Oath of the Alpha - Eva Dresden Page 0,84
a leg over both of hers to pin her there while he tugged the blankets over their heads. He gave her a dark, safe space to burrow into as she sniffled, her tears spattering his shoulder as the whole of it came rushing back in mangled, disjointed images.
“Why do you weep, kou’vera? You were magnificent.”
“It’s not… I shouldn’t…”
“My mate will not feel such shame for giving me so much of herself,” Er’it bit out, mauling her back and hips to crush her against him. It still wasn’t enough, so he rolled his oppressive weight on top of Aida so that he could grip the sides of her face.
In the darkness filled with their heated breaths, his growl was vicious. A possessive resonance that grinded through the delicate vertebrae of Aida’s spine, it pulled her into a painful arch with her head flung back. With a shuddering sigh passing her lips, she grew pliant beneath him.
This wasn’t the purr she knew from him, the one that left her dazed and filled with fuzzy warmth, and neither was it his call to entice her. The strange vibration called to a deeper part of her heart, dredging up feelings she had not examined under the cold light of day. Nor had she understood the implications of them all. Inundated with a furious tide of emotion, the sticky strands that connected their thundering hearts became steel binding them tighter than ever. Her every breath seemed to fill his lungs, the very force of him giving her life.
“Please,” Aida sobbed, her nails digging deep into the bunched muscles of his shoulders as she clung to him. Terrified she would spin off into the Abyss should she let go, Aida clawed at him until her scrabbling hands found purchase and drew blood. “Please, say it again.”
“My mate,” Er’it shouted in her face, as if he knew which exact words she desired to hear.
He did. He knew everything. Aida writhed and groaned beneath him, feeling him plunder the depths of her soul as he ripped her open and bared it all within the safety of the darkness. Salty tracks tickled her cheeks, staining the fine hair at her temples as he riffled through each and every miserable moment of her childhood, the terror of her youth, and even those final moments when Otaso had her upon his dais.
“Ah, kou’vera,” he groaned, his voice gravelly and thick with an emotion far too close to despair.
Er’it intended much the same. She saw it there, hovering between them. A dilapidated temple, a broken shrine, his blade flashing in the low light of dawn. His entire plan unfolded beneath her trembling touch. His need for the power residing within her, the arrogant claim that it was his Goddess given right to have it—all of it entangled with smoke and blood, scream-filled nightmares, and the knowledge it would kill him to kill her.
As uncertain as she had ever been, the delicate buds of love grew stronger from the ashes of his lust. Long since burnt and torn, the frayed edges of the fragile blooms glowed in shades of blood and bone, stained with fire and soot as they crumpled back into the detritus of his long years at war. With others, with himself, it made no difference. He’d hardened that part of himself to petrified dregs long ago, refusing to feel true affection or need for anything so easily crushed. Er’it tore away pieces of his soul, leaving him less human, less alive as he conquered a world full of far worse evil in the name of others. He never once questioned the fact that he would be the incredible evilness at the end, did not bemoan that fate.
Until Aida herself called to him, unknowing in her darkened cell as she mumbled broken prayers to something she didn’t understand or believe in to save her from a plight she didn’t deserve.
Gasping for each strained breath, her fingers traced the hard line of his cheek. Pushing up into his hair, she clenched her fist against Er’it’s scalp, pulling with what strength she had to force his lips against hers in a painful kiss. A savage, brutal coming together that left their mouths torn and bloody, it was odd in its satisfaction, as if nothing between them could be so soft and easy.
“No more,” Er’it whispered against her, wrenching away from her tight grip. Uncaring of the strands torn free, he rolled to the side only to haul Aida against him. Squeezing the very