I watched with rapt attention as he sucked and cupped my breasts, my hands trailing over the hardened muscles bunching and flexing around his shoulders. The knot of hair atop his head came tumbling down as I tugged the leather strap free, the ends tickling my skin.

The sensations he delivered made the world around us melt away until all I could think about was him, the way his body pressed against mine, where his mouth would go next, and how much I wanted to remain like this for the rest of eternity. Forget the war, forget the Angels, forget my name for the pleasure he delivered.

Izgath lifted his head from my belly and leveled a serious gaze. “I can’t let you go off to war, Assyria. I need to know you’re safe. Marry me and I’ll send you to my parents, wherever they are. They’ll care for you until I return.”

His words stole the air from my lungs. “But, how, I mean I can’t marry again–”

“Change your name, your appearance, use your magic to help us. We’ll sneak away tonight to Uzhhorod and find a priestess. It happens all the time in the army,” he said in a rush.

He moved lower so that his mouth hovered just above my core. His hot breath fanned against it, sending a rippling shiver through my body. What he was offering was exactly what I needed—an escape. But did I want to tie myself to another male so soon? Izgath would protect me, could protect me, had protected me. If I refused and was shuffled off, along with Uzadaan, the risk of being discovered was so high that my death was nearly imminent.

I still had so much life to live.

“Yes,” I breathed, and the grin that split Izgath’s face healed some of those deep gouges in my heart in an instant. He kissed my core, then returned his mouth to mine, gripping himself and lining with my entrance.

“Fuck, Assyria, I need to be inside you now,” he groaned against my mouth, the head swiping at my clit before dipping down.

My answer was a roll of my hips that rubbed him against my slit.

His thumb moved to the apex of my thighs, circling there and sending sparks of pleasure shooting across my heated skin. “I’m a lot bigger than my fingers and I don’t want to hurt you,” he murmured, lowering himself to suck on that spot under my ear.

“You won’t,” I whimpered as he worked faster, his cock pressing harder against me. The heat of his body pressed into mine, while his magic brushed against any exposed skin. His entire attention was focused on me and my pleasure, and I’d never felt so safe, so protected in my life.

A whimper slipped past my lips and into the open air when he broke our kiss. “Assyria,” he breathed, gazing down at me with such devotion that despite my doubts, I knew I’d made the right decision. The way he said my name was like a prayer, more reverent than any he’d said to the Fates as I led our daily rituals.

He hiked one leg up higher, preparing to enter me. My eyes rolled to the back of my head as he parted my folds and swiped himself through my arousal pooled there. Wetness gushed between us, so slick that the movement between us was audible. “Deeper,” I panted, tension coiling low in my belly like a snake preparing to strike with just the right movement.

He tightened his grip on my hip, and I tried to relax and allow him entrance. His glutes flexed, and he sucked in a breath.

“Who the fuck is that and why are you in Vagach’s tent?”

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23

My eyes snapped open at the sound of Jaku’s voice. Izgath whipped around and I screamed, then slapped my hands over my mouth to stifle the sound.

Jaku was steps away from the low pallet, towering over us both with brows pinched and lips pressed firmly together. Izgath raised his hands slowly. “Jaku, I can explain.”

His hard gaze landed firmly on me. “Who are you and how did you get in here?”

Izgath moved between us, and I scrambled to grab my discarded tunic, tugging it over my head hurriedly. But Jaku wasn’t deterred. “Those are Vagach’s clothes. But I see no sign of the Kormánzó. Unless you can explain and produce him in the next ten seconds, I will have to call for Parancsok Olet.”

“Jaku, please wait–” Izgath was hurriedly dressing himself despite the withering gaze of our Százados.

“Explain,” he growled at the male, cutting a glare in my direction.

“Vagach said I could use his tent after I found her wandering outside the camp, looking for money,” Izgath lied.

The suggestion that I was a fallen female stung, but once again, he was proving that he would protect me. He wasn’t revealing what happened to Vagach, or who I really was.

“Liar. I’m not blind, Izgath. I see those burgundy eyes filled with utter terror,” he hissed.

Fuck.

He grabbed Izgath by the shirt and yanked him forward. “Normally, I would excuse this type of behavior, especially as you are such a good soldier. But this tent reeks of suspicion, and I will not risk my own career to cover up whatever it is that you have done.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll tell you,” Izgath pleaded, and Jaku released him.

I couldn’t breathe as I stared up at the two males.

Izgath glanced at me, his garnet eyes pleading, but I couldn’t read in them what I wanted to know—what he was going to say next. They cut to the side as if he wanted me to run, but my shriek hadn’t gone unnoticed. The murmurs steadily increasing in volume outside the tent meant that I wouldn’t make it two steps before being caught.

“This is my wife. I never told anyone I was married because, well, you’ve seen what Dromak and I like to do on the road. And I am an Incubus so–”

Jaku had Izgath by the throat in an instant, silencing him. “I’ve heard enough lies. Something has happened to Kormánzó Vagach, and if you don’t tell me when I release you, I will drag you both to the whipping post.”

Izgath nodded, his face turning redder by the second. Jaku relaxed his grip but didn’t move his hand. “I killed him, just a bit ago.”

“Drul! Ikket!” Jaku shouted, and my stomach turned over. Two males entered the tent, both with similar builds to Dromak.

Shit, Izgath and Dromak had been set to meet the two. That’s why Jaku had come looking for him, since he never showed up.

Those bruises on my heart deepened as tears spilled over. I’d done this, I’d gotten Izgath in trouble. If only I had been strong and refused him…

“Yes, sir?” they asked, eyes widening as they took in the situation—me on my knees in an oversized tunic and nothing else, tears streaming down my face, and Jaku and Izgath locked in a brutal embrace.

With a disgusted, dismissive motion, he threw Izgath at them. “Take Izgath to the whipping post. I’ve got the female.”

“No!” I shrieked, finally jumping into action. I raced toward the opposite side of the tent, intending to rip up the canvas and make my escape. But Jaku was fast, and he snatched me around the middle and hoisted me into the air.

“Not so fast. You have questions to answer as well,” he growled, muscles digging into my stomach and forcing the air from my lungs.

My entire opinion of the Százados flipped in the span of a heartbeat. I’d thought he was a nice, caring leader, concerned with ensuring his charges lived to see another day. And yet, when it came down to following the Halálhívó’s rules, he didn’t care that it hurt a valued member of his squad.

So I kicked and fought him with everything I’d learned over the past month, but it was no use. We emerged into the night to an audience, gathered to see what the commotion was all about. Izgath’s smooth voice cursed the two males hauling him away. Gasps and murmurs soon drowned them out as Jaku carried me through camp, and I was grateful the shirt was large and long enough to brush my mid-thigh, otherwise I would have been utterly exposed to every male in this camp.