Pursued: Brides of the Kindred #6

Pursued
Evangeline Anderson
Brides of the Kindred, book six
ebook, 453 pages
Published June 20th 2012 (first published June 1st 2012)

Elise is fractured inside, stained by a past she refuses to remember.

Merrick is scarred both inside and out, a half-breed with a brutal background, at home nowhere in the universe.

Now they are tied together by an unstable bond which could kill them both.

Their journey will take them to the lawless planet of Rageron—the wildest of all the Kindred worlds. There, in the deep blue jungles of an alien world, Elise must bare her soul and relive the horror that nearly killed her. Can she and Merrick make each other whole or will Elise run from her pain?

If she does, Merrick cannot help but chase her…Elise is being Pursued.

Merrick and Elise were getting along beautifully in Revealed, book five of this series. So much so that Merrick, a seven-foot-seven hybrid Kindred was actually starting to believe it possible that he could forge a bond with a female. A female scarred so emotionally, physically, and mentally deep that her memory is a blurry mess. Then things fall apart. For Elise has a fiance.

And Merrick is pissed.

Having around a growly half Beast/half Blood Kindred with the Beast's rage to kill and the Blood's coldness to keep that rage fueled... Not. So. Good.

Xairn had a dirty mouth, but Merrick takes the crown in the cursing arena. I'm not sure what it is, but I love that in a man.

No matter what. When the girl comes out of the stasis chamber, DO NOT touch her.

Simple enough instructions, right? Not enough so for Merrick as he jumps to do just that when Elise flatlines moments after emerging from stasis. And now, there's a terminal bond joining them. One that fuels Elise's hunger, and is killing Merrick. Despite the falseness of it, though, it's a bond Merrick is reluctant to break. For it may be the only kind he can ever have.

But if it kills him, it will kill Elise, too. So he hides behind his walls of aggression, pledges to see Elise safely to Rageron where they will collect the plant with the means to cure them, and return her to her jackass of a fiance for their wedding. A wedding that is less than a month away. And so, on with the tension.

• “Is that fucking right?” Merrick felt rage and hurt and desire all rising inside him. Somehow he managed to choke the emotions down, at least long enough to talk. “Let me tell you something, baby,” he said, his voice going hoarse. “Last night was the best fucking sex I’ve ever had in my life and it wasn’t even really sex. You know why that was? Because it was with you.”
  
  Her eyes went wide and then she looked down, biting her lip. “You…you just think that because of the bond,” she whispered. “It’s a fake emotion, like everything else we feel for each other. It's not real.”
  
  “Isn't it?” Merrick demanded. “Because right now I feel like you reached in my chest with that soft little hand of yours and ripped out my fucking heart. How much realer can it get than that?”

One can't help but be humored by Draven. A smartass villain has a certain charm.

And Lissa, our dear exiled priestess has been reunited with Saber. Reminiscent of EA's Picture Perfect, a step-sibling love story, my draw to these characters was instant. Picture Perfect was *hot* and what I've come to consider my favorite read of Anderson's. It has to be. I've read it four times. Anyway, Lissa's parents and brother were slaughtered by pirates which left her orphaned and adopted by the Sun Clan. She was taken in by the Over Chief who had a son four years her senior. Saber, her new step-brother both protected and cared deeply for Lissa. But to their people, being step-siblings in love is not only taboo, being in love and of the *same* clan is as well. Double cursed.

Despite it, though, Saber pledged his love to her. But when his mother discovered them, even though they had never physically touched in any romantic way, she forced Lissa to renounce him. Lissa regretfully obeyed.

Meanhile... allow me to update, as it looks as if Xairn will once more be the focus of another attack upon the Kindred. He dreams of a woman able to change her appearance. A woman, Draven has bartered with. And... Sophie's finally pregnant! With boy/girl twins.

It freaking figures. I'd love to jump right into book seven, but it's not out yet. According to an Amazon post by EA herself, it's due out in Autumn-which kicks off Saturday! Gimme gimme gimme!

4 out of 5 stars.

Previously in the series: