Page 15 of Wild Bond (Wild Bond #1)

“S o, you believe someone in the castle is behind this, then?” I asked. It had only taken us a few minutes to slip out of the tavern, and now we were back on the dark familiar streets outside.

Rake didn’t answer, but I didn’t think that was because he was ignoring me. He looked like he was weighing what we had just seen, and whatever conclusions he was coming to made him angry.

“Why was the color of the ring significant?” I pressed, nearly jogging to keep up with his much longer strides.

He halted abruptly, stopping with his back to a shuttered window that was lit around the edges from a soft glow within. His large frame looked rather menacing as he stood in the shadows before me. The sharp lines of his jaw and slanted cheekbones were even more pronounced, and his blue eyes nearly glowed. “Each member of the royal family wears a gold ring with a crest of the tree of Andor,” he explained, his voice low. He held up his fist so that his large, masculine-looking ring was facing towards me, the silver gleaming against his bronze skin in the faint light. “Every member of the council has a ring with the dragon seal. Each one is slightly different, as they are commissioned by each individual when we are appointed. But they are all silver.”

I could just make out the oval shape and the design of a dragon in flight, wings spread wide, before he lowered his hand. The weight of what he was saying finally hitting me. My eyes shot to his. “So, you’re saying that you think those chains were ordered by someone in the royal family . . . or someone on the Dragon Rider Council?” I swallowed hard at the mere thought. If someone that powerful was behind whatever this was . . . “But who?” I asked incredulously. “And why?”

“Your guess is as good as mine at this point,” he muttered. Then he gestured with his head. “Come on. We shouldn’t linger here.”

My mind raced as I followed after his long strides, mulling over all the implications of what we had discovered. Surely a rider couldn’t be behind the capture of that poor dragon. And what did this all have to do with why Borden had gone missing? What had been done to him? I tried not to think of the scene back in the tavern. What exactly had he died from, anyway?

A few minutes and several street turns later, Rake spoke. “We never did get back to why you were in Sal’s Tavern tonight,” he mused conversationally as he strode beside me. His tone was much lighter than it had been only moments before, and I couldn’t help but wonder at the sudden shift. “Though you are good at deflecting,” he went on, “I’m rather tenacious when I want to know something.”

Damn. I was hoping he wouldn’t remember that I hadn’t actually answered him earlier. Even though I knew I wasn’t getting around this, I couldn’t help but try. “Was there an actual question in there?”

He sighed, sounding almost beleaguered when he demanded, “Who were you looking for at the tavern, Rin?”

“I just wanted to take in the city. Visit my old hunting grounds, relive the not so glory days—”

“Rin!” he repeated, pulling me to a stop in the middle of the street. “You said you were looking for someone. Who?”

Looking up into his eyes, I knew that he wasn’t going to let this go. My shoulders finally sagged in defeat. “A friend.”

He waited, but when I said nothing more, he inquired mock-patiently, “And why are you looking for this friend? Is this why you’ve been sneaking out of The Tower for the last few days?”

I gaped. “You know about that?”

“Of course, I know,” he stated drolly, as if that should have been obvious.

I guessed that was true; he wouldn’t be very good at his job if even I could slip past him. While I liked to think I was skilled at being sneaky, this was Kyan Rakim we were talking about. I’d have to be a ghost to get past him.

“So,” he repeated, returning to the topic at hand. “Why are you looking for this friend?”

I bit my lip. “She’s someone I knew before . . . before I was arrested. I want to know if she’s okay. I’ve been looking in some of our old spots, where we used to find marks,” I didn’t meet his eye as I said that part, “but so far I’ve had no luck.”

His gaze assessed my face, and I knew he could see the worry there I wasn’t able to hide. “What’s her name?”

I sighed. “Lessa. She’s . . . well, I never really knew how old she was, but she would be about nine or ten now.”

“And is this the same friend you were helping the night you stole the sword?”

Curse the Nine! Why did he have to be so perceptive?

I stared at him but stayed silent, refusing to link her to the crime in any way. The last thing I wanted was for her to be arrested for something I had more or less already served the sentence for. Though, admittedly, I wasn’t so sure Rake would arrest her now, even if he knew. I was starting to think I wasn’t the only one full of contradictions.

“Very well,” he said when I didn’t reply. “What does she look like?”

I began to describe her, then halted. “Wait, why would you ask that?”

A hint of humor lit his eyes. “So I can help you find her.”

“What?” I breathed in surprise. “You’d do that?”

The hard lines of his face softened, and he reached out to push a strand of hair behind my ear, the hood of my cloak having fallen down at some point. “I think it might surprise you what I’d be willing to do for you,” he replied.

Something warm fluttered in my chest at his assertion.

“I’ll get her description out to my contacts in the morning.”

I saw that familiar heat in his eyes, but I knew nothing but heartbreak lay down that road.

Pulling away from him, I turned and began walking briskly away, thanking the Gray Gods that I was headed in the right direction. I prayed he wouldn’t follow me, but knew my luck wasn’t that good.

In seconds, he matched my stride.

“Why is it that if we’re not training, you always seem to be running away from me?” he asked, his conversational tone back once more.

“I am not,” I lied, not willing to admit my cowardice; a cowardice that only seemed to materialize when I was around him.

“Liar,” he said, his tone amused rather than accusing.

“I am not—”

“And why is that, do you think?” he continued, speaking over my denial. “Could it be because I make you nervous?”

“You don’t make me—”

“Or is it because you’re intimidated by me?”

“I am intimidated by you,” I began as we turned down an alleyway heading towards the upper city, “but that’s not why—”

Suddenly, I was spun to face him again, my back to the ally wall. His eyes blazed down into mine.

“ Or ,” he breathed, his face inches from mine, “is it because you can’t seem to admit to the attraction between us?” He was close enough that I caught a hint of that intoxicating scent again. “And for some inexplicable reason, you are fighting what you feel, and denying us both what we want.”

I swallowed hard. “And what is that?” My voice didn’t sound like my own, it was too breathy.

He didn’t say anything, he just lowered his mouth and kissed me. It started out slow, our lips lightly touching and exploring one another’s. But then he nipped my bottom lip. I whimpered in response, and the kiss devolved into something needy, hot, and urgent. Before I knew it, his body was pressing hard into mine, the heat between us growing and becoming nothing but tongues and teeth and sheer need.

My mind was telling me this was a bad idea, trying to remind me who this man was that was kissing me so passionately and whose large, hard body it was that felt so good against mine. It yelled at me that this could never work, that I was nothing but a thief, a gutter rat, and this man was one of the most powerful men in all the kingdoms.

But then my back pressed further into the wall, and his large hand fisted tightly in my hair. I groaned, quickly losing any train of thought as my knees nearly gave out from under me.

His other hand found its way under my cloak and grasped me tightly around the waist. His warm thumb rubbed over the bare skin of my side where my top had ridden up.

I was painfully aware of every movement he made as he slid his hand up slowly, that thumb grazing the side of my breast.

I gasped sharply, pulling away slightly.

He took advantage and lowered his mouth, licking softly at my hammering pulse. I felt him inhale against my skin and groan, “You always smell so incredible. Like fresh air and jasmine. Innocent yet sultry. The combination drives me insane.”

His words set me on fire, and I felt slightly mindless and out of control as I finally let myself touch his stubbled jaw. I reveled in the raspy feel of it against my skin, then fed my fingers through his lush dark hair and pulled his mouth back up to mine.

I kissed him this time, inhaling his growl of approval as our mouths and tongues danced together, I wrapped my arms around his neck and couldn’t seem to get close enough.

It was sometime later that he broke the kiss, his forehead dropping to rest against mine. “We have to stop,” he breathed harshly. “This isn’t the place for this.”

For a moment, his words didn’t register in my mind, I was too busy watching those perfect lips move as he spoke. But then our surroundings began to seep back in, and I regretfully remembered where we were.

He was right. This was not the place. I nodded faintly and he stepped away.

Instantly, I missed his warmth.

“We should go,” he said. Then he smiled wickedly, “Oh, and thanks for these.” He flashed something silver before my eyes before it disappeared back into his cloak.

I was still catching my breath against the wall, and it took my kiss-addled brain a moment to understand what I was seeing.

The lock picks.

Realms! Blast him! He had stolen back my lock picks. To be fair, they were his to start out with, but possession was nine tenths of the law and all that.

“That was low, even for you!” I called after him, seeing as he had started walking away and was already at the head of the alley.

He didn’t even glance back, and I could hear the cocky smirk in his voice as he called back, “Are you coming?”

I couldn’t help the wide grin that spread across my face in the darkness before I straightened my cloak and followed after him.