Page 25

Dinner lasted long into the night and, once we talked about different topics and abandoned the awkwardness of the situation, it started to feel quite nice. I got a better glimpse into Markos’ life as he told stories about their childhood and family, and Karisha made a point to talk about their mating rituals yet again, ‘just in case the need arises in the future’.

Even though there was still tension at the back of my mind, I let myself relax and enjoy this dinner. Maybe the last semi-normal dinner I would ever have. I tasted every kind of food that was laid for us and I drank one or two extra glasses of wine as the reverie of the night enveloped me and more comfortable topics of conversation slithered their way through.

Dahr did not push any uncomfortable subjects, to my surprise, and sat back to enjoy the evening and refilled my glass after every few sips. His attention kept returning to me from time to time as I lost myself in conversation. I felt his gaze lingering and warming up my skin from a distance, but I forced myself to focus on Karisha and her stories rather than deign his attention with a reply.

Hours after the evening fell over the camp, the tribe lord and lady excused themselves, not before Karisha asked for a quick hug and we both agreed to have a separate conversation the following day, since there was so much more to discuss, and we did not feel comfortable to do it in front of the men.

When the guests left, Dahr asked if I needed anything else before he removed his clothes and placed himself on his side of the bed, turning his back to me and falling into sleep. He was so calm and relaxed, as though dinner had just reinforced a message he knew all too well. Like the lyrics of a song he’d been murmuring for days finally came back to him. I listened to how his breaths evened out. I watched how his body relaxed and muscles loosened, those flame tattoos on his back flickering from the world of dreams.

And sensed the danger.

I was yet again, falling into his trap.

He’d stayed with me for days, he’d captured my every moment and every wish, and with a simple whisper into my ears, he’d removed slices of the hatred I had so carefully nourished.

He was doing it again. He was toying with me. He was using the same techniques as before: kindness, care, compassion, friendship. Everything I was missing from my life. Everything I was desperate to claim as my own. Four days before the attack and I was, once again, falling into his trap.

But no more.

Never again.

Determined to listen to the impulse that pushed my heart into beating faster, I walked to the table and grabbed the dagger Dahr had casually left resting there and walked to the bed where the drake warrior slept.

This time, my hands did not shake.

This time, I knew what I was doing. And how to do it.

Circling the bed to get on Dahr’s side, I waited until the opportune moment when his hands relaxed enough to spread out and away from his chest, leaving his beating heart exposed under a set of ribs I knew how to penetrate through.

It couldn’t be more difficult than piercing through marble, could it? All I needed was a sharp angle and strength. One push of that dagger into his chest and it would stop… everything.

It would stop the attack.

It would stop the drake camp from advancing.

And it would stop my heart along with his.

No, Nora. You have to do it. Do not let your feelings get in the way. This man is tricking you and you are falling for him once more. It can’t happen again.

Knowing that it was now or never, I forced a tight grip on the dagger and practised the angle of penetration, just like they taught us year after year at university. Determination was key.

So I launched myself on him.

I wouldn’t be able to do it from this angle, the dagger would remain stuck in his ribs, that much I knew. I needed him to lay flat on his back and I needed to be on top of him so I could push the blade straight into his chest.

One moment I was towering over Dahr and the next, I was jumping on top of him, keeping his midsection trapped under the weight of my hips, which pushed into his own to hold him in place.

I knew he would react in a heartbeat and that was exactly the amount of time I had left. Gripping the dagger with all the strength I had in me, I pushed into his chest.

Dahr’s eyes shot open, his sharp gasp tensing his pecs and tightening his chest muscles. My hand started shaking at the sight of him, at the betrayal shining in his eyes, at his saddened expression.

But I kept pushing.

Tears blocked most of my view as I kept forcing the dagger into skin and bone, pushing into it with everything I was and everything I had become. Whilst utterly hating myself for doing it.

Something hard stopped the blade from hitting deeper and I blinked tears away to find the dagger embedded in Dahr’s thorax, my hand shaking around the hilt.

“That’s not the way to the heart, little flame,”

Dahr rasped, his voice too shook by the impact to gain its full strength. Or maybe that was how pained breaths sounded.

I wanted to die.

I wanted to disappear, I wanted to take it back, I wanted to turn back time and slap myself for this idiotic decision.

I couldn’t kill anyone. Especially not…

“What is the way to the heart, then?”

I sobbed as rivers of tears kept pouring down my cheeks and into my neck. I watched how a line of blood painted the blade crimson from where it remained stuck into bone. My entire body shook at the sight, my muscles quivered, and breath stopped in my lungs.

Dahr moved slowly to remove my trembling fingers from where I was still connected to the dagger and shifted them two inches to the side, to the very centre of his chest.

“Here,”

he said as he tapped my fingernails against the hard surface. My palm spread out over the surface to feel the beats of his heart, which pounded desperately against his chest as more blood gushed from the wound I had speared into him.

“You need to do it again,”

Dahr said softly, and I looked up at him to find a sea of calmness in those night-sky dark eyes. This man was teaching me how to kill him while he was looking at me as if I was his whole entire world.

“Try coming at a thirty-degree angle, it gives you a better chance at avoiding the bone,”

he explained as calmly as one would talk about making an omelette.

“Aren’t you scared?”

my voice shook as I continued crying.

Crying for him.

For me.

For what I was doing to him.

“Not with you, little flame,”

Dahr smiled at me. SMILED!

A man on the brink of death smiling encouragingly and teaching me how to kill him better.

The moment was so out of place that I expected the universe to break down and pull these few minutes back through time to give them another trial. Because there was absolutely no way that a warrior, a descendant from the gods, would let a woman stab his heart and not fight back.

I knew he was strong. I knew he could lift me with absolutely no effort as he’d done it many times before. I knew he could do whatever he wanted to with my body, because he already had. So there was no reasonable explanation as to why he kept laying there, defeated and not fighting back, when he could have pushed me off him with a single movement. When he could have ripped that dagger out of his chest and shoved it into mine.

And I knew he wouldn’t miss.

There was absolutely no reason why he was not fighting back.

Not unless…

My nerve endings shot the information through my entire body, paralysing my bones, my muscles, my breath. My very soul. It was all he’d asked. For me to admit my feelings. For me to reciprocate his.

This man was truly laying his life on the line for me.

And if he was capable of doing that, he must be capable of so much more. He must be capable of doing anything he needed to, to keep me with him. Including dying to prove himself. Including saving me. And keeping his promises.

With newly found commitment, I ripped the dagger from his bone, struggling to wiggle it out from where it was pierced deep within. Dahr grimaced a few times, but did not protest. His hands remained on my hips, where he’d initially placed them, fingers tense enough to scratch at my thighs, but not to hurt too much. He was holding onto me, just like I was holding onto that dagger.

I pushed myself deeper into Dahr’s midsection as I sliced a long line over his right pec, forcing blood to gush out within the next second to follow the straight line I had pierced into his skin.

“That’s for kidnapping me!”

I roared, filling my body with satisfaction at the blood I had the power to rip out of him.

Again, Dahr did not move. Did not stop me. Did not curse when a new line of my dagger drew on his skin, this time slicing down his shoulder.

“And this is for keeping me tied up like an animal.”

Contrary to my belief, the warrior continued to remain unmoving, except for his midsection. My bare thighs must have performed a number on him because his erection started growing under my core. Funny how even now, he focused more on his dick than on his wounds. Typical warrior, I scoffed to myself as a pool of heat tickled my insides.

“This is for lying to me,”

I sliced again down his stomach and more tears sprung out at the sight of his stunning abs and how they started bleeding.

Dahr’s need for me twitched then, with pleasure or with pain, I did not know. But I was enjoying this too much to stop. My core responded to his calling and throbbed for our joining as I pushed the dagger into his arm this time, cutting a little deeper than I wanted to.

“This is for keeping me in this tent for two days and toying with me,”

I shouted to cover Dahr’s grunt.

I assumed pain must be pulsating through him by now. There were over five long cuts across his upper body, all of them painting the sheets with crimson shades.

“And this is for hiding your plans from me,”

I pushed the blade into his shoulder, making it slice on the side of his clavicle, into the bundle of nerves that gathered there.

“Fuck, Nora!”

Dahr shouted, this time the grimace becoming sharper to portray his pain.

“Do it already!”

he snapped as a river of blood started pouring out of the wound.

“Fine,”

I snapped and removed myself from him only enough to drag the blanket away and let his desire spring free. It was a wonder how he still managed to remain erect after I carved my sorrows into him, but it was all I needed to see.

Without thinking about anything else but the need to possess him, I pressed my body against his and impaled myself onto his throbbing length at the same time I ripped the dagger from his muscle.

“Nora,”

Dahr’s roughened voice growled at me.

“Either you slice my throat, or you take my dick. But do it now!”

“I am,”

I moaned as I pushed myself deeper into him. The walls of my core opened to let him in, already sensing my need and recognising their owner. I let myself slide onto his massive cock like all hope depended on it, like I needed to ground myself and he was the only thing I could grab onto.

My wetness swallowed his length with eagerness, and I moaned his name when I pushed myself down to the hilt, dagger still gripped tightly in my hand.

Dahr’s eyes went wide. His dark gaze remained pinned on me while his hands continued to slide up and down my thighs to follow the wild dance I had started to perform on top of him. My hand held onto the dagger for dear life as Dahr started pushing into me harder and harder and I worried that I might slice him again if I wasn’t careful enough. I launched it at his throat, just as I lifted my hips and pushed my ass into him to take him deeper.

“If you ever lie to me again…”

I threatened, the blade pushing just enough to nick the skin of his outstretched throat. To add yet another cut I had adorned on this man’s body tonight.

“Never,”

he growled as he thrust harder into me, making my insides tremble from the violent movement.

“Never, little flame,”

Dahr gripped my hips harder and stretched me out with each merciless push, until my entire midsection throbbed from the force of him dipping into my core.

I let myself fall back and feel it. Feel him. Feel every single movement as my back arched to give him better access. His hips met mine with unrelenting force as Dahr slammed into me again and again, using the weight of my body to pound against me. Until there was nothing but him and I.

Until nothing else mattered but the place where we joined. My body coiled around him when I reached the edge and begged Dahr to get me to that sweet point of madness where my spirit merged with his. And when the warrior pushed himself up and wrapped his arms against my midsection to caress my pussy from deeper within, I broke against him. A violent scream left my mouth at the same time that every shred of hatred I felt for this man abandoned my being.

I moved against him passionately and savagely, meeting him thrust for thrust until his warmth spread inside me when he found his pleasure.

We ended up falling on the messy bed, both panting and a joined pile of limbs, still too desperate for that connection to let go of one another. Dahr was still inside me when I tilted back on the pillow to find it soaked. And I turned only slightly to realise that the entire bed was stained with crimson hues. Same as Dahr was.

“I’ll be back in a bit,”

I announced as I let him slide from within me and moved over to rearrange my srysha, which had, of course, climbed up to my belly.

“Nora…”

Dahr groaned but did not follow me. His hand remained limp on the side of the bed where my body had just fallen into, and I had to wonder exactly how much blood he’d lost. The deep stabs on his shoulder and arm were still dripping while the others had started to close up with a layer of truly disgusting crust-type looking texture.

“I’ll be right back,”

I turned to give him a quick kiss. My heart jolted when my lips pressed on his skin to find that he was boiling hot, so I rushed out of the tent while still arranging my clothes.

“Sorry to bother you,”

I barged into Karisha’s tent, hoping that she was still awake. Darkness welcomed me when I stepped in and left the flickering lights of the night sky behind. Unlike Dahr, Karisha did not have a source of light, so I had to fumble around and feel my surroundings with my hands and feet, until I reached the area where their bed was supposed to be.

“Karisha,”

I tried to whisper and feel around, when my hand landed over a chest. Definitely not Karisha’s.

“What the fuck!”

Markos snapped and I moved back lest he feel the need to kick the enemy that woke him up in the middle of the night. Fortunately, he turned on the small lamp by the bed to illuminate his concerned face and my worried one. He needed a second to look at me before alarm shot through him.

“Karisha!”

he alerted his mate, who begrudgingly woke up, only to have the same reaction. A minute later, all their lights were turned on and both of them had banished sleep to analyse me with confused and worried looks.

“What did he do?”

Karisha asked and started walking to me slowly, as though she was scared to touch me. I didn’t understand why, until I followed her gaze and looked down at myself. At my bloodied chest and legs, at my dishevelled clothes. I didn’t even want to think about what my face and hair looked like.

“Do you still have some of that fire light thing?”

I pressed my lips together, worried about how I would justify needing such a thing. I already guessed Markos’ reply because I cut him off and added.

“It’s for Dahr.”

The tribe lord’s attention instantly shot through me.

“What happened to him?”

Then, as if taking a better look at me, he corrected.

“What did you do to him?”

I pursed my lips and took a long breath before I spoke.

“I might have… stabbed him.”

The reactions I got were polar opposite. Markos shot up and fought whatever instinct possessed him while Karisha started snickering with delight.

“This is not a laughing matter,”

the tribe lord directed his fury at his mate, thank God. But she did not release her amusement and continued to smile.

“Why not? He’s the one who wanted someone who could kick his ass,”

the tribe lady shrugged as she moved over to her chest of drawers, where she started looking for something.

“You must have stabbed him deep for all this blood to gush out of him,”

Markos shifted his attention back to me and placed the unasked question.

“Uhmm…”

How could I explain that I hadn’t stabbed his cousin once, but three times? While also enjoying slicing along his pecs and abs?

“What exactly did you do?”

he came at me, but Karisha stopped him in his tracks.

“Markos, that is enough! Clearly there was tension between these two and now it’s resolved. She wouldn’t be here asking for healing potions if she wanted to kill him, would she?”

The tribe lady jumped to my defence and stepped closer to me to place the small vial in my hands.

“I’ll come with you,”

Markos offered, but once more, his mate intervened. I made a mental note to send her roses if the opportunity ever arose for saving my ass just now.

“You will not!”

Karisha retorted.

“They are clearly busy,”

she widened her eyes at him, pushing her meaning through her sharp gaze.

“So first she stabs him, then she fucks him?”

Markos barked with desperation.

“It’s what mates do, isn’t it?”

she blinked at him with challenge as I mouthed a thank you and took the opportunity to slip away.

Back into the tent, I gave Dahr the potion and watched him until his injuries stopped bleeding and his breathing became less rugged. Then, I removed some of the bedding that was too dirty to be used and slid back into his arms, desperate for some sleep.

I woke up early in the morning with Dahr’s head in between my legs and the excuse that he had some apologising to do.

I gladly accepted.