Page 53 of My Dark Obsession
“Then what do you think happened?” I asked.
He shrugged and squeezed my hand. “I don’t know, but I don’t think it was ye’re kind. I was so afraid when my realm died, and the portals closed. I was alone, the last of my kind. I was angry and told ye’re kind were to blame.” I stayed silent. My kind had taken his family away.
“My point Wee one, is I thought I was going to be alone for thousands of years. I thought I was going toget angrier and angrier until I had no other choice but to end mine and my dragon’s life. I thought I was never going to find a Flight, my own family. My own Mate. Then one boring humid afternoon, my dragon woke for the first time in years. Our Mate was here, and low and behold, she was a Dark Witch. I had been granted someone to accept me, to match me in my grumpiness.” He grinned as his eyes lit up the darkness. “My feisty Wee Mate who likes to pretend she feels nothing.”
He stopped our slow walk, lifted my hand to his chest and lowered his head to mine “I know ye’ feel like ye’ won’t get to ye’re boys, tha’ ye’re magic won’t show itself, but it will. This is only just the start, for ye’, for me, for all tha’ ye’ wish to allow into ye’re life.”
How could this man stand to be around me? I was the only living evidence from those who had taken everything from him. If it was true and the Dark Witches were to blame for everything, then could I really accept this power within me? Would I become so greedy and consumed by Dark magic that I would start a war?
I didn’t want any of that. I wanted nothing more than to protect what was mine: my boys, my mountain, my ghost…and my dragon. This man, this giant brute of a shifter with his grumpy face and willingness to accept me, accept me when I had done nothing but fight his affection, and tell him I had no plans to accept our mating. This man who had been nothing but kind and gentle to me, who had done nothing but guide me in this confusing world and agreed to help me get my boys.
It was then in the darkened forest of the Shadow land, that I knew, this man, this dragon shifter, Rí, was mine.
Mine to protect, mine to keep, mine to obsess over.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
And so I said the one thing he had been patiently waiting for.
“I accept you as my Circle Mate.”
His eyes widened as he turned to me in shock. He stared at me for something akin to awe before he slammed his mouth to mine whilst holding my face between his big palms. I gripped his forearms and allowed the full extent of my need for him to show in our kiss.
He ripped his mouth from mine, the both of us breathing heavy as he stood back from me.
“I want to take ye’ somewhere, somewhere we can be truly alone.”
I nodded. I fully trusted this man before me.
My man.
My dragon.
My Mate.
He shifted quickly, ripping the trees from the ground in the process and shook the sand from his scales. I grinned and accepted his lift up, this time more graciously.
I found I smiled a lot around Rí, something my twins were going to be delighted in finding out.
We took off into the humid night, the warm air blowing through my hair as I held my dragon tightly between my legs.
We flew through portals. I didn’t take any notice as of where. I only noticed the change of air on my face. I had my eyes closed, the feeling of freedom and acceptance wrapping around me in a bliss I didn’t know existed.
Snapping my eyes open, I had a thought.
Acceptance. That skin book had said something about acceptance. Was it of my Mates? Of this world? I didn’t know if I would ever accept Cole. He was too much of a dick, too stuck in the council’s way to ever see past his hatred, yet his tired eyes constantly filled my thoughts. Why was he so tired. What was making him sick?
Then there was this new man, Ziel. He was completely unknown to me. I had no connections to him other than the fact we both hated people. Was I extremely fascinated that he was Death’s warrior? Yes. Was I oddly obsessed with the thought of death and his cold grasp? Yes. Death had been my first obsession, the first time I had realised I was different. To find out that Death, as a person was real.
Fucking insane.
I looked up to see Rí was flying straight towards a cliff, the dark rocks almost unnoticeable in the dark sky.
I tapped his neck “Um…Rí?”
Either he didn’t hear me, or he didn’t care. He picked up speed and just as I expected us to be slammed into the rock and squashed to death, I landed in a confused heap in Rí’s arms. I opened my eyes, not even knowing when I had shut them and stared opened mouthed at the inside of a cave.
Eighteen
