Chapter 5 #2
The offer was tempting, more tempting than it had any right to be.
But underneath his words, I could hear the shadows whispering their approval, and I knew that whatever he was offering came with strings attached.
Invisible chains that would be no less binding than the physical ones currently holding me.
"What about my freedom?" I asked.
"Freedom is an illusion," he said, pulling back to meet my eyes. "You were never free in the Empire. Here, you would be a cherished mate, protected and provided for."
"A beautiful cage is still a cage."
"Perhaps. But it's a cage where you would be safe, fed, and loved." His hand moved down to rest over my heart. "I can feel your longing, Aeveth. Through the bond. You miss them—your other lovers. The ones who marked you before I claimed you."
The words hit me like a physical blow. He was right, of course. I did miss them—Tarshi and Sirrax, Septimus and the others who had become my chosen family. The ache of their absence was a constant pain in my chest, made worse by the growing certainty that I might never see them again.
"They're looking for me," I said, trying to inject confidence I didn't feel into my voice.
"Perhaps. But they will never find you here. Thal'Zereth is hidden from Imperial eyes, protected by magic older than your Empire. Even if they somehow learned of its location, they would never be permitted to enter."
"You don't know them. They won't give up."
"And what if they don't?" His voice hardened. "What if they somehow managed the impossible and found their way here? Do you think my people would simply let them take you? Do you think I would?"
The possessive edge in his voice sent chills down my spine. I could feel the shadows stirring in response to his emotions, feeding off his jealousy and territorial instincts.
"They're my mates too," I said quietly. "The bond I share with them is just as real as this one."
"No." The word came out as a growl, and I saw his eyes flash with something inhuman. "You are mine now. The other bonds... they are weak, diluted. This bond supersedes them all."
"That's not how it works," I protested, though I wasn't entirely certain. The magic that governed mate bonds was still largely a mystery to me.
"Isn't it?" He leaned closer again, and I could feel the power radiating from him like heat from a forge. "Can you feel them now? Your other mates? Can you sense their emotions, their location, their needs?"
I tried, reaching out with whatever mystical sense allowed me to perceive the bond.
But where once I had felt warm connections to Tarshi and the others, now there was only silence.
Tears formed in my eyes, and I squeezed my eyes shut so he couldn’t see my pain.
Their absence was utterly heartbreaking.
My dragons were gone from my mind, and I didn’t know why.
Something told me they weren’t dead, but what else could it be?
“You see? You belong to me now, completely and irrevocably."
The casual cruelty of it took my breath away.
He had stolen not just my freedom but my connections to the people I loved most. The bonds that had given me strength and purpose were gone, replaced by this twisted connection to a man who kept me chained to his bed and let shadow creatures whisper in his ear.
"You bastard," I breathed, tears stinging my eyes.
"Perhaps. But I am your bastard now, just as you are mine." He cupped my face in both hands, forcing me to meet his gaze. "Fight me if you must, Aeveth. Rage and struggle and curse my name. But you cannot change what has been done. You cannot undo the bond that ties your soul to mine."
I wanted to spit in his face, to scream defiance until my voice gave out.
But even as the anger burned through me, I could feel that alien warmth responding to his touch, to the possessive certainty in his voice.
The mate bond was working exactly as he intended, slowly eroding my resistance and replacing it with unwilling acceptance.
"I hate you," I whispered, though the words felt hollow even as I spoke them.
"No," he said gently. "You hate what I represent. You hate that your freedom has been taken, that your choices have been limited. But you don't hate me, little flame. You couldn't, even if you wanted to. The bond won't allow it."
And that, more than anything else, was what terrified me.
Not the physical restraints or the alien city or even the shadow creatures that influenced his actions.
It was the slow, inexorable change happening inside me, the gradual replacement of my own will with his.
I was losing myself piece by piece, and there seemed to be nothing I could do to stop it.
"Please," I said, the word escaping before I could stop it. "Don't do this to me."
For just a moment, something like regret flickered across his features. But then the shadows whispered again, and his expression hardened.
"It's already done," he said simply. "Now we both have to learn to live with the consequences."
His words hung in the air between us, final and uncompromising. I closed my eyes, unable to bear the weight of his gaze any longer. The mate bond pulsed between us, a living thing that seemed to feed on my despair.
"I need water," I said finally, my voice rough. It wasn't what I'd meant to say, but my throat was parched, and the practical request felt safer than continuing our confrontation.
Taveth studied me for a moment longer, then nodded. "Of course."
He moved to a small table near the window, pouring water from a clay pitcher into a carved wooden cup. When he returned to the bed, he sat beside me, sliding one arm beneath my shoulders to help me sit up as much as the restraints would allow.
The gentleness of the gesture confused me. If he'd simply been the monster, I wanted to believe him to be, this would have been easier. But these flashes of consideration, of genuine care, made it impossible to hate him completely.
He held the cup to my lips, and I drank deeply, the cool water soothing my dry throat. When I finished, he set the cup aside but didn't lower me back down. Instead, he kept his arm around me, his fingers tracing idle patterns against my bare shoulder.
"Why are you doing this?" I whispered as his fingers continued their gentle exploration of my skin. The contrast between his tenderness and my captivity was maddening.
"I told you. You're my mate."
"No, I mean... this." I nodded toward his hand on my shoulder. "Being gentle one moment, cruel the next. If you're going to keep me prisoner, at least be consistent about it."
His lips quirked into something that wasn't quite a smile. "Is that what you want? Consistency?"
"I want to understand what's happening to me," I admitted. The confession felt dangerous, like revealing a weakness he could exploit. But the bond between us made lying difficult, especially about my emotions.
Taveth sighed, his breath warm against my cheek.
"The mate bond is... complex. It affects each pairing differently.
For some, it's a gentle merging, a slow dance of souls finding harmony.
" His fingers moved to trace the line of my collarbone.
"For others—especially those with strong wills—it can be more turbulent. "
"And for us?"
"For us, it's a storm." His eyes met mine, and I saw something raw and honest there.
"You fight it because your nature demands freedom.
I embrace it because my nature demands possession.
The shadows..." He paused, seeming to struggle with his words.
"They amplify that aspect of me. They want to own you completely. "
"And what do you want?"
His eyes darkened. “I want that too.”
The blunt admission stole my breath. At least he was honest about his intentions—the shadows wanted to own me, and so did he. There was no pretence of love or partnership, just raw possession.
"And if I refuse to be owned?" I asked, my voice steadier than I felt.
His fingers traced a slow path up my neck to cup my jaw. "You already are. The question is whether you'll accept it with grace or fight until you exhaust yourself."
His hand moved from my face to cup my breast, his thumb brushing over my nipple in a casual display of ownership that made my body respond traitorously. "I can feel your emotions, your desires. Just as you can feel the shadows in me."
I bit my lip to keep from gasping at his touch. "And if my desire is to leave?"
"Then we have a problem." His voice remained calm, but I felt the shadows stir within him, agitated by the suggestion. "Because I cannot let you go."
"Cannot or will not?"
"Both." His hand moved lower, trailing over my ribs, my stomach, coming to rest just below my navel. "The mate bond would cause us both pain if we were separated for too long. And my people would never allow an Imperial to leave Thal'Zereth with knowledge of our city."
I closed my eyes, trying to focus through the haze of unwanted arousal his touch was creating. "So I'm trapped here forever."
"Not trapped," he corrected. "This is your home now.”
I glared at him, trying to ignore the fact his hand was moving lower. “This is a prison,” I snapped. “And I won’t be a slave again.”
His pale eyes bored into mine. "Yes, I want to consume you. Possess you. Break you."
I bit back a moan as his fingers slid between my legs, finding me embarrassingly wet despite my anger and fear. The bond between us made my body respond to his touch with an eagerness that humiliated me.
“But I don’t intend for you to be my slave, Aeveth. Far from it. Until Veyr-sha claims my mind, I intend to spend every moment I have for myself worshipping every inch of you.”
He pulled apart my legs and lowered his mouth to my pussy.
I gasped as his tongue found my centre. His hands gripped my thighs, spreading them wider as he devoured me with deliberate, skilled movements.
Each stroke of his tongue sent shockwaves through my body, pleasure building despite my desperate attempts to resist it.
My body arched against the restraints, betraying me as heat spread through my veins like wildfire.
By my third orgasm, I no longer cared about the restraints.