Page 39 of Payne's Envy

Unease crawled up my spine as he prowled toward Fear, who held his ground. The entity kept his arms relaxed at his sides. “Change back and calm down. You’ve brought Joy home. You did good, but you’re making your mother worry. She thinks you don’t recognize us, but that’s not true. Right, Son?”

“Come here, mate. I can feel it in my bones—they wish to take you from me.”

He didn’t indicate knowing who stood before him.

My stomach churned as I looked at Deathraka once more. A deep ache blossomed in my chest, expanding as my eyes searched for any clues revealing the creature’s truths. I found none. But my heart had recognized the person before me from the beginning. The same tug at my heartstrings were there for that dragon just like… I couldn’t accept it.

“Payne,” Dad said. “You found your answer, along with my daughter.”

Answer?

The fear kept winding through me. I whimpered as I curled into a ball instead of going where my heart wanted. Because Payne wasn’t him. If he was, he wasn’t…there.

Oh, God. It hurt because I knew better. I recognized Payne, no matter what form. Whether or not he was the same man.

“Don’t worry, Joy, I will destroy them. So no one will bother us.”

I uncurled and rushed in front of Payne’s dad. Hunkering down, I snarled at Deathraka. “You won’t lay a finger on them.”

“Why are you protecting them?”

How could he not recognize us? It was like something sliced into my heart.“If you have another form, I demand to see it!”

“You wish to mate in that form instead?”he asked, like that was the important topic.

I growled, and Fear patted my back. “It’s okay, Joy. I don’t need protection from my son.”

Tears burned my eyes. But he did. Couldn’t he see? That wasn’t Payne. Not our Payne, at least. NotmyPayne.

Wind blew into my face, and I looked toward Deathraka. Gone was the dragon. There was no great buildup or agony within his expression, like I experienced earlier during my change. In his place was a male with orange glowing veins pulsating all over him. Those catlike eyes held mine and it fucking split me right down the middle. To see and recognize the man I loved, even though his body and mind were different.

The end was coming. But that moment felt like the true ending for me. Payne had been stolen by the answers he sought for years.

Chapter Twenty

Deathraka

“Get your hands off of her,” I seethed as the male petted my mate’s green scales. It wasn’t only her scales that were green. There was an otherworldly glow flowing around her as well. Could souls live outside bodies? I was positive that’s what I saw around my mate.

He dropped his hand, but Joy continued to growl at me. I didn’t understand why she defended them. Their body language conveyed all I needed to know. They waited to take her from me.

“Payne…” The way she kept saying that word made my insides twist, and I didn’t like the anguish in her soft voice.

“Why do you keep speaking about pain?” I said to them.

Pain, pain, pain. I didn’t want bloodshed. I only wanted my mate, but I’d happily give it to them if they tried stealing the other piece of my soul.

“That’s your name,” the cloaked male, with a similar aura about him as my mate, said before looking at her again. “I need you to return to normal. There’s much I need to tell you.”

“I can’t!”she wailed, but no one seemed to hear her besides me.

“Breathe,” I told her. “Look at me. I want you like me. I demand it.”

Her body shrank instantly. Unlike her first change, there seemed to be no pain. No screaming or bones snapping, which I was glad for. In seconds, the most beautiful creature stood before me.

“Look away,” I hissed at the males and stalked forward.

It surprised me when they backed away.

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