Avery gasped at Kinlon’s quick movements.
The man released his essence in a violent eruption of binding weeds and thorns. Savine shielded Avery from the blast with his own essence, but it was Raikin who was finished with this conversation.
Kinlon writhed on the ground, a sticky sap covering his face.
Savine moved across the room, wrapping Avery’s arms around him. Protect her. He must keep her safe from harm. The mantra chanted through his brain as he pulled her closer.
Avery tucked her face into Savine’s chest. She let out a gasp as she buried her face from the scene before them. Savine didn’t want this man to die, not yet. He still needed more information out of him. He signaled to Raikin that it was enough. Raikin began pulling back his essence, controlling the sap as it slid off Kinlon and onto the wood floor.
“Can we get out of here?” Avery asked. Savine nodded.
“I’m finished with him today. Bring him to the prison and see what information you can gain from him,” Savine said as he took Avery’s hand and led her toward the door.
“Of course, My King,” Raikin replied.
The fresh breeze off the mountains met them and Savine breathed in deeply. He could feel the bond bucking between them, his need to get Avery to safety becoming too much for him to stand.
“Please explain what that was about,” she muttered as they walked through the hallway. She was leading them up, either to his father’s or mother’s former chambers. He followed blindly while the need to protect her, to consume her, coursed through him. Savine needed to get her back to their rooms and make her his again. The bond demanded it, forced him to claim her.
Always his desire to fill her, bury himself in her wasn’t far away. But this? When that threat happened, he felt himself become obsessed with the need to claim her as his own true mate again and again. He hadn’t expected this from the soulmate bond. Nobody had warned him, but then again, he’d spent so long avoiding any conversation about soulmates that maybe he only had himself to blame.
His voice came out low and rough as he said, “That man, Kinlon, has been through the portal to your world and back.”
Avery stopped walking and looked up at Savine. “He has a way to return?”
Savine closed the space between them, pressing himself into her, needing to feel her, to taste her. “Yes, but I don’t know what it is yet. That’s why I cannot let Raikin kill him at this point. We need more information. But for now, it’s enough.”
He looked down at her, the bond between them growing taut as he sent his desire down the connection. “You know what seeing someone threaten you does to me,” he said, voice full of suppressed desire.
Avery smiled. “You know I like it when you get possessive and obsessive. I was bringing you up to Kyla and Garnel’s rooms, but we could make a quick stop in our rooms first.”
“Quick? I have no intention of being quick,” Savine said with a half grin.
“Quick is a relative term.” Avery pressed her hand to his hardening cock. He let out a gasp as the heel of her hand rubbed against him, applying just the right amount of pressure. Sweet goddess, he needed Avery’s touch. Avery continued to rub her hand against the leather of his pants, making the bulge of his erection push uncomfortably against the ties.
“Avery, not here,” he rasped. She looked up at him with a hint of mischief. Cruel, torturous witch. He wasn’t about to spend his seed in his leathers in the middle of the outdoor hall.
Chapter 32
Savine
Astifled cough behind them brought Savine’s attention to someone approaching. Dear Goddess, no. It was Darby. The woman was practically a mother to him.
“My King, My Queen,” she said with a grin as she passed.
Avery let out a giggle as Savine grabbed her by the waist, hauling her over his shoulders. She shrieked and laughed with surprise as he began carrying her back toward their rooms.
“Scream all you’d like, Ave. I’m happy to haveeveryoneknow not to interrupt us.”
“We should make as much noise as all those mates you had to listen to for decades.”
“A bit of payback does seem to be in order,” Savine said as he carried his mate through the interconnecting halls and stairs, his erection tenting his pants for all who passed to see.
Savine pushed their door open and latched it behind them. He brought Avery over to the fur-lined bed and set her down. Her long golden hair was tied back with a bit of leather and her body had that glow to it that she always had after she finished running with Kyla and Rue. Fuck, she was beautiful. She looked up at him with a hunger that threatened to devour him.
Reaching down to her old hiking boots, Savine undid the laces, tossing them to the floor.
“Take my shirt off,” she demanded. She raised her hands up and Savine pulled the shirt off her. The binding around her breasts was next as he lifted the tight fabric up over her head, releasing her small, firm breasts.
