I kissed her tears away and thrust deeper, giving her what she wanted.
“Fuck, you feel so good.” Too good.
The harder I rutted into her, the more she screamed, and when she came for a second time, the feel of her body squeezing around me pushed me over the edge.
The tether in my chest snapped into place, bonding me to my soulmate. My magic burst into life, more out of control than ever before, obliterating the cuffs on my wrists.
There was nothing I could do to prevent chaotic bolts of lightning from searing the walls and filling the air with sparks of electricity. Magic and cum poured from me in an endless stream.
Fire and shadows filled the room as we clung together, connected by magic and a now-permanent bond.
I rolled to the side, pulling her with me, not giving a fuck about the magical mayhem raging around us. Raven’s witch fire couldn’t hurt me, and as my soul-bonded mate, she was immune to my lightning.
She lay in my arms, breathless, her skin slowly cooling. Whatever foul magic my father had used to provoke our bonding seemed to have run its course, but I kept quiet, not wanting to tarnish this special moment between us.
My eyes closed as exhaustion threatened to pull me under, but a shocked gasp derailed any thoughts of sleep.
“Oh my goddess,” Raven whispered. The amulet between her breasts had shattered, leaving nothing but a tarnished chain and a few fragments of blood-red stone behind. Fresh tears trickled down her cheeks. “My mother gave this to me, and now it’s broken!”
“I’m sorry,” I said, not knowing what else to say.
Then I felt my skin burn. I looked down to see a mark had formed on my upper pectoral—a small gray lightning bolt.
“You have a mate mark like the others.”
I hadn’t noticed. Kai had many tattoos; Zane too. It was impossible to tell if Maverick had any bond marks because, like most bear shifters,he had a lot of body hair. And I hadn’t been around when the vampire got naked.
Raven smiled. “My mark looks good on you!” Then she winced when she saw the bloody teethmarks on my neck.
“Oh my goddess, I can’t believe I bit you!”
I rubbed the spot while simultaneously grinning to myself that my skin was now adorned with two marks, unlike the rest of those motherfuckers.
Raven shuddered in my arms, and I realized she was cold. Dammit, I’d already failed the first test: caring for one’s soul-bonded mate.
I reached for Raven’s discarded robe and saw I’d torn it. She had no other clothes while all I had was my sweats. Intending to rip the cheap cotton sheet off the bed and wrap her in it, I sat up, but the door burst open to reveal my father and Brianna.
He clapped his hands with glee. “Well done, son! You finally did something useful for a change.”
23
Zane
Wow, this dude sure liked shiny things. Was it a dragon trait?
I ran my fingers over a gleaming gold picture frame, enjoying how the metal shone in the muted light from the massive picture windows.
Everything in this place glittered.Glinted?Gold ornaments, lights, jewel-encrusted vases. I half wondered whether the bathrooms were solid gold as well. The idea of taking a shit on a gold toilet made me giddy as hell.
I didn’t like the idea of gold beds, however. That would be too much. Nothing wrong with hard things, but not mattresses. Nobody needed a gold mattress.
“Do you reckon this dude sleeps on a gold mattress?” I whispered to Maverick, taking full advantage of all the shiny gold things to distract myself from doom spiraling.
It was that or commit mass murder.
Was that why my father lost the plot?
He must have doom spiraled after my mother died, only unlike me, he hadn’t had his harem mates to lift his spirits and ground him to reality.
