I heard his rough growl, felt an unmistakable throb between my thighs.
“Fuck,” came his disbelieving curse,finallyreleasing his fangs from my neck as his wings twitched and shuddered against the wall. His nipping bites trailed around the marks he’d made, deep groans filling the little space between us as the violent winds continued to howl outside.
His arm moved. He pressed the pads of his fingers to his fang, catching venom but not breaking his skin. When he spread it against my flesh, I shuddered. It was the venom, I knew, that caused such a strong, physical reaction inside me as he fed. Only his venom.
“I thought myself immune to such things,” he murmured, his voice relaxed and deep despite the bulging strength and tension I felt in his body. “But I quite like seeing my mark on you.”
He didn’t heal the skin, only stopped the bleeding. I would have twin fang marks in my neck for days. Our eyes met and held. I felt a flush starting to spread up the sides of my neck, a giddy shyness that felt new and unwelcome. I didn’t want our odd friendship to change because of this. But I didn’t see how it couldn’t. Not now.
Looking down between us, my flush only deepened when I saw a wet patch spreading against his too-tight trews.
“I can’t find it in me to be embarrassed,” came his amused comment when he saw where my gaze had dropped.
I sighed. Kythel didn’t seem worried about what had just happened, and so I told myself torelax. This was a natural response between blood mates. It would happen every single time. So there was no use working myself up about it.
“Let’s not overthink it,” Kythel murmured, seeming to read my thoughts. “Yes?”
“Yes,” I replied, attempting to slide off him, only to be held in place by the bracket of his arms. They came around my hips, tethering me to him, so I didn’t fight it. Still, I couldn’t help but tease, “You get awfully clingy after an orgasm, you know.”
His deep laugh felt like a warm caress. I savored it, found myself smiling in return.
His eyes weren’t blue anymore. They were flooded with black. Peering at him, studying his tightened clothing, I began to unclasp his vest. It couldn’t be comfortable.
Kythel seemed content to watch me as I worked the silver catches, one by one. I felt his cock pulse under me, but I ignored it.
“How does it feel?” I wondered. “Do you feel like it’d be easy to go into a rage right now?”
We’d beaten around the bush, as the old saying went, but we both knew what this was. We both knew the physical effects akyranabond would have on him.
“Yes,” he confessed. “And no. It’s like the moon winds. I feel like I’m on the brink of it, and yet I could trigger it at will too. For the first time in my life, I feel like I have full control. It’s…addicting.”
I’d never seen a Kylorr in one of their infamous berserker rages. Only through paintings and sculptures in the archives and through my own research throughout the years.
I nodded. “I never knew that a human could be akyrana.”
There it was. The word—out in the open, between us. To his credit, Kythel didn’t so much as flinch, though his jaw did tick.
“My brother’skyranais human,” Kythel admitted softly. “It happens.”
“She is?” I asked, incredulous. At his nod—though he didn’t elaborate on his words—I blew out a sharp, surprised breath. “My father was half-human, but I suppose…I just always assumed that it was the Kylorr in him that bonded to Ruaala.”
“So they were blood mates?” Kythel asked after a brief moment. “I had wondered.”
I nodded. “That’s what he told me. Why he could never forget her.”
Kytheldidstiffen at that, and I realized what I’d said. Implying thatwewould never be able to forget one another. Maybe that would hold true.
Outside the winds battered at the door, but I wasn’t frightened anymore. I felt safe in Kythel’s arms. I wasn’t even worried about the cottage blowing off its foundation, as if his mere presence wouldn’t allow that.
“Do you know where Ruaala’s soul gem is?” I asked. “Which shrine? Is it here in Erzos?”
I’d checked them all but hadn’t found a trace of her in the records.
“Is that why you’re doing this?” he asked. “Why you’re trying to rebuild this cottage? Why it was so important to reclaim your father’s body from Horrin and bring him back to Krynn? Because of the soul gems? Because of Alara?”
Alara was the after realm. Where they would meet again in the afterlife. Where I would see my own father again, should the gods and goddesses accept my soul here on Krynn.
“Of course,” I said. “They couldn’t be with one another in this realm. I promised him that I would do everything in my power to bring them together in the next.”
