Page 40 of Pain

The room quickly filled with the soft rumbling of our synchronized breathing.

“Now, Omaera, tell me what Zandren is feeling at this very moment,” Kenvin said.

“H-he’s annoyed,” she said hesitantly. “Annoyed that he’s not sitting beside me. He’s also still hungry.”

“What else?” Kenvin asked.

“He’s tired, and he’s—”

“And he’s?” Kenvin probed.

I peeled open one eye and glanced at my mate, her cheeks were flushed a sexy-red, and her lips twisted like she was reluctant to say what she could feel Zandren feeling.

“He’s … um … he’s …” She sighed. “He’s horny.”

“Join the club,” I murmured.

“Silence,” Kenvin said again. “Good. Now, which one of those feelings do you think is the easiest to prey upon?”

“Prey upon?”

“To manipulate in order to hurt him.”

“I … I don’t want to hurt him. And … I can’t since we’re mate-bonded. Right?”

“That’s right, but at the moment, your connection is the strongest. So his feelings are easiest to tap into. Once we identify which emotions you can manipulate to get what you want, we’ll move on to the more difficult targets of the mage and vampire.”

“Oh … okay.” Her voice was so small and unsure that I briefly opened my eyes and reached for her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. She squeezed it back and my heart thumped in my chest. “Um … maybe his hunger? No! His arousal, since it can also be a form of distraction. But so can fatigue, can it not?”

“It can,” Kenvin replied. “What about his annoyance?”

“It’s not super strong. He knows that he has to share me, and we shared aroom last night. So he knows he doesn’t really have any reason to be jealous.”

“It’s more envious than jealous, Little One,” Zandren rumbled. “I wish I had you all to myself, but I have accepted the situation. Doesn’t mean I don’t wish that it was my hand you were holding right now.”

Just to be a dick, I squeezed Omaera’s hand again.

“I’m sorry,” Omaera said, which prompted me to open my eyes. Her eyes were open too. “But how is this supposed to help train me to harness my powers?”

Zandren and Drak’s eyes were open too.

Impatience flickered across Kenvin’s face, but then it was gone. Probably because he realized he was dealing with a half human who hadn’t been schooled in the ways of demon powers since she was an infant.

“The best way to defeat you opponent is to figure out their weaknesses and target them. Often, weaknesses can be invisible to the naked eye. They can be mental. They can be a weakness of the moment. They’re not always a loved one in danger, or the fate of the world at risk. Sometimes, their weakness or vulnerability can be ego-driven. So, in this case, I would play into Zandren’s annoyance. His jealousy. Push thoughts of you rebuffing him for one of your other mates into his head. Push images and ideas. Have him question your love and loyalty.”

Zandren’s honey-brown eyes turned terrified, and he growled deep and low in his chest.

Omaera swallowed. “I … I don’t want to do that.”

“And you can’t,” Kenvin said quickly. “I’m just giving you an example. If you could, you could drive the bear insane with jealousy to the point where he could very well attack your other two mates.”

“Th-that’s what Lerris did when we fought him. He made Zandren turn on Maxar and Drak.”

Kenvin turned to Zandren. “Do you remember the thoughts and images he fed into your head?”

Still wide-eyed and nervous as hell that Omaera was actually going to invade his mind and plant intrusive thoughts, he shook his head. “No. I don’t rememberany of it.”

Kenvin merely bobbed his head before pointing to where Omaera and I held hands. “You’re physically connected to the mage. Try tapping into his feelings, and figure out his vulnerabilities and which one you can exploit.”

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