Page 23 of Destined By Dragonblood (Blood Born #2)

Dolyn

A s alpha, I should have sensed both of my mate’s emotions once we came into contact all at once. Father had assured me of that truth.

The lack of Vanni and Ashley’s thoughts and feelings, the missing beginnings of our bond upon touching, raised alarms in the back of my mind, causing my dragon to chuckle. Perhaps it would take more time, or maybe acceptance was needed on both of their parts before the sharing began.

But Vanni had seen the vision I had, the one put into my human brain from my other half. It’d only been a few heartbeats that I’d been aware of him. While I hadn’t appreciated the false imaginings of a weak inner beast, I comforted myself in having felt my beta.

Vanni would submit and be mine.

Eventually.

I moved back onto his office chair, Ashley still curled up tight against me. We hadn’t spoken a word since our mate had stormed off—fleeing from the questions that probably plagued his mind he wouldn’t have answers to until I set him straight.

Regardless of his minuscule amount of Blood Born DNA, after having touched him, I now at least felt the draw, the lure of it, pulsing through his body—same as Ashley’s.

Eventually, he would believe we were destined by dragonblood.

He would offer himself to me. But I was no sadist and wouldn’t be able to gift him the pain and pleasure he would long for as my beta.

Ashley had already submitted herself to him, so how could I change their dynamic to set things right as Father had always assured me awaited?

Maybe our triad could be different.

My beast lay curled in delight, for once keeping silent over my musings of our destiny. He gloried in having our female in our arms where no one could harm her.

She trusts.

I couldn’t yet feel her emotions, but I believed my instincts. Her relaxing against me rather than pulling away assured me my inner beast spoke truth.

How our relationship would play out as the days passed, I wasn’t sure.

But hope rested in my chest that Vanni would prove satisfying in our giving each other mutual pleasure.

He might not have enough dragonblood in his veins to fulfill the requirements Father had always insisted I stand firm on, but the sex would be earth-shattering.

And with our tender female’s vulnerability and the empathetic nature she seemed to possess, I wouldn’t have to emotionally connect with Vanni, same as Father had refused to do with Papa due to his lesser lineage.

Elijah had looked at Jon with more emotion than he’d ever shown me, but Elijah still considered himself an alpha.

Not that the human male mate of his would ever dominate a royal Blood Born.

Theirs was a match I would never understand.

I would focus on what Father had assured me of.

While my role model throughout my earlier years hadn’t always been kind or understanding, I’d had no better examples of an alpha in my life to follow.

My inner dragon huffed a snort strong enough that my human body jostled our female.

Ashley sighed heavily, shuddering against me.

I continued to caress my fingertips over her cheek, wishing to experience more of her inner workings but glorying in the warmth that moved between us like a lazy river on a summer day. “How are you feeling, my female?” I asked, closing my eyes and nuzzling my nose into her soft hair again.

“Half-okay, half-freaked-out.” She rested against me, her fingers lying lightly on my chest. Her sweet breath rose to make my mouth water with the need to taste.

“I’m sitting on the lap of a man I hardly know and I’m not even the slightest bit scared.

But some of the shit you’ve said, Dolyn… I’m concerned.”

More than anything, I wished to be bonded so I might hear her thoughts. “You believe I’m insane, but I’ve spoken nothing but truth to you this day.” I made an assumption for which she needed assurance.

“I’m sure you believe you have.” She pulled back to focus on my face, causing my hand to fall from her satiny skin.

My beast mourned the loss, and I bit my tongue to keep from whimpering like someone with a weaker nature.

“Until tonight, I hadn’t allowed a man to touch me in twelve years.”

My brow furrowed, head cocking to the side. Not that I would complain, but how had such a beautiful woman escaped notice for a decade? Her statement suggested she’d been intimate before that time, but surely she’d experienced attraction since? “Would you explain why?”

A shuddering breath, and she climbed off my lap, leaving me bereft.

She stood before me, and my heart seized as I peered at her, trying to read through the purple-blue of her eyes and deep into her soul.

I wished for the full bond between us, one I’d been promised would allow feelings to emanate with clarity and allow me to know her—communicate in the way she needed to understand without having to speak a word.

“I was raped when I was sixteen,” she whispered.

Instant red hazed my eyesight, and I fought to keep my inner beast tamed as he roused in a flare of heat.

“He tied me up and beat the hell out of me, promising me I would like it. He played at being a Dom, bruising me, taking every last bit of my innocence.”

I clenched my teeth to keep my roar contained but couldn’t help the fire in my eyes and how my skin and bones itched to expand and shift.

She studied my flaming eyes closely but didn’t back away at what must be a strange phenomenon to her. Vanni hadn’t been put off by my dragon attempting to make himself known either, which gave me hope they would come to accept the truth sooner than later.

“Who was it?” I growled, ready to rip through the building and go in search of the one who’d traumatized my female.

“The pastor of the church I attended as a child.” She shuddered.

“Where?” I bit the word out, fully intending to file the information in the back of my mind for further musing.

“A small town in Jonestown. We were the only independent bible church there, and it was more of a cult than an actual following of Christ.”

I would peel the skin from the man’s bones.

Incinerate him to ash with a blast of dragon fire.

“But I’ve been going to therapy for years because the thought of a man’s hands on me made me sick,” Ashley continued. “I’ve only recently found pleasure—through pain.”

“Vanni,” I said through clenched teeth, angry for a whole other reason. I could appreciate he was able to help her in a way I never could, but I hated she required enduring torture in order to find release.

“Yes. Master Vanni.”

“He isn’t your master,” I spat, my insides still fire and smoke over her trauma, my claws and aching jaw desperate to tear into flesh.

“He is when I submit here in this club,” Ashley said. “Outside, he is my friend. Confidant. And I care for him deeply.”

I didn’t need the bonding to recognize she spoke truth.

“How do you know him?” Ashley questioned.

I couldn’t tell her how he and I had met. She would see me as unworthy to be her alpha, a weaker vessel than I’d been destined to attain.

Lying now would only cause mistrust later once we’d bonded as she might find out the truth.

But Ashley wasn’t aware of Blood Born history, she knew nothing of our people, or the dynamic in a triad of dragonblood. And, while communication would be easy once bonded, neither Vanni or Ashley need ever hear or read an alpha never submitted to another.

My beast snickered, and I slapped his muzzle in place, firm and unyielding, my ire still burning.

“I followed you here a few weeks ago,” I answered, my voice surprisingly calm. “Vanni and I…met and spoke briefly.”

Ashley continued to study my face without a hint of fear. “Why didn’t I see you?”

My female had already been through a lot tonight, but one more upheaval of her reality might be exactly what she needed. Honesty—evidence of my non-human blood—would sway her toward accepting the truth.

I shimmered out of sight, and she gasped, stumbling backward. Leaping forward, I revealed myself, grasping her forearm to keep her from falling over.

She blinked at me, pulse throbbing in her neck, swallowing hard. “I’m dreaming.” She pinched her hand and laughed, near hysterical. “I’m losing my damned mind is what I’m doing.”

“Ashley.” I cupped her cheek, hoping to calm her.

“Do it again.”

I obeyed without thought, and her gaze went hazy once I shimmered back before her eyes. “Listen to the inner creature whispering my honesty,” I begged what I hoped to be true—that her beast had woken from my touch, same as Vanni’s had.

“Dragonblood—you’re a shifter, and I’m your mate.” She woodenly echoed what I’d declared.

I nodded.

“So you’re saying that…I’m a shifter too?”

A grimace twitched my mouth. “You’re more human than dragon, and I doubt you will ever have the ability to morph into your beast form.”

She gently took hold of my wrist and pulled my hand from her face. “I—I’m going to need some time to process all of this, Dolyn.”

“I understand.” I stepped back, allowing her space even though every part of me wished to pull her back into my arms and hold her close.

“You…you wouldn’t ever harm me, would you?”

“Never,” I swore.

“Then those other eyes weren’t you, were they?”

The second gaze she’d felt—I’d forgotten she’d spoken of it to Vanni.

My inner beast growled, and I silently assured him nothing and no one would ever hurt our female again. “I will watch over you day and night, Ashley. You needn’t fear anything or anyone as long as I’m near.”

“And what about Vanni?”

A shot of lust punched through my gut. “What about him?”

“He’s a part of this.” She didn’t ask a question, but I nodded. “The three of us are meant to be together. I can sense the connection deep in my bones.”

“We are.”

“But what if he never accepts us?” Her voice wobbled, and she clutched her hands in front of her.

“Why wouldn’t he?”

“He…well, something in his past wounded him deeply, and while it’s not my story to tell, I’m afraid it would keep him from wanting this.”

I expected a lot more than our pasts would cause speed bumps along our road toward bonding, but the reward would be worth the effort we put in.

“Give me space for my emotions to settle while I process all of this, okay?”

I nodded rather than argue like my dragon side begged and whimpered for me to do.

“I’ll talk to Vanni.”

A bite on my tongue kept me silent. I’d rather have tied him up and beat the truth into him—if only I truly had the desire to do such a thing.

My goddamned masochist beast snickered, but his amusement faded to quiet longing when the door to Vanni’s office closed behind our female.

I gave her ample time to descend the stairs before cloaking myself and following at a far enough distance she wouldn’t feel me as intensely as before. But the hint of my presence would assure her of safety until she was ready to accept what we’d been destined to become.