Page 75 of Destined Dawn

“What do you mean?” I ask, my brow furrowing.

“We have been fated together through the ages, across the times,” he says, stroking his great paw back up my body, his fur brushing against my skin. “In different forms. In different places. Sometimes our time together has been fleeting. Sometimes it has lasted a human lifetime.”

I remember what Ellie told me about fated mates being destined for one another over and over again. Is that what he means?

Winnie seems convinced I’m Queen Æðelflæd reincarnated. But maybe that was simply one time – one moment in time we were all brought together by fate. Maybe there were others too.

It seems so fantastical. I can’t wrap my head around it. And yet here I am lying in bed with a werebeast, brought to this palace on the back of a golden dragon.

Perhaps anything is possible.

“Just us or–”

“All six of us, little mate.”

“And every time we have met have you always taken the form of a were?”

He doesn’t seem to hear me. Instead he draws that claw down my body next, the faintest of scratches against my skin. At my belly, he pauses and tilts his head. His eyes flash.

“Something has changed inside you, little mate. Something is different.”

I go very still on the bed next to him. I want to swallow asecond time, but I daren’t and I keep my eyes locked on his, refusing to flinch, refusing to give anything away.

He can’t know, can he? He can’t possibly tell.

He rings his claw around my belly button.

“Something dark lurks within. It always has. Dark, sinister, powerful. It has grown – although something keeps it contained.” My eyes drop to my belly, red scratches now run over my skin and I can almost see the dark magic swirling beneath. “You could destroy the world if you wanted to, little mate. Crush it all. Like you chose to before.”

The furrow on my brow deepens. “Queen Æðelflæd? She saved the world. She was a good ruler.”

“Were you?” he asks me, searching deep inside my eyes.

“You think I’m her.” I screw up my brow. “Or she’s me.”

“You are you, little mate. Each time we have met.” He inhales my scent. “Always two sides to the coin, which way it lands is anyone’s guess. Different every time. How will it fall this time, I wonder?”

“Is that what the prophecy means?” I ask him.

He cups my breast in his paw, squeezing it, his eyes flashing.

“The prophecy,” he purrs. “Do you need a prophecy to tell you of your fate?”

I push off the bed, more disturbed by his words than his request to suck his giant cock.

“Little mate, now I have scared you,” he says, with some concern.

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about.” I scoop my panties and the ruined dress off the floor and hurry to the door. “I need a glass of water,” I tell him.

The door is locked, but somehow I manage to remove Spencer’s spell and tumble into the suite, the pain in my newly formed bond acute.

Pip comes scuttling towards my feet, snorting away. I’m too distressed to even acknowledge him, tugging on my clothes and mending the dress with my magic.

This secret I’ve been harboring, this fear that’s been growing in my chest, is true, all true. There’s a darkness inside me, one that’s always lingered there. One that only Pip’s presence has held back and now I can feel it, stronger and more dangerous than ever.

I want to talk to Azlan about it or Stone or, stars, I wish Winnie were here. But I can’t tell them. I can’t tell them the truth.

That I wanted to kill Christopher Kennedy. I relished the chance to do it. Hell, it made that crimson magic tingle and now that magic is more powerful than ever, threatening to take me over.