Hunger in His Blood (Brides of the Kylorr, #3)

by Zoey Draven

“Everything has changed, Erina,” he growled, drawing my eyes. “I’m not going back. We’re not going back.”

“One thing you will get used to, Erina, as the mate to this Kyzaire, is that when I make up my mind, I do not change it. I can be impulsive, yes. My temper sometimes gets the best of me. And I can be stubborn to a fault. But one thing I am not is an oath breaker.”

“This is my promise to you now, Erina,” Kaldur said gruffly. “I promise to give you the respect you deserve as my blood mate. As the mother of my child.”

“I want you to rely on me,” I told her. “To lean on me if you need anything at all.” “Because you feel…guilty?” I huffed out a breath. “Because I need to. I never understood what it meant to have a kyrana. A part of me, truthfully, detests it.” Her brow furrowed. “Because suddenly, instantly, there’s someone else in existence that can be your complete downfall,” I told her. “I know you’ve been on your own for a long time, Erina. I just want you to know that you’re not anymore.”

“I wish I could open up my mind to you, so that you would know I was telling the truth,” he confessed. “So that you would know I’m not a lying bastard, just trying to get you into my bed again.” I couldn’t take my eyes off him. I felt a strange sensation in my belly, a fluttering. Like my body was waking to him. “Which, just to be clear, I fully intend to do,” he admitted. I nearly laughed, but I didn’t think I could utter a single sound right then. “I might not be a lying bastard, but I am a selfish one. So fair warning, Erina…I do intend for you to be in my bed—our bed—again, and then I’ll do everything in my power to keep you there for good. Do you understand?”

“You had the heart of a girl who didn’t know better,” I told him, keeping my voice light when he pulled back to look at me. “It was an innocent love. It didn’t mean much.” “And still, I want it back,” Kaldur replied simply, his eyes gleaming. “Because then I could nurture it. Care for it and grow that love as I should have.”

“Don’t you dare move,” he growled, meeting my eyes. Eyes so dark they were molten silver. “I told you…until dawn. And dallia?” “Yes?” I whispered. “I’m still ravenous for you,” he warned.

“Everything, Erina,” I whispered, more comforted by the feel of her warm, bare skin against mine than anything in my memory. “I’ll give you everything.”

“You were dead to the world, enough that I began to worry. But you woke briefly, gave me a kiss, told me I’m the best lover in the universe, and that you love me.” For a brief moment, I feared I might’ve. But then I noticed the gleam in his gaze as he watched a brief flit of panic across my face. “I did not,” I protested, struggling to sit up in indignation. He smirked, effortlessly keeping me against his side with a small flex of his arm underneath my shoulders. “No, but I can dream.” “That’s what you dream about?” I asked, huffing, trying to calm my thundering heart. “Yes,” he said. “That’s what I dream about, dallia.”

“Just like I can’t live without you,” he said quietly. “I love you, Erina.” My tongue felt like it was stuck to the roof of my mouth as I stared at him. Below his wide, firm palm, I felt our daughter move again. “I know that you know that,” he continued, tilting his chin down slightly so that our foreheads touched. “I also know that you’re not there with me yet, and so I don’t want you to say anything right now. But I just wanted to tell you…I’m not going anywhere. You’re all I want.”

“I can’t promise that I’ll never hurt you again. I think we both know I can be a stubborn, hardheaded bastard, and I intend to live a long life with you. In terms of time, the odds are against me there. But I can promise that I will always choose you. I won’t ever turn my back on you. Never again. Because I see you now, Erina Denoren. And I never want to look away.”

“Erina,” Kaldur said, and it was like the guests fell away. Until it was only us. “You’re everything I ever wanted—a soft place to come home to, an embrace I would forever seek. Once I was too blind and proud to see that you are the only person in this universe for me. But never again.”

“I love you,” I said quietly as the moon winds howled outside the hallway. “I’ve loved you since I first saw you the day I came to work in your keep. I thought that it was an innocent love. But now I think a part of my soul recognized you as mine that day, and it’s been captured by you ever since.”

“Kaldur, I’m sorry,” I breathed. “If I’d known⁠—” “I wouldn’t change anything,” he said, his tone steady and uncertain. “I would go through decades of that hell if it would eventually lead me to you.”