No matter what she saw in his memories, he would find a way to prove to Jane that he could be better. That their life together could be a happy one.
Her fangs were growing. Maybe he shouldn’t have found vampire fangs sexy. He did, but only on her.
“Go ahead.” He invited her as he forced his hand to drop. “Bite me.”
Her fingers rose and pressed against his chest. The palm of her right hand was just over his tattoo, and the mark seemed to burn at her touch.
“What is this?” Jane asked. Her gaze had fallen on the edges of that tattoo. “How do you even have it? I would think that when you shift, it would vanish.”
“It’s a special tattoo.” And it had taken two days to get it. Two days of gut-wrenching pain. Because she was right—a normal tattoo would have vanished with his shift. “A witch made a magic ink for me. One that would last forever.”
He didn’t tell her what the Celtic knot meant, not then. Alerac didn’t reveal that the tattoo itself was a symbol of forever, that the corners symbolized his search. North. South. East. West. He’d vowed to search every corner of the earth.
For her.
She’d already accepted his claim. In that moment, he just wanted to focus on the present. On making sure the bond that they created was strong.
Her eyes met his. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t.”
“When Liam bit me…” Her body trembled. “It hurt. I don’t want to do that to you.”
“When you bite me, it’s not about pain.” His fingers slid down her body. Gripped her slender waist. “Only pleasure.”
“Promise?”
“I fuckin’ vow it.”
Jane gave a small nod. Then she rose onto her toes. Her mouth was on his throat.
Yes.
He felt the lick of her tongue. The caress of her lips.
The bite of her teeth.
His control shattered as the pleasure pumped through him.
He pulled her tighter against him. Held her closer. His cock was fully erect, desperate to thrust inside of her.
He
was desperate.
Her mouth on him…the pleasure was almost as strong as the release he found when he was thrusting into her body.
He shoved down her jeans. She kicked them away, along with her shoes.
He tore her underwear. Tossed it.
Her mouth was still on him.
He wanted
in
her.
He lifted her lips. Jane’s legs wrapped around him. Her tongue pressed over his skin. She was lifting her teeth—
“Don’t stop,” he ordered. Or maybe he begged.
He took two steps. The bed was too far. He pushed her back against the nearest wall. Held her in his arms. Drove as deep into her as he could go.
He filled her. Every single inch of her hot core. She was tight and wet, and he had no control. None.
He was holding her too tightly. Driving in to her too deeply. But he couldn’t stop.
Again and again, he thrust into her. Deeper. Harder. More.
She came, bucking against him, and her mouth pulled from his as she cried out his name.
Her sex clenched around him, spasming with her release. Those milking contractions propelled him to his own climax. He thrust hard into her. And erupted.
The pleasure blazed through him, consuming him from the inside out.
Her breath heaved out. So did his. Alerac’s heartbeat raced in his chest.
He looked down at her. Jane’s eyes were wide, her face flushed with pleasure.
“We’re not done.” Not even close. But at least he’d taken the edge off. Now he could make it to the bed, and he did. He carried her toward the four-poster. Made sure not to let his claws hurt her skin.
He eased her down on the covers. She started to lie down on her back.
“No.”
He turned her onto her stomach. Put her hands down. Lifted her onto her knees. She glanced back at him. “Alerac?”
“I need you this way.” Gravel-rough.
Her gaze fell to this cock. “You didn’t—”
“I did.” And he was about to, again. He pushed into her, and she was slick and swollen from her release. Thrusting into her right then was better than the best dream he’d ever had.
Her fingers clenched the bed covers. A moan spilled from her throat.
He covered her with his body. Alerac put his mouth on her shoulder. He’d marked her there, in front of the pack. Now he’d mark her while they were alone.
In and out. He thrust slowly, holding back the pleasure. In. Out.
It was his turn to lick her skin. To taste her. Not just as a werewolf, but as the being he’d become, because of her.
Part wolf.
Part vampire.
His teeth sank into her.
Her hips shoved back against him. “Alerac!” A demand this time.
He met that demand. His thrusts shook her. Shook the bed. Could have shaken the whole damn house for all he cared.
Her blood was on his tongue. His cock in her snug sex. He surrounded her.
She fuckin’ enslaved him.
She came, shuddering, and she ripped the covers with her grip.
He kept thrusting. Driving into her as deeply as he could go. He’d been kept apart from her for far too long. He’d had too many empty nights, too many dreams of her. He’d woken, alone, lost, bellowing her name.
She was with him now. Linked, bound, forever.
There was no escape.
His release was even stronger this time. His heart nearly burst from him as held her tighter.
No escape
.
Because, if he lost her again, Alerac knew he’d go mad.
***
“I’ll take his punishment.”
The words were soft, almost broken.
They were her words.
Jane could see herself, a small figure surrounded by angry vampires. She was staring straight ahead and offering to take someone’s—
“No! You can’t!”
Those words…that was Alerac’s voice.
She looked down and saw a knife hanging from her chest. No, not her chest—
Alerac’s.
This was his memory. She was seeing everything from his point of view again.
The knife was yanked from him. The silver burned, and smoke drifted up from the wound. Then the blade was pushed against Alerac’s throat.
A vampire stood there, eyes shining as he glared down at Alerac. His dark hair was swept back from his high forehead. His lips twisted in disgust. “The punishment is death,” the dark vampire said. “He came here, he
used
you, in order to get into our midst. To attack us from within.”
Wait—that vampire had to be the one Alerac had warned her about—Lorcan. That guy was obviously the boss in this little nightmare scene.
She’d expected him to look like a monster. He didn’t. He was handsome, seemingly in the bloom of his youth. It was only when he looked deeply into Alerac’s eyes that she could see the flare of evil.
“I-I’ve started turning.”
“When,” Lorcan demanded to know.
“Y-yesterday.”
The knife was lifted from Alerac’s throat. His hands clenched as he pulled at the silver manacles that bound him.
“He used you!” Lorcan snapped. Alerac’s blood dripped from the knife. “And yet you would give your life for him?
Why?”
She didn’t respond right away.
“
Why?”
Lorcan’s shout filled the chamber.
“Because I love him.”
Lorcan smiled, but it was a cold and cruel sight. “You can’t die for him, Keira. You have too much value to us.” A pause. “But you can take his punishment. After all, you were the one to bring him in to our clan. A dog, walking among gods.”
“You’re no god,” Alerac snarled.
Lorcan’s eyes narrowed. “One hundred years. That’s the penalty for treason in our clan. Imprisonment. Starvation. For one hundred years.”
One hundred years.
How could even a vampire survive that long without some kind of food? Because he’d said starvation—
“I will take the punishment, but you have to promise me that Alerac lives. No matter what else happens, he
lives.”
“Why?” Lorcan’s lips were twisted into a sly smile. “By the time you are free, he’ll be long dead.”
“Swear it, Lorcan. Vow it to me on the blood.”
Lorcan’s gaze returned to Alerac. “I vow it,” he agreed.
The vampires hauled her away. Shackles were put around her wrists as Alerac watched, and something…broke in him. He lunged to his feet, roaring, as his beast pushed for freedom. He yanked the manacles from the wall.
The images vanished into a swirl of darkness.
For once, Jane preferred the darkness. Fear was acid in her gut, churning, destroying.
But the darkness didn’t last.
New images slipped before her. The dark haired vampire—Lorcan. She knew him now. Knew him through Alerac’s memories. He was the bastard who had imprisoned her.
Then he was before her. No, not before her, but before Alerac. Another vision, another one starring Lorcan. He was smiling his twisted, evil grin.
“I said you would get to live.” Lorcan bent and picked up the silver knife. “But I never vowed that you would not suffer.”
Another vampire yanked back Alerac’s head.
“I think I’ll start with your eyes,” Lorcan said. “After all, what good is a wolf who cannot see?”
The blade came toward him. The silver burned and cut and the pain rolled through him.
In her mind, Jane was screaming. She was crying. She was so desperate to escape that silver knife.
She didn’t see Lorcan any longer. She saw red—blood.
Then she saw nothing.
***
“
No!”
Jane reached for her eyes, sobbing. She’d been sentenced to a lifetime of darkness. She hadn’t meant—
“Jane?”
Her breath froze.
His fingers wrapped around her wrists. “What’s wrong?”
She didn’t lower her hands. “I saw more of your memories.” She was sure starting to think that she was far better off without the knowledge of the past.
The past freaking terrified her.
Jane forced herself to take a deep breath. Then she lowered her hands. “Lorcan…”
“You saw him in the visions?”
Saw him, and would never be able to forget that SOB. He’d enjoyed hurting her—and Alerac. Jane nodded. “I saw what he did…to you.” She looked into his eyes, those glowing eyes that didn’t belong to a man.
But to the beast.
“He took your eyes.”
Alerac’s chest was bare. The sheet tangled around his waist. He leaned over her, caging her against the covers.
Her hand lifted to his cheek. “
He took your eyes.”
He caught her hand. “Don’t worry, I plan to take a hell of a lot more from him.”
Was that supposed to make her feel better? It didn’t. “Is that why your eyes glow?”
“I lost the eyes of the man.” No emotion was in his voice. “When a werewolves shifts, the beasts heal our injuries. When I finally healed, the beast gave me even better eyes than I’d had before. Stronger. Sharper.”
Finally healed.
“How long did it take you to heal?”
“Long enough.”
That wasn’t an answer.
“It doesn’t matter.” Now there was emotion sliding through his mask as he eased away from her.
She thought it did matter. “One hundred years.” That had been the punishment determined by Lorcan. “You searched for me, all that time?”
“No.”
She blinked.
“It was
two
hundred years. After you took the knife and stabbed Lorcan,” a wry smile curved his lips as he seemed to recall the memory, “he got pissed and upped your sentence.”
She’d stabbed the guy.
Good.
The two hundred years part? Not so good. Yet somehow that didn’t bother her as much as the fact that… “He cut out your eyes. I-I thought you were supposed to be protected.” The vampiress in her vision—Keira,
me—
she’d wanted to protect Alerac. Not get him tortured.
Alerac rose from the bed. He walked toward the closet.
Nice ass.
He hauled on a pair of jeans and destroyed her nice view. “You were more important than my damn eyes.” He turned back to face her. “My pack was coming. We had planned a dawn attack on the vampires. You should have still been there at the keep. They would have gotten you out. Gotten me free. I would have killed Lorcan—”
“Why didn’t you kill him?” She pulled the covers over her breasts.
His hand rose and pressed against the tattoo that covered his heart. “Because he was the only one who knew where you were. He sent men to hide you, to lock you up, and then his witch killed them.”
She didn’t remember meeting any witches, but, even so, the very idea of them was making her plenty nervous.
“I had to let Lorcan live as long as you were trapped. He was the only one that would be able to free you. That fuckin’ bastard. I dreamed of killin’ him, again and again.” His accent thickened a bit as his hand dropped. “Now I can. You’re safe, and he’s about to be minus a head.”
She hurried from the bed. “All of the other vampires—did you kill them for vengeance?”
Those images were still in her head, too. Alerac, soaked in blood. Alerac, feeding on them.
He stared back at her. “They were allied with Lorcan. I thought they might know where you were.” His lips twisted. “You aren’t the only one who can drink memories, you know.”
Her lips parted but she wasn’t sure what to say then.
“You changed me.” His voice was low. “I planned to use you. Fuck, you think I like admitting it? Seduce the vampiress, then use her to get inside the castle.”
Wasn’t that exactly what he’d done?
“Something changed.” He wasn’t touching her. She found that she couldn’t touch him.
I love you.
She’d told him that. When they were surrounded by vampires. When she’d traded her life for his.
But he hadn’t given her the same words.
“I planned to destroy all of the vampires in that clan, but not you.
Not you.
I was going to take you with me.”
“You’d had my blood.” And he’d realized that it made him stronger?
He gave a grim nod. “But more than that, I’d had
you.”
“Alerac—”
Then she heard the shouts from outside. Angry. Desperate. In the next instant, she and Alerac were both running to the window.