Page 19 of Smoke and Flame

As she choked back the gasp, Ninki sashayed out the front door.

Boom, boom, boom.Kai rested a hand on her chest.Living in the Dispatch District and working her nails to nubs and her fingers to the bone as she watched her back and Morlie’s, Kai knew a threat when she came face to face with it.Ninki was a threat.

It would do her well never to turn her back on the woman.

Kai wondered if Aodh had such a fierce and beautiful woman of his kind, why he would demand such a sacrifice of her for Morlie’s health.It didn’t make sense.

I’m no longer inside the Wall.Nothing makes sense anymore.

Chapter Five

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Aodh’s long stridesate up the ground as he exited the assembly room where many of the Thunder met for their evening meals.Most of the day, the immense space was used to congregate and discuss various things from work to life.There had only been a few groups gathered and talking when he’d entered to find Tana, his attendant, and give the older Drahkelle orders to assist Kai.His mother had assigned Tana to him once he’d reached maturity.Tana was gentle and strong but never overstepped her place by mothering him.From the beginning, the older woman respected him as the rising McKenna.Once he fought and won his position, his birthright, he’d kept Tana.He considered one day when he mated that Tana would assist them with any offspring.However, he never expected the Great Spirit to link him with a human mate.Kai would need Tana’s support and assistance.

He knew Kai would need orienting t” his’world.The responsibility of her sat heavy on his shoulder.But Tana would be kind.His attendant also would know not to cross certain lines regarding what to tell Kai and what to leave for him to explain.

It was also why Aodh didn’t send a younger female Drahk or one of the few humans living among them to Kai.He would not be able to control what they would share with her.

Kai.

Just thinking of her name caused heat to burn in his gut and head south.The thickening of his cock in his pants urged him to make an about-face and return to his suite above the hall.Drag Kai in his arms and initiate her into what it would be like to be his mate.Now.

His beast growled.Not so much in agreement of who Kai was to them, but a simple acknowledgment of the connection.

Aodh admitted he desired her, and his beast did as well.There wasn’t a doubt.Drahks were intensely sexual creatures.Their first goal was to grow the Thunder, but a close second was pleasure.Sexual.After that, they lived for soaring then food.Aodh considered going on a flight, maybe gliding high in the clear, mauve sky with the odd-colored sun beating down on his scales, then he could forget about the lush, thick curves of the woman holding up in his suite.

Fuck, if that was true.Knowing that shortly, Kai would be in a bath with water glistening all over her bare skin made his flesh feel too tight around his beast.His need for her was more potent than any other female when he was around Kai.It did not make sense to him.Celibacy was a foreign concept to his kind.He’d been with plenty of females, but none stirred his body and beast.Even though his beast hadn’t approved of her yet, it still reared its head and perked its ears toward Kai when she spoke.It wasn’t a guarantee, but it gave him hope.He needed to mate with Kai and sire offspring to save his Thunder.

Aodh growled and felt the stretch of his dragon’s claw lengthen his nailbed.His body was warring with itself on so many levels.“Shit.Shit.Fuck.”

“Sir?”Yeongi fell in step beside him.

Aodh grumbled a response.He barely spared his aide a glance as he strutted beside him toward the conference room where the meeting with the leadership assembly met.Aodh would have hoped having his aide beside him would help him steer his mind away from the sexy woman in his room, but his mind and body didn’t seem to give a flying fuck about who else was around.Both were focused on one goal—Kai.Not just seeing the appealing woman but touching her.He wondered what her skin would feel like, if it was as soft and supple as it appeared.He wanted to watch her remove her tattered clothing.Clothing that made Aodh want to yank one of his broad swords from the wall and slice every one of the leaders in two for not caring for their women, all of their people.Kai wasn’t the first of her kind to end up on the other side of the wall.Oh, no.She was just the first to come on her own.

Snapping his teeth together, Aodh felt the pressure in his jaw.His beast wanted out.It wanted to chew up and burn down things.Even though his beast had no claim on Kai and had not accepted her into the fold of the Thunder, it still offered protection.Protection.Yes, it was something Aodh had given the moment he saw her.There hadn’t been a choice.

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