That round went to her. Antal pulled back, weighing her with a slow blink.
“Excuse me?” He drew the syllables out.
“I’m not afraid of you.” If her heart was thunder before, it deafened now. “You talk tough, but you haven’t hurt me. Youwon’thurt me. Prove me wrong.Bite me, asshole.”
“Bite you. That’s what you want?”
Antal pressed closer, narrowing the space between them to a foot. Aninch. Nowhere to hide from those piercing red-and-Void eyes, that flash of fangs as he spoke. If this was how daeyari always argued, a duel of proximity, Fi couldn’t back down.
She didn’twantto back down.
Even as her breaths shallowed, there was a thrill to the standoff, a creep of heat beneath her skin as she pressed this line with him. This ageless, predatory creature made not of shadow and nightmare as she’d always feared, but flesh and bone, balking at her punches. Each step toward the edge brought her closer to tumbling over. Each nudge, and she wanted to push a little more, to peer unflinching into the Void of his eyes and scream that shewasn’t afraid anymore.
“Am I not speaking clearly?” Fi met his raise and leaned closer, their faces nearly touching. “Bite. Me. Or are you nothing more than bristle?”
His tail cut a wide, swift arc.
She must be close to the line. A fraction more. She’d callonemore bluff, then—
Antal lunged faster than Fi could gasp.
He shoved her by the hips. One firm motion, all momentum halting together at once—Fi’s back striking the wall, the air fleeing her lungs.
Antal’s teeth, on her throat.
At the stab of fangs, Fi’s composure cracked. No time for incredulity, just that disorienting surge of prey instinct screaming at her to run, fight,live. She flailed like a snared rabbit, clawing against the daeyari’s head, nails scraping the slick root of an antler. Her other hand raked his arm. Cold. Unyielding. Void, he was strong, a snare of lean muscle and claws pinning her waist.
But… no pain.
They fell still together.
Fi, tangled in limbs and drowning in ozone, risked an inhale. Another.
She didn’t understand. Antal’s mouth was hot on her throat,Void-honed fangs clamping vulnerable skin. But nothing more. No carved flesh, no digging deep for arteries.
Just firm enough to pin her in place.
A show of strength, Fi realized with mounting incredulity. A rebuttal she didn’t know how to counter. This carnivorous beast with teeth framing her jugular, lines of lethal muscle pressing her against the wall, holding her down like a misbehaving kitten.
Fi couldn’t move.
She could scarcely breathe, each shallow inhale tugging fangs against her neck.
Each taunting prick, shifting fear toinsult. How dare he call her bluff. How dare he shove her against a wall, bare his teeth, thennotrip her to pieces. Fi’s blood boiled, indignant by how this creature surprised her at every turn.
And how much she liked it.
Fi went still as permafrost. Of course she didn’t like this. In her ears, blood roared. In her ribs, the pounding of a panicked heart. All perfectly normal reactions to a daeyari’s teeth on her throat.
But then, as they settled against each other… a shiver, where Antal’s mouth pressed her pulse. The brush of his exhale, warmer than expected. That heat beneath her skin, fiercer now, sinking through her chest then down, down to the where claws held her waist. Insufferablychaste, these teeth, pressed against her without even a taunt of tongue. Only a cautious press of lips.
Fi’s breaths turned shallower, adrift against a starless sky, snared by velvet claws and feather-soft fangs.
Why did she like this?
She couldn’t like this.
The middle of an argument with a carnivore:notthe ideal time for discovering kinks.
