“You make it sound overly simple,” I argued weakly.
“Because it is,” he replied. “I claim you as my woman. Do you challenge that claim?”
I blinked, taken aback by the almost solemn fashion in which he spoke those words. The most disturbing part was how badly my tongue burned for me to scream yes.
“Are you mine?” Lyall insisted when I failed to answer.
“Areyoumine?” I challenged with a frown at his possessive tone.
“Of course, I’m yours,” he replied as if it was silly for me to even question it.
To my undying shame, my toes instantly curled, and I found myself melting even more against him as my own wave of possessiveness surged within me.
“Then yes, Lyall. I am yours.”
My stomach did a backflip when an almost feral smile mixed with something I couldn’t quite define settled on his lips. The claw of his index finger extruded as his right hand slipped down to my neck, seconds before he froze.
“What is it?” I asked when a troubled expression flitted over his beautiful face. And then it hit me. “You wanted confirmation of my thoughts by tasting my blood?”
His grayish blue skin darkened, and he lowered his gaze, guilt and embarrassment plastered all over his face.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled.
I stared at him for a second before giving him an indulgent smile. “I should be offended, but I will give you a pass this time. Go ahead.”
He immediately shook his head and pulled his hand away from me. “No. That’s not necessary.”
“I insist,” I said firmly.
He opened his mouth to argue, but whatever look he saw on my face silenced him. I didn’t know why I wanted to give him this confirmation even though one could perceive it as a lack of trust. However, I understood at a visceral level that the issue didn’t lie with me. This powerful male—a freaking demigod at that—actually hid a lack of self-confidence behind a mask of cockiness and ruthlessness.
Still reluctant, Lyall complied. He pricked my neck with his claw and brought his index finger to his lips before licking the drop of blood that clung to it. To my shock, his vertical pupils dilated, becoming almost fully round while the red hue of his eyes shifted to the most beautiful shade of purple. The pale streaks under his skin lightly glowed, and for a split second, I could have sworn the ghostly shape of a luminous set of wings hovered behind him. But the air of pure adoration on his face reclaimed all my attention.
I didn’t know what that drop of blood had revealed to him, but it blew me away how deeply it moved him. Any reservation I might still have had regarding this faded away.
“My mate,” Lyall whispered before reclaiming my mouth in a passionate kiss.
The air seemed to shift around us, as if charged with electric particles that made my skin tingle. It was brief but powerful enough for me to realize that something had just happened. But my man’s hands all over me wiped those thoughts out of my mind. Our tongues mingling, I let him carry me back to our room, all thoughts of our meal forgotten.
Chapter 9
Lyall
As we flew around the eighteenth forest of Willow Grove in search of the location from the vision, I couldn’t help but smile at my total absence of true frustration. I wasn’t exactly known for being particularly patient. But hunting for it alongside my woman made it fun. I really wanted to help her. Whatever it took, I would see to it that Eleni successfully completed her mission. It saddened me that it potentially wouldn’t help free my brother from his own curse, but I refused to lose all hope on that front.
It was pathetic how much I wanted to please my mate. However, how could I not bask in her genuine gratitude and appreciation for my assistance? It had become quite an addiction. The shamefully needy part of me still couldn’t reconcile the fact that Eleni truly wanted me. In fact, her affection was already so strong that the mate bond formed between us. It wasn’t the complete one that would bestow upon her a series of phenomenal physiological and magical benefits, but it allowed me to ignore the Covenant.
Gods, Ancients, and demigods like me couldn’t grant the full extent of our help or assistance to mortals unless we shared specific bonds with them. And even then, blood ties had certain restrictions. The only person we were fully allowed to protect was our mate. If that meant killing a mortal or changing the path of Fate, so be it. On the other hand, without that bond, should things ahead suddenly get dicey, I wouldn’t have been able to intervene beyond certain limits before the Covenant struck me with such debilitating pain that whatever destiny awaited my mate would have come to pass.
I stole a glance at my woman, once more annoyed by my Gharlakan form’s absence of eyes. I wanted to revel in her beauty, which I couldn’t do with the monochromatic image of my environment created by my echolocation. Still, I silently thanked the Weaver for sending me to her.
Eleni was perfect in every way. Nothing about me distressed or grossed her out—not even when I ate the demons’ hearts. I couldn’t wait for this mission to be over so that we could spend a little bit of stress-free bonding time. I wanted her as madly in love with me as I was irrevocably falling in love with her. Too bad she couldn’t read my deepest personality through blood like I was able to do with her.
Maybe it’s in fact a good thing...
I snorted in self-derision. Maybe it was indeed a good thing that, even with the extended life span I would give her once we fully bonded, Eleni would never get to fully know me. I even disturbed myself at times.
That said, as much as I enjoyed my time by her side, I was starting to grow concerned about our inability to find the right location. We were only two days away from the new moon now, and still nothing. We left the current forest and headed for the next closest swampy area. It was a twenty-minute flight duringwhich my woman’s own worry became steadily more obvious in both her facial expression and body language.
