Fated Blood: A paranormal erotic romance series (The Twisted Destiny Saga Book 5)

THE TWISTED DESTINY SAGA

BOOK FIVE

FRANCA STORM

Edited, Produced, and Published by Writer’s Edge Publishing

All rights reserved.

© 2015 by Franca Storm

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

All characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

* * * The Redemption Series * * *

Over The Line

Undertow

Reckoning

Salvation

* * * Twisted Destiny Saga * * *

Fated Desire

Fated Betrayal

Fated Ties

Fated Love

Fated Blood

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CHAPTER 1

Her claws bit into his biceps and she gasped, “Ryan, look at me.”

He hissed and pulled out. “On your knees, Jada.”

“Ryan—” she started to protest.

“On. Your. Knees,” he repeated, cutting her off.

She made a disgruntled growl and begrudgingly complied, climbing onto her knees and pushing her ass into the air. Just the way he liked her.

Despite her little protest there, he knew she couldn’t deny him anything. The pull she felt to him was too strong. Whatever he wanted, she gave him, just to be near him. He was well aware.

He came to her every night but it still wasn’t enough. She wanted him with her all the time but he wouldn’t give her that. The only thing he
would
give her was mind-blowing sex. They didn’t even talk anymore. It had been that way for the last three weeks.

Since
her
.

She moaned as he slid his index finger along her soaking wet slit. He growled in appreciation. He always enjoyed the sounds she made.

And then he plunged his cock into her in one sudden thrust, burying himself inside her right to the hilt. She screamed.

He didn’t waste any time being gentle. He never did anymore. He fucked her hard, his claws digging painfully into her ass. He was merciless; his thrusts were brutal and his grunts were almost painful.

He felt her pussy clamp down around his cock and she shrieked out her release. She was done. But
he
wasn’t.

He didn’t stop. He kept fucking her for several long minutes before he suddenly pulled out with an angry groan. He hadn’t come. Yet again.

He collapsed onto the bed beside her with a frustrated sigh and before she could reach for him, he turned away from her onto his side.

“Ryan,” she said gently, stroking his arm.

He tensed under the contact but she didn’t pull back. “Don’t,” he murmured.

“Just talk to me, Ryan.”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” he muttered.

“You’re hurting because of what happened to Cora.”

At the sound of that name on her lips, he bolted off the bed and yelled over his shoulder, “Don’t say her name!”

He snatched his boxers off the floor and pulled them on quickly.

“Why do you come to me when you’re only thinking about her?”

He spun around angrily. “Because it’s the only time I feel
anything
. It’s the bond thing between us. Okay?”

“But it’s not enough? Not what you had with her? You feel the loss of it since she…died?”

As Ryan slid on his jeans, he saw the hurt on her face. But he just couldn’t find it within him to reassure her, to take it away. He didn’t have that anymore. He didn’t have
anything
.

“What do you want from me?” he thundered.

“You!” she screamed back. “I want
you
, Ryan!”

“I come to you. We fuck. You get off. Isn’t that enough?” he asked as he snatched his shirt off the floor and pulled it on.

“You don’t even come.”

He growled low in his throat. “We’re not talking about that.”

“You won’t even look at me when we make love.”

He scoffed. “
Make love
? You and I have never done
that
. We fuck. That’s it. I thought you enjoyed it. If you don’t, please fucking let me know.”

“I do, but—”

He shrugged on his leather jacket and pulled out a pair of sunglasses and slipped them on. He turned back to her. “I thought so.”

“Ryan!”

Throwing up his hands, he bellowed, “I don’t have anything more to give you! Understand that!”

She started to cry.
Oh, fuck this bullshit.
He turned away and, without looking back, he bolted from the room, slamming the door behind him.

#

Nathanial watched from the shadows as Ryan rushed out of the guest room where Jada was staying. He’d only made it a few steps down the corridor before slamming his fist into the wall. A pained roar ripped from his throat. Nathanial had never heard anything like it. It cut right through him.

He watched him slide down the wall, collapsing to his knees as he broke down. His broken sobs echoed down the deathly quiet corridor.

Nathanial heard him murmuring Cora’s name in sorrow. And then Orion’s.

He wanted to go to him, to comfort him, but he knew better. Ryan wasn’t ready for that yet. He’d come to know him well. Ryan dealt with things on his own first. He’d seek help when he was ready and Nathanial would be there for him when he did. But until then, all he could do was keep a close eye on him. Aside from his personal feelings towards him, there were also his duties as King of the Dark Realm. So far Ryan hadn’t shown any sign of weakness outwardly. They’d completed the
coronation ritual
two weeks ago, effectively cementing peace between wolves and vampires in the realm—something that hadn’t happened for two centuries. Ryan had been strong and decisive in his new role as Wolf King of the Dark Realm. But Nathanial knew that he was just going through the motions. He was keeping busy. In the human realm, he had been working non-stop to relocate all of the wolves who had been under his care for so long at the wolf compound. With Michael and Luca now on their side, there was no longer any threat against them, so they could return to their lives. Unfortunately, many of the packs’ homes had been destroyed during the height of Michael and Luca’s threat. Ryan had enlisted their help to rebuild them. Given their supernatural abilities, the work had been completed quickly. Now the compound was empty. Ryan’s pack had returned to their homes outside the compound and Ryan had returned to his biker bar.

But despite the stability that Ryan projected to the wolves under his command and to their subjects in the Dark Realm, Nathanial knew that, beneath it, Ryan was drowning.

He’d lost his son and his wife on the very same day.

He never took his sunglasses off—even on the darkest of nights. He was shielding his grief behind them. Nathanial had seen him remove them once when Ryan had assumed no one was watching and he’d seen the exhaustion in his eyes, the prominent dark circles. He didn’t sleep, that much was obvious. He didn’t shave anymore either. His normal five o’clock shadow had grown into an unruly beard. And his hair was a wild mess—barely washed most of the time, except during meetings of the court. Yes, he was right on the edge. And Nathanial was there in the shadows, always watching him, to make sure he didn’t fall over it.

He and Michael had postponed their investigation into the odd bond between Ryan and Jada. For one, Ryan needed her right now. It was, at best, at least some sort of relief. And secondly, they had refocused all of their efforts on finding Orion and that evil bitch, Oriana. Marella and Shaye had joined in the search. But despite the immense reach that all of them had, they hadn’t found any concrete leads. There had been a couple, which had turned out to be nothing but false hope. Nathanial knew that Ryan had secretly been ripping into his contacts in the human realm in his own search. His friend, Josh, had been at his side and managed to prevent him from taking things too far. Thankfully, it had saved Nathanial from having to get involved. The wolf seemed to have an inexplicable calming effect on his Alpha, saving Nathanial from being forced to use a heavy-handed approach to keep Ryan in line.

Losing his son had been hard enough. And then with Cora’s death, the bond between them had been broken and left him as such. Whenever a mating bond as strong as what the two of them had shared was broken, it left a hole in the surviving mate—an unbearable emptiness. Nathanial knew that Ryan had convinced Luca to lift his magic over Jada’s room so he could go to her. And he hadn’t stopped him. Ryan didn’t know that he was aware that he was coming to her every night. He allowed it, because Ryan needed it. He needed to feel
something
. Unfortunately, his grief over Cora’s death was unwittingly weakening the connection between him and Jada. He’d heard enough of their fights to know that much.

After several minutes, he watched as Ryan climbed to his feet and pulled out a flask from his leather jacket pocket. He took several large gulps and then stowed it away before releasing a heavy sigh and walking off down the corridor to make his way back to the human realm.

Nathanial shook his head sadly and then turned away.

CHAPTER 2

Luca sat by her bed, stroking her silky, black hair gently. He missed the sight of her beautiful, blue eyes. They were closed. They had been for the last three weeks. There hadn’t been any change in her condition. All he could do was wait. He wouldn’t accept defeat. He wouldn’t give up hope; not like Ryan had. His brother wouldn’t even come to the vampire mansion to see her. It was that whole age-old vampire versus werewolf rivalry—Ryan couldn’t bear to think of her in that way. Sure, he was close with the ultimate vampire—Luca’s father, the Vampire King. But when it came to the woman he loved, it was different for him.
It had been his call! He’d given me the go-ahead to do it!

All Luca had been able to think about since the events of that awful day was the way he’d made love to her in his bed just hours earlier. It hadn’t been just fucking. She’d been there with him. As much as she’d tried to deny it, he’d seen it for himself. He’d
felt
it. He wanted nothing more than to take her again, to give her the love that she deserved.

“Luca,” Michael greeted as he walked into the room. “Any change?”

Luca looked up and shook his head sadly.

“Nathanial said that this is the first time a vampire has ever turned a non-human. The normal two or three days doesn’t apply. It’ll happen,” Michael told him.

“She’s not completely dead—not like a human would be in her condition. Can you feel it?”

“Yes. White energy. It’s confounding. It shouldn’t be possible.”

“I know,” Luca murmured as he planted a soft kiss on her forehead. “She’s special.”

“When she wakes up, he might want her back, Luca.”

Luca scoffed. “He hasn’t come to see her once in the last three weeks.”

“He’s not vampire. He just sees her current state as death. But when she wakes, his perspective might change.”

“Their bond is already broken.”

“Perhaps.”

Luca’s gaze snapped to his. “You don’t think so?”

“The way he grieves for her would suggest that it is not broken on his end, only hers.”

Luca thought about it for a moment and then he snapped, “I am her Sire!”

Michael folded his arms across his chest and scrutinized him. “You wish to use that influence to affect her choices?”

Luca breathed a heavy sigh. “No. It won’t be…real if I do that. Same as compulsion.” He climbed off the bed and approached Michael. “Anyway, you didn’t just come here to ask me about her. What do you need?”

“Nathanial wishes you to go to your brother tonight. Ryan has a lead on his son’s whereabouts and Nathanial would like you to use your compulsion to help him get the answers he seeks.”

“Why didn’t he contact me himself?”

“Because you are blocking his ability to communicate with you so you can spend all of your time here with her with no interruptions.”

“Where is Josh? I thought he was keeping an eye on him while he’s in the human realm?”

“Busy dealing with a dispute among a wolf pack at the edge of the city. He’s miles away.”

“Fuck. Fine,” Luca said with an exasperated sigh. “Where is this supposed lead of his?”

Michael looked at him intensely as he revealed, “
Infernus.
”

Luca’s eyes were wide with disbelief. “You’re serious?”

“Have I ever been anything else?”

“Kristoff’s club?”

“The very one,” Michael responded with amusement.

Luca growled. “You find this amusing? After what happened the last time Kristoff and I were in the same room together?”

Michael chuckled. “It will be quite the reunion, I’d imagine. I wonder if he’s still with Amelia.”

Amelia. That whore.
“Don’t speak of her.”

“A beauty, though.”

“Yes. But in the end, nothing but a common whore.”

“I think you were more insulted that Kristoff was able to seduce her in spite of your infamous skills in that area. I don’t know why you expected her to be true to you. What vampire is?”

Agitated, Luca waved his hand at the bed and said, “
She
will be.”

Michael scoffed. “You’re kidding yourself.
Perhaps
later on. But initially she’ll be like any other newbie—craving blood and sex.”

“And I will be here to satisfy both hungers.”

“I’m sure that will go over well with Ryan.”

Luca hesitated.
Shit, that asshole is right as usual.
“Look, I have somewhere to be. Get out. I’m not leaving you in here with her.”

Michael held up his hands in innocence. “Not my type.”

Luca rolled his eyes. “Sure. Just keep in mind that, as her Sire, I will know if
anyone
comes within a couple of feet of her. I will feel any change in her immediately.”

“I know how it works, you fool,” Michael said as he opened the door.

Luca ushered him out of the room. He looked back at Cora quickly and then left, locking the door behind him.