Possessed by a Dark Warrior (31 page)

He rose onto his feet and she backed away from him, still shaking her head, her fine eyebrows rising high.

Gods, he had meant to comfort her and he had only made it worse. She had to speak with him, she had to tell him about what haunted her, or he would only keep making mistakes with her.

“I do not want to be punished,” she mumbled and looked down at her feet. “I do not want it.”

He reached for her and she lashed out at him, catching him across his left pectoral with her claws. He leaped back when she snarled, baring her fangs at him. Blood trickled down his chest.

“Keep away. Do not touch me!” She backed away from him again, until she hit the rear wall of the cave and couldn’t move any further. She tossed a panicked look beyond him to the cave mouth.

No. He couldn’t let her run away again.

He sidestepped and blocked her path.

She threw a pained glance at him and her face crumpled. “Please do not punish me. I did not mean to escape the cage… but I had to fly.”

“I know,” he whispered and held his hands up, hoping to calm her. “I will not punish you, Taryn… but someone did. Who punished you?”

Because he wanted a name, something he could go on, someone he could punish for her.

Her eyes turned wild. “The first was a mortal… he was not strong enough to hold me… he was not strong enough to break me.”

“The first?” Bleu snarled, darkness curling through him, driving back the light. “How many have tried to hurt you, Taryn?”

“Tried?” she whispered and blinked, and gods he wanted to hold her when she looked at him like that, the truth shining in her striking eyes. The bastards hadn’t tried to hurt her. They had hurt her.

He stepped towards her, his bare chest heaving as he struggled to keep control and keep his voice smooth and calm so he didn’t frighten her. “Tell me their names.”

She blinked again, her eyes darted around, and her fear jacked up, panic and frustration joining it.

She shook her head and looked at him. “I do not know their names.”

Gods damn it.

“Then tell me what you do know. Give me something I can use so I can make them pay for the things they did to you.” He reached for her again and backed off when she flashed those killer sharp teeth at him, warning him away. He knew she needed her space, but it was hard to hold himself at a distance when he wanted to draw her into his arms and hold her to comfort her.

Her eyes locked with his, clearer again now. “You swear you will make them pay?”

He nodded.

Her pretty face blackened. “You will kill them?”

He didn’t hesitate.

“I will
slaughter
them for you.”

She took a step towards him. “There are six of them.”

“Six is nothing. I can kill six with a mere thought. I will crush them and I will make sure they know they died because they hurt you.”

Her violet-to-white eyes leaped between his. “Why would you do this for me?”

Because he loved her.

Gods, he loved her.

He could embrace the darkness inside him if it meant avenging her. He wouldn’t hesitate. He would do whatever it took, no matter how bloody or dangerous it was.

“Because…” he started but trailed off, unsure what to tell her. She was in no state to hear about his feelings or anything of that sort.

She smiled. “Because you are my fated one?”

His eyes widened but he nodded. She knew. He had suspected as much but hearing her say it still hit him hard. It unleashed a need to tell her more, to tell her that he had feelings for her and that he wanted to complete this bond between them. He held his tongue instead, because he didn’t want to tell her things in the heat of the moment that she might not remember when the madness lost its grip on her.

He needed to know that she was in control and knew what she was saying when he told her and she gave him a response.

He didn’t think he could handle her admitting her feelings for him only to forget she had ever said anything about them.

“Tell me,” he husked, voice thick with emotion and need to know what had happened to her so he could understand her and help her. He didn’t want to hurt her, but he had to know.

She looked down at her wrists and began rubbing them again. “The first caught me three centuries ago. A mortal. He tried to break me but I was too strong… so he sold me.”

Her hands trembled and Bleu had to pin his feet to the ground to stop himself from crossing the short span of black rock to her. The need to hold her was overwhelming, battering his control, but he had to keep his distance and let her talk. She needed to tell someone what had happened to her. He could see it in her because he had been in the same situation once, only he hadn’t shared his feelings and they had festered inside him, corrupting him.

He didn’t want that for her.

“The second was a shifter… a cat… and the third was a witch.” A dark smile curled her lips. “Even they were not strong enough. I fought them… I hurt them… and they sold me.”

Her shaking worsened.

“The f-fourth…”

She swallowed hard and closed her eyes.

“He was stronger… owned many females. H-he…” Her eyes snapped open, a glassy quality to them. She wasn’t with him again. She was lost in her memories, drowning in them. “I wanted to fly. I want to fly.”

She looked beyond him.

Bleu inched into her line of sight. “I know. You can fly soon… but you were telling me something.”

And it was hurting her.

He wanted to tell her she could stop, but she had to keep talking. She needed to speak about what had happened to her and she hadn’t come far enough yet, she hadn’t delved deep enough for their conversation to have done her any good. He hated listening to her talking about the things that had happened to her, despised the way her heart would hitch whenever she tried to say that the males had touched her but couldn’t bring herself to speak the words, but he would put himself through this torment if it would help her.

“Did they ever?” He couldn’t finish that question, wasn’t sure he was strong enough to hear her answer without losing his mind and going mad with a need to slaughter every male who had done so much as look at her.

She shook her head. “I fought them… I hurt them.”

But they had hurt her too.

It was there in her eyes.

She might have managed to fight the males off to stop them from forcing her into sex, but they had lashed out at her in return, punishing her for disobeying them and not allowing them to paw her and use her against her will.

His strong, brave little female.

Tears lined her eyes and she wrapped her arms around herself.

“The fifth… a fae… an incubus… he kept me in a cage… made me watch… th-things.” She shuddered and curled into herself, and he couldn’t stop himself from moving closer to her, filled with a need to comfort her. She looked so small like that. Vulnerable. Gods, he needed to hold her. Her eyes squeezed shut and she lowered her head. “H-he liked me watching… he liked it when I tried to make him stop… he hurt females just to see me react… my brother hurts females…”

Her knees gave out and he caught her before she hit the rough ground, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close to him. He realised his mistake but it was too late. He couldn’t undo what had happened. All he could do was brace himself for her wrath.

It didn’t come.

Rather than lashing out at him, she buried her face against his neck, her breath hot on his skin as she sobbed.

He straightened with her, closed his eyes and rubbed her back between her shoulders, muttering soothing things to her in the elf tongue. The need to kill that had been surging like a terrible tide within him washed away, running from him as he held her and listened to her ragged breaths and felt the wet of her tears on his shoulder.

“I need to fly,” she whispered, lips brushing his skin, and he tried not to draw pleasure from that caress.

“I know,” he murmured and stroked her hair, holding her gently and absorbing how good she felt against him, and how good it felt that she let him do this for her despite everything that had happened to her.

She let him hold her even though males had hurt her.

Did that mean she trusted him not to do the same?

He wasn’t brave enough to ask, so he voiced another question instead.

“What happened with the fifth?” Because he wanted to kill that male first.

“The sixth murdered him.”

Damn.

He would have to settle for the pleasure of killing that male instead.

“Who was he?” He lowered his head and breathed in her scent, using the smell of sunshine and blue skies to calm his furious need to avenge her.

“A demon,” she whispered against his flesh. “He grew angry with me when I kept fighting him and managed to destroy half of his home, and took me back to the market to sell me and replace me with someone weaker.”

She was lucky that dragons were so rare and valuable in the slave trade, otherwise any one of the males she had fought and denied might have killed her rather than sold her.

“The market where I saw you?”

She nodded and settled her head on his shoulder, and gods, it felt like Heaven. The fingers of her left hand traced patterns on his right pectoral and he could feel her focus was there, on where she touched him.

“Cait helped me escape… a hellcat…” She drew back and looked up at him, her eyes crystal clear and shining. She was back with him, the tide of her memories abating, and deep in the pit of his soul he felt warmed by the knowledge that he had helped her. He would keep helping her. He would do whatever it took, for however long it took, to free her from her past. Her eyes leaped between his. “I knew you were coming.”

“Because you saw me in a vision?” He frowned down at her and she nodded again. “They only come when I am near?”

Another nod. A little smile. “Because you are my fated one.”

Her fingers paused at their work of driving him mad with a need to caress her in return, to learn her body at the same time as she learned his, taking small steps forwards and closing the gap between them until they finally came together. She pressed her palm against his bare chest, scalding him and branding his flesh with her touch.

“You are my fated one?” Her eyes searched his.

He nodded. “I am… and you are mine.”

Mine
.

Gods… she was. His mate. Mine.

He wanted to growl that word at her but bit down on his tongue instead, aware that if he uttered it, he would push her back into the past, to times when other males had sought possession of her.

Had tried to rule her.

He wanted nothing of that sort, and the word would simply be an admission on his part, telling her more that he belonged to her now than she belonged to him, but it would frighten her nonetheless.

Gods… he was hers though. He had been hers from the moment he had set eyes on her. He just hadn’t known it back then.

He knew it now as he gazed down at her though, her warm body pressing against his, her beautiful eyes tinged with shyness, as if she was aware of his sentimental thoughts, could hear them rattling around his head. Not the thoughts of a warrior, cold and methodical, but the thoughts of a lover, tender and warm. Probably the last thing she expected from him given their history.

Her smile faded and she lowered her gaze to his chest. “I have caused you trouble though.”

“You had to fly,” he said in a matter of fact tone, one he hoped would make her see that he understood her now and that what she had done mattered little to him because she had needed to do it. Her smile returned and it was hard to hold back and stop himself from caressing her cheek. “My prince will understand when we return to the castle and speak with him.”

Taryn stiffened. “I cannot go back.”

He sighed and rubbed her shoulders, frowned at how cold they were and teleported the blanket to his hand. He wrapped it around her again, and then encircled her in his arms and drew her against him, using his body to warm hers.

The tension melted from her the instant they made contact and the warmth in the pit of his soul grew hotter, a flicker of flame that she had fanned with her acceptance of his embrace, one that comforted him deeply.

She settled her cheek against his chest again. He rested his chin on top of her head and stared across the cave.

“They will put me back—”

“It will not happen again,” he cut her off and held her closer, surprised when she pressed against him, as if she needed to be closer still. As if she needed him. “I will make sure of it. I won’t let anything happen to you, Taryn. I will protect you.”

She pulled back again and looked up into his eyes, hers wide and filled with warmth and surprise that he could feel flowing through her blood.

He released her and gave up fighting his urges.

He brushed the backs of his fingers across her cheek, and murmured in a husky low voice, “I will protect you… from your brother… from the soldiers… from everyone if I must.”

Heat stirred in his veins as she gazed up at him and it ran through their connection too, flowing from her and into him. That connection blossomed, grew stronger as he fell into her eyes, forging an unbreakable link between their hearts.

Her hands pressed against his bare chest, burning him with her touch, turning his control to ashes as her lips parted and she leaned closer.

His gaze fell to her mouth. He tried to look away, but his eyes refused to leave the tempting curves of her lips as she tilted her head back. An invitation. Gods, he wanted to take it, but she was hurting, had just bared the darkest part of her past and was vulnerable. He couldn’t take advantage of her like that.

No matter how desperately he wanted to kiss her.

He cursed the part of himself that had suddenly turned all noble. Just days ago he would have had her pinned to the wall and panting his name already, but now he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

“Bleu,” she husked and gods, his name sounded too good when it fell from her lips like that, breathed on a passion-drenched sigh.

A sigh that stirred the images of his dreams in his mind, the wicked acts they had performed while tangled together, lost for a moment in each other.