He was not going to give in to the rush of heat, the need riding him harder than he had ever imagined possible. He didn’t need. He didn’t crave. Never had he allowed himself such sentiments, not after the slaughter of his family by his father. Except earlier with her, he’d had a sublime fleeting moment of stolen kisses and petting. But that was not enough to abate the emptiness yawning like a tremendous endless hole threatening to swallow him whole. What would it be like…to taste, to indulge, to take a woman after so long.
And not just any woman…her.
7
Her hair was seized in brutal hands arching her neck at a painful angle. Shilah flared out her powers brushing lightly against his mind and recoiled, slamming up her mental shield. Never had she encountered such malignancy and venom before and she had only scanned the surface of his aura. Everything about him was different. The sleek contours of his muscles now bunched, still supple but more intense. His beautiful tawny eyes now had the cast of a serpent’s. The edges were golden, but the inner ring of his eyes, elliptical in shape had seven different colors. She had never seen eyes so beautiful and strange, and it seemed as if he had some sort of coating over them that had been absent before.
His hands tightened sinking claws deep and letting blood.
She could feel the rapid thud of her heart, pounding like a war drum. “Release me,” she said and pushing the command to his mind with all her waning strength.
“Silence.”
His voice throbbed with violent power, deep and absolutely petrifying. He would kill her, she saw it in his eyes, and even as an Imperial she was defenseless against him. Death at the hands of a Darkan would not be easy. They savored pain and agony, prolonging the death of their prey so they could feed on that dark negative energy. She was in for a long and painful death. She punched hard and deep with her telepathic powers, breathing raggedly through the pain of the violent emotions that were a part of him.
“Release me now!”
His hot breath washed across her face as he leaned in closer and she tightened her eyes more. Then he smelled her…again. His hands dropped from her throat as if the hottest fire had burned him. His head canted left as he stared at her, seemingly fascinated by her.
She stumbled, pressing against the iron wall. “I am sorry I shattered your barriers,” she said her heart beating so painfully. “I did not know…. I…I did not know.” Her throat burned to recall Lachlan’s roar of pain and denial as the malevolence of his demon’s chakra had burned through him.
“You freed me,” he said, his voice a rumble of power and darkness and satisfaction.
She blinked at that unexpected admission, confusion bursting in her heart. “You are not angry.” And instinctively she knew it was the darkness within him that was pleased.
Lachlan smiled, a barely-there movement of his lips, and for a timeless instant, she forgot to breathe. How could anyone seem so deadly but so sensual? Unfortunately, nothing about that small smile rendered him approachable, he reeked of brutality. He took up the entire space, the very air, with his power and remorseless energy.
Those soulless eyes settled on her face. “You taunt me to madness with your scent. You need to leave.”
“Perhaps it escaped your notice, but I am trapped in a cage,” she whispered furiously, not sure why she had lowered her voice or where she got the will to be snarky. But how she loathed the terror in her heart.
He leaned in again as if he could not help himself and inhaled her deep into his lungs as if he wanted to trap her scent. Though her mind was not connected with his, she could feel the monster in him stretch and roar. Something had irrevocably changed within him and how uncomfortable it was that he could not stop smelling her. Her heart leaped, stuttered, and then began to pound. Survival instincts shrieked at her to pull away, but she stood her ground. He appeared like a wild animal gathering itself for a strike. He tugged her body as close to his as possible, fitting his larger frame around hers almost protectively. She peered up at him in confusion. What is happening?
He smelled her again.
“Stop doing that,” she snapped, hating that her voice trembled.
He ran the tip of a clawed finger down her cheek before lowering his hand. Her stomach did an alarming flip even as confusion bubbled inside her. Not that she wasn’t grateful the Darkan was not ripping out her insides and feasting on her blood. The fact he stared at her as if enthralled as if awed by her was nerve-wracking. Shilah wetted her lips, and his eyes followed the movement.
He reached for her once again, and she tracked that clawed finger, bracing for his attack. He cupped her cheeks, and her eyes widened. Shilah’s wits scattered in all directions. His touch was soft yet absolute in its possessiveness. Her head pounded, and her skin itched and felt too tight for her body. Energy leaped between them, fierce and passionate, dark, and mesmerizing. Shilah laughed, then sobered instantly sensing she was on the verge of hysteria. What was happening?
“Mine.”
The words were like a solid blow to the center of her chest, and her resolve to be brave. Shilah stared at him in acute shock. Had she truly just heard him in her mind? It could not be. Darkans were not telepaths, and the thread he used was unfamiliar...strange and far too intimate.
“You are under my skin, and I’ve no idea how you’ve gotten there. I want to do things to you…”
That dark rumble in her mind, along a pathway she’d never accessed before shocked her into absolute stillness. The words themselves made no sense. Her heart was beating loudly, a hard, steady rhythm. “Did…did you say something?”
“You are mine.”
A tremble worked its way through her body, and a fear burned through her.
“Do not fear me little one, my life, my crown, and everything I am is yours. To harm you is to destroy myself.”
“You have a crown?” she croaked unable to process anything else.
I see upon your head a crown of snakes and thorns. She slapped her hands together, flaring her power and slamming up her barriers, blocking all possible telepathic pathways.