Page 43 of Dark Fae's Desires
“I had a vision of Rath’Na while in prison. His overwhelming emotions triggered my empathic abilities in a big way. I saw things…knewthings about him,” I explain. “Wow. That’s…” I wrinkle my nose up. “A bit weird.”
He gives me a narrow-eyed look. “Why would it beweird?”
I give him a scathing look back as I get where this is going. “Why don’t you ask me what you really want to know.” I fold my arms across my chest.
“Okay,” he says, copying my move. “Do you plan on screwing him?”
I hiss. “No! We are friends, that’s it.”
“Are you sure about that? Because he seems to think otherwise,” he hisses back.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I scoff, my cheeks going bright red, which doesn’t help my situation at all.
His eyes flash with danger for just a moment before he gives me a blank look, that I realize must be taking every ounce of strength that he has.
“We can all see the chemistry between the two of you,” he says calmly. “I want it on the record that while I may not be happy about a developing relationship between you, it is entirely up to you what you do. All I ask is that you keep me – us – apprised of your decisionbeforeyou follow through with anything.”
“I appreciate that, I do, but you have nothing to worry about,” I reassure him, taking him in my arms again and tilting my head back for a kiss.
“We’ll see,” he says grumpily, but then grudgingly gives me a kiss. “Now, are we done talking? We have a baby to make, and personally, I want to get started with that.”
I giggle, and he doesn’t stay mad at me. Although,whyhe is mad atmeis a whole other issue. Clearly, there’s a lack of trust here. I push it aside because now I want to have him in my bed, properly, making love with me all night long. I intend to make sure that I have my other men the same way when I can. I need to work on our individual relationships as well as the group one. But right now, I need to work on conceiving my heir. Sure, it’s sudden. Way sooner than Iwould’ve liked and under the least romantic circumstances – ever. But it was always the plan, and the events have dictated that we push up the timeline. I’m fine with that. Trey seems fine with that. The other men do too.
So, for tonight, I will forget about what it felt like to kill Anders. I will forget about Trey’s lack of trust in me. I will forget about Rath’Na and everyone else as Trey sweeps me up in his arms and takes me to bed for a night of unbridled passion.
Chapter 20
Rath’Na
After a night of deep thought, I find myself leaning against an old tree, whittling a piece of wood as I watch her. She is astounding. So gracious, so precious. So utterly charming.
She is playing with the ravens, throwing them carrion and then laughing with delight when they return to her, surrounding her under the thunderous sky. They clearly adore her, and I can see why. She is a very charismatic woman. Strong, fearless and fierce, but with a vulnerability that has unfortunately urged my protective side to come out. She’s gotten under my skin, and I’ve figured out why.
She rescued me from imprisonment, something that I’d resigned myself to a long time ago. I didn’t think I would ever see the light of day again. I’m assuming that when the original King died, his curse on me broke, causing me to come out of the catatonic state that he compelled me into. It’s not as bad as it could have been.
Word around here is he died about twenty-five years ago, so my imprisonment wasn’t all that long to me. A quarter of a century is nothing when you are as old as Iam, which is quite ancient. I snort to myself, finding amusement in it for some reason. I never thought I would laugh again, but then that little girl got shoved into the cage next to me and relentlessly probed my mind with that power of hers. I don’t think she did it on purpose, but I’m glad that she did. I’m glad that whatever she saw in herself through my eyes, was enough to get herself free. If I’d been forced to watch her raped and tortured at the hands of that little prick, it would have been my end, for sure. The fact that she felt enough for me to take me with her is surprising.
The second I was free of that magick-dampening cage, I could feel my strength returning. The hearty meal, jug of ale and much-needed balance of my Dragon, and I’m almost at full power. That last bit is just out of reach. But I have an idea of how to get it back, and Savannah is the key.
Not that I’m going to use her. I’m fairly confident she will help me all on her own, but getting close enough to her is tough. Her men are suspicious and protective.
So they should be. I would be, too, if she were mine. The last thing I would do is let an old Dragon like me near her. But I will convince them I mean her no harm. No harm at all. In fact, the opposite. I can only be of good to her. For some reason, she listens to me, and I’m no stranger to telling strong women what they need to do versus what they want to do.
She spins around and catches sight of me. Her smile widens and she walks over to me, a vision in her slim black dress and bare feet.
“Hi,” she says. “How are you?”
“Perfectly well,” I reply, straightening up from the tree, and stabbing the whittling knife into the tree trunk. I tower over her, and she looks up at me with a sad expression.
“I’m sorry that I didn’t check on you before. I’ve been preoccupied with this baby news.” She purses her lips.
“The peacock?” I ask with a smirk.
“That’s the one,” she says with a laugh.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t want to bore you with the details.”
