Blood Bound
B***d Bound Chapter 17

EVEN THOUGH IT WAS already past noon, the entire room was pitch black and encased in a thick layer of peaceful silence. Occasionally, slight rustling could be heard coming from the large bed each time the dark sorceress shifted her body to replace a comfortable position.

Upon waking, Maya found herself in severe pain.

Her dainty brows had furrowed together into a tight knot and sweat collected on her temple in droplets, matting silky strands of red onto her flushed face.

Albeit she knew mating with the Alpha was going to render the lower half of her body useless, it wasn’t that way at all. In fact, the pain stemmed mainly from her head, while the area in between her legs was just fine and dandy.

When she breathed, it hurt.

When she heard any bit of noise, it also hurt.

When she tried to open her eyes to take in her surroundings, the pain left her mildly debilitated and was just short of taking her breath away. It was to the point that she had to keep her eyes closed to remain sane.

Though her vision had been modified to near perfection when she’d first started drinking the Cardinal Alpha’s b***d, it was now way beyond that.

Maya could see every grain of dirt on the floor several yards away, the tiny fuzz on the threading of the black curtains on the other side of the room, and even the speckles of dust projected by the little bit of light peeking from the thick fabric.

Every detail was magnified beyond her comprehension, and her brain was having a hard time coping with such a change. She could barely keep her eyes open without taking in too much and causing her brain to become overloaded.

Maya shakily breathed in small bits of air, hoping to lessen the pain, and could smell someone baking an apple pie from miles away. She could perfectly smell and hear everything within a four-mile radius. From the sound of an ant walking across the dirt and into its anthill to the sound of sweat dripping off someone’s back.

The mashup of smells and sounds caused her stomach to turn and her lungs to heave.

From what she could already tell, her visual, olfactory, and auditory senses were even more enhanced now, and it was relentlessly torturing her.

With a strangled exhale of air, Maya buried her face into the pillow beneath her head and found herself immediately calmed by the masculine scent on its surface. The scent of musk and wood, of cold rain in a forest full of evergreen trees, wafted into her nose and seeped straight into her aching lungs.

It was the scent of Xavier Thaeos.

In the midst of her pain, Maya had absently rolled on his side of the bed and plastered her face on his pillow to soothe her inexplicable ailment.

For some reason, her mind kept associating him and his warm scent with home.

Maya’s red lips pursed into a thin line, and her delicate fingers slowly rubbed her temples in an attempt to ease the ache.

This cannot be happening, she thought to herself, unhappy with the sudden dependency.

Maya didn’t intend to stick around or play the role of the Cardinal Alpha’s mate.

Now that she had all his powers at her fingertips, she wanted to go back to planning the next steps in extracting her mother from under Lake Avalon and punishing the people who put her mother there. But first, she had to get herself out of here, before the Alpha came back to replace her.

As for what had happened between them, Maya was going to put it behind her and think of it as a one-night stand, like she had been bitten by a rabid dog…several times.

And if she were lucky, she would never have to see Xavier Thaeos ever again.

After that thought, Maya immediately sprang into action. She kicked off the sheets on her body and used tiny bits of black magic to conjure a full outfit onto her naked body, ignoring the heaviness in her head.

Upon the call of her powers, smooth black cotton wrapped around her figure and created a form-fitting black dress that trailed down to her ankles, stopping just short of the black boots on her sock-covered feet.

Maya slowly stood up and had to lean her weight against the nightstand as her head spun in continuous circles. The overload on her senses made her stomach turn until bile built in the back of her throat.

It took her over ten minutes just to force down the urge to vomit.

After she managed to temporarily tune out a portion of the noises and scents, Maya called upon her black magic.

It surrounded her body and oozed from her curled fists in black tendrils, darkening the air around her like a lethal plague. Then, she completely disappeared, and the room became dead silent again.

_______________________

One-night-stand?

Rabid dog?

Him?

Xavier chuckled under his breath.

Maya’s thoughts had emerged in his mind after they had mated, letting him know every little thing going through her pretty head. It was, indeed, very amusing. But the Alpha knew his little sorceress wasn’t going to like it, not at all.

If she were to replace out he was capable of reading her thoughts and venturing through her memories, she would most likely block everything from him. And the wall she was trying to build between them would only thicken and take much longer to eradicate.

Xavier didn’t want that.

He only wanted to know as much as he could about her, before she realized the connection between them was capable of more than just binding them together.

If he had a choice, he would like to learn everything from Maya herself, but she would never, willingly, open up to him. Not yet, anyway.

“We will start the training sessions again tomorrow. Anyone who shows up late will have to deal with Gamma Samorn and Gamma Jamal,” Xavier announced, dismissing everyone in the meeting room with a quick wave of his hand.

With the war against the Hunters quickly approaching, he wanted to make his pack as prepared as possible.

Although his pack was already strong, he didn’t want them to let their guards down and slack off. Those who were too ambitious and overly confident might receive a rude awakening when they face-off with the chemically enhanced creatures created by the human government.

Xavier wanted the losses at the minimum; it would be best if there were none.

‘Do something. Our mate is trying to escape,’ his beast whined, cutting into his thoughts with its miserable growls.

‘She cannot go too far,’ he reassured himself and his beast.

Even though Xavier knew Maya wouldn’t stay put for too long, he didn’t think she would try to escape while in such agonizing pain.

He only knew of her suffering because of the dull ache in his head. Since their bond was so strong, everything she felt was relayed to him, albeit in lesser intensity.

Xavier sighed under his breath.

When will the little sorceress learn that running is useless?

In the end, he would always come for her, regardless of how far she had gone.

_______________________

It didn’t take but over one hundred steps for Maya to realize something was wrong.

Terribly so.

Her hands started shaking, her vision became foggy, and her breath was bated as sweat piled on top of her brows. It felt like fifty pounds of lead had been attached to her feet, making every step forward very difficult.

Within a matter of minutes, Maya became weary and nauseous, replaceing it harder and harder to breathe, like she had been running for days on end in the middle of a desert. Her chest felt heavy and cold sweat coated her entire back.

She was compelled to stop in her tracks and catch her breath as she tried to calm whatever this was afflicting her. But even that was useless.

After a minute, she tried to step one foot forward and was forced to take several steps back. It felt like the resistance from trying to pull a rubber band so far apart it angrily snapped back.

Maya soon lost her balance and was sent tumbling to the ground on a patch of thick, dried grass. Then, she wheezed like she was having an asthma attack. And Maya didn’t have asthma attacks. She didn’t have asthma!

As far as she was concerned, she didn’t have any ailment other than the occasional seasonal allergies. But this was concerning, whatever it was.

Not one to give in so easily, Maya gritted her teeth and attempted to stand, but failed to do so. Her limbs would not follow her commands and her painful migraine was starting to come back to life the longer she laid there battling with her body.

Since her black magic was currently her pain pill, Maya panicked as it depleted. She had used every bit last night to deal with the Cardinal Alpha, and now, her well of power hadn’t recovered in time.

Once her magic completely ran dry, the pain resurfaced and was amplified to the max. Even her soul was starting to ache in a burning and painful way, lighting itself on fire like a combustible paint can.

It was making her sick to her stomach.

She felt as if her brain were swelling inside of her cranium. It hurt so badly; she regretted her previous decision to run. She should have waited until the pain had completely disappeared before trying to escape. But there was no point in beating herself up over a poor decision. What she needed to do was replace a solution, quickly.

With her fingers curled around a long stalk of dried grass, the emerald-eyed sorceress slowly turned around and pulled herself into an upright position, leaning against the rough bark of a tall tree.

Since she was still on the Alpha’s territory, she feared some members of his pack would discover her prone figure on the ground and ridicule her for how pathetic she looked. Or even worse, if the members of the Coven of Light found her.

It would truly be game over.

Since Maya was as weak as a baby lamb, she couldn’t fight them off, even if she wanted to. She had no magic and just breathing was causing her pain. If anything, she would be an easy kill for anyone.

“Damn it,” she cursed under her breath, losing herself to the black haze affecting her thoughts.

As darkness gathered at the corner of her vision, the sound of twigs snapping and leaves crunching caught Maya’s attention. She could tell someone was headed her way at an alarmingly fast speed.

Her heart picked up its pace and pounded rapidly in her burning chest, but she could do nothing to stop their approach.

Maya’s trembling fingers curled into a tight fist until the knuckles were pale white.

As this person came closer, the tight and uncomfortable pain deep in her chest lessened. She felt her breath return and her lungs expand with each inhale she took.

From the slits of her eyes, Maya could see the tall figure approaching, and a breath of relief was quickly expelled from her lungs.

With striking eyes the color of topaz gems and tanned skin glowing beautifully in the morning light, Xavier Thaeos came to a standstill before her.

His dark aura was roiling frantically around his muscular form until it slid against the surface of her cool skin and seeped underneath to reach her very core.

Maya felt it travel through her body in soft and calming waves, easing the angry pain slamming at her head with a sledgehammer.

She stifled the urge to shudder, and her body became flaccid as she waited for him to collect her from her perch on the ground.

At this point, she didn’t care if it were Xavier Thaeos or the devil, she only wanted the pain to go away.