Blood Bound
B***d Bound Chapter 8

WITHIN THE CHILLINGLY dark depths of the concealed cavern, Xavier curled his fingers and dug his blade-like claws into the skin of his palm, piercing easily through the thin layer of flesh, again and again. Several beads of red welled along the crescent cuts and slowly trickled down his hand towards his elbow, slickly dripping on the cold floor.

The continuous sound of his b***d striking against the hard surface echoed in the silent cavern.

His little sorceress was late, having missed her usual feeding time by nearly one day now.

Xavier had kept track.

Regardless of the lack of light, he could still pinpoint the correct hour of the day. Over the excruciatingly long centuries of his existence, he had already perfected such a grueling thing.

Since Maya had defiantly disregarded the call of his b***d and blatantly ignored him, he had to employ such a tactic to summon her. Albeit this may raise her defenses and give her a clue to how easily he could manipulate her, it was beyond necessary at this point.

The ritual had to be completed.

If she were any more late, he feared they would miss the b***d moon.

By then, the whole ritual would become ineffective and they would lose much more than they would gain. And that was not what he wanted.

Since the last time she’d taken his b***d, he’d duly noted her hesitation.

The slight frown on her pouty lips.

The long pause before drinking his b***d.

The doubt and uncertainty that colored her green eyes.

It was obvious his little sorceress was having second thoughts. And that would not do.

Although Xavier had thought of going to collect the dark sorceress, he didn’t want to startle her and have her flee before all her hard work could take effect.

As for her barriers and spells, he wasn’t much too worried about them. They didn’t affect him like they did in the beginning. Not anymore. Because one of the wonderful benefits of this ritual was mutuality.

While Maya was gaining his powers, he was also gaining her powers. With it, he could manipulate her traps and dark magic.

For instance, he was able to freely traverse her cavern without causing any disturbances. Since her magic recognized his presence within her, recognized he belonged to her, her spells had become useless pieces of paper adhered to his body and her deadly traps no longer worked against him.

Other than that, he recently discovered he had acquired immunity to silver. It no longer harmed him like it had before. Instead of leaving his skin charred over until flesh dripped off of bone, it currently laid docile and useless around his thick wrists.

Xavier Thaeos was practically invincible now.

At the enlightening thought, a feral smirk bloomed on his full lips.

As Xavier stretched his stiff shoulders, movement from the corner of his vision stopped him in his tracks. His golden eyes quickly zoomed in on the subject of his fixation.

The little sorceress came stumbling into the dark cavern, bringing in an array of light. Her red hair billowed around her dainty shoulders and sweat collected on her shapely brows.

Although her pretty green eyes glowed incandescently, both orbs lacked focus. That was, until her vision focused on the drops of red gradually seeping from his palm.

You finally made it, little sorceress, he said, calmly leaning back against the wall in an obedient ruse.

Maya didn’t reply.

She had been trying to ignore the tempting call of his b***d ever since she left Marion’s place. But that was easier said than done.

His b***d had become quite lethal, managing to draw her to his exact location in less than a handful of minutes. As a result, all her black magic disappeared since she’d used most of it to come to him.

At this point, it wasn’t hard to see that she was addicted to the wicked substance.

Maya’s breath came out in ragged pants and her fingers curled into a fist.

There was a constant tremor in her hands, and her usually lucid concentration was entirely tainted by him.

By his b***d.

The scent of it was strong and compelling to her deranged senses, almost like a fine cognac as it wafted under her nose.

In the beginning, Maya had consumed a cup of his b***d every day. Though it was hard to take at first, she’d gradually got used to it, gradually looked forward to the spicy burn down her throat.

Now, she drank almost two cups a day to temporarily quench the terrifying thirst that reared its head every couple of hours.

By the looks of it, Xavier Thaeos currently had absolute control over her. If he wanted, he could oh-so-easily manipulate her with his b***d and she would willingly grovel at his feet for just one drop. Had it not been for her remaining sense of control, she would have dropped to her knees and licked the substance right off the floor!

Grimacing, Maya found herself stumbling closer to the cunning Alpha before dropping to her very knees before him, practically groveling at his feet.

Had she any common sense left, she would have tried to stop herself or attempted to kill him for such humiliation, but most thoughts had already left her.

Maya’s mouth was quick to replace reprieve on his skin. Her soft lips attached to the droplets of b***d oozing from the gaps of his fingers, and the pleasurable sparks bubbled in her mouth.

Before long, her instincts took over, her brain took leave, and her thoughts jumbled together.

Xavier noted her progressive loss of control.

A dark smirk stretched upon his lips and curled in a sinister and ominous way as he glanced down at Maya’s beautiful face.

Now that she stood within the barrier, the scent of her arousal, thick and heavy, completely wrapped around all his senses.

He could smell spider lilies fully bloomed in the night mixed with wild plumerias, sweet and intoxicating to his augmented senses. It was far more pleasant than anything he had ever scented in his long lifetime, and he felt himself become drunk with each intake of breath.

Xavier’s eyes darkened as she continued to lap at the addictive substance, suckling against the skin of his knuckles until her whole body trembled in the beginning of orgasmic rapture. The entrancing vision she created and the torturous sensations of her sensuous licking caused his b***d to rush through his veins in torrents, centering on his lower belly.

Xavier licked his suddenly dry lips and bit back a g***n as she kissed her way down his elbow to lap at the dried b***d there.

He could only imagine how pleasurable her pretty lips would be wrapped around his thick c**k, taking every magnificent inch into that warm and wet orifice of hers. In response to his imagery, his flaccid shaft grew taut, straining against the thin fabric of his pants, and a large bulge formed.

With a harsh inhale of breath, the Cardinal Alpha’s free arm lifted. His fingers curled around the silken red strands of her hair, watching as it slipped through the cracks of his fingers like water through a crevice.

He petted her delicate head, distracting himself enough to keep his mind off the primal urges to dominate her mortal body in a vicious rutting that would leave her mildly debilitated…for days.

His hardened shaft twitched at the mental image, and it took much effort on his part to temporarily divert his attention away from the bewitching little sorceress, lest his bestial side came out and play.

‘Soon,’ his beast purred in unrest.

‘Yes. Soon. Very, very soon.’

Maya shakily seated herself on the leather couch inside her little apartment, failing to see Everette enter through the window and stand right in front of her.

You okay? Everette asked, raising a white brow.

Yes. Just fine, Maya replied stiffly, staring at her shaking hands in a drunken stupor.

You sure? You seem kind of out of it, Everette tried to verify, worry blooming on her face at the dark sorceress’s oddly blank expression. She had never seen Maya this way before, and it was starting to scare her.

Yes. Maya gazed up at the young girl, trying to keep her vision steady, but miserably failed. It was extremely hard to get off the high his b***d brought her, regardless of how much she’d tried. “I’m

just a little tired.”

Okay. Well, here’s the information you wanted on the werewolves, Everette announced, setting a bunch of scrolls down on the coffee table in front of Maya.

The dove shifter worriedly glanced at Maya one last time before shrugging her shoulders, deciding to just go with the flow.

Thank you, the dark sorceress replied weakly.

After that, she’d completely zoned out, dazedly noting Everette had left right after saying some other words she’d failed to hear.

Although it was very rude of her, Maya couldn’t help it.

Her mind was a jumbled mess because of the big problem on her hands.

There was only one day left of the ritual and she was considering putting a halt to her plans.

If the Alpha hadn’t summoned her to him with his b***d, she would have confidently continued with the ritual and belatedly realized the torrential consequences thereafter. But now that she was aware of the dire situation, she could not continue to blindly fool herself.

Maya sighed and decided to re-read the b***d ritual.

When she finished going through the contents again, she realized there was one last step required after she finished the nine days of drinking his b***d. But the scroll did not state what it was. Instead, there was some type of puzzling haiku that required solving at the very end. And she did not have the time for it.

It read:

When two come bound

are not Moon paired

the gift of both

shall not be shared.

Just lovers’ bond

so pure and true

can save the soul

not one but two.

Thus merge of b***d

and soul will mend

all rift and tear

when two lives end.

After reading it for the Nth time, Maya couldn’t figure it out for the life of her. So she spent the next few hours reading through all the scrolls to gain a little more insight on the werewolf kind.

From what she had read so far, the only other ritual standing out among the rest was their mating ritual.

It was something along the lines of connecting a male and female’s life forces, binding them together in an old age ceremony known for being quite irreversible.

It was a permanent union of some sort.

Going through the lines again, the dots connected and the bigger picture was quickly formed in her mind.

Moon paired meant a couple handpicked by the moon gods to be joined in a marital union. These two werewolves were known as mates.

If only those who were moon paired could share each other’s powers then didn’t that mean…

Maya’s face paled immediately in response to the horrifying notion, but she quickly dismissed the thoughts to continue with the research in a way to momentarily distract herself.

By the time the sun finally approached the horizon, Maya had come to a deadening realization. She couldn’t continue to deceive herself when all the evidence was right in front of her face.

The ritual she had activated was not a power-sharing ritual.

It was something exceedingly intimate and vast, resembling some animalistic ceremony werewolves created to bind their life partner. Some type of b***d-binding ceremony.

No.

Not quite b***d-binding.

It was a soul-binding ceremony.

The merging of two souls into one.

An act so precarious and sacrosanct even the smallest of mistakes could end the lives of two beings.

Marion had been right.

She had bitten off way more than she could chew.