The punishment would be death.
Vector sucked in a harsh breath, wrestling his dragon down, forcing the beast into a corner of his mind. He needed control. Neededher. But she couldn’t see him like this—half-mad, raging, more beast than man. She would never accept a monster.
“Put her inside,” Erik ordered.
Talon stepped forward, careful not to touch her as a new, more vicious growl erupted from Vector’s chest. The cell door creaked open. His dragon lunged, nearly snapping his mind in two.
Too close. Too much.
Raven stepped in, her eyes locked on him, and Vector swore the ground beneath him shifted.
She didn’t cower.
Didn’t hesitate.
She should haverun.
Instead, she moved toward him, her movements careful, deliberate. The candlelight flickered over her brown hair, painting the silk of it in deep, midnight waves. Her eyes—storm-gray and defiant—held his, unwavering, searching.
She had no idea she was walking into the jaws of a predator barely holding himself back.
She knelt by the basin of water, dipping a cloth into its cool depths. Her delicate fingers wrung it out, the motion precise, steady.Too steady.
Vector clenched his jaw. His entire body was so tight with tension he thought he might snap. Did she have no sense of self-preservation?
She rose, the damp cloth in her hand, and then—God help him—she stepped closer.
"You're a mess," she murmured.
Her voice. Soft, husky. A caress of heat across his skin.
She lifted the cloth to his chest, pressing it against the dried remnants of his past wounds. Wounds that no longer existed. Her touch was gentle, warm.
Too close.
Her honeyed scent wrapped around him, seeped into his lungs, his blood. A pulse of feral heat shot through his spine, curling low in his gut.
His dragon growled, pushing against his control.
Vector stiffened as she ran the cloth down his chest, slow and careful, her fingers brushing the ridges of his muscles. He was trembling—actually trembling—with the force of keeping himself in check.
She wasn’t just tempting him.
She waskillinghim.
His cock ached, hard and unrelenting, every inch of him screaming for her. His dragon’s rage was morphing, twisting, turning into something darker. Hotter. This wasn’t just possession. This was need.
Mark her. Take her. Make her ours.
Vector sucked in a sharp breath, his chains rattling as he fisted his hands, tugging against the manacles around his wrists. His skin burned. His vision blurred. His control—so fragile now—was slipping, crumbling.
Then she looked up at him.
And he was undone.
Raven’s gaze held his, a flicker of something dangerous in her stormy depths. The air between them crackled, charged with an energy that made his pulse hammer against his ribs. She didn’t stare at him with terror or even curiosity. What he saw in her eyes was a hundred times more dangerous. Desire.
"Why me?" she whispered.
