Page 1 of Blood Moon Bound

Prologue

CONSTANTINE

Five years ago

I ground my molars, every one of my muscles straining as pleasure-pain spiked down my spine and fizzed in my blood. I didn’t know where I was going, only that I needed to get there, fast.

Pulling over on the side of the road, I got out of the car and let the sensation guide me. This was a vampire neighborhood and the street was lined with massive houses either side, people I had no interest in getting to know or spending time with, and right then, it was the only place I wanted to be.

I shook my head like an angry beast, trying to stop the constant pounding in my skull, like a metronome underwater. I shouldn’t be out in public like this, not yet. I’d only just gotten back from months patrolling the fae border, and my body and mind were still there, on high alert, still amped to fight, to kill, to bleed my enemies. I was as far from civilized as I’d ever been.

There was no getting back in my car and going home, though, not with this deafening roar inside me, and the invisible fist that gripped my sternum, pulling me forward like I was a puppet on a string. It wouldn’t relinquish its hold, and I was helpless to do anything but let it lead me where it will. I was tracking, hunting, but not the enemy, not this time.

The boulder in my gut told me exactly what this was, even if my mind refused to believe what my body was screaming. With every step, I scrambled to explain away everything I was feeling, but there was only one explanation.

My mate—she was calling me.

She was calling me to her and I doubted she even knew she was doing it.

The sound of a female humming reached me, stopping me dead in my tracks beside a thick hedge. Here. She was on the other side of this hedge. So close. I barely resisted tearing a hole in it and storming through, instead I forced myself to follow the tall hedge until I found a way in. There was a small gate a couple of yards ahead, one that obviously wasn’t in use anymore, padlocked and overgrown. I snapped the rusted padlock, tossed it aside, then as quietly as I could, worked the gate free from the hedge trying to swallow it and walked through.

The humming was farther away now, but she was still close.

I moved quickly and silently through the garden, letting the grip around my dead, cold, unbeating heart lead me on. Moving in behind a small cluster of trees, I breathed deep, taking in her scent, letting it fill my lungs. She smelled like the roses she stood among, her own perfume even sweeter, more intoxicating. The constant pounding in my head—it was her, the slow steady beat of her heart, the rush of her blood. My mouth watered.

She stepped out from behind an ivy-covered gazebo and I got my first glimpse of her. Her head was tilted back, her black hair, a glossy, silky curtain despite the lack of sunshine. She was young, sixteen. I knew because that’s how this worked, that was the earliest a male could detect his female. Not an average male, for them, this feeling tearing through me, came much later, but my brothers and I were not average males, we were old, and powerful—we were the exception—and my little mate would have no idea I existed.

She wouldn’t even be able to hear me, even with her advanced hearing. My heart didn’t beat, I had no need to breathe. Still, when she tilted her head back and smiled, I sucked breath into my lungs for no good reason and wished she’d turn her head and look at me. Christ, the delicate female in front of me had my body and mind going haywire.

My mate was…beautiful.

She held the rose in her small hand to her nose, breathing deep, a look on her face that caused the grip in my chest to tighten until it was almost unbearable. She continued to hum as she trailed her fingers over the roses in bloom all around her.

Every muscle in my body tightened as I fought to stay where I was and not snatch her up and take her away. She was too young, I knew it, but the urge to protect what was mine, was pounding through me so strongly, it was all I could feel.

As much as I wanted to stay right here, I needed to leave now and not come back. Staying close to her before it was time to claim her would only increase the bond between us, and she wasn’t ready for that. Not mentally, and definitely not physically. But worse, as strong a male as I was, being this close to her and not mating her, could cause her pain, could ignite a need in her that she wasn’t ready for and only I could ease. I could not, would not do that to her, not while she was so young and innocent.

My only choice was to leave, to walk away, and not come back until she was ready.

I’d dreamed of this day for so long, nights that were filled with screams and blood, she was the only thing that gave me peace, closing my eyes and imagining a sweet, little female all my own.

She was finally within my grasp, and come her twenty-first birthday she would be mine.

I was going to claim her, mate her, keep her, and I would never let her go.

One

DELPHINE

Five years later

Agatha held up a towel as I climbed out of the tub. I wrapped it around myself, shivering, but not from the cold.

The night had finally arrived.

And nothing would ever be the same again.

I walked into the main room. My bedroom at home was opulent but nothing compared to the one here at the Grande Rozala. The hotel was beautiful, an ancient castle on the outskirts of Roxburgh, reserved for special occasions and ceremonies, and far enough from the city to feel like another place and time entirely.