Page 103 of The King is Dead
Then the drums shifted rhythms again, and Yilan rolled her head on her neck. Her eyes opened and her gaze drifted across the crowd slowly.
She was searching for me. I could feel it. I sent a surge in the bond, eager for her, urging her to find me and then she did—her eyes snapping to my face for a split second before the steps of the dance had her body curling forward and her hair fell between us like a veil.
The men around me cheered, raising their voices to urge the women on.
I wasn’t entirely clear on what was happening, until Yilan repeated the sequence of moves, then took a few steps to the right and began again.
The women that remained near the flames were all doing the same, dancing a choreographed set of steps, then drifting around to pause, then begin again. Slowly, in this way, they all circled the flames.
The men were outright cheering now, even raising voices to name some of the women, or call to them. But none of the women raised their heads, or answered the calls.
Yilan’s hair had fallen over her face, but I couldfeelher looking for me; whenever her steps allowed her to face me, her body leaned closer. She reached for me in the bond—yet behind that curtain of hair, no one else could see who she was looking at, only that she leaned in this direction.
There was a tortured groan from one of the men near the front, and I had to bite my tongue.
Turo stood right behind the line of women who’d made a hedge of protection between us and the dancers. There were so many voices, so many cheers, every individual word was swallowed by the crowd, but I knew what the man was doing.
He was calling to my mate. Urging her on.Seeking her.
I did growl then, but it was lost in the hubbub of all the men who were growing more and more excited.
As the dance fully circled the fire and Yilan returned to front and center, the beat changed again and without warning, the men surged forward, held back only by the women who had formed a fence in front of them by linking arms.
My instinct was to roar and demand that the men stay back, but the women holding them were smiling and laughing, and none of the men broke the line.
My skin itched, my bodyneedy.Along with the others, I was drawn closer and closer.
Ineededher. It was torment not to be close. And then I blinked and watched her body roll again, a teasing glimpse of skin at her waist revealed as she twisted, and the skirt fluttered, falling in a straight panel down her front and between her legs, offering glimpses of her thighs and knees and—
God, I wanted to bite something.
Mostly her.
I was beginning to tremble, uncertain if there had been intoxicants in those herbs, or it was only my body responding to the sexual tension in the air… but I wanted her away from here. I wanted her inmyarms. I wantedher. And I was more than willing to fight my way through this sea of masculine lust to reach her.
Hands clenched to fists, I fought to keep myself in check.
I couldn’t ruin everything now. These men had begrudgingly accepted my presence. They were ignoring me now, enthralled by the women. I couldn’t become a threatagain.
But then Yilan turned her body, rolling her hips and lifting her arms so that the fabric against her breasts pulled tight and my cock went fully hard. The men surged forward again and I trembled, growling.
She is mine.
No one else can have her.
She. Is.Mine.
38. The Wanting
~ YILAN ~
As the drumbeats crescendoed, I felt drunk with wanting. Melek’s need poured through the bond. Nothing within me wanted to deny him. Iached.And I felt him yearning in return.
But I had been so focused on him—catching him with my eyes when I could, but turning my attention inwards to the bond and drawing him there when I couldn’t—that as the dance drew to a close I was trembling.
The drums slowed, and our swinging hips with them. We would turn two more circles on the spot, and then the women who’d been protecting us would turn outwards, choosing men to allow them to approach.
It was tradition that now the men would be allowed to step forward and make their cases, to describe the value they held for the dancer of their choice, and to offer themselves as mate and husband.
