28. J’orn
28
J’ORN
Normally when a Beast Kindred’s knot swells inside a woman, it means they’ll be locked together for hours. But even in mid-orgasm, J’orn’s body recognized the imminent threat. He switched from Bonding to Fighting mode automatically and his knot—which had swelled to tie him and the woman he loved together—went down quickly so that he was able to pull out of Kara almost at once.
He stuffed himself back in his trousers and came around to stand in front of her, shielding her from the huge, two-headed Trollox who had lumbered into the room with the receptionist right behind him.
“I’m sorry, Sir—I couldn’t stop him!” she gasped to J’orn.
“Never mind—get out of here,” he growled, not taking his eyes off the Trollox. One head had green, glowing eyes and the other had orange but both sets of eyes were trained on him in obvious fury.
The creature towered over him, its enormous hands balled into fists and its rotten stench filled the room. It was well over ten feet tall, but J’orn stood his ground. He had two weapons left—a set of glass daggers he kept tucked in his boots as a last resort. The metal weapons detector hadn’t picked them up on his way into the brothel. He started to reach for the right one, but the Trollox lunged forward.
“That’s my golden pussy you were fucking!” it growled, both heads speaking as one. “How dare you fuck her? She was promised to me!”
The creature’s words set off the Rage inside him again and this time J’orn let it come—hell, he welcomed it. It flowed over him like a cloak of darkness and a blood-red curtain dropped over his eyes, staining everything crimson. A possessive fury rose inside him—this fucking Trollox was trying to claim his woman! And for that, he was going to fucking die!
“Get back from my woman or I’ll fucking kill you,” he snapped, his voice coming out in a low, inhuman growl even deeper than the Trollox’s voices. “I swear to the Goddess, you’re going to die if you lay so much as one fucking finger on her! She’s MINE!”
His last word was a roar that seemed to set the Trollox back on its heels for a moment. But then both sets of eyes narrowed and both mouths turned down in fury.
“I was promised her!” both heads growled, still speaking as one. “She belongs to me! I was promised!”
And he started to reach around J’orn, trying to get to Kara.
J’orn ducked down and reached for his daggers—both of them. With a quick flick of his wrists, he threw them both at once in a move he’d only done during practice but never in real life.
The Goddess herself must have been guiding his aim because suddenly both of the Trollox’s heads were gagging and two big paws were grasping at their throats.
J’orn watched as the enormous creature sank to its knees. Stepping forward, he reached for the knives and pulled them out. At the same time, he planted his boot in the center of the freakishly broad chest and kicked forward, sending the Trollox sprawling.
“Not…fair…” it gasped and choked. Fountains of black blood were oozing from both of its throats as it bled out all over the floor. “I was…promised.”
J’orn bent to wipe the black ichor off his blades on the Trollox’s trousers.
“This is what I promised you if you didn’t leave her alone,” he growled. “I told you that I’d kill you if you tried to touch her. You should’ve fucking listened.”
Then he turned to the job of cutting Kara free of her bonds.
There was one good thing about the Trollox’s interruption, he thought grimly, at least they hadn’t Bonded. He didn’t hear her voice inside his head which meant that the Soul Bond which would have formed if they’d stayed tied together hadn’t gotten a chance to develop and stabilize.
He was sure that Kara would never have forgiven him if they had crossed that last boundary and been tied together mentally and emotionally for life. In fact, he wondered grimly if she would forgive him for what had just happened between them. True, she’d been in the grip of a y’thosin attack and had needed what he’d given her, but she’d made it very clear that she didn’t want any kind of relationship with him.
He just hoped she didn’t hate him for giving her what her body needed physically…even if she wanted nothing to do with him romantically.