Bound to Secrets (Sisters of the Moon)

by Nina Croft

  So much blood.

  Then the pain came, washing over her in a tidal wave of red hot fire. It drove every thought from her mind leaving her with nothing but the teeth tearing at her flesh, the thick heavy stench of blood filling her nostrils. Her back arched and she screamed.

  She hadn’t meant to fight back, but she couldn’t help herself, her hands clawing at the great beast, her legs kicking out.

  The pain built inside her, until she knew something had to give. Behind her closed lids, great flashes of red and black played across her mind. The darkness was coming for her, closing on her, and she welcomed it as an end to the pain.

  She was dying.

  She’d failed.

  And she wanted to tell Connor it wasn’t his fault.

  ***

  Connor released his grip and backed away. He jumped off the bed and stood, head hanging low. Then he willed the change to come over him. Finally, he stood over her. Her shoulder was a mangled mess and the room looked like an abattoir. For once, the scent and sight of blood didn’t arouse his hunger.

  She was unconscious and he was glad. He’d nearly failed at the last minute when she’d screamed and he’d known how much he was hurting her. Instead, he had closed his ears to the sound and did what he had to do.

  He spat and then swallowed the nausea rising up in his throat.

  Leaning down, he felt the pulse in her throat, it was way too fast, but still strong, and some of the tension seeped from him.

  He went to the small bathroom and threw up, then rinsed his face. He had to get himself together. He was a doctor. Time to behave like one.

  He found Sebastian in the outer room and ignored his expression of pity as he dragged on his clothes. Sebastian nodded toward the doctor’s bag on the floor beside him.

  “Clean the wound but don’t try and close it or cover it. If she’s going to come through this, then it will heal itself.”

  “How long until we know?”

  “It varies. All we can do is keep her comfortable. Also, I’ve arranged for the implant. Go up to the medical center when you’ve seen to her.”

  Connor nodded absently, picked up the bag, and turned back.

  “You did the right thing,” Sebastian said.

  “Maybe.”

  He returned to the room and stared down at her for a second. She appeared so tiny. Her top half was bare but for the black bra, stark against her pale skin. The wound was still seeping. He’d made a mess, but he wasn’t very experienced at biting people. Maybe he should have let Sebastian do the job after all. Sinking down beside her, he stroked her hair from her face. Her skin felt clammy to the touch, but she turned her face into his palm.

  He cleaned the wound quickly. The sheets needed changing, but he couldn’t risk moving her. She was becoming restless and he had to get out of there before she regained consciousness. Leaning close, he kissed her lightly on the lips and then got to his feet.

  His life had been a nightmare for so long. He’d fought what he was every inch of the way, hating what he had become. And now he’d done the same to someone else. Only time would tell if he’d been right to attempt this, or whether it was one more thing he would come to regret bitterly.

  “She’s going to make it.”

  Connor had been dozing in the chair by the bed, but Sebastian’s words made him come instantly awake. He jumped to his feet. “What?”

  Sebastian nodded to where Keira lay on the bed. It had been three days since Connor had bitten her and her condition had remained unchanged. Her waking moments had been almost unbearable for him; she’d screamed and tossed, aware of nothing but pain. She hadn’t recognized him and he’d spent much of the time holding her down to stop her damaging herself. Luckily, she’d been unconscious most of the time, though Sebastian had refused to say whether that was a good or bad sign. Connor didn’t remember suffering like this. The pain had been bad but his wounds had healed quickly.

  “She’ll be all right,” Sebastian said

  “You’re sure?”

  Sebastian peeled back the sheet covering her shoulder. Connor saw the change immediately. The wound had been angry, seeping, refusing to close. Now, the skin surrounding the bite glowed pink and healthy, the edges knitting together. He peered into her face; her eyes were closed, dark lashes fanning her pale cheeks, but her breathing was even and she was resting comfortably.

  Connor closed his eyes for a moment as relief threatened to take him down. Then he sank into the chair behind him, put his head in his hands, and pressed his fingers to his eyes.

  He’d been so sure he’d failed. That he’d killed her and would have to live with that forever because dying would have been the easy way out.

  “She’ll wake soon,” Sebastian said. He rested a hand on Connor’s shoulder. “I’ll leave you, but you did good. You both did. Say welcome to the pack for me.”

  Connor didn’t move until the other man had left the room. Then he stood slowly and stretched. He found the change from despair to hope almost too much to cope with. Maybe he’d been a miserable bastard for too long. Or perhaps that was merely his nature.

  He kicked off his shoes and stretched out on the bed besides Keira, his touch tentative at first, but when no sounds of pain came from her, he pulled her into his arms, tucked her head under his chin, and was asleep in seconds.

  ***

  Keira blinked open her eyes. For a second, she panicked. Something wrapped around her tight, taking her back to those times at the Agency when she had woken strapped to a metal table not knowing what they were going to do to her.

  Then she breathed in and recognized the scent of her favorite werewolf. It came back to her slowly. The bite. The agony.

  She was still alive and she felt…good.

  Had it worked?

  She twisted her neck expecting to feel pain, but there was nothing, maybe a slight tingle. She pulled her hand free and ran it over her shoulder; the skin was raised and tender, but the wound had closed.

  Turning her head, she looked straight into Connor’s open eyes, deep dark brown with flecks of gold. He smiled, a slow lazy smile, and the muscles in her stomach clenched. He was plastered against her, and this close it was impossible not to feel the steely hardness of his erection pressing against her thigh.

  She shifted slightly and his smile faded.

  He pulled away and came up on one elbow. “How do you feel?”

  “Good.” She forced herself to ask the question. “Am I going to be all right?”

  “Yes. According to Sebastian, you’ll be fine now.”

  Reaching up, she ran her hands over his skull, feeling for the slight raise where the implant had been inserted.

  “You got the implant?”

  He nodded. “I could have waited to see if…”

  “…if I survived.”

  “Yeah, but I wanted to be with you when you woke.”

  “I’m glad.” She bit her lip. She’d come this far, and now it was all starting to get real. She was finally accepting there might be a chance of some sort of normal life for her. Though it occurred to her that her concept of “normal” had changed radically if she considered life as a werewolf in any way qualified. “What happens afterward?”

  “Afterward?”

  “If it all works. Where do I go? Do I stay with the pack? Is that what happens?”

  “Things are a bit unusual right now since the Agency destroyed the pack house.”

  “The pack house—where’s that?”

  “An hour or so outside London. It’s an estate, walled, safe for us to run. Sebastian has sent some of his people back already. But I’ve never stayed there. I’ve always preferred to live on my own.”

  “And what about now? You don’t want to stay with the pack?”

  “I thought you might move in with me. See how it works.”

  Relief flooded her; he wanted her with him. For a moment there, she’d thought he’d meant to leave her with the pack and go on with his solitary existence. “Of
course, I’ll come with you. I owe you my life, but more than that, I want us to be together.”

  He shrugged. “I thought if we were alone, we might be able to have some sort of normal life. Most of the time anyway. I know we’ll have to shift at full moon and it’s better to join the pack for that. But otherwise… I might even be able to go back to being a doctor, not a surgeon, but I could do something.”

  Obviously, he was still in denial over what he was, and sadness flickered through her. But maybe she asked too much of him.

  Connor pulled away. “I’ll go get you some food.”

  At his words, her stomach rumbled. She was starving, but she didn’t want him to go. They still needed to do something and heat pooled low down in her belly.

  That wasn’t good. She wasn’t supposed to get turned on by the thought.

  Connor’s eyes narrowed as though he sensed a change in her. He scrambled from the bed. “You probably want a shower,” he said backing away.

  Yeah, she did. She guessed she wasn’t at her most desirable right now. Or maybe he didn’t fancy her any more, now she had joined the monster brigade. She watched him go, but she had a feeling the longer they put it off the harder the next part was going to be.

  When he got to the door, she called to him. “Connor?”

  “Yes?”

  “Thank you.”

  Since that first time when she’d woken next to him, she hadn’t got close enough to Connor to tell whether he had an erection or not. For the last two days, he’d kept his distance. Well, as much as possible in a ten foot by ten foot room. Keira was still confined in here until after she’d shifted the first time, when hopefully the damage to her brain would be repaired and she’d have some control. That was the theory anyway.

  Connor spent most of his time with her. They talked, listened to music, talked some more. About everything apart from the fact they needed to make love. He didn’t touch her, but he watched her constantly.

  “Sebastian says it’s full moon tonight,” she said.

  “I know.”

  “He says it’s the easiest to change at full moon for the first time.”

  “I know. He told me as well.”

  She gritted her teeth together. “We need to talk about this, Connor.”

  “We do?”

  “I understand if you’re scared and you don’t want to do it with me. Or if you just can’t—I know I hurt you last time.”

  “I’m not scared.”

  He was being obtuse. “Perhaps I should ask Jack if I can borrow one of his vampires.”

  Ha—that had got him. His eyes narrowed. He put his book down slowly. Rose to his feet.

  “I lied. I am scared. Scared I’ll mess it up. I know I have to do this, but I want it to be good for you and I can’t make it good, because…”

  “Because if you do, I’ll probably blow your brain.”

  “Yeah. I’ve put it off because I wanted to wait until full moon for your first shift and I thought if we made love once it would be harder to keep my hands off you.”

  She liked that.

  He took a step toward her. “And I know it’s your first time, but I also know I can’t do anything to make it easier for you. I can’t risk it. Last time, I nearly died. This time I’m not sure I would survive.”

  “And I’m guessing you dying on me might be a little more traumatic than me not…you know…”

  “Coming apart in my arms. You were beautiful.”

  “Yeah, if only I hadn’t melted your brain afterward.”

  A small smile tugged at his lips. He took a step closer so the heat radiating from his body warmed her skin. “Well, keep that in mind,” he said. “If you feel anything—anything at all—tell me to stop.”

  He looked sexy as hell in his black jeans and black T-shirt. And she couldn’t help it; at the thought of what they were going to do together, her sex grew hot and heavy, damp with need.

  His nostrils flared and he closed his eyes for a moment. “I’ve never tried not to make a girl come before.”

  She didn’t want to hear about him and other girls. “I’ll recite poetry in my head, or do my times tables or—”

  He cut her off with a glance, grasped the hem of her T-shirt and tugged it over her head. Then his hands went to her waist, unsnapped her jeans, and stripped them from her together with her panties. In seconds, she was naked.

  For a moment, he stared down at her, his expression hot with need. She flicked her gaze down his long lean body and saw the line of his erection pressing against his jeans.

  Her mouth went dry and her sex flooded with moist heat. She pressed her thighs together as a pulse started its insistent throb at her very core.

  “Two times two is four,” she muttered.

  His quick laugh interrupted her, and then the amusement vanished from his face. He stared at her with pure masculine lust and her breath caught in her throat, her nipples tightening almost painfully. She remembered the feel of his lips on her breasts, between her thighs and tried to banish the thought.

  He pushed her back against the small cot so she toppled onto her back and lay staring up at him. He appeared huge from this angle and as she watched, he unzipped his jeans and his erection sprang free.

  He came down on his knees between her legs, nudging them further apart. Her hips lifted from the bed of their own accord and she closed her eyes and tried to think of something else. Vampires.

  Pretend a vampire lay on top of her. About to shove inside her.

  But she knew his scent now as though it were her own, and a moan of need escaped her lips.

  Then he was nudging at the opening to her body, parting her sex and pushing inside.

  “Christ, you’re wet. And tight. And Jesus… that feels so good.”

  And he filled her with one stroke.

  Keira lay there, feeling the fullness of him, fighting the urge to wrap her legs around him, rub up against him. She could feel the swollen nub at her core, so sensitive, if she shifted slightly…

  His hands went to her hips and he held her in place. “Next time.” His words were a dark sensual promise.

  Then he balanced on his elbows and withdrew. The drag of him against her flesh was exquisite.

  Vampires. There was a particularly scary one called Seth—her skin prickled and shivers ran through her whenever he was close. She screwed her eyes shut and brought up his face in her mind.

  Then Connor thrust into her hard and her lids flew open. His face was a mask of concentration. He withdrew, then entered her again. He was big, this was new, and the feeling bordered on pain. She tried to hold on to that as his speed increased until he was slamming into her.

  She focused on his face, tried to ignore the ripples of pleasure tugging at her spine. His expression grew fierce, predatory, his eyes almost feral, his lips gritted together in a hard line.

  Then finally, his back arched, he shoved into her one last time and flooded her with his seed.

  Chapter Ten

  “I’m sorry,” he muttered five minutes later. “But that was so fucking good.” Pushing himself onto his elbows, he glanced down. “Shit, I didn’t even take my shoes off.”

  He really couldn’t get worked up about it though. His whole body exuded a sense of wellbeing. He knew he shouldn’t feel this good, but he couldn’t help it.

  He’d been sort of dreading this. Now the relief that he wasn’t writhing on the floor in agony almost equaled the pure bliss radiating from his still throbbing dick.

  It had been a long time.

  He turned his attention to the woman at his side. So far, she hadn’t said anything. She’d been a virgin and this had hardly been a great introduction to making love. Except for him. For him it had been great. But he needn’t have worried; when he looked into her face, he saw his own relief reflected there.

  He shifted closer, leaned down over her, and kissed her lightly on the lips. “Next time will be better.” Then he kissed her again. Kissed her how he’d wanted to kiss h
er before they’d made love but hadn’t dared. His mouth slanted over hers, he parted her lips with his tongue and pushed inside.

  She moved restlessly against him, her hands coming up to slide into his hair, pull him closer and his cock twitched. All set for another go.

  Not going to happen.

  Not yet at least.

  He pulled free. For a second, her fingers tightened in his hair and then she released him. Tugging the sheet over her, she sat leaning against the wall.

  She picked up his hand and played with his fingers. “I never thought I would get this with anyone.”

  “This?”

  “Just being close. Touching. You’ve given me so much, and I wanted you to know—even if it doesn’t work—it will still have been worth it.”

  “It will work.”

  The truth was he had no clue whether it would or not. But then, he had no clue how the whole werewolf thing worked. He’d questioned Sebastian, but really, no one knew. He suspected it involved magic, whatever that meant. As a doctor and a scientist, he’d never believed in magic. But then he’d never believed in vampires or werewolves either and he’d been totally wrong there. Maybe magic was just another science they didn’t yet understand. He would start investigating when this thing with Keira was resolved.

  “So what happens now?” she asked.

  Connor glanced at the clock on the wall. “Any moment now, the moon will rise.” Already, he could feel the tug of the full moon, stirring a wild excitement in his blood. “Then you shift. I can’t take you out of here until then. But as soon as you change, I’ll drive us out to the forest where you can run.”

  “Will it hurt? Shifting I mean?”

  Connor remembered back to his own first time. The fear and confusion, the pain as though his body was being ripped apart, his bones smashed into splinters. Of course, he’d been in total denial and he suspected that’s why it had hurt so badly.

  “No, it shouldn’t hurt.”

  “What must I do?” she asked.

  “Relax. This is magic, let it flow through you.”

  Keira held herself immobile and closed her eyes.