Page 8 of Moon Bound

Dropping onto the empty space beside her, my hand smooths over the bedsheet. I can’t imagine Lorcan’s sheets at the castle are this luxurious, and as for the padded cover at my back – vampires don’t feel the cold. Everything about this cabin confuses me, but despite my curiosity, a fog starts to descend, and my limbs grow heavy. Tonight has been a wilder ride than I anticipated, but with the princess safe and snuggled, my fucks have extended as far as giving into the sleep beckoning me. To be sure, dreams of a lithe fanged shifter with stark white hair await me on the other side.

“Torsten?” her voice sounds small. I turn over in an instant. “Would you care to join me?” My jaw slackens. All the fight has fled her features and even the raven caws in curiosity. After a beat, I rush to unravel her from the cover and fan it over the both of us. She shimmies in closer, batting her lashes at me within the shadows. “I think…you might be right.”

“Oh yeah?” I ask croakily. The way she’s staring intently has me all wrapped up in knots, struggling to keep my breathing even. Her white hair splays across the pillow, and I have the sudden urge to see her writhing and panting beneath me whilst my cock is buried inside her.

“I am lethal,” she agrees, instantly striking her shin into my balls.

I choke, sure that I will cough up blood as I roll away, tail surely hanging between my legs. I should have seen that one coming, but as I cup my crotch, I find my dick harder than ever.What the fuck is wrong with me?

I’m second in command in the vampire army; I’m well-versed in withholding emotion. Maintaining a stoic persona comes with the territory, but no female has ever infuriated me and turned me on so quickly. Sex is a base need—a task that goes hand-in-hand with feeding. However, I bet this spritely minx would ignite a fierce passion within me. She already captivates me, from the firmness of her muscles to the indent in her waist, her wild hair to her fierce eyes.

As I settle back down, I can’t help but admit that I want to explore what other traits she bares that will tease me to insanity. Whatever they were, I’m sure they would provide plenty of fuel to fan the fire of my dreams. My eyelids drift closed again, and this time, I fall asleep within seconds.

Chapter5

Aspen

“Can you believe that guy?” Swayer barely shifted before throwing his fist into the nearest tree. I pick up a stone and chuck it at his head, my irritation still simmering after storming out of the master bedroom, passing the shower that was somehow still running and waltzing right on by the sleeping vampire on the sofa. Dressed in the clothes provided in the duffle bag – a black tank, baggy cargos belted tight at the waist – I knock the heavy combat boots on my feet against a boulder.

“Stop deflecting,” I growl, dropping onto that same boulder with a sigh. Morning has broken, but I couldn’t sleep even if I wanted to. A lively sea calls for me, offering to wash away my stress between each crashing wave. If I didn’t know that the reason for my damn anxiety wouldn’t be waiting for me on the sandy beach when I emerged, I might have dived in already.

“I’m deflecting?! You’ve just accepted an invite from three vampires you don’t know to hang around for who knows what and haven’t even bothered to ask why. It’s a blessing you couldn’t enter their castle. There would have been no coming back for you after that.” Swayer knocks my head with his fingers, most likely forgetting he can’t get away with that shit out of bird form. Hopping off the boulder, the last thread of my sanity snaps.

“Well, maybe, my mind was already spinning about a raven,” I shove at his chest, “who’s been stalking me for eight years,” another shove, “turning into an actual person and telling me he’s my guardian.” This time, he catches my wrists and spins me. My back slams into his front, his arms banding around me tightly. Swayer’s an incredible fighter, stronger than the usual shifter, but none of that’s the reason I’m not currently bursting free of his hold. Heated breath fans my neck, his lips grazing my ear lobe.

“You can’t use your bravado to hide from me. Iknowyou, Aspen,” he whispers, forcing me to stare at the sea’s horizon. I huff, wondering if he meant that as a promise and a threat. “You’re too dominant to sit around waiting for answers. Why aren’t you asking the right questions?”

“Such as?” I query back in a bid to keep him talking. The fucking raven I’ve nuzzled and confided my every worry in. The creature who has apparently been protecting me from foes I didn’t realize I had.

Loosening his hold, Swayer turns me around to stare into his purely obsidian eyes. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe why the vampires have suddenly taken an interest in you? They intended to kidnap you in a fucking cage. Three of the most elite fighters dressed for battle. They’ve known of your existence since your mother died, and only now are they prepared to go to war to claim ownership over you?”

I exhale slowly through my nose. True, I’m avoiding conflict with the vampires for now, playing a long game, and it seems I have a few questions of my own to deal with first.

“How do you know when they learned of my existence?” I ask slowly. My heart has kicked up a beat, my gut clenching.

“I, um…I was the one who informed King Lorcan, as instructed by the Council. My first assignment as your official guardian was to deliver a note to the royal chamber. Your mother kept you a secret and for good reason.” Sawyer has the good sense to look sheepish beneath his sweep of black hair, but it does nothing to quell the tornado of betrayal building within.

“All this time….” I struggle to keep my wolf calm, “you’ve had all the answers I’ve been searching for.”

“I have rules to abide by, I need you to understand. But when the vamps appeared, I couldn’t let you be taken. Not after the lengths your mother went through to protect you. The lengths I’ve gone through to continue to protect you. It’s all for nothing now,” his jaw clenches, and his eyes flash as his voice darkens. “You’ve dived, headfirst, into a viper’s nest of lies and deceit.” Sawyer steps away from me with a bitter smile and a shake of his head.

A tug pulls at my chest, the disappointment in his posture undeniable.

My jaw tightens, “Because the shifters were so much better? You weren’t there the day I first shifted. You didn’t see what I did, how they treated me. You weren’t there,” I repeat, shoving him again. “Why weren’t you there?” My voice cracks, my vision clouds with tears I refuse to shed, and my fists rain down on Swayer’s torso. He doesn’t even flinch, taking the attack of my anger as if it were merely feathers brushing his chest.

“I want to show you something,” Swayer says gently once the fight drains from me, and I drop my forehead against his chest. Easing me back a step, Sawyer shrugs from his trench coat, dropping it behind him. I stand motionless as he peels the black t-shirt over his head, revealing his body. My jaw drops.

The trench coat did well to conceal the huge bulk of muscles. But the true work of art was the tattoos seemingly embedded into his very skin that stretch from wrists to wide shoulders, over his solid torso to beyond where I can see. At first glance, I presumed them to be tribal markings, but on closer inspection, they’re branches. I lift my hand to trace the black markings on his chest but think better of it and quickly let it fall to my side. But what the hands cannot touch, the eyes can caress and fuck if I will stop them from feeling their fill.

The sun’s rays dance across his chiseled chest, its warm hues painting every contour of his muscles, bringing the tones of his skin and ink to life. My mouth grows dry as I follow the path of the sunlight until it stops to rest at the waistband of his pants, right at the deeply engrained V of his lower abdomen. My eyes must caress a lot better than I would have thought as evidence of a well-endowed appendage swells within his cargos, and I force my eyes upwards. A move I wish I could take back.

I realize, a little too late, that maybe admiring his bodywasthe safer choice. Because as our eyes meet, my lungs lose their ability to hold air, and I find myself breathless. Almost whimpering, I fight the urge to place a hand on my chest as the full impact of his gaze, filled with an unnamed restrained emotion—one that I’m not yet ready to analyze—wraps around my heart like a vise. But ready or not, that look holds me captive.

His rough voice seems to weave through the very fiber of my being as the weight of his gaze somehow intensifies with the force of his next words as they drip, like the sweetest nectar, from his lips. “This is who I am. And my life is devoted to protecting yours.”

The words register, and questions float to the forefront of my mind, but they slip away like water through my fingers. Instead, my confused emotions take over as I stammer, "You're... you're beautiful."

His eyes soften, and he gives me a gentle smile before motioning for us to sit. “There’s more I need to tell you,” Sawyer says, his voice laced with an unfamiliar tenderness as he guides me to the edge of the sand.

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