“I-It was just a touch, though, and it doesn’t happen to boys. It was just a power play,” he whispers raggedly.
“Who the fuck says it doesn’t happen to boys?” I roar, then calm down. “Baby, look at me, did you want him to touch you? Did you consent?”
“No, but—”
“No buts, then it was wrong. You have every right to feel the way you feel, baby. I can’t take it away, God, I wish I could. I wish I could go back so you never have to experience that, but all I can do is offer you my arms. I’m here if you need to rage. To cry or to feel nothing. I’m here, I know what it feels like, baby, and it won’t disappear, but you have to let yourself feel it, no matter how hard it is. You need to, don’t repress this, it happened, baby. It happened.”
Sometimes all you need is someone to believe you. I see the moment he realizes why he feels this way in his eyes, because deep down he knows he was sexually assaulted. He presses himself closer and I hold him, I hold him for as long as his tears fall and then even longer.
Pain is pain, it doesn’t discriminate based on gender.
The door opens and he jolts but doesn’t pull away. Jair and Dume are there, the wolf too. They regard us before they step inside and shut the door. “Guys, not now,” I whisper.
Dume looks at the man in my arms, his face sad and understanding. “I was raped repeatedly by my queen. By a woman others followed and looked to for leadership, she even made me enjoy it. I hated myself for it, hated myself for so long. I still see her face.”
Griffin lifts his head and Jair steps closer, anger flashing in his eyes. He doesn’t glance at me, but keeps his gaze trained on Griffin, and I can feel his struggle at admitting what he shares. “I was turned by a woman who used my body as easily as she used my fangs. I convinced myself I enjoyed it as we killed and fucked. After, I would even cuddle with her surrounded by their corpses and blood. But inside I hated myself, I lost myself. It twisted me, and only now am I able to look back to see that I never, not once, wanted her. I felt like I owed it to her, that she controlled me, and I was so scared that I had to.”
Griffin swallows, his eyes confused at their admissions, at them sharing their deepest, darkest pain for him. “Baby, I was raped, again and again. I was so scared to resist that I used to lie there, that I used to fucking thank him after.” Tears fill my eyes, matching his as I stare into those dark depths. “We are here.”
He licks his lips and presses his head to mine as Dume and Jair step closer and fall to their knees, wrapping their arms around us. I freeze, unsure how he will react, but he shivers and presses closer, accepting their comfort.
We sit like that, together, a tangle of limbs of understanding and shared pain.
Hours later, I lift my head. Griffin is asleep in our arms, his mind peaceful for a moment. I look to the others to see the same anger, same hate there for our hurting mate...friend. Family.
“It’s time and I know whom I’m starting with,” I snarl, losing myself to the darkness. I want his pain, his screams. I want him to pay for what he’s done to my mate.
No one hurts what is mine.
I hop right into the council’s nest, straight to the dungeons below where the dragon insists we are needed. We end up in a hallway and he whirls to me, his eyes flashing purposefully as he barrels towards me. Laughing, I dodge his outstretched hands. “What about your mate?” I remind him, and he stops, frozen in indecision before turning and storming away.
I follow after him, whistling, when suddenly, I stop. I bend over, gasping. Such power fills me, calls to me, courses through me. Lifting my head, I meet the dragon’s gaze. “Your mate, what is she?” I demand.
“A skinwalker,” he answers, frowning.
“No, something down here is much stronger, so much stronger.” I grab him in a blink and hop us to the location of the power, needing to know.
We arrive in a cell that smells of blood, sex, and pain, all my favourite things. That’s when I see her—the woman who called me forth from my slumber, who slipped inside my mind, who restored me. She’s so small, her blonde hair wrapped over a bare, pale shoulder, with a curvy body that men would fall to the floor and worship. She seems harmless as I melt into the shadows to watch her, keeping the dragon trapped with me. But then those black eyes turn my way, and in those depths I see the same hate, rage, and need for violence that swirls inside me.
I suck in a breath, aching to reach through the mist to grab her and hop her away. Take her back to my home and lock her there with me as I peel back what makes this little woman affect me so, to see if she tastes as sweet as she looks. Her eyes flicker away and I want to roar, to drag them back to me…only then do I realise there are others in the room. I was so distracted by her, so taken aback, everything else had faded.
There are three.
I sniff the air—a fallen, a vampire, and a...minotaur. Interesting.
Just then the dragon struggles in the mist and somehow breaks through. Panting, he bursts into the room as I stay in the shadows, observing as he strides towards the woman I can’t seem to look away from. I actually growl when he grabs her and swings her around in an arc.
She giggles, seeming overjoyed. “Aska! You made it!”
“I told you I would, Neriso,” he murmurs, and then lets her slide down his body, still holding her in the air as his lips meet hers. I see red, wanting to rip the world apart, to kill the dragon who, a moment ago, had amused me. My nails dig into the wall as I debate ripping him away from her, but then he pulls back and I have never seen such joy, such happiness. “My mate, I finally have you.”
Mate?
This is his mate?
I should have killed the dragon when I had the chance. I do not share. Not ever. I will find out what the council is doing, kill them if I must, then I will take her from him. She is mine, I feel it now. The pull, the call. Yes, I’ll take her, make her mine. Chain her by my feet as she reveres me, and when I am done or kill her, he can have her body back.
With one last look at them, I hop from the room, intent on killing someone, anyone, to rid myself of this anger, this pure, unlimited chaos raging through me, swirling without purpose and needing to be let out.
Because of her.
Dawn grins, resting her forehead against mine. I can feel the others in the room staring, but I do not care. I finally have her in my arms, after everything, we are finally together. She feels so good in my embrace, her lips against mine like the touch of gold against my skin. There is nothing compared to her, our dreamscape was a pale imitation of the beauty of my mate.
“You told me—” She exclaims, kissing me again before pulling away. “That you would tell me what neriso means.”
“I did, didn’t I?” I whisper, staring into those stunning eyes. “Beloved, mine.”
She shivers and wraps her legs around my waist, holding me close, need and happiness warring in her eyes. I feel the same. I have waited so long to feel her touch, to feel her close, and now I have her.
“Draya,” comes a voice, and I growl, tucking her closer as I snarl at the others. A big man with a nose ring holds his hands up and looks from her to me. “I mean no harm, dragon, she is my mate too.”
I run my eyes over him and the long-haired man standing next to him, noticing a tired-looking Griffin leaning against the wall. “Wing man.” I nod seriously.