Free Unleash (Vampire Erotic Theatre Romance Series Book 6) by Felicity Heaton

eyes flicked to the thick steel chain attached to his headboard and the collar at the end of it.
    “I will not put that on you.” She sounded resolute but the fear in her eyes said he could probably convince her to go through with it.
    He tried to grab her, twisting his body towards hers, and she moved back a step.
    “Collar,” he snarled.
    “No,” she whispered, shaking her head, her beautiful eyes imploring him not to ask her again. “It feels wrong to do such a thing to a man.”
    Snow snapped at her. “I am not a man. Collar me.”
    He threw his head back and snarled again as a fresh wave of fire burned through him and his stomach cramped harder than ever, his insides feeling as though they were trying to tie themselves into knots.
    Snow lurched forwards and in that moment, cold steel brushed the back of his neck and then closed over the front. Mercy. She had done it, and while he had been lost to his dark urges too. Foolish female.
    He collapsed onto the bed and breathed hard, trying to edge himself through a coming episode without it hitting him fully.
    Her soft warm fingers brushed a line across his throat, the action soothing him even as it stoked his hunger to a dangerous new level. She smelled so good this close. He could scent her blood flowing beneath her creamy skin. Saliva pooled in his mouth. His fangs itched for a taste of her.
    Snow managed to turn his face away from her.
    “You have marks that say you wear this collar often.” There was pity in her voice. “Why is it so necessary?”
    Snow looked up at her and smirked. “I have a little drinking problem.”
    As if prompted by his words, the thirst attacked him. He gasped and bucked, straining against the cuffs that barely gave him room to move a few inches. They ground into his wrists and ankles, digging into bone and blood vessels, making his hands and feet throb in pain.
    Snow panted hard, fighting a losing battle against the consuming tide of his bloodlust, desperate to retain a shred of his sanity and fearing that if he didn’t, he would somehow harm the angel.
    He screwed his eyes shut, not wanting to see her pitying look as he struggled like a snared beast against the bonds, fighting them with every shred of his immense power but failing to break them. He spat curses at them, foul words that a sliver of him hoped that the angel didn’t take as an insult to her. He wanted the bonds off him. He ached to be free.
    Couldn’t.
    He would rip the angel to shreds if he were free.
    A blistering wave of fire burned up his blood, setting every molecule in his body aflame, and he rolled his eyes open and arched off the bed, his mouth opening in a silent scream. Couldn’t roar. If he did, Antoine would come. Antoine would see the angel. Antoine would harm her.
    Snow growled low in his throat at that thought.
    He would kill any who touched her.
    His claws extended at the same time as his fangs, and the apartment brightened as his eyes changed, burning red around his cat-like pupils.
    Snow fought harder than ever to break the restraints, driven by a mindless need to free himself so he could protect the female and by a dark hunger to drain her dry at the same time.
    She rushed forwards as the collar sliced into his throat, spilling a thick stream of his blood down his neck.
    “You must calm yourself,” she whispered softly, those words laced with emotions that were beyond his grasp as the bloodlust seized hold of him again and her proximity drove him mad with a need to taste her. “You are hurting yourself.”
    The note in her melodic voice told him more than she was willing to say. She couldn’t bear the sight of him hurting himself. The scent of blood filled his room and, even though it was his own tainted life force, it sent him back over the edge.
    “I am unsure how to help you.” She hovered close to him and he managed to get his eyes to focus on her for a brief second, long enough to see the frustration that darkened her innocent