Page 60 of Hunted
I ducked my head to kiss those perfect lips, letting any lingering anger or resentment fall away.“For you,” I voiced against her lips.“I would move mountains and pull down the stars.Tolerating your affection for one annoying dragon princess is nothing.”
She huffed a laugh and pressed another quick kiss to my lips.“How are you so perfect?”
Cicely signed to me, a wry smile quirking up one corner of his lips.“Seems like you don’t need me after all.”
“Stay,” I signed back to him.I knew he was here more for moral support and protection for Ruya than for any other reason, but it really would be convenient to have him help with communicating the steps of the bonding ceremony.
And it was nice to have a witness.No one could say I had coerced Ruya or used her omega nature to manipulate her into this bond.I might not be able to give her the celebration she deserved.But I would give her this.Protection and respect.Her chosen beta by her side for what passed as our bonding ceremony.
“Come,” I voiced, taking Ruya’s hand and drawing her into the spell circle with me.A ceremony wasn’t strictly necessary.All that was really needed was intent, an alpha, and an omega.Consent didn’t even figure into the equation.Far too many bondings weren’t happy, or even consensual.But our bond was different.This was an occasion to be marked with magic and celebration, and I wanted to share it with mother earth.
Ruya’s light blue eyes were silver in the thin moonlight, just like the rest of her.A goddess of silver and moonbeams come down to frolic on the earth for a night.I let my aura expand, brushing hers, drawing on the energies of the earth that were so sacred to the naga, and to the witch in her.
We both smiled, breathless anticipation flooding the space.
Cicely had helped me explain my plans to Ruya earlier in the evening.But he served as officiant now, gently reviewing the steps with little nudges of mind speak.He stepped up to the circle now and held out a soft, well-worn fabric bag tied up with silk ribbon.Ruya wouldn’t be able to see the decoration that I had hunted down for her, but I hoped she’d appreciate the soft slipperiness of the ribbon against her fingers.
Taking the bag, I held it out to her, witnessed her childlike glee as she took out the bracelet.Solid aged gold, a detailed serpent curled into a circle, swallowing its own tail.A family relic and naga symbol, one of the few things I had managed to bring with me from my old life.It had survived everything that made me who I was today.Josh had helped me hide it away when we were with the vampires, and I’d kept it nearby since then, tucked amid my meagre possessions, almost afraid to wear it after hiding it for so long.It was the only thing of material worth that I had to offer.My most valuable possession.
“It’s...a snake?”Ruya took it in both hands, her sensitive fingers exploring the details of the bracelet as she made sense of what she held.
I took it from her and slipped it around her wrist.Despite its age, the clasp worked beautifully, the serpent’s jaws opening and clicking closed on its tail without resistance.It was a bold, heavy piece.One I had worn quite frequently in my younger days.But it looked perfect on her.My sweet, gentle mate had a statuesque build, the height and bone structure of a goddess.She wore it well.
As I finished clasping the bracelet and drew away, her fingers brushed mine.Magic sparked between us, her golden healing energy reaching for me.I leaned into the sensation, let my alpha aura unfurl, inviting her in, letting our energies mingle.
She didn’t hesitate or pull back at the sensation.She simply let it wash over us and submitted, like a flower blooming under the sun, her aura opening to me even more, letting the power flow between us.Thetrustshe had in me warmed me to the bone, and it brought forth every alpha instinct I possessed.I must protect her, treasure her, make her mine in every way—she was a part of me.
I had always been careful not to let my full alpha aura influence her.But now...I slowly released my tight hold on my aura, let it unfold around me.The innate power and influence inside me that was meant to draw betas, omegas, and gammas into my orbit reached out for my mate.
She stepped closer, clearly feeling the pull between us.“Sadavir?”My name looked like a prayer falling from her lips.
“You’re certain?”I asked one last time.“Ruya, will you become my true mate?”
Sudden unwelcome memories assailed me.I had been here before.On the precipice of binding myself to an omega.The risk of manipulation wasn’t all one-sided.She would have such power over me.I would do anything to make sure she was happy and safe.But she could use that against me.Use her omega wiles to subtly steer and manipulate me.Like he had...
Ruya reached up and pressed her palms to the center of my chest, right over the place where my heart beat so fiercely I felt it might explode.Her touch was warm.Real.It grounded me in the present moment and shook me out of whatever strange episode I’d fallen into.
Ruya wasn’thim—Dimitri, the omega who had nearly destroyed me in my youth.She wasn’t here for the power she would gain by influencing the prince and future king of the naga clan.This was Ruya.Sweet, strong, caring, selflessRuya.I had nothing to fear from giving her my heart.I knew, on some instinctual, primal level, that she would protect me as fiercely as I protected her.
I mirrored her, placing my own hand in the center of her chest, feeling her pulse, her fiercely beating heart echoing my own.
We whispered the words together.Not borrowed ones.The vows I had written just for us.Each short phrase was a whispered promise, weighty and meaning more than the words alone conveyed.
“I give you my strength, I give you my weakness.I give you my voice, I give you my silence.I give you what I am, and what I am not, and all the spaces in between, that we may find safety and shelter there together.Always.”
The vows weren’t what made the bonding official.That would come later.But still, the blessings woven into the spell circle for joy, abundance, and fertility settled over us, promising us what good fortune such minor things could offer.Our magic surged.
Her aura flared wide—soft gold, deep green, pulses of sunset pink and silver.Mine coiled around hers, sinuous as my beast nature, slipping into the gaps, folding around hers protectively, possessively.
We breathed each other in.
My mate.My omega.I drew her close, pressing her deliciously soft body to mine as I claimed her sweet mouth, careful of my aching, elongated fangs.I needed to bite her.To claim her and fill her with my venom.It was a physical ache inside me.But before that...my hands slid around to grip her glorious ass and half-lift her, pressing her even closer.Before any of that, I needed to be inside her, needed to fill her with my essence, my seed, and my magic.Mine.
She melded to me easily, pressing up on her toes and grinding into my hardness with an urgent little noise that made me shudder with the effort it took to control my shift.
“I need you,” I voiced in her ear, pausing to kiss and nip at the glowing, moon-bathed skin of her neck and shoulder.“Now.Here.I want to take you in the grass like an animal.”
Instinct rode me hard, demanding I complete this claimingnow, here, with the energies of the earth beneath us and all around us...but I held back for a single moment.My instincts might be strong, but I was still a man.And the woman in my arms was infinitely precious.All she had to do was say the word and I’d carry her back inside, make sure she had every modern convenience at hand before I saw to her pleasure...
