by Alison Aimes
“No!” She darted toward the door. “Saman! Get out. Run!”
Pain streaked along her scalp as fingers tangled in her hair, checking her in place before sling-shoting her backward.
Her bottom hit the ground, her legs sprawling as she slid into the wall. Hard. The back of her head hit first—exacerbating her previous injury, care of Collins.
Black dots danced in front of her eyes, her stomach roiling. She struggled to push upright, but her limbs wouldn’t move properly, her heels sliding uselessly along the ground instead of pushing her up. She could only hope her warning had been enough to save DaKar’s man.
Through her daze, she saw Whetherton flicking open the seams of his jacket as Collin slipped from the room without a backward glance.
“You never were very good at listening, were you?” He shrugged off his jacket and draped it on the metal frame. “I’ve been much too lenient with you, my jewel, but that ends now.” He started on one starched white sleeve cuff, rolling it up his forearm in precise, sharp movements. “You and your disobedience have ruined everything.”
She struggled to rise.
“I’d hoped to take you as my own, to mold you into the proper mate and daughter, but now that cannot be. You’ve proven yourself to be as easily led to sin as the rest of them—and so, as much as it pains me, you must share the fate of all who fail.” He uttered a long sigh. “After a few lunar rotations of lessons, you’ll turn up dead. Beaten, violated, and strangled—just like the other whores who proved too tarnished to ever be made fully clean.”
Her stomach roiled anew. “Y-you killed those women.”
“Of course.” He finished one cuff and started on the other as if he were doing nothing more than getting ready to unwind after a difficult rotation. “With no one the wiser. It’s amazing how easily people shy away from the ugly truth, giving others the benefit of the doubt, even when they shouldn’t. But not me.” He finished his task. “I face my responsibilities head-on.”
“They all had blond hair. Green eyes.” Bile burned a path up her throat. How had she not seen? How had she not understood the extent of her stepfather’s madness? “They all looked…”
“Like you?” His lips curled upward. “Don’t worry, my jewel. They were poor substitutes for the real thing. Their bodies and their screams just a means of marking time until I could drown in the real thing.” His gaze raked her body as his hand closed around the knife handle. “Of course, your disloyalty and your half-breed’s refusal to die puts a crimp in my plan, but I can endure and adapt—my father taught me that, and it’s a lesson for which I’ve always been grateful.”
Goose bumps rose on her skin. “You’ll be caught. There’s too high a body toll and even the élithe community won’t look the other way over this. Cecilia knew it and she tried to protect you.” She struck where she knew it would hurt worst as the last of the spots disappeared from in front of her eyes and her limbs started following her commands. “You’ll never be granted the position of High Chancellor.”
For the first time, he frowned, revealing a flash of real emotion, as if she’d finally hit a nerve. “Do not even suggest such a thing.” He drummed his fingers against the handle of the knife. “I have everything well in hand.” It almost sounded as if he was trying to convince himself. “After our lessons end, your body will be found here.” He pulled something from his pocket and tossed it near her feet, the gold band flashing as it rolled along the floor. “Along with this.”
“DaKar’s ring.” She didn’t dare take her eyes off the knife long enough to pick it up. “How did you get that?”
“The always biddable Miss Stanthorpe gave it to me, right before she died. Really, her death was a kindness. She was a greedy, corrupt thief and whore. Dirty, tainted trash like the rest of them. I did her a service. She’s far happier now. Like you will be.”
The man was truly insane.
“So, you will frame DaKar for not only the other women’s deaths, but mine.” She didn’t bother to phrase it as a question.
“Yes. Seems that half-breed savage thief killed his stepmother and half brother, abducted you, after killing your dear aunt—”
“No.” It came out a rough whisper. A part of her had already known, but the confirmation struck with the force of a fist.
He didn’t even pause. “Yes. He’s gone mad. He tortured and violated you for several lunar rotations and though I finally managed to track down his whereabouts and slay the beast, it wasn’t, sadly,” he puckered his lips in a false frown, “soon enough to save my dutiful, honorable daughter.”
Her fingers curled into her palms. “Your sister loved you.”
He shrugged. “So many lives lost. It’s more believable that way, don’t you think? He’ll be executed for sure. Perhaps you can take comfort in the fact that none of your deaths will be in vain. Discipline comes before all else. It’s that philosophy that will make me the best High Chancellor yet. Fiscal discipline is much like corporeal discipline, and I am a master at doling out both.”
He jerked the weapon tip from the metal and turned to face her fully. “It’s time for you to learn that firsthand.”
He advanced.
Her heart slammed into her throat. Her fingers curled tight around the sharp piece of broken plaster currently tucked halfway under her thigh and hidden by her skirt.
She’d only have one chance. She’d aim for the eye. Plaster against a knife wasn’t ideal, but she’d do what she could to save DaKar and ruin Whetherton’s scheme.
Her stepfather might kill her, but she was going to bring him down as well.
The first thing she’d done right in a long time.
“I’ve dreamt of this moment, daughter.”
Their gazes locked.
She had one advantage. Her stepfather intended to toy with her first, raping and torturing her before he killed her. His first slash would therefore be more to incapacitate, not to stop her heart.
Her strike would be to kill.
“I’ve dreamt of it too,” she confessed, another truth given freely.
He smiled, leaning over her as his knife flashed, arching downward toward her cheek.
Body bowing upward, she swung with all her might.
“No!” A dark blur of movement, so big and wide it seemed to envelope the room, and suddenly her stepfather was no longer in front of her, but flying sideways, hurtling harder and faster than a laser blast. He smashed into the already ruined wall headfirst and went down hard.
Another form loomed over her in his place.
Aurora blinked, scarcely believing her eyes, but the golden heat shimmering against her skin could not lie. “DaKar.”
He didn’t answer. Just a quick scan from her head to her toes and then his blood red glare lasered on Whetherton. “I will kill him.”
Fists raised, he stomped toward the male crumpled on the ground, eyes closed, the knife by his side.
“No. Stop. You can’t.” Scrambling to her feet, she jumped in front of DaKar, guarding the last man in the universe she’d ever expected to save.
41
“Out of my way, Aurora.” The rage inside DaKar was unlike anything he’d experience, a feral beast shredding his veins as it clawed for release.
The bastard had bruised her. Slashed at her soft skin.
“No, DaKar. Please.” Her small hand trembled against his chest, so delicate. So easily broken. “You can’t.” Her eyes were still wild with fear, her pupils huge. “Your staff. There’s a man—”
“He’s been neutralized. Now step aside. I am going to rip this bastard limb from limb.” He wouldn’t even bother with his dagger. The scum didn’t deserve the honor and DaKar wanted to feel bones and skin tear beneath his palms.
“No.” She remained where she was. “I can’t let you do that.”
“What is this male to you?” he roared.
If he hadn’t come back. If he hadn’t turned her words over and over in his mind. If he hadn’t registered her shock at his fi
nal accusation and picked up his comms and told Grayson to follow a hunch. If he hadn’t heard the roar of Minel over the sound of his engines and in his blood, pulsing through those damn soul ties that refused to burn out.
If, if, if…it could be her lying still and broken on the ground rather than her stepfather.
“Aurora.” He reached for her hand.
She slipped away, turning from him—a rebuff that almost slammed him to his knees—especially when all he wanted to do was pull her close.
But he’d lost that right.
He clenched his hands into fists instead, stealing a quick glance at Whetherton. He’d hit the bastard hard enough that he suspected the male would not wake up for a long while, if ever. Comforted by that small possiblity, he returned his attention to his angel in a torn dress and tangled golden hair, registering her shoulders hunched and the arms wrapped around her middle as if she alone would hold herself upright.
No laser burn had ever stung so much. After what he’d done, he deserved no less.
“What is he to me?” Her voice was little more than a whisper when she finally answered his earlier question. “A monster. A demon. A year of torment and terror and shame. The destruction of all my dreams. Take your pick.” She turned around, her chin lifting as her jaw firmed. “He’s also the one who murdered those women, your stepmother, Peller, Miss Stanthorpe, and my Aunt Cecilia. Who set you up to take the blame. Who stole your ring. Who sent those letters to the judge. Who ordered those men to kill you.”
He nodded, horns jutting straight, nostrils flaring. It took everything not to shove by her and sink his fangs into the monster’s jugular.
She studied him. “You knew.”
“I figured it out on my way back.” His stare never wavered from hers. “I want to know what he did to you.”
Her gaze flickered away from his, another lash that raised a welt on his heart.
“He—he liked to hurt me.” Her voice hitched. “He hid his lust behind excuses of lessons and discipline, but he enjoyed causing pain.”
Each word sliced straight to his soul. “The bruises you said were from an accident?”
She nodded. “I-I just wanted to steal enough to run away.”
His chest bellowed in and out, his lungs unable to get enough air. She’d been suffering through hells and he hadn’t known. Worse, he’d turned on her just as the bastard had.
He would never forgive himself for that.
“Aurora.” He tried to keep his voice calm, but he knew the blood red of his eyes was a dead giveaway to his true mood. “I need you to go wait in your room until I come for you.”
“No. DaKar, please.” Panic laced her protest. “This—this is exactly why I didn’t tell you.”
It killed him to hear that. Slayed him to the core to know she’d considered telling him and decided he couldn’t be counted on.
“Explain.” He forced the word past the choking thickness in his throat.
“I will not let him turn you into a murderer. He’s unarmed and incapacitated. It is one thing to take his life in self-defense, but that is not what this is any longer. Any investigator who follows up on his death will be able to see that easily enough from the lack of defensive wounds. No matter what you and I tell them, the élithe will still see that one of their own has been ripped apart by a male many fear is too savage to be a shareholder. You will be condemned by the Corporation and all my stepfather’s plans for you will come to pass. We cannot let him win.”
“And if I let him live?” Everything inside him screamed to eradicate the threat to her here and now. He didn’t give a damn about the title or the élithe, but he did care about Aurora and he was never leaving her unprotected again.
“We will take him to the magistrate. I-I will confess my part—”
“No.”
She swallowed hard. “I must. I will tell my story and he will pay for his crimes. There are others like Collins who know what he’s done and so it won’t only be the word of a thief who brings him down. Allow him to live and his own arrogance will be his undoing.”
“No.” He prowled away from her, aching to slam his fist into the wall once more, but he wouldn’t. He would never scare her, never lose control like that around her again. “There is nothing about this scenario I like.”
“There is no other way.”
“I will find it.” He swung around to face her. “You stole to save yourself. You will not be punished for that.”
“E-even if I deserve it?” Her fisted hands pressed to her belly. “I stole. I lied. Worst of all, I stayed silent. If I’d spoken up, those females might still be alive. My aunt, too.” She pressed her lips together as if she couldn’t bear to utter what came next. “I think…I think my aunt was right and I am poisonous. I do deserve this. I-I destroy everything…and I won’t drag you down, too.”
He was in front of her in the next instant, his hands clenching by his sides to keep from grabbing her and shaking some sense into her. “Nothing about you is toxic.”
His mother had blamed herself for his father’s brutal behavior. He’d muddled through his fair share of self-loathing, too. It was a sad by-product of abuse, but he would protect Aurora from her doubts until she was clear of mind enough to see them for what they were.
He stroked the back of his knuckles down her soft cheek. “I will thank the fates every rotation for leading me to that balcony and to a female strong enough to stand up to my worst, and generous enough to believe in my best, even when I didn’t deserve it.” His next words came out a husky whisper. “You fought for us in this very room. You saved me. You don’t drag me down, Aurora. You lift me up.”
A single tear rolled down her cheek, following the path of his touch.
The soul ties between them flickered and glowed once more, flaring to life everywhere, snaking in a thousand different directions, proving they’d only been dark and dormant, not dead.
He slammed to his knees, still so much taller than her tiny form that his face was now almost even with hers. “I beg you to forgive me for failing you in every way.”
“DaKar, no.” She tried to pull him up, her hand going to his elbow, her eyes round with shock.
He stayed where he was, but he did allow himself to take her hand, gripping it gently until it lay cradled in his palms. “You are not alone anymore, Aurora. You will never be alone to struggle through something like this again.” His thumb traced the delicate veins at her wrist. “I understand if you cannot forgive me enough to be my mate, but I can promise you that no matter what happens between us, I will always keep you safe.”
She stiffened in his hold and he prayed with everything inside that he hadn’t destroyed what mattered most in his world. “Mate? Y-you still want me to be your mate?” Her hand trembled in his. “A-after everything?”
“Because of everything.” He bowed his head and pressed his lips to her palm. “If you allow me, I will spend the rest of my life proving to you exactly how right you and I are together. You stole my heart and my soul, little thief, and I never want either back.”
Joy glittered in her stare and, for an instant, the thrill of victory pumped through his veins, but then those shadows returned and her eyes glistened for a different reason altogether.
“I-I wish that could be.” Her breathing hitched, her gaze traveling to where Whetherton lay. “I wish I could be with you more than anything because I do love you, more even than my own life.” She tried to tug her hands from his. “But I-I can’t. I stole real jewels, DaKar, and there will be real consequences. The élithe will demand justice. At best, I will be sent to a prison planet. If I survive, it will be planetary rotations before my sentence ends. I would never ask you to wait—”
“Enough.” Unfolding from his bowed state, he rose to his full height, her small hands still clasped tight in his. The time to ask for forgiveness had ended. Now was the time for him to do what he did best, take charge. “Do you trust me, Aurora?”
Tormented emerald eyes fou
nd his, but there was no hesitation in her words. “Yes.”
Relief ricocheted through him—and so much fucking joy. Because there in her eyes and vibrating along the ties that bound them, finally, was one hundred percent trust.
A sense of completeness blazed through his chest. “Then trust me to take care of you. Trust that I’ve got it handled and everything will work out. To me, you are priceless. A treasure beyond anything else—and there is nothing a Warlord won’t do to keep what’s his.”
He swept her into his arms.
“DaKar!” She clutched him close, her arms closing around his neck as her warm curves nestled against him, her tone a mix of shock and breathless hope. “Where are we going?”
After so much running, after so much time subsisting on fragments of her trust, it was a heady rush to finally have won her faith in full. To feel the soul fusion knitting them together once more, a blaze fueled by trust and love. It was also hot as hells.
Lust thickened his cock.
He started toward the door. “First, we are going to get Saman and tell him to tie this pile of shanus up.”
He leaned down and nuzzled her temple. “Then, I’m going to take you upstairs and spend hours worshiping every part of you while you follow my commands and we make some more progress on mate training until our soul bonding is complete and you never doubt again what it is I feel for you or how good you are for me.”
Her breath caught, her pupils dilating as her skin flushed a delicious pink. “I do like this plan so far.”
He smiled against her temple, his fangs grazing her flesh and making her moan outright. They really were well matched in every way.
“Finally,” he hefted her higher in his arms and turned sideways, sailing through the door into the hallway, relishing the eager look on her beautiful face. “When you’re wrung out from the pleasure of my tongue and cocksto, I’m going to share the rest of my plan with you so we can set a breeding-contract date and put to rest any question of exactly where you will be spending the rest of your life.”