Page 25 of Tethered Thrones
“I will go get some air,” I said, a little louder but far too meekly to be taken seriously.
I panted with frustration as Hadi crouched down as low as he could and dragged Sun upward, joining in kissing him now. “I will call for you all to protect me if there’s trouble.”
Bracken snorted, and Kiar’s frown deepened. I started to crawl backward and then stood, wanting to hold onto a shred of dignity, standing my ground on something so silly. My original master growled as part of my wings disappeared through the brush.
Hadi released Sun, who slid like a wave to the ground. On hands and knees, Sun leaned forward to suck on the head of Bracken’s cock, coaxing it further from its furry sheath, as he grumbled, “...Fine. Don’t stray far.”
Then, gripping a fistful of Sun’s head as his hips pumped back and forth lightly hr glanced at Kiar.
“What is wrong with him?” I heard him whisper to him.
I flinched at that but ignored it, as I always did when his words weren’t meant for me, even when I could clearly hear them. Kiar shook his head, transfixed with kneading Sun’s supple ass as Sun ground against the naga’s emerging cocks.
Hadi’s gaze never left Sun’s face, though the tiniest twitch of his fingers in my direction indicated he was dismissing me. An acknowledgment but that of flicking off a gnat getting in the way.
I screwed my eyes shut and walked away from the heat of their embrace.
Chapter 9
Clem
The tether cooled as I put distance between us, untangling myself slowly from the emotions of my bonded mates. My emotions were dark and stormy, matching my environment as I leaned against a great oak tree and waited under the veil of moonlight, close enough to hear their moans but far enough that I could breathe without being suffocated by the weight of the tether.
Waiting… for what, I couldn’t put into words, but I suddenly, I just knew…
He was coming, scratching at the corners of my mind as if we were tethered, too.
I closed my eyes, licked my dry lips, suppressing my clicks, and focused on the pinprick of light taunting me. So close, so close and warm and dark and dangerous as tendrils of shadows fanned out from that spot in my mind’s eye. Like a portal opening wide and darkness flooding in, consuming the light, and transforming it into a void.
I shuddered as suddenly Nguyen’s voice materialized with the whistling wind, a gentle caress against my antennas and ears as a shadowy presence became solid on my back until his claws scrapped my neck.
“Greetings, weakling. I knew you would come to me eventually. Once you felt the pull,” he hissed, and I quivered, unable to open my eyes and turn to him.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Magic, of course,” he responded, but it didn’t even begin to answer my question.
“What do you want?” I asked instead because now I knew this wave of self-loathing and anger was brought on by the bond the nightwing had thrust upon me. And I needed to know why as much as I needed to know what this was.
“You’ve taken from the chosen one like a parasite, like a leech. A weakling like you honored as the goddess’s emissary. Pathetic!”
His dark feathers brushed against my body as he bent forward, and I shuddered. I still couldn’t bring myself to meet his hostile gaze.
Coward!
“Yes, you fucking coward,” he read my mind in a measured tone, and I shook, wondering if he could read all of my thoughts.
“It’s a wonder you dared to defy Daaku and had enough sense, enough power, to tether your soul to Sun’s might. A mothian, so unworthy of being born under that righteous star,” Nguyen gritted out, the outline of his wings eclipsing my body as I braced myself to peek. “But the goddess, our goddess, does not make mistakes. And if she intended for me to cross paths with one as useless as you, she must have trusted I would empower you to unlock all her secrets.”
“How do you know Sun and I were born under the same star?” I asked, knowing it wasn’t necessary in the grand scheme of things since he teleported his spirit across a great distance to speak to me in a way so real that I could feel him. I had more important reasons to fear him than his accurate sense of astrology.
I gasped as a rush of darkness passed through my body, reforming in front of my eyes. Eyes I couldn’t close like invisible fingers had pried them open against my will. He glared at me down his nose, folding his arms before his willowy chest. Nguyen looked to where my heart beat as if he could see something I couldn’t. And then, to my shock and horror, he physically seized the tether and yanked me forward!
“The same color,” he said.
“Wh-what is?” I asked, voice wobbling as all the color drained from my body.
Despite not ripping me to shreds back then or now, nightwings were second level predators, and I heard mothians had once been their favorite food choice.