake’s gaze came back to her, Paige forced
herself to meet that hard stare. So much fury. How much was for
her? For the vamp he’d killed? And for the traitor he’d had in his
own midst?

“You lied to me,” Drake said. The words were low and
all the more lethal for their softness.

“From the beginning,” Paige agreed, her own voice
just as soft. But there was no reason for lies anymore.  She’d
done her job. She’d protected him.

They’d saved each other.

Now they could go their separate ways. He’d go back
to his pack. She’d go back to the life she’d created in
Florida. 

So what if she went back without a heart?  She’d
been missing that particular organ for years. 

Paige turned away.  She had to get out of there.
Her chest was burning.  Aching.  Looking at Drake just
hurt too much. Her job was done.

Time to leave before he saw through her mask.

I want you. I want to stay.

Some things just weren’t meant to be.

But Paige didn’t run away. She walked. One foot in
front of the other.  Slow. Steady.

“Was everything a lie?”

She stopped. Didn’t look back. “Not everything.” Then
because–hell, what did she have to lose? Paige glanced back over
her shoulder. “I really have always loved you.” From the first
moment she saw him.  “And I always will.”

Then she kept walking. Because sometimes, love just
wasn’t enough. 

Not when you were a vampire.

And not when the man you wanted more than blood was a
werewolf. 

***

Did Paige really think that she was just going to
walk away? 
Hell, no.

Drake watched her as she left him. The snow drifted
over her dark hair. Her steps were slow but certain. 

Not running…just
leaving
him.

Right after she’d said she loved him?  The woman
was about to break him.

He inhaled deeply, drawing in her scent. He’d never
lose her again.

Never.

“Get rid of the bodies.” Easy enough in the
wild.  “Head back to the compound.”  Because the battle
wasn’t over. Not for him.

His gaze swept around the assembled wolves. “Then if
there is any one of you who wants to challenge me, take your best
shot.”  He was ready for a fight with claws and teeth and
blood and fury.  “Because my
mate
is going to be with
me, in my pack, by my side, for the rest of my life.” Even if his
life was shorter than hers. 

He’d take what he could get.

Mate.
That was what Paige was. She’d been
his mate since she was nineteen.

She’d be his until he took his last breath.

Vampire, werewolf–it didn’t matter. She was his.

He’d fight for her, just as she’d fought for him.

When the fight was over, he’d find her.

I’ll come after you, Paige.

Always.

***

Silence. 

Drake stared at the group of shifters who’d assembled
in the compound’s courtyard. No one spoke. No one moved.

They all stood before him. Waiting.

He wore a pair of jeans, hanging low on his hips, and
his claws were out.

His gaze swept over them all. “Who’s first?” 
The wolf inside was already howling.

He’d fight to give Paige a place at his side because
he damn well wasn’t living without her.

No one stepped forward.

“
Who’s first?”
 

They weren’t meeting his stare. The shifters backed
up, showing submission.

All of them backed up…except for Heath.  His
first-in-command stepped forward.

First.

But Heath lifted his hands and no claws burst from
his fingertips. “I have no quarrel with you or your mate.”

Drake grabbed him. Lifted him into the air. “That’s
not what you said before.”

“Before…” Heath swallowed and shook his head. “Before
I didn’t know what she’d risk for you.”

Everything.

“We saw the blood. The bodies.  We know what she
did.”

Fought. Saved him. Saved the pack.

Drake dropped the other shifter. Heath scrambled to
his feet. “We’ll protect her, swear allegiance to her, just as we
do to you.”

There was a murmur or agreement from the shifters.
Not silence, not anymore.

The murmur turned into a growing roar of approval.
Determination.

“So go get your mate,” Heath told him, voice fierce
now. “Bring her into the pack. Bring her back where she
belongs.”

Drake’s bare feet sank into the snow as he rushed
through the crowd.  Paige’s sweet scent still filled his
nose.  He wasn’t losing her this time.

Not this time.

Drake ran after his mate, and as he ran, he knew
exactly where he’d find her.

***

The frozen lake stared back up at her. So still and
cold.  Paige was shivering and she was hungry and she just
ached.

But she was still alive. Sort of, anyway, and pain
was just part of life.

She turned away from the lake.

And found Drake watching her.

She was so surprised to see him that she flinched.
“D-Drake?”

He stood next to an old, twisted tree, one bent
beneath the weight of the snow.  “I was supposed to meet you
here,” he said, voice rumbling. Intense. Dark.

She shook her head. “Th-that was a long time
ago.”

He pulled a necklace from the back pocket of his
jeans.
Her
necklace. The one he’d taken away that first
night.

Her chin lifted.

“Do you know why I gave this to you?”

She did. She’d known him so well back then. “Because
you loved me.” The words were said with certainty. Once upon a
time, a boy had loved a girl.

Once upon a time…

He stalked toward her. Didn’t even seem to feel the
cold. But then, he wouldn’t. Not like she did.

He came toward her and lifted the necklace. “I still
do love you, sweet.”

She raised her hand and stopped him before he could
slide that necklace over her head. “You…you took this from me.”

Because of what she was.

Not a girl. Not just a boy.

A vampire. A werewolf.

“I was going out of my mind that night. I’d missed
you for so long…” His breath heaved out in a rush. “I hurt, and I
wanted to hurt you.”

A dark admission.

His head bowed. “I want to make it up to you. I want
to make everything up to you.”

And there, in the snow, with the lake behind her and
too many memories around them, Drake dropped to his knees.

Her breath rushed out. An alpha should never submit
to another like this. It wasn’t the way of the pack. It wasn’t–

His hand clenched around the necklace. “I thought you
didn’t want me.”

She’d always wanted him.

“I never loved anyone else. All those years…the only
one to ever touch my heart…was you.” He looked up at her. She saw
the beast and the man in his eyes.  “Stay with me.” A plea,
from a man who’d never pleaded for anything before.

Paige couldn’t speak.

“I can make things right for you.  I’ll make you
happy, I
swear.
Just give me a chance.”

She licked her lips and tasted the sorrow from the
past. “I’m not the same…”

“You’re stronger. More beautiful.  And I fucking
love you even more than I did before.” 

Her hands touched his shoulders. Hesitant. Hopeful.
“You…do?”

“Yes.” Said with a growl. Said as he stared into her
eyes. In his gaze, she saw–

The future.

“I want you to be with me, for as long as I walk this
earth.” Now his words came faster. “I won’t live as long as you, I
know that. Just give me those years, just give me–”

She sank to her knees before him. Kissed him. Kissed
him so hard that they tumbled back onto the soft snow. 

And he tasted so good. Like forever. Because that was
what she could give to him.  Her head lifted slowly. “I can
give you more.”

If he’d let her.

His brows pulled low. His arms were around her,
holding her so close. “You’ll stay with me?”

“The pack–”

“They want you to stay.  They want you to come
home.”

Home.

“Fifty years,” he told her, “sixty. Give me that,
give me–”

She shook her head and saw the stark pain flash
across his face. 

“
I love you,”
he told her but he
sounded…lost.

She knew because she’d been lost for years.  “I
can give you more,” Paige promised him. Because she’d learned so
much from the vampires who’d helped her in Florida.

Down there, another werewolf had paired with a
vampire female. They’d discovered that if a vampire’s blood was
shared, the wolf would become stronger.

Aging stopped for the wolf. Death was put on
hold.

Jeremiah had thought that he was cheating death by
drinking from a vamp, but that blood had been poison.

She’d never poison Drake. She’d give him her blood,
and she’d give him… “Forever,” Paige whispered and kissed Drake
again.

As she kissed him, she heard the howl of wolves in
the distance.

She wasn’t afraid of that sound. She wasn’t afraid of
anything. Not anymore.

Because she wasn’t lost now. She was home and safe…in
the arms of her wolf.

###

If you enjoyed this novella, you may also
like Cynthia Eden’s BOUND BY BLOOD, a sexy paranormal romance
novella that is also available now for .99.

The sexy little vampiress walked into the bar as if
she owned the place.

Since Howling Moon was a low-rent dive hidden on the
shadier side of Miami, a bar that catered to werewolves, well, the
lady was very much out of fucking place. And, if she wasn’t
careful, she might just become the night’s entertainment.

Jace Vaughn tensed when he saw her.  He wasn’t
as drunk as the other wolves, not yet anyway, so he recognized the
deceptively delicate woman instantly.

He could see the hint of her small fangs peeking out
just behind the plump fullness of her too-red lips. Vamps’ fangs
always came out when they were about to fight or fuck.

So which one was the vamp about to do?

She stilled inside the doorway of the bar. Her long
blond hair tumbled behind her as her gaze raked to the left. To the
right. Huh. Looked like she was hunting for someone–or something.
In this place, the only thing she’d find was a pack ready to rip
her to pieces.

Vampires and wolves weren’t exactly playing nice
these days. Or any days.

She 
should 
know that.

But then her gaze swept by him. Swept by, then came
right back.  Her blue eyes–bright with a vamp’s power–caught
his.  She stared at him, and Jace found he couldn’t look away.
A vampire’s trick of compulsion?

Nah…more likely just his own lust.  Because the
lady was hot.  Most female vamps were, those pureblood ones
anyway.  And Jace knew he was looking at one of the elite
pureblood Florida vamps.

A pureblood, in a werewolf hell.

He smiled. Fate must be laughing her ass off
somewhere.

Then, 
she
 smiled too.  A lick
of heat shot straight through his body, and the beast that he kept
chained inside stretched and growled.

Want.

She started walking toward him in her high, fuck-me
or fuck-off black boots.  Jace shoved away from the bar.

But the others had noticed her now, and they were
closing in.

Three males.  Big and hulking because that was
the way of the beast.

“
Vampire…” 
The snarl floated in the
air, and the males reached for her.

“
No!”
 His roar broke a second too
slowly.

Two of the males crashed into nearby tables.
 They’d made the mistake of actually touching her. You didn’t
touch a vampiress who didn’t want to be touched. Fools should know
that rule.

Purebloods were especially strong.

Excitement had the beast inside yanking on his
leash.

Every person in the bar froze for a moment, then
instantly turned their attention on her.  The vamp had the
third wolf on the floor in front of her.  He hadn’t shifted,
not yet, but his claws were already lengthening. She had one small
hand at his throat while the other held tight to his hair, yanking
his head back to better expose his neck.

Vampires always went for the throat. So
predictable.  Their hunger made them weak every time.

“Kill the bitch…” Ah, that mutter came from one of
the guys she’d tossed a good ten feet. He was already rising with
his claws out and blood dripping from his busted cheek.

Jace lifted his hand, staying the men even as they
rose.  “Not…yet.”

He knew no one would disobey. They couldn’t. He was
alpha, and if they tried, he’d be the one kicking ass.

Even the shitty band stopped playing as he crossed
the room.  The few human females in the bar glanced around
curiously, and he saw a couple of the shifters push them toward the
back.  The women came to play at Howling Moon. Or rather, the
wolves played with them.  Those women knew the score about the
supernatural world, and they 
knew 
to keep quiet
about the paranormal society.

The vampiress didn’t release her grip on her
prey.  Jace took his time stalking toward her.  Like most
vamps, she had pale, ivory skin.  Her features were…damn,
pretty perfect.  Wide eyes, high cheeks, small nose.  Her
chin was pointed a little, giving her a slightly stubborn edge, but
then, bloodsuckers were not exactly known to be easy going.

Neither were wolves.

She wore all black.  Tight black shirt,
a 
very 
short black skirt, and those boots that
oozed sex.

Sex and violence. Yeah, that was pretty much how
vamps and wolves rolled.

As he closed in on her, Jace picked up her scent,
separating the light perfume of her skin from the booze, sweat, and
the cigarettes in the air.  The vampire smelled sweet,
tempting.