Dakotah's Reading

CHAPTER 8

Fane’s eyes widened slightly. “And if he is foolish enough to choose a challenge? Or those around him make the choice for him?”

“I’m taking Dakotah to the house Matteo rented for his claiming of Sarael.”

Fane nodded. “Cable, Kiziah and I will return to Kenton as well. There are more than enough dhampirs and vampires still in the area should their presence become necessary.”

“What does it mean, a blood pledge or a challenge?” Dakotah asked.

Fane’s gaze shifted to her. “A challenge is a fight to the death. Domino in your place against your enemy. Wolf against wolf. Or man against man.”

“And the other?”

“A blood pledge in this case means the wolves guarantee that Victor Hale will no longer hunt or have you hunted. It is a promise made with the lives of every member of his pack—along with any related to them who are in the generation before or after—put up as collateral. If the pledge is broken, then we will call their debt and exact retribution.”

Horror washed through Dakotah. “So the innocent die with the guilty?”

Fane shrugged. “For the most part we leave each other alone, but when their business interferes with ours, we are the masters. We’re alive long after they become dust and ash underneath our feet. Over the centuries they have learned to police their own or we will do it for them.”

Dakotah shivered, unable to pull her eyes away from Fane as she remembered the times they’d joked when he and Cable hung around the carnival. It had been an easy camaraderie, though she’d sensed he wasn’t an enemy she’d want. But now, looking at him, hearing his words, she realized just how ruthless, how alien he was.

Her gaze moved to Domino, who was watching her intently, whose expression gave away nothing, who had the power to take her mind if he desired. She should be terrified of him, but instead her secret heart, the place that still harbored forgotten dreams of happy-ever-after, of a prince charming who would rescue her and take her to safety, kept her fear at bay, just as it had the last time they were in the woods with the body of her enemy nearby.

He was a dark, alien prince. And she was capable of rescuing herself.

Their lives could just as easily be a nightmare as a fairytale.

But she trusted him. With her life.

And that realization did scare her.

“Let’s get out of here,” she said, afraid that if too much more time passed, doubts and panic would rush in and push her into running.

Domino took her arm as though sensing how close she was to bolting. “We will stop by the house here in Ashberg so Dakotah can get cleaned up. Cable and Kiziah are there?”

Fane grinned. “I will call ahead and send them back to Kenton, in case you and Dakotah want to linger long enough to enjoy the fireplace as we did last night.”

And after she’d taken a shower and gotten dressed, that’s where Dakotah found Domino, standing next to the fireplace, its heat filling the room, its flames reflecting off him. He took a swallow from a wine glass and set it on the mantel. She wrinkled her nose at the smell of the pungent herbs mixed with wine. Even from across the room, the odor offended her, burning her nostrils as she moved to stand opposite him. “What’s that?” she asked, tilting her head toward the glass.

“Something to keep The Hunger at bay.” His eyes darkened and his face tightened as his gaze slid over her, the scent of arousal joining the mix of wine and herbs. “Though it does nothing for The Heat.”

Dakotah reached for the glass, grimacing as she brought it closer to her mouth. He smiled slightly but didn’t stop her from taking a sip, though in truth, she barely wet her lips before putting the glass back down on the mantel. “What happens if you don’t drink it?”

“Eventually the whisper of The Hunger becomes a temptation and a command that can’t be ignored. Then we kill. And are declared rogue and hunted depending on the circumstances and whether or not rehabilitation is possible.” He reached over and cupped her face, stroked her mouth with his thumb. “Only the taking of a mate frees us from the necessity of using the herbs. The sharing and mixing of blood changes us so The Hunger is completely sated when we feed from our chosen one.”

Dakotah turned her face so that her lips rubbed against his palm. Her tongue darted out, tasting him. “Kiziah said you’re sexually bonded to me.”

His nostrils flared slightly and something primitive moved through his eyes. “I am.”

Dakotah had no desire to have sex with anyone else. The wolf bristled at the thought of it, and yet she could if she wanted to. “I’m not sexually bonded to you.”

“Yet.” His hand moved to her hair, his fingers grasped the dark strands, trapping her as he leaned in, stopping when his lips hovered over hers. “There is no escape, Dakotah, only the choice as to when the second and third exchanges are made.”

He closed the distance, covered her mouth with his. The strength of his hands, the hardness of his body, the fierceness of the need pouring off him all contrasting sharply with the gentleness of his kiss, the slow, seductive dance of his tongue against hers.

Her heart jerked and raced when his fangs extended, tempting her curiosity just as the smell of the herbs and wine had. He groaned when she traced the deadly canines with her tongue, pressed his lower body more tightly to hers so that she could feel the rigid length of his erection.

Of their own accord her hands went to the front of his shirt, trailed down the center of it, releasing the buttons one at a time, not stopping until she’d undone the sole button at the waistband of his jeans. “Dakotah,” he warned and she laughed softly.

It was exhilarating playing with him, dangerous. Like teasing a wolf.

But then she wasn’t afraid of wolves.

She unzipped him, catching his gasp in her mouth and his cock in her hand as she became the aggressor, as she rubbed her tongue against his and explored his straining shaft and heavy balls with her fingers.

He let her, though she knew he could easily take control. And she marveled at how much pleasure it gave her to command his body.

She’d dominated hundreds of men because it meant her continued survival. She’d controlled them. Reduced them to pleading and begging. Been the embodiment of their sexual fantasies. And it had left her cold. Compartmentalized. Wishing only to escape from the hell she found herself in.

But now she found herself in a sensual heaven. Where her blood burned and her body ached.

She knelt, pulling his jeans down with her, pausing to take off his shoes and socks before removing his pants and looking up his body. Marveling at his masculine beauty. He was firm muscle and hard male. Enthralling even without the pheromones of his kind.

The wolf quivered with joy and anticipation, the woman mimicked the movement, shivering, suddenly sorry she’d bothered dressing. The feel of her clothing was an irritation against her skin, a confining presence that needed to be shed.

She stood and stripped. Boldly meeting Domino’s gaze. Her breasts swelling and her nipples tightening as his eyes traveled over her body. His nostrils flaring and his lips parting.

She spread her legs when he got to the dark pubic hair, let him see her flushed, swollen cunt lips and the moisture that was gathered there. A wet, silent summons.

When he dropped to his knees, she buried her fingers in his hair and draped one thigh over his shoulder. Nearly howled with pleasure when his tongue went to her slit, his hungry bites and licks and sucks making her grind herself against his face.

The Heat roared through Domino. The taste of her arousal was almost as addicting as that of her blood.

He wanted to drive his fangs into her thigh, to mix pleasure with pain and find ecstasy. He wanted to consume her. To feast. To fuck. To claim.

But he forced himself to please her instead. To thrust his tongue deep into her channel then retreat to swirl it over her erect clit. To press his lips to her lower ones in an erotic kiss meant to capture then leave that nectar-covered flesh in order to suck on her engorged knob.

She fought the pleasure even as she writhed against him in order to gain more of it. The sound of his name in between her whimpers and deep-throated moans rewarding him and holding him in check.

She would beg for his bite. Beg for the second exchange of blood.

He wanted it to be her choice. He needed it to be her choice. The words he’d said in the woods had come from his heart. He wanted a mate with a mind of her own. With courage of her own.

Domino ate at her until her back bowed and she convulsed with orgasm, flooding his senses with her release. His cock bobbed in warning and only the tight fist of his hand around his penis kept him from spewing his seed across his own stomach. He groaned and looked up, his mouth still buried between her thighs, his lips and tongue pressed to her wet flesh.

The wildness he saw in her eyes rushed through him like a lightning bolt, stripping away the man and the wolf, so that only the vampire remained, a creature of Heat and Hunger.

“Bite me,” she said.

Domino turned his face into her thigh, knowing he was damning himself. But there was no way to ignore her command. No way to ignore the temptation she presented.

His fangs slid through her skin, hitting the artery there with easy accuracy. The hot rush of her blood intoxicating, an addiction he had no hope of curing. It fed The Hunger while The Heat drove him to slide his hand up and down his cock, to palm the head as his tongue lapped at her silky flesh, to resume pumping in time to the movement of his throat as he swallowed. Until Heat and Hunger once again merged, blending together into a single flame that burned with Dakotah’s name, danced in time to her heartbeat. Thundering, racing, spiking with orgasm as jets of semen rushed through his cock. Slowing, stuttering, nearly extinguishing as he sealed the bite and pulled his mouth away, catching her easily as she collapsed.

Every instinct demanded he open a vein and force her to drink, that he make the second exchange when she was too weak and dazed to fight the choice. Domino stood instead, pausing to ensure she wasn’t in danger of dying before retrieving a hand-stitched quilt from the sofa.

He wrapped her in it and settled her on the couch, then dressed himself and doused the fire in the fireplace. It took only a moment to gather her clothes and pick her up. To take her to the car.

He trapped her in obsidian when she stirred and opened her eyes, commanded her to sleep. They were hours away from Matteo’s house. And she was too great a distraction. Too great a temptation.

He wasn’t sure he could fight the demands of his nature if they stayed here. And if she gave in, accepted his blood, asked for it, then they would fuck the rest of the night. His cock would fill time and time again in order to sate the need a second exchange would generate, in order to cement the bond that tied them together sexually until one of them died.

“Sleep,” he whispered, brushing his fingers over her cheek, her lips, kissing her softly before bringing the engine of the powerful sports car to life and leaving Ashberg, his thoughts going to the edict he’d issued. He would know by sunrise whether there was to be a challenge or a pledge.

Dakotah woke to a fantasyscape. Flickering candles and scented air. The crackle of logs burning in the fireplace. A dark prince offering her a goblet of wine.

“Drink,” Domino said, pressing the ornate cup to her hand, its warmth seeping into her palm as the smell of heated wine mixed with some type of herb wafted upward.

She drank. Not even stopping to question.

When she was done she handed the heavy cup back to him, noticing for the first time that she was naked underneath the sheets and propped up against a mound of pillows in a bed made for carnal pleasure.

She shivered when she saw the cuffs dangling from the post at the foot of the bed. Domino laughed, setting the cup on the nightstand before rolling to his side, his cock a hard, heated presence against her thigh and hip. “For kadines who need to be disciplined,” he said, splaying his fingers over her belly and making her cunt clench and flare in reaction.

Dakotah remembered the conversation he’d had with Fane. “We’re back in Kenton? This is where Sarael was taken?”

“Yes.”

It felt strange to end up here. A circle closing.

By the time she stumbled into the carnival, she had almost become a feral animal. Intent only on running, on surviving. On staying one step ahead of Victor Hale.

But as she’d traveled with the carnival, shared a home on wheels with Sarael, she’d slowly become human again. Found that it didn’t have to hurt to care about someone. And she’d cared about Sarael. She’d worried for her.

Dakotah’s gaze went to the cuffs dangling from the post and she frowned. Domino laughed again, leaned in so that his face blocked her view. “She was created for Matteo. From the moment of her birth, Sarael belonged to him. You will see her again and you can judge her happiness for yourself.”

His hand moved from Dakotah’s abdomen to her breast, his fingers tracing over a hardened, puckered nipple, his expression serious. “There is little separation between a kadine and the one who claims her. Her misery becomes his. Her joy is his as well.”

“Along with her thoughts and memories,” Dakotah said, the wine which had soothed only seconds before now churning in her stomach.

Domino stilled, her emotions battering him, warning him they were moving into dangerous, treacherous territory. It would be so easy to calm her, to remove her worries. To smooth them over so nothing stood in the way of his claiming her completely.

“It works both ways,” he said, closing the distance between their faces, his tongue lightly tracing her lips before his mouth sucked at hers in a gentle kiss. “There are no secrets between a male and his kadine.”

When she would have turned her head, his hand left her breast and cupped her cheek. Holding her in position, deepening the kiss, though it remained soft, persuasive. A heated rub of slick heat and wet desire. “There is nothing you can’t know about me,” he whispered, his gaze meeting hers. “The good and the bad.”

Dakotah closed her eyes, tried to close her mind and her heart, but it was useless. She’d come this far. She’d pushed the boundaries of her trust further than she would have thought possible.

“I’ve been with a lot of men,” she said, hating the starkness of her voice. “Not by choice, but it doesn’t matter. You’ll see everything I’ve done.”

His nostrils flared. Rage roared through him. Flashing red in his eyes and causing her to flinch and try to pull away.

Domino was on her in an instant. His weight holding her to the mattress and pillows as his eyes bored into hers. “If it wasn’t your choice, Dakotah, then I will kill any man who has touched you.” He leaned in, his mouth hovering over hers once again. “And I will enjoy every kill.”

Shock rippled through her, holding her as motionless as his eyes and will. She knew he spoke the truth. She felt it in every cell of her body. And for a second she filled with hate and the savage need for revenge. Allowed old, violent fantasies to resurface. “How?” she asked and this time her voice sounded hard, brittle, even to her own ears.

Domino smiled, a flash of fangs and ruthlessness. Alien despite the human flesh, despite the candles with their dancing flames, the trappings of romance he’d provided before waking her and offering her herbs and wine.

“Easily, Dakotah. I could have them hunt and kill each other if it would please you. I could command them to kill themselves.”

She shivered at just how powerful he was. “You wouldn’t end up being hunted by vampires and dhampirs for doing that?”

“Only if I risked exposing us by killing while feeding.” He pressed his mouth to hers briefly. “Shall I pledge to kill all those who have hurt or used you? Make it my gift to you for becoming my kadine?”

She licked her lips and his eyes darkened, desire moving through them. She knew he was serious. His offer genuine. His intent to free her from the demons of her past, not to enslave her.

He could make her his kadine without her consent. He could make her want to belong to him. But instead he was trying to give her a choice even though there really was no choice. Their wolves had decided that first night in the forest. Their blood had already mixed and mingled.

He was her future. She was his.

The Emperor to her Empress.

Dakotah wriggled her hand and he freed her wrist. She smoothed her knuckles over his cheek. When his sensual lips tilted upward in response to her touch, she smiled and allowed a lightness to fill her heart and chase away the old hatred and pain. “No,” she said. “Let the past stay in the past. I don’t want to spend my future revisiting it. Reliving it. Killing because of it.” She tangled her fingers in his hair, rubbed her mouth against his. “The night will be over soon, isn’t there something we have to do before that happens?”

Joy filled Domino. Intense and overwhelming. He rolled, startling her and making her laugh as he shifted her to the dominant position, forcing her to straddle him.

Her eyes widened when he reached over and lifted a small dagger from the nightstand, handing it to her with a teasing smile. “You have already demonstrated how handy you are with a blade. Choose a spot and take what I have to offer.”

Dakotah took the knife and leaned down, bracing herself on one elbow, her wet slit rubbing and sliding against his cock, her nipple aligned to his, two hard tight points pressed to one another. “Aren’t you worried what I might decide to cut?” she teased.

He laughed, looking fully human. A confident male sure of his woman. “And cheat yourself of the pleasure you’ll soon get only from me?”

She put the tip of the blade against his throat, lightly traced the pulse beating there in a steady, unhurried rhythm, then moved downward, following the trail of his blood until the blade was poised above his nipple. Only his cock reacted, jerking, striking her clit, the head leaking against her belly, causing more of her arousal to escape, to coat his shaft and roll down to his testicles.

His eyes were molten stone, dark temptation in a face she could spend a lifetime looking at. He hissed when she cut him. Then threw back his head with a groan when her mouth covered both the wound and the nipple.

Ecstasy tore through Domino as she fed. A wild rush that had him writhing underneath her, his hands spearing through her hair, holding her to his chest.

He nearly came when her fingers reached for his cock, when they guided him to her entrance and she impaled herself on him.

It took all of his control not to roll her to her back, to become the aggressor as his ancestors had programmed him to be. But the gift she was giving him was one he would treasure always. And so he let her feed. Let her take him. Control him. Ride him to a dizzying, all-encompassing climax, her mouth finally leaving his chest as her own pleasure crested.

Only then did he give in to ancient instincts. Become what the blueprint of his cells demanded. What The Heat coursing through them both demanded, his body taking hers time and time again, leading hers in a dance of pleasure, need and release, until they were both weak, sated, ready to welcome The Sleep as the first rays of the sun breached the darkness.

It was a peace beyond anything Domino had ever known. A happiness he could find no words for. Broken only by the sound of his cell phone ringing, its demand muted by the jeans encasing it. The sound of it jarring him from the warmth of Dakotah’s arms and body.

With a groan he rolled to the edge of the bed and fished through the clothing on the floor until he retrieved the phone. Fane. Which meant the wolves in Atlantic City had reached a decision on whether there was to be a challenge or a blood pledge.