Page 35 of Destined By Dragonblood (Blood Born #2)
Vanni
D olyn taking off without a word was like getting dumped all over again. With every hour that had passed, both Ashley and I felt sure he wouldn’t return. My feet grew antsy, and even though Ashley clung to me, I couldn’t calm myself enough to offer her the sense of solidity she searched for.
I put her over my lap and reddened her ass at her insistence, but even the release she’d soaked my thigh with didn’t give her respite from worry.
Neither of us slept worth a shit on Dolyn’s bed, and in the morning, we packed up a few days’ worth of clothes.
I booked a flight to Idaho Falls Regional, the closest I could get to the Tetons on short notice.
Add a two-hour trip by car onto the end of the excursion, and we found ourselves exhausted and hard up to find accommodations in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Awareness of Dolyn had grown with every shortened mile between us, and both of our insides fluttered with anticipation. Mine, however, was laced with darkness, a deep-seated need to punish him for what he’d done to our female.
And myself.
Therapy had helped me work through most of my ex’s abandonment, but my connection with Dolyn went far deeper than anything I’d experienced before. Even though we hadn’t been intimate, the small touches we’d shared linked us together with an unbreakable bond.
He belonged to me, and I to him.
Need .
My teeth gritted over the voice I’d grown accustomed to but wasn’t yet comfortable with. I tried to see it as another part of me rather than some sort of parasite, but I struggled with this new reality.
An inner beast.
Yessss .
He needed to shut the fuck up so I could sleep.
Ashley snuggled against my side on the lumpy mattress, the sheets smelling of our cum and sweat. Even though tiredness had tugged harshly on both of us, our naked flesh coming together demanded more than a snuggle.
The sun rose, and I felt more tired than the day before, my eyes gritty and mind hazed.
We’d made the right call in heading to where Elijah had told us his ancestral home lay, but where to go next and how to find his home escaped us.
There was no listing of Dolyn Kemmerly—or anyone with that surname nearby.
An old phonebook in the seedy motel room we’d managed to land a ways from Jackson Hole didn’t offer shit, and exactly as Elijah had warned us, Dolyn wasn’t on social media.
Thankfully, my club ran like a well-oiled machine, two of my dominants on staff more than able to manage the place in my absence. We would stay however long it was necessary to locate our mate.
We had breakfast at a little restaurant that made the most delicious homemade biscuits I’d ever tasted. Our waitress hadn’t ever heard of Dolyn or anyone matching his description. Asking around town over the next couple of hours didn’t offer any leads.
We felt Dolyn to the north, and the farther we went from Jackson Hole, the stronger the elusive cord between us became. Far from a pinpointed way, but a sense of rightness, a drawing of sorts that kept our focus on the snow-covered mountain range and gathering storm clouds.
The Tetons rose on our left, majestic and breath-catching, as otherworldly as Dolyn in that they appeared like a painted backdrop, much too beautiful for our earth.
“He’d said Grand Teton—not plural.”
I nodded absently at Ashley’s murmur, something she’d said a handful of times already. Gaze fixed on the range’s tallest peak, I knew she spoke the truth. “Can you feel him?”
“I—I think so. It’s more of a sense that I need to go that way.”
I nodded, her explanation on point. Bundled in winter gear we’d grabbed before leaving New York, we sat cocooned in the SUV I’d rented, safe from the light snow swirling in eddies of wind that had begun to blow over the road.
Our third day without Dolyn had proved more taxing than the others as weariness from travel settled into our bones. I glanced over at Ashley to find purple bruises beneath her wide eyes, her shoulders slumped.
“What’s the plan?” she whispered, purple-hued eyes cutting across the car’s interior to gaze at the cragged peaks on my left.
“We’ll find him, chain him to a fucking wall so he can’t take off again, get some much-needed rest, then wake up and fuck him until he can’t walk.”
A spike of arousal shot across the cord between us, her tangy scent filling my nose and stiffening my cock.
She cast me a small smile. “Even tired enough to sleep for twenty-four hours straight, I crave you.”
“Same, baby.” I reached over and squeezed her hand before lacing my fingers through hers. The contact, the skin on skin I had longed for, for months, soothed me in ways I never realized I’d needed in my life.
Ashley had awakened my life with sunshine and warmth, thawing the coldness in my heart.
Then Dolyn had come in like a wrecking ball, making me yearn for things I’d never considered before.
Ours was a fucked-up situation, an out-of-this world circumstance, but I didn’t want to live any other way.
During the long flight, I relived our meeting Dolyn in my mind, and every second leading to where we’d ended up on a westbound flight for Idaho, knowing, somehow assured , that the three of us belonged together.
How the fuck that would work, I didn’t have a clue.
I hoped like hell that having dragonblood would make a threesome outside of the bedroom easier than I imagined.
Three personalities, three individual minds and wants, regardless of the strange bonding of emotions—it promised to be one hell of a trying ride, especially with my past, Ashley’s continued journey toward healing, and who the fuck knew what Dolyn’s trauma entailed.
Considering his conflicting emotions and unease, I didn’t imagine his past had been pretty.
Talking Dolyn into accepting us would be the first hurdle in our path heading to the happily ever after Ashley spoke of and I longed to give her.
I didn’t imagine any picket fences or little cherub faces in our images. Instead, I envisioned a dungeon where I could keep my precious mates. Give them the darkness in my soul they both longed for. Offer them the pleasure their submission would ensure.
If Dolyn allowed himself to let go like I expected his beast drove him to do.
My dick thickened at the thought of having his complete submission. I wanted him under me, accepting every inch of my dick into his body, holding my gaze as I laid claim—and waste—to the soul he’d known until meeting me.
He belonged to me, and nothing was going to stop me from taking what was mine. I would not be denied—as his alpha, he would bow to me.
Yessss.
The voice in me whispered more with every passing day.
“I feel it too,” Ashley whispered, squeezing my fingers and drawing my mind back to the SUV. “The darkness inside.”
I shook my head at the absurdity of our conversation even though its truth resonated inside me. “Does it speak to you?”
“It’s my newest best friend.” Ashley laughed lightly, her voice shaky.
“Does the voice long for not just connection but pain?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“And Dolyn?”
Ashley chewed on her lower lip, and I squeezed her hand to get her to stop. “He soothes the darkness inside.” Her brow furrowed as though searching for words. “He’s the gentleness I lost, the tender loving I never expected to find let alone enjoy. Does that make sense?”
I sifted through the emotions and hazy thoughts simmering from her, trying to understand her words. “I think so, yes.”
She heaved a sigh but leaned forward a second later as we neared a closed-off intersection. “Turn left.”
As though of the same mind, my brain had already made the choice to do as she said.
I pulled the SUV to a stop, eyeing the gate. “Stay here in the warmth.”
She nodded, and I climbed out, the wind bitter and biting against my exposed face.
Better sense should have sent us southward toward Jackson Hole, but an urging kept me focused on moving nearer to the mountains.
The gate sat unlocked and swung open, the road beyond unplowed but easily seen with perhaps three inches of snow atop from a previous storm.
Seconds later, I climbed back into the SUV, shivering. “Goddamn, it’s cold out there.”
Ashley didn’t speak, simply stared ahead at the looming snow-covered crags fading from sight beneath heavy clouds. She didn’t mention waiting out the storm at our motel, and neither did I.
We drove in silence, deeper into the wilderness, the road narrowing and eventually fading into unplowed white. I pulled the SUV to a stop and put it in park.
“Now what?” Ashley asked, her voice small.
I stared into the darkening sky that promised more inches of snow than New York ever saw.
Smart thinking would have taken us back the way we’d come, spending the night trying to sleep at the damn motel, and returning in the morning.
My heart, the tug of Dolyn’s presence before us, wiped being a responsible man from my head.
“We’ll walk. Maybe Dolyn will feel us—come to us.”
Ashley tugged on her woolen hat, zipped up her puffer coat, tugged on thick gloves, and hopped out of the SUV.
Doing the same as she had, I told myself we would find Dolyn. We needed him, the yearning a severe, driving force neither of us could ignore or deny.
Our beta, our full-blooded dragonblood was somewhere in the foothills of Grand Teton, and nothing was going to stop us from locating him. The darkness inside me whispered an agreement, and I threw open my door, determined to seek out our fate.