22
Cheek pressed to lavish heat, Renegade indulged in the rumbling savagery of an Anhur purr. The gravely seduction she could no longer resist. Soaking up every precious note, each sound sung for her comfort, she hummed in tune with that perfect melody. Her mate crooning in such a way that she’d gone utterly boneless in his arms, liquid and pliant as the virus ravaged her insides.
Able to do little else but breathe.
And listen.
“Omega,” he cooed, and took her fingers between his lips. Pulled them past his teeth where he laved those fragile digits. Tasting. Suckling as he uttered more of that hypnotic drone, he sent the vibration through muscle and sinew.
“Mmmm…” Blinking, she rattled and stretched. Her fingers plucked free with a succulent pop, she traced the bow of full lips. Watching as he kissed each knuckle, unblinking.
He pulled the fall of midnight hair over her shoulder. Careful claws dragging along her flesh, before he tucked his chin and pressed his lips between her brows. Eyes gleaming with golden heat, he caught her chin and said, “No other will give what I have given you.”
As if awoken by the subtle reminder of what he’d planted within, her very core began to tremble.
The killing fever.
Spreading on the edge of a slicing wave of panic.
“Giaus,” she mewled, twisting, her back arched as she searched for a sip of air not humid with the scent of infection. Swallowing tacky spit, her tongue swollen and thick with thirst. Forehead damp with precious, wasted moisture, she gasped. Tried to shake him off as a cold wave of nausea settled over her with a cold slap. “Giaus,” she said again, the name rasped over broken glass and dry winds. Mangled by the Trax, she whined through chattering teeth. “I’m so…thirsty.It hurts…”
He nodded. Redoubled his purr, and watched as her eyes rolled back. “You are equal to this suffering.”
Molten heat shot through her veins, and she preened when he stroked her from nape to hip. Arched into his palm and let him scratch behind the shell of both ears. His claws buried in the tangled mess of her hair where he worked at her scalp.
Leaking where she ached, Renegade gasped, lips working against salty skin. Her tongue tracing the dip and swell of a ragged scar on his chest. “Please,” she rasped, and let her knees fall apart.
Needy.
Hurting.
So thirsty…
Giaus shifted, spreading her ass with the arm that supported her back so he might set his fingers to play at her weeping gate. Squelching in the slow trickle of fluids, his breath thrummed against her cheeks. Felt in the tiny space behind her eyelids, she was held in thrall to the raspy, hypnotic hum. “Tell me,” he said, and fed her two hooked fingers. Drawing a patient circle around the base of her clit with the pad of his thumb. “What does my vicious warrior need of her mate?”
It was a simple question, but one that drew a ragged sob from her lips. One she’d never been asked before. Not by Hathorian or Anhur.
And so despite her thirst, she said, “You,” as she watched him through the sparkle of unshed tears. Winding her fingers into the tangled mess of his knotted mane, she clung to a beast who snarled as he devoured all her little sounds.
Blissful agony.
It rippled through Renegade’s body. Starting from the tingling ache in her over-worked pussy, creeping out. To every soiled centimeter she’d never known to think about. Wanted and abhorred all at once, for her spine twisted against the over stimulation. Arousal drooling around Giaus’ fingers while the killing fever wound through her blood and bone.
Remaking what she’d been into what she’d become.
“Don’t—” Her breath caught, abs flexing as she tried to curl around the pressure building between her legs. A slow curve in, she hunched, inching closer to his heat, and said, “Don’t…don’t stop…”
Glaring, intrusive light splashed into their intimate dark.
With a throaty snarl, Giaus was on his feet. His arms wrapped around her ribs and under her thighs.
The comfort of his purr wrenched away, replaced by pure, unfiltered menace that bled from his chest directly into hers. Linked to a mate who couldn’t feel her confusion, who issued a low, possessive growl and didn’t see when her ears flicked back and her teeth flashed in the dark.
A perfect mirror for all that seething Anhur fury, both of them scowling up.
Territorial rage clouded his vision and hers, and Renegade’s nape grew tight with a warning she couldn’t broadcast without an emotive mane. Her every muscle wound tighter with each passing second, each insult traded from above.
Fighting between brothers.
