“No!” The word was laced with anguish. “Xumi owns me. There is only one way to escape from her.”
My heart slammed against my ribs. “She only owns you if you let her, Talakai.”
He looked at me, his eyes flashing chaotically as the bones lengthened. I tried to grab his arm, but he wrenched away, his wings spreading above and behind him.
“Listen to me.” This time, my voice wasn’t enough to completely stop him. Enough, though, that he hesitated.
I stepped close and wrapped my fingers around his big forearm. His glowing eyes looked down on me.
“You. Are. Mine.” I said. “And I am coming for you.”
For just an instant, his eyes softened. “Forget about me. I am not who I used to be.”
“I will save you,” I protested, tightening my fingers. But to my dismay, they sank right through him, as though he were turning into mist.
He was fading, no longer solid beneath me.
“No one can save me.” He launched into the air.
I reached for him, and opened my mouth to call him back, but he was already so transparent I saw the moon clear through him.
In seconds, he was gone. The moon and stars above, and the ground beneath me, swirled away with him.
7
Sebastian
Anna...
Her dream crashed through me as I lay bound, belly down, over the back of one of my Bellati brethren. My brief time in her arms might be the only glimpse I had of what could be.
But the fact be—it could never be. And it be not only that I was Galeran’s captive that stood between us. Because Fate had a plan I could never accept. That she be with any male other than I elicited nothing but rage within me.
Both the Dragon and the Dire had flitted through my own dreams. But I refused to follow meekly along with Fate’s wishes. Although few instances of multiple Liberi females bonded to one male existed, I only knew of the reverse in one instance—Nikolai’s bond with Aria and Lucas.
But he hadn’t been raised a Bellati.
And our male beasts did not share.
There had been times when males killed each other over the right to matebond a female. I’d only spend all my time wishing to slice and dice the other two.
Fate, however, be a worthy adversary, plaguing me with these glimpses of Anna’s most personal moments. The power in her voice as she commanded the Dragon—she’d used it on me to break through my mental walls. Now, even though it be not focused on me, it made me shiver.
Not with fear. With lust.
And I had no control over it.
Straddling the Bellati’s broad back, Isobel rode with me. She leaned over me and sent a pulse through the icefire whip. I writhed as much from that as from what danced through my mind.
“What are you thinking, Sebastian?” she asked.
Hellfire.If Isobel figured out I had a mental connection to someone—my entire plan revolved around it.
You are going to fucking screw me, Talakai. Hard, and fast.The words echoed, every one laced with power.
And realms away from her, my body responded. It enraged and mortified me.
“I think you like the bite of my whip,” Isobel purred. “The Sebastian I remember was much more boring.” She gave me another pulse, and the strands bit into me.
