them sharing their deepest, darkest pain for him. “Baby, I was raped, again and again. I was so scared to resist that I used to lie there, that I used to fucking thank him after.” Tears fill my eyes, matching his as I stare into those dark depths. “We are here.”
He licks his lips and presses his head to mine as Dume and Jair step closer and fall to their knees, wrapping their arms around us. I freeze, unsure how he will react, but he shivers and presses closer, accepting their comfort.
We sit like that, together, a tangle of limbs of understanding and shared pain.
Hours later, I lift my head. Griffin is asleep in our arms, his mind peaceful for a moment. I look to the others to see the same anger, same hate there for our hurting mate...friend. Family.
“It’s time and I know whom I’m starting with,” I snarl, losing myself to the darkness. I want his pain, his screams. I want him to pay for what he’s done to my mate.
No one hurts what is mine.
I hop right into the council’s nest, straight to the dungeons below where the dragon insists we are needed. We end up in a hallway and he whirls to me, his eyes flashing purposefully as he barrels towards me. Laughing, I dodge his outstretched hands. “What about your mate?” I remind him, and he stops, frozen in indecision before turning and storming away.
I follow after him, whistling, when suddenly, I stop. I bend over, gasping. Such power fills me, calls to me, courses through me. Lifting my head, I meet the dragon’s gaze. “Your mate, what is she?” I demand.
“A skinwalker,” he answers, frowning.
“No, something down here is much stronger, so much stronger.” I grab him in a blink and hop us to the location of the power, needing to know.
We arrive in a cell that smells of blood, sex, and pain, all my favourite things. That’s when I see her—the woman who called me forth from my slumber, who slipped inside my mind, who restored me. She’s so small, her blonde hair wrapped over a bare, pale shoulder, with a curvy body that men would fall to the floor and worship. She seems harmless as I melt into the shadows to watch her, keeping the dragon trapped with me. But then those black eyes turn my way, and in those depths I see the same hate, rage, and need for violence that swirls inside me.
I suck in a breath, aching to reach through the mist to grab her and hop her away. Take her back to my home and lock her there with me as I peel back what makes this little woman affect me so, to see if she tastes as sweet as she looks. Her eyes flicker away and I want to roar, to drag them back to me…only then do I realise there are others in the room. I was so distracted by her, so taken aback, everything else had faded.
There are three.
I sniff the air—a fallen, a vampire, and a...minotaur. Interesting.
Just then the dragon struggles in the mist and somehow breaks through. Panting, he bursts into the room as I stay in the shadows, observing as he strides towards the woman I can’t seem to look away from. I actually growl when he grabs her and swings her around in an arc.
She giggles, seeming overjoyed. “Aska! You made it!”
“I told you I would, Neriso,” he murmurs, and then lets her slide down his body, still holding her in the air as his lips meet hers. I see red, wanting to rip the world apart, to kill the dragon who, a moment ago, had amused me. My nails dig into the wall as I debate ripping him away from her, but then he pulls back and I have never seen such joy, such happiness. “My mate, I finally have you.”
Mate?
This is his mate?
I should have killed the dragon when I had the chance. I do not share. Not ever. I will find out what the council is doing, kill them if I must, then I will take her from him. She is mine, I feel it now. The pull, the call. Yes, I’ll take her, make her mine. Chain her by my feet as she reveres me, and when I am done or kill her, he can have her body back.
With one last look at them, I hop from the room, intent on killing someone, anyone, to rid myself