Page 43 of A Story of Sinners

“You want more, little crow?” I asked, and her lids fluttered.

I kept on it and pinched the other nipple, then loosed a small bit of lightening before licking the sensitive skin to soften the pain. Still using my powers, I dragged my fingertips along her lips, her neck, her waist, and finally, that sensitive, swollen bud just begging for attention.

She screamed—her loud cry filled the room as her walls fluttered around me, and I dragged out her pleasure until she was nothing but a pile of bones and breath.

Finally, her body went pliant beneath me, and I drew the electricity back into my body as I rutted into her. Each thrust had her sliding up the table, her breasts bouncing as I pushed then pulled her back to me. I groaned at the feeling of her heat enveloping and swallowing me whole. She clamped down, and the feeling of her walls spasming around my cock made my eyes roll into the back of my head. I released a roar and came into her. Hard. Repeatedly. Fuck, if it wasn’t the most blissful feeling I’d ever felt.

I collapsed against her and quickly righted myself as the table legs cracked beneath us. The table splintered and broke, caving in. I pulled her body to mine just in the nick of time, twining her legs about my waist. I laughed as the table fell to the ground with a loud crash, but my amusement was not echoed.

She was silent…too silent.

When my eyes met Dahlia’s blacked out gaze, I froze. She watched me as I held her to my body, tracking my movements like a predator. Her lids lowered and her head tilted, as if the shadow side of her had been studying my expressions. The way she stared wasn’t a look of love or affection—it was the calculated look one uses to evaluate prey.

I should have seen what was coming, or at least prepared for the possibility, but I was too transfixed with those eyes—dark and possessed with lust. It wasn’t the darkening of her eyes that mesmerized me. No, it was the sudden brightening as the black dissipated to reveal a golden light.

I blinked in confusion at the sudden change, at the golden glazed light that replaced the void. It was blindingly bright—so bright that I hadn’t even noticed the absence of pure gold.

Pain, sharp and unexpected, flashed through me as her fangs clamped tightly into my neck, breaking skin and cutting into tendon. Her teeth scraped against bone as I dropped my hold on her body, but she didn’t relent, only bit harder.

No. Not yet. Not now. There was too much at stake for a bond like this.

But try as I might to push her away, it was too late.

My soul entwined with hers, and hers with mine. That beautiful, fragile, gold and silver braid twisted and forged into something solid and concrete, something unbreakable.

My attempts to pry her mouth open were in vain. She only bit harder, drawing my blood into her mouth and greedily guzzling it down.

Stop, I shouted into her mind, a word that halted her, but for only a moment.

My blood boiled, and a low growl spilled from my throat. I gripped her by her arms and tore her away, blood and skin tearing from my neck as she smacked against the floor. My chest heaved, and my fists clenched as I towered above her, fury alight in my eyes as flames tickled my skin. My flames, my magic, had come out in full force.

I breathed in, desperate to calm myself. Her eyes cleared as she gazed up at me with a lost look, huddled on the ground. Broken. She shook her head, as if the haze of mating had finally dissipated, and looked at me with those watery green and gold eyes.

“Why?” she asked, and I could feel the pain and heartache in her chest, panging against the drum of my own. “Do you only want the bond to be one way?”

I didn’t answer, for fear of breaking her heart, because yes, I did want the bond to be only one way. For now.

There was a reason for that, one she didn’t need to know of, not until we were in a safe place, once the chaos surrounding us had ended or settled.

A bond like this, at a time like this, wouldn’t be fair to me, or her, or the world around us.

I groaned and did the only thing I could think of to release the hold she had on me, and the one I held over her.

I released her.

“I reject you, Dahlia Floss, otherwise referred to as Duana. I reject you as my mate.”

Chapter18

Dahlia

My eyes widened as he spoke the words, shock rendering me completely speechless. Our gazes locked for the briefest moment before he squeezed his lids shut and tensed his body, as if bracing for impact.

Then came the pain, agony so deep and soul shredding that a scream tore from my lips. My heart, my chest, my lungs, and every nerve ending in my body roared in torment as I folded in on myself. My stomach roiled, like a ship tossed about at sea, and bile clawed its way up my throat. My head ached with a burning pain that spelled its implosion.

No. No. No. How could he?

It took all my strength to strain my neck and glimpse upon him, to see if he’d hurt himself nearly as much as he’d managed to hurt me. His hands were clenched tightly at his sides, and his neck was tilted to the ceiling, his face bearing an expression of intense pain. I wanted to scream and shout at him, but when I opened my mouth, only vomit came out.

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