Her lips parted as she stared up at him. He glimpsed her deceptively delicate fangs. And he caught the scent of fear as it swept through her.
She was right to be afraid. Now that she was there, within his grasp, and he’d never let her go.
Never.
“I’m Jace.” He let her see his own fangs. “And you’re mine.” A claim made before al the wolves in the room. From now on, any wolf who touched her would face him
—and death. She swal owed and tilted her head back to better meet his stare. “Hel o, husband.”
The wolf within growled… Mine.
***
When you were stuck between death and hel , sometimes, you had to turn to big, bad wolf for help.
The door to the smal storeroom closed with a soft click behind Morgan LaBeaux, and she tried hard not to tense her shoulders.
Alone. With him. The werewolf’s footsteps padded around the room. She kept her chin up and knew that he’d smel her fear. Dammit, she hated being afraid. But the idea of bonding with this male and staying with him for the rest of her very long life—
hello, fear.
Morgan didn’t fear many things, but every vamp in lower Florida knew it was smart to step cautiously around Jace Vaughn. He hadn’t earned the alpha title by playing nicely. No, he’d earned it by cutting a bloody path through his rivals and leaving their savaged bodies in his wake.
And I get to marry him?
Some days, a bride was just lucky.
“I didn’t think the vamps were going to accept my deal.”
His voice sounded more like a beast’s than a man’s. Deep. Rumbling. He propped his shoulders against the wal in front of her and crossed his powerful arms over his chest. His eyes, so dark they almost looked black, swept over her once more. “A real f**king princess,”
he muttered as he shook his head. “I’l be damned.”
Probably. They al would be. That’s why they were monsters. Though she real y hadn’t been given much choice since she’d been one of the few vamps actual y born to the blood’s cal .
She cleared her throat. “At first, the Council didn’t plan to accept your…ah…offer.”
The Vampire Council—the strongest vamps in the area—hadn’t exactly been keen on Jace’s plan. But then the game had changed when their guards started showing up dead, courtesy of the demon bastards who’d come to town.
Once upon a time, the supernaturals had al lurked in the shadows, content to exist only in the nightmares of humans. Why take the spotlight? Death and persecution would only fol ow. The witch trials had taught them al that.
Vampires had never sought attention, stil didn’t.
Wolves, yes, they got a little wild and some rumors had been known to circulate about them, but they’d kept fairly quiet over the centuries, too.
But the demons—those ass**les who were escaping hel in increasing numbers
—they weren’t in the mood for quiet. They’d amassed in Miami and were planning one deadly coming out party. But first, they wanted to prove they were the biggest, toughest prey in the night.
So they were eliminating their supernatural competition.
A war was coming. No, it had already started. Vampires versus demons. Demons versus wolves.
The enemy of my enemy…
Is my husband.
“The demons want to wipe us out,” she said. “You want them stopped as much as we do.” He stil hadn’t moved. Just stood there with his arms crossed. But at least there was no sign of his claws, not anymore. “You were right. The best way for us to end this battle is to team up.”
He smiled, a half-smile that didn’t lighten his face. It just made him look al the more dangerous.
The guy exuded danger like no one she’d ever seen. Darkly tan, golden skin covered a body hard with muscles. Jace Vaughn towered over her, easily passing sixfoot-three or sixfoot-four. He wasn’t handsome, no, his face was too savage for that.
His long, dark mane of hair brushed his shoulders. He had hard, tense features.
Not handsome. But…sexy. Dammit, sexy.
Wolves and their animal appeal. She hadn’t thought that appeal would work on her.
She’d been wrong.
“Wolves are holding their own…” Now his arms dropped as he stepped toward her.
“So far,” she whispered. That would change soon enough. Once the demons started concentrating their ful strength on them. “You know we have to find the doorway that’s letting these demons out of hel and close it. If we don’t, they’l take over.”
And their coming out party to the humans would be a nightmare. His eyes held hers.
When he took another step toward her, Morgan held her ground. She had an image to maintain. A vampire can’t tremble before a werewolf. But the slight flare of his nostrils told her that the wolf was drinking in her scent, and no doubt picking up on her fear.Great.
When his hand lifted toward her, she tensed.
“Easy, princess,” he murmured, “it’s just a touch.”
Right. And if they were going through with this bargain, he’d be doing a whole lot more touching.
What’s one life versus the fate of your people? That had been the Council’s big sel ing speech to her. Sacrifice yourself. Save everyone else.
Go be food for the big, bad wolf…because he can save our asses.
“My name’s Morgan,” her voice came out huskier than she’d intended, but his hand was on her cheek, smoothing over the flesh, and she wanted to shiver. Don’t. She couldn’t show that weakness. His hands were hard, but his touch felt whisper-soft.
“Morgan LaBeaux.”
There was pride in the words because she was named after the first pureblood vampire ever to be born, Morganna La Fey.
The first, but not the last.
His gaze swept her face. “I can’t believe…they’d real y trade…you?”
She swal owed. In the end, it wasn’t about the Council. It wasn’t their lives that would be offered. “It’s my cal .” His hand slipped down her throat and his fingers pressed lightly over the pulse that raced beneath his touch.
Yes, her heart stil beat. She breathed. She wasn’t dead, despite what humans thought. Purebloods were born as vampires. They simply stopped aging around their twenty-fifth year. Stopped aging and developed a lust for blood.
The others…those who’d been brought over by the bite, wel , they did die, but only for a few moments. They came back, stronger than before, and their hearts beat again when they took their first breath of air as a vampire.