UNBOUND
Erica Stevens
Copyright © 2016 Erica Stevens
All rights reserved.
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Books By The Author
The Captive Series
Captured (Book 1)
Renegade (Book 2)
Refugee (Book 3)
Salvation (Book 4)
Redemption (Book 5)
Broken (The Captive Series prequel)
Vengeance (Book 6)
Unbound (Book 7)
The Fire & Ice Series
Frost Burn (Book 1)
Arctic Fire (Book 2)
Scorched Ice (Book 3) Coming November 15th 2016
The Kindred Series
Kindred (Book 1)
Ashes (Book 2)
Kindled (Book 3)
Inferno (Book 4)
Phoenix Rising (Book 5)
The Ravening Series
Ravenous (Book 1)
Taken Over (Book 2)
Reclamation (Book 3)
The Survivor Chronicles
Book 1: The Upheaval
Book 2: The Divide
Book 3: The Forsaken
Book 4: The Risen
Books written under the penname Brenda K. Davies
The Road to Hell Series
Good Intentions (Book 1)
Carved (Book 2) Coming 10/11/16
The Road (Book 3) Coming January 2017
Into Hell (Book 4) Coming 2017
The Vampire Awakenings Series
Awakened (Book 1)
Destined (Book 2)
Untamed (Book 3)
Enraptured (Book 4)
Undone (Book 5)
Fractured (Book 6) Coming Winter 2016/2017.
Historical Romance
A Stolen Heart
Dedication
To all the fans who loved and followed this series for so long.
Your support has meant the world to me and I couldn’t have done any of this without all of you!
Thank you so much for loving these characters as much as I do and making this such a wonderful ride with them and with you!
Here is to many more adventures together!
Table of Contents
Dedication
Other books by the Author
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Epilogue
Where to Find the Author
About the Author
CHAPTER 1
Aria
“Wait.” Aria said to Braith and pulled back on her horse’s reins as she surveyed the skeletal trees surrounding her. The breeze drifting through the woods caused the swaying tree branches to clack together, setting her already frazzled nerves that much more on edge. Above her, thin clouds slipped through the sky, momentarily blocking out the late afternoon sun shining down on the snow covering the forest floor.
They were almost thirty miles from the palace, in the area of the forest where she’d spent most of her life as a rebel, before she’d married Braith and become queen. That tree over there was the one she and Max had climbed in order to avoid a group of vampires on the hunt for rebels. The two of them had stood in those branches, afraid to even breathe, as they watched Caleb and Braith pass beneath them. She recalled Braith stopping below them and tipping his head back to look at her. He’d still worn his dark glasses at the time, but she’d known the instant he’d spotted her standing above him and Caleb.
The remembrance of Braith’s younger and extremely twisted brother, Caleb, gave her chills. However, those chills were nothing compared to the ones currently consuming her as she looked around the sparse woods.
She focused on the many evergreens within the forest. Their pine scent tickled her nostrils as it drifted through the air. Normally it was a comforting, constant aroma, but now it was too sharp. Someone or something had trampled some of the smaller pines, or torn away their branches, which made their smell more potent.
Aria’s gaze flicked toward the sky when a pair of mourning doves took flight, their wings whistling in the wind. Her hands tightened on the reins, and panic struck her so forcefully she nearly cried out. Ever since William had told her about the vampire woman he’d encountered who claimed to be the rightful queen, she couldn’t rid herself of the feeling something awful was about to happen.
That feeling of impending doom now kicked around in her stomach and caused a clammy sweat to break out on her icy skin.
She wanted to grab hold of Braith, yank their mounts back, and flee from here as fast as they could. Despite the driving impulse, she remained unmoving. She didn’t know where those who had made the pine scent more potent were; if they fled now, they could alert possible enemies to their presence or stumble across them. There was still the smallest chance they hadn’t been spotted yet. Any sudden movement could destroy that.
Her small group had been moving with exceptional care through the trees. They were scouting the forest ahead of the assembly of vampires and humans who made up the survivors of Tempest’s town of Badwin and the inhabitants of Hannah’s town of Chippman.
“What is it?” Braith asked from beside her as he moved his mount closer to hers.
Aria turned her head to him, her heart swelling with love as she gazed at his magnificent face. He was so handsome he could make her deadened heart feel as if it raced every time she looked at him. Her fingers itched to brush back the black hair falling to the corner of his gray eyes. A band of pure blue encircled his now dilated pupils.
Faint white scars surrounded his eyes, but they had faded further over the nearly two years she’d known him, and Braith said they’d probably disappear completely over the next fifty or hundred years. Those scars remained a testament to a time when he’d been completely blind. Then, she had walked into his life and the strength of their bloodlink, a deep bond that developed between vampires, had given him his vision back.
He sat proudly in his saddle, his broad shoulders back and the noble air of a king surrounding him. Since he’d become king, he’d grown to be a mighty and fair ruler. One who was respected and admired, one who was loved by those who followed him.
He’d put to right many of the atrocities his father had committed over his years as king. Humans and vampires now worked side by side, fear and brutality no longer reigned, and the
practice of vampires owning blood slaves had been put to an end.
Now a new threat had risen, and she sought to destroy everything they had so tirelessly worked and sacrificed for.
Leaning across the small space between them, Aria rested her hand on his stubble-roughened jaw. For a second, the world around her stilled as the brief contact soothed the tumult of emotions spiraling through her. Love, deep and intense, welled within her. She would not lose him.
“There is someone or something in these woods,” she whispered.
His head turned toward the trees. Xavier, her friend and bodyguard, moved his horse so he was positioned before her.
“Are you sure?” Ashby asked from behind her.
Aria pulled her bow from her back and an arrow from her quiver. She swung them around so they were in front of her. “Yes.”
Aria’s attention shifted from Braith to her brother-in-law. Ashby’s bloodlink and Braith’s sister, Melinda, sat on the horse beside him. Melinda’s normally fair skin became paler as she surveyed the woods.
Braith’s brother, Jack, nudged his horse forward to position himself ahead of his wife’s mount. Hannah shot him a disgruntled look, but refrained from protesting his protective gesture.
William cursed and rode forward so that his mount flanked her other side. Aria glanced at her twin’s hard profile, as his crystalline blue eyes narrowed to take in the woods. His dark auburn hair, so similar in hue to hers, shone in the fading winter sun. He’d shaved his beard off when he’d been in Badwin, but already the thick, dark auburn hair had grown in across his square jaw and over his upper lip. His nostrils flared as he scented the air.
“The pine,” he commented.
“Yes,” Aria said.
“Can we turn back?” Tempest asked.
Turning in the saddle, William looked back at his bloodlink, Tempest. He’d just found her; she was the one who had helped him to get past his anger over having been stabbed through the back by Kane. Aria had been able to give William her blood and save him before he died, but his mortal life had ended that day and his life as a vampire had begun. There had been a time when Aria worried she would lose William to his desire to destroy Kane. Now she worried she would lose him to whatever was in the woods with them.
“There is no turning back right now,” Daniel replied.
Aria glanced over to where her older brother sat on his horse with Max and Timber at his sides. Behind him, sat the five king’s men who had been picked to make this scouting trip with them. The king’s men rode forward, spreading out to flank her and Braith within a protective circle.
“If we can get to the caves, we can take shelter,” William said and Aria suppressed a shudder.
She’d gotten better with it over the past couple of years, but she hated being anywhere enclosed. However, they had no choice, not right now.
“Aria, go,” Braith said.
“I know these woods better than you,” she told him. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”
“I’ll be right behind you. Go.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but it was silenced by the motion she caught out of the corner of her right eye. Spinning in the saddle, Aria pulled her bow and an arrow from her back. With rapid speed, she nocked the arrow and released it. William jerked back when the arrow whistled past his ear and directly into the heart of the vampire who had been trying to slink from one tree to another.
The force of the arrow knocked the vamp off his feet and into the snow. Wearing a solid white cloak, the vampire would have been nearly invisible to anyone who didn’t know every subtle shift and flow within these woods. His now still form almost completely blended in with the mound of snow he’d been moving through only seconds ago.
Ashby spun in his saddle to face her. “You don’t know that he was an enemy!”
“Our allies aren’t going to be slinking through the woods trying to go unnoticed,” Jack replied.
“White cloak,” William murmured. “It’s them or it’s her.”
Another chill ran down Aria’s spine as she tugged a second arrow from her quiver. William had told them the vampires following the woman claiming to be the rightful queen wore white cloaks. It had been one of the reasons she’d shot without hesitation. Their allies wouldn’t be slinking through the woods.
Braith grabbed the reins of her mount and pulled her back. “Fall back,” he commanded the others as he pulled her closer to him.
Before she could react, he wrapped his arm around her waist and plucked her from her horse. The thick muscles of his biceps rippled against her as he swung her onto his saddle and tucked her firmly against his chest. He slapped his hand against the rump of her horse, sending it bolting into the woods as a distraction.
Gathering his reins, Braith spun his horse in one fluid motion. Snow kicked up from the horse’s hooves to splatter against the bottom of her boots. Out of habit, she tried to take a calming breath, but then recalled she didn’t breathe air anymore.
We’re not going to make it.
She hated the bleak thought the minute it crossed her mind, but she knew it was true.
Her fingers curled into the chiseled muscle of Braith’s forearm as a twang echoed in the air around them. The bow and arrow had been her favored weapon since she’d been old enough to lift one; it was a sound she normally loved. Now, it caused terror to spike through her as the whistle of arrows erupted in the air around them.
The first wave of arrows soared into the clearing, burying into the ground in front of Braith’s horse and causing the animal to reel back as the whites of its eyes became clearly visible. Aria bit back a scream when one of the arrows struck Timber in his shoulder. The mountain of a man nearly tumbled from his saddle, but managed to catch himself before he did.
Despite the wave of arrows that had flooded the small area they were in, Timber was the only one who had been hit. Those arrows had been meant to keep them where they were.
They want us alive, but why?
***
Braith
Braith enfolded Aria against his body, attempting to keep her as protected as he could from the figures moving through the trees toward them. The deep auburn strands of hair escaping her braid tickled his nose; her intricate, woodsy aroma filled his nostrils. Her scent was something he would never get enough of, much like the woman herself, and now someone was threatening her.
A snarl rumbled through his chest as his fangs slid free. He’d tear every one of them to shreds before he ever allowed one of them to touch her. She was his bloodlink, his wife, his queen, and someone was conspiring to try to take her away from him, again. It would never happen.
“Don’t move,” he growled in her ear when she tried to pull away.
“I need to be able to shoot,” she protested.
“Too many, stay still.” He couldn’t get full sentences out through the fury boiling within his veins.
She became immobile against him as more figures slid through the trees around them. They weren’t attacking, not yet. For some reason, they were waiting; Braith had a feeling they would discover that reason soon enough. Jack moved closer to Hannah; he extended his hand to her and pulled her from her saddle and onto his. William dragged Tempest’s mount closer to his and positioned himself so he was in front of her with his bow and arrow aimed at the figures closing in around them.
“Don’t shoot,” Jack said to William.
William scowled at him before focusing on the forest once more. “I haven’t yet, have I?”
Ashby pulled Melinda from her horse, tucking her against his chest as he surveyed the encroaching vampires with haughty disdain. Xavier tugged on the reins of his horse, positioning himself directly in front of Aria. The fading sunlight gleamed across Xavier’s dark skin and bald head, illuminating the tribal tattoos on his arms, hands, and neck. His deep brown eyes were troubled when they met Braith’s before falling to Aria.
Xavier had been the vampire history keeper for most of his life, yet he had
stepped aside from taking his rightful seat at The Council table in favor of being Aria’s bodyguard when the war with Braith’s father ended. Braith didn’t have any concerns Xavier might have romantic feelings for his wife. Xavier would be far more likely to be attracted to him. However, Xavier did care for Aria, deeply. They had become extremely close and Braith knew Xavier would lay down his life in order to save hers.
Braith hugged her against him; he would do whatever it took to get her out of here. She had literally brought light and color back into his life. She was his everything, and he would not allow her bright soul to be taken from this world.
Max and Daniel moved closer to Timber as he broke off the shaft of the arrow embedded in his shoulder and tossed it aside. The king’s men moved closer to him and Aria. The other king’s men had remained with the residents of Chippman and the survivors from Badwin. They were over a mile back, awaiting word it was safe to progress.
They were going to be waiting longer than he’d anticipated.
“Braith,” William hissed under his breath. “It is her.”
Braith followed William’s gaze to a small grouping of pines where a woman leisurely emerged from between the snow-encrusted limbs. It was impossible to miss her, as instead of the white cloaks of her followers, she wore a blood red cloak that emphasized her pale complexion and vivid green eyes. Black hair tumbled behind her to brush against the snowy ground with every step she took. Her face was perfect in its beauty, but malevolence oozed from her pores, making her one of the ugliest women he’d ever encountered.
Braith’s gaze ran over her slender figure and refined features. He’d never seen her before, but as William had said, there was something familiar about her broad cheekbones and full lips. He felt as if he should know her, yet he couldn’t figure out how or why.
Aria’s hand flew to her mouth as some of the color faded from her sun-kissed skin. When she tried to sit up in order to see the woman better, he pulled her back, refusing to let her be more exposed in any way.
The vampire men and women in the white cloaks fell back and bowed their heads in deference when the woman passed by them. Timber, Max, and Daniel pulled their mounts back, edging away from the woman who stopped at the edge of the small clearing.