Filed To Story: A Claim of Fortune Book PDF Free by Jaymin Eve
It had been too long, and it had affected me too, even if I’d been pretending otherwise. “I’ll try and be here more,” I said, knowing we both needed it. “But I wish you’d just give them the information they need to trust you. Then you could be free.”
Talon shifted back to see my face. “I can’t, mate. While I won’t hurt you or any of your pack, I remain loyal to their enemy, and I see no reason to change that.”
A spike of hurt at his statement had me pulling away to create distance between us. “You proclaim to be my mate,” I said roughly, “and yet you would hand me over to an alpha who wants to hurt me. The alpha who killed my mother.”
His expression remained hard and unyielding. “You are mine. No one will ever hurt you again. Alpha knows the deal, and he has assured me we will rule together.”
Finley’s laughter was broken and completely devoid of any humor. “You’re one stupid motherfucker if you believe that.”
The darkness in his voice reminded me of the Finley I first met, and I found I didn’t mind his raging bear when it wasn’t directed at me.
Not that I had the energy for a fight to break out tonight. “Let’s leave the battle for later,” I said with a yawn. “All of us need rest.”
Even Talon looked exhausted, and it took a lot for the dragons to show weakness.
I directed Finley to set out the bedding beside the bars. “None of us should be alone tonight,” I said as I slid down on the soft material, on the side closest to Talon.
The dragon’s hands were in my hair not even a breath later, and I sighed at how good it felt when he played with the length. He grabbed the brush from last time, and started to run it through the strands until I was a relaxed puddle.
Finley watched us closely before releasing an aggravated sound. “Touch her in any way she doesn’t like and I’ll break your hand off.”
He dropped down on my other side and stretched out his huge length. We didn’t touch at first, until I reached out and pressed my hand against his chest. “Sleep, Grouchy,” I whispered. “We’ll watch over you.”
Talon’s dragon rumbled, but he didn’t deny it, and to my surprise it took less than five minutes for Finley’s breathing to even out as he went to sleep.
To stem the tidal wave of emotion crashing into me, I reached up and grasped Talon’s hand, the brush stilling between us as I sought an anchor. In this moment, caught between the two alphas who’d hurt me the most, I was truly starting to believe that we might all be each others’ salvations.
TALON
My dragon demanded release.
He didn’t fight my cage often, but when he did, it was often beyond my ability to keep him contained.
No, we would hurt her if we shifted. Have patience.
He roared back, and the bass in that rumble suggested he was done with patience. It had been too long since she’d come to us, and now that she was here, we couldn’t let her go.
When her hand went limp in sleep, I internally raged at the bone-deep exhaustion seeping through our bond. Wanting her to keep resting, I continued to slide the brush through her hair, unsurprised to find I was tired too. While I had more than enough time down here to get the few hours of sleep I required to function at full strength, without Emmeline it was an empty and restless slumber.
My gaze dragged over the male at her other side and I shelved my relatively minor urge to destroy him. As if he’d felt that flicker of a threat, his eyes slowly opened and met mine. He stared into the depths of my beast and didn’t blink or look away. He held my stare as if he’d battled true evil before and had walked out the other side.
A sliver of respect had me inclining my head, and the bear appeared satisfied enough to close his eyes once more. I felt the calming of his beast, and as his hand drifted up to cover Emme’s, which rested on his chest, he slipped into a true deep sleep.
I found myself stupidly invested in ensuring neither of them were awoken.
Alpha would beat this shit out of me if he sensed these softer emotions, and yet… this instinct to protect them was ingrained as deeply as my instinct to conquer shifters.
For hours I watched over them, my fingers tangled in the silky strands of Emme’s hair, relishing in the moments I caressed a sliver of her soft skin or caught a waft of chocolate and honey. This omega held me in her clutches, and with that came the sort of power I wasn’t sure she understood she possessed.
His energy reached me a few moments before he silently padded into the room. I never tore my gaze from the omega as he watched us both.
“We all look at her that way,” Slade murmured, his voice so like my own. Dragon touched. “Like we would not only watch the world burn for her but be the fuckers who razed it to the ground.”
That was where Emmeline’s true power stemmed from. We would all turn villain the second anyone threatened her. I just had to ensure Alpha didn’t make that mistake and force my hand against him. Surely, he knew better than to even try.
“What do you want, brother?”
Slade didn’t physically react when I addressed our twin bond, but his scent flared. The connection bothered him, and for that reason alone I continued to remind him of it. “We might need to return to the volcano.”
His statement was the first thing to capture my interest since Emme had entered the room. Reluctantly, I tore my gaze from her to meet his. “Why?”
He kicked his legs a few feet apart and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. “We need to explore the twin soul connection, and my research indicates it might have to take place where our egg was found. With our ancestor’s energy.”
What he said made sense, but I wasn’t interested. “I don’t need to explore anything. I don’t need you or the connection. My beast and I are copacetic, and I can protect my mate just fine.”
Slade scoffed. “I detest a liar. You have a rift too, I can feel it. This might be our chance to claim our true strength and be the mates Emmeline deserves.”
There he went, mentioning the one fucking thing that might get me to consider his idea. “What makes you think I won’t run off to Alpha the moment you free me.”
Slade’s smirk was knowing, and I wished I was close enough to smack it off his face. “Because you obviously could have left any time you wanted. You’re staying for her, and you won’t hurt her like that. I may not trust anything else about you, but I trust that you believe you care about Emme.”
Emme would have to travel with us, otherwise our new bond would cause her pain. Which meant there’d be no bars between us. “What happens with me after we figure out the twin soul connection?”