AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Normally, I wouldn’t be worried. But Shannon… she can sense her mate while mine is eerily missing.
I’d never tested the distance before. After our bond was finalized and I didn’t have to worry about Loki going up in flames, he never really went far enough that I couldn’t sense him. So unless he left the village center and Shannon’s mate lingered, I should be able to know where he is.
And I can’t.
Shannon went off to find her mate. I’m going to do the same.
“Freya, stay,” I tell my pet in Sombran.
She chirps, eyes and ears alert as she wraps her fluffy tail around her front paws.
After that, it’s my turn to take off after Shannon, grimoire and all.
LOKI
True to our nature, Sombra demons shadow their mates. Before a bond is finalized, we must. If we don’t, the flames find us, a painful reminder that we have to stay within a certain distance of our mate.
My Kennedy accepted me as her male many cycles ago. She’s mine as I am hers, so there is no consequence if I have to leave her to meet with Apollyon or any other villager in need of a spell. But as I sense her nerves—for the first time since I brought her to Sombra with me, I scent her apprehension and feel it pulsing down our bond—and my own heart breaks as hers aches… I’ve sent my mate running from me.
Sherunsfromme.
And because she made it clear that she needs to put some distance between us, I dig my heels in the ash and stay where she left me.
Kennedy… she’s gone.
That she fled for the home we share does little to calm me. For the first time since our bonding, she has rejected me. With words, with deed, but more than that, through her essence.
Another pang hits me, straight from Kennedy. A touch of hope, a flash of motherly affection toward the spawn she hadn’t known about, and then…betrayal.
I nearly drop to my knees in agony. Instead, swallowing the howl burning my throat, I grip my skull between my hands.
It’s the betrayal that does it. The thought that she feels betrayed by her male… byme…I’m torn between going to my mate to explain and staying away because that’s what she wants.
My Kennedy does not want her male. She believes I lied to her. That I willingly misled her so that I could plant my seed in her, breed her, and have her birth our offspring.
I would never. She must understand that.
Why doesn’t she understand?
“Kennedy,” I gasp. My chest is heaving. My hands are curled into tight fists, the points of my claws digging into the flesh. Against my own sense, I take a few steps forward. “Kennedy…”
I hear my name. Not my mate. Not her sweet voice, not her sweet scent. Still, I glance up and I find another pair of yellow eyes. Not the artist, but the clan leader. It’s Apollyon, his Soleil demoness striding beside him.
But no Kennedy.
Another voice, gruff and masculine, reaches me from behind. Claws digging into my cheeks now, I spin and find Malphas approaching me as if I’m a fierce arkoda.
Abeast.
He steps are tentative. Easy.
“Calm yourself,” he rumbles. “You would not want your mate to see you like this.”
Does he think I do not know that? That I would rather dig my claws into my chest and rip out my own beating heart than believe for a second that I’ve broken Kennedy’s? The moment the shadows started rising up in me, I closed off our bond so that the madness would not touch her. Even now, I’m grateful she is not here to witness it as I go fully demonic once more.
And I have no one else to blame. I did this. My intentions are no excuse. She is hurt, and I am lost.
Moving ever closer, Malphas dares to lay his hand on my shoulder. “You must listen, Loki. She deserves an honorable male.”
