Page 10 of Blood Moon Bound

Oh god, the way I’d behaved. I tried to pull away.

Constantine held me fast. “Lick,” he rumbled.

Blood lazily slid from the puncture wounds I’d made. I hadn’t sealed them. I licked, another jolt sliding through me when his blood coated my tongue again. I wanted to pull away, but suddenly I was boneless, exhaustion hitting me hard and fast.

One of Constantine’s hands slid up my thigh, swiping over my soaked underwear. I was too weak to even try to pull away. He growled something under his breath, then lifted me, jerked back the covers, and placed me roughly on the bed. I fought to keep my eyes open as he yanked them over me, then strode across the room to draw the curtains.

“Sleep,” he said when he came back, then switched off the bedside lamp.

The sound of his retreating steps came next.

I opened my mouth to bid him good night, but the door closed behind him before I could.

Four

CONSTANTINE

I couldn’t leave. I’d tried repeatedly to walk away from her door. I couldn’t do it.

A growl tried to crawl up my throat and I forced it back down. Delphine was asleep and I didn’t want to wake her. I didn’t want her to open her door and find me still here. But mostly, I didn’t want her opening the door because if she did, in my current state, I would grab her, toss her on the bed and finish what we’d started. I’d take her, mate her, bite her. I’d claim her in all the ways I’d dreamed about since I first laid eyes on her. Delphine was supposed to be my reward after centuries of war and bloodshed, but everything had changed and I couldn’t have her, not like that, not the way I’d always imagined—not anymore.

We were blood bound, which for a female, stopped them suffering the way I currently was. If we remained unmated now, she’d be fine. It was the opposite for a male, it intensified the need to fuck, to mate, to complete the bond between us, which was why I was standing at her door, hard as steel, salivating from the scent of her pussy and her blood that was still all over me.

Resisting the driving need to mate my little bride was quickly becoming the hardest battle I’d ever faced. My skin was coated in a layer of sweat, my gut had a fucking rock in it, and my fangs wouldn’t retract—and my cock was so painful I was struggling to fucking breathe, touching it pure agony, because what I was doing, resisting her this way, went against the laws of nature.

I just had to ride it out, resist her for a few days, when things would die down to a dull roar instead of this hellfire burning through me and eating me alive. Yes, I’d still want to fuck her all the time, but controlling it would be easier. I’d at least be able to function.

I unconsciously shifted my shoulders, expecting the pull against my skin from the marks she’d left, clawing at my back and shoulders, but they were gone, already healed. I had to bite back a growl. I wanted them back.

Light was beginning to fill my home. I’d been standing here the entire night.

Delphine made a sound, a little sigh, and I pressed my ear to the door, greedy to hear her voice. There was a rustle of covers and her scent grew heavier. She’d thrown them back. She’d gone to sleep in her dress, those soaking wet panties and I could smell her pussy more strongly now. My cock throbbed harder.

The sound of her small feet padding around the room, then drawing back the curtains came next.

Move. Walk away. Now.

My feet refused. This wasn’t me. I was a master of self-control. Cold, deadly, unmatched on the battle field. I gritted my teeth. I would not be conquered by the tiny female on the other side of that door.

Her footsteps grew closer.

Move.

She was right fucking there, only a slab of wood between us.

Walk the fuck away.

The door opened.

Delphine gasped, her gaze slicing up to me, looking at me wide-eyed and terrified as I loomed over her like a fucking salivating monster. Her scent slammed into me, and the sound of her racing pulse, the pounding of her heart, filled my head. My mouth watered and I licked down one of my fangs. Why was I resisting her, again? I was struggling to remember. All I knew was that I needed to end this driving hunger.

“C-Constantine?”

Her voice slammed into my sternum with the force of a sledgehammer, decimating the haze I was in. I gripped the doorframe to hold myself back. The wood creaked, on the verge of snapping in my hand. I needed to say something, find the words, any words, but none would come. I tried again, but all that came out was a snarl.

She skittered back, and I barely stopped myself from going after her, from pouncing on her.

It took every bit of strength I had, but I peeled my fingers from the doorframe and pushed myself back, then I forced myself to turn from her and walk away.