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  The Bound Prince

  Lords of the Var: A Qurilixen World Novel

  Michelle M. Pillow®

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  The Bound Prince (Lords of the Var®) © Copyright 2005-2018, Michelle M. Pillow

  Third Electronic Printing September 2015, Anniversary Edition, The Raven Books

  Second Electronic Printing January 2011

  First Electronic Printing May 2005

  Cover art © Copyright 2015

  ISBN 9781452484259

  * * *

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  Published by The Raven Books LLC

  This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This novel is a work of fiction. Any and all characters, events, and places are of the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or events or places is merely coincidence.

  Michelle M. Pillow® and Lords of the Var® are registered trademarks of The Raven Books LLC

  Contents

  About The Bound Prince

  About the Lords of the Var Series

  Michelle’s Bestselling Series

  Author Updates

  King Attor of the Var

  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

  The Rogue Prince

  The series continues…

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  About Michelle M. Pillow

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  About The Bound Prince

  Shape-shifter Romance

  Cat-shifter Prince Falke commands the Var armies, so it’s a little embarrassing when a beautiful female kidnaps him in his shifted form. Since no one knows where to send a rescue party, it’s up to him to use all his training and powers of seduction to find his way back home.

  Captain Samantha Dorsey and her men are on a mission to complete a scavenger hunt and claim the prize money. Drunk and feeling like some fun, they snag the last thing on their list—a primitive wild beast. The next morning she realizes that they got more than they bargained for...they kidnapped a warrior prince.

  About the Lords of the Var Series

  The cat-shifter princes were raised to not believe in love, especially love for one woman, and they will do everything in their power to live up to their father’s expectations. Oh, how the mighty will fall.

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  Lords of the Var® series is a continuation of the bestselling romance series, Dragon Lords, and is part of the Qurilixen World. They can be read as standalones, but the author recommends reading books in order of release.

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  For details please visit www.michellepillow.com

  Michelle’s Bestselling Series

  Qurilixen World Novels

  Dragon Lords Series

  Barbarian Prince

  Perfect Prince

  Dark Prince

  Warrior Prince

  His Highness The Duke

  The Stubborn Lord

  The Reluctant Lord

  The Impatient Lord

  The Dragon’s Queen

  Lords of the Var® Series

  The Savage King

  The Playful Prince

  The Bound Prince

  The Rogue Prince

  The Pirate Prince

  Qurilixen Lords

  Dragon Prince

  More Coming Soon!

  Captured by a Dragon-Shifter Series

  Determined Prince

  Rebellious Prince

  Stranded with the Cajun

  Hunted by the Dragon

  Mischievous Prince

  Headstrong Prince

  Space Lords Series

  His Frost Maiden

  His Fire Maiden

  His Metal Maiden

  His Earth Maiden

  His Woodland Maiden

  Dynasty Lords Series

  Seduction of the Phoenix

  Temptation of the Butterfly

  Having trouble finding the books?

  Updated Buy Links Here

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  To learn more about the Qurilixen World series of books and to stay up to date on the latest book list visit www.MichellePillow.com

  Author Updates

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  http://michellepillow.com/author-updates/

  King Attor of the Var

  “It’s a good thing you lack all emotion, Falke. It makes you a great commander. I know I’ll never have to worry about your heart being lost to a woman, not like I do your half-human brothers.”

  1

  Samantha Dorsey flicked her short fingernails in a steady, annoying rhythm, purposefully torturing the two irritated crewmen sitting before her. She received mischievous pleasure in watching their backs stiffen as they tried to concentrate on the task at hand. Black makeup outlined her calm, violet eyes. She turned to study the men, partly laughing, partly mocking, and mostly playful.

  “Hum, Captain Sam thinks she’s got us.” Evan Cormier, her go-to man on the ship, lifted his chocolate brown eyes in amusement as he looked at her fingers. He had short black hair, with glints of silver along his temples. His sex appeal was completely lost on her most days, but now he was beginning to look a little sexy. Too bad she didn’t sleep with her crew. According to the many women Evan had taken to his bed, he was able to ‘read’ what a woman wanted and give it to her. Sam knew it was because he was partly telepathic, a fact he didn’t share with too many. People either became weird about it, or wanted to use him to up their odds in poker games. Sam paused in her nail-clicking as she watched him. His brow rose in silent challenge, and she started the clicking all over again. His low voice rumbled, as he stated, “Chase a star, Captain.”

  Sam grinned, reaching down into the messy pile of playing cards and drew. A lock of blonde and purple hair fell over her eye and she swept it back. Lifting the ace of spades into her hand, she fiddled with her cards. Evan cleared his throat and gave a meaningful glance at the half-empty bottle of Torganian rum. Sighing, she reached for the bottle and chugged a big swallow. It really was nasty stuff. She sputtered and gagged, as she gasped for breath. Making an awful face, she slammed her fist on the table.

  “Ugh, it still tastes like Lophibian piss!” Sam spat, grabbing a shot of New Earth whiskey to chase the foul liquor down. This time she didn’t sputter. “Where did Viktor get this crap?”

  Evan and the other player of their torturous card game, Lucien, laughed, nearly falling over drunk in their chairs. Lucien was half human, half Dere, with the strangest red-brown eyes they’d ever seen, unless you counted the red-green eyes
of his older brother.

  “Do you have a…eight?” Lucien asked Sam. Sam looked down at her cards. Seeing an eight, she handed it over. Lucien grinned triumphantly, getting out of drinking the horrible alcohol. They were well aware they played a warped version of a child’s game, but as drunk as they were, they’d been hard pressed to focus on much else.

  Everyone on the ship was at least half human. There were six of them in total. Sam was the Captain, mainly because she’d been the lucky one to win the ship in a card game. Evan was the first mate, second in command. Lucien was in charge of communications. Passed out on the couch was Lucien’s brother, Viktor. He was one hell of a mechanic and could rig anything. Passed out on the floor was Rick Hayes, their pilot. And, if Sam guessed right, passed out in his room was Dev. Dev was half Belvon, a demonic looking race with red skin. Aside from the intense coloring, he looked human, only larger. He was the ship’s muscle.

  Sam wasn’t worried about her drunken crew. The ship was on autopilot and they weren’t currently in hostile territory. The outer edge of the Y quadrant was nearly abandoned from what they could see. Earlier, they’d spotted a small reddish-brown planet surrounded by a blue-green earthlike sky. Initial scans said it was oxygen based and inhabited, with no visible space ports and no sky activity.

  Sam blinked, looking down at her hand. She suddenly realized she had three aces left. Throwing them down, she declared, “Kiss my comet! Drink up boys!”

  Lucien and Evan grimaced but grabbed the Torganian Rum and dutifully took their losing drinks. They sputtered in disgust, just as she had, and they quickly followed the shot with whiskey. Sam laughed, slamming her fist down on the table several times while trying not to fall onto the floor.

  “Ah,” Evan spat, stretching his tongue out of his mouth as if that would make the taste go away.

  “Oooh, yuck,” Lucien grumbled, shaking his head and wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. “Sometimes I wonder about us.”

  Sam laughed harder. “Hey, what’s next on the list? What else do we need to get?”

  Lucien grinned, automatically knowing what she was thinking. Swiping the cards aside, he ran his hand over the table. A transparent floating computer screen materialized before him and a control panel opened beneath the flat surface. Pushing a few buttons, he grinned, and said, “A wild beast from a primitive planet.”

  “What was that planet we just passed? Quri…Killillrillen…the red one with oxygen?” Evan grinned, nodding his head. “It didn’t have any known landing bases when we scanned it. You can’t get much more primitive than that.”

  “Let’s do it!” Sam shot to her feet, swaying terribly on her wobbly legs. “Evan, grab the tazers or phasers or traq—hic—quilizer darts. We’re going to bag us a wild…something or other from Killill…Killrillon! Lucien, get a transporter ready. I’ll get the food and turn this hunk of metal around. I’m starving. Meet me at the space pod.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain,” Lucien and Evan said in unison, giving very un-military salutes, first to their slender Captain, then to each other, and then to the passed out men on the floor.

  “They’re going to be so angry when they find out we went without them,” Evan snickered, grinning like a fool. He tried to whisper, but the sound just came out loud. On the floor, Rick mumbled and turned in his sleep. They all froze, their liquor-hazed eyes turning down to the pilot. Sam knew he wouldn’t be happy if she took over the controls again. He always complained that she reset everything, which she did on purpose. When Rick started to snore, they all relaxed.

  Sam and Lucien chuckled like wayward children, stumbling toward the door. Evan was right behind them. She knew they were drunk, and in the back of her alcohol-soaked brain, she was sure going out half-cocked to an uncharted planet was a bad idea. She grinned. It wouldn’t be the first time they’d done something unwise, and it definitely wouldn’t be the last.

  2

  Prince Falke of the Var reached his paws forward, stretching out his sore back as he soared over the earth, sprinting between the trees of his homeland. Being half Var, he was a cat-shifter by birth. The blue-green haze of the atmosphere shone through the leaves of the forest. With three suns, two yellow and one blue, the planet was always cast in daylight, with the exception of one night a year when everything fell into perfect alignment, and darkness fell over the land. They had one moon, but it was small and unnoticeable most days. Right now it was late in the evening, so there was a softer haze to the light.

  He’d grown up on the planet of Qurilixen and knew the forest well. The green leaves of the planet’s foliage were overlarge due to the excessive heat and moisture they received. The reddish trees were wider than some of the largest Var warriors. Yellow ferns spread out beneath his swift feet, growing wild in the red earth. All was serene around him, silent but for the wind rushing past his ears and the thumping of his paws on the ground.

  The planet was inhabited by two races of male shifters, aside from the women who came to Qurilixen to marry them. The Draig royal family ruled the northern half and his family ruled the southern. For many decades, the Var people had been at war with the Draig.

  The Draig were dragon-shifters, and it had been Falke’s father, King Attor, who perpetrated the wars between cats and dragons. Falke wasn’t sure if he trusted the Draig. It was difficult for him to forget some of the things he’d seen in battle in his half-century of leading the Var armies against them. He’d lost many good soldiers. However, now that his brother Kirill was the new Var king, they were expected to strive for peace. Kirill was of sound judgment, and Falke would do his best to honor the peace treaty the new king had made.

  The only thing was, now that there was no war, he didn’t know what to do with his time. Falke felt useless without a purpose. He still had to train the men and command the armies, but many of them had been given leave to go home. Besides, he had efficient seconds-in-command who took many of the duties from him.

  King Attor had raised his sons to be warriors, strong and proud. Now that the war was over, Falke wasn’t prepared. Not that he liked warmongering, or death and destruction. A large part of him was relieved to be done with war. At the same time, he wasn’t holding his breath that it would last. It was too soon to tell.

  It was much easier for him to exercise in his shifted state, with his large body molded into the form of a white tiger. Ever since Lord Myrddin, an evil man after his brother’s throne, had captured and tortured him, he would wake in the middle of the night sore and aching, needing to stretch. If his brothers, King Kirill and Prince Quinn, hadn’t rescued him, he wouldn’t be alive today.

  The capture had been a great blow to his ego, especially since he was the Commander of the Guard, leader of the Var military. If he hadn’t been protecting the human scientists, who’d come to help them rid their planet of biological weaponry, he would’ve easily taken Myrddin’s men.

  It’s over now, Falke thought, running faster as he did his best to forget about it. Myrddin was dead, and the biological threat was gone. Even the shadowed marshes were looking better than they had in about a century, thanks to the human scientists’ work. Everything seemed to be looking up for his people. For that he was glad.

  King Kirill had life mated to a former agent of the Human Intelligence Agency, Ulyssa Payne. Soon after, his youngest brother and Var ambassador, Quinn, life mated to one of the human scientists who’d helped restore the marshes, Tori Elliot. Both women were pregnant. The Var royal family’s future looked bright. With Kirill and Quinn preoccupied with family, as they rightly should be, Falke felt even more alone. There was always Prince Reid, another brother, but he commanded the outlands and hadn’t been at the palace lately.

  Reid brooded because he couldn’t understand how their brothers had chosen to mate with a woman. Reid liked the women well enough, but their father would never have approved. Long ago, several hundred years before the princes’ birth, before Attor became king, things had been different for the Var people. It was a wild ti
me, a time when the Var let emotions rule their heads and their hearts. They acted rashly and on pure instinct. For reasons entirely unknown to his sons, Attor changed the ways of the Var. He was a good king, one who worked hard for his people, despite the fact the end of his life that was marred by a touch of what could only have been madness.

  Attor encouraged emotional detachment so that if one half mate died, there could be others to take her place. That was why Kirill and Quinn’s life mates were so upsetting to Reid. If something happened to the women, there could never be another for his brothers, and to a race of men who lived for hundreds of years that was a long time to be alone. They’d be able to take women to their bed to fulfill a physical need, but the loneliness would slowly eat at them.