by Erin Raegan
My father cursed. “I’ll put out a false storm alert, keep everyone indoors.”
I nodded. “Send scouts throughout the city. Gryo believes he can detect the Bour and those infected.”
“Can we truly detect infection?”
“The king believes Gryo’s device will alert us. There is a slim chance at a cure, but he won’t know until he captures the infected.”
My father stood, straightening himself into the lieutenant I knew him to be. “Clear the rage from your face, son. You cannot let your mate witness it. It will only frighten her.”
I raised my brow at him.
He chuckled dryly. “I am old and set in my ways, but she is to be my daughter and I will not have her frightened in my home.” He started down the hall. “And you will soon learn keeping your mates happy should always be your number one priority. Mine are overjoyed for your mating. I will not spoil their delight because of my outdated fallacies.”
I shook my head, unsurprised. My father may not fully accept Lydya as a human, but she was already charming him. It would not be long before he caved to her every whim as he did with my sister.
Lydya was singing softly to herself as I came upon the great room. My brothers watched her from the table. My mam followed Lydya around with a small smile as my mate cleaned up the remnants of the meal. Olyda sat in a chair across the room, rocking to the strange yet beautiful tune.
I could tell my mate did not realize she had so many eyes on her. She did not even realize she was singing. I leaned against the doorframe, watching her. My father had stopped just inside the door, unwilling to disturb her melody. She spun in a circle, dancing with herself, and nearly tripped over a chair. Ohta lunged for her and she righted herself, giggling.
Her eyes wandered the room and she at once noticed her audience. She ducked her head, blushing beautifully, and dropped the plate she held with a clatter.
I cleared my throat and nodded to my brothers. When they followed me into the hallway, I informed them of the Bour, holding nothing back. Hylg did not hide his shock and shame. The recent kills weighed on him. Ohta remained stoic and grave as he left to oversee my father’s guards.
With nothing to do but wait for the Bour to reveal himself, I bid my mothers and father good eve, dragging my mate from the hall.
“Ignyt?” she asked, her voice soft and sweet. Its own song. “Is everything okay?”
I stopped in the hall and tossed her over my shoulder. A breathless laugh as beautiful as bells left her and I sped up, nearly rushing to my old rooms. My mam always kept it the same, waiting for my next visit. I came home infrequently. That would have to change now that I was mated. They would demand her presence here or they would be at the castle, wreaking havoc.
“Whose room is this?” she asked.
I looked around at the collection of weapons, both Dahk and otherworldly, I’d amassed as a youngling. “Mine.”
“You have a lot of weapons,” she said in wonder.
My lips quirked and I tossed her onto the bed. She bounced and gaped at me as I tore her leathers from her luscious thighs.
“I need you,” I rasped, answering the question in her eye.
“Okay,” she whispered, holding her arms out to me.
The soft acceptance in her eye humbled me. I forced myself to regain control, undressing her more slowly. When she was at last bare beneath me, I took my time, showering her in my gratitude and affection. I tasted every inch of her pale skin, nibbling on the little bumps that spread down her thighs and arms. Only when she was squirming and crying for me did I lower my mouth to the paradise between her thighs. I allowed her whimpers and cries to flow through me, driving me. When she reached her peak, I moved her above me, seating her on my lap and pulling her down onto the ache only she could create.
My little song pushed away and dropped between my thighs. She spread her mouth down my length, sucking it to the back of her smooth throat. I groaned, tangling my fingers into her golden fur, cradling her head as she moaned and whimpered around the hardness she owned.
I could not keep myself from pumping into her mouth, and my little mate whimpered for more, urging me to fill her throat. She swallowed and I shouted, tugging her up and throwing her onto her back.
She spread her thighs, honey coating her and inviting me inside. I held her face, licking into her mouth as she so liked. She dug her heels into my back, pulling on my horns, her hips bucking to pull me inside. I backed away, gazing into her clear eyes as I entered her.
Her body hugged me, burned me. My Lydya had no clue the depth of my insanity for her. She would never know the lengths I would go to keep her with me. She stole me with her song and her loving eyes, and in return, I would worship her.
22
Lydia
“I can’t believe we’re doing it in your childhood room.” I gasped, holding Ignyt’s shoulders as he urged my hips to rock. “In your parents’ house.”
I curled into his chest as he clamped his hands on my backside and lifted me clear off his thighs, rocking me. Ignyt sat on the edge of the bed, his feet flat on the floor. My knees were bent and tucked up against his chest and my feet wedged against his hips. He was holding me so tightly, I couldn’t move unless he allowed it. And right now, he was having too much fun taking control. I could do nothing but hold onto his shoulders as he pulled me on and off his length at a speed that had an orgasm spiraling out of me so quickly, I shouted at the ceiling.
“Again,” he growled. My bottom was completely in the air, his hands keeping it from resting on his thighs.
“I can’t,” I whined.
He slowed his arms and hefted me up his chest, changing the angle inside me. My knees were completely locked and my toes curled in the air as he surged up to standing. My arms strangled his neck and my teeth bit into his shoulder as he bounced me on and off him. I squeezed my inner muscles tightly, earning a loud shout from him. Ignyt glared at me and leaned back, taking away the friction at my clit. I clawed at him until he chuckled and brought it back only to take it away again.
My feet kicked, trying to scoot me closer to him as he pulled me on and off the steel rod hammering inside me. “Ignyt!”
He growled approvingly and stood straight again, grinding me against him every time he speared back inside. “Again.”
I nodded, already feeling it coming. He spun and dropped me to the bed, yanking my thighs up to my chest and surging back inside. He used one forearm to hold my legs together and tight to my chest and leaned back on his other arm to look down at where we were connected. He rumbled a low, hungry sound and looked into my eyes.
“This is mine,” he rumbled, dipping his thumb into my lips. He rubbed the wetness there and zeroed in on my clit, dragging his thumb back and forth. “Yes?”
“Yes,” I choked. “Yes, Ignyt, please.”
He smirked at me, circling it faster, his hips picking up speed. I felt the tip of his claw every time it pressed against my labia and I had to clutch at my folded legs to lean forward and look down.
“Oh,” I choked, watching his clawed thumb circle in quick bursts. His hips pistoned and I looked lower, watching as he disappeared inside me. “I-I’m—”
Ignyt growled and bared his fangs as he watched his thumb. He dragged it lower and the tip of his nail scraped where his thumb had been circling. I bucked up, my thighs fighting against his arm. He let go and dropped on top of me, eating at my mouth as he pounded me through my orgasm. He snarled into my mouth and I clutched his shoulders, shuddering as he stilled and bucked against my hips.
I closed my eyes and turned my face away, panting. He nuzzled my neck as he slipped out of me, kissing my breasts, my belly, down there. I bucked against his mouth and he grinned into my thigh before nipping me.
He had to carry my dead weight to the bathing room. The water was hot and steamy as we soaked together. When we slipped from the bath, Ignyt stood naked and watched me comb my hair and brush my teeth with one of the Dahk’s enormous toothbrush
es.
We climbed into bed naked and Ignyt curled around my back, licking along the bite at my shoulder, his hand roaming between my thighs—not to tease but to pet.
I sighed. “Something’s bothering you.”
After Ignyt had thrown me on the bed in his childhood room the first time, he let me call Roxy and Mona. They were both busy trying to help Gryo in the healer’s rooms. A lot of Dahk had been injured, and Star had broken her arm after a fall. Mona was sporting a nasty gash above her eyebrow as she said a hasty hello then disappeared. Roxy had apologized for her, but she didn’t need to. Everyone was overwhelmed from the aftermath of the attack. Vivian was also there, but I didn’t get a chance to talk to her. She was busy helping Gryo while Vyr hovered at her side. Prin was with Peyton and Tahk in an underground bunker.
Roxy had choked through telling me how several of the kitchen staff had died during the attack. The kitchen was nearly completely buried under rubble, as were their bodies. She shouted at me for running off then cried while apologizing. Overall, the conversation was hard and depressing. After I hung up, Ignyt took one look at my face and dragged me back to bed.
And now we were here. He had dragged me to this room with such intensity earlier, I couldn’t help but notice the anxiety in his eyes. It was so unlike him, I couldn’t ignore it.
“Sleep,” he rumbled in my ear.
“What did Uthyf say?” I tried again.
He rolled me over to face him and palmed my cheek. “I am the king’s interrogator. There are things I will know, things I will do that I may never be able to tell you.”
I nodded hesitantly.
“Trust me,” he implored, his eyes boring into mine. “I do not want to lie to you.”
“I don’t want you to lie either,” I whispered, feeling as though I shouldn’t have pushed him.
He shook his head angrily. “Trust me that if I need you, I will come to you. Trust me to tell you if something is bothering me. I will not leave you, Lydya. You are mine, and I am yours. There will never be another for either of us. Trust me to protect you.”
I nodded, blinking away tears. He was so intense and demanding that I couldn’t help but pull out of his arms. He didn’t let me. “A-are you mad at me?”
Ignyt cursed and pressed his lips to my forehead. “Listen to me, love. I have done things that would sicken you. Things that would have you running from me.”
I had a feeling this had little to do with him being unable to tell me what Uthyf said to him and a whole lot about what Uthyf may have asked him to do. I nodded against his chin, but I didn’t fully understand what I was agreeing to.
“I could not bear it if I frightened you,” he said. “I am now struggling with something I have done. Something dishonorable that I have done but did not know at the time.”
I relaxed against him, realizing he wasn’t telling me not to ask but instead warning me that what haunted him may not be something I was willing to handle.
“At the time, why did you do it?” I asked softly, rubbing my hands up and down his spine between his wings.
He pulled back and clutched my face, kissing my lips slow and light. “To protect something I love very deeply.”
I took his answer and mulled it over. “Then it couldn’t be dishonorable. If you did it to protect what you love, then it was brave and came from a good place.”
Ignyt smiled sadly and nuzzled my cheek. “You were that thing I loved and protected.”
I sucked in a breath. “Something you did to protect me is hurting you?”
Ignyt nodded.
Somehow, I crawled closer to him, burrowing into his chest. “Well, I don’t want to say I’m grateful, because it’s clearly hurting you. But whatever it was, I would have done it too. If it were you I was protecting, I would do it because I love you too.”
Ignyt groaned a low, tortured sound. “I’m keeping secrets from you, love. I will tell you them when I can, when it is safe, but know that I only keep them to save you pain.”
I stiffened. Roxy was okay—I’d just talked to her. So was Mona. All of my friends. Everyone but—
I choked on a sob. “Home?”
Ignyt didn’t reply.
I clutched him tightly. “Ignyt, will you promise me something?”
“Anything,” he vowed, so easy, so sure.
I kissed his chest. “If they’re okay back home, one day, when it’s safe, will you take me back to Earth?”
He froze, his wings snapping around us and shrouding us in pitch black.
“Not forever.” I sniffled. “Just a visit. If they’re safe, I have some special people I want you to meet. And if they’re not…” I choked on a sob. “I think I need to go and say goodbye.”
Ignyt rubbed my back in circles, holding me as I grieved my parents. If they were alive, then it would be the best surprise, but I needed to prepare myself for the possibility that they were gone. I could never regret not going back with the other girls. I never would have met Ignyt if I hadn’t. My dad would love him. My mom would fuss over him. They would have wanted him for me. But if I never went back, I would regret that. I would regret if for the rest of my life.
“I will take you, my Lydya. I will take you as soon as it is safe.”
23
Lydia
I was back in a silk dress the next day. My hair was braided away from my face and I was giggling with Ignyt’s mother as they traded off telling stories about the three brothers.
Their sister, Glyn, had finally shown up. Apparently, she had gotten impatient waiting for her brothers and had gone shopping. But another ice storm was coming and Tyrl had ordered the city indoors.
Glyn was lively and blunt. So sweet, yet brash and sarcastic. She was a complete contradiction, but her family clearly loved her and she loved them back.
When she came to breakfast, she had stared at me and her brother, squinting and judging until Hylg pinched her cheek. She slapped his hands away and pulled him into a headlock. After she had him on the floor, she bounced over to me with a smile and hadn’t left my side since. She wanted to know about Earth nearly as much as Olyda did.
Now Glyn was talking about the time she showed up at the king’s castle, demanding to join her brothers’ team. The old king had humored her, and Ignyt had taken her to the dungeons, where he handed her a blade and left her in a room with a chained prisoner to test her interrogation abilities. She hadn’t been able to do it and was about to call her brother back when the male broke free of his restraints and attacked her.
“I had never been so frightened,” she gasped on a laugh.
I gaped at her, my eyes huge. I was leaning on my knees, sitting on the edge of my seat.
“The male got me on my back and picked up the dagger I had foolishly dropped.” She shook her head and laughed again. “And then he laughed at me.” She slapped her hands together. “I thought I was going to die and he was just chuckling away.”
“If it hadn’t been Fihk in that cell, you could have,” Ignyt drawled.
Hylg guffawed, covering his face. “Your face! Oh, she was so angry.” He slapped his thighs. “I owed Fihk three rations of spirits for that.”
I shook my head, unable to imagine Fihk tricking a young Dahk female in such a way.
“Tahk was your lieutenant then. He was livid with you,” Glyn sneered. “He grounded you from all flights for sunrings. Imagine if he had been commander.”
“I had no regrets then, and even less now.” Hylg chuckled and pulled her to his side, dropping his arm on her shoulder. “My little sister had no business working for the king as an interrogator.”
She scowled at him, but her lips were twitching.
Thunder rolled outside, and Ignyt stiffened at my side.
“Storm’s here,” Olyda shouted and ran for the balcony. “I love watching them.”
“Away from there!” Tyrl thundered.
Olyda skidded to a stop and gawked at him in shock.
“A ship,” Gryl muttered griml
y, looking out of the balcony.
“What ship?” Hylg asked, running to the balcony.
Ohta peeked around the opening and looked down. “One of father’s.”
“What ship?” Olyda muttered.
Tyrl stomped to the balcony and looked down. “That’s Galyf’s ship.” He spun and hit the comm at his ear. “Get to Galyf’s House now.”
“What’s going on?” I asked Ignyt as he pulled me from the couch.
He ignored me and handed me my fake baby. I looked at it in confusion. I hadn’t had to carry it since yesterday. Tyrl and his mates knew all about our plan before we even arrived.
“We’ll lead them away,” Hylg muttered to his father.
“No,” Tyrl growled. “Did the ship follow you from the castle?”
Hylg scowled at him and looked at Ignyt.
“We have to try, we can’t allow them to attack the city,” Ignyt rumbled. “We now know where he’s been. Track him.”
Tyrl growled again. “You cannot take her out there!”
“What would you have me do?” Ignyt shouted back. A thunderous blast screamed through the air and the tower shook.
Tyrl said, “I will blast him right out of the sky!”
“Father, they could be cured!” Hylg shouted back, aghast.
“They are beyond a cure now, son,” Tyrl said sadly. “I will do what is necessary to protect my mates and innocents in this city.”
“Wohn,” Ignyt growled, “where are you?” I looked up. Ignyt had his hand at his ear. A new unit from his father. He cursed. “There’s another ship approaching the other side of the city.”
Tyrl cursed and hit his own ear. “You listen to me,” he growled at Hylg, pointing a claw at him. “You cannot save them all, son. You protect your brothers and his mate by any means necessary.”
Then Tyrl ran to his mates and ushered them farther down into the building. Ignyt dragged me to the balcony.
“He’s going to engage them,” Hylg muttered. “Ignyt, do something.”
