Desire in His Blood
Brides of the Kylorr Book 1
Zoey Draven
Copyright © 2022 by Zoey Draven
All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events, places, or persons are purely coincidental.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover Art by JoY Author Design Studio
Editing by Mandi Andrejka at Inky Pen Editorial Services
For more information visit www.ZoeyDraven.com
Desire in His Blood
A monster wants her as his bride…and he will stop at nothing to claim her.
Gemma Hara is drowning under the weight of her father’s debts. Working herself to the bone, she knows that if she doesn’t pay them off in time, the sadistic creditors will take everything: their home, their respected name, and, worst of all, her two beautiful sisters.
To save her family, Gemma agrees to do something reckless: marry a wealthy and mysterious stranger, who offers her a wicked bargain she can’t afford to refuse.
However, his bargain comes with one terrifying catch. Because her husband-to-be is a Kylorr.
One of the most fearsome alien races in the Four Quadrants, the Kylorr are beastly monsters, all muscle and menace, with powerful wings, depraved cravings, and berserker-like rages. The worst part?
They survive on blood.
Cold and cruel, Azur of House Kaalium, the High Lord of Laras, demands Gemma as his blood bride. To feed from her. To use her body in whatever way he wishes. For paying off her family’s debts, he expects her complete submission.
What neither of them predicts is how his bite doesn’t bring pain—it fills Gemma with more exquisite pleasure than she’s ever known. And as she finds her footing on a strange new planet, the one thing Gemma thought she’d never surrender might be at risk after all.
Her heart.
Too bad her new husband can’t seem to decide if he wants to break it…or keep it forever.
For content warnings, please refer to the author’s website: www.ZoeyDraven.com
Contents
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
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Epilogue
Bonus Epilogue
The Series Will Continue With…
Also by Zoey Draven
Thank You!
About the Author
Chapter 1
Gemma
Blue salt twinkled in the light of the floating, golden, glowing orbs. The salt clusters cast kaleidoscope-like refractions against the cave walls, and I stared, thinking it looked like a rippling sea. Beautiful and endless.
Mr. Cross didn’t see the way my fingers pinched at the thick material of my pants. He didn’t hear my palpable swallow over his clipped voice, a voice that made my stomach knot with sickening nerves. He couldn’t sense the drip of sweat that rolled down my spine, sliding into the little divot at the base.
“Mr. Cross,” I said, swiftly taking advantage of the brief lapse of silence over the Halo Com. “Would you like to see what I’m looking at right now?”
His thunderous glare pinned me in place, but my voice came out unwavering.
My superpower, I thought. Inside, I was shriveling up, crumbling in on myself like balled-up parchment.
Yet he didn’t need to know that. I’d known men like him all my life, men that frequented my father’s office, a revolving door of demons more unforgiving than the last. They preyed on weakness, reveled in desperation, and rejoiced in despair.
His impatience traveled through the Halo orb, the miniature image of him flickering briefly when I reached out to spin the small, hovering metal ball.
“The miners found it this morning,” I informed him. And since he couldn’t see me, I let my shoulders sag for a brief moment. It felt like a steel band was tightening and tightening around my forehead, but I breathed through the pain. “A whole cavern of blue salt.”
My relief and excitement over the morning’s discovery had been short-lived. I’d calculated out the yield within an hour and the amount we could export could cover one of Father’s debts in full or a very small portion of all of them. That didn’t take into consideration the wages for the miners or Fran’s wages.
Or the bill that had just been delivered from an off-world seamstress for Mira’s newest dress. Or the ridiculously expensive plate set from a Dumerian potter that Piper had insisted she needed because Lord and Lady Rossi were visiting soon. A purchase—I’d later found out—Father had encouraged.
That tight band around my forehead spread. I narrowly suppressed my hiss as my temples began to throb.
Breathe, I reminded myself. One thing at a time. One step forward.
Then came the bitter thought, One step forward, only to take so many backward.
Mr. Cross was shrewd and his eyes were keen. “It is not enough.”
The nausea was rising in my throat. I spun the Halo orb back around so I could meet those dark eyes.
“It’s not enough,” came that familiar clipped voice. He jabbed a tiny finger at me, his image flickering with the sudden movement. “Do you take me for a fool? You think I don’t know about the other lenders? The 200,000 credits your father owes to them? The 45,861 credits he owes to me?”
His graying mustache was quaking with his fury, and even over the Halo orb, as outdated as it was, I could see his cheeks getting redder and redder.
“You need twenty caverns full of blue salt to pay back your family’s debts. But you already know that, don’t you?”
I just need more time, came the quiet thought. But I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of hearing those soft, cliché, pleading words. Not from me.
“There are endless mountains in the Collis,” I told him instead, keeping my voice firm. My spine straightened. “There will be twenty caverns full. And more. Much more.”
“If your miners don’t pack up and leave once they realize the great House Hara has no credits to pay them with.”
