The Chosen Sin

by Anya Bast

  Richard Templeton, Ari’s father, was the head of The New Covenant Church, the largest religious organization in the quad planets. Templeton had been fighting to gain enough support to force the government to exterminate the Chosen. As radical as Templeton’s views were, he was a powerful social and religious figure.

  Templeton claimed his daughter had been abducted by Christopher Sante and taken to the Shining Way, the well-guarded fortress that was called a community of Chosen, but many thought was simply some kind of cult. The ABI thought perhaps Sante had done it in retaliation against Templeton and his hate-motivated movement targeting the Chosen.

  Alejandro and Daria had been tasked with going undercover and investigating Templeton’s claims. If they found they were true, their orders were to bring Ari home and Sante in, if possible. Kill him if it wasn’t.

  “The cost is too high,” he answered.

  She whirled. “Look, I want Sante. I’ll do anything . . . anything to get him.”

  “That’s good you’ll do anything, because you know the other thing you’re going to have to do in order to fool the Shining Way into accepting you as one of their own.”

  She turned toward him. Her big, midnight blue eyes shone with apprehension. “Yeah, I know.”

  Alejandro walked toward her. To her credit, she didn’t back away. “You’re going to have to be with me, Daria.” He reached out and cupped her cheek against his palm. “Every inch of you from the top of your head to your pretty little toes will be mine once we reach the Shining Way.”

  The Shining Way was very restrictive about who they let in. Sante was allowing Alejandro in based on their past relationship. Sante had no idea that Alejandro was now a GBC employee. That information was secret. Alejandro had told Sante that “Valerie” was his mate and that he wouldn’t come without her.

  She clenched her jaw and swallowed hard, like she’d gulped down a bug, before speaking. He tried not to let his ego take a hit, but it was hard. “I can fake it.” Her voice shook just a little. Only a Chosen would be able to hear that slight quaver.

  He brushed his thumb over her lower lip. “You know as well as I do that we won’t be able to fake it. We’re going to have to make it real, all of it, for this operation. They have to be able to scent you on me and vice versa.”

  “Nice try, Alejandro. We don’t necessarily have to have sex to accomplish that.” Contrary to her words, desire flickered through her eyes. It rippled through his body and made his cock hard.

  God help him, he still wanted her.

  He wanted her stripped, wanted those long, strong legs wrapped around his waist while he eased in and out of her hot little slit. “That would be difficult.”

  Her eyes shuttered again and she knocked his hand away. “Yeah, I know, but not impossible.” She pushed past him.

  Alejandro raised a brow. “I guess you have a ways to go before you accept all this.”

  “Don’t get your hopes up. I’ll never accept it. I’m just going to do it.” Daria turned and pushed a hand through her hair, making it stick up in little tufts. “Look, I had to fight hard to convince the bureau to assign me to this case. They thought I had too many issues concerning Sante to be objective.”

  “You do.”

  Daria ignored him. “It was my willingness to become a Chosen that swayed them in the end. I was the only one who would. So let’s just do it, all right? If we don’t do it now, I might lose my nerve. I can’t think about it too much.”

  “You know I’m going to have to bite you, Daria. You’re going to have to bite me, too.” He took a step toward her and she backed away. He stilled. “Do you trust me?”

  “No.”

  He shook his head. “You’re not ready for this.”

  “Hell no, I’m not ready, and I don’t trust you. Get it through your head that I will never be ready and I will never trust you. Just do it anyway.”

  Alejandro sighed. “I’m going to drink your blood, first. Let it combine in my veins before I give it back to you, blended with mine. That mix is going to cause drastic changes in you. You don’t have a mark to smooth the way for you like I did. You were never meant to become a vampire and don’t have the biological makeup for it. So, those transformations are going to be violent and occur in a very short amount of time. One of those changes will be a hormone surge—”

  “I read about all this in the handbook, Alejandro,” she interrupted.

  “The handbook?” He snorted. “Come on, Daria, reading from the handbook and doing it in real life are two different things.”

  She shot him a very unfriendly look. “My point is, I know what to expect.”

  “So you know that from the time I Choose you until the time your body slides into unconsciousness you’re going to want to fuck anyone within ten miles?”

  Daria looked around the tent as though she could see beyond the walls to the hundred-mile radius of sand. She looked back at him, drawing the obvious conclusion.

  “Yep,” he said with a smile.

  She shook her head. “I’ll resist it.”

  He laughed.

  3

  ALEJANDRO sauntered toward her with a look of heat in his dark eyes. Daria resisted the urge to back away. He wanted her trust and she couldn’t give it to him. All the same, she had to surrender herself completely to Alejandro right now.

  Every fiber of her body protested that.

  He put his hand to her cheek and she sighed at the heat his body gave off. When he snaked his other hand around to her nape, she winced and tried to back away. His grip tightened. Forcing herself to not fight him, she gritted her teeth and stayed in place.

  “Are you absolutely sure you want this?” he asked.

  A whimper lodged itself tightly in her throat. She nodded once.

  He stepped forward, closing the slight space between them, and set his lips to her cheek. She flinched away, but he grasped her upper arm and held her in place. Drawing a deep breath, she closed her eyes and psyched herself up to be bitten. Every muscle in her body felt strung tight.

  “Shhh,” Alejandro soothed. He leaned in, bathing her lips with his intoxicating breath. Daria was sure he did it deliberately. It had a calming effect that she welcomed right now. She opened her eyes and inhaled, letting the serenity wash over her.

  She was taking a huge risk here. If she were unable to push though the entire transformation, she’d end up destined to live her life surviving from the lust of others. The thought of being a vampire disgusted her, but the thought of ending up succubare absolutely terrified her.

  “God, you smell so good, Daria,” he murmured into her ear. “Remember that night right before you left the bureau on your suspension? Remember how good we were together? We were tangled together all night long, sweaty and oblivious to the rest of the world.”

  Despite her apprehension, the chemical in Alejandro’s breath made her muscles languid. “Uh . . . huh. I remember,” she murmured.

  She stopped herself from purring at the memory of his bare chest rubbing against hers, how he’d pulled her beneath him and parted her thighs with his knee, the feel of his cock pressing into her pussy inch by delicious inch. She shivered.

  He’d filled her so well, stretched the muscles of her cunt until she could barely take all of him. She’d felt deliciously possessed by him, overwhelmed by him.

  God, she’d loved it.

  She’d found comfort in Alejandro’s arms for that night. Surely, she could find comfort there again.

  “Just relax, and we can be that good during the Choosing, okay? Relax,” he murmured.

  Daria’s body softened against his. Her fingers found his upper arms and gripped so she could allow herself to sag against him a little.

  Alejandro trailed the hand cupping her cheek down her jaw, neck, and shoulder. It briefly caressed her waist, and then pressed against the small of her back. He brushed his lips lightly across hers but didn’t linger. Instead, his mouth traced down over her jawbone to her throat.

&
nbsp; The hand at her nape traveled up and twined in her hair. Using it as a grip, he slowly tilted her head to the side, exposing the vulnerable line of her throat. All the while he nuzzled her sensitive skin, raising goose bumps over her flesh.

  Daria’s heart rate and breathing sped from more than the impending bite. Even while her mind railed against the thought of sleeping with him again, her body primed itself.

  The plain blue V-neck T-shirt she wore didn’t impede Alejandro and he got right to business. With the sharp edges of his fangs, he lightly nipped the area where her shoulder and throat met. She shuddered in pleasure. Christ, she’d never get through this without spontaneously combusting.

  “Alejandro, cut the foreplay. Just do it.” At this point, she’d welcome his bite just to distract her from how bad she wanted him.

  “Be patient.” His tongue flicked out and sought her pulse, then settled in to lap at it. A tremor ran up her spine. Her legs suddenly unsteady, she twined her arms around him and held on.

  Her voice shook when she replied, “I don’t have all—” She gasped. Sharp fangs penetrated. Sweet, jagged pain made her stiffen.

  The pain receded, and warm pleasure enveloped her. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Daria understood that Alejandro had rolled his veil over her. It was designed to mask the pain with pleasure.

  Oh, and how it worked. Suddenly she understood the veilhounder’s addiction.

  Desire poured into her like thick, sweet honey, pooling in all the right places. Every time he moved, he brushed her hardened, sensitive nipples against his chest. The suction at her throat increased, causing the heady mixture of pleasure and pain to affect an area of her body much further south.

  When he disengaged his fangs, withdrew his veil, and held her close, regret flickered.

  With one hand he stroked her upper back. “Are you okay?” His voice sounded heavy, aroused, thick. It rumbled through her, and she fought the urge to lean against him and close her eyes. She needed to be able to stand on her own.

  “I’m—” The word came out a strangled rasp. She pushed away from him and staggered back. “I’m fine.” She reached up and touched the two puncture wounds at her throat to distract herself. “Wow, uh, I see what you mean about the lust.” Damn it, her voice sounded quavering and thin.

  He smiled. She noted uneasily that it seemed predatory. “I haven’t Chosen you yet, Daria,” he said in a purring, thick voice.

  She felt the blood drain from her face. “O-oh.”

  “I thought you read the handbook.”

  “I did.” Daria turned away from him and closed her eyes. She was not going to give in to him. She was not. A man like Alejandro was more dangerous than most and she wasn’t going to let him in, not even if it was just for sex.

  “Daria? Are you okay? You don’t feel faint, do you?”

  She turned, masking her worry with an expression of anger. “No, I don’t feel faint.” The word sounded like the lash of a whip in the quiet air.

  Laughter lit his eyes but he obviously valued his balls enough not to let it slip from his throat. He was smart. “Good.” He walked toward her, biting his wrist as he came. He twined an arm around her waist and pulled her close, placing his wrist to her mouth at the same time. “Then you can drink.”

  She eyed the blood dripping from the wound he’d made. “Uh.”

  “Drink, Daria. This is the Choosing.”

  She hesitated, then closed her eyes, screwed up her face—and her courage—and flicked her tongue out to taste his wrist. The flavor of his life force coated her tongue like aged, expensive wine. It had a silken texture with an edge of sweetness. It was a Chosen chemical quirk that made it taste so. She didn’t want to spit it out like she had before. She licked his skin and closed her eyes.

  It was irresistible.

  Hold on . . . how could it be irresistible? Was he using his veil on her? Was Alejandro making her like it? No matter. She wanted, needed, more. Daria grabbed his forearm and latched her mouth to his wrist, licking and sucking.

  His free arm tightened around her. “Daria.” He let out a hard breath. He didn’t say anything more than that, but lust infused her name, letting her know he was feeling the desire, too.

  Gently, he lowered her to the floor, keeping his wrist to her mouth and his arm around her waist. Daria was intensely conscious of the length of his hard body against hers. He cradled her in his lap.

  Her body felt taut, ready to fire. His arm brushed her breast, and she whimpered. She didn’t care about anything right now except her body’s sudden intense demands. Daria let the blood fill her. It was as though she could feel it actually running through her veins, investigating her body, finding it suitable and infusing her.

  “Stop. You’re killing me,” he groaned. “In more ways than one. You’ve had enough blood, Daria.”

  She relinquished her mouth’s hold on his wrist. The wound seemed to close up immediately. In fascination, she watched it.

  Alejandro pulled his hand away and she moved off his lap. He rolled onto his back with a guttural groan. Daria let her gaze travel from his head of thick black hair down the chiseled features of his face, to the rise and fall of that magnificent male chest, and to the obvious mound where his erection pressed against his pants.

  She didn’t know if it was an effect of the Choosing or if it was due to Alejandro’s veil, but her mind felt folded under a thick cotton blanket. Daria fought for clarity, for logical reasoning, but it slipped through her fingers. All that remained in the wake of the fast departure of her senses were her body’s needs.

  Right now, her whole world was all about her overwhelming arousal and how Alejandro could take the sharp edge off of it. Somewhere in the back of her mind a whisper of remembrance lingered. She’d wanted to resist Alejandro, but the heavy spell of the Choosing trumped her former resolve.

  She had to have him.

  Daria shifted to her hands and knees and crawled up Alejandro’s body. He opened his eyes and stared at her. Those dark brown orbs were heavy-lidded and appraising. Daria knew he wanted her as much as she wanted him. His muscles felt strung tight and he kept his hands carefully at his sides, as though he fought the impulse to touch her.

  Daria wondered what she could do to make him lose that fight.

  With confidence born of the knowledge of mutual attraction, she straddled him so he could feel the heat her sex radiated. One by one, she unfastened the buttons on his shirt, revealing his tan chest. She ran her fingers over his skin, tracing around his nipples.

  He grabbed her wrists fast, making her gasp. “Daria, you’re in the throes of the Choosing. What you’re feeling is an effect of the chemical changes that are taking place in your body. I can’t accept your invitation right now. I want to, don’t get me wrong.” He groaned. “Dios, I really do, but I can’t.”

  Clarity emerged. She pulled her hands from his. He was right. He was so very, very right. What the hell was she doing? Then, as soon as it flickered, the thought was gone, leaving behind only her lust.

  She traced one of his flat nipples lazily, and Alejandro shivered beneath her. Heat flared in his eyes. She wanted that heat to turn to fire, so she rotated her hips slowly, grinding her cunt down on his hard cock through their clothing.

  “Daria,” he rasped in warning. “Don’t do that.”

  She only smiled. “Come on, Alejandro, I know you want to fuck me.” Daria reached down between their bodies and rubbed his rock-hard shaft through his clothing. “You want to slide this cock deep inside me, just like you did so many years ago.”

  “I do.” He flipped her and pinned her wrists to the floor on either side of her head. The hard press of his body wiped the smile from her face and heightened the need she felt. She squirmed beneath him, pressing up against the delicious, rigid side of his shaft. “I want to fuck you, but, Daria, please,” he groaned. “You’d regret it in the morning and I don’t want to be one of your regrets.”

  Despair filled her. He couldn’t reject he
r now, not when this desperation for release seared her. She tossed her head and moaned, fighting the pleadings that crowded the back of her throat. She wouldn’t beg him, but the need to do it felt almost irresistibly strong.

  “Please.” The word came out of her twisted, choked, desperate. “I need you, Alejandro.”

  Alejandro made a frustrated sound. His hand slipped between her thighs and found her clit. Methodically, he used the hard hem of her pants against the aroused bundle of nerves. Daria writhed on the floor beneath him, moving her thighs in time to his touch. “This will make you feel better.”

  “It’s not enough. More,” she moaned.

  He hesitated, then his breath hissed out of him. “You’re going to kill me with this, Daria.” Alejandro undid the button and zipper of her pants and slid them down and off along with her panties. Cool air bathed her bare skin.

  She thrust her own hands between her thighs, but he gently pushed them away. Dragging his strong fingers over her hot, flushed pussy, his breath hissed out of him. “You want my cock, here, baby, don’t you?”

  Daria bit her lower lip and nodded. Oh, so bad . . .

  He slid a finger inside her, stretching muscles that hadn’t stretched that way in a long, long time. With the pad of his index fingers, he rasped over her G-spot. Her breath shuddered out of her. “Just like that, querida? Is that how you want me to fuck you?”

  “Yes,” she breathed.

  “Good. Spread those pretty legs of yours and let me make you come.” His voice sounded ragged, hoarse.

  She tossed her head as he added one more finger, stretching her muscles even more, but not as far as his cock would. He thrust in and out of her, making her body rock back and forth on the floor of the tent.

  Her cunt was wet and eager, tingling with the erotic pleasure Alejandro bestowed on her. Daria was drunk on it, lost to it. She couldn’t stop herself from digging her heels into the floor of the tent and moving her hips in time to his thrusts.

  Daria’s hands found the hem of her shirt and pushed upward, finding her breasts so she could roll her nipples between her fingers. Her whole world was only about getting off right now, finding release for the intense sexual pressure the Choosing had built in her.