Page 16 of Magic Hunted
“Nothing that can ever be undone,” I said. “I will always belong to Titan.” Truth. Titan would always have control over me. There was no way to un-fuse the metal from my bones.
“You used to wear a collar.” Dias leaned in, his gaze locked on the scarring the slave collar had worn into my neck.
“Keep your eyes to yourself,” I gasped, heat flaming my cheeks and slamming my hand over the faint scar around my neck.
My vision blurred as tears welled. Horrified, I turned my back on them, wiping away evidence. I never cried. Never showed emotion of any type and in the space of hours they’d gotten under my skin enough for tears.
“Haera!” Warmth coated my back as Savvas knelt beside me. I shivered when he put his hands on my shoulders and tugged me to rest against him. Gods help me, I let him. My shoulder pressed into his warm chest and the delicious scent made my mouth water.
My nipples beaded and my core swelled. A bright red light, filled with fire and passion pulsed behind my eyes and settled into my chest, questioning, offering. I gasped, pulling away from him. I understood what that light was. His soul-light. Freely offered to me. Something I could never accept.
“Savvas! No!” I pushed away, but he tightened his hold around my shoulders and groaned.
“I want to give you my soul-light. Haera, please. Let me in. Let me comfort you. My panther is wild. We both need to,” Savvas said.
“She’s not ready, Savvas,” Dias said.
“Can’t you feel her? She hurts. She’s in so much pain, and her soul…it’s…purelight,” Savvas said.
I balanced on an edge that both rejected his words and soaked them up. “My soul is anything but light, Savvas. I told you, the bond is spelled.I’mspelled. You’re feeling the effects of magic. Stay away from me, otherwise our soul-lights will bond. We’ll be locked together forever and you won’t want that.” Truth. The bond would be too much to overcome and I wouldn’t have them risk their lives for me. Maybe when I could rid myself of the grimoire but not now. Not when the magic would ride them to do terrible things.
I’d had a taste of being a mate when Titan had forced me on the wolves. It had all been so real, sowonderful, until Titan had severed the magic and I was left with the scattered remains of my heart. I’d hurt the wolves, but it had taken a chunk of my heart too.
I wouldn’t fall for the same trap again. Not even for the sake of the grimoire. Not when they’d give their lives like my fathers had.
I wouldn’t survive.
Ashir lowered his face, spearing me with a determined look that froze my heart. “You may be a slave, but your soul is still free.”
I laughed, the sound flat and cold. “You know nothing. My soul was sold before I was born. My soul is not my own and neither will yours be if you don’tlisten to me.” The grimoire twisted the anchor that tethered us together. I grunted at the sharp pain, splaying my hand over my abdomen. I would not give in to its demands.
“You’re notjusta slave are you, magic? You’re much more than that,” Dias said. His voice stuck like gravel, burning through my skin and leaving bloody welts.
“I’m nothing.” My voice was strained. No one had gotten close to guessing who I was. What I did. Dias was a tick that was burrowing under my skin. Burrowing deeper and deeper until he struck that squishy part of me where nothing would be barred.
“Why would Titan embed slave studs into your bones? Why would he do that to you?” Dias said.
“He’s done that and worse. That was why I was running from him. It was my one chance to get away from him and you stopped me! And now you’re trapping me again with a bond, which isn’t going to happen. I don’t want anything making me do things I don’t want to do, so you get away from me because I’m never going to be the mate you want.”
The hot coals of my anger burned a hole in my gut, sweeping through my system. When I imagined my mates, I’d never twigged that I’dlikethem. That it wouldhurtso much to keep them away from me. That deep down inside, there would be a flicker of need that was all me wanting to accept males I could never have.
I staggered to my feet, crying out when sand scoured the open cuts on my soles. Jagged pain raced up my legs. My knees buckled as all the bruises and scrapes on my body fired to life. Strong arms caught me before I collapsed to the ground and I was swept against a muscular chest.
“Put me down!” I said, because it was all too tempting to curl into the strength of Savvas’ body.
Heat flooded my system and magic fizzed in my veins as the grimoire vibrated now that it sensed one of my mates holding me. The embers of the bond sparked to instant life. My lips tingled as his gaze lowered to my mouth. The world dissolved. There was only Savvas, the heat of his body and how glorious his skin was against mine. My nipples puckered as I licked my bottom lip, almost tasting his scent with the drag of my tongue. The scent of my arousal billowed around us.
Savvas inhaled deeply, his caramel eyes illuminated with hungry preternatural light. He looked down at me, those light eyes watching me as though I held the answers to life. “No female scents like you without a true bond. It doesn’t matter what Titan has made you do. Everything changes for all of us here and now. As much as you fight us, I will fight for you until one day you will accept the truth. You’re our mate and I will do everything possible to ensure there are no doubts. I know what I feel and I know it’s right. We’re made for each other. We have searched for you for years and now I have you in my arms. There is no escape. There is nothing that can’t be overcome. There is only us and our bond. We will fully claim you mind, body and soul. That is the only truth that makes any sense to me because what I feel, the pull to you, isn’t wrong.”
His head dipped and his lips claimed mine. Fire burned through my system, from my lips to my bones. He thrust his tongue past my parted lips. I swept my tongue against his, moaning as my arms locked behind his neck. I pressed my breasts against his chest, trembling as magic sparked from the center of my chest and raced through my body.
My pussy throbbed, swelling with need. She didn’t care what I wanted or the bond that manipulated all of us. She was happy to grow slick with the need to be touched. Stretched and filled with the cock that surged under my thighs. The grimoire and the bond were her accomplices, and I was no match for either of them.
I hummed with arousal, pressing my aching breasts against his chest as he plunged his tongue into my mouth, licking, tasting, lapping. The magic tingled, thumbing an electric charge from my breasts to my clit. I moaned as arousal coursed through me, intense and needy. My fingers wove into the fine, curly hair at the back of his head and I tilted my head, suckling his soft lips and drinking in the flavor of the promise of home and I knew I’d never be the same again.
They’d already secured a part of me and I hadn’t been aware I’d handed it over.
Chapter Nine
