“Promises you forced her to make because you want to lock her in a cage, you mean.” Luke shot back with hot ire, as a crackle of lightning surged from him at his Storm Regent – something Layla had never seen Luke do towards Rhennic before.
“Don’t fuck with me, little Storm drake. You will not talk to your Regent like that.” Rhennic growled back, his hackles rising as the intensity in his flashing nimbus tripled.
“Hey! That’s myboyfriendyou’re talking to, Rhen!” Rikyava got right up in Rhennic’s face now, poking a finger in his broad chest. “You don’t threaten him, I don’t care if he’s a subject in your Lineage. Luke could blast your ass in a truly decent battle over the Storm Dragon Regency if he wanted to, and you know it – he just chooses to focus his power on healing instead of politics.”
“Easy, Rikyava.” Luke spoke again, and Layla saw how tender he was as he helped Rake corral her back. “My honor isn’t impugned, don’t make it a thing.”
“Yeah, well, mycousinwas still out of line.” Rikyava growled, her gaze piercing Rhennic.
“It doesn’t change the fact that Layla made a choice to go directly to Hunter from the Dragon bone-yard,” Reginald spoke now, his gaze ice-blue and frigid as he stared at Layla, “without backup. Without her Intercessoria Archangel. Without any of us to aid her and without even the smallestscrap of protectionfrom anything we’ve gifted her. A rash move. Rash, blind, and stupid.”
Layla felt herself wither under Reginald’s terrible stare as she received his caustic dressing-down. Reginald was more than furious as he stood before her; she could feel it in the way he held himself so impeccably restrained, like the deep calm of the ocean before a really fucking nasty storm. He was beyond incensed that she’d not even worn the pearls he’d gifted to her on her journey to find her Dragon. As she watched, he lifted his arms, crossing them slowly at his perfect chest and staring her down with the most horrible gaze he’d ever given her.
Layla flinched under that stare; she couldn’t help it. As her gaze shied from Reginald’s, it left her looking at Dusk, who simply shook his head with a deeply confused frown, as if he couldn’t imagine why she’d done such a thing. Both his hands were on his hips, and as she watched him, he raised them above his head, lacing them upon his crown. Still shaking his head, he blinked a number of times before he finally managed to say a single word.
“Unbelievable.”
Letting a hard breath out through his pursed lips, Dusk turned away, walking to the far edge of the flagstone courtyard with his hands still laced upon his head. Though Layla couldn’t feel him through the Bind, she could feel tremors of energy shudder the ground as he tried to hold in his fury and failed. It was a deep blow to her heart as he abandoned her – so pissed he couldn’t even look her in the eyes right now for fear of erupting. Layla’s heart gripped hard.
As her gaze finally found Adrian.
Adrian’s eyes were stone cold upon her. It was a look beyond anger, beyond rage – and Layla understood that Adrian had finally found hisfinal strikewhen he’d heard what she’d done. He’d gone to that black, utterly passionless place that normally only Layla, Reginald, and Fury shared; and it was a bad look on Adrian. A bad, scary, shit-your-pants and run-for-the-hills kind of look.
That Layla instantly recoiled from.
“Did you fuck him? Hunter?” Adrian spoke, and Layla suddenly understood the source of his stone-cold darkness.
“No.” Layla was relieved she could honestly answer, but even that was little comfort as Adrian’s viper-cold gaze continued to bore all the way through her. “I went to him because my drakaina was in conflict about him, and it was that conflict that was keeping me from reuniting with her. I had to go see him to figure out if her instincts were right or if mine were. When I met with the Ascendant in the Dragon bone-yard, he gave me a choice: I could come back here and re-Bind all of you, or he could put me directly through to Hunter, so I could face him and resolve my drakaina’s conflict. I chose to go see Hunter. Because I knew that if I didn’t talk with him and take his measure calmlyin person, I would never be able to resolve my deepest inner conflict about him. And if I chose to come back here to all of you… you never would have let me go.”
“Damn right.” Rhennic snarled, and Layla saw Rikyava hold a warning hand up towards her cousin.
“But when you were with Hunter, you did a lot more than talk, didn’t you?” Adrian pressed icily, as Layla’s gaze returned to him. “You needed to go see him because your drakaina wanted him. She wanted Hunter as a mate… and you went to him to see if it could happen.”
Inhaling a deep breath, Layla knew she had to pull this poison before it festered any longer. “Yes. I did.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?!” Rhennic roared, staring at Layla now like she’d grown six heads. “Youfuckedour enemy, Layla?! Youmatedwith that bastard?!”
“I didn’t fuck him. We didn’t mate.” Layla held firmly to that point, though it was a weak port in the storm Rhennic and the others were building. “My drakaina wanted to, but it didn’t happen. We talked with Hunter for a while, and yes, we were attracted to him. For a while, he seemed reasonable. But at the very end, he showed his true colors. And showed how he wanted nothing more than to simply dominate me and use me – just as he always has.”
“Is this what you’ve been hiding from us – from all of us – this entire time?” Dusk had returned to their circle, watching her now with incredulous eyes. “That your drakaina had the serious hots for Hunter and wanted to fuck him?”
“And Bind him in here with us as one of your men?” Reginald spoke – dangerously soft now as he watched Layla with cold grey-blue eyes.
“Actually…” Layla spoke, something awful twisting inside her as she admitted the deepest part of what she’d discovered at Hunter’s realm. “Hunter is already Bound to us. From back in September when I licked Adam’s blood from the silver knife at the Dragon-party. We got Bound by accident; him to me as much as me to him. It’s why our Dragons were pulling together all these months, more and more every time we met. Because they wanted to finish what they started. Even though that never happened – I fled Hunter’s realm before the Bind could become complete.”
“Oh, god.” It was the first thing Fury had said this entire time, and Layla turned to him, seeing horror in his beautiful silver-blue eyes as he stared at her. “Hunter… my father… is already Bound to us? Through you?”
“Yes. Partially.” Layla spoke softly, feeling wretched suddenly as she watched all the strength Fury had gained as a part of their Bind implode. Blinking his lovely silver-dark eyelashes too fast, he set a hand to his heart, gripping fingers like talons into the scar he’d received from Reginald in order to escape Hunter’s mad schemes. As Layla watched Fury crumble, his progress with his massive silver drake regressed, a tremendous roar of deafening Siren-power smiting the garden. Everyone startled, but as Layla moved quickly to him, Fury backed up.
And with a terrible flash of silver in his dark blue eyes, he turned – leaving the patio.
The rest of the group watched him go, a deep silence pervading them all as every pair of eyes turned Layla’s way. Her friends were sympathetic, but her lovers were scorching with rage as everyone digested the truth Layla had just revealed.
That they were all in a Bind with Hunter – and had been for months.
Swinging his viciously ice-blue eyes to Layla, Reginald spoke, breaking the silence. “I must go after my brother; he is unstable right now. But wewillbe discussing this at length, Layla Price, and you will tell us allin detailhow this Bind with Hunter came to pass and when, and what effects it may be having upon all of us. Until then, keep your distance, for everything inside me is raging right now to rip you to shreds with either talons or tongue, and I dislike the result that might come from either. Excuse me.”
With those horrible words, Reginald went after his brother. As Reginald left, Rhennic shook his head. Staring at Layla with the darkest fury she’d ever seen in him, he gave a bitter laugh. “My mother always told me to watch out for Royal Dragon Binds, that they could undo me if they Bound the wrong person. I guess she was right.”
