Hunger in His Blood (Brides of the Kylorr, #3)

by Zoey Draven

Besides…even if it’s a little broken, that doesn’t mean it can’t be beautiful again.”

This human woman—a keeper in my employ—was mine. My blood mate. My kyrana. I only needed a whiff of her blood to know that with the utmost certainty. And I wished I had never stepped foot in this room because of it.

Without the perfume, she smelled like…mine. I felt the possessiveness rise, my chest straightening, my heartbeat beginning to throb.

I wanted to love someone. I was desperate to. I felt I had so much love to give, if only someone would give me the chance.

His voice was guttural and low when he said, “Never hide your true scent from me again, Erina.”

“Erina is a sweet girl, Kaldur,” she said quietly. “Be careful with her. I don’t think she’s had an easy life…but I also think she’s too naive for someone like you. For this life. For your life.”

“And she doesn’t deserve to be broken,” Maudoric finished. “You wouldn’t mean to do it. But she’s not hardened enough to withstand it.”

“There will be no ridiculous fantasies of a courtship or of love, do you understand?” he asked. I nearly flinched. “You’re young, but you’re not that young. Don’t romanticize this—or me. Certainly not me. I’ll only disappoint you.”

“Even when you think you have nothing, you are rich in imagination and more wealthy if you’re creative. That is the key to a happy, content life. At least I think so.”

“Vaan, I want you so fucking much, Erina. And I hate that. I hate that I need you like this.”

“I can’t resist you, Erina,” he whispered, lowering himself over my back. His lips met the shell of my ear. “I just want to drown in you.”

“Growl at me like that again, dallia, and I’ll show you that even in this state, I can fuck you until dawn breaks.”

“Take everything from me,” Kaldur rasped against my throat. And I shivered when I felt his hot tongue lick at the spilling blood from my neck. “Take it all, my love.”

do you think it’s better to have grieved those you lost, felt that terrible pain, or to have never known true grief to begin with?”

“I…I would choose to grieve.” “Why?” “Because it means you loved someone to grieve them,” she said. “That’s a beautiful thing. A special thing.”

“I can’t promise that I’ll never hurt you again. I think we both know I can be a stubborn, hardheaded bastard, and I intend to live a long life with you. In terms of time, the odds are against me there. But I can promise that I will always choose you. I won’t ever turn my back on you. Never again. Because I see you now, Erina Denoren. And I never want to look away.”

“A broken heart can become a terrible weapon if you’re not careful,

“Say it again,” he growled. I softened, relief making me dizzy. Such simple words, and yet…they’d meant everything to me. I held his eyes. I reached up to touch his lips, feeling them part between my fingertips. “I love you,” I said quietly as the moon winds howled outside the hallway. “I’ve loved you since I first saw you the day I came to work in your keep. I thought that it was an innocent love. But now I think a part of my soul recognized you as mine that day, and it’s been captured by you ever since.”

I loved him with every jagged piece of me. Every piece of me that had been heartbroken, every piece of me that had been mistrustful and lonely. Every piece of me that admired him in the careful lines of my sketches, a face I could never escape because he was always at the forefront of my mind, my constant companion. He had filled those empty places of my heart with patience and steadiness. He was in my stories. He was in my dreams. I fell asleep beside him, and I woke to him every beautiful dawn.