The Blood That Binds Us (The Bound By Blood Series Book 1)

by Erin Mainord

One little flick of my wrist and her head would explode.

Because one is never enough. Not for someone like me. When my kind decides to kill, there is no washing the cherry red stain from our palms, no wiping the cardinal splatter from our chins.

I am a bloodwitch—no, a blood queen. And a queen bows for no one.

“I am no one’s possession.” Sin drops his hands into his trouser pockets and takes a few steps towards me. His eyes drop to where the fabric of my dress clings to my hip. “My mark on your skin says otherwise.”

“This way, should you tighten the lines of that pretty mouth again, I’ll know you’re about to strike me. Which I’ll remind you, you’ve done three times now. May I suggest we not go for the fourth? I’m not sure how much longer I can cage my temper.” He turns and continues walking towards the stables, and my black leather boots unglue themselves from the path a second later. “Choking me against a wall is caging your temper?”

“The only thing my lady will be choking on are your innards when I feed them to her.”

“Whether you care to admit it to yourself or not, the second I put that heart on your pretty hip, you became mine. And I do not take kindly to others touching my things.”

“Does this mean I’m not a cute brunette anymore?” I ask with eyes closed, still focusing on taking steadying breaths to keep myself from hollering my way through the pain. In no doubt an effort to distract me from the crushed bone that was once my rib, he lowers his lips to my ear and says, “I prefer blondes anyway.”

Singard Kilbreth—reaper of souls and darkness incarnate—vowed to slaughter a bloodwitch’s enemy in her honor.

“Such a filthy mouth you have. I’m beginning to think you enjoy my hands around your throat, little witch.”

“I will rip the hearts out of every single one of your men and feast on them. My only regret will be if I kill them too quickly and deprive myself the pleasure of hearing them beg for their lives before I do. I bet they’ll sing real fucking pretty with my blade at their cocks, don’t you?”

“I heard what he said to you. I was trying to get to you as fast as I could and was going to change at the last minute, but then he… he hit you, and it was like I couldn’t think clearly anymore. In that moment, when he put his hands on you, I didn’t want to change back. I wanted to feel him die in my jaws.”

“And when you’re aroused,” his eyes flash to mine with a smirk that is pure sinful, “you smell like fucking starlight.”

“Oh, and starlight,” he calls after me. Please don’t let this be my new nickname. “Try to keep your moaning down when you pleasure yourself tonight, dearest. I need my beauty sleep.”

“If you’re asking if I’ve spilt seed thinking about this pretty little mouth,” he runs his thumb over the swells of my lips, “the answer is yes.”

“Someone could hear us,” I say, looking at the guards chortling with each other as they make their rounds beneath us. “Good, then they’ll know you’re mine. Wren—what a pretty name. Let’s see if you sing like one too.”

“Good, then they’ll know you’re mine. Wren—what a pretty name. Let’s see if you sing like one too.”

“Just like that, love. That’s a good fucking girl,” he growls in my ear. “Lean back and sing for me, Wren.”

I may not be familiar with battle tactics, but I’m quite certain fucking the enemy on your work desk isn’t recommended.

“I was never going to let him even touch you. And when he tried, there wasn’t a force in the realm that could have caged that anger. He was dead the same second he even thought about you that way.”

“Such a good girl,” he breathes against my delicate skin. “Now listen very carefully, Wren. I’m going to fuck you with your dagger so that the next time you think of pulling it on me, you’ll remember how I made you come all over it.”