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Once I sense that my Ken-dee is gone? Rage replaces the panic and I instantly turn shadow. I tamp it down, wrangling control over my dark side, but I force the change further, becoming mist.
It’ll be easier and faster to follow after Ken-dee like this once I streak into the water room and see that the door to the outside is open and my mate is missing.
If she had my essence but we did not finalize our mate bond, she could not go far. It’s built into our mating ritual, just like the mate sickness. The gods will do anything to push two of their fated mates together. Sombra demonsareshadow. Until our bond is secure, we must stay within a short distance of our intended mate.
I don’t want my Ken-dee to suffer from mate sickness. Once I thought I would take any excuse I could find to lay my hands on her. That’s changed. I want to earn that honor along with heart. Touching her to ease the burn caused by mate sickness would be pleasurable, but ultimately not satisfying for either of us.
Do I wish that I could use a mate bond to follow after her? Desperately. I have some magic, but I failed with the matefinder spell once before; I won’t risk casting it again, not when my magic store is still so low. Since I have no other choice, I must rely on my tracking and hunting skills to find her.
Where could she have gone? Why would she have left me?
I’ve done everything to prove that I am the best male for her. And she left me.
I will find her. If only to keep her safe from the dangers lurking in the shadows, I will find Ken-dee.
In this form, I can fly. Mages prefer portal travel because it is faster, but every Sombra demon can channel their mist and launch themself forward. It’s why village houses have circles cut into the ceilings for a quick escape instead of wasting energy passing through it.
Prepared to take off, I stop when I catch Ken-dee’s scent on the breeze. Worse, it’s mixed with a familiar predator’s musk.
No.
I stopped searching for the arkoda. With Ken-dee in my home, I no longer thought about those long moons, tracking the beast.
That was my mistake. So was not finding the words to explain to my mate that the shadows were too dangerous for her to chance.
But I didn’t, and now the arkoda found her.
Ken-dee’s not moving. Paralyzed with fright, she’s standing still in the shadows as the arkoda circles her. The massive beast has fallen forward, lumbering on all fours, patient because his prey presents no threat. He’s playing with her. Drinking in her fright before he finishes his kill.
And he will.
I killed his mate. He will attempt to slaughter mine.
Never.
I roar. The action is both calculated as it is instinctive. I want the arkoda to come after me instead of Ken-dee.
I’m the bigger threat. The bigger prize. There is more meat on my bones, and that means nothing when he recognizes me as the demon responsible for hunting his mate.
He knows my musk and I know his.
The arkoda echoes my roar. It’s lower, so loud the ground beneath my shadow form.
“Holysheet, holysheet.”Ken-dee collapses to the ash. Her legs finally fail to hold her slight weight. “Loki, ruhn!”
She says my name. I don’t know what else she tells me. Warning me about the arkoda, perhaps, but there’s something else she doesn’t know.
The beast would’ve killed her, but it can also destroy me.
Of all the creatures in the shadows, the arkoda is the closest to the demon race. Intelligent and fierce, the arkoda was designed to cull an immortal race. They’re the duke of Sombra’s pets. When he wants to execute a demon, he sends them to the shadows.
He sends them to the arkoda.
It’s part of the reason why I chased it for so many moons. So lost, I did not fear death. I searched for it, ready to prove my might or succumb to the beast.
But that was before. Now? I won’t let anyone or anything hurt my mate.
Ken-dee is mine. And I will survive if only to make sure she makes it back to my shack without anything else targeting her as prey.
