Page 12 of Destined By Dragonblood (Blood Born #2)

Dolyn

T he Mercedes out front of Ashley’s condo hadn’t been there when I’d left the night before once she’d locked herself away after getting home from work.

I eyed the dark, sleek car, evidence of its owner’s wealth, wondering who visited at so early of an hour. The sun had barely crested the horizon, and I waited in cloaked form for her to leave for Manhattan.

Sleep had eluded me the night before thanks to my inner beast, who’d grown restless again. He had begged for the chance to submit our physical form to pain once more, lamenting the loss of bruises and aches from ass to thighs from Vanni’s cane.

My human skin grew itchy as well, and I moved from where I leaned against a light post across from Ashley’s condo. A short walk landed me beside the Mercedes, and I perched my bare ass on the cold metal of its hood facing her front door, arms and ankles crossed.

Part of me hoped whoever owned the car visited someone on the street other than my female, but I doubted it. Why park directly in front of her door otherwise?

My insides twisted into a knot that caused my forehead to furrow.

Inner dragon thoroughly muzzled thanks to his grumbling since I’d crawled into bed last night, I waited for Ashley.

A trash truck approached and grew louder with every stop closer, deepening my frown.

The stench of garbage wafted like putrid fumes as the truck idled beside the Mercedes.

Two guys hopped off the back to grab bags left on either side of the road, completely ignorant of the naked, cloaked shifter feet away.

I snorted at their weakness, the lesser blood flowing through their veins making them impervious to the dangerous predator who could incinerate their bodies with a mere wisp of dragon flame.

Eventually, the truck turned off Walnut Street, the air clearing and sounds fading.

Dogs barked.

A baby shrieked while being buckled into its car seat off to my right.

The vehicle beneath me beeped twice, and the engine turned on thanks to a remote start.

My focus glued to Ashley’s closed blinds and the front door, uncaring of the car warming up under my ass or how the neighborhood woke around me.

She was running later than usual.

Perhaps something had happened?—

My pulse picked up, rousing my dragon, and I strode up the sidewalk on instinct, intending to…

I didn’t know. I couldn’t exactly reveal my nakedness, knock on the door, and check in with her.

An attempted peek through one of the front windows’ blinds didn’t offer any indication of what went on inside her condo, so I went to the other side of the stoop, my muscles tensing.

Feet crunching on wilted, frozen flowers, I craned my neck but couldn’t see anything. I growled, a combination of human and beast, releasing steam into the air.

The front door locks clicked, and I turned to face the door as it pulled inward.

A man in gray sweatpants and a coat stepped out first, and another low growl, much more menacing, rumbled in my chest.

His dark head swung my way.

Vanni DiLoreto.

Like a punch to my gut, he stole the oxygen from my lungs and loosened my hold on my inner beast, who purred at the sight of his heavy-lidded eyes and the square jaw beneath his short facial hair.

Just as bad, my cock swelled to rock hard in less than two fluttered heartbeats, bucking up to tap against my clenched stomach.

Alpha .

The fuck he was.

I gritted my teeth, swallowing the curses I wanted to rain down on my beast for taking advantage of me being off-kilter.

Vanni’s starburst green eyes scanned where I stood, his brow furrowed. Not seeing who had made the instinctive noise that had escaped my mouth, he turned his focus around the rest of the front yard and walkway, to the street and condos beyond.

Who the hell was Vanni to Ashley, and why was he at her place so early in the morning?

Regardless of my lust for the man, a burning sensation roused to life in my chest. Like a swarm of hornets, his presence stung, causing a scowl to pull my eyebrows inward.

Want .

My beast hungered for Vanni and Ashley with the same intensity, but I kept my human half in check even as my groin throbbed for release.

Ashley was already destined to be mine. This human male was nothing to either of us, or at least, he wouldn’t be once I claimed Ashley and we found our beta.

Muscle ticking in my jaw, I watched as Vanni coaxed Ashley out into the cold, hurrying her to the Mercedes. I refused to consider how well they fit together. Their shared beauty, even while wrapped up in winter gear, was a perfect concoction that would inebriate any unsuspecting victim.

Imagine sipping from the chalice of their combined sweetness.

I would do no such thing, but temptation welled inside me at the beast’s unexpected, poetic words.

Neither human spoke, but with how Vanni kept watch like a sentinel, I wondered over his actions, attempting to shut down the beast and the deep yearning to taste and touch them both. My inner dragon went quiet, but my cock continued to strain upward.

Had Ashley realized someone—some thing —had been following her, and she reached out to a man she trusted to protect her?

Sudden fear I might have caused her distress lanced pain through my heart, and as they pulled away from the curb in Vanni’s car, I stared, unmoving in the cold, dead flower bed beneath Ashley’s dark window.

I had waited too long in my pursuit, enough that she must have sensed her alpha’s presence. But if so, she would have been drawn to me, not scared enough to call on…a friend?

Her lover? Her… Master ?

I groaned at the thought of their bodies entangled but cut the tone from leaking past my lips a second later.

Something wasn’t right with my reaction. I should have been raging with jealousy. Anger. A protective instinct to rip Vanni to shreds for touching what belonged to me .

Every part of me yearned to be closer to him.

Unsettled in mind and body alike, I strode into the center of the street, made sure the beast half-inside me was properly bound, and shifted into dragon form.

One leap took me into the sky. I scanned Jersey beneath us until spotting the Mercedes.

Vanni drove Ashley across the river toward where I’d expected.

A short while later, he opened her car door in front of Elijah’s building and escorted her to the entrance.

Once she passed inside to safety, he left, and I followed since I wouldn’t lay eyes on Ashley again until after work and the man intrigued the hell out of me.

Vanni pulled into a parking garage of a building I’d visited the week before.

Blood still pooled in my groin, keeping me hard as nails as I landed, shifted into human form, and trailed after him.

Stalking on Vanni’s heels as he walked through the parking garage, I stared at the back of his head.

My beast rolled belly up and purred while I considered every way of making Vanni bleed out.

The man had no right to touch what belonged to me.

Ours .

I cursed my beast and his ability to weasel into my mind when I grew preoccupied.

My fingers should have itched with the need to elongate, claw Vanni across his face. Disembowel him. Slice through his carotid artery. Tear his lower half off and feast on his flesh.

No.

Biting my tongue to stop myself from growling at my dragon half and revealing my flesh to Vanni, I snuck into the elevator behind him, expecting he planned to visit his sex club.

The ignorant, weak human had no clue about the danger hovering over his back. How easily I could end him. Erase his existence from the face of the earth.

But something stilled my hand—and caused pre-cum to pearl atop my cockhead.

The elevator took us two floors higher than the club, sliding open to reveal the penthouse suite, yet another array of evidence Vanni had money to spare.

Who the fuck was this man who made me ache with lust?

He passed by the sprawling living space with its two couches and massive TV screen, walking through double doors that led to the master suite. A navy bedspread covered the king-sized mattress, the frame beneath wooden and thick, sturdy enough to easily survive a harsh fucking.

Vanni stripped, leaving his clothes where they fell, and my cock slapped my belly again at the sight of his naked backside and the dark crevice between his cheeks. I chewed on my tongue to quiet my inner beast’s whimper for a taste.

I moved closer, hot on Vanni’s heels, staring as he climbed into the master bathroom shower and tipped his head back into the spray.

Eyes closed, his lithe, muscular build as close to perfection as a human could get, he captured my undivided attention.

He shampooed his hair and reached for bodywash.

When he began to lather smooth pecs, as hairless as mine, I finally managed to turn away, intent on ignoring the draw of his body and learning what I could about him while he finished showering.

Files sat atop Vanni’s office desk, and since his laptop required a fingerprint to open, I inspected every scrap of paper in sight.

Vanni owned the building I currently stood in.

His wealth afforded him more than ninety-nine percent of the population—but not me.

Pride boosted, I rifled through his refrigerator to find he ordered pre-made meals, all healthy and macro-balanced.

I entered the master bedroom again, looking through his closet, breathing in the delicious scent of expensive cologne with a hint of earth and spice.

Further evidence of his wealth hung on hangers, sat on shoe racks, and lined velvet cushions in the form of expensive watches and cufflinks.

I scoffed at his taste, refusing to acknowledge how he smelled almost as delicious as my Ashley. I assured myself our beta would be ten times as alluring as Vanni once I finally allowed my inner beast to scent him properly as we had our female.

Sounds from the bathroom assured me Vanni finished, and I made myself comfortable in a corner of his bedroom, arms crossed, looking down my nose at him as he exited the bathroom, towel wrapped around his waist.

My mouth did not water.

My cock did not leak or flex with want.

And my beast sure as hell did not weep with need.

Vanni dropped his towel, and I allowed myself to soak in and appreciate his olive skin and the sleek mass of muscles beneath. Bulging calves and thick thighs suggested he daily spent hours in the gym. An ass meaty enough to withstand a pounding flexed as he pulled on a pair of boxer briefs.

Tingles came to life in my lower spine, and I grabbed hold of my cock, squeezing the base.

Vanni disappeared into his closet, and I waited, body on fire, mind stalled out on everything but the lust consuming me. Visions flashed in my head of him writhing between me and Ashley as we bonded.

My inner beast growled a resounding, No.

Another image of Ashely being filled by us both while we bred her made my dragon purr with pleasure.

Vanni appeared in his closet entryway, attaching cufflinks to the starched button-down covering his sexy, veined forearms. He wore the suit well, the lines and precise cut further evidence of the man’s wealth.

But I still had better in my own closet.

A smirk on my face and chin lifted slightly, I trailed after Vanni as he readied to leave his suite.

He skipped breakfast but took the time to utilize his French press, which I could appreciate.

He filled a travel mug with black coffee, his lips against the rim, and the resulting hum of satisfaction over the taste made me reach for my hard cock again.

Back in the elevator we went, but and I continued to imagine sinking my shaft into his tight ass. Biting his neck until he bled and lapping at the coppery tang of his blood as the wound healed from my saliva. The atoms in my body ached to mesh with his, become one?—

“No.”

Vanni’s head jerked my way, and I cursed myself for unintentionally muttering my refusal of want over this man. His gaze hard, not startled or wary in the least, scanned over every inch of the elevator’s interior as it descended.

I stared back even though he didn’t meet my eyes, a cocky smirk growing as his lesser human abilities didn’t allow for him to see me.

The bell dinged, and he shook his head, lips pursed, while exiting on the floor housing his sex club.

I considered following him inside, learning every last detail I could about the man who more than piqued my interest. Whimpers inside pushed for me to do the same, but we had a female to win over and plans to consider on how we might locate our beta.

Vanni, while a tasty morsel, was no longer of importance.

I needed to focus on the destiny Father had assured me of and the two fate had in store for me.