Chapter 4
Contenir
BASTIEN
Sir Gavin was in the middle of explaining the security plan for the city when a stab of pain sliced through my shoulder, landing like an arrow. I tried not to let the shock show on my face, but judging by Sir Gavin’s reaction, I wasn’t successful.
“Your Grace?”
I waved off his concern, the invisible arrow pressed deeper, seeking my heart. My heart was a dead, useless thing, so I took the pain as symbolic. And there was only one person who held my heart.
And that was Claire.
I touched the place where my bloodstone was concealed.
A coin-sized gem attached to a thin gold chain around my neck, which I always kept hidden beneath my wool vest and the leather chest rig.
Its throbbing red light beat with the heart of my mate, and signaled to everyone that I had found my person.
When the council of witches who created us drafted the Blood Treaty, they knew there had to be limits on the power they were giving us.
They wanted peacekeepers, not bloodthirsty tyrants.
And so, the matebond was created. When we were consumed by it, for the sixty or so years our mate was alive, it tempered us.
And reminded us of the humanity we left behind.
For love is the most powerful of human emotions.
A vampire’s mate was chosen by Diana and Damien, and said to be born and reborn, again and again. I thought I’d been the one forgotten soul. But then they sent me Claire.
When I’d met her that night at Chateau Corbin, I thought it had been the end of my well-curated life. But it was only the beginning. However, in an effort to protect my role as Marius’s war commander, I shirked my responsibilities to Claire and took her as my sanguine partner instead.
Another broken law.
Though thoughts of my mate and her safety consumed me, I kept them hidden. My focus had to be on protecting these people and negotiating the peace I’d chased for centuries.
Beat. Beat. Beat. The bloodstone pulsed with the reassuring beat of her heart. I knew she was alive. Well. But the pain that had lodged itself in my heart persisted. I’d been stabbed and pierced with arrows and broken bones, but this pain was unlike any I’d ever experienced.
I shifted my weight onto the cane, bracing myself. But the pain stayed. Images of Claire wounded flooded my mind. I should never have left her alone. I’d been foolish to let my temper get the best of me and leave her alone.
“Sir Gavin, let’s continue this later.”
I turned before he could respond. If anything happened to Claire, I would not survive it. Not because of fate or duty or destiny, but because I knew exactly what I’d become without her, and the world did not deserve that monster. That vengeful demon. That unrestrained reaper.
The laws of the Blood Treaty stated I’d be consumed while my mate walked the earth, and free to rule when she was gone, but that wasn’t how it would go for me. Yes, I was more distracted around her. But her love made me a better man. When she died, the last of my humanity would too.
Beat. Beat. Beat. Her pulse raced faster and faster. I continued through the castle, moving slow enough not to startle my staff, but it wasn’t fast enough, not for the monster. He was awake now. Triggered by the pain in my heart and the ache in my soul. He grew stronger with every fearful thought.
And I had much to fear.
Losing my reputation, losing her, losing the man I built myself to be ever since… Everything inside me squeezed into a tight ball, bracing against a memory I’d buried so deep I hoped it would never crawl back up. But fear makes old ghosts hungry, and the one I’d starved for years was stirring.
I rounded the corner, ready to take the stairs two at a time to make it back to my private residences. That horn… what if? What if it belonged to him?
Clenching my teeth, I reminded myself that it wasn’t possible. I’d thrown it into the Starfall River. It was gone, just like he was. I didn’t have the time, the patience, or the interest in entertaining shadows from the past.
I stopped just outside our door and closed my eyes.
There were enchantments placed on my bedchamber, old spells to keep whispers from reaching even vampiric hearing.
I liked my privacy. But those spells couldn’t prevent me from feeling her emotions.
We were close enough that I could open the link between our minds.
The connection that allowed me to feel what she was feeling.
I nudged it open, just a crack, and a thrill of pleasure rolled down my spine.
My cock came to life, growing harder and harder.
I knew she was alone; no unfamiliar scents lingered by the door.
And I’d given orders to have the private residence wing cleared of all staff, including her consorts, due to our marriage.
Which could only mean she was pleasuring herself.
Resisting the urge to burst through the door, I bit my lip and took a long, slow breath in.
But breath work didn’t stop the desire. The want to fuck and feed from my wife.
To thrust in and out, over and over again, until I came inside her heat, filling her.
It was more than just a primal urge. It was a need.
A want. A desire to watch her belly grow, knowing we’d created something beautiful together.
I imagined her with her hand between her legs and my name on her lips. I’d left my new bride unsatisfied, and the fire inside her was burning hotter than ever.
I slipped out of our connection, breathing hard. And the intoxicating thrill of her pleasure faded. I battled with myself, caught between my desire to show Claire exactly how much I wanted her and my duty to keep her safe.
But it was more than just the baby. I was still the Duke of Roselyn. My duty wasn’t just to her, but to our people. If she were with child, how could I ever stay focused?
It was time to walk away from my room and see to my other duties.
Clearly, Claire was safe. That phantom pain had been nothing more than nerves.
No harm could find her in my bedchamber, and I had pressing matters to attend to.
Namely, ensuring my army was ready to march into the Lawless Lands, because I didn’t think a simple negotiation was waiting for me.
Not anymore. Not after receiving Hector’s head and Shayla’s warning.
Just as I was about to return to the armory and apologize to Sir Gavin, the monster’s hands coiled around my throat, claws digging in, like he wanted to split me open and crawl out, ready to unleash a hunger I’d kept chained for centuries.
A hunger that had run wild in that graveyard.
I hadn’t cared who stood in my way. I’d killed indiscriminately.
Young and old. Those with pleas on their lips and apologies in their eyes.
Anyone who’d thought to hurt her had died.
I took no prisoners. Offered no mercy. A vampire possessed by rage, too far gone to ask Hera why she’d wanted her mother’s magick or to drag her to Marius for judgment.
She’d hurt Claire, and all I’d seen was murder.
It urged me to open the door and see her face. To ensure I had nothing to worry about.
My grip tightened around my cane until my nails bit into my palm, the sting forcing me to focus. Forcing me to stay inside my own skin. To hold the line between who I was and who I became when she was threatened.
I knew, just as that twisted thing inside me knew, that while I could talk myself out of believing she was in danger from the demonic relic, I couldn’t keep her safe from the cursed necklace. It was the one threat I couldn’t drown in blood.
She insisted it couldn’t be cut off nor could she tell me who’d fastened it around her neck, but I knew it was bound with a dark curse. Ready to take her life if she strayed from whatever path she’d been sent on.
“She is alive. And I will ensure she stays that way,” I reminded it. Me. Us.
“The Kemps were just the start. The world is fracturing. The blood treaty is crumbling. More will come for her. Including the one who owns her life. We could do more if you’d only let me out.”
I snarled. The monster inside me wanted to solve this problem. It was more than just my vampiric nature, but the part of me that I struggled to control even as a witch. The part that had been seduced by something else entirely.
I breathed in a long sip of air and held it.
I needed to understand more about what was happening to Claire.
More had changed than just her hair color.
There were so many questions that needed answering.
About who she really was. About why these wolf familiars bound themselves to her.
About the fire she’d summoned from the earth.
I hadn’t told her how strong these gifts were, even for Witches of the Darkness. It made me wonder why she was abandoned at the doorstep of a convent that worshipped Diana when she was destined for so much more.
The only answer I had was that she was a witch someone wanted to hide. Or use.
And now, the woman who had been abandoned by her own family wanted one for herself. The one gift I wanted to give her, but knew would kill her. I couldn’t thread this needle between loving her and keeping her safe if I were this monster. I had to be me.
A new scent caught my attention. One of steel, expensive red wine, and the faintest trace of rosewater.
I turned to find Lady Natalia stepping out of a shadowy archway, arms crossed over a fitted jacket and black vest trimmed in gold.
Her waist-length brown hair was braided, as always, and draped over her shoulder.
“Your Grace,” she said with an expression carved from flint.
Natalia was my niece. Mon sang. My blood.
My most trusted advisor. My second in command.
We frequently exchanged barbs, yet the lack of warmth between us was unfamiliar.
I’d grown tired of her continued accusations against my wife, and she had grown tired of my ignoring them.
But something had shifted, and as much as I wished for the words to mend the divide, I had none.
“What news?” I asked.
She simply stared at me.
“If you’ve come to lecture me about Claire—”
“This isn’t about your wife,” she interrupted tightly, speaking in Sanguisi. “Not everything is.”
A lie. Everything was about Claire now. Everything I did, everything I feared, everything I planned.
“Then what news?” I asked again.
She was quiet for a moment. “We have reports from Roselyn of a sighting.” A coded remark. There was too much on my mind to interpret it at the moment. I opened the channel between our minds, waiting for her to clarify, but all she said was, “A werewolf.”