Bound by Blood and Fang

Chapter 4

Alora

The threads around my wrist pulsed again, glowing hot against my skin, and I felt the pull between them tighten. My stomach clenched as the magic crawled its way beneath my skin like molten wire, threading through my nerves and melding into bones until I couldn’t tell where the pain ended, and the need began. My fingers curled helplessly against the vampire’s chest, fisting his shirt in the process, not from desire but from the sheer force that was dragging me toward him.

“Fight, Alora, don't let it consume you!”

My mother's voice screams at me. I tried to cling to her warnings, to the months of whispered lessons and trembling hands guiding mine through herbs and blades. But her voice felt distant now, as if it were being swallowed by the roar of heat that was flooding my veins. I couldn’t hold onto anything anymore, not sense, not strength, not even myself. It all seemed to slip through my grasp. And the harder I tried to hold on, the faster it went.

The pain is too much to bear. The need growing in my belly now far exceeds my expectations. The vampire that is still holding on to me chuckles, his chest vibrating against mine when my body arches into his by itself. A low, threatening snarl splits through the air. It is laced with powerful authority and old power.

“Careful,” the wolf snarled, his voice cutting through the night. “Don’t push too far, leech. She’s mine to claim.”

“Really? She doesn't seem to be yours,” the vampire hissed, his tone was as soft as velvet but wrapped in venom along the edge. “She seems an awful lot like mine to me. So, don’t pretend that you can stake a claim to something that isn’t yours to take.”

Their voices clashed around me, sharp and electric, each word vibrating through the threads like a plucked string pulling me toward them. My body now aches in a way that I have never felt before. A deep throbbing that begs for one of them to ease it. My mother's voice is gone now, fully drowned out by every other sensation that is currently bombarding my body.

I twisted in the vampire's arms, my mind trying and failing to make sense of their words. Everything sounds distorted as the red threads around my wrist tighten like a living thing, and I feel…the sudden shift in the air. I felt the tension between them coil as tightly as the magic that is linking us all, and finally exploded.

A growl rolled low in the wolf's chest, deep and frustrated. “We’ll see about that.”

“Indeed,” the vampire replied, his tone sharp enough that my teeth clenched instinctively. "Your arrogance always precedes your pain as usual."

Before I could even blink, I was shoved out of the way just as the wolf lunged. The world spun in a blur of frost and shadow before I hit the ground... hard. The sudden impact knocked all the air from my lungs in a sharp, useless gasp. The half-frozen earth is biting through the thin fabric of my torn dress and into my skin, making me shiver. Which only causes the pain to flare brightly and fast up my back.

A powerful roar tore through the clearing as the two monsters fought. All fangs and claws as they tried to kill the other.

I rolled carefully onto my side, coughing, as a blast of force cracked through the air. Heat and cold collided above me, violent enough that the trees groaned in protest, their branches shuddering as if the forest itself recoiled from the fighting. I slowly dragged myself backward, trying to put more distance between the monsters and me, but it was a lot harder when you couldn't breathe.

My palms slipped in the damp leaves a couple of times. Thankfully, the two of them seemed far more worried about fighting each other than about where I was. Maybe I could slip past them unnoticed.

Or, well, that was my hope, but the Fates were clearly against me tonight. My vision blurs again, making the trees spin as my pulse thundered in my ears like a herd of galloping stallions. The red threads along my arm burned hotter now, no longer just wrapped around my skin but threaded deeper—searing into my very being fully.

The wolf snarled, and the sound ripped through me, vibrating straight through my chest and down into my core, and I gasped. It wasn’t directed at me, but thanks to the potion, my body responded as if it had been. Need blooming throughout my body, begging to be sated. That feeling was terrifying in its own right. The ground trembled beneath me, and I forced myself back a little farther away from the center of their fight.

"Breathe," I tell myself as I try to draw another breath in the hopes that it might help cool me.

It's shaky at best and does nothing to help my overheated body. I catch a blurry glimpse of claws and teeth flashing as the two men continued to clash with the precision and brutality of predators who knew they would not stop for anything. One of their bodies hits a nearby tree hard enough that the bark explodes outward in a shower of splinters.

I cried out before I could stop myself, and pain radiated through me as I curled inward. The magic snapped and flared inside of me like lightning that was trapped in flesh. I couldn’t tell who was winning the fight right now through my blurry gaze. Hell, I couldn’t even tell where to look. The Heat was taking over my body just like my mother said it would once you're caught.

And caught I was, right between two deadly monsters that were trying to claim me.

The red threads flared again as they pulsed around my arm in response to the fighting. Once. Twice. Each beat of the threads seemed to be timed to their hits. I hissed through my teeth, as every hit from their fist seemed to send a pulsating shock wave crashing through my body until my legs trembled violently.

No.

Not now.

The potion surged through my veins, not a bloom this time, not with a gentle nudge, but with a command. With a demand that refused to be ignored any longer by any of us.

My back arched off the ground as the sensation ripped through me, sharp and consuming, my body betraying me in ways I couldn’t stop or even slow. My core ached as my fingertips clawed against the frozen earth, fighting to keep myself from falling apart. But the heat did not care; it swallowed every thought before it had the chance to fully form.

Arousal poured through my veins like molten gold before pooling between my legs and burning away every thought, every ounce of dignity, or resistance that I might have left until I was left with nothing. I bit down on a scream as another wane washed over me, desperate to keep them from noticing me again.

Somewhere above me, the sound of metal rang against bone. A hiss cut through the air that was followed by another snarl, deeper and more feral than before. Their magic clashed again, the pressure growing and now so intense that it made my ears ring.

"Ahhh," I let out through clenched teeth.

And I felt it the moment it happened—the moment that everything shifted for the final time. The shift was sudden and absolute, like lightning striking dry wood and setting it on fire. The air thickened with something sweet and dangerous, a scent curling outward from my skin whether I wanted it to or not. The Heat spiked once more, so hard that my vision went white, my fingers clawing uselessly at the earth as my body locked, shaking violently beneath the weight of my growing need.

My body screamed. No, it demanded now, and there was going to be no denying what it wanted at this point.

The sounds of the fight began to falter for a heartbeat as both of them seemed to freeze mid-motion, their heads lifting in a perfect, terrifying unison to find me along the edge of the clearing. I lay there on the cold ground, exposed beneath the moonlight, my once-white dress now damp and filthy, clinging to my slick skin. Frost bites at my bare thighs, but I can barely feel the cold anymore—every nerve in my body was already on fire from within, screaming and aching with a heat that refused to be ignored any longer.

My breath came in broken, helpless gasps, each one trembling out of me like I was coming apart at the seams.

Now, as two pairs of eyes locked onto me.

One black.

One glowing red.

I understood why my mother told me not to get caught in the first place. No matter what my mind wants, my body's reaction overrides everything.

Both of their gazes burn into me with something raw and barely leashed. Their chests heaved as they faced me in that same terrifying unison. Blood is smeared along their knuckles and mouths from tears in their skin. The air between them is still thick with violence, and I swear I can almost feel them still wanting to fight, but underneath their desire to kill each other, something else is there.

“The potion,” the vampire breathed, wiping at the corner of his swollen, bloodied lip with the back of his hand. His red gaze never lifted from me. “She’s in full Heat now.”

His words landed like a match struck against oil around me. I want to speak to ask questions, but I can't seem to think straight enough to formulate a single sentence. The vampire took a step toward me, and the wolf moved instantly. His large hand shooting out, thick fingers curling tight around the vampire’s wrist with a wet, sickening sound as his claws pierced into the vampire's cold flesh.

He has nice hands. I shake the thought from my mind even as my eyes still linger on his large hands circling the vampire's wrist.

The vampire hissed in response, his already red eyes flashing as blood welled against pale skin.

“You take one more step toward her,” the wolf snarled, his voice shaking with barely restrained violence, “and I swear to the Fates I will rip your f*cking head from your shoulders.”

The vampire laughed. A cold sound that still seemed to be infuriatingly amused. The vampire wrenched his arm free from the wolf's grasp before shoving the wolf back a half step. The vampire's lip curls in a snarl to showcase a blood-slick fang. “Tried that already, didn’t you?” he sneered. “Remind me—how did that work out for you?”

The wolf steps in close to where they now stand chest to chest, both towering over me. Their bodies were tense and coiled like weapons that were just waiting to be unleashed again. The wolf’s shoulders rolled slightly, his muscles bunching across his back as his lips peeled back from his teeth in a silent snarl.

“You think a few threads make her yours?” the wolf growled. “She burns for me.”

The vampire leaned in, deliberately invading the wolf’s space, his voice dropping low and lethal. “Careful, mutt. You’re not the only one she responds to.”

The red threads between us all pulsed again—hot, demanding our attention—and I cried out, the sound tearing from my throat before I could stop it as the magic surged violently, feeding off their proximity, their anger, and their hunger. It was too much. I have lost all control of my body, and there is nothing I can do about it. Mother might have warned me, but she was not able to fully prepare me for what was happening.

This wasn’t desire. This wasn’t even instinct. This was ruin wearing the shape of need. And I can't fight it any longer. Not the need my body requires so desperately now, or seeing the two of them talk about me like I am not even here.

“Enough,” I wheezed through teeth clenched so hard my jaw ached. I forced my head up despite the angry tears that were now burning at the back of my eyes.

I didn't know who I was angrier at. Them? The Fates? Or myself for succumbing to the Heat? Disappointment washes through me, but it doesn't have the chance to stick. Not yet anyway. I knew I couldn’t take another heartbeat of this. Not one more minute, and that sent a pain piercing through my chest as I braced myself for what was about to come.

Both of them stilled, watching me as I dragged in a shaking breath, fury burning through the pain like a live wire. I glared at them from the ground, letting all my anger bleed into my voice.

“Make it stop,” I ordered.