Page 67 of Haunted Nightmares
“I know.”
“Yet you still wish for me to be yours, and for you to be mine.”
“Don’t you remember?” My brow furrows as my mate lifts my hand to her cheek and leans into my palm. Then she gives me the most blinding smile as she says, “You are mine, Wraith, and I’ve never had that before. Which means I’m not going to give you up?—”
“And even I cannot stop you.”
“Nope. Depraved king of the entire race or not, you can’t do shit.”
Catching me off guard yet again, I bark out a laugh but it’s quickly muffled when Zephyr dips her chin and presses her lips to mine.
And I’m the one seeing stars.
Sweet and soft, hesitant, my mate kisses me and I swear to fucking christ it’s better than it was before.
I watch as her eyes flutter closed, my gentle breeze pressing a little firmer, taking a little more. Zephyr’s hands ghost over the sides of my neck, along my jaw until they’re tilting my head ever so slightly so I may kiss her back. Matching her pace, I bury my hand in her hair but I keep watching my gentle breeze. I refuse to close my eyes, not when this could easily be a dream, anothergrand delusion conjured by my fractured mind. Another way to torture myself into full blown madness.
So, I kiss this magnificent being with my eyes fixed on her face right up until she stops and rests her forehead against mine.
“I’m sorry, I probably shouldn’t have done that.”
“Why?” I cock my head to the side, scanning my mate, reading her expressions and body language the way I used to, understanding her without having to hear her thoughts, as always. “You fear you’re moving too quickly?”
My mate shrugs one shoulder as she worries her lower lip between her teeth. “We’ve been sort of all over the map. And you’ve gone a few days now without a transfusion. You might not be thinking clearly.” She catches herself immediately and smirks. “You might not be in a place to make any serious decisions.”
My eyes shift between hers, anticipation and anxiety creeping into her citrine stare.
“Zephyr?”
“Wraith?”
Grinning, I tighten my fist in her hair, leaning in as I bring her to me. “I will ask once and only once, so answer carefully.” She nods and swallows hard as my gaze never wavers. “Do you believe me to be your fated one, your mate through bonds of life and blood, and wish to bind yourself to me through both until this wretched sphere stops spinning?”
Without skipping a beat, Zephyr blurts, “More than anything in the world.”
“So be it.”
I crush my lips to hers, kissing her aggressively at first before I slow to the pace she set before. My mate smiles against me, her hands returning to my face, her position changing in order to get closer to me. Zephyr goes up on her knees, taking me with her until we’re nearly chest to chest, the smallest amount ofspace between us. Our kisses are languid and slow, unhurried as if we have all the time in the world. They’re almost exploratory, testing each other, settling into the rhythm we’ve always had naturally.
My hand moves higher, cradling the back of Zephyr’s head, gently tugging in order to expose her neck as the other slips up her leg and comes to rest on her hip. I give it a light squeeze before my lips leave hers in favor of kissing a path over her skin; her jaw, the space below her ear and her thundering pulse. My mate whimpers when my teeth scrape and nip their way down to her shoulder and as if that sound was some sort of switch, my eyes flip open and my vision immediately changes from normal to thermal tracking, and I have Zephyr on her back and pinned down once again.
“Wraith?”
In lieu of words, I growl, deep and low, an animalistic sound pushing itself from my chest as I watch her aura thrum in brilliant oranges and reds, yellows and golds. I’ve never seen anything like it and being so close, my mouth starts to water.
“Wraith, baby, what is it? I thought?—”
Shoving her shoulders down into the heap beneath us, I snap my teeth with a hiss and straddle her once again.
It’s as if I’m moving on autopilot, like I’m watching myself from an external vantage point, and I’m helpless to stop my actions. I’m helpless when it comes to preventing myself from draining my precious mate dry.
“Not today,” Zephyr grunts as she pushes against my chest. Her hands slip up to my neck, snapping the strap around it before quickly untying the back of the apron to remove it completely. “That is not happening.”
With another growl I bear down on top of her, my fangs elongating as they start to throb, desperate to sink into her veinsand take everything I need but as soon as I drag my tongue along her throat, something else happens instead.
My mate’s entire body starts to shimmer, her golden freckles practically glowing as her heat increases against me. I put space between us out of pure confusion, not enough to let her go but I can see her a little clearer through my skewed eyesight. And what I see is bloody magnificent.
Right up until something comparable to a firework goes off underneath me and sends me up into the air before landing on my back in record time.
