Page 32 of Ashborne: Defiance

‘—while I am forced to listen to you shatter your own mind to avoid facing the truth of your past.’

I spat a curse and shook my head. ‘Don’t!’

‘I am not your enemy, Voski.’

‘Then do as I say and enjoy your mate and shut me out. We’ll be over this in days. Her heat won’t last more than five days… right?’

I mentally begged him to tell me it would be less than that. A female dragonfury’s heat could last anywhere from four to seven days, though it tended to ease as the days wore on.

We were already more than a day into this. I could endure just a few more.

‘And what would you gain?’ Kham asked, shocked. ‘What would be added to you that outweighs the beauty and blessing of a divinely appointed mate?’

I scowled. But then a high, piercing blast sounded and my heart sank.

She was awake. Kham’s mate, Koa, was awake. Which meant, they’d return to their union—

Kham groaned, and his call echoed over the misty forest. He would take her again. I gritted my teeth and braced for the onslaught as his body began to respond to her warming scent, and his arousal and joy leaped in my chest.

A strangled cry broke in my throat as my belly clenched, and my body went taut.

God, would this never end?

‘You can end it in moments. She’s moments from you—’ Kham panted in the link as he crooned to his mate and drew his snout, nostrils flaring, from her shoulder, along her neck, his body quivering with the intensity of his desire, and heart swollen with love and admiration for the female that was made for him—

I did everything I could to shut him out of my head, to dampen the link—just to ease the drive. But I was weak. Exhausted. I had nothing left. And his want could burn stone.

He let me see and feel every last spark.

‘Kham… stop. Please.’

‘She is made for you. Designed for you. She is your One, and you would deny her?’

With a roar that shook the forest and sent me to my knees once more, Kham reared over his mate and took her, the two of them twining necks and tails, becoming one as God intended. And he let me see and feel every prickling, delicious sensation and—

I gulped at the air, heedless of anything but the sensations coursing through me—the unsated heat, the shriek of a soul left hollow, the aching space in my chest, the jangling pain in my belly because I’d denied my body the satisfaction and release it yearned for. The pressure in my head was so intense, my skull ached, pulsing in time with my heartbeat.

When he thrust into her, my vision blurred, and for a moment I feared I’d actually damaged myself in the fight to resist—until I heard the pat-pat-pat… and to my horror and embarrassment, realized there were tears falling from my eyes, dripping from my cheeks.

I hadn’t cried since I was twelve.

What the fuck is she doing to me? How the hell am I supposed to—

‘Your sentence is self-induced,’ Kham growled, his voice a strange mingling of anticipated satisfaction, eagerness for his mate, and disapproval of me. ‘Soldier you may be—man you cannot claim if you would deflect blame to one weaker than you.’

Those strange cries kept coming. I coughed, and sobbed, and fought the bonds that were now so tight on my wrists, my hands went numb.

I couldn’t injure myself. I would still have a job to do when this was done.

As Kham reveled in his mate, I groaned with pure despair and tried to slam that door closed in my mind. But though the channel between us narrowed, and the sense of him was dampened a hair. It wasn’t enough. I had no strength left. I could still feel him. Still sense him. Still hear him if I let myself.

But I wouldn’t let myself. I couldn’t.

‘You can.’

‘I can’t, Kham. Please… you know… don’t ask me to—’

‘The Creator brought you a female. The female. Your One. And you would abandon her to another?’