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When I taste blood, I know it’s real. All of it. And it’s not a dream. It’s a nightmare.
The world goes silent except for her. All I can hear is her thundering heartbeat. All I can see is the fear in her eyes, the painful marks along her face. Her scent hits me full force, and something inside me unfurls like dark wings. She is mine. I can feel it, an unbreakable tether linking me to her.
She doesn’t look up, doesn’t sense her mate—but that doesn’t matter. I’ve sensed her. Her fate is sealed.
Those dark eyes hide traps and barbs,
“Nothing will harm you as long as I walk this world, and I will take my love for you to the glowing lands of the ancestors if my time is cut short. I will wait for you there. Just as I have waited for you here.”
“Yes, we will be leaving Tyrios behind, and yes, you will be going home.” I narrow my eyes. “I’m pretty sure your definition of ‘home’ isn’t quite the same as mine.”
Strong hands on my shoulders stop me, and Leander turns me to face him. I have to crane my neck back just to meet his midnight eyes. He pats his chest again. “Home.” Then he takes my hand and rests it over his heart. “Home, Taylor.”
Leander smooths his rough fingers along my wrinkled brow and speaks to me low and soft, his voice like a warm blanket. I have no idea what he’s saying, but it’s clear he wants to comfort me.
“Hey.” I grip his sides. “I don’t know what you think this is, but I’m not your queen. I’m not even sure if this is real.” He tips my chin up. “Mine.”
“Alpha fae like him don’t understand privacy. Especially not when it comes to their mate.” “How do you know they’re mates?” Gareth rests his hand on the sword at his waist. “Calm down.” She leans over on her elbow, the picture of relaxation. “Anyone can see it. Just look at him. He’s like a vampire hound on a scent. Can’t take his eyes from her.”
“This may be the last time you get to do anything without King Muscles over here,” Lenetia calls. “So enjoy it.”
A low growl pulses through the door. “Whatever you’re thinking about in there, stop.” Lenetia’s laugh floats through the wood. “He can smell your—” She clears her throat. “He can smell if you’re thinking about him, let’s put it that way.”
Perhaps her mind hasn’t awoken to the fact of our bond yet, but her body has.
I want to take that fear away, to pull her in my arms and whisper the secrets of my heart.
“Your mate. She’s different. There’s something about her I can’t place. Be wary.”
“She’s awake.” Gareth frowns. “She’s been telling stories that would make a siren blush.” “You love them.” Lenetia winks at me,
But just being close to her calms every bit of the raging winter wind that has always swirled inside me.
My heart beats for her, if only she could hear its song.
“When I claim you as mine, you will come more exquisitely than you ever have in your life, little one.”
“Sleep wet?” he asks. “Um, what?” I scoot away, mortification turning my insides to lava. Was I so obvious? How could he tell what I’d been dreaming about? Oh my god. I press my thighs together. Can he smell me again? “Well,” Lenetia calls as she stirs a pot over the fire. “You meant ‘sleep well.’”
“You really let me down.” Lenetia stirs what looks like a bubbling stew that smells of vegetables and herbs. My mouth waters. “Let you down?” “I thought I was going to see some hot mating fuckery last night. All I saw was awkwardness and then sleeping.” My cheeks turn about twenty shades of crimson. “I’m not mating.” “You will be.” She scoops a ladle full of the stew into a wooden bowl and hands it to me. “You’ll be riding that king over there like he’s one of those stallions in no time.”
we rode again, so far and so fast that I wondered if my ass would ever stop aching. The answer, I find, is no. No, it won’t.
