Desire Unchained

“I know we just bonded. But I have no idea how we got to that point.”


Bonded? She winced at a twinge of pain in her head. She must have been drugged. Her mind worked furiously. Nebulous images swirled through her head. The Keepers had brought them food and water. They’d eaten, and after that … her mind was a black hole. She vaguely remembered hearing Roag’s voice, but then she was in a hotel room with Shade, and they were making love …

Bonding. The biting, the blood … some sort of mating ritual?

A tingling shock of arousal washed over her, purged her of coherent thought. Oh, she remembered this, remembered how sex with Shade left her enjoying orgasms for long afterward. She bit back a moan, ashamed that under the circumstances, she could possibly find another release.

As it swept over her, Shade drew her into his strong arms. “I love this part,” he murmured into her ear. “After I’ve taken you, and you come apart while I watch.”

She arched against him, clinging to his broad shoulders, clinging to the exquisite ripples of pleasure she didn’t want to end. His hard slabs of muscle buffered her body’s spasms. Dimly, she realized his thigh had spread hers and she was rocking against him. He held her tight, driving the hard length of his erection into her belly.

His lips brushed the rim of her ear as he talked her through the orgasms that came one after another. His words were graphic, hot, a verbal aphrodisiac that kept her shuddering in his embrace.

When it was over and her head had cleared, she shoved him away again, though with less force than before. “This is insane,” she said, her voice as hoarse as she’d ever heard it.

“So is Roag.” Shade shoved his hand through his hair, watching her as though gauging her ability to handle everything that had happened.

“I remember hearing Roag’s voice. They must have drugged us. But why?” She glanced around the tiny cell, only now realizing that they were no longer chained to the walls. Hope sang through her. She welcomed the feeling until a dark hunger made her realize that it wasn’t hope she was experiencing.

It was the pull of the full moon. The time was near.

“Why, I don’t know. But Roag has the power to make us think things that aren’t real. It’s the same gift Wraith has. He got into both our heads and made us want to bond.”

“And what, exactly, is bonding?”

“It’s what Seminus demons do if they want to either avoid or reverse the worst effects of s’genesis. We still go through The Change, but if we have taken a lifemate, we don’t sink into a life of violence, and we don’t have the urge to impregnate every female on the planet.” He leaned forward, his eyes dropping to her exposed breasts, which tightened under his hot gaze. “We only have the urge to impregnate our mate.”

She swallowed and wrapped her arms around herself. “Did you …”

“I’m not fertile yet.” He frowned. “Do I have a ring around my throat?”

“Yes.” It was an extension of the dermoire running up his arm … a knotted collar around his neck. She reached out to touch it, but he shied away.

“Don’t.” His voice was low and rough. “I’m having a hard time controlling myself. The things I want to do to you …”

Her heart thundered in her chest. Jumped to her throat so she could barely find her voice. “Is … is that normal?”

“I’ve heard that taking a mate before The Change brings it on faster.” His gaze darkened until the whites of his eyes had nearly been consumed by the black. “Because of the permanent supply of sex.”

The mere word, the possessive intensity in his expression, nearly had her moaning. “Think again, buddy. I’m not going to be your little sex slave.” She hoped that sounded more convincing to him than it did to her.

Shade put more distance between them, but the way his body was coiled, the way he watched her, reminded her of a panther ready to pounce. “That’s not how it works.” He fingered his throat. “Are there one or two rings?”

“One.”

“There will be two once the s’genesis is complete. The first one means I’m bonded. The second means I’m fertile. You’ll develop arm markings that match mine in a few minutes. Since the lycanthropy altered your DNA, you’re no longer fully human, so the bonding shouldn’t kill you.”

Shouldn’t?

This was really, really not good. She shoved to her feet and started to pace, the wolf blood itching just beneath the surface of her skin. “Okay, how do we unbond?”

He scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “We don’t.”

“What do you mean, we don’t? There has to be a way. A spell, a ritual—”

“There isn’t.” He rubbed his jaw again. “Fuck.”

It occurred to her that she should be more upset, but since they were probably both going to die sometime in the next day or so, mating for life didn’t seem like a big deal.