Yet another bolt of information made her body tremble. Goose bumps lined her skin. She had sucked blood from a neotide? Did he turn into a vampire? Who was he?

"Don't worry your pretty little head around it Dawn," Emma said with a tight expression. She untied the blindfold from her eyes. "We have reached. I will come to pick you up before the first rays of the sun fall on Ixoviya."

​​

Dawn fluttered her eyes open and when her vision adjusted, she found herself on the stairs in front of Daryn's royal chambers located on the top of the tower. How did they reach here so fast? She blinked to adjust her vision to the lights of a bright chandelier that hung from the dome shaped ceiling. The white marble floor with gold inlays on the border led to a red, blue and green frosted glass door. Its heavy gold knob in the shape of a Yelgra tree, beckoned her. Her lips curled into a smile. She looked at Emma who was observing her intently.

Dawn regarded her serious face and then turned towards the door. She pressed the knobs to open the door.

Daryn was waiting for his wife on the other side. She ran in his outstretched arms. He picked her up and twirled her around with ecstasy. "My baby!" he breathed as he stopped and claimed her lips. Dawn wrapped her legs around his waist. She fisted his hair and slanted her head over his lips. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Emma through the doors that were swaying on the hinges.

Emma stared at the two through the swinging doors until they closed, and then she stepped down the stairs, which led to the base of the tower. With every step down, memories of how she met Lorza flooded her. She bit back a cry as a pang of pain surged through her. Five centuries back, when she was a mere mortal, a peasant, when she was just fourteen and he was three millennia old… When he had saved her from drowning… too many remembrances… Every step down the tower made her feel heavier with heartache. For five hundred years she had been pining on the hope to bring him back to life. She withered every day, then she lived… so painfully that there was hardly a day she didn't shed pink tears. She was the Bride of Lord Lorza...

As she watched Dawn in Daryn's arms, she shuddered. "Another time my lord, another time…" she muttered and walked back to her chamber in the south wing of the Norhall Castle.

---

Daryn lapped her tongue and she opened up for him as a flower. He moaned in her mouth as their tongues met in a sensual dance. He carried her to his room and not letting her go, leaned her on the bed and moved down with her, still not able to leave her mouth. When he left her, he rested his forehead against her while panting.

"By Skadi! You are a brave woman Dawn," he said.

She giggled.

"And why are you wearing a red gown?" he said as he straightened up without sitting on her and opened its belt. The fabric slipped down revealing the red negligée and he gasped. His cock twitched painfully in his pants. Her taut nipples that had strained against her lace were showing through the fabric. The V of the neck plunged to her navel and the only piece of cloth that kept it in place was a red ribbon in the middle of her breasts. "Fuck!" He traced his claws over the pale skin of the curves of her breasts and her body arched in response. Daryn took his claw to her navel and circled it lazily. "This is mine." He brought his fingers back to her nipples and pinched them hard.

"Ah!" Dawn groaned.

His bulge had swelled to the extent it could no longer be held inside. He unbuttoned the pants and his erection sprang free. "You make me mad every time I see you baby," he said as he stroked himself with one hand and sliced the ribbon on her breast with the other hand. Her plump breasts bounced as they got freed from the bounds. Daryn shifted on top towards her breasts, inserted his shaft in between and then after cupping her breasts, he pressed them around it. He rubbed it hard over there, stroking her buds at the same time. Moments later he spilled all over her chest. The color of his come on her made him feel so wanton. "Gods! Woman!" he said, "I am not done with you!" He had to pleasure her. He removed his shirt, wiped her chest and then moved down. The silk of the thong she was wearing was soaking. He sliced it. Her wet flesh was glistening as an invitation. He plunged his mouth inside and devoured her till she shuddered and came all over his mouth. He lapped her up.

Daryn tore the red negligée with one pull and mounted his female. He pushed his erection inside her so slowly that she groaned. "Faster Daryn!"

His name on her lips was his undoing and he shoved himself inside her like a piston. "Come for me baby!" he breathed.

Dawn rewarded him as her muscles clenched around him tightly as she came and he came with her. He slumped beside his devious mate and pulled her against his chest. "Do you know red is almost a lethal invitation for a Lykae?"

"Oh my!" she breathed. "I have bought two more red negligée!"

"You wicked woman!" Daryn chuckled.

After a few more sessions, when he wanted to take a breather for the next ones, he played with her hair and she snuggled in his warmth.

"How did you manage to injure that girl Daryn?" she asked before she forgot to ask.

He turned to look up at the ceiling. "I tried to break free of my mother's illusion."

Dawn jumped up. "Really?"

"Hmm…" he replied. "Every damned woman here looks like you. She made sure that I am lured by them only so that she hurts you emotionally. Today, I just became too irritated by the illusions. Even in my drugged state, I knew it wasn't you, and so I fought against the hallucination. Honestly, I have no idea how that woman got so badly injured but I hated her the moment she came and sat between my knees." His jaws clenched at the memory. "By Skadi! I hated and I hate my mother more than ever!" When he looked at Dawn, he found her smiling.

She stroked his hair. She was so proud of him. "Baby, I think your mind is registering a block against the illusion. You should try it out more."

Daryn looked at her with pain in his eyes. "Sedora has upped her illusion. She warned me that every time I would injure a woman, you would also sustain some injury. So I won't do it again." He closed his eyes and brought his arm over his forehead. "I just want to pick you and run away from here. I hate her for drugging me. I loathe her for putting us all in this situation."

Dawn reclined on the pillows. She crossed her hands across the chest and said, "Don't stop yourself from developing those powers. You have to tap them."