“Honey snookums?” Dalsharan lifted a brow at me.
“It's not so funny when it's done to you, is it?” I grinned at him.
“As long as you don't call me that in front of the other soldiers,” he said with twitching lips.
“Dal, will you just tell me... hold on. Are you saying what I think you're saying?”
“About what?” Dal's voice dropped to a low purr and his lips spread in a sensual smile.
“Did you make a decision?” I whispered.
“I did.” He grinned wider. “I've decided that you're mine, Ravyn.”
I swallowed with some difficulty. “I am?”
“You are,” Dalsharan said firmly. “No more Raeshal. No more anyone else. Am I clear?”
“Uh-huh,” I squeaked.
“You may keep your own tent if you wish, but you will sleep in my bed every night.”
“Yeah, okay,” I whispered as I continued to gape at him.
“And when I want you,” Dalsharan growled as he got to his knees and pushed me down onto my back, “I will take you.” He covered my body with his and brushed his lips over mine. “Is that understood, Corporal?”
“Yes.”
“Any time I want you,” his voice dropped even lower. “I don't care what you're doing, you will stop and come to me. And you will submit to whatever I wish to do to you.”
I may have whimpered.
“Or you will do whatever I tell you to do to me,” he went on. “No disobedience. Not where sex is concerned. I don't share, and I don't tolerate rebelliousness in my lovers. This is who I am. Either I dominate you completely or I won't take you at all. That's why I've waited and given you time to get to know me better. To know if you can be that for me. Now, think about it for more than a fucking second,” he growled, bit my lower lip, then pushed away from me. “Tell me when you know if that's truly what you want.” He held up a hand when I started to speak. “Think about what I've said, Ravyn. I don't want you to stop being yourself, but you will have to make adjustments. You will belong to me. Think about what that means before you answer.”
I laid there and looked at him. “Uh, I was going to ask about my stupid white hands.”
Dalsharan burst out laughing. He laughed and laughed and laughed.
I sat up and grimaced at him. “Yeah, all right, chuckles!” I shoved at his shoulder. “I'm serious! I want to know what the fuck happened to me!”
“See this”—he waved a hand at me—“this I will permit. You may continue to share this familiarity with me, but only in private. In public, you must show me the respect I'm due as your warlord.”
“Yes, Sir, Hawk Lord, Sir!” I saluted him. “Now, if you're done giving me your list of kinky rules, could you perhaps tell me what the fuck happened?!”
Dalsharan's expression dropped into sacred seriousness. “The Hawk Soul chose you. It spoke to you and helped you heal me.” He took my hand. “You wielded incredible amounts of magic and you lived, Ravyn. Your desire to save me was so great that you survived a trinity pairing of soul stones. You survived and then the Beasts accepted you. But only after I did.”
“You did something... to...” I trailed off as I remembered his soul reaching for mine. His beautiful soul pulling my hand into his body and giving me a seed of light. My hand went to my chest, right above my heart. “You gave me some of your soul, didn't you?”
Dalsharan nodded. “The Hawk Soul made it possible. Every warlord has the ability, but it's not done lightly.”
“Why did you do it for me?”
“Because you saved me when no one else could.” He lifted my hand and kissed it tenderly. “Because you refused to let me go, Ravyn. You fought for me and you nearly died for me after I had failed you. That kind of valor deserves a reward.”
“What am I?” I whispered. “What have you made me into?”
“You are something very special,” Dalsharan said softly. “You are what my people call a Valorian—a human who has shown great valor and has been honored by a faerie with a piece of our magic. But not just that. Humans have been honored with life seeds before and still remain human. Long-lived, but human. Only those who the Beasts and the Goddess deem worthy are remade into fae.”
“Remade?”
“You are one of us now, Ravyn of Varalorre.”
Chapter Twelve
“Ravyn!” Dalsharan scowled as he watched me pace. “Ravyn, sit down!”
“I'm not your sex slave yet, Hawk Lord!” I pointed a finger in his face. “I haven't decided!”
Dalsharan grabbed my wrist and with the barest movement, used it to twist my whole body and drop me onto my pallet. He followed me down and covered my mouth with his. I groaned and pulled him closer, wrapping my legs around him and grinding my sudden erection against his hard belly. Dal made a low noise of pleasure in his throat and ground back, thrusting his tongue over mine in a mimicry of what he'd soon be doing to me. Because, let's be honest here, there was no decision for me to make. I was so hot for that man that I'd agree to anything. He could collar me for all I cared. In fact, I might enjoy that.
But then the Hawk Lord eased out of our kiss and stared down at me. “Are you calm now?”
“Calm?” I snorted. “You think that calmed me?” I angled my hips so I could rub my cock against him again. “No, I'm not calm.”
“But you're not hysterical over your new species either.”
“I have a new species!”
“You're fae now, Ravyn,” he said slowly, as if that might help it sink in this time. “You're a true Hawk. You're even of my line since it was my magic that seeded you.”
“Seeded me.” I smirked. “That sounds kinky.”
“You, sweetheart, have a one-track mind.” Dal pushed off and away from me, leaning back to sit beside my pallet.
I sat up in disappointment. “First of all, I'm a man, so yeah, I think about sex a lot. But second, I do not have a one-track mind. I was upset—not hysterical, mind you, just upset—over my new race. Race, not species. Members of a species can't breed outside of their species, and faeries have bred with humans before.”
“True, but we're still considered a separate species with races and sub-races under them. And you were absolutely hysterical. Far more upset than I was when you called me hysterical.”