Total pages in book: 165
Estimated words: 159487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 532(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 159487 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 797(@200wpm)___ 638(@250wpm)___ 532(@300wpm)
But something was moving through his blood…something alive, he could feel it.
At last, the worst of the burning eased. Severin remained bent over the table, breathing hard, sweat cooling along the back of his neck. His fangs were fully descended and aching, but the pain had settled into a deep, pulsing pressure in the glands at their roots.
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and saw a faint smear of gold-tinged blue fluid—his essence. And Gods, it was altered already. Or corrupted—there was no way to know, not yet.
He needed time. The compound would have to move through his system fully, bind to his essence glands if his theory was correct, and either stabilize there or tear him apart from the inside.
By morning, he would be able to test it. By morning, he would know whether he had become the delivery system they needed…or whether he had signed his own death warrant.
Severin sealed the remaining samples and locked the files. His movements were slower now, less precise than usual, but he forced himself to clean the station properly. If he lost consciousness later—or worse became one of the Infected—he didn’t want Cassandra or Ravik walking into a contaminated lab.
The thought made his heart fist in his chest but he tried to push it away. There was no point in worrying now—he couldn’t take back the injection. There was nothing to do but wait and hope and pray to the Goddess that this worked.
But even if it did work and he was able to save them both…he might still lose his best friend.
He had saved Ravik before and Ravik had saved him more times than either of them could count. They had been boys together, then warriors, then partners in the field—two halves of a team that just worked.
Severin knew Ravik’s temper, his humor, his stubborn courage, and his reckless loyalty. He knew the way the big Beast Kindred pretended not to understand complicated science but remembered every dosage of every medication Severin had ever given him. He knew the sound of his laugh and the weight of his hand on Severin’s shoulder after a battle.
And now Severin knew the sound Ravik made when Cassandra took them both in her mouth…knew the feeling of his shaft rubbing against his best friend’s shaft as both of them took pleasure with the same woman. They had shared Cassandra in ways Beast and Blood Kindred were never meant to share.
Even with the Tenebrian woman, the two of them had taken turns with her. She had begged to have them both inside her at once, but Ravik had refused. Though they’d all three been in the same bed together, they had taken her one at a time. Even drunk, the big Beast Kindred had remembered himself enough to know what the two of them shouldn’t do together.
Severin’s face heated at the memory of pressing his shaft to his friend’s…of feeling Cassandra’s sweet little tongue caressing them both. That memory should have felt like shame. Instead, it felt like the opening of some forbidden door he had spent years pretending he couldn’t see.
Enough—he couldn’t think this way anymore.
Severin closed his eyes briefly and forced himself to stand. He needed to go back to them. If this was his last night he had as himself, he didn’t want to spend it alone in the lab. He needed the comfort of their warm bodies and the sound of their breathing. He needed them both, just as Cassandra had needed both him and Ravik earlier.
The hallway seemed longer than usual as he made his way back toward the mating chamber. His legs felt steady enough, but there was a strange heaviness in his limbs, as though his blood had become thicker. Every few steps, his fangs ached and a faint pulse moved through his jaw. He kept one hand on the wall, not because he needed it, he told himself, but because the bunker corridor was narrow and he was tired.
It was a transparent lie, but there was no one there to call him on it.
When he reached the door to the mating chamber, he paused. Inside, the amber lights were low. Cassandra was asleep in Ravik’s arms, her curvy body tucked against the Beast Kindred’s chest, her hair spilling over his forearm. Ravik was awake, or half-awake. His golden eyes were clearer than they had been earlier, though still faintly hazy at the edges.
He looked at Severin and for a moment, neither male spoke.
Then Ravik lifted one hand slightly from Cassandra’s hip and reached toward him.
The gesture was simple—come here.
Severin’s throat tightened and for a moment he considered refusing. The safest place for him, if the compound went wrong, would be away from them. Preferably behind a sealed door with restraints nearby and a sterilized blade in case he had to end the threat before it reached them.