Page 82 of Destined By Dragonblood
Vanni heaved a sigh and squeezed me tight. “I’m not enough, am I?”
“It’s not that.” My brow furrowed as I considered Dolyn and the emptiness he’d left behind. Vanni and I together were nothing short of magic, the sweet magnetism, the ease with which our bodies and hearts fit together.
But a piece of our puzzle was missing.
“I understand,” Vanni murmured, his lips against my hair. “I feel the same way. If he’s not back by tomorrow morning, we’ll go find him. And I’ll make sure he never questions who he is ever again.”
“And if he safewords?” I asked quietly, aware of the depths of Dolyn’s denial and fear.
“I won’t allow it.”
But he would. My master would honor the one holding power over his heart.
Even if it wrecked us all.
Chapter 23
Dolyn
I set down on the cloaked veranda facing my cavern-like home and shifted to human form. A rush of wind lifted snow and freshly fallen sleet, blasting my naked body, but I didn’t feel the cold—or even the frigid stone of the mountain beneath my feet.
Fire burned in my guts, ignited by a combination of rage and fear I couldn’t stomach thinking about. Anger became my focus. Father had promised me so many things. Assured me of my station, how as the only spawn of one of the final royal bloodlines, I would take my place as alpha. A triad looked over by me, protected by my dragonblood, loved with every part of my being.
My inner dragon whimpered his sorrow, pulling my attention toward the other emotion swamping my brain regardless of my desire to ignore it.
I’d hoped to watch Ashley drink down my cum and find herself addicted to my life-giving seed. Instead, a single taste of Vanni’s had made her hunger, desperate for more on her tongue and in her belly. According to her, his cum had been sweet, hot, and tingly inside her body.
Beta.
Swallowing hard, I shook my head, refusing to believe my inner beast’s declaration about who we were. Forcing a bond even if I had wanted to rightfully claim myself as alpha over Vanni and Ashley wouldn’t have worked. There would be no manipulating them.
So, I’d left. Fled like a coward to the only place no one would think to look for me, a mountain range I had avoided for decades.
A dozen strides landed me beneath crumbling archways worn by centuries of wicked weather, and I laid my hand upon the oaken door tucked beneath. The wood came alive beneath my touch and pushed open in silence.
I had expected warmth on my naked skin from the fires deep in the bowels of the mountain of my ancestral home but not the lack of dust and cobwebs that should have accumulated in my long absence. Or the lantern hanging above the kitchen island fighting off the oppressive dark.
My heart beat heavy in my chest, and I stepped over the threshold, the door swishing shut behind me on its own and entombing me in silence. Breathing deeply, I categorized every scent, searching for verification those I had provided for and visited on occasion while living with Elijah were still alive even though it wasn’t humanly possible.
Lemon and rosemary.
Chicken and freshly baked bread.
A few steps into the living area of the massive cavern added more hints of life through my nose. Vinegar and hints of orange.
I filled my lungs until they burned.
Female.
But not the one I had abandoned.
My gaze narrowed while taking in the immaculate condition of my home that hadn’t changed since I’d last stood in this spot.
The décor matched what had been popular in the fifties when I’d updated the space. Garish yellows and blues added color to the living area on my right. Wooden cabinets curved along the rock wall to my left. The Home Comfort wood cookstove in their midst still gleamed as though straight out of a catalogue rather than decades old from when I’d brought it up the mountain side and set it in place.
My home carried more unsavory memories than good. Heartache and bitterness lay upon every surface, thick enough to tighten my throat. The cavern had been the place of my birth, the prison where I’d been unable to escape Father and his teachings.
Unlike Elijah’s place in the White Mountains, my ancestral home hadn’t been updated with the latest technology. I didn’t even have electricity or natural gas—I’d never needed it. A flicker of dragon fire lit candles, lanterns, and kindling as quickly as a thought.
