Aimer (verb) to like; to love

I'd always been a man of few words. They mattered little to me. Instead, I cared about actions.

No matter what my mate may have believed about me or my kind in the past, I knew from this moment on, that she was mine.

Our bond ran deeper than forbidden kisses or carnal desire. We were willing to die for each other.

As much as that meant to me, I intended to spend the rest of my life ensuring that she would never be put in that position again. 

She was my new Blood Treaty. Her body my sacred land. Her breath my oath. Every inch of her mine to protect.

To worship.

Which meant there was only one thing left to do. Kill Hera and take Claire away from here. Everything else would have to be figured out after she was safe.

I locked eyes with her and opened our connection. I tried to convey how sorry I was that she was about to witness the ruthlessness inside me as my fangs lengthened.

My thirst for blood was almost too much to ignore, but I had to. I had to protect her. To save her.

"Prince Bastien," called a faint voice.

Reluctantly, I tore my gaze away from Claire to find the witch who had come to our aid whispering from behind a gravestone.

"I'll bind the ones holding Claire, my prince. Then you attack."

I would've offered her my thanks, but I didn't have it in me to thank anyone.

I was too thirsty to think of anything else but my vengeance.

With one quick movement, I leapt to my feet and clamped my hands around the back of the nearest witch's throat.

After that, I lost track of sense. The monster on me taking control. Killing one after another.

As I moved from body to body, time slowed, or perhaps it sped up, I wasn't sure, as the blood coated my chin and stained my clothes.

I wasn't biting to drink, but to kill, and the taste of vengeance was sweet.

Killing was easier than it should've been. And before long, the witches whose bodies had once filled the graveyard with music and song now lay in a puddle of their own blood or had run for their lives.

All except the woman who was shoved against the same statue Claire had been bound to.

The witch, Hera.

As I stared into her dark eyes, I trembled with rage. An unhinged monster. I wanted to rip her throat out as I'd done to the others, but this one wouldn't get a quick death.

She was going to burn.

"Go ahead, Bastien, make me a martyr," hissed the witch. "Kill me, and it will start the very war you swore you'd prevent. It would go against the sacred oath you took as part of the Blood Treaty."

I glared back at her, barring my teeth. "Well, it's a good thing you revoked our protection."

My reminder stilled her tongue, and I set back to work tightening her binds. Once she was secured, I began piling sticks at her feet, stealing them from the bundles that had been neatly stacked beside the bubbling cauldrons.

"Kill me, and other covens will follow suit, revoking your protection. And then your kind will be undone, leaving you nothing but ash and bone."

Another threat from a scared prisoner. I could smell her fear tainting the air. But her threat was nothing to me.

Grabbing a nearby lantern, I walked over to the pyre I'd created, and tossed it on. Watching as the flames caught.

"Dead witches tell no tales, Hera."

I turned my back on her. And even though her threats continued, they quickly turned to screams as the flames rose higher.

My job was done now that there wasn't a living soul in the graveyard except for the witch Cora, Claire, and her two remaining wolves.

"Bastien!" Claire shouted, and the sound of her sweet voice did something to me that I couldn't explain.

I turned to find her running toward me with her arms spread open wide. There was nothing more beautiful than her in the world. Nothing that I could ever want more.

My heart was desperate for every part of her.

She jumped into my arms, and I squeezed her around the waist as tightly as I dared, holding her against me as I lifted her off the ground. There were no words that I had to describe how good it felt to hold her. To know she was alright. To smell her intoxicating scent.

To feel her reassuring heartbeat as it thudded against my chest.

"You're covered in b-bl—" she stuttered. "I was so worried."

"I'm fine," I reassured her. Rubbing her back in circles as I held her in my arms. "Does the sight of me like this make you ill?"

She hesitated, then said, "The sight of you alive and standing is the only thing I'm focused on right now."

Despite her answer, I carefully set her on her feet long enough to take a red handkerchief from inside my pocket and wipe away the worst of the blood on my face, then tended to the cut on her head. Dabbing away the sticky red trails.

Then I removed my torn shirt and used it to wipe my arms and chest clean.

"Better?" I asked, wrapping my arms around her waist again.

Claire grinned up at me. "A little."

For a brief second, I forgot about everything else in the world except the pull of her warm brown eyes and the way the rising sun made her hair shine.

Our reunion was interrupted when Cora appeared beside us, and I managed to tear my attention away from Claire for a moment to thank her.

She saved me against her family's wishes. And for that, I was in her debt.

"What will you do now?" Claire asked. "Where will you go?"

Cora shrugged, and I noticed she was holding a demonic relic in her hand. The others were stuffed inside a bag.

"Not sure," she replied, casting a forlorn glance at the burning witch. "All I know is that I can't stay here. This place is cursed."

I offered her a place at my court, but she only smiled in reply before snatching up her broom and leaving without another word. Her white raven squawking after her as she took flight.

We watched her silhouette disappear on the horizon in silence. Our breaths mingling in frozen puffs.

We were truly alone. Not another soul around. For the first time ever. Standing in the middle of carnage.

After a moment, I turned my attention back to Claire. Something had changed in her. I wasn't sure if it was her shifting hair color or her new magick, but I could feel the difference.

Thirst for her still burned down my throat, but the small amount of blood that I'd consumed during the fight kept the worst of it at bay.

After a moment of simply staring into each other's eyes, she gathered her silver lilac hair at the nape of her neck and tilted her head to the side.

"Drink," she whispered into my ear as she nuzzled her neck against my lips. The warmth of her skin and the thrum of her pulse like a mirage in a desert. But...

I shook my head. "No. Not yet."

She leaned back to face me and took the sides of my face in her hands. Holding me even though I was a ruin of a man. A cold-blooded murderer. She looked at me like I was still an honorable prince.

"You need me. To be better."

I knew she was talking about her blood, but that wasn't the only thing I wanted from her. No. Far from it.

"You're absolutely right," I said, pressing a kiss to the corner of her mouth. Then another to her jaw. Feathering kisses until I reached the lobe of her ear.

Teasing her with the promise of teeth, but never biting.

"Then take what you need," she demanded. "Don't be stubborn."

I couldn't help the smile that curved my lips.

"There's only one thing I need from you, my darling."

Slowly, haltingly, I slanted my face to hers and brushed our lips together. As soon as our mouths connected, it was as life giving as drinking from her veins.

Her. Just her.

Forever.

She was the only thing I craved more than blood.

Yes, our bond had been forged by the gods, but I'd come to love Claire in my own way. For the woman she was and the quiet fearlessness she possessed.

"Please, Bastien," Claire said, breaking off our kiss. "I need you to live. This can wait until after—"

I swallowed her words with another kiss that was anything but halting. It was demanding. "This can't wait."

Sliding my hands down her ass, I cupped her beneath the thighs and lifted her higher, coaxing her legs around my waist.

"Bastien," she moaned as I sidestepped gravestones and bodies and began walking us toward the now-vacant house. My name so sweet on her lips.

Kicking open the back door, I strode inside the darkened kitchen, kissing Claire's neck as I searched the first floor for a bedroom. Her wolves padded in behind us and curled up beside the door.

"What are you doing?" she asked breathily. "Please, you need to eat."

Pausing, I eased her back against the nearest wall and ground my hips between her thighs. Letting her feel just how well I was. How very alive I felt.

She tried to say my name again, but it turned into a moan when I kissed the soft spot just below her ear. I braced my hand against the wall, rocking into her, but it wasn't enough.

I needed to be closer.

I caught her lips in a kiss that consumed me and somehow made me even hungrier for her. Slowly, I fisted sections of her heavy skirts and dragged them up until my hand could slip between her warm thighs.

Like the starved man that I was, I massaged her sex over her undergarments while she moaned in my mouth. I swallowed each little sound like it was the sustenance I needed to survive.

I'd resisted Claire as long as I could. But now, after what we went through together, I didn't want to wait any longer.

"Bastien, please," Claire gasped between kisses. "Please."

I didn't know what she was begging me for. To let me drink from her or to make her come. By the delicious smell of her arousal, I guessed it was the latter.

But tonight, I wanted more than just to feel her coming on my fingers. I wanted to feel her throbbing around my cock. Sealing our bond until we could never be torn apart.

Tucking my hand inside her undergarments, I found the slick seam of her sex and ran my finger through it. Dipping the tip just inside her tight entrance.

The sound that escaped her lips was delectable.

"I want to make love to you on the bed of our enemies," I whispered. Letting my breath fan across her skin as I continued to curl my finger inside her, coaxing more little whimpers from her. "I want to bury myself inside you, filling you with all the pleasure you deserve while the woman who dared to hurt you burns outside. That's what I need."

I searched her face for disgust or hesitation but found neither. Still, I asked, "Tell me now if you're not ready or don't want the same thing."

"I do," she rushed to say.

Those two words helped to put my reservations at ease.

"I want you in the same way. But...." Claire hesitated, biting her lip in a way that made it difficult to concentrate on anything else.

"But you told me that you were going to send me away when our year was up. That you could never be with me because of the laws." She swallowed hard and cast her gaze down to the floor. "That—that I was just a mistake."

I cursed myself for making her feel this way and for putting anyone or anything in front of her. If she let me, I was going to spend a lifetime making it up to her in a million little ways.

"Claire, look at me. Look at me." When she refused to meet my eyes, I grabbed her chin, forcing her to look into my eyes. She needed to see the truth.

"That might've been true before I knew you, but things are different now." She tried to look away again, but I held her in place. "Do you truly believe some law would keep me from you?"

She didn't answer. Just stared back at me. I knew I needed to try harder and be more honest, even if words were not my strength.

"Claire Donadieu, I love you with every shred of my soul."

She relaxed and stopped fighting against my grip. Her eyes widened. Cheeks pinked with a fresh flush.

"How? How can you love me?"

Maybe I hadn't done a good enough job convincing her with my words. If so, I only hoped she'd let me show her with my actions.

"I don't know how, I just know that I do."

She was silent for a long moment. I waited patiently for her to find her voice, and when she did, each word came out haltingly.

"I—I don't really know what love is," she explained with sadness in her eyes. "I've lived so long without it that..." 

Her words broke my heart. How could she not know love?

"Bastien, this feeling between us is what I think love should feel like. It's warm and exciting and drives me crazy most of the time, but it's there."

I kissed her once. Hard. Then again, softer. Her mouth opened for me, and I slid my tongue inside, rubbing it against hers just like my fingers were rubbing against her swollen clit.

She loved me, too. In a deeper way than just because we were fated.

That knowledge made her next words even more meaningful.

"Bastien, I need you. Now. Please."

I couldn't disobey her. Not anymore. Reluctantly, I pulled my hand from her undergarments, and only after licking her sweetness my fingers, did I open the door to the room beside us.

"I need you more than I need my next breath," I told her as I lifted Claire into my arms and carried her inside, shutting the door behind us.

We hadn't had a Bastien chapter in a while and this one was overdue!

Tell me whose POV I should write the next chapter in? 👀