Saltbound and Bloodsworn (by Allison Franklin) novel Chapter 20

Chapter 20 Chapter Twenty

Hands. Small. Soft. Uncalloused. So very unlike his own. Dight breath. A melodic voice beckoned him to the surface. Those hands smoothed over his thighs. The breath fanned his stomach. His entire body hummed with awareness. Eyes, a mixture of green and blue like the surface of the ocean itself, looked down at him. A smile, subtle, difficult to earn but easy to get lost in as she looked down at him. Mate.

“Sylvan…” the voice called.

He rose to the surface of the ocean he’d become lost in. He reached for her. She held her hand out to him, her face distorted above the surface of the water.

“Sylvan,” the voice called again.

His wolf snarled. The vision above him wavered and disappeared. He broke through the surface of the water and jerked.

“There you are, Sylvan. It’s never this hard to wake you.”

Now that he was awake, he recognized the voice coaxing him. Sylvan looked down his naked form to the similarly naked woman lying on top of him. Rose dipped her head and kissed his stomach as her hand trailed down his hip. The wolf within him roared and pummeted himself against his cage and, for a brief moment, Sylvan considered letting him out.

“I’ve missed you. You’ve never been away for this long. I tried to come by earlier but the guards wouldn’t let me in.”

Her hand curled around his member, standing at attention due to his dream. He snagged her wrist, a grow! ripped through his throat. Her head snapped up, her eyes wide with fear as the growl continued.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, his voice low and venomous. His wolf bristled with pride. He had never been a fan of this particular tradition.

“I…” Her easy smile faltered. “I always come to visit you when you get home.”/

“Not anymore,” he hissed, using her wrist to shove her away.

Sylvan threw the curtain aside and stepped off his bed. He found a robe across the room and shoved his arms through the sleeves.

“I don’t understand what’s happening,” Rose said, stepping into her own robe.

He observed her with the eyes of a man who hadn’t been with a woman in over a year. She was stunning: tall, dark hair that trailed down her back, a

symmetrical face with wide eyes and a powerful she-wolf beneath the surface. Yet for the first time in his life, he felt no physical attraction to her.

“I’m telling you to leave,” Sylvan told her.

“But… why? What’s changed?”

“I have,” he said, turning away. “You are no longer welcome in my chamber.” He walked back to the bed and inhaled. He let out a growl. Isla’s scent. It was gone, overridden by the floral scent of the other woman. Sylvan grabbed the edge of his sheets and ripped them from the bed.

“You’ve met someone,” she whispered quietly, certain of it.

Sylvan froze. He shut his eyes hard. He thought of the woman next door and the desire to claim her versus the need to protect her. “No.”

“Then…”

1/3

0:48

Chapter 20 Chapter Twenty

What is it?” he barked, turning to face her. “Has Tristar kicked you out of bed? Is it my scent on your skin that drives him wild with jealousy enough to fuck you?”

Rose’s mouth dropped open, She wrapped her fingers around her upper arms, appearing far more innocent than he knew her to be. “That’s uncalled for.”

“Is it?” Sylvan asked. “We’ve had our fun these last few years, have we not? You played your cards until you realized we weren’t mates and then fell into the lap of the future king. Better to be mistress to the king than chosen mate of the forever prince, destined to travel the world doing the king’s bidding. After

all, you could get a piece of the prince whenever he came hoqe, right?”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because I have no use for you anymore,” Sylvan said, his voice cold, emotionless as he spoke the words he’d felt for years. “Tristan wanted me to hate him for stealing you. I wanted to prove that if I wanted you, I could have you. Now the games seem juvenile, irrelevant.”

Rose looked away, tears brimming in her eyes. “That’s all this was?”

Sylvan strode up to her and took her chin between his fingers so she would be forced to look at him. “Don’t act like you weren’t getting something either. I never scent him on you. Not until the night after you visit me. You cover yourself with my scent and then parade past him, enticing him. Do you not? Are you hoping that one night his jealousy will bring out the wolf he never feeds and he’ll mount and breed you? Do you really think carrying his pup will make him mark you? Give up the throne? Maybe even change the laws, choose you and become king anyway?”

Rose ripped her chin from his grasp. “No.”

Sylvan scoffed and smiled as he shook his head. “You forget I’ve known you since before you got your wolf, Rosemary. I know when you’re lying.”

He turned his back, hoping she would take it as a dismissal.

“My father received invitation from the king,” Rose said, her voice quiet, uncertain.

It didn’t take much deliberation to understand where she was going with this information. Sylvan looked over his shoulder at her.

She shrugged. “Your mother has not given up on us. She wants me to vie to win your heart.”

He pivoted slowly to face her again. “Win my heart?” Sylvan actually laughed, making her even more uneasy. “Rose… You had my heart. I gave it to you the moment I realized we weren’t fated. I wanted to choose you. I was ready and willing to give up absolutely every chance of power, money, acclaim… all for

your love. You weren’t.”

Rose dropped her head and he watched a tear droplet fall to the carpet at their feet. He wondered if he regretted it. The hurt she caused him. How her betrayal had been what pushed him to that first war with Selolei. How the devastation he felt at her rejection planted the seed that would later grow into

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify