He turned to go but stopped when he felt her hand on his arm. “Can you… stay with me? Please?”
Lyk didn’t hesitate. He turned back, nodding, then settled her onto the bed. She looked up at him, and he thought he’d never seen anything more lovely in his life.
“Hold me? Just for a while?”
He’d been desperate for her to ask him to touch her ever since the moment he first laid eyes on her. Lyk climbed into bed behind her, then pulled her back into his chest and into the circle of his arms. She laid her head against his arm, and in that moment, he knew he’d never be the same.
She fit him so perfectly, as if she were made just for him. Ally was like no one he’d ever met. She was unforgettable, irreplaceable.
Perfect.
This close, he could smell her skin, the scent fresh with an underlying sweetness. It took every ounce of his self-control not to get hard.The last thing she needs right now is to feel my swollen cock pressing into her back.
Still, it was no mean feat. He wanted her like he’d never wanted a woman before.
She turned over, and suddenly, they were face to face. “Will they hurt my sister?” she asked, her big eyes seeming to stare into his soul.
All Lyk knew of the demons was what he’d heard from his sister. They had terrible powers, and the creature they worked for was reputed to be ten thousand times more terrifying. Still, Evie wasn’t the first prisoner taken to Dazimin. Both Midnight and Juston, and Tess and Pennzinn had been able to escape the hell planet and best the prince and his minions.
“I can’t say for certain what will happen, but I can tell you that others have survived the ordeal and lived to tell of it.”
“Who?”
Lyk told her what he knew of Midnight and Tess and their time on Dazimin. His tale was light on details and heavy on the overarching fact that both had returned home safely.
“If your brothers have already managed to get two people off of Dazimin, then why can’t we?” Her tone was hopeful, and Lyk kicked himself for having opened this can of worms.
“They aren’t exactly ‘people.’ Midnight is a demon herself, and the prince only let her go because he was counting on her to betray the Vartiks and the Guardians. But she double-crossed him, coming over to the side of the Light.”
He pushed an errant lock of hair behind her ear. “Tess is a Guardian, and a pretty powerful one. She used her powers to bring down the Crown Prince’s palace around his ears, then collapsed his own ship on him while he was inside it.”
“You have powers too,” Ally said, putting a finger against his chest and slowly tracing her way lower. “You could use your powers to help me get Evie out.”
“We Vartiks have powers, it’s true, but nothing on the level of the Guardians or the Seekers. And I’m certainly no match for the Crown Prince himself.”
“If your family has so many powerful friends, maybe we can get them to help us. They seem like nice people.”
That finger kept creeping lower at a snail’s pace, distracting him. “I haven’t been back to the Vartik home world since I left it. I’m not exactly on good terms with the rest of the Vartik royal family.”
Ally frowned. “You seem very close to your sister.”
He nodded. “I am, but she’s the only one I still keep in contact with. My brothers never speak my name, according to Kara.”
“What happened?” Her voice was soft. Her finger had stopped its descent, and she now placed her hand against his chest, over his heart. It beat harder at her nearness.
Lyk had never opened up to anyone about his departure from Vartik. It was no easy decision to turn his back on his family. Dredging up the past never seemed like a good idea to him.
But Ally was the woman he wanted to claim as his mate. If he intended to keep her forever, then she would find out all of hissecrets sooner or later. Maybe this was a way to engender trust, to build on the fragile foundations he’d managed to lay so far.
“It’s complicated,” he said on a sigh. “But then, isn’t it always?”
She looked up at him, silent, her eyes encouraging him to go on. Those eyes burned into him until they were all he could see. They were golden in this light, like twin gold rings circling a field of black.
“The Vartik royal line is an ancient and storied one. My brothers and I are from the strongest stock our planet has to offer. Along with that strength comes stubbornness. I inherited untold generations of that stubbornness and a streak of independence that seems particularly prevalent among my siblings.”
Lyk buried his hand in her hair, unable to refrain from touching her. She got under his skin, made him able to talk about things that he hadn’t even considered in ages. But once he started, he realized that it felt good to finally unburden himself to someone, especially her.
“We Vartik are raised to do our duty above all things, and that duty can be heavy. We have different roles, ways of using our talents in service of the state. Some rule. Some plan. Some build. Some kill.”
