But then he rolled his damn window down.
Shaking her head, she brought her gaze back to Max’s as she laughed. “You know he’s going to keep listening to every word we say to each other.”
“Yeah, but I don’t really give a shit.” He stepped closer, searching her eyes for the truth as he husked, “You love me, Viv?”
She pressed her hands against his chest, right over the heavy pounding of his heart, and tilted her face up to his. “I love the hell out of you, Max.”
His blue gaze turned molten and soft. “And you were coming back for me?”
“I was. And I… I know that I’m messed up,” she whispered, keenly aware that these were some of the most important words she would ever say, which meant she needed to get them right. “I can be wary and stubborn about certain things, and because of that, I’ve been judging you so unfairly. I was so wrong, and I was being a coward, because I didn’t want to end up like my mom, living with a man who hated who he was. But you’re not him, Max. You’re not a weakness—you’re my greatest strength. I just… I got it all twisted up in my head. I took the things you told me and I warped them to protect myself, because of how hard I was falling for you. So, yeah, I was… I was wrong. And blind. And I acted like an idiot. And—”
“Hey, that’s enough,” he cut in, squeezing her hips between his big, warm hands. “I don’t like hearing you talk about yourself like that.”
“Always protecting me, huh?”
His reply was heartfelt and rough. “I’ll die trying, baby.”
“Me, too.” Clutching handfuls of his Henley in her fists, as if she were afraid of him slipping away, she could feel the hot sting of tears burning at the backs of her eyes as she said, “I’m sorry that I tried to push for you to bond with me before opening my heart and telling you how I feel. It was wrong, because when and if we do ever make a blood bond, I know that it will be because of what we both want and need—not because I was trying to force you into accepting things you weren’t ready to accept. And I… I promise you that from this day forward, I won’t ever run again. And if you do, if you run, then it’ll be my turn to do the chasing. And I will, Max. I will chase you to the freaking ends of the earth.”
With a lopsided smile on his sexy lips, he placed his strong hands on the sides of her face, his thumbs stroking gently across her skin. “The only direction I’m ever gonna be running in is right at you, Viv. Straight into your arms. Because I love you too.”
Her breath caught, those husky, beautiful words spilling through her like the warm glow of summer sunshine, melting and impossibly sweet. And then his lips were on hers, somehow soft and hard all at once, the kiss he gave her so sublime it was a miracle she wasn’t floating right up off the ground. Throwing her arms around his broad shoulders, she could have happily gone on kissing him forever, just like that—but then Lev laughingly called out that they should either get a room or get back on the road, and Max lifted his head.
Her eyes fluttered open, and she gasped when she caught the way he was looking down at her, as if he were already buried deep inside her, the wave of heat that swept through her so intense she was amazed she wasn’t melting into a puddle at his feet. She was so caught up in the moment, she didn’t even realize she was crying again until he swiped at her tears with his thumbs, his low voice rough with emotion as he said, “Hey. Shh. Stop that, sweetheart. It’s all good now.”
“You really forgive me?” she gasped, the fabric of his shirt doing little to conceal the primal heat of his body as she held on to him.
“Of course I do,” he groaned, pressing another tender kiss to her trembling lips. “Can you forgive me for acting like an ass and saying all that ugly shit that I said?”
“Of course.”
“Good. Because I don’t want to live a single day of my life without you, Viv. Not a single goddamn day.”
Clutching the front of his shirt again, she gave him a smile that felt like it was pouring straight up from the very heart of her. “When we’re done up in Albany, are we going to fuck like there’s no tomorrow?”
“Hell yeah,” he drawled with a deliciously low, wicked laugh. And then his eyes got heavy and dark, and he asked, “But are you okay with the idea of me biting the hell out of you while we’re at it?”
“Wh-what?” she breathed, unable to believe she’d just heard those words leave his lips.
His blue eyes gleamed with emotion. “I’m serious, baby. All this time, I’ve been terrified of taking your choices away from you, locking you into this world. But when you drove off without me today, fully prepared to go into battle with your Venator brothers, I finally saw straight through that fear. And what I saw made everything so fucking clear. I finally got it. Finally saw that a badass woman like you doesn’t need me worrying about trapping her in something she doesn’t want, because there’s no way in hell that I could. You’re too strong. Too incredible. So whatever you decide, whatever you choose, just know that I choose you. Just know that I want a fucking eternity with you. One where we’re bonded together so tightly, we can’t ever be torn apart.”
“You’re my choice too,” she whispered, loving him so much it hurt. “You’ll always be my choice, and I want that same eternity with you. I want every single second of it.”
He gave her a smile that was just a little bit crooked, and a whole lot of hot. “Then before the sun rises tomorrow, we’re gonna find a nice, big bed and bond the fuck out of each other.”
“Oh, God, Max. You’re just giving me all the reasons to kick this demon’s ass as fast as possible, so we can get to the good stuff even quicker.”
“That’s my girl,” he murmured, nipping her bottom lip. “And just so you have fair warning, you should know that once we get back home, I’m going to be on you nonstop.”
She smirked up at him. “Not if I get on you first.”
His corded throat worked with a rough laugh as his head went back, and she couldn’t help but keep right on smiling, loving that sexy sound so much she could never grow tired of it.
But she loved her sexy beast of a man even more. More than Vivian had ever even thought was possible. And as soon as they were done saving the world, she was going to do what any badass female in her position would do…
And put a freaking ring on it.
Epilogue
She Was Everything
It was six months to the day since the battle at Chiswick’s compound in Albany had gone down, and it had been a dark, dangerous night for everyone involved. One that had seen Chiswick finally destroyed, the women who’d managed to survive their captivity released, and the beginning of an epic Venatori hunt that had changed the lives of the mercenaries forever.
As well as Vivian’s. And his own.
During the fight, Max had witnessed Vivian change into her full-Venatrix form for the first time, complete with small fangs and claws, purple eyes, and delicate points at the tips of her ears. It was the most breathtaking thing he’d ever seen…and then she’d really stolen his breath when she started kicking demon ass, and he knew her speed and strength would be the envy of every Bloodrunner who saw her in action.
But the night had been an extremely brutal one, and Max hadn’t chased after her with the intention of watching from the sidelines. So for the first time since his human life had been irrevocably altered, he’d given himself over completely to his beast, allowing the animal to have full control. And the wolf had made him proud, at one point even saving their life mate from what would have surely been an excruciating injury, and Max knew that even if he hadn’t already started working on mending his and the beast’s relationship, its actions that night would have been a gamechanger for him.
When he and Vivian finally made it to the hotel room that he’d found for them, in the early hours of the morning, Max had stripped them both bare in the spacious bathroom, and then carried Vivian into a steaming waterfall shower. They’d stood under the hot water, letting it wash over them as they wound around each other, kissing like thei
r very lives depended on it, the water around their feet pink from the blood that had covered them as it was washed away. And when he finally lifted her up, pinning her against the tiled wall as he joined their bodies together, her husky cry in his ear as he thrust in deep, he’d used every ounce of strength he had left to destroy her with pleasure, the mind-blowing feel of her pulsing around his cock worth every twinge of pain in his battle-bruised body.
It hadn’t taken long for his fangs to drop, hard and fast, but he didn’t fight it. Didn’t recoil. Instead, he’d locked his heavy-lidded gaze with his woman’s glittering violet one, and said, “You wanted a wolf, sweetheart. Now you’ve got one.”
She hadn’t said anything in response. Had simply smiled at him with a breathtaking look of love on her beautiful face, then tilted her head to the side, exposing the glowing, delicate curve of her throat, and there wasn’t a force on any plane, from heaven to hell, that could have kept Max from sinking his fangs into her tender flesh, taking her blood into his body, and bonding the hell out of her.
In that moment, he’d felt like the luckiest man alive.
And he was. Of that, he no longer had even the slightest shred of doubt.
It’d also been one hell of a spectacular way to ring in the New Year.
And from that night on, he and the wolf had not only been learning to get along with each other, they were damn near friends. The way Max saw it, if that wasn’t something to make you believe in miracles, and the power of love, then he didn’t know what was.
Even now, he and the beast continued to grow closer, and while the animal was still a smartass, Max would be forever grateful to have him at his back.
Especially when it came to protecting their woman.
Their mate.
And once the mercenaries finally returned to the Alley, their wife.
To Max’s surprise…and fucking delight, Vivian had proposed to him the morning after they’d bonded, and they’d managed to break the hotel room bed as they celebrated their engagement. But they were waiting to have the ceremony until Lev and the others could be there for it, which meant the guys needed to hurry their asses up and come home.
Having been at the mercs’ side for the past six months, he and Vivian had only just returned to the Alley themselves the week before, and things had been busy for them since their arrival. Even though his mate was now a badass demon hunter—one who was earning a hell of a lot of money from the Venatori Council—she still loved dancing, and was figuring out which classes she wanted to sign up for down in Wesley in the fall.
She also planned on helping out with the artsy gift shop that Skye was opening up in Shadow Peak, complete with an area where she could sell her painted furniture, and a gelato bar. For the past week, he and Elliot had both been working into the late hours of the night, helping to get the place ready, and while it’d been exhausting, they’d loved every second of it. Their beautiful mates had them completely wrapped around their little fingers, but they wouldn’t have it any other way. Everyone in the Alley constantly commented on how good it was to see the two of them so happy and at peace, and they were both grateful as hell that Monroe had sent them on that mission all those months ago.
Elliot had told him, one night while they were taking a beer break from work on the shop, that he couldn’t help but wonder if fate worked by giving us one shitty circumstance for every truly amazing one. He’d understood what the guy was saying, and it’d come to him, as he’d been training with Brody and Jeremy that afternoon, how he wanted to spend his evening. So when Max got home, he picked Vivian up from where she was reading on their leather sofa, her soft laugh filling his ears as he carried her outside and into the woods. She didn’t ask where they were going, happy to let him surprise her, and he loved that she trusted him so explicitly. That she didn’t doubt for a moment she was going to enjoy whatever it was that he had planned for them.
And when he carried her into the middle of a grassy meadow, set her on her feet in the center, then took his lighter out and lit several of the tall torches that surrounded the perimeter, he knew that she’d figured out where they were.
The place where his Novitiate’s ceremony had been held.
As she looked at him with a question in her beautiful eyes, he’d grinned and settled down on the grass, braced himself on his straight arms as he leaned back, his legs stretched out before him, and simply said, “Dance for me, sweetheart.”
There was a sheen of moisture in her blue eyes, but a love-filled smile on her pink lips, because she understood. On that terrifying night, his blood had seeped into the very ground beneath them, becoming one with the earth. And now his heart had melded with this beautiful, amazing girl, his life becoming one with hers.
So they were going to make new memories for him that night in the clearing.
And he was going to love every exquisite second of it.
As he watched her mouth I love you to him, just before she started to move, her beautiful body seducing him with every graceful twist and turn, his wolf quietly asked, So was it worth it, Max? The nightmares? The pain? The endless battle to come to terms with what happened to you?
Like so many of his friends and fellow Runners, Max had learned that some things, no matter how brutal, had to happen for a reason, and so he no longer lived with regret…or dreams for what might have been. Instead, if he had to do it all over again, he knew that he would gladly bare his throat to that rogue and let the son of a bitch bite him, because it had led him to this precise moment in time. Had made him into someone who could fight and stand proudly by his woman’s side, protecting her and loving her with everything he had. And he wouldn’t have changed that for the world.
“God, yes,” he rasped, answering the wolf as he followed her body with his possessive gaze, his love for her as bright and never-ending as the stars. “Completely fucking worth it.”
Because it’d given him Vivian.
His mate.
His lover.
His best friend.
And she was everything.
The End
~
And a New Beginning…
Special Announcement!
If you’re wondering how the attack on Chiswick’s compound plays out, I’m thrilled to announce that this epic battle will kick-off my upcoming series, THE MERCENARIES OF BLOODRUNNER ALLEY. The four-book series will tell the mercs’ stories, but because of Vivian’s Venatori bloodline, she and Max will be a HUGE part of the action. So if you’re curious about Vivian’s father, and how the group deals with Chiswick, or if the Runners really do miss out on the battle, as well as the identity of the mysterious blonde and what happened with the bridge, then keep an eye on my website and newsletter, because more details will be coming this summer!
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Next in the Series
An all-new spinoff series from the darkly provocative world of the Bloodrunners.
THE MERCENARIES
of BLOODRUNNER ALLEY
Lev, Sam, Kyle and James have been waiting a lifetime for the chance to avenge their mothers’ brutal deaths at the hands of a sadistic group of demons.
For these four wild, dangerous, sinfully sexy half-breeds, the wait is finally over.
A Thank You from Rhyannon
Many thanks for purchasing this eBook!
None of this would be possible if it weren’t for my readers—both my new ones and the ones who have been with me from the start—and I’m so grateful for each and every one of you.
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About the Author
Rhyannon Byrd is the bestselling author of more than thirty cont
emporary and paranormal romance titles, including the Bloodrunners series, and her books have been translated into ten languages. After years of enjoying the sunshine in the American South and Southwest, Rhyannon now lives in the beautiful (but often chilly) county of Warwickshire in England with her family.
You can find Rhyannon at:
www.rhyannonbyrd.com
Also by Rhyannon Byrd
CONTEMPORARY &
NEW ADULT ROMANCE
The Play Series:
Triple Play: Prequel
The Next Play: Part One
The Next Play: Part Two
The Next Play: Part Three
The Next Play: Part Four
Playing With Fire (Lucas’s story - 2019)
The London Affair Series:
Part One: The Weekend
Part Two: The Chase
Part Three: The Confession
London Affair: The Complete Novel
The Surf, Sun & Sex Series:
Making His Move
Keeping His Promise
Pushing His Luck (Paul’s story - 2019)
The Dangerous Tides Series:
Take Me Under
Make Me Yours (1.5)
Keep Me Closer
Standalone Novels & Novellas
A Little Less Conversation
PARANORMAL ROMANCE
The McKendrick Warlocks Series:
A Shot of Magick
A Bite of Magick (Revised edition - 2019)
Wild Wolf Chasing Page 29
