Page 7 of Blood Moon Bound

He didn’t answer. His cool cheek touched mine, and I jumped, then I felt his lips at my jaw, sliding lower. One of his fangs lightly scraped my skin, and I whimpered and grabbed his arm, terror filling me. His biceps bunched, then he sucked hard on my skin. I tried to pull away, but he held me fast.

“Don’t move,” he said harshly.

I swallowed, trembling as his lips moved lower, down to the fluttering vein at the side of my throat. He stilled, then breathed deeply. A low sound, a growl rumbled through his chest.

“C-Constantine?”

He struck.

I screamed and dug my nails into his arms, not knowing if I wanted to shove him away or pull him closer as heat pooled at my throat, where he sucked greedily on my vein, stealing the breath from my lungs. The heat slid lower across my chest, blazing a path through my belly, then arrowing between my thighs. Heat pulsed…no, throbbed there, rippling inside me, causing muscles I never knew existed to clench, in the place I’d been forbidden to ever touch. My underwear grew damp. Oh god, I could feel a slickness on my inner thighs. What was happening to me? I slammed them together.

A strange and fierce hunger, foreign and all-consuming, had me pulling the brutal, utterly terrifying warrior closer to me, instead of shoving him away. The place between my thighs throbbed deeper, ached—god, it felt empty. I needed something I didn’t understand. Right then, my body didn’t belong to me. I was spinning out of control. Constantine still gripped my throat with one hand and my hip with the other, and he squeezed when I moaned, pressing myself against his hard body, reaching for something I couldn’t name.

“That’s it, little one, give in,” he growled against my skin.

What did he want me to give in to?

The sensation low in my belly and between my thighs grew higher still. I cried out helplessly, trembling as I reached for it, whatever it was, and terrified of it at the same time. It grew so big, so vast I thought I was going to explode into a million pieces—

I shattered, screaming as pleasure like nothing I’d ever experienced crashed over me, wave after wave rocking through my body, causing muscles I never knew I had inside me to spasm repeatedly. My heart pounded, my skin was damp with perspiration, my thighs humiliatingly slick from whatever had just happened.

Embarrassment burned my cheeks even as that part of me continued to throb in a way I couldn’t describe and didn’t understand.

Constantine dragged his tongue over my throat and lifted his head. “You taste as delicious as I imagined.” His nostrils flared as he scented me. “Did you make a mess, Delphine?”

My face burned hotter, and I couldn’t meet his eyes. “I…I don’t know what happened. I…I don’t know…”

He pressed a thick finger to my lips, silencing me, and began gathering up the skirts of my dress. “Let me take a look and see what you’ve done to yourself.”

“Please…don’t.”

He froze, his nostrils flaring before he dropped my dress.

There was a whistling sound. I spun—

Constantine threw me to the ground, his mouth pressing to my ear. “Don’t move.”

Then he was gone, so fast he was nothing but a blur. A scream rang out a moment later. It was unlike those I’d heard earlier. This was male, and it was a cry of pain…and terror.

Then Constantine was back. With a snarl, he lifted me, threw me over his wide shoulder, and ran. He growled something, and I realized he was talking to someone on his phone.

“What’s going on?” I cried as he ran, so fast the world blurred past us.

“Your stepfather sent someone to kill me,” he said.

Oh god.

Instead of going back to the castle, he ran through the land surrounding it, and when we reached the road, a car sped up to us. He bundled me into the back seat, climbed in beside me, and the car sped off.

He said nothing, still and silent beside me. I expected anger in his eyes, fury—what I saw instead was triumph.

My heart was pounding wildly. “Why would he do that?” I dared to ask.

Constantine turned to me. “Because he wants you back.”

“But why?” My fear increased to a point I was close to hyperventilating.

“Because I made it clear he’ll get nothing from me. None of the benefits he expected when he said yes to his daughter becoming a monster’s bride.” His gaze slid over me. “He wants his property back, possibly to find a more profitable prospect for you.”