Page 28 of Bonded By Savages

I clear my throat. “Yes, Nelly, come in.”

She shakes her head as she enters. The two of us resist the urge to stand, to grab her, to kiss her deep, pressing her against the wall, feeling her little body against us. Her slim beauty is so different from our brutal forms, our muscles bulging obscenely compared to her grace.

She stops on the other side of the coffee table, standing in front of the fire. “I lied to you. If you must add to my punishment, I accept it,” she says, holding her chin up. There’s bravery in her as she looks us in the eyes, first staring into Damian’s, then mine.

There’s nervousness in her aura, but no fear.

Any other woman would be terrified. She was snatched up by creatures she has been told a thousand terrible rumors about. I remember the way I hated Fanatics before I joined them, when I still thought the Aurelian Empire was a force for good. She’s near trembling, but there’s none of the sickly, yellow terror in her aura that let us hold back before.

There’s only a thick robe between us and her perfect body. Damian and I changed after ripping through the last set of clothes, and we’re wearing sweatpants that give us increased mobility. Armor won’t do anything against an Orb-Blade, and if Fanatics come, we’ll need to pivot and turn in the hallways of the manor. We each have a thick black belt that holds the hilts of our Orb-Blades, and we’re both wearing grey T-shirts.

I can tell she appreciates that the tattoos on our chests are covered. Of all my scars and wounds, only that one seems distasteful to her.

“What lie?” Damian can’t keep his voice gentle. He barks it out like a command, like we’re descending on a war-torn planet in our Reaver, Orb-Blades in hand, ready to charge into combat.

“My name. I…my real name is Athena. I was told that Fanatics take. I thought I could keep that one thing, as my own.” She trembles as she says it, and I want to go to her, hug her tight against my chest, and comfort her.

Fanatics.

I always hated that word, but when it comes to the War-God, he gave me my Mate. I would follow him like a Fanatic. I can offer her no comfort when she sees me as a brutal conqueror and nothing else. My touch would make her tremble more.

“Athena,” I say, tasting the name on my lips. It tastes all the sweeter for having been given to me. It suits her. She’s a goddess, perfection incarnate, made only for me and my battle-brother.

“You’re healthier,” states Damian, his voice flat, but a surge of relief in his mind. I know he was running through different lies she may have told, wondering if she put herself in worse danger.

His hand clenches, and he puts down the pewter cup too hard. It chips at the bottom, a flake falling to the stone ground. He’s fighting off his lust, same as I, because seeing her here, without terror, is everything we needed. My cock surges up against my sweatpants, pressing against the material, and I want her to mount me on this chair, to lean back and have her ride me like a banshee, finally giving in to the lust that fills her being.

Her lip trembles. “Please. I…I beg of you, please don’t let those five women get auctioned off to Priests.”

Damian growls.

“How much do we tell her?”I telepath to him. I want to make her understand it’s not so easy as snapping our fingers and keeping them as servants, protected in our home. By all the laws of the Old Ways, it should be so…

But the Priests have shown they care more about power than their own laws.

Even their prophecies will serve them.

Damian licks his lips.

His aura has an uncertainty to it I’m not used to. He makes split-second decisions, and they’re always the right ones—or good enough that when followed through with intense violence, we make them the right ones.

Now, facing a near-naked woman, he’s shook to the core.

10

Damian

She came to us, submissive and begging, needing our protection. We did not go to her room and drag her here. She stands on her own will, nearly naked, offering herself to me.

When I felt my Mate for the first time, when the Bondthrummedand I knew she was more than a fool’s hope, it was not her resilience and intellect that drew me to her.

No, it was her goodness, this purity to her that made me all the more furious that she was not yet mine. Athena cares deeply for others.

That goodness was punished and tortured by the cruel Toad Lord. He sought to stamp it out. I don’t know how she kept it.

When I lost my battle-brother Raython, the anger was so great I lost every shred of honor I had.

She is stronger than me, in her own way, despite being less than half my size, despite being as fragile as the mug I broke through my carelessness.

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