Page 48 of Sins of His Wrath

Finally, as the first pale light of dawn broke, structures appeared on the horizon—ruins rising from the desert floor like a mirage.

"Onn Kkulma," Akoro murmured in her ear, his breath warm against her skin.

The city appeared before them like a dream materialized from sand and stone. Relief softened her body; she’d never been so glad to see the city of her previous capture.

As they approached the ruins, the magical storm finally slowed, as if it dared not enter, but thenniraedid not slow. It thundered forward, through the ruins and onto to palace at the heart of the city—the place where she would attempt to bring order to the wild magic that plagued Akoro's lands.

The place where she would save her people—or lose herself completely to the Alpha she could never escape.

CHAPTER TEN

“Ithought you said it wouldn’t come close?”

Naya’s breath was still uneven, her body thrumming from the wild chase across the sands, the phantom energy of thennin-eellithistill tingling beneath her skin.

Akoro didn’t answer. He kicked open the heavy doors to his chambers and strode inside.

The journey through the palace had passed in a blur. Servants had surrounded them briefly and then scattered. Akoro barked orders at someone, but then paid no one else any attention. His jaw clenched so tightly she could see the muscle ticking beneath his dark sand-colored skin. He held her tight against him, his grip unrelenting.

The familiar opulence of his bedroom surrounded her—the massive bed draped in rich fabrics, the intricate latticework casting shadows across the cool stone floor, the sunken bathing pool shimmering in the far corner. The last time she’d been in this room, she had awoken from her heat, sore, disoriented, and trapped. The memory sent an involuntary shiver through her body.

Akoro set her down, but his hands remained on her, sliding beneath her tunic, over her thighs, her waist, her shoulders, as if reassuring himself she was still whole. His eyes raked over her with an intensity that made her breath catch. "Did it touch you?" His voice was rough. “Did any of the magic make contact with your skin?”

“No,” she breathed. “But what happened?”

His scent crashed over her then—potent with remnants of arousal and the sharp edge of adrenaline, earthy and rich. The complex layers of his musk overwhelmed her, pulling at something primal within her. It poured into her lungs, into her bloodstream, until her pulse kicked into a quick, urgent rhythm. The unfinished hunger from the campfire surged back to the surface, molten and restless between them.

Akoro’s dark eyes flickered, as if sensing her shift.

"Let go of me," she said evenly.

"No." The word was simple, final. He stepped closer, backing her toward the bed.

Her knees hit the edge of the mattress. "Akoro?—"

He pushed her down, following her body as she fell back into the silken sheets. His weight settled over her, delicious and overwhelming, pinning her beneath him as his nose traced the column of her throat.

"You still need fucking." His gravelly voice sent a shiver skittering through her core.

Naya tried to keep her mind working, to think past the way he was so effortlessly overwhelming her. “Just—” She swallowed. “Just tell me how we got here so quickly. We only traveled for four or five days.”

Akoro let out a raspy groan of thick satisfaction against her neck, the sound vibrating through her skin, making her inner Omega preen. Then he lifted, bracing his thick arms on either side of her head, caging her beneath him. This time it was his dark, fierce eyes that pinned her still. “You have until I’m inside you to ask your questions.”

Naya frown up at him, trying to make sense of what he’d just said.

Akoro slid down her body and knelt at her feet. “We traveled faster because we arrived closer to the city,” he said, as he reached for the buckles of her boots.

She pushed up onto her elbows, watching him. “Closer? That means we didn’t travel from the same place as last time.”

Akoro yanked off one of her boots. “No.”

“How? Why?”

He turned his attention to the other. “We needed to come after you quickly,” he said, tossing her other boot across the room. harshly. “We couldn’t afford the extra two weeks to get to you. So we took a shortcut to the sand drift. A dangerous shortcut.”

Naya’s brows pulled together. “What is a sand drift?”

“Small areas in the desert where our magical tools are enhanced,” he said, his voice clipped as if impatient with the conversation. “It allows us to extend the reach of our portals.”

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