Bound By Blood

Chapter 2

Morgan liked to bite. In fact, she was very good with her teeth. But being bitten wasn’t so much her thing.

She stood in the middle of Howling Moon, congealing demon blood getting way too close to her boots, and knew that she’d have to offer her neck.

The wolves surrounded her. Jace held her hand in a deceptively light grip.

“This is Morgan LaBeaux.” Jace’s voice boomed out and every wolf there stilled. When an alpha talked, you damn well listened.

Morgan’s racing heartbeat filled her ears. He kept staring right at her as he said, “She’s my mate.”

“Oh, the fuck no!” The instant denial came from Mike. She’d expected that outburst. What she hadn’t expected—

Jace tore away from her and in an instant, his claws sank into that wolf’s shoulder. “Oh, the fuck, yes,” he snarled right back. “And if you can’t accept her…” He yanked out his claws as Mike stumbled back.

Wolves are brutal. Another Council warning.

“If you can’t accept her,” Jace continued, “then get out of my pack.”

Pain broke rough lines on Mike’s face. “A vampire? You’re tying to a bloodsucker—”

Now she wanted to claw him. The wolves kept acting like Jace was the one trading down. Dude. Vampire princess.

She toed the dead demon’s body. The blood had reached her boots, and it wouldn’t be coming out of the leather. “They'll destroy you.”

Now it was her voice that captured everyone’s attention.

Mike puffed out his bloody chest. “We did a good job of destroying them.”

Yes, they had. And she was impressed, but she wasn’t planning to show it. “You took out two…” Her gaze swept the room. “With twenty to two odds, I should hope you’d win the match.”

Jace lifted a brow and watched her.

She braced her legs and tried to look all kick-ass. “What are your plans when there are two thousand of them…and still just twenty of you?”

“Did that bitch just say two thousand?”

“Two damn thousand?”

Shock coated the faces of the shifters. Even Mike looked nervous. Jace didn’t. He just kept watching her, and he kept his claws out.

“You’re being hunted,” she told them. “How many wolves have the demons taken out in the last few weeks?”

They didn’t answer, but she saw the swift glances that passed between the pack members.

“They’re also attacking us,” she said. “For once, the vampires and the werewolves share an enemy.” Now they were all focusing on her with narrowed eyes and tense faces. “If we don’t take these bastards out, believe me, they will destroy us. They’ve got the numbers on their side. They have the power…”

“So what?” Mike demanded. “An alliance?” He fired a fierce stare at Jace. “Is this just some truce ‘til we kick the ass of album —”

“It’s a mating,” Jace said, voice flat. “It’s forever.”

Until death. “A doorway opened between hel and earth, and the demons are slipping right through that door,” Morgan said. More of the hel spawn came through each day.

“So close the damn door!” Mike snapped.

Jace’s fingers stretched as if he were itching to plunge his claws back into the wolf. Maybe he was.