Page 18 of Storms of His Wrath

“Of course I want to be with you the way your parents are together.” The words tore from his throat, raw and honest. “But our lives cannot stop just because we’re mates. I still need to do what I promised. So if I can’t have that with you, I will live with it. But I’m still having you,tmot zia. I’ll have you in any way I can, even by force. I’ve always been clear about that.”

Her eyes crinkled up at him. “But you didn’t like it when you had me by force.”

Akoro’s jaw tightened. That was true. When she gave him her body and nothing else, it had been almost unbearable. No matterhow much he drowned himself in her, it wasn’t the same when she touched him, and looked at him, and took comfort in him. He couldn’t say anything in response to that.

“I thought we were making progress,” she said after a moment. “When you told me about your family, about what happened to them, I thought you were opening up to me. Helping me understand you.”

“I was.” A frustrated growl bled into his tone, mixing with something that felt dangerously close to desperation. “And I thought you would understand my need to redress what your people did to mine.”

“You can’t separate yourself from the parts of history you don’t like.” Her voice gained strength. “I’m not saying they were perfect in what they did, but you can’t ignore why they did it.” She paused, her eyes searching his face. “Can’t you see that what you’re doing to me is exactly what your family did to those Omegas all those years ago?”

Fury exploded through his veins, hot and immediate. How dare she accuse him of being like his family! “Don’t.” The word came out with the remnants of fury and indignation that he’d buried deep. The shame he still lived with. “Don’t compare me to them.”

“How am I supposed to not?—”

“Because they took Omegas for profit!” His voice cracked like a whip across the desert air. “I took you because you’re mine. Because every instinct I possess screams that you belong with me. That’s not the same thing.”

She looked up at him. The tears fell from her eyes and tracked paths down her cheeks, catching the dying light of the sun. When she spoke, her voice was steady. “You took me from my family, just like the Sy Dynasty did to the Omegas of thessukkurian. You wanted to use my knowledge and my skill to give you a way to enrich yourself, just like the Sy Dynasty did tothe Omegas of thessukkurian. You marked me with a deadly proximity wound so I couldn’t leave, just like the Sy Dynasty did to the Omegas of thessukkurian. You even put me in the same fucking dungeons.”

Each parallel she drew was a blade to his chest. She paused, her gaze never leaving his. “Which part of any of that demonstrates that we’re mates?”

Her words struck deep, and for a moment everything in him stilled. The wind, the sand, the shifting momentum—all of it faded at her words. Then he stepped closer, looking down at her, drinking in the beauty that never failed to steal his breath, the fierceness that had captured him from the moment he closed his arms around her in her forest.

“You’re leaving out the powerful and undeniable connection we had during your heat,” he said, his voice dropping. “And the attraction between us that has always been overwhelming. You’re leaving out that for no other woman would I watch her every moment in my land to make sure she sleeps at night, ensure she is eating well and dressed like the queen she is. For no one would I accept defeat at the point of their weapon.” He stepped closer still. “For no other woman would I agree to wait for weeks and not touch her, simply to get her kiss.”

He reached up, his thumb tracing the path of her tears. “There has been no other woman who has captured me the way you have, Naya, and there never will be. You’re in constant denial about that. You blame your instincts and your attraction to me on some supposed faulty part of yourself, so you have no right to lecture me about separating myself from parts of history I don’t like. You separate yourself from your attraction to me every moment you can.”

Naya was silent, her eyes thoughtful as he wiped the remaining tears from her cheeks. The sight of her was achinglyvulnerable, and something in his chest clenched that she was in this state because of him.

“I’m here because I’m still not letting you go,” he said finally, his voice low in his chest. “I’m still going to fight for you with everything I have, Naya.” He was an Alpha, and she belonged to him—the very idea of letting her go was fucking impossible. But while indignation simmered in his chest, he found himself unable to completely dismiss what she’d said. “But I want you to want me too.”

The question that had been burning in him during those nights he watched over her finally escaped, almost without him realizing. “Would you ever give me a real chance to be your mate?”

The question hung between them, heavy with dread. Because he knew, with crystalline certainty, that if she said no then she would be his prisoner forever. He couldn’t let her go.

Seeming to read his mind, she asked quietly, “Does it matter? You’ll keep me prisoner anyway, despite the agreement we made.”

The words struck him, the disappointment almost overwhelming. Because she’d only be a prisoner if she said no. So her answer was no. Akoro breathed deep, the tightness in his chest expanding. He pulled his thoughts back and allowed himself to consider for the first time since he’d claimed the throne, for the first time since he’d decided what he wanted and taken it… Could he bear to keep her and not have all of her? Could he let her go? Could he release the woman he’d been ready to go to war for?

Before he’d even finished thinking it through, Naya pulled herself together with visible effort. Blinking away the moisture in her eyes, straightening her spine and swallowing hard.

“Regardless of how you treat me, we made an agreement, and I’m honoring it,” she said. “I might be able to find answersabout thennin-eellithiwith these people that could help with the coming storm. I need to stay. Go back to the palace, I’ll follow in a few days.”

“No,” he said firmly. The idea of leaving her here sent every protective instinct he possessed into violent revolt. “You cannot stay in these Sands, Naya.”

“If you and your men progress any further, you will damage my discussions with these people.” Her tone was firm. “If they feel you’re a threat, they may not help. And they are powerful, Akoro.”

She gestured to the sands around her feet, and suddenly he noticed again that the shifting sands, the very ground that had tried to swallow him with every step, lay still beneath her feet. Perfectly, unnaturally still. Even the wind swerved around her.

“Who are they?” The question came out sharp, edged with suspicion and growing alarm.

“I can’t say.” Her words and demeanor were iron-firm, unyielding. “But I promised them you wouldn’t progress further.”

“You expect me to trust them with your safety?” he growled.

Naya watched, her gaze wary. “I expect you to trust me, Akoro. We made an agreement, and unlike you, I won’t break it.”

Every muscle in Akoro’s body tensed, his competing instincts threatening to tear him apart. Naya should be on hisnniraegalloping the fuck out of here, yet she was holding herself to a contract that he’d forgotten about the moment she vanished. Whoever these people were, they possessed power he couldn’t ignore—the ability to control the Isshiran Sands was beyond anything he’d imagined possible. They also knew too much about Sy history to dismiss as irrelevant. If everything with Naya wasn’t at stake, if it wasn’t her asking him, he would charge ahead and find out who the fuck they were.

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