Page 81 of Sins of His Wrath

“You never had nightmares when you were exhausted from my cock,” he said sharply. “That’s not new.”

Naya pressed her lips together. She’d had nightmares after her heat when she was withdrawn, but he was right. Usually she was too exhausted when she was with him.

His voice softened slightly. "Have you come to terms with your sister's death?"

The question caught her off guard. It was something she’d wondered herself. A pang of grief sliced through her, but it was duller now, a scar rather than an open wound.

The tension in her muscles loosened. "I'm not sure," she said slowly. She thought for a moment. "Yes. Yes I have.”

In the darkness, Naya could feel Akoro’s focus narrow, his attention sharpening. “How? You thought you could have prevented her death. Do you still think that?”

“I…” Naya hesitated, her throat tightening. “I don’t think I could have saved her—not with what I knew then.”

She fell silent again, searching for the right words.

“We are not as equipped for magic in my land as you are in yours,” she said slowly. “I know you’re aware of that. But I didn’t truly understand how much we weren’t—until I came here.”

She tucked her legs under her, sitting cross-legged on the bed. “We don’t know enough. We don’t train for it the way we should. I didn’t have the knowledge. I didn’t have the skill. When I think back on it now…” She exhaled, rubbing her hands over her arms. “None of us were ready. And if I wasn’t prepared, if I didn’t even have the tools to act differently, then how could my choices have changed anything?”

Her voice was quieter now, but steady.

“I made decisions from ignorance. But there were so many decisions before mine—years of neglecting what should have been learned, of feuds that distracted from what was important, of knowledge lost because of old grudges. I didn’t fail her. We all failed her, long before that day.”

She met Akoro’s gaze in the dim light. “I carried the weight of it for so long, but it was never mine alone to bear. My parents tried to tell me that but I couldn’t hear it.”

Akoro hummed in acknowledgment. "And that’s why the nightmares have stopped?"

"Maybe." Naya pulled her knees to her chest, resting her chin on them. "I think they stopped because I stopped being afraid of what my life is going to be. I've realized I can't be afraid anymore. I can't be afraid to lead, to make decisions." Her voice dropped lower. "I can't be afraid to be alone."

The silence that followed was thick. Akoro’s shadowy outline leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, his scent shifting to something darker. "What do you mean by 'alone'?"

Her pulse quickened. The possessiveness in his voice and the sudden stillness of his body made this dangerous territory.

"Nothing," she said, turning away from him. This was none of his business anyway.

"Tell me," he ordered.

"No." Naya spoke clearly and precisely, refusing to let him roll over her again with his dominance. "When you tell me everything—I want to know about magic,the truth, not just history and blame—then maybe I'll tell you everything you want to know."

Akoro rose slowly from his chair, his shadow elongating across the floor as he approached. Naya looked up at him, his heat radiating against her bare arms.

His voice came rough and quiet. "Is this a negotiation,tmot zia?"

"Isn’t everything between us?"

It was too hard to see his face, but in the silence, something shifted, hardened. Naya could feel something shifting between them—not just desire, not just anger, but something more complex. A recognition. A pull that ran deeper than their bodies' attraction.

"Fine," he said roughly. "Then tomorrow I will have something for you, and you will have something for me."

Without waiting for her response, he stepped back but didn’t return to the chair. He leaned against the wall, arms crossed, watching her.

Naya settled back down into bed and turned her back to him. But after a while, her body softened, drowsy and ready for sleep. She turned her head back, and he was still there.

Naya woke with a gasp, her breath hitched, her body slick with sweat. Heat coiled in her belly, the lingering tendrils of pleasure still ghosting along her skin, her thighs quivering with need. The dream still clung to her, vivid and overpowering—the stretch of hot sand beneath her, the sun blistering her skin, her Alpha’s body above hers, inside hers, taking, giving, consuming.

Her fingers were already moving, seeking relief, seeking him?—

But he wasn’t there.

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