Selene sat frozen on the velvet chaise, Lucien's torn shirt barely covering her flushed, trembling body. Her heart hammered painfully against her ribs. Every nerve buzzed with the aftershocks of what they'd done, what she'd become. Because she could feel it now, deep under her skin: a pull, a tether, a blood bond. Lucien's blood roared in her veins like a second heartbeat. She was his. And he was… God, he was something terrifying and beautiful and utterly hers in return.
The crash echoed again from deeper inside the abandoned building, a rumble of stone and a low, dangerous growl that wasn't Lucien's. Selene rose shakily to her feet, clutching the ruined shirt around her. She took one step toward the shadows, toward him, when a hand shot out of the darkness and seized her wrist.
Selene screamed, instinct driving her to twist and fight, but the grip was like iron. A man stepped into the candlelight, his face contorted in a cruel smile. He was tall and gaunt, with slick blond hair and sharp, hungry eyes. His skin was too pale, almost translucent, veins dark against it. Another vampire. But not like Lucien. Not beautiful. Not alive. This one reeked of decay and desperation.
"Found you," he hissed, dragging her closer. "Little lost lamb."
Selene struggled, panic clawing at her throat. She opened her mouth to scream, but before a sound could escape, there was a blur of movement.
Lucien.
*Rage, pure and untamed, surged through him. He'd sensed the intrusion when the scent of decay had tainted the air. The thought of anyone touching Selene, *his* Selene, sent a primal fury roaring in his ears.*
He tore through the room like a dark storm, slamming into the blond vampire with enough force to crack the stone. The intruder howled, releasing Selene as he flew across the room and smashed into a pillar. Lucien stood between her and the threat, his body taut with rage, fangs bared. His silver eyes blazed with murder.
"You touched what's mine," Lucien snarled, voice low and deadly.
The blond vampire staggered upright, bloody and grinning. "She's not yours yet," he spat, wiping blood from his mouth. "She's still…"
Lucien was on him before he could finish the sentence. Selene stumbled back, watching in horrified awe as Lucien brutalized the vampire, fists pounding into flesh, bone snapping like dry twigs. It wasn't a fight. It was an execution. The air reeked of blood and burning magic. Every brutal strike was for her. For the bond. For the claim, Lucien had staked on her body and soul.
When the blond vampire finally slumped to the floor, unmoving, Lucien stood over him, chest heaving. Rain dripped from his hair, from the wounds already healing across his bare skin. He turned to her then, and the look in his eyes stole her breath. Not anger. Not regret. But fury. Possessive. Primal. Terrifying.
Selene backed up instinctively, fear tangling with the undeniable pull between them. She was tied to him now, bound by blood, by heat, by something older than either of them understood.
Lucien crossed the space in two long strides, seizing her face between his bloodstained hands. "You are mine," he growled. "I won't lose you."
Selene trembled, caught between terror and devastating desire. "I…I didn't ask for this," she whispered.
Lucien's grip was gentle, but his voice stayed rough. "Neither did I."
They just stared at each other for a moment, raw, breathing hard, the ruined city trembling around them. And then he kissed her. Hard, desperate, as if trying to anchor her to him through sheer will.
*He needed her to understand, to accept. The bond was a lifeline, but it was also a target. He would protect her, even from herself, if necessary. The taste of her blood was an addiction he wouldn't deny himself, not anymore.*
Selene whimpered into the kiss, the taste of blood and rain and fear making her head spin. Lucien pressed her back against the chaise, his body heavy and unyielding, pinning her there.
"You need to understand," he rasped against her lips. "There are others who will come for you now. Because of your blood. Because of what you are."
"What am I?" she gasped, struggling to think past the feel of him.
Lucien kissed her again, rough and claiming. "You are rare, little moon. Precious. A bloodline thought lost centuries ago." He pulled back just enough to meet her dazed gaze. "You're not just human. You're a conduit. A queen in a world that wants to own you or destroy you."
Selene shook her head in denial, but the truth was there, singing in her blood—the power, the heat, the connection to him that defied reason.
Lucien's hands slid down her sides, over her trembling thighs, possessive and reverent at once. "You're awakening," he whispered. "And I am the only one who can protect you."
Selene shivered as his fingers brushed the sensitive skin behind her knee, dragging her legs open wider. "Say it," he demanded, voice rough with need. "Say you're mine."
Selene's heart pounded. Fear and lust warred inside her, and lust won. "I'm yours," she whispered.
Lucien growled in approval, mouth finding her throat, licking the fresh mark he'd left earlier. "You belong to me," he murmured. "Body, blood, and soul."
Selene arched into him, their bond snapping tighter, electric and inescapable.
Lucien slid two fingers into her slick heat, groaning at how ready she still was for him. Selene cried out, clutching at his shoulders, her body burning up from the inside out.
"Look at you," Lucien rasped, sliding in deeper, curling his fingers just right. "Already ruined. And you're still begging for more."
Selene moaned, hips rocking against his hand, chasing the pleasure he so wickedly offered.
Lucien's smile was dark and feral. "You're going to come for me again, little moon," he promised. "And then I'm going to take you so hard you'll never remember another man's touch."
His thumb found her clit, circling with ruthless precision, and Selene shattered, clinging to him, gasping his name like a prayer and a curse.
Lucien caught her as she fell, cradling her close, his mouth pressing reverent kisses to her damp skin. "You're mine now," he whispered fiercely. "And I'll kill anyone who tries to take you."
Selene buried her face in his neck, trembling not from fear but from the terrifying, beautiful certainty that he meant every word. And she didn't want to run anymore. Not from him. Not from the bond. Not from the dark, aching need that tied her soul to his. Whatever was coming, whatever war her blood had awakened, they would face it together. Or burn to try.