Page 211 of A Bond in Blood

Epilogue

Ulrich

There was a whisper in the air, words my conflicted heart hoped to hear. Words I was too much of a coward to utter myself. Fuck, words I was still unsure if I believed were true within me.

Her words—a proclamation.

Then pain, searing pain and my eyes snapped open.

Brenna’s blue eyes stared back at me, full of fear. Fear I had caused her. My eyes went to the red-flame candle.

How the fuck did she get one of those?

“What have you done?” I shouted, jumping to my feet, panic gripping my heart and soul. “What have you done?”

Shewas all around the room. Her laugh, sickening. A memory I had tried to ignore. A pull my body had fought for millennia.

Brennaheardit. She stepped back, possibly from the fear and rage in my gaze. I lunged for her, but my hand snapped back, the curse taking control. She continued to stumble back, slipping on the wax that should not have fallen from the candle, slammingher head against the floor of the small cottage we’d secluded ourselves in.

“Come to me, my pet,” my tormentor whispered in my mind, calling upon her curse.

“No!” I shouted while my voice turned to a roar.

“Come for me,” Titania coaxed again.

I shifted, without my control, my body changing to the beast I hated. My hands turned to clawed paws while my back arched as fur grew over my body.

My shout of rage rattled the cottage, but Brenna did not move. Was she dead? Oh fuck, was she dead?

A breath, a low breath, lifted her chest and my beastly body relaxed with relief.

“Ulrich, come to me.”

Titania’s pull tugged at me, forcing me to leave the cottage. My eyes landed on the mare. The animal stared in fear, and I lunged, ripping into its neck.

My attack destroyed the rope Brenna had tied it with and it took off, bleeding from its new gaping wound.

My own predatory instincts begged for me to follow my prey, but I could not. Not withhercalling to me.

I bounded down the road, with my shadows covering my tracks. I couldn’t fight it. Fuck I hated her. I hated this.

Everything was ruined.

I had ruined it all.

My body followed Titania’s call, and I growled when I found it leading me to Brenna’s family home. The small palace—her place of safety—the place I had stolen her from.

My shoulders slammed into the door, hitting a guard in the process.

“There he is,” Titania purred.

My eyes went up, meeting her brown gaze.

“It has been so long.” She put emphasis on her words. “You have never come for me, Ulrich. Even when you were cursed during these long blood moons. I have heard you fucked yourself silly. Was that to ignore the desire to warm my bed? To fight the urge to take that black ship across our waters and ravage me like you once did?”

I snarled and moved to lunge, but her hand went up and my body froze.

“I smelled you on her.” Titania’s eyes went dark. “Gods, Ulrich you were burying yourself in a child. She is nothing compared to the millennia we have lived.Her?That obedient little miscreation?”

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