That was good. That meant she was safe. A burble of liquid spilled from my mouth as I smiled.
Golden fire coursed down Ratter’s face as she stared into mine, her eyes bright with love and curiosity.You are very young to be so strong, Serak Zellum.A long, soundless chime filled the room, my ears ringing as I felt my soul being scoured.Do you think you are strong enough for my daughter?
Ratter? No man’s strong enough for her,I thought, before the world became a sunrise.
The voice hesitated, then whispered.Nooneman.
RATTER
“Rada, my love, you need to wake up.”
“Don’t want to. Feels too good.” It was true. The fire felt better than it ever had before, the flames licking every inch of me. Of course, the blindfold I had on meant I didn’t know which of my lovers was supplying the flames. And whatever was holding my wrists and ankles meant I could not remove it to find out.
Goddess, I loved these males, all of them. And they loved me, too, and delighted in finding new ways to express it every day. And every night.
I shivered as something flickered with more heat on my inner thighs. That had to be my dragon. Or… “Serak?”
His wicked laughter, the double-toned voice I’d grown to love, echoed in the room, and a long tongue of heat moved down to my toes, then back up the inside of my other thigh, taunting me. Before I could do anything more than gasp, a mouth moved down one arm… and another, with a forked tongue, traced lines on the other.
Pleasure threatened to overwhelm me, and pain as well, the heat building too high, too fast… until a wave of frost spilled over my face.
“Wake up, Ratter!”
I cried out, sitting up at the same time, a knife in my hand before I could clear the water from my eyes. “What in the hells? Wait… Where?”
I looked around, completely lost. We weren’t in the cellar, for some reason. I recognized the place. It was the next street over, the courtyard of a brothel owned by a woman who’d helped me out more than once.
Serak was a wreck, an empty bucket in one hand, his clothing… “Burned?” I’d been lying on the flagstones of the courtyard, and I scrambled to my feet to examine him. His shirt was in tatters, covered with bloodstains and ash, holes burned through it. His trousers were almost as bad, and he’d taken off his boots at some point. “Whathappenedto you? Wait. What happened to me?”
I looked down. I had on my clothing from the night before, but it was in perfect condition. My cloak felt soft and clean; my leather belt and the brass fasteners that held my weapons in place practically shone. Even my special shoes were free of dirt and… I gasped. The laces were new, and the treads perfect. Had I been assaulted by a mysterious cobbler, who’d stolen my shoes and given me new ones?
My head was spinning, and I took a moment to breathe. My memory was fuzzy. I’d fallen into the cellar, and then… and then what?
“Did I pass out?” I mused aloud. “We were getting the dagger. I gave it to you for your Solstice gift, and we—” A blush raced over my cheeks. “Oh, Goddess, we kissed. Did I pass out?”
Serak’s face creased into a huge grin. “It was a pretty fantastic kiss,” he said, resting a hand on the dagger that hung from his belt loop. I eyed it, something about it being so close to him making me nervous. I shook away the odd thought. “Yes,you passed out. Overcome, it seemed like.” His grin widened. “Overcome by my prowess, possibly. It was a kiss to remember.”
Not that I could. My mind had been clouded in that cellar, especially when that smell—his scent, and mine—had filled the space.
My scent.Oh shit.The thought had me freezing.
“Did you, ah, did you notice anything surprising down there?” When he didn’t answer immediately, I chewed at my lower lip, embarrassed, and slightly worried that I’d need to kill him. If he knew the secret I’d been keeping…
“You mean the smell?”I gasped, a wave of sadness that I was going to have to kill him rushing through me, before he continued. “The cellar stunk almost as bad as an outhouse, but other than that? I suppose I was too lost in the moment to notice anything else.”
Our gazes locked, and I could read everything he wasn’t saying there. He knew. He absolutely knew, but he wasn’t going to say anything.
“When I couldn’t wake you, I carried you up here, and… well, I thought we both needed to wash off, but you seem to be none the worse for wear.”
I sniffed my armpit. “Goddess’s tits, you’re right. I should be covered with dirt.” I narrowed my eyes. “You swear nobody bathed me while I was out?” I knew of more than one herb that could make a person conk out hard enough to sleep through a bath. Though if Serak had been the one to bathe me…
He whispered, “What kind of a man, what kind of anAlphawould I be to take such advantage, my lady?” His breath moved the hairs by my ear as he spoke the next words so quietly, I wasn’t sure he was speaking at all. “It is only in my dreams that I have seen your body. Scented you, bathed you, and… knotted you.”
Knotted?Fire raced to my cheeks. A sudden, strong waft of mint had me closing my eyes and thinking about pustulant boils and pig farms to make the scent fade.Shit.I needed to get away from this Alpha before everyone in Turino suspected what I was. What only the two of us knew.
The two of us. Vilkurn had taught me long ago that the best way to get two people to keep a secret was to slit the throat of one of them so they couldn’t share it. I knew he’d want me to kill Serak, but I couldn’t do it.
I moved away.“Keep it in your dreams, Alpha,” I warned, but glared at the cloth tenting the front of his trousers. “Looks like you needed the cold shower more than I did.”
