Hunted (The Tinder Chronicles)

by Land, Alexa

  “Traitors?”

  “Exactly. When I turned on my people, I signed my own death warrant. I knew that would happen.”

  “If you knew it would happen, why did you turn on them?”

  “Do you really not know the answer to that, Tinder?” Bane asked quietly, pivoting the computer toward him.

  “No, not really. I mean, you’re clearly some kind of vigilante, but I have no idea why you fight other vamps.”

  He kept his eyes on the screen as he said, “Once I fell in love with a hunter, I really had no choice.”

  “Do you mean me?”

  Now he turned his head to look at me, brows knit. “Who the hell do you think I mean?”

  I stared at him, totally dumbstruck. No one had ever told me they loved me, not once in my entire life. Not my parents or grandparents, people that really should have. Not any of my brothers and sisters. Certainly not friends or boyfriends, since I never really had any of those. “You love me?” I said dumbly, and he nodded. After a moment of letting that sink in, I asked quietly, “Will you say it to me?”

  “Seriously?”

  “Please?”

  He looked like he wanted to protest, a sarcastic remark right on the tip of his tongue. But after a moment, he released the tension in his shoulders and sighed. Then he said, “I love you, Tyler. I absolutely, totally, unequivocally love you.”

  He seemed defeated somehow. When he met my gaze, there was both sadness and raw vulnerability in his beautiful green eyes. It dawned on me that he completely expected me to reject him, that he was just waiting for me to throw his confession back in his face.

  But no way would I do that, not when those words meant so much to me. I climbed onto his lap and wrapped my arms around his shoulders. I really didn’t know what to do, this was all so new to me, so I just whispered, “Thank you,” because that was what felt right. Bane pulled back to look at me. Most likely, he was searching for sarcasm or insincerity. He wouldn’t find either one. After a moment’s hesitation, his arms came up to embrace me.

  We held each other for a while, and then I kissed him gently. When Bane deepened the kiss, it felt like an ‘on’ switch had been flipped inside my body, every part of me awakening. It was far more than just arousal. I spent so much time with my emotions disengaged, just doing what I had to do – hunting, surviving, and the next day, repeating the process all over again. I usually didn’t allow myself to feel, not really, because if I did, loss and sadness and loneliness would just swallow me whole. But I let myself feel everything now, and it was amazing, like waking up after a dark winter’s hibernation.

  “Please fuck me, Bane,” I said softly as I tangled my fingers in his dark hair and rested my forehead on his.

  He kissed me tenderly before pulling back to look at me and saying, “You’ll just regret it if we have sex again.”

  “No I won’t.”

  “It’s a bad idea,” he said, lifting me off his lap and setting me on the kitchen table as he got up. “You really will regret it, and you’ll end up despising me as a result. I think it’s best if I go.”

  “No!” I hated how pitiful and desperate that single syllable sounded. But still, I grabbed onto his sleeve as I jumped off the table, then put my arms around him, holding on tightly.

  “What are you doing, Tinder?”

  “Begging you not to leave.”

  He grinned a little. “You’re going to hate yourself for that later.”

  “I don’t care.”

  He kissed the top of my head. “I’ll call you in a few hours and let you know if I’ve made any progress tracking down the vampires that came after you.” He untangled himself from me and left the kitchen.

  “Please stay,” I said as I trailed after him.

  “No. I’m not going to add to your regrets.”

  “I wanted to regret it last time we slept together, Bane. And it really did throw me off at first, maybe because it was just so far from anything I’d ever imagined myself doing,” I said as I followed him down the hall. “But since then…since then it’s all I can think about. I haven’t been regretting it, I’ve been craving it. I’ve been going out every night, giving myself to whoever will have me, chasing that feeling I had when I was with you. But it’s never right. It’s never enough. None of those other men could give me what I needed, because none of them are you.”

  He’d reached the front door, and turned to look at me, brows knit. “You said you’d rather kill yourself than sleep with me again.”

  “I’m really sorry I said that.” Conflict churned in his eyes, I could practically see his rebuttal building, and I pre-empted it by saying, “Please let me make it up to you.” I dropped to my knees, still maintaining eye contact, and quickly unfastened his belt and his jeans, then mouthed his bulge through the thin fabric of his sexy black briefs. A moan escaped him, and I tugged down the front of his underwear and took his heavy cock in my mouth.

  The moment I started sucking him, Bane visibly relaxed, exhaling slowly and reaching out to touch my hair. I kept looking up at him as I worked his cock with my hands and mouth, feeling him swell between my lips, the connection between us so powerful as I held his gaze.

  When I slid my hands to his butt and deep-throated him to his balls, that was enough to turn him from controlled and calm to fiery predator. He actually growled as he grabbed me and pulled me up to him, crushing my mouth in a demanding kiss as he shoved my leather jacket off my shoulders and onto the floor.

  He carried me to the bedroom and threw me on the mattress, then started to reach for my waistband, but I said, “Wait.” He paused, watching me warily. I fumbled for the buttons on my 501s with shaking hands, saying, “I don’t have that many pairs of jeans, I want to keep these.” Last time, he’d torn my clothes right off of me. He grinned and grabbed one of my feet, then untied my boot and yanked it off, tossing it over his shoulder before doing the same with the other one.

  I stripped myself naked, then got on my back on the mattress. My body was shaking with anticipation, my cock throbbing and leaking precum onto my belly, and he watched me closely, hungrily, as he undressed. God, he looked good. He was all power and strength, so incredibly beautiful.

  Despite my intense longing, I remained perfectly passive, laid out for him on the bed. As soon as he was naked, he grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me to the edge of the mattress, so far that my head hung over the edge. He wrapped a hand around my throat and I opened my mouth, completely giving myself over to him. I knew this was going to be violent. I knew it was going to push me to my limit. I welcomed it.

  He slid his cock all the way into my throat as I concentrated on relaxing and taking every inch of him. He growled again as he began thrusting into my mouth. It started to feel a little scary and out of control, but I just let go, putting myself completely in Bane’s hands. The moment I surrendered to him was pure bliss, all fears and anxiety falling away. All that was left was Bane, and me, and such intense pleasure.

  And then it got even better. Bane lifted my hips off the bed effortlessly, flinging my legs up over his shoulders, and took my cock between his lips as he continued to fuck my mouth. I gasped as he easily swallowed me to the hilt, and wrapped my arms around his waist and held on tight.

  He changed his focus after a while. I moaned around his big dick as he let my hard cock fall from his lips, then ran his tongue between my legs. He then began doing something to me that had never been done before. I gasped when his tongue probed me, opening me up. He stopped thrusting into my mouth, concentrating instead on fucking me with his tongue, and I actually laughed nervously at the overwhelming intimacy of what he was doing to me.

  When he’d prepped me to his satisfaction, he spun me around so I was right-side up again. He pushed me up against the wall of the bedroom before driving his cock into me, his spit all the lube we needed. I cried out, but it was a cry of pure pleasure. Bane thrust into me fast and hard, his big hands around my waist, using the wall for leverage to really po
und me. It was so damn good, so exactly right. I flung my arms and legs around him and held on, burying my face in his shoulder.

  “Look at me.” His voice was low and forceful, much different than his usual tone. I obeyed instantly, raising my head up and locking eyes with him. My breath caught. There were two distinct sides to Bane, the guy with a sparkle in his eye and a smirk always at the ready – and this one. He was pure vampire right now, his gaze sharp and predatory, totally focused. A little tremor went through me, but I didn’t try to pull away – not that I would have been able to anyway. I just held on tighter.

  After pounding me against the wall for a few minutes, Bane picked me up and swung me around, then deposited me on the floor on my hands and knees. I locked my elbows as he mounted me from behind, trying to keep myself upright underneath his big body. He took me even harder in this position, driving himself into me so deep, one hand holding the back of my neck as I swayed and rocked beneath him.

  His other hand slid down my torso, and he began stroking my achingly hard cock, in time to his thrusts into me. “Oh God, Bane,” I moaned.

  “Cum for me, Tyler,” he said, and my body actually obeyed him. I cried out as the orgasm tore from me, shooting clear across the floor. I thrust into his hand as hard as I could, impaling myself on his cock each time I rocked back. The orgasm just kept coming and coming and coming. My yells were hoarse, primal, and my body shook violently. The only thing holding me up was Bane.

  “That’s it, sweetheart.” His voice was soft, and I realized as I came down from that blinding orgasm that his thrusts into me were slower, more controlled now. I whimpered a little as yet another shockwave pulsated through me, my hips bucking automatically. He still held my cock, but his touch was different now, too, gentle and soothing as he brought me back down.

  When that huge, devastating orgasm had finally reached its conclusion, he eased his cock from me, and I scrambled around and desperately tried to grab onto him. “No! Please don’t stop. I don’t want it to be over.”

  He picked me up and kissed me deeply as he cradled me in his arms, then said, “It’s not over, love. We’ve barely gotten started.”

  I smiled at that as he put me on my back on the mattress, then climbed on top of me. I parted my legs for him, and he pushed his cock inside me again. The sound I made was embarrassingly close to a sigh of relief. He laid down on top of me, propped up slightly on his elbows, and went back to thrusting into me, slowly, deeply. It was so good, totally different than the hard, fast pounding he’d been giving me earlier, but still so pleasurable.

  I reached up and touched his cheek, and he turned his head and kissed my fingertips. “This is the first time I’ve ever had sex in a bed,” I admitted. He knit his brows and studied me closely. There was a note of sympathy in his expression. I rolled my eyes and said, “Come on. I was just mentioning it as a side note. There’s no need to look at me like I’m pitiful.”

  He grinned a little and said, “That wasn’t a look of pity. It was a look that said, I am absolutely determined to take care of you, far better than you’ve ever taken care of yourself.”

  I had to grin, too. “I’m never going to make that easy for you.”

  “I know.” He leaned down and kissed me again, pumping into me slowly, steadily.

  When he broke the kiss, I asked, “How old are you, Bane?”

  He threw his head back and laughed. “So, you figure this is a good time to get information out of me, do you?”

  I smiled at him, reaching up and lacing my fingers with his. “Maybe.”

  “Why do you want to know?”

  “I’ve just always been really curious.”

  “I’m five hundred and sixty-three.”

  “Holy Christ.”

  He laughed again and said, “Anything else you’ve just been dying to ask me?”

  “Why have you never filed your fangs down?”

  “Because they’re who I am.”

  “They must make life fairly difficult, though. It means you can never blend in with humans, that you’ve always had to remain in hiding.”

  “Far from it. Humans can’t see my fangs, because I cast a concealment spell centuries ago. One of the many perks of being born a warlock.”

  “Then why can I see them?”

  “Because I built a loophole into that spell.”

  “What was the loophole?” I asked.

  “I specified that anyone I fell in love with would be able to see me for who I am. I never wanted to hide my true self from whomever I loved.”

  “But I’ve always been able to see them, from the first time I met you.”

  “That’s not possible.”

  “The first time we met, I was sixteen. You were already in love with me back then, you big perv,” I teased, grinning at him.

  He laughed at that. “Not true. I fell in love with you about three years ago.”

  “Uh huh.”

  Bane laughed again, then flipped us over abruptly so that I was now on top of him. He slapped my ass, and I yelped in surprise. “You’ve obviously regained your strength,” he said, “since your brattiness has rebounded considerably. No more going easy on you.”

  Bane began thrusting hard, up into me, while at the same time wrapping his hands around my waist and bouncing me up and down on his cock like I was a sex toy. “Oh God yes,” I ground out, reaching for my cock and stroking myself.

  His eyes were again sharp and focused. They were normally pale jade green rimmed in deep emerald, but the color had intensified somehow, become richer, brighter, almost lit from within. I steadied myself with one hand on his big bicep, feeling the powerful muscles flexing and contracting beneath his smooth skin, and murmured, “I think you’re absolutely gorgeous, August. I’ve never told you that. But you’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

  He did another one of those lightning-fast moves that only a vampire could pull off, flipping us both around so that I was now sitting up against the headboard, my legs up over his shoulders as he pistoned into me. “Oh no,” he said. “I’m not going to forgive you for being a brat. Not even if you compliment me and use my real name.” He smiled at me and leaned in and kissed me. And then he began absolutely pounding me.

  It was pure ecstasy, and I was so lost to it that I could barely form words, though I think I did manage to mumble something along the lines of, “Fuck yes, fucking fuck me.” Oh, give me a break, I wasn’t exactly coherent at this point.

  He’d really been holding back. Actually, he still was, because if he didn’t, he’d probably snap me in two. But he began taking me much harder now, each thrust actually raising me a foot or two up off the bed. I cried out and flung my arms around his neck, holding on tightly. God it was good.

  Bane’s voice was low and forceful when he growled, “You’re mine.” All I could do was nod, clutching him desperately. He pulled me up off the headboard and onto his lap, still pistoning into me mercilessly.

  “Yes,” I murmured, clinging to him. I would have agreed to anything then, absolutely anything.

  He bit the top of my shoulder, fangs tearing flesh, marking me, showing me just how completely he owned me. Acting on pure impulse, I bit him, too, my teeth bruising and piercing the skin of his shoulder, and he moaned with pleasure.

  After a few more hard thrusts into me, he released my shoulder. And then he threw his head back and roared. There’s no other word for it. It was unlike anything I’d ever heard before, strength and power transformed into sound. He flipped me onto my back as he began cumming in me, and it was so incredibly arousing that I came too, yelling his name, my cock pressed between his belly and mine.

  Another wild, primal yell tore from him, every muscle in his shoulders and arms and chest starkly defined as he thrust into me with barely contained violence, filling me with his seed, showing me I was his yet again. He kept thrusting into me until every last drop of his cum was inside me, slowing his pace gradually before finally going still. By this point I was swe
ating and shaking, my body totally depleted, hugging him to me with the very last of my strength.

  He kissed me gently before easing out of me, and rolled us over so I was laying on top of him. “You ok?” he asked.

  “So much better than ok,” I murmured, eyes shut. I was still shaking, and he pulled the covers up over both of us and held me securely.

  “You know, under vampire custom, we’d be three-quarters of the way to married right now.” There was a smile in his voice.

  I raised an eyebrow and one lid, and said, “How so?”

  “You bit me during sex, right after I bit you. All we needed were a couple lines of verse after that, and you’d now be my lawfully wedded husband.”

  I chuckled at that. “Your wedding ceremonies involve sex?”

  “Absolutely.”

  I closed my eyes again and nestled against him. “Your language sounds like Klingon, and you screw while getting married. You know, if it wasn’t for the whole murdering people thing, I’d almost think vampires were a fun bunch of guys.”

  “We’re not all murderers, you know. I never kill when I feed, and the same goes for the vast majority of vampires.”

  “The vast majority? I don’t think so. In my life, I’ve only met a couple exceptions. You’re one of them.”

  “And have you spent much time getting to know many vampires?”

  “Well, no, because if I’d ever tried, I would have been killed.”

  Bane considered that, sliding an arm behind his head. “Well, in your case, perhaps. You are a hunter, after all. Most vampires probably really wouldn’t give you the benefit of a doubt, just like you’ve never given us one, either.”

  “Why would I give the benefit of a doubt to a group of creatures whose main purpose it is to kill humans?”

  “Did you know that vampire saliva acts as a coagulant?”

  I grinned at that. “Um, no I didn’t, but thank you for that totally random fact, Captain Irrelevant.”

  He chuckled and lightly swatted my butt, then said, “Vampires aren’t killers by nature, and that proves it. After we feed from a human, all we have to do is lick the spot where we’ve bitten them, and it closes up immediately. If we were meant to kill, then why would our saliva and our blood heal? We are meant to feed on humans, obviously, but it’s supposed to be a symbiotic relationship.”