Oath of the Alpha - Eva Dresden Page 0,48

to leave you yet.”

“Why do you keep calling me that?”

“What?”

“Koovah?”

“Your accent is… awful,” Er’it said, his rumbling chuckle a gentle thunder against Aida’s ear. “It is what you are.”

“And what is that?” Aida winced at the bitterness miring her words, turning them dark and murky.

“Mine.” Fisting her curls, Er’it tugged her head up so he could view her face. The gleam of his gaze was so bright it hurt to look upon, though he forced her to meet it.

Chest cracking open, she felt the sticky strands of something unknown tunnel through her. Overwhelming in its power, it tangled around her heart and soul. Teasing apart the threads of whatever made Aida herself so it could delve deeper still, it would forever change her into something else, something more.

A sensation she’d never felt before rushed through her veins, warm and placating as she lost herself in his eyes. Drowning in their depths as Aida cupped his jaw in one small palm, no hint of his anger, none of the hardness she’d come to expect, dulled the pure golden glow of his gaze.

Yet as she strained to press her lips against his, a line appeared between the dark sweep of his brows. Deepening as she managed a scant inch, she left him to cross the remaining distance, an endless gulf of a fingerbreadth as he tilted his head up. Eyebrows dragging down to shadow the dimming light of his eyes, he scowled at her.

“What are you doing, Omega?” Er’it asked, the vicious thunder emanating from his chest holding none of the soft humor or pleasure from moments before.

“N-Nothing. I only wished…”

“Nothing has changed.”

“You…” Aida shook her head, shoving against his chest to sit upright and gritting her teeth through the compounded ache from spreading her legs wider, taking him deeper. Desperate enough to get away, she did not care what damage she did as she got her feet under her to push up.

The violent ripping sensation deep inside her had Aida screaming long before she gained an inch, his shout of warning lost under her cries as Aida fought his hold and managed to topple to the side. Crumpled into a heap, hands cupping the agony between her legs, Aida sobbed, letting the dirt soak up her misery as Er’it lunged to his feet and shouted at her.

Hearing none of it, Aida writhed upon the soft grass, her wheezing breaths strangled in a throat gone tight and dry. Her stomach twisted and flipped, surging. Aida could not even find her bearings to turn her head away as thick bile rushed over her lips. Foamy yellow, tainted with threads of old rust, it made her all the sicker as it pooled beside her head.

“Idiot,” Er’it bellowed as he fell to kneel beside her. Wrenching Aida up to her knees with her hair clutched in one cruel fist, he held her aloft with vicious hands as she continued to vomit.

When she had nothing left, dry heaves racking her body, Er’it grabbed her under her arms. Hauling her upright to catch Aida under the knees, he cradled her against his chest as he stalked toward the stream.

“What were you thinking? Do you have any idea the injury you could have done?” he ranted as he shouldered his way through thickets and vines at least twice as dense as they had been just the day before. “I’m not a damned healer. I only know so much.”

Aida offered a weak scoff in reply. She couldn’t believe the admission he made, refused to think he cared, even if that thing in her chest wormed its way deeper and sent jagged bolts of worry and concern sparking through her limbs to sizzle under her skin. She did not understand why she should feel the tension riddling his body deep in her bones.

Though the water had warmed with the sun, it was still cold enough to steal her breath as Er’it waded in and her toes skimmed the surface. Carrying her in until he stood thigh deep, he knelt to settle her on the sandy bottom. Cupping the cool water over her shoulders after tugging the sopping, torn tunic from her arms, he cleaned away the sweat and grime as he did before. Careful of her, he murmured soft words against her hair and temple as he swiped away the tacky trails of crimson from between her legs. Holding her close to his warmth when he slipped a single finger inside, he shushed her ragged cry as he pulled it