Page 30 of Upon Shattered Bonds

Strong fingers caressed her, the delicate kiss of contact against the sensitive skin of her neck meant only to soothe. In response, her heart pounded in anticipation. It was too soon, the beating muscle too damaged, and pain knifed through her chest. A groan escaped through clenched teeth.

Zeke went still behind her. “Are you in pain? Shall I call for Kaien?”

“No.” A bare whisper of a word, the agony passing as she willed herself to calm.

Deep emotion furrowed her brow, an inscrutable sensation that breached the walls of her psyche. Whether they originated from her or Zeke, she couldn’t decipher, but it made one thing clear.

“We can’t continue down this path.” Hopelessness wrung each word from her, sincerity echoing in her tone. “We have to end this.”

A flash of sorrow shadowed his gaze before determination took its place. “You’re wrong, Nina. This is what was meant for us. This is only another chapter in our story.”

“Our story ended a long time ago, Zeke,” she whispered. “There is no future for us.”

“How can you be so certain? How can you desire nothing of what could be between us?” The other sovereign fired back, his palm resting lightly upon her back.

“You made your intentions clear eleven hundred years ago.”

A muffled growl vibrated in his chest, and Nina fought the urge to press her ear into the hard pectoral muscle to catch the tail end of the delectable sound. Zeke’s breath caught the next instant, signaling his discontent.

“It was an error in judgment. I’ve mourned every second we were apart.”

Anger lit within, the jaded past reigniting in a pilar of flame that prompted her to pull out of his embrace and turn on him.

“Then why did you make it?!” Despite her body’s protests, Nina braced a hand against the comforter to support herself and allowed her voice to rise. “What about me was so repulsive that you jeopardized our future together? Couldn’t you see that your rejection would have this result?”

Zeke was unremorseful. “You were too young for matehood, Nina.”

“I was nearly a hundred years old! You made an arbitrary decision without consulting me for any of it, or asking me about everything I’d survived. I was forced into leadership, made to grow up and lead a clan of hundreds of people. I wasn’t a child,” she snapped. “You refused to entertain any other possible scenarios, any other paths to our matehood. I never once pushed for an immediate bond. Your reactions told me all I needed to know about how you felt about me.”

She shook her head, irate. “What did you expect me to do? Hold fast to an unspoken vow of future happiness? Deny what fate decreed? Let you string me along, content with crumbs of your attention when you deigned to throw them? ‘Wait on you’ and put my life on pause for whenever you were prepared to speak to me?”

“I had my reasons,” was his only reply, almost strangled.

Nina’s lengthened canines bracketed her sardonic smile. “You’re unbelievable.”

When he reached out to return her to the circle of his arms, she resisted. Weakened as she was, her pathetic protests would amount to little. That didn’t stop her from digging her nails into the flesh of his forearm. She instantly regretted it when the savory scent of his blood rose to greet her.

Her fangs embedded in his arm only seconds later. She applied no restraint, intent on letting him endure every second of pain without the ecstasy that typically accompanied such an act. Unlike other vampires, she controlled the associated emotion on a psychic level and could turn taking blood from someone into an excruciating process instead of a euphoric one.

The swelling gush of his blood flavored her tongue, a delicious tang that sated her above and beyond anything she’d experienced before him. Swallowing with ravenous gulps, she became aware that he’d stilled. While one of his arms was lodged under her teeth, his other hand was gently stroking her hair. The whisper of sensation rioted across her scalp, an irresistible shudder humming against his touch. And even when she held him in her thrall, forcefully taking what he hadn’t offered, he held her with a devotion and care that was heartbreaking.

Instantly, she regretted the discomfort she’d already caused him, replacing the pain with the barest tendrils of pleasure. It was several moments later that her fangs retracted, and the wound sealed with a brush of her tongue.

Shame colored her cheeks when she met his stoic gaze, the scent of blood and sandalwood rich in the air.

An apology lodged in her throat, threatening to choke on her pride. With great difficulty, she managed to sputter out the words.

“I’m sorry.”

For half a moment, his expression was blank. Then his hand rose again, cupping her cheek this time. Slowly, he crept forward, closing the distance between them with his intent written over his flawless features. The other Raeth gave her every opportunity to withdraw, to evade the question he was asking of her. And when his lips brushed hers in the lightest of kisses, Nina was unable to resist the lure.

This time, when their mouths met, she returned the kiss in kind. Featherlight, she deepened the union of their lips, accepting his affection and readily returning it. Every cell of her body thrummed with the rightness she experienced in his embrace.

In her haze, she acknowledged that they could never return to the way they were before. There would be no holding each other at arm’s length, denying the connection that linked their very souls.

The was only one thing that hadn’t changed: if Nina surrendered to the mating bond and died on the battlefield, Zeke would inevitably pay the same price.

Chapter Fourteen

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