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Nathair was aware he could discard her at any point and find a different human to become his song. It did notneedto be Linh. It did not need to be a human who came with battles just as deep as his own.

Their issues were so vastly different, and yet she constantlytried.For him, for herself. She was strong, passionate, and stubborn, and so innocently sweet he wanted to corrupt her in ways she obviously desperately needed.

Nathair leaned forward and cupped under her chin to lift her sobbing face to him. She did so willingly, even as she continued hugging herself in a position that made her small.

“Use me,” he signed before giving her space.

“P-pardon?” she asked, her voice cracking an octave.

“Use me,” he repeated. “I am yours to take in any way you want. Use me to take back your body, to heal, to finally feel p-l-e-a-s-u-r-e – pleasure.” He repeated the last word to show her the sign for it.

“But why?” she whined. “Is sex really all you want?”

Nathair let out a small rumbling growl at that. “No. I want more.”

When she shook her head like she didn’t understand, Nathair wanted to roar his words.I have never wanted my voice more than now.

His movements hastened, became more jarring. “I want to f-u-c-k you until all your body knows is the feel of me taking it. Until it only knows the t-a-s-t-e of me within it, and only remembers me. I want to c-l-a-i-m your body like this because you will not give me your heart first.”

Her eyes grew wide as her lips parted in disbelief.

“You will be mine.”

Her shock gave way to a glare. “I don’tbelongto anyone. No one owns me.”

Her feistiness had his back muscles leaping with a shiver, his orbs daring to flicker to purple. Nathair chuckled.

“For now.” Then, within the blink of an eye, Nathair darted around her until she lay on the sand with him creating a circular wall of scaled muscle. He positioned his torso upright in front of her, with less than two feet separating them. She was trapped, caged, and imprisoned. “I am yours, Linh.”

He hoped she knew the sincerity of that, even if he didn’t think she was ready to hear the depth of it.

“When you are ready, c-l-a-i-m – claim – me and yourself. Then, when I claim you, I will be yours to do what you will. I will follow you anywhere.”

“R-really? Anywhere?” she asked, her tone cracked and raspy. The light from the greying clouds reflected in her rich brown eyes. “Will you help my people?”

He should have expected that question.

“Do not do this for such a s-e-l-f-l-e-s-s reason.” His heart hurt a little at the idea that she might. “If you do, I will r-e-s-e-n-t you.”

“You’ll resent me?” She signed it back to him, filling in the word he did not have a gesture for.

He purposefully slowed his gestures, wanting to convey the depth of his next words. “I want more than your body, Linh.”

“What do you want?” she asked, sitting back in her kneeling posture. Thankfully, her crying had eased. “You still haven’t told me.”

Linh flinched when he reached his arm out. He sighed at her reaction, but used his magic to dip his claw tips into the rippling well of her chest. They both watched her soul emerge, floating just behind his fingers.

Since he didn’t touch it, her soul didn’t awaken from its slumber. It hugged its midsection, digging its nails into its back. A back he had not seen before that was blackened like coal with the evidence of mental decay. Her little soul was in a worse state than he’d realised.

Still beautiful, just like her.

He signed the word soul with his right hand – his fingertips together before he drew his thumb down his palm with his fingers flicking forward flat and together – and gestured at it so she understood the new word he was teaching her. The most important word to him. Linh stared at it floating between them, before darting her horrified gaze between it and his skull repeatedly.

“You want my soul?!” Grasping it with both hands, she retreated until her back met the wall of his tail. She held it tight, and he winced when he feared she’d crush it.

He just hoped she couldn’t destroy it, since she was human. It didn’t even seem to notice her, as it never woke.

Her features fell when realisation dawned. “You said you were a soul eater! I knew you were trying to eat me,” she said, but she didn’t sound very convincing, as if she didn’t truly believe what utter crap she’d just spilled.