My brain is suddenly firing on all cylinders again. I push against the hard chest in front of me. “Fury, stop.” I force the words from my head towards him through our bond.
“It seems the wolf is getting impatient with us, pet.”Shoving at a God is not easy, but Fury relents and takes a step back, letting my hands sag at my sides. Looking up, his face still holds that same smirk he seems to always carry around—when he’s not angry, of course.
“Fury.” My breath is uneven as my air quickly flows in and out. “Damn it!” Frustration laces my body as energy pulses through my veins, an unfamiliar feeling of zinging and zapping within my internal makeup. Holding my hands in front of me, I turn them, seeing a slight silvery glow form around my skin.
My eyes do a quick external check of my body, and I find the light skirts around my whole being, including entwining with two chords floating out of my chest, one black-silver, leading to the daemon in front of me, and one gold and silver, trailing away from my body and out the open door.
“I—”What is there to say? I did not expect this. This feeling—no, this sensation—is utterly unfamiliar to me. I feel like I can take on the world. Like I could survive off the light from the suns and moon alone. When Fury told me his plan, I thought the task would be impossible for me, but this… This new feeling of hope and strength within me is the raging spark I need to undertake this insurmountable quest.
Feeling a fluttering low in my belly, two grey hands twine with mine. “It won’t always feel like this. Your body is getting used to the bit of power I’ve shared with you.”
“I feel…” I shake my head. “I don’t know how to describe it.”
Bringing my hands up to his lips, Fury whispers through my mind. “This is you, pet. My energy, my power, will only enhance the innate force within you.”
“This is me?”
“This is your strength, your resilience, your capacity for hope and love.”His lips linger on my knuckles, and his eyes stay fixed on mine.“There is much more beyond this mortal vessel you inhabit.”
Very aware I’m getting sucked into the bonded lust illusion, I call on the agitated, waiting wolf pacing the room. “Gideon, I’m ready to go.”
Turning on my heel, I move away from Fury to find Gideon—every stoically dashing inch of him in his black-on-black attire—waiting for me next to the hole-in-the-floor stairway.
“Wait,” Fury charges from behind me, grabbing my upper arms and stopping me in my tracks. “I have something for you.”
Letting out a trapped breath, I relent to him.This bond is going to be hard to resist. Even before this bond, I found parts of myself softening to him, and now it’s like my body instantly gives way to him, bypassing all of the barriers I’ve protected myself with over the decades. Even Argus purrs inside at Fury’s luring tones. I created those barriers for a reason, and with one kiss, this daemon has obliterated them all.
It is different from the bond I have with Rivern, too. With Rivern, it feels like falling in love for the first time. Pure and raw. With Fury, it is like securing the missing part of myself. The long-awaited piece that I knew was out there but couldn’t quite reach until now. He is morethan just the angel of my dreams. He is the keeper of my soul, and all the dark and light it encompasses.
Confusion worries through my tumbling mind.How can I care so deeply for two people at the same time?There is every possibility that Rivern doesn’t even want me. He wasn’t there when I woke up, and the pain I felt… I know it has to do with him. But I also feel deep down that is not true. He wants me. I want him.
Shifting behind my back, I can feel Fury dropping something heavy but soft over my shoulders. “I do not wish you to catch a chill.” As my eyes drift down, I find his pointed, shadowed fingers clasping a bronzed dragon head to each side of a deep red velvet cape.
“Thank you,” I reply as I clench my hands down by my sides, trying to ignore the itch to lean back into his body.
My eyes meet the dyre wolf shifter in front of us, and though his expression reads indifference, I can feel his body vibrating with more. His amber eyes become darker and darker until they are the same shade as Fury’s, and I can’t look away from the savagery I see within.
“No, thank you, pet.”The daemon God surprises me, and we drift apart, leaving me to wander towards the towering wolf of steel. Gideon leads the way down the stairs, and I cannot resist the urge to take onemore glance at Fury. My second God-bonded.TheGod himself, at that. A God imprisoned in a world of his own making.
This life barely feels real anymore.
He stands, intimidating with his arms crossed, his pale grey skin almost glowing in the sunlight trickling through the window. Startling me, he gives a soft smile and purrs into my mind,“I’ll see you in my dreams, Dove.”
His soul-stirring voice is almost enough to keep me there. My heart is aching to be close to its newest acquisition,but with force, I turn and follow quickly behind Gideon.
forty-nine
Moyrie
The fae male isjumpy. He broods. My family accepted our presence—a bit unkempt after our long trek—with open arms. We are on turn two of my people’s mating ceremony, a rhythm when the whole of the Silver Sands clan get together and eat, dance, drink and be merry for seven turns of the suns. On the final turn, we will sacrifice to Osear, and he will bless our union.
My fae male shows no interest in the proceedings. I had given him a reprieve before. Maybe it was his first time with a woman. But now, as I have spent more time in his company, Igrow concerned this is not what he wants. If such is the case, Osear will not bless our union, and we will not bear children, but this is hard to explain to him when we do not share a common tongue.
He has also not shown any interest in my body. My people are an affectionate and open species with each other. Most newly mated pairs within my community can barely keep their hands off each other. No one else from the Silver Sands has brought in an outsider as a mate, so this whole process is new and strange to me.
Rivern towers over me in the seat to my right. Mother and Father sit to my left as each of my people approaches our dais in the outdoor auditorium to gift us with the fruits of their labour. Some hand over intricately woven materials, finely crafted daggers or auspicious herbs. They lay these gifts at our feet, my people warmly welcoming the foreboding fae male next to me.
I grab for his jumping hand on his jittery leg, and at the barest of contact, Rivern pulls away. My face pulls down at the sides, and I will him to look at me with my eyes. He does not move his head, staring blankly at my people in front of him like he is looking straight through them.
