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Ajali slid off the bed, careful not to disturb Tehdra. She slept deeply, and he was amazed after their night of excessive lovemaking that he woke so early. She lay on her stomach, and his eyes caressed her curves, studying the tattooed picture of her beast painted so starkly on most of her body. Powerful wings and scales covered her shoulders and arms, her back in its entirety, most of her hips and buttocks, and slashing down to her calves. He knew that slashes of the painting graced her stomach and her inner thigh. Its ink was black; the only color was the beast’s eyes—pitiless yellow with flicks of red, and they stared at him as if alive. The brutally it reeked of stunned him, its malevolence impossible to miss. What was it?
She was a Darkan. He’d suspected that she lied about being a spy from Aria. His kingdom of alliance would have approached his army’s general or himself with any suspicions. Gavyn had sent word to the people of sand and earth for confirmation of her spy status—a confirmation they no longer required. She was a Darkan and a very powerful one.
Tehdra was the only Darkan that he’d ate, slept, and bantered with as if she were any other citizen of Amagarie. He knew of their brutality, had witnessed it several times, but what he experienced with Tehdra he never would have imagined she was of the shadowed realm. She fucking blushed. She ate with gusto; she was unable to fight with a sword. Now he understood why. Darkans had claws and fangs, mostly rendering weapons unnecessary.
She called him “mate” and he had responded in kind, consumed by the feelings he had for her. And what were those feelings? She had only been in his kingdom for a few days. What kind of sentiments could he have that were genuine? Lust, desire, tenderness, the need to protect? His heart slammed against his chest. He felt all of those and more…for his enemy.
He scrubbed a hand over his face, and then braced his forearms against his thighs.
Every part of him rejected Tehdra as his enemy. He had been intimate with the chakra that lived inside of her, the darkness that Amagarians reviled, and he did not hate her for it. He knew what loss of control of an essence buried inside could do. He was called the Tyrant of Nuria and his mother had been the Mad Queen of the eternal city because they’d briefly lost control of the power buried inside of them. Being connected to Tehdra’s mind, he had a clear understanding of the forsaken darkness with which Darkans struggled. Did it change his deep abhorrence of them? No. Yet his feelings of vengeance did not extend to Tehdra.
She stirred and a soft moan slipped from him. He cursed under his breath when his cock twitched.
His blades waited for him, but all he could think about was rousing her and sliding his cock down her smooth, wet throat. He smiled without humor. His blades must be aghast that after such an attack he’d disappeared to be with Tehdra instead of pacing his war room, strategizing how to obliterate the enemy.
She shifted sinuously on the silken sheets, and desire flared to life inside him. Obsidian eyes opened and captured his and, as easy as that, Ajali felt like he was drowning.
Fuck!
Their gazes locked for long, silent moments. Sensual awareness simmered. Powerful. Vibrant. Her lips were swollen and red and her eyes swirled with satisfaction and possessiveness. The darkness of her hair against the paleness of her skin and delightfully wicked eyes gleamed carnal and dangerous. He gritted his teeth as need rose inside of him.
“Are you repulsed?” the huskiness of her voice wrapped around him.
Tenderness stirred inside. “No.”
“Why not? I am your enemy.” Direct, without a hint of nervousness. No deception lingered in her eyes, and now that she no longer hid from him behind a veil, he acknowledged that she was something more…something unholy.
“Not you.”
“Tell me.”
“I leave to confer with my blades. I must attend to my kingdom. Attend to those who were hurt, send out missives and address the families of our fallen warriors.”
Yet he made no move.
“Why have you not taken my life after witnessing my loss to darkness?”
“I understood your struggle.”
“Because we formed lei?”
He frowned and she murmured, “The link unique to mated Darkans which allows us to connect mentally.”
She seemed to assess his soul as she studied his reaction to being referred to as her mate. He removed all trace of heat from his gaze and observed her with cold ruthlessness. What was he to do about her?
“The connection did allow me to sense your struggle, but I understood it because of experience.”
Tell me.
An intimate caress against his mind, one that asked for more than just a retelling his past, and he was not sure he would be able to resist falling into her, despite the threat to his realm. His chest tightened, and he mercilessly killed all need burgeoning in his heart for her. While she may not be his enemy…she was something his kingdom would never be ready for. But you crave her, take her…claim her as your consort.
Ajali froze. His consort? He shifted through the possibilities and implications. A king’s consort was typically a peer of the realm. Tehdra was…a smile curved his lips. None was Tehdra’s equal.
Her mate burned with a cold white flame. The fact she’d threatened his kingdom with death was still in his eyes. But it did not escape Tehdra that though her nature had been revealed in shocking details, she lived. He’d fought for her when she teetered on the edge of darkness. “Why did you not give up on me?” she asked again, needing to know.
A smile tugged at his lips. “I like you,” he said simply and Tehdra’s throat burned.
I like you, too.
