Page 106 of Ensnared

I should pull away.

I ought to dead sprint out of the circle of his arms. This isn’t Axel the tolerant earth dragon. This isn’t the playful shifter I made a deal with.

This is Azar, Prince of Flame.

His hands are almost unbearably confident as he drags my body closer, pressed against him from thigh to waist. His hand shifts, curving around my side and squeezing.

His other hand fans across my jaw, wrapping around my cheek and cupping under my chin, tilting my face upward. His eyes are on my mouth, and he inhales quickly, and then his head dips until it’s just above mine. “Is it supposed to feel this natural?” His words sound almost like a prayer. “Maybe it’s the bond.” His head lowers so slowly that it feels like he’s killing me.

Not a heart attack.

A form of dragon torture.

He’s deconstructing me from the inside out.

With the way my heart’s racing, it could give out at any moment. His mouth stops when his lips are just a hair away from mine. “How long do you usually wait?” His breath feathers over my face, and I can’t help it.

I whimper.

“Oh, I like that. Do it again.” His mouth’s curving upward, now. “Please.”

I can barely breathe, and my hands curl around his arms right where his elbow bends, gently scraping the muscle of his bicep. “Axel.”

“Azar,” he says. “Call me Azar now.”

“Azar,” I whimper, like he’s pulling his name from the depths of my broken, shattered soul.

“Yes.” He closes the distance, his mouth finally pressing against mine.

My heart flips and spins. My hands squeeze tighter, wanting more, my fingernails digging into the muscle of his arms.

“Oh,” he says against my mouth. “Yes.” This time, he’s the one groaning.

I move my mouth against his, hungry for more. My tongue brushes against his lip, and he growls, lifting me up in the air like I weigh nothing at all. A strange vibration starts then, but I’m not sure where it’s coming from. It’s nice, like someone tickling my back, but stronger and soul-deep.

It’s coming from the bond.

Azar grazes my bottom lip with his teeth, both his hands now circling my waist, and he murmurs, “I should have done this earlier. Much, much earlier.” And then he kisses me harder, like he’s a starving man, and I’m his only sustenance.

“Azar, I think something,” I whisper between kisses, “is happening.”

He drops his mouth to my chin, and then he trails kisses down my neck slowly, his lips practically branding me with their heat. “Yes, something I never knew existed.” The vibrations deepen, and then shift, and this time, Azar freezes, finally feeling it too.

“What is that?” I murmur.

“It’s. . .” And then his body arches and mine does, too, his hands still holding my waist. “It’s the bond.”

It twists, and then like our hands before, the bond shifts and clicks into place. What once was rope that bound me to him is now more like interlocked fingers. What before was a thread of connection, a way to get a sense of his direction, a feel for his temperament, is now a conduit of energy, flowing from him to me and back again.

“What’s happening?” I cry out, not in pain, but not entirely in pleasure, either.

The thrumming gets stronger and harder, too. Azar pulls me closer and presses my body against his. “Our records say that sometimes, but it’s very, very rare, ensnared can become entwined.”

“Entwined?” I don’t understand. “What’s that?” A burning pain begins in my other shoulder, just like the first time. Only, this time I squirm back and peel the fabric of my shirt down to look.

A large, metallic red brand appears on the back of my right shoulder blade. It’s a flame surrounded by a dragon, and its mouth is consuming the flame.

Or is it creating it?