Page 20 of Reigning
And Kain, Kain once told me his dragon liked its life more than Kain liked his. What if his dragon is too different? What if it doesn’t recognize me at all?
Rime takes a single step. He’s slow to come to me. He’s slow to trust. But he does trust me. He loves me. I know his dragon feels that.
It only confirms it when he walks right to me. He lowers and sits at Chaos’ side. His longer fingers skim up my calf, and for a second, I think he might feel his wayallthe way up.
He doesn’t, though. His palm covers my knee, brushing his thumb back and forth along my smooth skin. The seriousness of his pale eyes drift to where he’s touching me, and there’s a sadness in his eyes I haven’t seen since we got here.
With him seeing Chaos so controlled, I think it makes him understand his own imprisonment a little more. Realization of what you’ve ignored can be a painful thing.
It’s even more painful to watch someone you love experience that pain.
I slip my fingers over his, and his eyes close, his head tilting back like he, too, just wants to shut the world out for a little while.
“Kain?”
When I look up at him, I find the shifter halted in his tracks, watching the three of us with confusion in his eyes.
“Sit with me, Kain.” I curl my index finger and motion him over with a gentle tone.
His wide shoulders are stiff, and he looks at me with a hard gaze.
He…doesn’t recognize me. The others felt our bond. The others have felt me inside and out. The others know every part of me.
Kain doesn’t.
That’s why it stuns me when he strides right to me. The dark brick meets his jeans, and he kneels in front of me. A possessive palm slides over my stomach, and my muscles there jump beneath his touch. I tip my chin up to him the moment he’s close enough. He kisses me so hard it steals the breath in my lungs.
I don’t dare push him away. I want him to remember me. I want him to feel the connection that’s so faint inside me that I feel like I’m grasping at something I never even had.
He pushes me back until I’m pinned between his chest and Chaos’ while Rime’s hand finally does drift slowly higher. It feels wrong and right all at the same time. Even as his tongue spears my lips and he takes control of the kiss like every part of me belongs to him.
And then I feel it. Something inside me coils to life, blooming through my soul, my core; even my mind flutters with this feeling.
It’s our bond. It’s a consuming feeling that only becomes more dominant the longer he kisses me, biting my lip until I whimper against his mouth.
I tighten my fingers into his shirt. The moment I pull him harder against me, he jerks back. Green, hooded eyes study me intently, his fingers trailing along the shape of my face for several seconds. He looks at me differently but the same. His palms wrap around my thighs, and when he yanks me away from the other two shifters, I gasp. He carries me across the room, his gaze sweeping suspiciously toward Sinister who sits with a cocked brow, watching us vividly like he’s at a lovely day at the theater.
“I’m not a threat. Just a fly on the wall. Don’t hurt your toy, though. She’s…fragile.Fragile,” Sinister repeats with emphasis in case Kain didn’t understand the first time.
Kain doesn’t look at the demon again, but he lays me down with a new gentleness. His big body weights over me, pressing into me just slightly before he pulls me firmly onto his chest. The shifter doesn’t do anything aggressive. If anything, it feels like a show of claim from the alpha male to the others.
Silence settles in, and his breathing becomes an even sound that fills my ears while I rest my head against his chest. An hour goes on like that, but I can’t sleep.
“You think they’ll really do all the things Ellise instructs them to?” Sinister’s question is a low hum of words that skim the darkness.
“I don’t know,” I whisper back.
I consider all the people Ellise is willing to hurt to get the things she feels she’s deserved. But it won’t just be her who irreversibly harms others.
It’ll be my mates.
It’ll be me.
Nine
Fire Face
The following morningis stranger by far.
