Table of Contents
Title Page
BOUND TO DARKNESS
DEFY THE DAWN
CLAIMED IN SHADOWS
About the Author
COPYRIGHT
THE MIDNIGHT BREED SERIES
New Generation – Books 13-15
eBook Box Set
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR
LARA ADRIAN
© 2015-2018 Lara Adrian, LLC
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. (v19.04)
Cover art © 2019 CrocoDesigns
Collection contains:
BOUND TO DARKNESS
DEFY THE DAWN
CLAIMED IN SHADOWS
Three of the latest full-length novels in the bestselling Midnight Breed Series in one specially priced digital box set.
(Each title also available separately in eBook, print, and audiobook.)
“Evocative, enticing, erotic. Enter Lara Adrian’s vampire world and be enchanted.”
-- J.R. Ward
“One of the best vampire series on the market!”
-- Romantic Times Book Reviews
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If you enjoy the Midnight Breed, look for the spinoff series, Hunter Legacy, featuring original standalone vampire romance novels set in the action-packed, sexy world of the Breed!
Click to order or learn more!
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BOUND TO DARKNESS
The “strikingly original” (Booklist) Midnight Breed vampire romance series continues with a pulse-pounding novel of paranormal passion and suspense from New York Times and #1 international bestselling author Lara Adrian.
Carys Chase is accustomed to making her own rules and letting her heart lead the way—no matter what anyone else has to say about it. A rare Breed female and a daywalker as well, headstrong, beautiful Carys is one of the most powerful of her kind. She lives passionately and loves without limits, especially when it comes to the lethal cage-fighting Breed male called Rune.
Unbeatable in the ring, Rune exists in a brutal world of blood and bone and death. He's made his share of enemies both in and out of the arena, and his secrets run as deep and turbulent as his past. A dangerous loner who has survived by his fists and fangs, Rune has never allowed anyone to get too close to him . . . until Carys. But when the bodies buried in his past rise up to threaten his present, Rune must choose between betraying Carys's trust or putting her in the crosshairs of a battle neither of them can hope to win on their own.
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“A well-written, action-packed series that is just getting better with age.”
—Fiction Vixen
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CHAPTER 1
Titanium spikes slashed the fighter’s face, spraying blood across the floor of the steel cage and thrilling the crowd of cheering spectators inside the underground fighting arena. Gritty industrial music pounded from the dance club upstairs, bringing the din to a deafening pitch as the long match between the pair of Breed males built toward its finish.
Carys Chase stood near the front, among the throng of avid spectators as Rune’s fist connected with his opponent’s face again. More shouts and applause erupted for the undefeated champion of Boston’s most brutal arena.
The fights were technically illegal, but highly lucrative. And since the outing of the Breed to their terrified human neighbors twenty years ago, there were few sporting events more popular than the outlawed gladiator-style matches pitting a pair of six-and-a-half foot, three-hundred pound vampires against each other in a closed, steel mesh cage.
Blood was essential to Carys and her race, but sometimes it seemed mankind was even more thirsty for it. Especially when the spillage was restricted to members of the Breed.
Although even Carys had to admit that watching a vampire like Rune fight was a thing of beauty. He was dangerous grace and lethal savagery.
And he was hers.
For the past seven weeks—since the night she’d stepped into La Notte with a small group of friends and first saw Rune battling inside the cage—they had been practically inseparable. She had fallen fast and hard and deep, and hadn’t looked back for a second.
Much to her parents’ dismay. They and her twin brother, Aric, had all but forbade her to see Rune, basing their judgment on his profession and reputation alone. They didn’t know him. They didn’t want to know him either, and that hurt. It pissed her off.
Which is why, with a full head of steam and a stubborn streak inherited from both of her parents, Carys had recently moved out of the Chase family Darkhaven and in with her best friend, Jordana Gates.
Leaving home to get her own place hadn’t gone over well, particularly with her father, Sterling Chase. As the commander of the Order’s presence in Boston, he, along with the Order’s founder, Lucan Thorne, and the other district commanders, were the de facto keepers of the peace between the Breed and mankind. No easy task in good times, let alone the precarious ones they lived in now.
Carys understood her father’s concern for her safety and wellbeing. She only wished he could understand that she was a grown woman with her own life to lead.
Even if that life included a Breed male who chose to make his living in the arena.
All around her now, the spectators chanted their champion’s name. “Rune! Rune! Rune!”
Carys joined in, awed by his domination of the fighting ring even as the woman in her cringed every time fists smashed on flesh and bone, regardless of who was on the receiving end. And she could admit, at least to herself, that being in love with him had made her hope for the day he might decide to climb out of the cage for good.
No one had ever beaten Rune—and more than a few had died trying.
He prowled the cage with fluid motion, naked except for the arena uniform of brown leather breeches and fingerless gloves bristling with titanium spikes. The sharp metal ensured every blow was a spectacle of shredding flesh and breaking bone for the pleasure of the crowd.
Also crafted primarily for the entertainment of the sport’s patrons was the U-shaped
