Page 52 of The Lost Nation

Xana tightened her grip on my wings and waited, her face twisting in apprehension. Blood poured freely down her neck, and myinner draken continued to fight for control of me, wanting the female in front of me more than he'd wanted anything else in our lives. It was much more intense than it was with Wren.

“I could rip your wings." Xana remarked casually. "What would you do then? Strike back at me? Try to kill me? Claim me anyway as I foughtagainst you putting me in my place?"

That she thought me capable of such a thing was worse than the physical pain shooting through my body.

“You're place is whereveryouwish it to be." I whispered. "Never,” I croaked. “I’d never hurt you.”

Xana released my wings and I stumbled back, dropping to all fours as I justbreathed. My wings throbbed, but the pain was already numbing as I licked her blood from my fangs.I couldn't help it.

“What are you going to do now?” She whispered, her eyes wide in anticipation. I stalked forward, hating the quick twitch of fear that flashed over her face.

“Kiss you, if you want me to,” I growled, giving her the opportunity to say no. She grinned wickedly and lunged at me, biting down on the juncture between my neck and shoulders.

It was similar to Wren’s bite, and yet couldn’t be any more different.

Wren had bit me out of fear, outof possessiveness, and out of desperation. Wren didn’t understand that what was between us wasn’t healthy, and wouldn’t make for a good mateship. I wasn’t sure if the dynamic between us could ever be corrected after how fucked up ithad been.

Refusing her was for the best—foreveryoneinvolved.

Xana’s bite was a challenge; a mark of new beginnings, and a blind leap of faith. Her blood had tasted like every comfort from my childhood, yet spiced with the hope for my future. Xana’s moan as she drank my blood confirmedshe felt the same.

But I couldn’t let her do this without being completely honest.

“The demons—my people are my first priority. They need me.”

She licked my wound closed, and I bent down to drag my tongue along hers, lapping up the extra dried blood around her lips with the rough pad of my tongue.

“Of course,” she groaned out. “I would expect nothing less.”

I seized her lips in a grueling kiss, both of us battling for dominance as we bit and nipped, tugged and pulled.

I wrenched her face away from mine roughly, squeezing her jaw in my hand.“I’m taking the demons away from here to escape the war, and raise the children in peace. Benedict and the others can have the fortress.”

Her hands drifted down my chest, making it more difficult to string two words together.

“Fuck Dorea. I’ve had enough of it.”She hissed.

A thrill of hot, leaden desire went straight to my core, and I turned her around so she was pressed face-first against the wall of rock. My draken instincts roared, but I had to behonest.

“I don’t want any children of my own. I plan to watch over my people and leave them in prosperity. When I die, they can choose one of their own to lead. I'm sick of it.”

Her hands reached around and tugged me free of my breeches. The feeling of her hands against the bare skin of my cock almost drove me over the edge. I swatted them away, and growled into her ear.

She chuckled darkly. “I already told you I’m infertile. Are you going to claim me, or do you just like to hear yourself talk?”

I thrust into her with one vicious stroke, not physically able to be any gentler. Her cry of rapture eased my worry, and Ifinallygave into my draken. I thrusted in and out of her wildly, my hands roving all over her body as she made the most exquisite noises. My fingers found the apex between her thighs, and circled around that little nub as I worked her like a precise machine.My other hand tangled in her hair, and pulled.

I bit down again on the back of her neck this time with intent. She moaned, and went still as we both accepted the bond. Her fangs found my bicep and sank easily into the muscle, and I didn't even twitch. It was hard to feel any pain when I was buried to the hilt inside of her.

Our fangs embedded in the other, we drank and fucked. There was no other feeling as exquisite as the heat of her cunt cradling my cock, and no sound more sweet than her cries of pleasure.

With a shriek that my draken felt in its soul, her inner walls tightened and spasmed around me. I lost control then, crying out my own release as she went limp against me.

After a moment to catch our breaths, she pushed me off and spread her wings wide, twisting her head back to look at them.I wondered why, then they changed before my very eyes.

I stood in shock and wonderment as they slowly infused with color. The glittering, pure white iridescence of her wings shifted to the deepest shade of obsidian.The color of my wings.My colors.

Her eyes watched intensely as the color bled through her wings like a stain, not stopping until both wings were entirely saturated with it. Xana gave a happy trill, then flared her wings high to admire them. With her dark hair and white body, she looked likean angel of death.Myangel.

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