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IF she had been Dardaptoan—and she most definitely was not—he would have simply told her that he was her Rajni there to claim her. To get her out of this little demon-made den of hers and to the home he shared with the ruling heads of his family. He, Rion, Marcos, Marous, Havrich, Dalric and the rest of their brothers who were Dhars of their tribes shared a wing in the castle at Thrun with their cousin Nalik. It hadn’t been his first choice, but Theo the Prognosticator had told them it was where they were meant to be.
To help Nalik plan for the war that was coming to Thrun.
He had a large suite in that wing and she would want for nothing there. Especially after he looked around the little place she called home. She’d fastened pictures to the stone walls somehow. Beautiful sketches on scrap pieces of paper. Her own work? He looked at the first quickly. Four young females, including his, battling back demons? He had so many questions for her.
There were flowers growing in a little pot by a small table. It was stained a strange red that echoed the mud around the river. She had a bed of a sort, though the blankets looked old and tattered.
They angered him, just thinking of what she must have gone through.
Thrun was generally a warm place, but when it stormed it would get cold quickly. She had no kitchen, no bath with plumbing, not even a large table and a chair to sit in. How would she have gotten one inside the little hole she used as a door?
Fury filled him. “How did you get to this world?”
“Why should I answer?” She kept backing away from him until her feet tangled in her bed and she fell against the back wall. She cried out when she landed on her arm.
It was then that he noticed the blood. He was an Adrastos, after all, and had some of the keenest sight of his Kind. The room was darkening as the sun set outside, but he could see the dark stain on her gray vestis. The purple rocks she’d sat around the perimeter of the room began to glow, giving off light—and heat—as the outside world darkened.
She was a resourceful female, his mate, wasn’t she?
He took his first real good look at the female he’d be spending eternity with.
The red hair was there, and it was definitely close to the same shade as his sister-in-law Mallory’s. Apparently his family was destined to have many redheads among the females. She was shorter than his sister-in-law, extremely short for his Kind. At his almost seven foot height, he had a least a foot and a half or more over her. She was as thin as a typical Dardaptoan female, though.
She looked starved, just as the shopkeeper had said. He bit back the fury. It was not her he was angry with. It was whoever had brought her here and abandoned her to a world she would have known nothing about. “Because I am your mate. Come to find you.”
“Whoa? Somebody caught a ride on the crazy train, didn’t he? I am no one’s mate.” She looked up at him with big green eyes—identical to Mallory’s and her sister’s—and brought her uninjured arm up between them. “Wait a minute, you’re not a sex demon, are you? Because let me tell you, I’m so not interested.”
“I am not one of those creatures. But I will kill one for you if he has hurt you.” He meant it. The idea that his female had been food for a damned demon pissed him off. Had him ready to pull his sword.
“No one has hurt me. Well, except for that asshole today. What was his deal?”
“That was my sire. Unfortunately. He has spent centuries puffing on his own arrogance. He will be punished at my hands as soon as I am able. For what he did to you today.” As he spoke he stepped closer. She was human, he could freeze her just as he had done her little dog.
But Adric did not like the idea of stealing her free will from her—even for a few moments. However, if she would not cooperate, he would have little choice. She was bleeding so...
“I smell your blood on the air. Let me tend to you now.”