Page 129 of Lost in the Dark

Only she didn’t wait, did she? She hit the damn tree trunk with force, then pitched backwards, unleashed a cry, and fell.

Goddamn it!

I lunged forward, driving my wings through the air. Agony tore along my shoulder, the tendons screaming as I caught her in midair and plunged both of us down the drop to the forest floor below. Air rushed against my ears, the roar shredded by her piercing shrieks. Ones that made me wince and drop her as soon as my boots hit the ground.

“Get the fuck off me!”She shoved against my chest, propelling herself backwards, and tripped once more.

I scowled, watching as her eyes narrowed and moved to my wings. I drew my wings in tight against my back.

“No…no…no…” Her eyes widened and she tilted her gaze upwards.

She was small, barely reaching my chest, like a tiny night zanzian…with attitude.

“What the fuck are you?” she snapped.

“Alive, unlike you,” I answered, and looked up. “For long, anyway. You seem intent on throwing yourself down every ravine in this damn forest.”

“No.” She shook her head. “This isn’t happening, this isn’t real. I knocked my head when I fell. I just need to wake up now. I need to wake up.”

Even her panic was intoxicating, throwing off heady, sweet seduction. I took a step closer, desperate to touch…and taste. “Oh, this is very real,” I declared as I looked down at her. “Believe me.”

She took a step backwards, trying to put as much distance between us as she could. I smiled. Silly little mortal. I drew that perfume down into the depths of my being and felt that taste of her take hold. It grew claws, talons that seemed to reach out and burrow deep. I shivered, my wings trembling and shaking, drawing her attention.

“What the fuck are you?” she whispered.

I sucked in hard breaths. “Cryptomorph,” I answered. “Noceur Hunter, to be exact.”

Idiot.I whispered in my head.I can’t trust her!She could be a damn trap for all I knew. I looked around at the bright light overhead and the silver shine of the valley around me—this whole damn place could be a trap. One I seemed to have…fallen into.

I focused on her, and the more that I did, I found myself drawn deeper. So deep, the air still roared in my ears and the ground felt…gone.I took a step forward, and she took a step back.

She didn’t like this closeness, even though her breath catches and the heady scent of something else other than pain fills the air. It’s a deeper scent. Ahungrier scent.One of desire.

“Dregon,” I murmured, not knowing why I was still talking, why I was still telling her things that could get me in trouble—no, they could get me killed.“My name…is Dregon.”

I stepped forward again—scowling. She drew me…and I didn’t understand why.

She moved, like I knew she would, backing into the trunk of a tree. Right…where…I wanted her. I pushed against her. She didn’t flinch when the tip of my wing caressed her cheek. She didn’t fight when I slid it lower either, between her legs.

But she did when I took another step closer. Her breath caught and a groan tore free. I felt every tremble through my scales, every quiver her body gave, and Goddess of the Night if I didn’t want more.

She unleashed a moan that went straight to my cock, making me harden. I leaned down, closing my eyes as I inhaled the air against her neck and whispered, “Who the fuck are you, mortal?”

She moaned with the friction as I drove my wing deeper between her thighs and lifted my hand to cup her breast. “Violet,” she whimpered, grasping my arm. The connection was instant and consuming. “I’m Violet.”

“Violet,” I repeated.

She’s a witch…I knew it now. Her name did things to me no name has ever done before, forcing her scent deeper into my being. “Witch,” I whispered, and turned my head, kissing the tiny bump when it thrust up under my lips.

“Oh, God,” she moaned, her grip clenching when I dragged my thumb across that tight peak of her breast.

“God has nothing to do with this,” I murmured, and lowered my hand between her thighs so my fingers could trace the trail my wing left behind.

“Please,” she groaned.

I kissed her neck, taking pleasure in the way her body bucked and her hand clenched around the corded muscles of my arm, as though she was terrified of wanting this…and of me stopping. The thought of that made me smile.

I lowered my hand from her breast to the button of her warrior pants. The hinderance of her garment gave way, leaving me to delve under her clothing to find her heat. “Easy now, witch. I have no intention of leaving you wanting.”

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