Possessed by a Dark Warrior (48 page)

“The black-haired female,” she said in a low voice, little more than a murmur as fear took hold of her, her heart whispering that her male was going to be upset with her and that he was going to defend the female, maybe even confess his desire for the mortal.

Taryn tried to pull away, a sudden need to distance herself gripping her, but Bleu held her too tightly, not allowing her to escape.

He sighed. Husked, “She is nothing to me, Taryn. It is just the bond messing with you. I view all males as a threat, and you view all females.”

That wasn’t true. She didn’t view the phantom females as a threat.

She only viewed the mortal female she knew to be a rival for his affection as one.

“She has feelings for you.” She lifted her eyes to meet his, put force behind those words that she hoped made it clear that he couldn’t fool her into thinking otherwise. She knew what she had seen and she trusted her dragon instincts, and they were the one labelling the mortal as a threat, not the bond.

“As a friend.” There was something in the way he said that and the sorrow that flitted across his feelings that rang alarm bells in her mind and had her on the warpath again.

“But you desired something more?” She broke free of his grip and backed away from him, a dull ache starting up in her chest, one that grew sharper with each beat of her heart.

“Taryn.” Bleu reached for her but she shook her head. She wouldn’t go back to him, not until she knew the truth. He sighed and lowered his hand, his shoulders sagging with it. “I thought I had stronger feelings for her… but I was mistaken. You made me see that.”

Her eyes widened. “Me?”

He nodded. “I was… lonely… and it made me believe that I felt something for Sable… but seeing you again made me realise that I felt nothing for her beyond friendship. I wanted someone to love me, and someone to love, and I settled on the first female I saw who I found attractive.”

Taryn snarled at that.

Bleu held his hand up. “Let me finish before you go on a rampage.”

She had half a mind to refuse, but the tender edge to his violet eyes and the emotions that flowed through their link had her remaining where she was, because she had the feeling that this was a monumental moment for him, that her male rarely spoke of his feelings and this was difficult for him, and important.

For both of them.

“Sable could never have given me what I wanted… because there is only one female in all the realms who could give me that… and that is you, Taryn.” He shook his head when she opened her mouth to speak. “No… not because of fate or a bond… but because of the way you look at me… the way you make me feel when I’m around you. You give me a purpose, and that purpose is to protect you… to always make you happy… to take care of you… because… it is you I love.”

Taryn stared at him, reeling, mind racing and thoughts scrambling.

His look turned uncomfortable and he scrubbed a hand around the back of his neck, and a ripple of hurt went through him. It drove her into action.

Before he could turn away or withdraw or teleport or something equally as annoying, she hurled herself against him, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. He moaned, slipped his arms around her waist, and held her against him so hard that she couldn’t breathe, but she didn’t care as she sank into the kiss and let his words run around her mind, using them to chase away the ones that had started to haunt her.

Teaching Bleu how to shift into a dragon had brought a moment of brightness into a dark time, but it had also made something else hit home.

Her brother would die if their plan succeeded.

Bleu stopped kissing her and pulled back. “What is wrong?”

She shook her head and kissed him again, trying to make him and herself forget about it. He had just told her that he loved her, and she wanted to say the same to him, but thoughts of her brother stole her voice and darkened what should have been one of the happiest moments of her life. Bleu refused her and his hands caught her shoulders, pushing her away.

“Tell me, Taryn,” he whispered, so imploring and tender that tears welled up in her eyes. He frowned at them, lifted his left hand and swept the pad of his thumb beneath her right eye and then her left one, dashing them away. “Why are you sad?”

That question made her truly believe everything he had told her, because the look on his handsome face said he needed to know so he could make her happy again. She wasn’t sure that was possible.

“The battle… I might lose a part of myself—will lose a part of myself.” She looked away from him and sighed as the thoughts she had been trying to shut out crowded her mind.

“I can imagine how that feels,” he murmured and she believed that too. This time, she could feel it in him, a pang that was familiar to her now that she faced losing her brother. He sighed. “I have come close to losing my sister a few times, and I feel I would be empty without her in my life.”

Empty.

That hit her hard and tears burned her eyes and stung her nose. She turned away before he could see them this time and stared at the beautiful lands that surrounded her, green and lush, like something out of a fairy-tale. But they seemed to have lost all colour and warmth as she looked at them now, feeling cold to the bone.

Another sigh escaped Bleu. “I can feel you, remember? There is no use trying to hide things from me, not when I feel your pain as if it is my own.”

He moved around her and brushed his left knuckles across her cheek, his tender gaze stealing her breath and warming her cold heart. He opened his hand and cupped her cheek, trailed his fingers along her jaw and tipped her head up.

She ached for him to say something, anything that might stop her from thinking about how she was standing on the brink of losing a connection that had filled her from the moment she was born.

She had never been alone.

Never.

She feared it.

He seemed to read that in her mind, because he smiled softly, his violet gaze filled with warmth but also a ribbon of fear, and whispered the most beautiful words she had ever heard. “You are not alone, Taryn. I am yours… if you want me.”

Gods, did she.

She wanted him with all of her heart.

“I am tired of fighting this… are you not tired too? We were made for each other. I honestly feel that… two halves of one soul… two hearts that were always meant to be together… that were created to complete each other.” He swept his thumb up her cheek and she couldn’t deny it, or the fire that burned through her in response to his heated but tender look.

She stood on the brink of losing a connection to someone she had loved, but she was also on the brink of forging a new one with someone she loved.

Someone she loved with all of her heart.

A male who did complete her, who made her feel safe and warm, cherished and protected, but strong too. His love gave her strength and courage, hope and conviction, and she knew that if she accepted the heart he was offering to her and the future he wanted for them, that she would always feel this way—filled with light when she had lived through so much darkness.

She didn’t need to fly. She didn’t need the blue skies of the mortal realm. She didn’t need anything that had once been everything to her.

She only needed Bleu.

He was her infinite sky. He made her soar while her feet never left the ground, made her warm as if sunshine bathed her skin, and made her feel whole.

He was her home. Her everything. Now and forever.

“Say something,” he whispered, a slight tremble in his deep voice that gave away his nerves.

Taryn tiptoed, framed his face with her hands to keep his beautiful eyes locked on hers, and let the words spill from her heart, no longer afraid of voicing them.

“I love you.”

Bleu couldn’t believe what he was hearing as Taryn’s lips moved, her sweet voice rising above the rushing in his ears, sinking her words deep into his heart.

She loved him.

His breath left him in a whoosh, ears rang and heart thundered as he struggled to take that in and make himself believe it. His eyes darted between hers, her palms warm on his face, the contact keeping the connection between them wide open so he could feel everything that she was—fear, hope, nervousness.

Love.

She
loved
him.

Gods. Holy fuck. Hell.

He blinked hard, fought to convince himself to do something, to form some sort of response.

Loren’s words rattled around his head, telling him to complete their bond before the battle began, and everything primal in him responded to that with a ferocious need to finally claim the beautiful female who stood before him.

He growled low in his throat, the raw sound spilling from between his fangs as they emerged, punched long from his gums at the thought of finally having his own mate.

His ki’ara.

Taryn’s violet-to-white eyes lit up, hunger burning in them that stoked the fire in his veins and made it flare hotter, until it consumed him and all he could think about was how quickly he could get her to his apartment.

The shift was quick to come, startling him and Taryn both. She gasped and stumbled back as she grew smaller in his vision, the green lands of the elf kingdom falling away as he grew in size, his bones lengthening and distorting as his body transformed into that of a dragon. Her surprise passed, the hunger in her gaze growing as she tipped her head back and looked up at him with eyes that backed up the sudden spike in her desire.

She liked what she saw.

His female approved of his dragon form.

He threw his head back and roared, the sound echoing across the lands, tearing from his throat in a ground-trembling cry of triumph that he couldn’t contain.

His female loved him.

Taryn would be his forever.

An answering growl left her lips and he dropped his head and looked down at her, caught the fire that blazed in her eyes as her pupils dilated, gobbling up the white so her irises looked more violet. Like his.

His beautiful female.

He snarled and snatched her up into his paw, and kicked off, huge black leathery wings pounding the air as he lifted into it. Taryn’s hot little hands clutched his thumb and index-claw, and he tucked her closer to his chest. His focus fixed on the castle ahead of him and he beat his wings harder, desperate to reach it and claim his female.

The ground came up at him fast and he grunted as his back paws struck it hard and he stumbled across the grass, lumbering as he struggled to remain upright and keep from collapsing onto Taryn.

“You are trying too hard.” Her voice seemed so quiet when he was in this form, even when she was shouting.

He staggered to a halt and prepared for another attempt, and growled as Taryn pushed free of his paw and dropped to the grass. He swiped at her but she evaded him, dancing and spinning out of his reach as he tried to reclaim her. What the hell was she doing? He needed to get her to the castle now, damn it, right this instant. He didn’t have time for any delay. It was killing him.

He needed to claim her.

He reached for her again and reared back when she shifted, becoming a beautiful slender violet and white dragon. She stood a head shorter than him, her four white horns a contrast against her deep violet scales and bright purple eyes. Her vertical pupils narrowed into thin slits and his instincts as a dragon demanded he satisfy his mate. She desired him.

His jowls peeled back off his fangs as he drew her scent over them, caught the hunger and arousal in it. He stalked towards her, heavy footfalls shaking the ground, driven by a deep need to mate with her.

She blinked, turned away from him and kicked off before he reached her, taking to the air.

Bleu growled and beat his wings, lifting into the air after her. The ground dropped away as she flew higher and he wobbled as the wind hit him and then his stomach fell as the valley suddenly grew tiny. He spread his wings, smoothing out his ascent as the thermal carried him higher, faster, until he was closing in on Taryn where she soared gracefully above him.

She looked down, canted her head, and he swore she was smiling at him.

He didn’t want to look down at how high he was now, so he fixed his gaze on her and beat his wings, the rush of fear he had felt on suddenly shooting into the air flowing out of him as his hunger for her swept in to replace it.

When he neared her barbed tail, she let out a cry and dropped, swooping right. He growled and banked, plummeting after her. She beat her wings and circled around, and he mirrored her, giving a single hard beat of his to accelerate into the turn. Cold wind rushed across his face and streamed over his back, but it did nothing to cool his blood as he pursued her.

Whenever he had almost caught up with her, she twisted or turned, evading him. Every time she gained distance, his blood burned hotter, heart pounded harder. He lost himself in the chase, gave himself over to his instincts and embraced them.

Flying had seemed impossible and strange before, but as he pursued her through the cool air, mirroring her every move and slowly closing in on her, it felt as natural as breathing. He was rarely beating his wings when he had been hammering them before, constantly using them with little effect. Relying on them to keep him airborne.

Now, he relied on the thermals and currents, using his wings more as a tool to steer his course, gliding through the air on them and only beating them in order to accelerate.

It was incredible.

Taryn swooped again, rolling in the air as she banked left and downwards, her wings pinned against her back. He furled his and dropped with her, twisting through the sky, and a cry left his lips, startling him, born of the thrill that rushed through him. Taryn unleashed a cry of her own, one that he understood, shocking him again. She was enjoying this too, but her excitement was born of the chase. She liked him hunting her, pursuing her through the sky and slowly gaining ground on her.

She spread her violet and white wings and shot straight past him. His gaze tracked her, head tipping up as he watched her soar into the air until she was a speck. He stretched his wings wide and his stomach somersaulted as he caught the same thermal and rocketed up into the cooler air.