Chapter 30 Dredyn
THIRTY
DREDYN
Ours.
I think the word tastes like iron and fire.
She gave herself to us tonight. She chose to walk through the door and fall into our arms. Jasper took her first, the way we all agreed he would—gentle, careful, like she deserved.
He did what he had to. Now the beast in me paces and snaps and I’m done waiting.
I drag her toward me by the ankles, hard enough for a sharp little sound to leave her.
She blinks up, stunned, and for a second, heats up and something like fear flashes across her face.
Jasper shifts, a warning in his posture, but he’s not moving to stop it.
He knows me. He knows I held back. He steps to the side with that quiet watchfulness of his—ready, but not interfering.
Talon’s on the other side already, his grin a jagged thing. Mara’s eyes dart between us. Her lips part, but nothing comes.
Good.
Let her breathe the chaos.
Let it sink in.
I crawl over her and seize her face with both hands. The little gasp she manages is a sound I own. I shove my mouth on hers because my mouth has been thirsty for things and tonight I’m allowed to drink. She tastes of him and herself and want. It makes me harder than anything.
Her fingers press at my shoulders, unsure if they should shove me off or pull me closer.
I bite her lower lip because I want it marked, because I want her to remember the way I break and the way I heal.
A thin bead of blood breaks through the skin.
I swipe my tongue over the nick and the salt bursts across my tongue.
She shudders, throws her head back, and some small, feral thing inside me roars.
“Do you know what you’ve done?” I rasp in her ear. “You came home, crawling to us, Hellcat. What were you thinking?” My hand slides to the hollow of her throat. Her pulse slaps under my palm like a drum.
She answers with a stuttering sound and then she finds her voice. “I belong here,” she whispers, thin, trembling. The words are a brand I stick inside my chest. Good.
“Say it right.” I don’t ask.
She looks at Jasper, at Talon, and back to me, “I’m yours,” she says, stronger this time. The syllables land, and something animalistic and satisfied rips through me.
I trail one hand down to her chest and palm her, rougher than necessary but not careless.
She cries out—wishful, needy—and the sound lights a thousand soft things in me.
I grab her nipple between my thumb and finger and I bite the corner of my mouth until it hurts.
She whimpers and pulls me tighter. I like the way she tries to claim me back with her fingers in my hair.
“Don’t break her,” I tell Talon, voice low and gravelly as I climb off the bed. He smirks, but his hand is careful when he settles beside her. Jasper inclines his head once, the ghost of a nod—understanding passed between us without words.
I step to the doorway and lean against the frame, arms folded, chest still pounding. She watches me with that raw, newly-tender look. My chest tightens and, for a moment, I don’t hate the ache.
“Good,” I murmur to her when she catches my eye. “You did good, Hellcat.”
Tonight, she’s ours.
Tonight, I’ll let them have their due.
But when the heat dies down, I will be waiting to take everything else.