Page 148 of Infernal Bonds

Wasting no time, I lowered my head and sank my teeth into her neck, knees going weak when her blood flooded my mouth.

She arched her neck, crying out as her inner walls clenched down on my cock, fluttering with the orgasm triggered by my bite.

As much as I wanted it to last, nothing could stop the electric current racing down my spine as her insides squeezed my cock and her blood slid down my throat.

I released her neck and reared up, groaning as I spilled deep inside her, blood running down my face and throat.

She didn’t know it yet, but I wasn’t letting her go. She was mine, just like Zeke was. Just like I belonged to both of them.

39

DECEPTION

ZEKE

Frustrated voices reached me the moment I opened the council chamber doors. I’d been finishing my latest patrol with Vancardi along the wall when word came that Cornaith wanted me and the guys to join them to discuss the increased lesser infernal activity since our return from Feranzis.

I’d avoided my parents after the last episode in the council chambers, but as I rounded the fabric dividers and stepped down into the pit below the thrones’ dais, their stony stares warned me they weren’t happy with me.

Nothing new.

If I ever upset Cornaith, they made it their mission to “correct” my behavior if he didn’t—and sometimes if he did. I hated them as much as I hated Cornaith.

I approached Cyn and took my place at his side.

He glanced at me but kept his expression neutral. If the council believed we’d become more than soul-tethered with a Phalinos pact, there’d be consequences. Even with Rae as our mate, our positions as heirs came first until we bonded with her—including the responsibility of continuing our bloodline.

Cornaith would want us to find a new partner if Rae didn’t want to have our children. The thought left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Cyn’s parents filed in last and took their seats on the thrones, bringing the scattered conversations to an end.

I wouldn’t push Rae to have children if she didn’t want them. If she felt forced into motherhood, she might grow to resent the child. And while I didn’t believe she was the type of person to do that, bitterness caused people to do strange things.

I wanted to spare my children that pain. A pain I still lived with as an adult, despite letting go of the hope of a relationship with my parents.

No hurt was as profound as the kind left by a parent who turned their back on a child who only wanted their love. It lasted forever.

I wanted to give my children what I’d missed out on.

“Lymsrana. Ardvaen. I thought you weren’t able to make the meeting. We just finished.” Cornaith glanced at me, his lips thinning. “Ezra can debrief you on our discussion.”

So they hadn’t needed me here at all? Ranthus had rushed me from the showers for nothing.

Ash shot me a look that told me he sensed my frustration, but I wouldn’t show it. I couldn’t.

“We weren’t,” Lymsrana said, turning to Cornaith. “But Ardvaen told me something fascinating that he overheard Ranthus share with Roandra. I thought I’d ask you while everyone was here.”

Cornaith sat back and propped his elbow on the arm of the throne, stroking his goatee. “Do tell.”

“Do you honestly believe Raelynn isn’t Shyrlivi?”

The silence that followed her question was deafening.

He lifted his fingers from his face in a dismissive gesture. “I am questioning it, yes.”

“But why?”

“We saw what happened in Cholian,” Ardvaen said. “What makes you doubt the legitimacy of her birth species?”