Page 70 of Kingdom of Darkness and Dragons
"Don't," she said, backing away from me until her shoulders hit the rough bark of another tree. "Don't come any closer."
But I was already moving, closing the distance between us with fluid grace. The shadows moved with me, reaching out to caress her trembling form with tendrils of living darkness. She tried to run, but there was nowhere to go—I had chosen this spot carefully, using my supernatural senses to drive her into a natural trap formed by fallen logs and rocky outcroppings.
"Please," she whispered as the shadows began to wind around her arms and legs, holding her gently but implacably against the tree. "I just... I just wanted to go home."
The word hit me like a physical blow, cutting through my predatory satisfaction to reveal something unexpectedly vulnerable beneath. Home. What did that word even mean to someone like me? The temple where I'd learned to command shadow was a place of learning, not comfort. The villages I'd grown up in were ash and memory. I had no home, no place where I belonged, no life beyond the war that had shaped me.
But looking at her now, seeing the tears that tracked down her dirty cheeks and the way she held herself with dignity despite her captivity, I thought I might understand what the word meant after all.
She was home. This fierce, impossible woman who had somehow quieted the voices in my head and given me the first peaceful sleep I'd known in months. She was what I'd been searching for without knowing I was searching, the missing piece that would make me whole again.
If that was true, then I could never let her go.
"Aythen val neth," I said softly, the words carrying a weight of meaning she couldn't possibly understand.You belong with me."Korveth sul'thanor."No more running.
She struggled against the shadow bonds, her strength impressive even when pitted against supernatural force. "I don'tunderstand," she said desperately. "I don't know what you want from me."
But she did understand, at least partially. I could see it in her eyes—the recognition of what lay between us, the acknowledgment of a connection that transcended language and logic. She felt it just as keenly as I did, this pull that made her breath catch when I touched her, that had made her respond to my caresses even while she hated herself for it.
The mate bond was not one-sided. She might not understand what it was, might fight against its implications, but she felt its power nonetheless.
I approached slowly, savouring the way her pulse hammered visibly in her throat, the way her breathing grew shallow as I drew near. When I was close enough to touch her, I raised one hand and traced the line of her jaw with my fingertips, feeling the electric connection that sparked between us at the contact.
She shuddered at the touch, her eyes closing briefly before snapping open to glare at me with magnificent fury.
"I hate you," she whispered, but the words lacked conviction. How could she hate me when her body betrayed her so completely? When the scent of her arousal was sharp in the cold mountain air despite her terror?
"Sy'then val sulan," I replied, leaning close enough that my breath stirred the hair at her temple.You are mine."Korveth alathan nul."You will learn.
The shadows around her arms loosened slightly, allowing her to move but not to escape. I stepped back, studying her flushed face and the way her chest rose and fell with each rapid breath. The hunt had exhausted her, but it had also awakened something in both of us—a primal recognition of predator and prey that was as ancient as the mountains themselves.
She was magnificent. Defiant even in defeat, beautiful even dirty and dishevelled from her flight through the forest. Thewarrior's scars that marked her body spoke of strength and survival, of a woman who had faced death and emerged victorious. She would bear strong children, if I chose to give them to her.
The thought should have terrified me. Children meant passing on the curse that ran in my bloodline, the susceptibility to shadow magic that had already consumed so much of what I'd once been. But looking at her now, imagining her belly round with my child, I felt only a fierce possessive satisfaction.
She would be mine in every way that mattered. Body, mind, and soul.
But first, I needed to speak with Aytara. The old woman knew more about mate bonds than anyone else in our scattered people, and if there was any way to break such a connection before it was fully sealed, she would know it. I needed to understand what I was contemplating before I took steps that could never be undone.
Which meant returning to the temple with my prize, despite every instinct screaming at me to claim her here and now beneath the watching stars. And yet, I couldn’t bring myself to step away. Her eyes bright and defiant closed as I leaned down and brushed my lips over hers. I felt her sigh, her lips parting voluntarily as I deepened the kiss. She knew. She might run, but she knew she was mine.
I pulled away, the taste of her a brand on my lips. Her surrender, however brief, was a victory more profound than any battlefield triumph. The voices sang in my skull, a chorus of triumph.She yields. She knows her place. Take her now. Breed her. Fill her with your darkness.
I kissed her again, this time sliding my hand into her hair to pull her mouth against mine, kissing her deeply and without mercy. It was not a kiss of affection, but of ownership, a bruising claim that left no doubt as to who was in control. I plundered hermouth, tasting her fear and her fight and the sweet, unwilling surrender beneath it all.
Her body went pliant against the tree, a silent admission of defeat that was more potent than any drug.
A low groan rumbled in my chest. This was right. This was inevitable. The whispers fell silent, awed into submission by the sheer force of the connection that flared between us. My lips moved along her jaw and down her throat, and she gasped as I flicked my tongue over the marks of her old mates. My teeth tingled with the desire to bite down, to add my own, but I fought it back. I would allow myself this pleasure, but not the claiming. Not yet.
I moved down slowly, my mouth never leaving her skin as I unlaced her shirt and pulled it apart, baring her beautiful breasts to the night. My shadows flowed up and over them, tendrils of darkness brushing over her skin, and she moaned. I bent my head, sucking her nipple into my mouth and she struggled against the restraints once more, arching her back and pushing deeper into my mouth.
Her whimpers were like fuel, and I drew harder, my tongue lashing the sensitive peak until she cried out, a raw, broken sound of pure sensation. My shadows obeyed the unspoken command of my lust, sliding over her other breast, their cool touch a stark contrast to the heat of my mouth. They toyed with her nipple, rolling the nub between incorporeal fingers until it was as hard and beaded as the one I devoured.
I moved to it, giving it equal, punishing attention. Her head thrashed against the tree, her breath coming in ragged sobs. The fight had bled out of her, replaced by a desperate, frantic need that made her arch against her bonds, pushing her body into my assault. She was unravelling, and the sight of her coming apart for me was a victory more intoxicating than any battle. My shadows pulled at the rest of her clothing, leaving her nakedand restrained before me. She looked as she had the night I’d healed her shoulder and cleaned her wounds. I had fought to resist her allure that night, never wanting to take something that was unwillingly given. But now I knew the touch of her, the taste of her, and I was no longer holding back. The shadows around her ankles tightened, pulling her legs apart and she gasped as I knelt, desperate for another taste of her.
The scent of her arousal, mingled with fear and the clean smell of the forest, was the most potent intoxicant I had ever known. She was slick for me, her body betraying her defiance with every shuddering breath. I nuzzled into the nest of dark curls, inhaling her, before my mouth found the heart of her.
Her hips bucked against the pressure, a frantic rhythm that matched the wild beating of her heart. I gave her no quarter, my tongue a relentless weapon against her most sensitive flesh. She was a storm breaking against me, her cries turning from protest to raw, shameless pleasure. The shadows that held her tightened, a silent command to hold still and take what I was giving her.
