Chapter 3

KERI'S BODY TREMBLED , her breath coming in ragged pants as the pheromones overpowered her senses. The intensity of lust surged through her like molten lava, obliterating every thought and instinct save one: she needed Joshua with a ferocity that bordered on madness.

She moaned, straining against the cold iron manacles and his unmovable strength. Her eyes burned into his, a desperate plea for release—from both the chains that held her captive and the insatiable hunger consuming her from within.

“Can you at least talk dirty to me?” she panted.

"Are you fucking serious?" Joshua growled, his eyes dark with lust.

Keri nodded, her eyes half-lidded and dominated by the pulsating lust that clawed at her. "Yes," she gasped, her voice hoarse with need. "Please."

His expression was a mix of hunger and frustration, and he leaned in close to her ear.

"Imagine what I could do to you, love," he whispered hoarsely, his voice like gravel in her ear. "Imagine the wicked, dark pleasure I could give you, only if you let me. The things I could do to your body, the places I could touch, the ways I could make you scream my name." He paused, allowing the words to sink in.

Keri's breath hitched, her body shaking with unrelenting need. She could feel the heat of his body against her, the hardness of his erection pressed against her leg. Her heart pounded, her mind spiraling in the haze of their mutual desire.

"Imagine me running my hands up and down your body, exploring every inch, every curve. My fingers tracing the line of your jaw, your neck, your collarbone. Can you feel it?"

Keri's breath hitched, her body reacting to his words with a helpless shudder. "Yes," she moaned, her voice a ragged plea. "I can feel it."

"Now, imagine me kissing you, tasting you, worshipping your body with my mouth. Nibbling and sucking on your sweet spots, making you writhe with desire. Can you feel that, love?"

Keri's breath hitched, her eyes widening as the images he painted came to life in her mind. "Yes," she cried out. He was going to make her come just by talking. “Kiss me. Please, just one kiss.”

He tensed for a moment, then leaned in and pressed his lips against hers, his tongue slipping between her parted lips. His touch was tantalizingly slow and deliberate, each movement sending shivers of pleasure through her veins. Their tongues danced together. His taste filled Keri's senses as their mouths clashed in a desperate dance of desire.

A low, feral growl rumbled in his chest, and his fangs grazed her tongue. She gasped and arched against the hard planes of his body. He pulled his mouth from hers.

"We have to stop," Joshua murmured, his voice strained. "If we don't, I'm going to bite and fuck you."

Keri's heart clenched at his words, but there was no denying the truth in them. As much as she wanted him – needed him – she knew that they were walking a razor's edge between passion and peril. The lines between reality and fantasy had become blurred, leaving her uncertain of what was genuine and what was a product of the drug coursing through her veins. That’s what her mind said. However, her body had other thoughts.

"Please," she whispered. "I need you. I can't breathe without you."

“No. This is giving them what they want.” He abruptly let go and stepped back.

As soon as he stopped touching her, though, Keri's vision blurred as a wave of pain slammed into her.

"Something's wrong." She doubled over, feeling a torturous burn spread across her body. "It hurts." It felt like lightning had struck her heart.

Joshua winced and held his head. “I know what this is. Anatole Vasile has damned us both.”

Keri screamed and curled into a fetal position as another arc of lighting lit up her nerves in agony.

"The drug is eating you up from the inside," he muttered. "Those Vasile bastards have created a chemical mating bond. You need me, or you'll die... And so will I. Fuck!" He clenched his fists.

“I don’t know what that means,” she sobbed. “It hurts. It hurts so bad.”

“It will get worse. We’ll die in agony, and it will take a long fucking time.” He barked out a humorless laugh. “And again, the Vasiles will be blameless to my clan if I die as a rejected mate.”

“I don’t want to die,” she gritted out.

“It’s not on my list of things to do together either.”

"Don’t let them win," Keri urged through clenched teeth, her body wracked by spasms. "Kiss me. Mate me. Fuck me. I don’t care. Just make it stop.”

“If they’re forcing the mating bond, there’s a reason for it. Somehow, they’re looking to gain power by having us join as soul mates.”

“It must be...” She forced out in between waves of excruciating agony. “Something to do with the drug in my system."

He thought about it for a moment. “If I don’t bite you, don’t drink your blood, we could still foil their plans, but we’d be mated. You would be mine, and I would be yours for eternity.”

"Do it. Take me," Keri moaned, desperation coloring her voice. "Please, Joshua." In that moment, she didn’t care about vampire politics. She just wanted to stop the pain.

"Are you sure you want this? Once we cross this line, there's no going back."

“Fucking you or death? I choose you, Pikachu.”

“What the fuck is going through your mind?” he said.

“I’m delirious with pain and lust. Give me a break.” But he was touching her again, and she could breathe.

As Joshua's hands roamed her body with an expertise that left her trembling in anticipation, Keri couldn't help but wonder if they were making a mistake. Would they really die if they didn’t do this chemical mating?

Joshua seemed to think so. But her body seemed to be on board with everything. And there were worse ways to spend an afternoon.

His eyes flashed with a predatory gleam as he claimed her mouth once again, his tongue delving deep to taste her wanton need. Keri's manacled hands pulled at his hair, urging him closer, while her hips arched against his hardness in silent demand.

"I want you," Keri whispered against his lips, her fingers tangling in the thick, dark strands of his hair as she sought to draw him even closer.

"Fuck it," he muttered, his lips trailing a searing path of fire down the curve of her neck and across her collarbone. "If this is what you want, then I will give it to you."

"Touch me, Joshua," she begged, her voice a shaky whisper. "Make me come."

He unbuttoned her pants and slid them down her legs. She kicked off her shoes and stepped out of them. He wasted no time parting her thighs. "You're so wet," he groaned, his fingers sliding easily through the slick heat of her arousal. "You feel so fucking good. I can barely control myself."

His fangs lengthened as he watched her writhe beneath him when he tickled her clit.

"Then don't," she urged as she fought to maintain her sanity amidst the storm of sensations threatening to overwhelm her. All that mattered was the raw, unbridled passion they shared, forged together by circumstance and ignited by desire.

"All right," he said. “We’ll use this to our advantage. As a mated pair, we'll be powerful enough to escape this hellhole. I’ll make them pay for this."

“ We’ll make them pay. Now, fuck me hard.”

That seemed to be all the confirmation Joshua needed, for he wasted no time in driving his cock deep inside her, causing her to cry out in a mixture of shock and ecstasy. There was no gentleness in his touch, only a dark, carnal hunger that threatened to consume them both.

She wrapped her legs around his waist as he pressed her back against the cell wall.

"Let me take care of you," he whispered against her mouth, his voice rough with desire. He began to move within her, each thrust slow and deliberate, building a fire that burned away the agony they'd both been feeling.

Keri's body shuddered as she clung to him, her only anchor in the storm of sensations threatening to sweep her away. Her hands longed to trace the contours of his muscles.

"Faster," she gasped, her body quivering beneath his as she clung to him. "Harder."

He set a punishing rhythm that drove her higher. "Don't stop." She clamped down on his cock hard, loving the sweet friction as her climax approached like a tidal wave of sensation.

His movements became more insistent, driving her closer to the edge of bliss. And then, just as the pleasure threatened to overtake her, an unexpected surge of power ran through them both.

The manacles binding Keri's wrists shattered, freeing her hands to clutch Joshua's broad shoulders. Startled, they paused for a moment, eyes locked in shared awe at the newfound magic flowing between them.

"Is this what they wanted?" Keri managed to ask, her voice trembling with uncertainty as much as passion.

"Maybe," Joshua replied, his dark eyes glittering with something akin to hope. "But we'll use it against them."

The compulsion that had been driving them both began to fade, replaced by a raw, primal need for each other that went beyond any chemical bond. Keri felt alive and powerful in Joshua's arms. She no longer felt the desperate craving. It seemed false now. This new feeling. This was real. She wanted him again – this time for herself, not because some twisted fate dictated it.

"Kiss me again,” she demanded.

Joshua wasted no time, his lips crashing down on hers in a fierce, hot kiss that left her breathless.

"I love the taste of you," he growled, nipping at her lip before moving down her neck to claim the sensitive skin beneath her ear.

"I can't get enough of you," she confessed, her voice shaking with need. As his mouth moved lower, tracing the curve of her collarbone, she felt a surge of power coursing through her veins.

"Together, we will be unstoppable," Joshua promised. He unbuttoned her blouse and kissed a path down her chest, trailing open-mouthed kisses over her bra before finally pulling it up to reveal her breasts.

Keri moaned her approval, her fingers wrapping in his hair as he took one of her nipples into his mouth, sucking and tugging until it was hard and aching.

"Yes," she hissed, arching into his touch. "More."

He obliged, his fingers replacing his mouth as he rolled her nipple between them, eliciting a soft gasp from her.

"You're so perfect," he murmured, his voice thick with desire as he continued to tease her sensitive flesh.

"Joshua," she breathed, her body tensing with anticipation. "You're driving me mad."

He chuckled darkly, the vibrations sending shivers down her spine. "Then let's see where this madness takes us."

And this time, it felt like a key was turning in a lock. The intensity of their coupling was a revelation, and Keri reveled in every second of it.

"Harder, Joshua," she demanded, breathless. He thrust deeper into her, eliciting a gasp that morphed into a moan. As wave after wave of ecstasy washed over her, Keri spiraled towards a pinnacle she'd never reached before – a summit of pure, unadulterated bliss.

"I'm so close," she choked out, feeling the world shift beneath her as her climax approached.

"Come for me, Mate," he urged, his voice hoarse and ragged. "Let go."

And she did, surrendering herself to the current of pure, untempered pleasure. Joshua followed her over the edge, their bodies shuddering in tandem as they reached the apex of their passion.

As they stood there, still entwined against the cell wall, reality began to reassert itself with cruel clarity. The swirling storm of emotions within Keri began to settle, leaving a tangled mess of exhilaration, confusion, and dread in its wake.

"Fuck," she whispered, her voice trembling. "What have we done?"

"Something neither of us expected," Joshua murmured against her skin, his breath warm and comforting even as the dawning realization of their new bond sent tendrils of unease through her.

"Are we truly bound together now?"

"Oh yes.”

"Well, this is going to be interesting.”

He snorted. “You have a talent for understating.”

“I should put my pants on.”

“You should, but if circumstances were different, you’d be naked in my bed for quite some time.”

She shivered, wondering how she could want him again. “Then let’s get out of here sooner rather than later.”