Page 127 of Blood So Brutal

“What’s not fair?” He stepped closer.

“That I drink your blood while you drink none.”

His eyes held mine as he took a long breath. “I told you, Huntress. My blood is yours. All of it.”

I held my wrist out then, rolling up my own sleeve. I made this decision long ago, I realized. The thought of him drinking anything else—animal, fae, or angel—made me sick.

He would drinkmyblood.

His eyes flickered to my wrist then back to mine. “You’re under no obligation to share your blood with me.”

“Aren’t I, though?” When he didn't move, I stepped closer. “You are my husband, just as I am your wife. You offer me your blood; I want to offer you mine.” I stopped a few inches away. “Thatis fair.”

“Fairness doesn’t exist here, Huntress. I can easily find blood from?—”

“Mine,” I interrupted. “You’ll drink mine.”

I knew why he hesitated. The first time he drank from me, I went against everything I was raised to believe. I went against my morals, my self-respect. I gaveeverythingup so he could feed.

Why? Because I loved him. Because I trusted him completely, even though he was a vampyre.

Hells, so much changed since then. Wolf would never ask to feed from me. He would never put me in that position, the position to compromise myself again.

But everything was different now. Forced or not, Wolf was my husband. Our lives were tied together. All this betrayal, this hurt, it all had a purpose.

Wolf cared about me more than anyone else. It took me a long time to see that, but Lord never loved me. Lord never truly cared about me; he only cared about what I could do as a powerful queen.

With Wolf standing before me, my chest welled. He wouldn’t care if I was a queen or not. He wouldn’t care if I was fae or angel or vampyre. He would protect me all the same, no matter who I was to him.

His loyalty to me came before anything else.

Something possessive and dark rumbled in him, lower than a growl. “If you’re sure,” he added. “I can’t say I haven’t been dreaming of the taste, of what it would feel like again to have your blood dripping from my lips.”

Heat pooled in my stomach. “It’s better this way. We both need to be strong before the fight.”

Wolf leaned back onto one of the short stone walls behind him, tugging my hips forward so I straddled him as he sat on the edge of the wall. The hunger in his eyes funneled through our bond until I couldn’t keep his feelings apart from mine.

His eyes flickered to my lips and darkened before I kissed him without hesitation. Without guilt. Without question. It was soft and quick, but it sent my stomach fluttering all the same.

Wolf held me like my body was made for him. I settled onto his lap, instantly warming at the closeness of him.

He pulled back enough to say, “Can I ask something of you, Huntress?”

I nipped at his bottom lip. “Anything.”

He reached up and pulled the collar of his shirt down with his index finger. “Will you bite me here? Will you do me the greatest honor of wearing your mark upon my skin so even our enemies know who I belong to, so even the angels know who I’m willing to die for?”

I wasn’t expectingthat. Tears instantly rushed to the surface as my breath hitched in my throat. I held his face in my hands as I lowered my forehead to rest against his. “If you’ll have me,” I started, trying and failing to keep my voice steady, “I would love nothing more.”

When he kissed me this time, he was not gentle. He was not patient. He ravished my lips with his, slipping his tongue into my mouth and letting me taste him with every last ounce of restraint gone.

And I kissed him back with just as much hunger, with just as much need. I held his face to mine as I kissed him with everything I had. The heat in my body roared, begging for more.

When I moved to tilt his head to the side, exposing his perfect, muscular neck, he easily obliged. His breathing shallowed as I kissed his ear and ran my mouth down his jaw.

His blood called to me, pulled me closer like a siren in his veins. I kissed his neck with a fierce need before letting my sharp teeth pierce the skin there.

The bite mark would normally disappear within a few minutes due to our healing abilities, but I sensed Wolf’s magic pulsing through me as he forced the healing to avoid this bite mark. This wound would remain, marking us both forever.

---