Page 46 of Shadows Ascend (Remnant Archives #2)

" C urious," I muttered, forcing the shadows to dance with the debauched drumming outside the yurt, flexing powers that should not have been possible while in irons. Slowly they were growing in strength, and so was I. Soon I would be able to control them enough to release me from my restraints.

My head jerked up when victorious roars rose even louder outside, shaking the very cloth that shrouded me in captivity. I sighed heavily, there could only be one answer for the demons to sound even more triumphant—my damn shifter of a soulmate was playing catch and release again.

Bait.

Swallowing my own scream of frustration, I forced the chains deeper into my skin, making them burn my flesh to hide the sudden healing that had occurred. Angry red imprints was all I could manage, my resistance to the irons more resilient.

Pressing my head back with another deep sigh, I released the dancing shadows moments before bright firelight spilled into the darkened yurt.

Forcing an expression of boredom, I studied the tall red skinned demon ripped with heavy muscle and soul stealing black gaze.

With a thin grimace of displeasure he muttered before hauling my shifter soulmate through the entrance, tossing Emon inside with a simple grunt.

Relieved that it wasn't the queen of Hell, I settled further against the wooden post, hiding my impressed musings.

It was no mean feat throwing the king of shifters.

Not risking a look towards my snarling, foolish soulmate even though my heart soared to have him near again, I tilted my head to hold the demon's dark glare.

His eyes shifted to the chains and then back to me. "You are unhurt."

A statement, deathly and dark in its tone.

I shrugged, "Child's play by a child queen."

His dark eyes burned suddenly with flames, his tail slashing through the air as he dropped the heavy flap. "Perhaps."

Snorting, I finally turned to observe my soulmate, who had been studying every inch of me.

I could feel his anger at the blemishes on my skin, the disgust he felt for the irons snaking around my body, and the palpable relief being together brought him.

The feeling was mutual and when our eyes met those golden depths burned.

So fierce was his love in them that there wasn’t a single dark piece of me that wasn’t touched by it.

Even in my fury.

“Your nose is broken again,” I said, the blood staining his face prominent.

Lush brown hair fell over his brow when he spat out the gag around his mouth, "I missed you too, little umbra.

You are even more gorgeous than the last time I saw you.

" He licked the blood off his bottom lip, smirking up at the chains.

"I can work with this." Then his growling voice penetrated my mind, weak but there. "Can you hear me, my beautiful mate?"

My heart, that had deadened the moment our bond went silent, started beating true again. "I'll never tire seeing you at my feet shifter king," I purred back, playing his game, while snarling harshly through our bond. "I told you to trust me. Where is our daughter?"

Emon's face split into a wide predator smile. "Time to leave demon, my soulmate is hungry in a way only I can satisfy her in." Then his serious tone cut through my fury and fearfulness. "She is safe."

“Emon…how exactly is our daughter safe while we both were here?”

“Much has happened, Remnant. I will explain later,” he said softly, gently, as if I was on the edge of exploding…perhaps I was.

The demon growled at Emon, striding forward during our exchange and yanking him upward with a singular arm.

Again, I marveled at his strength, before I assessed the iron chains wrapping around my soulmate, noticing that they had been carefully placed over his clothing—that goddess damn unicorn shirt preventing any burns on his smooth bronze flesh.

"You will do as we discussed, fae.” The demon shook him with emphasis, “Your female will just have to wait for her pleasure.

" Throwing him disgustedly towards the ground, the demon snapped his fingers to direct the chains to wrap around a secondary post across from me, pulling Emon tightly to it.

"Stay put until I am ready, understood?"

My shifter deep chuckle filled the darkened space and caressed over my heated skin. "Haven't got laid in a long while have you demon?

I snorted softly, realizing neither one of us played the role of captive well. Predators and monsters never did.

Looking between us, the demon snarled, spinning away with his wings snapping tightly against his wide muscular back before he paused at the tent flap. Black eyes glared at me over the ridge of his wing. "My oath will be fulfilled after this…"

I tilted my head and studied the demon more closely. "Do I want to know?" I shot through our bond still watching the curious demon in front of me.

Emon shook his head, his voice still faint. "No."

"And by the way," the demon hissed, "your acting is atrocious." Exiting, his tail whipped the flap of the yurt closed before snaking back to its owner.

The howls and cheers started anew as their second in command returned to the revelry.

My whisper was harsh, the chains rattling against the post. " What agreement, Emon?"

Shifting in his chains he wrinkled his broken nose, wincing slightly, "As I said before, some things have changed and become more problematic."

"Clearly," I quirked a brow, waiting for him to explain more.

Emon’s gaze trailed up my body, fixated on the chains wrapped around my thighs, anger and lust swirling in its depths. "Especially more problematic with those chains, they will have to go" he licked his lips again, adding smugly, "but we could keep the top ones, since you are healing now."

My stomach clenched and I shifted again in my restraints. "You don't seem at all surprised, shifter. Something you need to tell me?"

He looked up at me frowning. "It's a theory, but if I'm correct—" His focus seemed to drift inward, then widened as he sharply inhaled. "Sweet goddess above, your aura…Remnant—your soul is just as breathtaking as I imagined it to be and so much more."

I leaned in, watching the wonderment wash over him. "Emon…" I said slowly, although I had already come to the answer, "how is it that you can see auras?"

"Did you know?" he whispered reverently.

"Did you know that your aura is just as stunning as you are? I always knew the depths of you exceeded even the unparalleled beauty on the outside. I see you, Remnant Dark,” Looking at me dazed, he shook his head, "I see all of you, even the parts you hide in your darkness. "

My chest rose and fell with each quickened breath, with each loving word escaping his sensual lips. "Emon." His name a whispered prayer escaping my mouth.

Blinking, he moved against his chains, his own sight returning. "Im sorry little umbra…it’s just, you never cease to take my breath hostage, not just your beauty but all of you, and I never fucking want it back if it’s you keeping it."

Tears threatened to spill. In Emon's eyes I was the reflection I had always desperately dreamed to be but somehow I could never find…until him, until now. "I love you, shifter."

If he had access to shift, I swear his fangs would have lengthened salaciously at this moment. "Tell me, soulmate, does your aura brighten if I were to show you exactly how I love you?"

My stomach clenched and my thighs pressed together. "I'd say that's an abusive use of our shared powers." Regarding him sharply, I added, "That's what this is isn't it? We are connected from our soulmate bond…you're immune to iron."

The fabric of his blood stained pink shirt stretched when his chest puffed with pride.

"Clever little soulmate. Not at first though…

the longer I am in irons…the more resistant I become, as long as I am not weakened physically.

For example," With a deep guttural growl he pushed his arms out from his sides, thick muscle straining tightly against the chains around him before a loud crack echoed sharply in the yurt.

It was quickly followed by the clinking sound of the irons falling from his body.

I bit at my lip, watching him slowly rise from his bonds and the more severe crookedness of his nose straighten slightly, healing to its original perfectly imperfect form.

His predator presence sucking every ounce of air from my lungs while he slowly stalked towards me with an intensity that was feral.

Waving my fingers at him with a smile, I summoned the shadows, halting his slow stalking. His head jerked down in surprise to stare at my darkness anchoring him to the rug covered earth.

"Remnant," he said in a slow deep warning.

I gave him a wink. "While I appreciate your bad alpha hero saving the princess act, you should have learned by now that I am no damsel." With calculated precision, the strengthened shadows slashed my restraints with two dark blades, slinking away from me.

I sagged with relief but it was a short reprieve, memories flooding back with such violence that I clutched my chest with a sharp gasp.

My breathing erratic, my body trembling at the sight of the monstrous metal that I had thought I had escaped from—I was so wrong.

The trauma of my past still haunting me, branding me for life.

Chocolate spice enveloped me like a warm blanket and Emon’s large gentle hands cradled me into his wide muscular chest. The scent and feel of him chasing away the panic.

His hand softly gripped my chin, tilting me head to look into his golden eyes, Emon breathed deep, his nostrils flaring. "I love you and you are safe." Then he bent his head towards mine, trailing his tongue across my bloodied lips with a groan.

Hungrily, his mouth moved quickly over my cheek, the top of my shoulder, my collar bone—my breath quickened.

He bowed, studying the scratches across my torso, licking through the torn leather at the wounds beneath.

I gasped when his head ducked to my thighs where the irons had first come in contact with me during his and Riella's escape.

Delicately he licked at that skin too, healing the invisible scars, and groaning loudly again as if he had just sampled the sweetest most delicious morsel in all his years.

Heat licked its way from my head to my toes and back to where the hot breath of my soulmate still tickled my upper thigh.

" I love you too," I whispered and reached down to pull his mouth back to mine.

Swiping with my tongue at the blood covering his roughed face, returning the favor he had graced me, Emon released a predatorial purr of satisfaction followed by an explosion of our bodies crashing into each other like violent seas.

I gasped against his mouth when my back slammed into the large wooden post, instinctively wrapping my legs around him to close the distance, wanting to feel every inch of his hardened body against me.

"I need to be so far inside of you that I'll stay there permanently. I'll never be without you again," he growled low, biting and sucking at my lips like a starved beast while ripping my shorts down past my knees and thrusting his fingers deep inside of me.

He swallowed down my passionate cries while the loud drums of the demon celebration outside drowned out any noise escaping from us in the darkened yurt.

His thrusting joined the quick rhythm of the heathen drums and my stomach clenched hard as his thumb brushed against my clit.

"Cum for me, little umbra." He shoved deeper, snarling against my lips while I clawed at his arms. "You may not have needed me to save you and you may not be the damsel in distress, but I'm sure as goddess going to fuck you like one. "

I screamed, my cries of pleasure muffled by Emon's talented tongue, riding out my release in bursting spasms. Emon's chest vibrating with his own dark sensual purr of satisfaction.

Too quickly for me to comprehend, I gasped when Emon's cock pushed fully inside me.

Wrenching my hands from him, he forced them up over my head, his grip enveloping both my wrists as he pinned me to the post. "I told you I would work with this," he growled, his fangs biting at the sensitive skin between my shoulder and neck—his cock continuing to plunge rhythmically deep inside me.

"Yes!" I hissed, meeting him just as hard, wanting to feel him just the way he described, so deep that he could never leave me again.

We would be one forever.

A clawed hand dug into my ass, tilting me in a different way that sent me gasping and writhing against his grip above.

Jerking his golden gaze up to meet my own, his thrusting slowed, concern for my well being so obvious that I snarled, biting at his lip and tasting his sweet chocolate spiced blood on my tongue.

"Don't you fucking stop and don't you dare slow down."

That was all the consent he needed. Snarling harshly, he kissed me again, feeding me more of his blood from his nicked lip, furiously pounding into me. All his fears, frustrations, and worries were being relinquished onto my body and I goddess damn loved every minute of it.

My release shot through me like Hell’s fire and I felt Emon's hand rip from my ass to cover my mouth while his own buried into the crook of my neck, sinking his teeth into my skin and sending me crashing towards another release that blinded me with an explosion of stars.

My mind numb, I was only half aware of his own muffled roar as he came with deep irregular jerks, spilling his essence so far inside me that I fully believed he had indeed accomplished what he set out to do.

There would be no separating Emon from me. Not on any level of this universe's existence.

Not ever.