Page 14 of Bred By Zyros
The look in them nearly makes me wither, so I stand taller instead, lifting my chin as she meets my eyes.
“Do not look at her.”
Her eyes widen as they turn back to him before narrowing. “Zaelshar did not lie. Your scent has changed.” Her tongue darts out, testing his flesh, and the cringe that breaks out across Zyros makes sick churn in my gut. “You belong—”
“To no one, not to the human, not to any ofyou. You wanted a child; I refuse to keep providing them to stroke your ego! This is all you will get from me. I am done!” He all but roars whatever overcame him for a moment, forgotten to his anger again.
My pulse spikes, I step out again just a little, my hands fisting the fabric of my dress.
“Others cannot—” she starts.
“You crossed that line when you kept those machines that defile our planet. They have alreadycome.”
The female ignores him, still struggling to be free from his hold. “Is she venom-touched?”
Venom-touched?
Something in her words changes him, enraging him further. The roar he lets out shakes me to my core as he grips her face.
She screams.
Actually screams.
I dart out of the cave to do what, who knows.
“I have done what you asked. If you return to my territory, if your spies and watchers return, I will kill all of you! What will become of your Nyssara? Of your goddesses when there are no males left to breed?”
“Zyros, stop it, you’re hurting her!” I scream as I reach them, my hand gripping his arm to pull him free.
Her body jerks unnaturally underneath him as his grip tightens, and when he looks at me, it’s with a face I don’t recognize. His moon burst eyes are black and wide with…what? Worry…fear? “It will be a fatedeserving, get inside, Melody.” He hisses, his voice guttural and harsh.
My hands are shaky as I slam them against his face, panic driving my actions. “Stop it now! You’re scaring me!”
Again, it’s made apparent how outmatched I am because she takes that moment, that instant of an opening to toss Zyros from her, slithering out from underneath him faster than I thought possible. The world pivots as his heavy weight is forced back, taking me with it. His claws prick my skin under my dress as he rolls, keeping me from being crushed underneath him. I’m wrapped in his tail, banded behind him in the next instant, my head reeling from the violent, sudden movements.
The female is panting, taking deep ragged breaths, but she doesn’t run. She rises higher, prouder than before. There’s something equal parts funny and terrifying about that. Puffing your chest after having your ass handed to you. “She will be blessed by the goddesses. This will be pointless otherwise,” she orders.
“You have lost your grip if you think I would take her into the springs. The only reason she is not dead now is because you know you would not escape the clearing before I slaughteredyou.”
A ragged gasp leaves my lungs, the last few minutes passing through my mind with clarity. She hadn’t gone forhim.
She went forme.
My bones seem to chill from their very core to my flesh as the realization sinks in.
She tried to killme.
My eyes dart from her to Zyros, his hulking, towering form tense.Ready.
“Bless her, Zyros. The goddesses will not see a life born from nothing!”
“They see no life regardless!”
“We will not harm the outsider. We want the same thing, although your disrespect would warrant no less.”
“You lie!” He hisses.
“A life is a life, no? I am not without reason.” She huffs, shifting her fiery red gaze back to me. Zyros snarls at her in warning, and I think I’m about to pass the fuck out.
