Bound In Death (A Vampire and Werewolf Romance) by Cynthia Eden

room. Her eyes were on the bed.
    How he’d like to strip her and
take
her on that bed.
    The wolf inside was clawing at him, so desperate for the woman he’d been denied for far too long. 
    More than a lifetime. Hell, more than two lifetimes. Did she have any idea what he’d done for her?
    He exhaled slowly. Forced his muscles to unclench.
    If she knew, she’d probably be running. Screaming.
    Instead, she turned slowly to face him. Her hair brushed across those glass-sharp cheekbones.  “I don’t like being in the dark.”
    His brows rose. “Most vamps do.”
    “That’s not what I—” Jane began, frustration flashing across her face, but then she stopped. Seemed to catch herself. Or maybe she just thought better of yelling at him.  She cleared her throat and said, “I don’t know about the others.” She tightened her hands into little fists. “I just know about me.  Until tonight…” She gave a broken laugh. “I thought I was the only freak out there.”
    Anger hummed through him, and Alerac found himself crossing the room in quick strides. “You’re not a freak.” If anyone dared to call her that with him near…
    Last mistake that person would make. Last.
    Her smile was sad. “Everything I know about the world, I’ve pretty much learned from TV. I don’t remember anything about my life until six months ago. I even had to teach myself to read and I-I’m still not very good at that.” Shame whispered beneath that confession. 
    The instant she is free…I want her to forget.
Lorcan’s words drifted through Alerac’s mind.  The bastard. Alerac had thought he just meant that she would forget the pain of her imprisonment. All of those desperate years that she’d been trapped.
    But Lorcan had taken every instant of her life away. Every memory.
    “I need a witch.”
    Jane blinked at him.  “Do what now?”
    Not just any witch. He’d need a very powerful one. “You’re under a spell.”
    She looked at him as if he were crazy. A growl worked in his throat. “I turned into a wolf right before your eyes. You’re a vampire.  Did you truly think nothing else out of the ordinary existed?”  The shadows were full of monsters. She needed to realize that fact in order to keep surviving.
    “Maybe I didn’t want them to exist.” A quiet confession.
    What would he have to trade in order to the get the aid of a powerful witch?  The price would be high. It always was. “We’ll get your memory back.”
    Her head tilted as she stared up at him. “Do I want it back?”
    No.
There was no way that she could want to remember her imprisonment.
Maybe I can keep that part from her. Maybe I can get a witch who will pull up only memories before the day she traded her life for mine. 
    “How do you know me? Were we…were we friends?” Before he could answer—and he didn’t want to lie, not to her—Jane shook her head. “Heath told me that you tracked vampires. That you killed them.”
    True enough. He’d killed countless vampires over the centuries.   
    “Are you going to kill me?” Asked so softly as fear slid into her eyes.
    “If I wanted you dead, I could have killed you behind Wylee’s Bar.” He could have killed the bouncers
and
her. Instead, he’d let the men live.
    For her. 
    Jane swallowed.
    “Your death isn’t what I want.”
    “What do you want?”
    “I already told you,” and because he couldn’t keep his hands off her, not for even another second, he pulled her against him. “
You.”
    When her lips parted in surprise, he took her mouth. The kiss should have been softer. She was delicate, almost broken, and he hated that. He wanted her strength back. Wanted her passion.
    Yes, he should have used gentleness with her. Care. But he wasn’t human, and easy wasn’t the way of the beast.
    His tongue thrust into her mouth as he lifted her up against him. So small. He took three steps, and he had her body pinned against the wall.
    He would have gone straight for the bed, but he