He blinked…
… and couldn’t lift his lids again.
24
She’d been quiet for a time.
Docile and still, while Giaus’ purr flooded her senses and rendered her pliant. A drugging eloquence rife with a power he now understood. Knew what it was to be made helpless to the whims of another, to be broken down and made to watch, as if from very far away. Enthralled deeply enough that nothing else mattered. Not the pain of injury or the threat of loss.
There was only the next rumbling breath.
It was a tool, one he’d used to force Renegade through the worst of her feverish thrashing. The mewling, hiccupping pleading for something she couldn’t name.
He purred when she kicked. Crooned when she shivered and moaned. Sang until his voice grew ragged and thin, the fire burning too low to keep her sedated much longer.
Time was running short.
But he hadn’t slept.
And the only meager sip of liquid Giaus been able to procure had been forher.
Too salty and not nearly enough.
Not after what he’d done to defend his mate… the sordid depths he’d had to stoop to, just to keep her alive until he had the strength to escape.
To allow the other to live…
… to touch and quench.
Burning amber eyes flicked up and landed on the third occupant of this primitive prison.
Sinadim.
Skin blotchy and bruised, open wounds and abrasions speckling almost every visible stretch of skin, the other male had lost his battle with gravity. Slid closer while he’d been lost to the rest of the senseless, he was now crumpled against the wall next to Giaus’ hip. Thigh to thigh, head lolling where it was cricked off to the right. Renegade’s tiny feet tucked behind Sinadim’s folded knees.
Entangled.
A possessive growl rumbled low at the back of Giaus’ throat.
And for a moment, as he held a limp female close to the dry rattle in his chest, Giaus considered the many ways Anhur meat could be put to a better use. Here, in a place where not one of their wardens had thought to feed or water prisoners who couldn’t go much longer without. But as he sat there, glaring, the flash of jealous rage faded as quickly as it had flared to life. Forced to consider the advice from a male who’d tasted what should have cost his life to know.
The warnings that they were linked, all three.
Bound together by a tiny female it seemed none of them could hold.
Not even him.
At least… not by himself.
An insidious whisper Giaus wouldn’t have believed, if he hadn’t seen her reaction to his wounds with his own eyes. If he hadn’t used it against her, only hours before. The pain he felt left scrawled across her flawless brow, her fingers clutching at her side as if the spear had found an anchor between her ribs too.
But she’d claimed a second mate.
Taken on the burden of yet more slicing agony for the sake of an insufferable, spoiled prick who didn’t deserve salvation. One who’d made threats grave enough to save his own life. Who’d teased at the depths of his knowledge in such a way that doused the urge to wreak havoc and spill blood, and earned him a respite.
Promising that without her, neither male would last three days. They’d fall to an everlasting rut that would end in unimaginable agony.
Giaus scowled at the other. Lips curled back, his scratchy purr became a hoarse growl.
