Free Dark Promises (Dark #29) by Christine Feehan Page B

comfort her. Not even to reassure her that she would be safe with him. Rage was still there. The bloodlust hadn’t subsided.
    â€œSívamet andam. Sielamet andam. Ainamet andam. Sívamet kuuluak kaik että a ted. Ainaak olenszal sívambin. Te élidet ainaak pide minan. Te avio päläfertiilam. Ainaak sívamet jutta oleny. Ainaak terád vigyázak.”
    He spoke firmly, in a deep, commanding timbre. He used his ancient language and felt every word ripped from his soul. Even as he uttered the binding words imprinted on him before he was born, he felt the ties binding them together. His soul to hers.
    She cried out with each completed vow. As if he’d struck her. As if, somehow, he’d ripped out her heart and soul. Before he could step close to her to soothe her, he heard the warning growl from the Daratrazanoff on the ground. And it was a growl.
    â€œGabrielle.”
The single name was spoken softly. The raw love was so strong it hurt to hear it. The sound made the man exposed, vulnerable, and showed his loss. His despair. The knowledge that she was lost to him for all time.
    Aleksei jumped back as Gary Daratrazanoff leapt from the ground. He was even more shocked when he looked at the man’s face. He’d witnessed the killing thrall of a Carpathian male who had lost his lifemate on more than one occasion. Each time, he’d been the one to deliver the mercy killing to prevent them from dishonor.
    â€œGary!”
    His woman—Gabrielle—cried out, more frightened than ever. She couldn’t fail to recognize the way the man shut down completely. It was aterrifying thing to see darkness claim a good man. Aleksei moved his body squarely between Gary and his lifemate. The man was in a killing rage. The thrall was impossible to stop, but it was only brought on when a lifemate died. What was going on? Surely his woman couldn’t have been Gary’s lifemate as well.
    He’d had enough. He’d taken all he was going to take from any of them. He whirled, snatched up his woman, tossed her over his shoulder and was inside the gate before anyone could stop him. Behind him, his brethren joined him, sealing the safeguards against all outsiders.
    He cared little what the prince, Gregori and Andre would have to do to the Daratrazanoff who had tried to take his lifemate from him. Lock him down, send him to the earth to heal or simply kill him. None of that mattered now. Only his lifemate. The woman who had betrayed him with another man.
    He set her down, and she flung herself back toward the gate. He caught her in an iron grip around her waist and walked her backward. Her back hit the wall of their gathering building. Instantly he caged her there, using his large frame to hold her in place. He put one hand on her belly and the other beside her head. She looked up at him with tears swimming in her eyes and a look of utter terror on her face.
    His eyes blazed down at her. He refused to be swayed by her fear. “Now you will explain your unseemly conduct and know this, woman, you will suffer punishment should you not obey me.”

4
    G abrielle glared defiantly up into Aleksei’s face. She
hated
him with every cell in her body. She detested the fact that his face was purely masculine and she noticed. She hated that she felt the heat of his body, or saw that his eyes were a clear, startling green. He wasn’t handsome in the accepted sense of the word; he was far too dangerous and rough-looking for that. He didn’t try to hide the fact that he was a predator from anyone, least of all her. And she didn’t care. Not one little bit.
    â€œ
Obey
you? That’s what you expect? That’s
never
going to happen.” She spat the words at him, hoping to goad him into killing her. “You took everything from me. I will never do anything you say.”
    His breath hissed out and his eyes went flat and cold. Hard. Terrifying. His hand wrapped around her throat