Valkhara
I ran.
Naked under a cloak, feet bare against the cold dirt, heart thundering like it was trying to beat its way out of my ribs.
The bond screamed inside me, three distinct tethers pulling at my spine Azric's voice still echoing in my head, tangled with the whispers of two others oneI hadn't even met yet. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think.
So I ran.
Out of the castle. Through the guard line. Past the stones etched with ancient warnings. Into the forest that wrapped around the Court like a secret.
Branches whipped at my skin. Twigs bit into my soles. I didn't care.
I wanted to be away.
From them.
From me.
From whatever the hell this magic was becoming.
I collapsed to my knees near a stream, cloak falling open. The air was freezing, but my body still burned hot and slick from everything Azric had done to me. His cum still leaked between my thighs, wetting the insides as I tried to squeeze my legs together. As if I could hold myself in place.
I didn't even hear him approach.
Didn't need to.
I felt him.
Sevrin.
The second he stepped into the clearing, the air shifted. Like every molecule bent to him. Like the trees themselves stopped breathing.
His voice was low. Controlled. Dangerous.
"You reek of him."
I looked up slowly.
He stood at the edge of the clearing, eyes burning silver-blue in the darkness, nostrils flared like he was trying to control the monster inside him. His jaw was clenched so tightly I could see a vein throbbing in his neck.
"Sevrin—"
He was on me in seconds.
No hesitation. No mercy.
He yanked me up, slammed my back against the nearest tree. The bark bit into my spine, but the pain was a relief something real to cling to.
"You let him touch you," he growled.
"I didn't—"
"You let him mark you."
He shoved my cloak aside. His eyes locked on my thigh on Azric's mark, still red, still glistening.
Sevrin let out a sound that wasn't human.
"You're mine," he snarled.
And then he kissed me.
No, not kissed.
He devoured me.
His mouth was rough, tongue claiming, teeth grazing my lower lip until I tasted blood. I tried to shove him back, but my body betrayed me. My arms clutched at his shoulders. My legs parted. My hips rolled against his thigh.
"You don't get to—" I gasped between kisses.
"I get to do whatever the fuck I want," he growled.
His hand slid between my legs. His fingers touched the mess Azric left inside me.
He stilled.
Then his expression twisted.
"You're still full of him."
I slapped him.
Hard.
He grinned.
"Good."
Then he dropped to his knees.
I yelped as he lifted one of my legs over his shoulder and shoved his tongue inside me like he wanted to erase Azric.
"Sevrin—!"
He moaned. Fucking moaned.
"You're mine now," he said against my skin. "You just don't know it yet."
Then he stood, cock already out, fucking vampire speed....already hard, and without a word, he thrust inside me.
No prep. No warning.
Just rage and need and the bond screaming between us.
I cried out. It hurt, he was thick and brutal and there was no softness in the way he took me.
He fucked me against that tree like he was claiming territory. Like his name had to be written inside me, deeper than Azric's ever went.
"Say it," he snarled. "Say you're mine."
I was too busy gasping. Moaning. Feeling everything and nothing as he slammed into me again and again.
And then he bit me.
Right beneath my breast, over my rib.
The mark seared through me, burning hotter than Azric's.
My scream shattered the clearing.
Sevrin came with a groan that sounded more like a curse, his hips grinding into mine as he filled me.
And as his cock pulsed inside me, the bond flared again.
Magic poured into my veins.
New magic.
Not fire.
Something else.
A voice his voice echoed through my head.
Bleed for me, Valkhara. Let me show you what real power feels like.
I gasped as the pain from the bite mixed with the heat of his release, and then like something snapped, I was cumming too and when I did... I felt it.
The earth beneath me shifted.
The roots of the trees moved. Not much. Not enough to see. But I felt it. My power surged, latching onto something alive. Something dark.
"What the fuck—" I gasped, head spinning.
Sevrin's eyes went wide. "You felt that too?"
I pulled away from him, my legs shaking as I dropped to the forest floor. My hands trembled. Blood trickled from the bite. And I felt it.
Power.
If someone bled near me… I could take control.
Bloodbinding.
Sevrin's gift. Now mine.
I didn't even have time to process it before it happened again.
Another voice.
She's been touched. Marked. Taken. Who?
This one wasn't Azric.
Wasn't Sevrin.
A third.
Still distant. Still hidden.
But I could hear him.
My breathing turned erratic.
I was still bare. Still dripping from both of them.
Two mating marks burned on my body.
And now a third voice hummed through my head like a storm gathering on the horizon.
"No," I whispered.
I tried to shut it out.
I couldn't.
The bond didn't just open between us. It spread. It widened.
I could hear them all.
Even the one I hadn't met.
Even the one who hadn't claimed me.
Sevrin's hand touched my shoulder, but I slapped it away.
"Don't," I snapped. "Don't touch me. Not now."
"Valkhara—"
She's mine now. Mine. I won't let the others have her.
I spun, eyes wild. "You're all in my fucking head! You think I asked for this?"
His mouth opened. Then closed.
"I didn't know," he said. "I didn't know this would happen."
"Well, it fucking did."
I pulled the cloak around my body and stumbled backward.
I couldn't be here.
Not with him.
Not with any of them.
I needed air.
I needed silence.
But the bond wouldn't let go.
And in the back of my mind… the third voice whispered again.
Soon.