Page 16 of Empire of Wrath and Ruin
"Why are you doing this?" I whispered as his fingers continued their gentle exploration of my skin. The contrast between his tenderness and my captivity was maddening.
"I told you. You're my mate."
"No, I mean... this." I nodded toward his hand on my shoulder. "Being gentle one moment, cruel the next. If you're going to keep me prisoner, at least be consistent about it."
His lips quirked into something that wasn't quite a smile. "Is that what you want? Consistency?"
"I want to understand what's happening to me," I admitted. The confession felt dangerous, like revealing a weakness he could exploit. But the bond between us made lying difficult, especially about my emotions.
Taveth sighed, his breath warm against my cheek. "The mate bond is... complex. It affects each pairing differently. For some, it's a gentle merging, a slow dance of souls finding harmony." His fingers moved to trace the line of my collarbone. "For others—especially those with strong wills—it can be more turbulent."
"And for us?"
"For us, it's a storm." His eyes met mine, and I saw something raw and honest there. "You fight it because your nature demands freedom. I embrace it because my nature demands possession.The shadows..." He paused, seeming to struggle with his words. "They amplify that aspect of me. They want to own you completely."
"And what do you want?"
His eyes darkened. “I want that too.”
The blunt admission stole my breath. At least he was honest about his intentions—the shadows wanted to own me, and so did he. There was no pretence of love or partnership, just raw possession.
"And if I refuse to be owned?" I asked, my voice steadier than I felt.
His fingers traced a slow path up my neck to cup my jaw. "You already are. The question is whether you'll accept it with grace or fight until you exhaust yourself."
His hand moved from my face to cup my breast, his thumb brushing over my nipple in a casual display of ownership that made my body respond traitorously. "I can feel your emotions, your desires. Just as you can feel the shadows in me."
I bit my lip to keep from gasping at his touch. "And if my desire is to leave?"
"Then we have a problem." His voice remained calm, but I felt the shadows stir within him, agitated by the suggestion. "Because I cannot let you go."
"Cannot or will not?"
"Both." His hand moved lower, trailing over my ribs, my stomach, coming to rest just below my navel. "The mate bond would cause us both pain if we were separated for too long. And my people would never allow an Imperial to leave Thal'Zereth with knowledge of our city."
I closed my eyes, trying to focus through the haze of unwanted arousal his touch was creating. "So I'm trapped here forever."
"Not trapped," he corrected. "This is your home now.”
I glared at him, trying to ignore the fact his hand was moving lower. “This is a prison,” I snapped. “And I won’t be a slave again.”
His pale eyes bored into mine. "Yes, I want to consume you. Possess you. Break you."
I bit back a moan as his fingers slid between my legs, finding me embarrassingly wet despite my anger and fear. The bond between us made my body respond to his touch with an eagerness that humiliated me.
“But I don’t intend for you to be my slave, Aeveth. Far from it. Until Veyr-sha claims my mind, I intend to spend every moment I have for myself worshipping every inch of you.”
He pulled apart my legs and lowered his mouth to my pussy. I gasped as his tongue found my centre. His hands gripped my thighs, spreading them wider as he devoured me with deliberate, skilled movements. Each stroke of his tongue sent shockwaves through my body, pleasure building despite my desperate attempts to resist it. My body arched against the restraints, betraying me as heat spread through my veins like wildfire. By my third orgasm, I no longer cared about the restraints.
6
Nine days of tracking through increasingly treacherous mountain paths had brought us to what I prayed would be our destination. The trail we'd been following—boot prints in soft earth, disturbed vegetation, the occasional thread caught on a thorn—had grown fainter with each passing day, until I began to fear we'd lost our quarry entirely.
I held up a hand, signalling the others to halt as we approached what looked like a dead end. The path we'd been following seemed to terminate at a wall of black stone, but something about the shadows didn't sit right with me.
"There," Sirrax said quietly, pointing to what appeared to be solid rock. "See it? How shadows fall?"
I squinted, following his gaze, and slowly began to make out what he meant. What I had taken for natural shadow was actually a carefully concealed narrow cleft in the stone face, positioned so that the natural play of light and shadow would camouflage it from casual observation.
