Blood Bound
B***d Bound Chapter 9

THE MORNING AIR WAS chilly and crisp, seeping through the thick fabric of Maya’s cloak, as she marched her way towards her keep.

Her footsteps were heavy, and a worried frown marred her usually confident face. It was etched upon her plump lips and evident on the furrow of her delicate brows.

After a night of no sleep and ceaseless turmoil, Maya had painstakingly decided to confront the Cardinal Alpha. She needed justification for the answers her research had presented, before she could make her next decision.

Although she’d desperately wanted to continue the ritual, she couldn’t blindly put herself into harm’s way.

Maya was human.

She was selfish and just as greedy as her forefathers.

You know, little sorceress, it’s been a while now since we have been acquainted, but I have yet to know your name, he remarked, noting her solemn approach, and purposefully tried to provoke her with his words. “Let me guess. Is it Emily, Dallia, Jessica, Noemi, or, perhaps, Maya?”

His sharp eyes took note of the grave expressions on her face before she could quickly mask it behind a fortifying layer of indifference.

It seemed his little sorceress had finally figured it out. And much faster than he had expected.

I still prefer to call you ‘little sorceress,’ though, he continued to say.

Maya refused to reply to his taunting.

Her pretty face darkened and became icy cold at his playful words and impeccable acting.

She failed to keep calm after that.

“You knew didn’t you?” she accused scathingly, tossing the ancient scroll at him in the midst of her raging fury.

The Cardinal Alpha didn’t flinch in the least, choosing to rest his head against the cold stone with an annoyingly calm smirk on his lips.

The scroll’s fabric unfurled midair and slammed thunderously into the wall right by his relaxed head. It then bounced off the hard surface to lay innocently by his feet.

The entire cavern became quiet.

Before long, the playful expression on the Alpha’s face hardened in a threatening, almost predatory-like manner. And his citrine-colored eyes narrowed, diligently honing in on her pliant form like a cat would a mouse.

The world lost color for a split second.

Maya took a shaky gasp of breath, and her heart pounded violently within her chest. She silently watched as all his pretenses came shattering down in an array of wicked smirks and opalescent eyes.

Then, his hauntingly ominous chuckle resounded within the hollow depths of the cold chamber.

In response to his husky laugh, the hairs on the back of Maya’s neck stood on end and she couldn’t remove her gaze from the powerful male.

The golden-eyed Alpha looked like death and sin in a mix of lethally handsome features.

Brutally cold and mercilessly vicious.

This was the true Xavier Thaeos.

The notorious monster everyone feared like a deadly affliction.

What had she done?

“Did you really think I would let just anyone take my b***d, little sorceress?” He chortled darkly, eyes crinkling in amusement at her surreal innocence.

Maya trembled.

Her fingers clenched tightly at her sides as a colliding sense of terror hit her like a storm over a shaky precipice.

Something in her head clicked.

Loud and clear.

You did it on purpose, she said through gritted teeth and a clenched jaw.

He had purposefully led her into this trap, purposefully led her into thinking his power was in his b***d. And like desperate prey, she had taken the bait.

Hook, line, and sinker.

How awfully wrong could she be?

“I did,” came his haunting reply.

Maya wanted to rip the laughing smirk off his face with her bare hands. But she couldn’t do anything other than take several steps back. Her hand felt for the chair behind her before she sagged on the chilly wood and couldn’t will herself to stand back up.

Maya’s mind was whirling almost a hundred miles a minute, and she couldn’t calm the rapid pounding of her heart or the tremors racking her small frame.

Then why did those other witches… she hesitantly asked, afraid of the answer, yet waited for her assumptions to be confirmed.

A Cheshire grin split across his lips and white canines glinted menacingly in the light. “Because, my little sorceress, only mates can draw power from each other. Can you guess why you’re the only one who can drink my b***d?”

Before Maya could comprehend what was happening, the chains keeping him captive crunched like sand in his fingers and fell off his wrists in a dilapidated heap.

Several seconds after that, the thick chains on his feet shattered and turned into tiny shimmering speckles of silver dust.

It took Maya a minute to realize the concentrated silver, having once burned his wrists in a mess of skin and bones, red and black, no longer harmed him like it had in the beginning.

How could she have forgotten this ritual was mutually beneficial for him and her?

Not only did silver become ineffective in detaining him, but so did all her other fatal spells and strong traps.

What made her possibly think a beast of his caliber could be caged and easily subdued with such meager attempts on her behalf?

Maya’s face became increasingly pale.

She was stunned.

No, she ground out through clenched teeth and a tight throat.

By the time she’d realized this was all his ploy to ensnare her in his devious trap, it was too late. She was currently cornered to the wall like a hopeless rodent before its mighty predator.

She had lost.

So smart, he complimented, chuckling deeply, darkly in response to her trembling visage. Yet so very foolish.

For her to think her modicum of restraints would have any effect on a being of his eminence was truly unwise. But, little sorceress, there is one last step to the ritual.

The Alpha slowly prowled to her side, languidly stretching his burly limbs for the very first time in hours.

As he stepped out of the barrier unharmed, his gargantuan aura expelled with tremendous force, shrewdly surrounding her within its cocoon of electric power and sheer dominance.

When he stood to full height, Maya abruptly realized how much taller and bigger he was compared to her.

He towered over her smaller form by over a head, and even his wrist was twice the size of her own.

Though the Alpha male was intimidating, Maya stood her ground and gritted her teeth before meeting his piercing gaze head-on.

Xavier grinned and had to applaud her for her bravery, for her ability to stand straight in front of his domineering form and stare him right in the eye.

This was something not many have done in the last few centuries. In fact, any who had attempted this stunt usually found their head decapitated from their body just before their eyes could meet his own.

His little mate was brave; he had to give her that.

“Aren’t you going to ask me, Maya?” He grinned down at her horror-stricken face, tasting her name on his lips, with an oddly pleased crinkle of his eyes.

His thick arms laced around her slim waist, and he lifted his little sorceress off the chair until she stood on trembling legs that would not support her weight.

With a slight tug, her entire body stiffly pressed up against his broad chest.

Maya could hear his every heartbeat and smell his masculine scent as it drifted to her nose and surrounded all her senses with freshly cut wood and rain upon evergreen trees.

No, she replied stiffly, her voice a bare whisper of breath. Trepidation radiated off of her in thunderous waves.

Xavier inhaled the sharp, raw scent of fear completely engulfing her body.

It was ecstatic to his deprived senses and brought forth a feeling of disturbingly wicked delight.

His golden eyes lowered and his warm hand clasped underneath her soft chin, tipping her pretty face up towards him. With his other hand settled at her waist, his long fingers stroked her through the thick fabric, as if he could feel her naked flesh against his palms.

I could easily crush her face in the palms of my hands, he thought. But I won’t.

He delicately traced her supple flesh with the pad of his thumb, running his finger repeatedly over her fragrant skin in small, circular patterns.

Maya swallowed thickly, feeling the heat coming from his big hands as it seeped through her cloak and sparked against her back like dancing electricity. She was frozen in her spot and her vision was clouded by the pleasurable tingles of his touch.

Are you sure, little sorceress? We are so close to finishing this ritual. Just one last step and you will be able to permanently have my powers. Does that not tempt you? he murmured, hot breath fanning across her pale cheeks. This is just a small taste of what I can give you. Why quit when the prize is just within hand’s reach?

Maya frowned deeply at his persistent coaxing. Her hands clenched into a tight fist again and her sharp nails dug little crescents into the skin of her palm.

Power was what he had and power was what she wanted. But was it enough for her to place herself on a golden platter and serve it to him?

No.

No, it was not.

The Cardinal Alpha’s vital affirmation had been the last nail in the coffin. It had awakened her from her elusive dream.

Before the dangerous Alpha could utter another word, Maya took a step back, almost out of his embrace, and smirked up at him with a vicious glare that promised vengeance for his trickery. Then, she disappeared in a cloudy swirl of thick black smoke.

And he let her.

As the dark mist cleared, a lazy smirk curled on the corners of the tall Alpha’s lips.

He inhaled deeply, taking in the residual traces of her wondrous scent still lingering in the aftermath of her presence, and brought his hand up towards his face. With a feral glow of his eyes, he languorously kissed her essence off the pads of his fingers.

Like most of his predecessors, Xavier enjoyed a good chase, thrived off of the lamed prey, and felt exalted from its fear and trepidation. Though he wanted to give chase, he decided not to.

He was going to wait until she came to him of her own free will. Hopefully, sooner than later. But he had a feeling otherwise.

With the little time they’d spent together, he’d learned Maya was rather strong-willed. She wasn’t the type to give in or admit defeat. She would fight tooth and nail, broken and bloody, before the thought even crossed her mind. And then, she would still fight.

If he continued to corner her, she might just find a way to reverse the effects of the ritual and permanently hide from him.

Xavier didn’t dare to underestimate her.

Now that she had a portion of his powers to contend with, she would be a force to be reckoned with, if she chose to fight him head-on.

But he knew, come dawn tomorrow, she would be irrevocably his.