“Please, stop,” she begged. “You’re hurting me.”
Hmm. Prey? Orion sped a short distance into the woods, following the scent of blood. He saw a few wolves torn apart, one an injured lycan trying to drag himself toward a fallen packmate. He could tell them apart because the wolves looked mundane, but the lycan was in his much larger, direwolf form, and he saturated the area around him with the scent of magic.
Orion followed the sound of weeping deeper into the trees, tracking the scent of fear and broken pine.
A dozen lycans battled amongst themselves while two of them nipped at a gorgeous woman in tattered clothing. Her pale breasts heaved and her long, muscular thighs pushed past her torn gown as she tried kicking them away.
Intrigued at the smell of her rich blood trickling from a bite at her thigh, he hurried to dispatch the lycans bothering her. As he killed the two, he noticed a large structure just behind her, past the trees. The castle loomed over them like a white mountain, stern and forbidding. Distracted by the feel of pressure on his wrist, he looked down.
A lycan was trying to rip his hand off, but Orion had tempered skin, his frame toughened by the rush of adrenaline-fueled bloode hardening beneath his epidermis. He shook the lycan free before ripping his—no,her—head off, then handled the others.
Once he’d taken care of disabling—not outright killing them all because where was the fun in not giving lesser beings the chance to try to kill him again—he followed the enthralling scent of sweet blood to the woman clutching at her dress, trying to hide her pale skin.
“You smell good,” he growled, hungry and curious, because her scent didn’t taste human on his tongue as he licked at the air.
“Did you kill them all?” Her voice shook, and though she appeared young, her eyes held the knowledge of someone far older. “They wanted to eat me.”
“A few of them are still alive.” He thought she looked annoyed, but she blinked, and the smell of fear wafted from her like a fine perfume.
“Y-you’re not like them. D-do you p-plan to eat me too?” She blinked bright blue eyes at him, her long, dark hair whispering over her shoulders, as if caught in a breeze despite the lack of wind in the trees. The snow had stopped falling, and a spear of moonlight bathed the woman in a glow, highlighting her loveliness.
He smiled, mesmerized by the strange blue light around her. “You plan to offer me a sip?” He looked her over, focusing on her neck. “Trust me, it’ll feel good.”
She blinked, her eyes wide. “You want to drink my blood?”
He stalked her, pressing her back against a nearby tree. “I do.” Ready to hypnotize her if necessary, he wasn’t prepared for her to tilt her head and close her eyes.
Supplicant, she whispered, “Then drink, vampire.”
Too bemused by the call of her blood to realize she should have been more alarmed, he leaned close and bit. A burst of power exploded in his mouth and traveled throughout his body.
So sweet.He drank more, gulping her down, and the sweet turned bitter. A choking thickness made it hard to swallow. Then fire, boiling his bloode, caused him to fall to his knees in agony.
A throaty laugh accompanied his pain, a hiss of black magic licking his bloode.
Then the world turned dark.
CHAPTERTWO
Three days later
Lake City (Seattle), Washington
Kaia clutched the cell phone held to her ear and did her best not to roll her eyes, but dealing with her mother made that all but impossible. “I’m not dating right now, Mom.”
“I see that, Kaia. So disrespectful.”
“What?”
“You’re rolling your eyes.”
Not yet.“Mom, we’re on the phone. You can’t see anything.”
“I know what I know.”
Kaiadidroll her eyes and sighed loudly. “What did we say about you staying out of my personal life?”
“Darling, you don’t have a personal life.”
