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“What did you see?” I asked softly, grateful his arms remained around me.
“Bones. A bed of bones.”
“W-What does that mean?”
“I...” He scowled. “I don’t know. But I do know I’ll do everything in my power to keep you safe. I’d never hurt you, Runa. Never. You know that, don’t you? No matter what omen or creature says otherwise, I would never fucking hurt you. It would be physically impossible for me.” His teeth flashed in the moonlight. “I’d rather rip out my own heart than ever—”
“I know.”
“Just...remember that. Okay?” His nostrils flared, appeased but only slightly. We need to run.” His gaze dropped to my mouth again, as if he couldn’t control himself. His fingers tightened in my hair as he pulled me forward. “We really, really need to run...”
My skin tingled as his head dipped and his lips landed on mine again, hot and dominating.
He groaned as I kissed him back.
“Tell me to stop,” he groaned. “Tell me to take you somewhere safe.”
My tongue had far more interesting things to do than speak.
I wanted him to strip me, bed me, and do whatever it took to revoke the blood bind that cursed me. We could run...after. We could disappear...after. Right now, I needed him to prove to lightning strikes and biting lynxes that nothing could keep us—
Wait.
Pushing him away, I glanced at Zetas and Syn.
Two predators with very sharp teeth.
Sharp teeth that weren’t embedded in our flesh, doing their best to stop us.
“How...?” I asked softly as Zetas glowered at me with petulant eyes. Syn huffed beside her, her two tails whipping with annoyance. They sat exactly where they had before, obedient and quiet.
But not by choice.
Darro shrugged with a black chuckle. “I did say there wasn’t a single thing they could do to stop me from kissing you.”
My mouth hung open at his control.
At the ease of mastery over shadows and night.
Both the wolf and the lynx were muzzled, collared, and leashed by the thinnest wisp of darkness. The leash tethered them to the ground where dirt had been clawed and pawed.
They’d tried to launch at us. To bite. And they’d failed because Darro was remembering his powers so much quicker than me.
A string of hazy shadow appeared from his hands, twisting and twining around me. I swayed backward as the shade kissed my cheek, licked up my brow, then slid with a delicious caress through my hair.
I trembled.
He groaned.
And with a flick of his wrist, a sensual shadow-string looped around my neck with dark possession. I swallowed a moan at the delicious petting, but Darro quaked as if I was the one touching him. Another ribbon appeared from his fingers, swooping down my body, feathering around my knee, before slipping silently beneath my deerskin.
My eyes shot to his as the cool-sting and hot-stroke glided up, up, up...
“Ahh.” I shuddered as the shadow pressed possessively between my legs.
Only for a moment.
Just a single stroke.
But it was enough to make my entire body glitter with stardust.
He growled under his breath as the shadow dissolved. “It seems I can manipulate darkness to do anything I wish, but what you don’t know is...” His nose nuzzled mine, his breathing shallow. “What I touch with my shadows, I feel as if it were my own flesh and blood.” He cupped my cheeks with trembling hands. “And what I feel when I touch you, Runa....” His mouth crushed mine, his tongue not asking for permission to sweep inside. “...is life.”
I moaned as he tipped my head back.
“You make my mind swim.” He kissed me. “You shatter my self-control.” He bit my bottom lip. “You make my useless heart stop beating.” His tongue hunted mine.
I opened and submitted.
I gave myself entirely over to him as he stepped into me, dropped one hand from my cheek to my lower back, and pressed my belly against the rigid heat of his arousal.
With recklessness borne from fear of being torn apart, I placed my hands on his hips and tugged at the wolf pelt keeping him hidden.
If he took me, then Aktor couldn’t. I would already be claimed. Already be mated and happy.
Happiness.
I craved to live in that word.
I tugged again, searching for a way to undo the pelt.
Darro froze.
With another groan, he released me and clamped a hand over mine, stopping me from revealing him. His forehead pressed hotly to mine, his head bowed and spine slightly arched to lower his height to reach my mouth. “Runa...” His fingers flexed. “You have no idea how much I want to—”
“Take me,” I whispered. “Please don’t let anything else come between us. If we’re together...in that way...it might stop the bind.”
Nightmares filled my mind.
The warnings from the fire of a future filled with death.
The troth to Aktor, granting him permission to touch me. Kiss me. Undress me. Mount me—
