Bound by Blood and Fang

Chapter 6

Bane

The pack house has never felt this quiet. Not after a full moon. Not after blood had been spilled in war. And definitely not after the king returned with something broken in his arms.

This silence was different from anything that I had ever felt before. It felt heavy. Expectant. Like the whole damn building was waiting to see who tried to kill who the moment that the leech and I crossed the threshold. My bonded had passed out the second that the connections were sealed, and my wolf roared in excitement.

Well, for half a second before he snapped at the vampire's hand as he reached up to cup the side of her face. Vorian is even more vicious as the leech had rolled his eyes at his reaction. Thankfully for the leech, he did not fight Vorian's hold on the woman when we lifted her in our arms.

She felt weightless the entire way here. Her body was small, but she was fast and lethal. She didn't just give in like the others, and she didn't shrink into herself either. No, she fought me like there was a chance that she would win.

"She did land that kick," Vorian had huffed, and a shudder rolled through my body.

The second that we entered the pack house, I sent the staff away as soon as we arrived at Wolfsden. It was the closest royal packhouse to the Dark Forest, and the one that I have stayed in the least in recent years. And I wasn't about to cross into Sanguivar with her in this state? Over my dead f*cking body.

Now standing at the edge of the office with my hands braced against the back of a heavy oak chair, I stare into the fire without seeing a damn thing. The flames snapped and curled upward, throwing jagged bands of light across the stone walls. As Alpha King of Fenryth, I should have been more prepared for something to happen tonight.

Should have anticipated the possibility that one of the participants might catch my wolf’s attention. But then, I am not sure anything could have prepared me for the moment she crossed the boundary into the trees. And he felt her. Sensed her presence calling to him like a f*cking firewatch tower blazing just for him. Or so he thought.

My fist clenched, the wood groaning beneath my grasp as my knuckles turned white. Her scent still clings to me. Storm-charged air on a dark night, and softened by something slightly floral beneath it. Her scent isn’t faint, nor is it fading the longer that I am away from her.

It's already threaded its way through my lungs, under my skin, and deep into my bones. I have never smelled anything as mouth-watering as her. And that has nothing to do with the ritual, which intensifies everything about them. My jaw tightens so hard that my teeth audibly crack as movement out of the corner of my eye reminds me that I am not alone here.

Vorian paces beneath my skin, growing more feral and restless in a way that I have never seen him before. He wasn’t just agitated. He was… fixated.

Because across the room was the last person that I ever thought I’d be in a situation like this with.

Dimitri Valecourt.

Vampire King of Sanguivar. And my counterpart, for all intents and purposes.

Elyndor had been split in half long before I took over. Vampires on their side and wolves on ours, while the humans were scattered throughout both lands like confetti. The Het was the one and only time that wolves and vampires put our hatred for one another aside for a few hours.

Now it appears the Fates have decided to bond the two of us to the same woman.

A Triad bond is incredibly rare, so rare that one hasn’t been seen since those early days of Elyndor—and even then, there had never been an interspecies one. Never a wolf and vampire.

Vorian balked at the idea the moment he saw the same threads wrapping around Valecourt's wrist. Even now, I can feel the connection to him growing. It's subtle, but it's there, and it pisses my wolf off more with every passing second.

The vampire had removed his cloak, the dark fabric now draped carelessly over the back of one of the wingback chairs, as if this were his home and not one of mine. His sleeves were rolled to his elbows, dirt now smudged across his pale skin where our bonded hands had met his flesh in the forest.

My wolf growls in the back of my mind when he spots the thin smear of dried blood on the corner of his mouth.

Her blood.

The taste of her still lingers on my tongue—burned into my senses like a brand that I couldn’t scrape away. It was the only way for the three of us to live. I knew that. Vorian did as well. The bond had made damn sure we understood what was at stake if the connections were not completed.

She would have died within hours—burned out from the inside, magic tearing her apart while the world watched and called it fate. And once she was gone, we wouldn’t have lasted much longer. That was the trap of it. The cruel symmetry that the Fates had designed it to be.

You either accepted what they chose for you or you suffered the consequences. A cracking sound echoes through the room. There is a vampire's mark at the base of her throat, and that knowledge infuriated my wolf.

Vorian snarled at the sight the moment that she had collapsed in our arms. Raging like the beast that he was, pushing against the inside of my skin with enough force to make my vision blur. Even now, he wants out. He wants blood now. He wants the vampire’s throat between his teeth.

“You can stop glaring at me,” Dimitri said coolly without bothering to tear his gaze from the window. “We both know your wolf can’t kill me now like he so desperately wishes.”

The air in my chest leaves on a whoosh. He is right, I couldn’t. I’d tried in the forest, but even in the earliest stages of the bond forming, it refused to let me land anything more than a few superficial scratches. Nothing that could have been remotely life‑threatening for a vampire.

F*cking Fates.

Vorian snarls as he pushes past my barriers with ease, his teeth bared. “I might not be able to kill you,” my wolf snapped in return, “but I can make you f*cking bleed.”

Dimitri turned fully toward me then, his red eyes flashing while the corner of his mouth tilted upward. “And how,” he asked dangerously, “do you think she would feel about that?”

Silence snapped tight between us. Vorian going still—not calm, not subdued, but he was now listening. My wolf didn’t freeze for the vampire before me; he didn't give a sh*t about Dimitri Valecourt. He froze for her. Because what would happen to her if something were to happen to him? To either of us? The bond was consummated between all three of us; hurting one would certainly affect the others.

My hands curled into fists as I fought my base instinct to let my wolf tear him to shreds. “Don’t you dare use her,” I warned.

That tilt to his lips grew into a smug smile. “I didn’t. The bond did.”

Smug, arrogant a**hole. The way he said it—quiet, certain, like he already understood the rules of this better than I did—sent a fresh surge of rage racing through me. I slammed my fist against the desk, wood splintering beneath the blow.

"This is not how this is supposed to happen," Vorian roared through me, his voice melding with mine.

Splinters bite into my knuckles, but the pain barely registers. My chest heaves as rage coils deep within me, its presence breathing a white-hot fire that is ready to burn everything to the ground around me.

“While I don’t disagree with you,” Dimitri said coolly, folding his arms across his chest and looking down his nose at me, “the matter is out of both our hands at this point.”

He stands motionless, with his back to the window like he was a statue carved from marble — cold, ancient, infuriatingly composed. A king who’d seen centuries of chaos, and here I was losing my f*cking mind. My vision went red. I swear to the Fates, if he doesn’t stop with his higher-than-thou attitude, bond or no bond, I’ll throw his a** out the f*cking window.

It won’t kill him like I want, but I am sure it will hurt like hell for a while.

Vorian growled his agreement at the idea, a deep, satisfying growl vibrating through my ribs. “She will forgive us eventually for harming the prick,” Vorian snarled inside my head, his lips curling to reveal his razor-sharp teeth.

“Whether you like it or not, Bane,” he said, voice measured and infuriatingly calm, “this cannot continue without some sort of structure.”

Structure? He assumes that he is the one who gets to make the calls here? Why? Simply because he has been around longer than I have? I turned slowly to give him my full attention, every muscle in my body tightening.

“One, it's Alpha Calder to you, and two, I would highly advise you to watch your next words, leech.”

He didn’t flinch. Didn’t even raise his voice, and somehow his calm reaction seemed to make it worse— like he thought he was the only adult in the room.

“Fine, Alpha Calder,” he sneered, my name curling off his tongue like an insult. The points of his fangs glint in the low light. “She survived the locking. Barely. But the bond will not remain passive for very long, you know this. Especially in a triad. And even more between two kings.”

Vorian growled low in my chest, the sound vibrating against my ribs. “He speaks as if she is a problem that is to be managed.”

Dimitri’s gaze flicked towards mine, sharp and cold, slicing through me like a blade. “She is not a problem. She is the axis of something far bigger, I fear. And if we do not align around her, this will do nothing but become far more complicated.”

I took a step forward before I realized that I’d moved. “First, you don’t get to decide what alignment looks like— not for her, and sure as hell not for me. And second, keep the f*ck out of my head.”

“Control your thoughts then. They are practically screaming that she is yours, and yours alone,” Dimitri hissed, baring his fangs.

My vision darkened as I glared at the vampire king. The fire cracked loudly behind me, sparks leaping up the chimney as if the house itself sensed what was coming.

“Because She. IS. MINE!” I roared, the house shaking from the force of my declaration.

“You marked her out of necessity. Nothing more,” Vorian snarled through me in addition, his voice bleeding into my own again.

Dimitri’s eyes darkened in irritation. “You keep telling yourself that, Mutt.”

He raises his hand, and with an effortless flick of the wrist, his bond threads flare to life. I grind my teeth as the intricate red bands twirl their way around his hand and up the length of his forearm, glowing like a living brand. A f*cking perfect replica of my own. I took another step closer to him, until there were only a few feet that separated us.

“As soon as she wakes up, we will find a way to sever your end of this before it sinks any deeper.”

The temperature in the room plummets in an instant as the vampire laughs once. Not amused or even mocking. The sound comes across a lot like pity, and it instantly has Vorian’s hackles raised, and his ears pinned flat against his head.

“He dares pity us,” my wolf snarled.

“You think this is a chain you can cut?” Dimitri asked, his tone lethal. “This is not a mark carved into flesh that can simply be cut out. It is threaded through her soul.”

“Then we burn it out,” Vorian snarled. “Rip it free.”

Dimitri’s control cracked then—not much, but enough. His eyes flared a dark crimson, his power humming beneath his skin in warning. “And what happens to her when you do?” he snapped. “Do you think the bond will simply let go so easily?”

Silence slammed down around us. I didn’t answer him. Not because I feared the truth — but because I refused to give him the satisfaction of hearing the uncertainty in my voice. We would figure it out. Until then, I just needed to keep him the hell away from her.

Dimitri exhaled slowly, visibly reining himself in once again. “You are impossible,” he groans as he turns and grabs his cloak off the back of the chair.

Good. Leave. Don’t come back. Vorian snorted. “Maybe the Fates will be on our side, and he’ll fall off a f*cking cliff.”

The vampire stopped dead in his tracks. Of course, he heard that.

“Thankfully, there aren’t any cliffs nearby,” he said as he turned to look over his shoulder. His eyes burned like rubies. “And just so we are clear — I am not going anywhere. And my guards will be arriving tomorrow. I trust your staff will have everything prepared for them when they do.”

The corner of his mouth pulled into a half‑smile, one fang catching in the firelight. “Oh, and you can try and keep me from her all you want. It isn't going to do you any good.” And with those parting words, he turned and walked out of the room.

Vorian roared, the sound forceful enough to shake the entire foundation of the packhouse once again.