Sinadim did not need a second invitation.
Surging into the nest, he fell to his knees. Scooping both hands over Renegade’s thighs, palms traveling up until his hands and claws anchored where her ribs tucked neatly in.
“Roll,” he barked, and took himself in hand. Greedy in the way he took in her every inch of naked flesh. Pumping his shaft and pulling yet another laced breath through his teeth, so he might taste her in the way only he and Giaus could.
Dainty hands found a place on either side of his bellybutton. Thumbs sweeping up and around, she slowed his frantic pace without bothering to speak a word. Lifting a single brow, she let her knees fall apart.
And smiled through her denial.
Helpless but to obey, his eye fell to what lay between.
“By the Nine,” he rasped and swallowed,hard. Marveling at the sight. Mouth watering as frilled, glistening petals spread for his pleasure, glimmering in the shadows where he could only just see them.
Torches were a fine idea. Crucial, even, for their continued survival. He’d have them struck, mounted, and lit before the hour was out, even if he had to do it himself.
Just so he could sit and marvel at all that was golden and precious.
Slick.
His to do with as he pleased.
A tap that would never run dry. Her season never-ending, she alone could replace his harem of hundreds—andgive herself to Giaus without running herself aground.
He’d seen it too many times, through the opposite lens. What the skin traders did to force Hathorian females to accommodate their Anhur mates. Forced to breed, they’d take any who appeared between their legs and begged until their voices grew weak and brittle.
Squeezing his eyes shut, claws threatening to shred his palms, he shuddered. Frothing hatred threatened to bubble up, torrid memories working to shatter his tightly held composure. Breath frozen in his lungs, he sealed his lips and tried to forget the dreadful dead littering his past. Scarcely able to look upon her face for all it evoked… But neither could he look away.
He was tormented by the past, engaged to the future and whatever it might hold.
“Do you hate me that deeply?”
The question made him lurch. Eyes snapping open, he stared at down at her and looked at the creature he’d traded everything just to touch.
Hate her?
Hateher?
Sweating, Sinadim pulled a breath between his lips, painted the little idiot’s scent along the roof of his mouth and in an instant, he was consumed. Thrown fully into that divine Sight, he took one slender thigh in trembling, clawed fingers, and draped it over his shoulder. Diving between her legs, where she wept for his attention, that of hermate, he tasted what had been denied him for too long.
Color exploded all around him. Bringing shadows to life, he groaned deep in his chest. The sound pulled up from the very bottom of his being. A place he’d thought long buried was exposed to the expanse of inky dark pupils blown wide and ringed in gold. Cracked open so she could feel every twisted, horrific ounce of him while he worshipped and showed her what he hid in the dark.
Her breath caught. Stuttered as he made a lurid sweep of delicate petals. Teased with his teeth and lips.
Icy flames shivered through his blood. Leaving his mane standing on end, his lower back bunched where his tail had been and wasn’t. He let his tongue flick back so he might drink her as deep as he could. Losing himself to the rut, knowing that too she was helpless beneath him. Willing… eager.
That shefelthim, as no other might.
Everything he couldn’t possibly name. All of it, hers.
“Yesss,” she hissed, and trapped him there between her thighs. Heels locked behind his neck, her fingers twisting at his temples. Holding him in place as she positioned him exactly where she needed. Taking, as only a queen might, she fed him every drop of that creamy want.
He drank. Eager for the rush of the taboo, that he should want this one female to such a degree.
His precious mate.
Sinadim glanced up and saw the silver ends of scars marking her inner elbow.
Scars that matched, lining up with the mirrored defects that had obliterated his face and ruined his eye.
