Frustrated, I eased the dragon into my eyes and shook her. “This is not a game. Death will fly north soon. Not for you. No, you, I will curse with a long, lonely life, beginning when I force you to witness all the other consequences of your actions.”
She stopped struggling, and fear seeped into her eyes. “You come near my pack… we’ll kill you.”
“What threat do wolves pose to a dragon? Fascination stayed my hand once, but I do not repeat my mistakes. You should plead for mercy, yet here you are, tugging on my horns. I grow weary of your disrespect.”
Her fingernails dug into my skin, and I realized the color had drained from her face. Strangulation was not fatal to wolves. I had learned as much from the journal. Squeezing harder, I leaned in, and my breath frosted the air between us.
“However, I am not without mercy. When I arrive, surrender peacefully with the artifact, and I will spare the lives of your people. Refuse, and I will encase you in ice and force you to watch me slaughter everyone you hold dear.”
WITCHY SHIT
Ziara
“Zee.”
I woke to the familiar woodsy scent that meant safety and the far less comforting sight of my boyfriend hovering over me like I might shatter.
“You were having a bad dream.”
I tried to focus on his words as I moved to sit up, only to remember that I’d recently been stabbed in the throat with a magical rock, making every little move hurt.
“Whoa, there.” He caught my shoulders and gingerly lowered me back onto the bed. “It’s early. You need more sleep. You need to heal.”
His eyes took me in, but I couldn’t meet his gaze. Not after last night. Not now that Mackknew.
My fingers instinctively found and probed the wound. The skin had sealed, but the entire area was sore to the touch. Figured, since it hurt like a bitch to breathe. Swallowing felt like rubbing sandpaper down my throat and catching it on fire.
“Water,” Mack said, reading my pained expression, which washelpful since I wasn’t sure I could speak. He helped me sit up, grabbed the glass from the nightstand, and raised it to my lips. I was hurting but not helpless, so I took over, wrapping my hands around the glass as I drank.
He frowned and rubbed calming circles over my back. “You wanna talk about it?”
The water hit my throat like tiny shards of glass, making me want to beg him to knock me out so I could finish healing in peace. But with every gulp, the pain lessened.
I drained the glass, held it toward Mackiel. “More?”
The word sounded as raspy as it felt, so of course, he took pity on me and headed for the kitchen, giving me a much-needed moment to think. When he returned, I drained a second glass while he crawled into bed beside me. Finished, I set the glass back on my nightstand, eased back down onto the mattress, and closed my eyes.
Sereana had nearly taken my life with the bloodstone in front of Mack and the alpha, yet the bitch still lived. Mack hadn’t said as much, but if the alpha had killed her, it would have been the first thing out of Mack’s mouth.
I wanted to feel betrayed, but I couldn’t even give myself that. Dad didn’t owe me special treatment. He was the alpha first, and my father second. A distant, conditional second I had to earn and re-earn with every mission, every binding, every bared throat. The pack needed the bloodstone activated. Sereana needed my blood to do it. And Dad needed the war won more than he needed me whole.
The math wasn’t complicated. I just didn’t like where it left me.
“Zee?” Mack asked.
“I just want to forget.”
Understanding replaced the concern on his face. He lay back and opened his arms without a word. I went gratefully, curling against his side, pressing my face into the hard warmth of his chest until his heartbeat was the only sound in the world. His armsettled around my back, steady and sure, anchoring me to something solid while everything else threatened to come apart.
The dragon had promised to leave me alone tonight, and I refused to waste a single minute of that reprieve on thinking. I matched my breathing to Mack’s and let his warmth pull me toward the edge of sleep.
I was almost there when he spoke.
“I get why you never want to talk about the binding.” His voice was low, rumbling through his chest and into mine. “But I’m here. Whenever you’re ready. Even if that’s never.”
“Thank you.”
There was so much I was keeping from him. But the Bloodrite had made my boyfriend a conduit to the alpha, and there was no off switch. What Mack knew, Dad would know. Not because Mack would choose to betray my trust, but because the magic wouldn’t give him a choice.
