Bound by Danger (The Alliance, Book 6) Page 14

  The second he entered her, something inside him shifted and changed. What that something was, he didn’t know for sure, but he knew he’d found his mate. He’d discovered where he belonged, who he belonged with, and he was never going to let her go.

  She smiled as she dragged his head down and kissed him. He didn’t taste like blood, as she’d originally expected. Instead, he tasted of something wild and free, as well as the minty flavor of toothpaste.

  His hands caressing her body caused her to tremble while their kiss deepened into something more tender and infinitely more perilous to her heart.

  As they moved together, sweat slickened their bodies, and she cherished his rigid body against her breasts and belly while he took and gave in ways that had her yearning for more. She was on the verge of begging him for release when his hand slid between their bodies and he stroked her clit again.

  She’d just orgasmed, but his touch set off another wave that caused her toes to curl as she cried out against his mouth. Her fingers tightened in his hair, and she bit her lip as her eyes rolled back. She’d believed she couldn’t get any higher than earlier, but she was wrong.

  Lucien caught her cry with his mouth as the muscles of her sheath clenched around his shaft. He groaned as he found his release inside her.

  Shaking, Lucien gathered her in his arms and pulled her against him. He remained buried inside her as he rolled to the side and cradled her against him.

  Lucien inhaled the fresh scent of her hair as he hugged her closer. There wasn’t much in his life that he’d ever been sure of, but he was certain he would never let her go again.

  CHAPTER 23

  When Callie woke the next morning, she felt pleasantly sore and exhausted. They’d had sex two more times last night; it was a record for her, but she suspected Lucien would have kept going if she hadn’t been too tired.

  The inviting warmth of his body against her back made her snuggle into him as his ginger scent enveloped her. The sun creeping around the edges of the curtains brought with it a reality she hadn’t experienced last night.

  She had sex with a man she barely knew, a vampire no less, and she did it with an abandon that made her cheeks heat when she recalled it. She’d never been like that with any other man, and she doubted she ever would be again.

  The idea of other men doused some of her happiness, but it was inevitable. They couldn’t stay together; he was an immortal being, and she was a human. She’d had everything stripped from her by the Savages, but she had to return to the human world. She couldn’t remain ensconced in this world of death. She did not belong to it.

  Lucien’s arms constricted around her when she started to pull away. “Good morning,” he murmured in her ear.

  Callie shivered when his warm breath tickled her nape. She’d experienced more orgasms last night than she’d ever believed possible. Despite her bone weariness and the sated feel of her body, she wanted more.

  “Good morning,” she said, and her stomach rumbled loudly.

  Lucien chuckled as he kissed her neck and inhaled her scent. Not only did he detect her inherent, sweet aroma, but his smell was also all over her, and he planned for it to stay that way for the rest of their lives.

  Outside, a car door slammed, and he tensed. He’d left instructions for them not to be disturbed, no matter what, but if the Savages had found them, they wouldn’t care about those instructions. It was daytime, but that didn’t mean they were safe.

  He listened to boots thudding down the sidewalk until they entered a room a few doors down. It was time for him to start putting off the inevitable and face his friends.

  “I need a phone,” he said.

  “I need a shower. I stink,” she muttered.

  Lucien chuckled as he kissed her shoulder. “I think you smell wonderful.”

  Callie basked in his words as she cuddled closer to him. Yes, reality was returning, but cocooned in his arms, she could almost pretend things weren’t as complicated as they were.

  Lucien reluctantly released her and rose from the bed. He retrieved his jeans and tugged them on as she shifted on the mattress until she sat with her back against the headboard. The TV remained on, but he didn’t pay it any attention as he retrieved his shirt.

  “Lucien, I have to go home.”

  He stopped looking for his socks and turned to face her. “That’s not possible.”

  “Maybe I can’t return to live—”

  “You can’t,” he interrupted brusquely; he hadn’t expected her to be looking to leave him. He couldn’t lose her.

  “But I have to get some of my things,” Callie continued as if he hadn’t spoken. He may have given her the best sex of her life, but he didn’t control her life.

  “They’re just things, Callie. Let them go.”

  “Not to me.”

  She glared at him when he gave her a look that made her feel like he considered her a silly little human. Her teeth ground together. Carter had tried to control her life too; she’d refused to let it happen, and she paid for it. Despite the events of her past, she would not let it happen now. The only thing she had left to lose was her life, and she would risk it to retrieve some of her belongings.

  “There are things there from my father that I will not let go,” she said.

  The fire in her eyes and her glower told Lucien he’d messed up. He wasn’t used to having conversations after sex. Usually, he dressed and left, and sometimes he wasn’t the first one out the door.

  However, he didn’t ever intend to leave Callie, and if they were going to spend an eternity together, they couldn’t start it off fighting all the time. It wouldn’t be the best path toward a happy life.

  “There are probably Savages there,” he said.

  “I’m not saying I have to go back right now, but I do have to return at some time and preferably before my rent is past due.”

  “Fine, I will take you back there one day.” He said the words, but he expected her to forget about it once he got her somewhere safe, and after he managed to get her to agree to become his mate.

  Callie suspected he was trying to appease her and thought she’d forget, but he was sadly mistaken. Come hell or high water, she would get back to her apartment. There were things there she could never replace.

  “I’m going to find a phone. Afterward, we can go to the diner down the street and get you some breakfast,” he said.

  Her mouth watered at the prospect of diner pancakes. Was there anything better in life?

  As her gaze ran over Lucien, she decided there were better things in life, but right now, pancakes smothered in syrup and butter sounded like heaven.

  “That would be great,” she said.

  Lucien’s head canted to the side as he studied her. “Do you want to eat first?”

  “No,” she said as she tossed aside the blankets. “Get the phone, and I’ll shower.”

  She gathered her scattered clothes from the floor and held them against her chest as she padded toward the bathroom. She was walking by him when he grasped her arm and pulled her toward him. Before she could react, he claimed her mouth in a kiss that sent fresh heat through her.

  She was starting to melt into him when he broke the kiss, left a small peck on her nose, and released her. “I’ll be right back,” he said.

  “No rush.”

  She took a few steps away before reality returned, and she turned back to him. “Lucien.”

  He lifted his head from where he sat on the end of the bed with his socks in hand. She had no idea why, but his eyes were red again, and she missed the black.

  “Yeah?” he asked.

  “I have an IUD for birth control, but we didn’t use anything for protection against diseases.” She tried to stop the blush creeping into her cheeks, but its warmth radiated up her neck and into her cheeks. “I don’t have….” She swallowed. “I don’t have any diseases, but….”

  He smiled as he tugged on a sock. “Vampires can’t carry diseases.”

  “Oh,
okay, good.”

  Before he could reply, she disappeared into the bathroom and closed the door. Lucien stared at the closed door as he finished getting dressed. He struggled to suppress the jealousy churning inside him as he wondered about her need for birth control and the men in her past. It didn’t matter who came before him; no one would follow him.

  Still, after she ate, he would spend the rest of the day in bed, making sure she forgot everyone who came before him. He grabbed the keycard and slipped on his glasses. He was aware his eyes had changed back to normal when he was in her arms, but now that they were apart and reality was returning, so was his concern over her safety.

  CHAPTER 24

  He stepped outside and hesitated before releasing the knob. He hated the idea of leaving her, but he wouldn’t be gone long, and as he searched the parking lot, he didn’t see any hint of a threat. The Savages could have lackeys around that didn’t smell like the Savages, but he was sure he’d lost them.

  He glanced back at the closed door before striding toward the office. He could knock on one of the doors and confiscate a phone from whoever was within, but he didn’t know how many people were in each room, and he’d prefer not to take control of a child’s mind if they happened to be inside. It would also weaken some of his newly regained strength if he had to take control of more than one person.

  No, the office was his best bet. He would only have one person to contend with there.

  When he arrived at the office, he opened the door and spotted the woman he drank from last night behind the counter. His hunger returned as he recalled her fresh blood on his tongue, but he’d promised Callie he wouldn’t feed on women unless it was a necessity, and it was not a necessity.

  The woman looked at him and broke into a smile. “You shaved the beard.”

  He ran his hand over his jaw as he remained standing in the doorway. He’d decided not to completely scrub her memory of him and Callie last night. He couldn’t have her, or the clerk who would come on after her, spotting them on camera outside of their room and calling the cops.

  Instead, he’d left her with clear instructions to deny they were here if anyone came looking for them, and to call him immediately after they left.

  “It was time,” he said.

  “It looks good.” It was impossible to miss the lust in her gaze as it ran over him. “Did you enjoy your night with us?”

  “Yes.”

  It was the best night of his life, but she didn’t need to know that. He sent his ability out to take control of her mind as he glanced at his room. Everything remained calm outside, and there weren’t any other windows in the room, so the Savages couldn’t get at her another way. If they went after her, they would have to go through the front door, and he would see them.

  He shifted his attention back to the woman. “Come here.”

  She hesitated before putting the bottle and rag she’d been holding on the counter. She walked over to stand in front of him.

  “Is there anyone else here?” he asked.

  “No, my replacement doesn’t arrive for another hour.”

  “Good. Give me your phone.” She dug into her pocket and pulled out her phone. She handed it over to him, and he took it. “Go back to cleaning.”

  She nodded, and he slipped out the door. Before he could think too long about it, he dialed the last number he had for Ronan and hit send. He kept his attention focused on the parking lot and their room as he listened to the phone ring.

  There was a good chance Ronan wouldn’t pick up. They never kept their phones long, but if Ronan still held any hope of hearing from him, then he wouldn’t have gotten rid of this phone.

  It rang five times, and he was about to hang up and dial the last number he had for Declan when the ringing stopped and a gruff voice asked, “Lucien?”

  Despite his uncertainty over how this would all go and what they would think of him, relief and joy filled him at the sound of the familiar voice. You did not become a monster, he reminded himself.

  But he would have if it wasn’t for Callie, and he couldn’t forgive himself for that. However, he may not be able to forgive himself, but once he heard the hope in Ronan’s voice, he realized they wouldn’t care. They wouldn’t hold his actions against him; they would just be happy to have him home.

  “How did you know?” he asked.

  The harsh release of Ronan’s breath sounded across the line. “Everyone else has a new number for me.”

  “I thought you might have gotten rid of this phone.”

  “I was hoping you’d call.”

  “Here I am.”

  “And who are you?”

  Her mate. “I’m not a Savage.”

  Ronan hesitated long enough that he thought he’d lost the connection. “You’ve been gone a while.”

  “I have, and they starved me for most of that time, but I’m not one of them.”

  “What happened?”

  Lucien gave him a rundown of the details he remembered. A lot was a blur that revolved around thoughts of death, starvation, and feeding, but there were breaks in his cruel reality before Callie entered his life.

  “You didn’t kill her?” Ronan asked when he told him about Callie.

  “I could never kill my mate.”

  Ronan’s breath hissed in. “You’re shitting me.”

  Lucien chuckled as he ran a hand through his hair and tugged at the ends of it. “I’m not. I hurt her, badly, when I bit her, and that pierced through my madness. If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be calling you. Or who knows, maybe I would, but the conversation would be a lot different.”

  “Is she okay?”

  “Yes, for now, but I have to get her somewhere safe.”

  “Tell me where you are, and we’ll come get you.”

  Lucien told him the name of the motel and the town.

  “It’s going to take a while to get there; we have to be careful when we travel,” Ronan said.

  “I know.”

  “We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

  “We’re safe here; take your time.”

  He said the words, but he wanted them here now. Callie would be a lot safer when there were more of them to protect her. However, they couldn’t risk the Savages locating and following them while they traveled.

  “Do you have a number where I can reach you?” Ronan asked.

  “I’ll keep this phone until you get here.”

  “Good. I’ll see you soon.”

  “Ronan,” Lucien said before he could hang up.

  “Yeah?”

  “Did anyone survive the attack in the woods?”

  “Willow escaped.”

  Lucien wasn’t surprised by this revelation; if anyone survived, it was the tough Byrne woman. “Anyone else?”

  “No.”

  Lucien felt like someone punched him in the gut as his shoulders hunched forward. He was in charge of that mission, and those were his men and women who were lost.

  “You did the best you could,” Ronan said. “There were a lot of Savages in those woods, and you held them off long enough to give the others a chance to escape. Willow is alive because of that. No one else could have done any better.”

  Lucien appreciated Ronan’s words, but those deaths would haunt him for the rest of his life. He recalled those brutal moments in the woods when he’d struggled to keep the horde of Savages from pursuing the others. Was there more he could have done?

  He wanted to say no, but maybe if he’d done one thing differently, more would have survived. He didn’t have the time to delve into an analysis of it all now, but he would later, and thousands of more times over the years.

  “There’s something else you should know,” Lucien said.

  “What is it?” Ronan asked.

  “My brother is a Savage. He was in those tunnels, hunting us. I saw him when we escaped their underground layer.”

  Ronan didn’t reply for a few seconds, but then, he was just learning about Lucien’s brother.


  “You have a brother?”

  “Yes. I’d hoped he was dead, but he’s not. And he hasn’t been my brother since the day he slaughtered my family centuries ago.”

  Silence stretched between them again before Ronan spoke once more. “I’m sorry.”

  “I’m going to kill him.”

  “I have no doubt. We’ll be there soon,” Ronan said gruffly.

  “We’ll be waiting.”

  CHAPTER 25

  Lucien kept his sunglasses in place as he studied the patrons in the diner. His fingers drummed on the tabletop until Callie rested her hand over the top of his.

  “Stop that,” she said.

  Lucien turned to smile at her, but it felt strained as he kept his ears attuned for any hint of a threat. They were in broad daylight, no one would attack them here, but his body still thrummed with tension as he shifted his attention to the plate glass windows running along the front of the diner.

  Callie released his hand and sat back as the waitress arrived with her plate of pancakes, bacon, and sausages. Her stomach rumbled again, and her face reddened when the woman set the plate in front of her.

  However, she forgot about her embarrassment as she lifted her fork and knife. Her hands hovered over the plate like a surgeon about to make their first cut.

  “Do you need anything else?” the woman asked as she topped off Callie’s coffee.

  “No, I’m good,” Callie said.

  The woman vanished, and Callie lifted the glass container of maple syrup from its tray beneath the window. With glee, she poured the thick, brown liquid onto her stack of pancakes with its whipped butter melting in the center of them.

  She was acutely aware of Lucien watching her, but she didn’t care. She was starving, and she was going to devour every last bite on her plate. Besides, she’d watched him feed on blood; he could watch her eat this gooey plate of deliciousness.

  They sat in silence while she ate, but the drone of conversations sounded around them. From what she could gather, most of the people there were men who met up with their friends to discuss the local gossip while they ate and flirted with the waitresses. She suspected most of the men were widowed or divorced as she saw few rings on their work-worn hands.