“I know. It’s just…a lot to sink in.”

Do you need to sit?

“In the rain?” I laugh. “I just want to go home, back to the store.” I pat his chest, and he’s warm despite the chilly rain. Kind of makes me want to put my hands all over him. “I do appreciate what you were trying to do here. It’s sweet, in a weird, backward kind of way.”

His eyes gleam, and his hands go around me. He tugs at my sodden dress. You should lie down so I can seduce you like in your story.

I press a hand to his chest, pushing back. I’m blushing, but at the same time, I can feel a hint of fear spike through me. “I’m sorry, but I think you picked the wrong woman to grab as your mate, Dakh. I’m…” I suck in a breath, because it feels so awful to say out loud. “I don’t like sex. I don’t like being touched. Not like that.”

Dakh’s expression is impassive. His eyes eventually narrow, and he looks skeptical. When I touched you, I smelled your mating scent. You…did not wish to mate?

“It’s not that.” I bite my lip. “I knew what you wanted, and I, well, I figured I wouldn’t turn you down. It was okay at first, but…” I shrug. “I don’t enjoy things as they go on.”

I try to give his chest a pat, but he pushes my hand away. His eyes are dangerously close to black. You…endured my touch? You suffered mating with me because you did not wish to offend me?

Oh, he sounds really offended right now. The fear spikes again. “Dakh…”

And now you are afraid? His thoughts roar through my mind. Dakh shakes his head and then puts his hands on the sides of my head, cupping my face. I would die for you, my Sasha. How can you think I would possibly hurt you?

“Because your eyes are turning black,” I whisper.

I am angry and hurt that you let me touch you without your enjoyment. I want you to be pleased with my touch. I want you to crave me as I crave you.

“That won’t happen.”

But why?

Why? Do I tell him it’s because of Tate? Tate and his cruel hands and his way of making me feel like the smallest, sluttiest person on earth because I did what I had to in order to survive?

Before I can choose what to say, his eyes go wide and very, very black. Another male?

“You don’t have to worry about him,” I say quickly, trying to think of happy things. Hearts and kittens and rainbows. Anything but Tate. “I hate him.”

This male touched you?

Are we not letting go of this? Frustrated, I snap, “How do you think I broke my arm?”

Dakh’s nostrils flare. His eyes go black as night. Then he presses his forehead to mine. Give me an image of him.

His voice is so direct, so forceful in my mind, that I don’t want to, but it happens anyhow. An image of Tate flutters to the top of my thoughts. Tate, with that cruel, sadistic smile on his face, like the one he wore moments before he snapped my arm like a twig.

Dakh flings himself off of me and whirls around. He staggers forward and then drops to his knees, hunched over as if in pain.

I…don’t know what to do. I swallow hard, my throat dry. “Dakh?” My voice is a mere frightened whisper. I’m terrified. What if he’s losing control like he said he has in the past? It takes every ounce of my courage to step forward, but I put a hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay?”

For some reason, images of ravens and feathers fill my mind. Dakh turns and faces me, and his eyes bleed from black to a dark, murky gold. He straightens to his full height and brushes his knuckles against my cheek, ever so tenderly.

I am taking you home.

“Do we need to talk?” I’m worried about the look on his face. I can’t tell if it’s disgusted or murderous or both.

But he doesn’t say anything. He just turns to dragon form and launches himself in the air. I know what’s coming next, and I’m not surprised when the claws come down and he gently picks me up, flying off. Nor am I surprised when we return to the SuperMart a short time later, just as the rain lets up. Dakh lands and very carefully puts me down on the ground.

I glance up at him, waiting for him to turn human so we can talk more.

Instead, his eyes go black and he launches himself back into the air again, flying away.

That was…unexpected. “Dakh?” I call out, and when there’s no answer, I try it in my head. Dakh, are you there?

All I get are more ravens.

18

DAKH

I am going to destroy every human in the hive.

All of them must die. Stinking, filthy, disgusting…humans.

In my head, the ravens laugh wildly. They mock me and my efforts. You thought you were so strong, so free. You are never free of us.

Never.

Never.

Nevernevernever.

My thoughts are black with anger. I hunger to dive over the human hive, to flame it to ash and char and to breathe in the greasy smoke left from the bodies. They deserve to be wiped out. Is it not the spoils of war for the conqueror to destroy the conquered?

It will not be enough that I find the human male—this Tate—and kill him.

I must make him suffer, like he made my Sasha suffer. I want him to know pain. I want him to know fear. I want to destroy everything he has ever touched, ever loved, ever even thought about.

All the while, the ravens laugh their delight. They are pleased to have me back. They love that my mind is no longer my own. They want chaos and destruction, and I am the one that will give it to them. I do not care that they perch on my shoulders and twitter their evil in my ears. I welcome it. They feed the black anger in my soul.

I fly over the human hive, low enough that they can see my shadow as I glide over. I take my time, relishing in the fact that they must be terrified. The klaxon goes off, warning them, and I throw flame from my throat into the air, deciding I will make them tremble with fear before I let them burn.

Below, a human woman races for shelter, her long skirts tangling in her legs. Her hair is dark and she is thin, and for a heart-staggering moment, I think she is my Sasha.

But my Sasha is safe back in her nest. This cannot be her. Even when I send out feelers to my mental tether, they feel distant. Sasha is a good distance away. She is not here in the hive.

Still, the sight of the female makes me wheel about abruptly, and I beat my wings to gain height in the air.