No.I can’t do this – I can’t be your mate.With a snort, Layla wrenched her head back from Hunter’s, even as he surged in to lock his jaws upon hers and kiss her. Twisting to clear space from his coils wrapped around her, Layla dug her golden talons into his belly now to arrest him, hard.Even though I want you, this is not something that can be between us, Hunter. We have to stop.
Why?Hunter snarled at her with voracious passion now as he slid in close, defying her iron grip in his belly so he could slither against her with arousing pleasure.Love thy enemy, Layla Price. And I will become yours, I swear it.
For how long?Layla snarled back, baring her fangs now as he moved his scaled lips over hers.A month, a year before we’re at each other’s throats? I hate you, even though I understand and desire you. My men hate you, and they don’t understand or desire you. Doing this would tear apart me and my men, and I can’t have that. Us doing this would force me to choose between them or you.
Choose me.Hunter purred sexually as he slid in tight to her, sliding himself over very delicate places now as he invested in his seduction.Give up your other men, Layla Price, and be mine. Mate with me, Bind me fully and let me Bind you, and I swear I will give up the chase. I will give up world domination, I will give up hounding your drakes. Come, be mine, let me take you… and I will let your drakes be free. I can wield nullax, I can release them from you… and then we could be together without anguish.
You rip up my heart, Hunter.Layla gasped with a terrible sensation inside her now, though Hunter’s movements were still so pleasurable upon her body.You rip it up and don’t care where the pieces fall…
I do this to heal our hearts, Layla,he soothed as he stroked her again, harder now, deeper.I do this so we can be together, as we should be. Achieving the impossible, finding our deepest heart’s desire – with each other. Just as we were prophesied to do long ago.
But doing this wouldn’t heal my heart,Layla gasped, feeling her heart roar with sorrow and anguish now as he seduced her, though her Dragon-side still wanted him.Tearing me from my other men is not a solution for me!
It is the only solution, Layla.Hunter snarled hotly now as he suddenly pulled back. Tightening Layla in his coils in a vicious way, he pinned her with his blazing dawn-bright eyes, angry.Choose me or choose them.But I think you know which way you have to choose to save them.
You bastard!Layla snarled at him now, fighting his iron grip upon her.You say you’re becoming whole, but I see only the Hunter now, rather than Orrin. You like the chase, you want the exhilaration of claiming me – and you don’t care how much heartbreak or destruction happens because of it.
All I do, I do for you.Hunter snarled wrathfully now, pulling back his scaled lips and baring enormous fangs as his jaws came open – a furious energy shuddering his entire body as he roared in her face.All I have weathered and endured, it was all for you! You are the thing that makes me whole, Layla! You are the thing that saves me, which Nadia’s Ascendant foretold. Be mine and forsake your drakes and I will become whole. And you will save the world from tyranny, and your drakes as well.
You chose to become a tyrant long before I was born, Orrin!Layla roared back at him now as she wriggled, struggling to get free of his dominant pin.Long before Nadia communed with her Ascendant! You never needed Nimir, or Nadia, or world domination, or even me to make you whole. You needed to fucking sit with yourself for half a second, clear your memory of lies, and then forgive yourself for your own actions. Self-forgiveness is the only thing that makes us whole. Seeing all parts of ourselves and embracing them rather than dividing them up and becoming sociopathic. You think you’re becoming yourself again because my power makes you whole? You’re not. You’re trying to forget everything you’ve done that you don’t want to face! Well, I’m not going to forget those things, even though you’re trying to. Rewriting memories to suit your desires – just as you always have.
Silence!Hunter’s fury pummeled through Layla now as a blast of desert heat slammed her to the ground beneath him, striking her into the dirt and smashing her into the rocks below. Her head spun; her body was a morass of pain as she spasmed. Shaking his head, Hunter unfurled an enormous mantle of ether-fire spikes that dazzled Layla like the dawn as she shuddered in pain. Even to Layla’s Dragon, seeing the menace of that mantle made something primal inside Layla go from passionately wild to dangerously alert at once. But Hunter was more than three times her size and pinned her hard. Digging furious talons into her neck and body, he thrust her to the ground beneath him and Layla roared as his talons punctured her. She flailed beneath him as a wave of stunned fire blasted out from her. But Hunter just weathered it, dissipating it upon his etheric winds as he held her down.
Staring at her with eyes like suns going supernova.
You will make me whole, Layla Price. And then you will be by my side as I take the world.
As Layla flailed, disoriented, Hunter suddenly coiled himself tight to her, locking his jaws upon hers and bending her backward in the most terrible submission Layla had ever felt. Positioning himself to take her, Hunter breathed a molten wave of power deep into Layla’s body, paralyzing her beneath him. In that moment, Layla’s understanding of him suddenly cleared. Her inner drakaina and her human self were suddenly of one accord as they realized what Hunter becoming whole meant. It meant he had all sides of himself within his nature now, brought home to roost. But rather than choose balance like Layla had between her darkness and brightness, her instinct and rationality, her beast and human self, Hunter had chosen also. He had chosen to favor the furious passion and darkness of his beast over the bright, forgiving nature of his human self.
And always would.
A perfect stillness suddenly devoured Layla – the perfect stillness of the ether as her drakaina and human selves became one at last. As Hunter positioned himself to take her, she came to peace, knowing where she stood with him now. Just as he struck, her entire self suddenly flooded out – to the ether. She wasn’t pinned anymore; she wasn’t in Hunter’s clutches suddenly. The place she had come to was so vast that for a moment Layla didn’t know where she was. But as she realized she had somehow thrust her entire body out to the ether just before Hunter took her, the golden light of the universe flooded her.
The vast love of the Star Bind – and Layla’s infinite love for her own self.
Traveling, Layla flashed through the cosmos in a blaze of light. Thrust out, she was cast back into physicality in her human form, falling naked to her hands and knees into white desert sand. As she sprawled upon the sand, she saw the noon sun scorching overhead, nothing around her for leagues but barren white dunes. As Layla breathed hard, stunned by how she had just spontaneously traveled to escape Hunter’s terror, she felt an awful roar slam through her Bind. It was Hunter back where she had left him, furious that their consummation had been left incomplete. Their Bind was still in its strange etheric state rather than a strong golden coil; just like it had been. They’d not mated – Layla hadn’t been violated by him.
And now he was furious he’d not gotten his way.
Breathing hard in the scorching sand, Layla stared up at the blue sky, feeling Hunter’s rage.
And then shut their Bind down – coming to silence in the vast desert all around.
CHAPTER 26 – HOME
For a long while, Layla lay in the sand, staring up at the wide desert sky. All around, hot zephyrs moved, stirring the scorching white dunes. She could feel ether swirling with the wind now; ether was part of everything, and at last she understood it. Far above, a hawk shrilled in the blue sky and Layla lifted a hand, shading her eyes. As she watched it, she suddenly felt the heat. Her Desert Dragon’s ability to withstand heat had returned, and Layla felt her drakaina coil lazily through her veins now, enjoying the sun. But at last, the barren desert was too hot even for Layla’s drakaina, and Layla cast a hand up.
Swirling sand grains into a protective dome all around her.
Sitting up beneath her sun-screen, Layla gazed at the desert, but found it obscured. Putting a hand to the dome, she blitzed it with lighting, sublimating the sand into opaque glass without hardly a thought, then blasting out the front so she had a view across the desert but shade above. There was nothing within view; no contours to the desert except endless mounds of white. If it hadn’t been so blinding, Layla might have thought she was on Mars, the environment was so barren and expressionless.
But the blue of the sky had a vibrancy that meant she was somewhere back in the Twilight Realm. Drawing an inhalation, Layla rose, gazing to either side. She didn’t know which way to go; any choice could simply lead her further into endless desert. Closing her eyes, she tried to find her way back to the etheric universe to see if she could teleport again, but that power was tenuous now that she was out of her moment of need. Opening her eyes, Layla frowned, wondering what the fuck to do next. She didn’t believe she’d survived everything with Hunter just now only to die out in some barren desert. As she turned, wondering which way to go, she pushed her senses out through the ether in all directions, searching for any sort of indicator as to a direction to follow.
And then blue eyes hit her mind like a clarion call.
They weren’t Hunter’s eyes. Layla’s Bind was shut down so tight against Hunter that she could not feel him at all now – but she could feel others, calling her through the ether. Lifting her chin, Layla scented the winds, feeling currents upon the air now that she somehow understood, though she’d never understood them before. It was as if her Dragon’s senses were augmented a hundredfold as she realized she could smell the direction of rain suddenly, and sense the movement of rock deep beneath the dunes. She could tell where water flowed beneath the endless desert, and she could feel the direction of crackling lightning storms far away.
As those blue eyes called her, she realized they had the blue-green of Adrian’s bright Mediterranean gaze, and the deep sapphire of Dusk. They had the fierce grey-blue of Reginald, and the drowning midnight-dark gaze of Fury. And in that blue also was a tinge of violet like lavender fields beneath a summer storm.
