“You’re going to want to keep him, aren’t you?” Rogue asked, his tone dry, and I shrugged.
In truth, I’d only wanted to help him. If he wanted to be a companion, I would not be opposed. “I think he likes me,” I said with a grin, and Rogue laughed.
“I like you, didn’t stop me from wanting to kill you.”
This was true.
“Then you and he should get along well.” I clapped Rogue on the shoulder. “Clean up the bodies, or leave them for him to eat?”
We eyed each other, then the dragon, who stared at us a moment. When he dipped his head to the bodies, I swore he smiled.
“Let him eat,” Rogue agreed with me, and we withdrew to give him space.
Fingers in my hair tugged me away from his throat, and I met Alfred’s dark gaze. Though his eyelids were half-lowered as though he was sleepy, I couldn’t look away from the dangerous intensity housed there. The feeling of battle still surged in my veins, and the pleasure at saving such a magnificent beast.
Maddox.
He’d saved Maddox.
He’d saved Rogue, too. That was different in some ways. He’d saved Rogue for himself as much as for Rogue. But Maddox? He’d fought to get to him. Fought to keep him alive. Seeing him in the sun was so different from seeing him in the prison. He’d been majestic and proud. My heart wrenched to see him so hurt.
I licked my lips and then kissed Alfred. He let out a hum of approval as his tongue swept against mine. I lapped at the taste of my blood in his mouth while his coated mine. It was the strangest sensation and so absolutely right in the same breath.
The stroke of his hands along my sides had me arching, his cock nestled against my labia, already slick from how wet I was, and I ground against him. His chuckle vibrated through me as he fisted my hair tighter, the tug lighting up my whole scalp. The desire eddied there, a constant thrum against my senses, but it wasn’t hunger but true want. True need. I sucked against his tongue and dug my fingers into his shoulders.
When he rolled me over, I wrapped my legs around him, arching upward to tease along his thickening girth. Breaking the kiss, he nipped at my lower lip, and I groaned.
“Do you want this, hellion?” The question startled me. “Do you want me? Or are you responding to your hunger?”
Hurt struck like a slap, and I blinked. I wasn’t hungry at all, but he was like holding onto a storm, all sizzling zaps to my senses, and he’d saved Maddox. I wanted…
“Shh,” he shushed me with a nuzzling kiss that took him to my ear and then to my throat. “I have to know, because I will not take from you as the little coward did.” The press of his lips ghosting over the marks he’d made had me shuddering. “I will wipe him from you, but you have to want me to be in my bed.”
Wasn’t I already in his bed? Despite my best efforts, the words wouldn’t leave my tongue. The graze of his teeth had me clawing at his back as the panic bubbled up inside of me. Darkness edged my vision, and Alfred sighed.
Had I disappointed him? Fuck. Why did I care?
“When I get my hands on that demon, I’m going to have his entrails for garters.” With that cryptic, if brutal statement, he bit me again, and this time I didn’t pretend not to scream. It was like I was being burned from the inside out as he began to suck. The pleasure faded entirely to pain.
We were standing on the beach. The house was above, but I didn’t look there, I kept my gaze on the water. “You keep killing me.” It had taken me a moment to put it together, but the agony racing through my veins before clarified it.
“Yes,” he told me. Well, at least he didn’t sugarcoat it. “You don’t want me to make it sweet.”
I almost laughed. Twisting, I met his dark-eyed gaze. I really couldn’t tell if his eyes were that dark because he was full of shit, or if his pupils had swallowed the irises. The corners of his mouth tipped up. “Why?”
“Because, Hellion…” He said the nickname like he had Fiona, and it sent a shudder through my whole system. “You fed on a shadow