Free Blood Reign (#4): Alpha Warriors of the Blood (The Blood Series) by Tamara Rose Blodgett

banding it at his nape. He gave a frustrated exhale. “Yes.”
    At least he conceded the problem.
    “You know that she bears children. She will have to be shared.”
    Domi was silent. They had come to a small lake, little more than a pond, where swans revolved in lazy, floating figure eights on the surface, paying them no mind.
    “I do not wish to.”
    Domi gazed at him with eyes that rivaled liquid mercury. “You are the lucky one, Tharell.”
    Tharell held his tongue, Goddess knew he'd done it plenty of times before.
    “You do not breed. You never will take a woman as mate.”
    Tharell had been with many females yet never to mate. A male had needs, a biological imperative that spared no species. Yet physicality was a manifestation of the body. His soul longed for edification as well. Tharell kept his own council.
    “True,” he said as the chasm of his loneliness grew with Domi's words. Not ill meant but accurate.
    Only pure Sidhe could breed with the sanctioned Singers. It was a very good sign Jacqueline had gotten with child, though her mind was sick from the time away from Faerie.
    “I ask you let me self-delude for this journey, Tharell. Soon enough, we will return to the sithen, the debauchery of the court and Jacqueline will become a brood mare for all that would have her.” His eyes stayed on the lake while his heart bled silently between them.
    “I will. Of course, you understand the importance of the Singers being cloudy on our motivations at present.”
    Domi gave a solemn nod.
    The day ended before them in a gasping loss of daylight, as though night had held its breath until that moment. And on its exhale, Domi's bright green skin deepening to emerald, his cobalt hair shedding its color and falling to night's influence.
    The two fey stood shoulder to shoulder, two colored shadows, lost in their thoughts of choiceless deceit.

CHAPTER TWELVE
     
    Jacqueline stretched, her stomach uncomfortably stuffed with food, and did everything she could to keep the food where it belonged.
    She loathed leaving Faerie, where for the first time in her wretched existence, she felt free.
    Free in peace, centered—right in her skin.
    The shame had been acute. And Tony’s brutality. When Jacqueline first accepted his idea of mating, she'd been inside the sithen for just hours.
    Not long enough to realize fully the affect it had on her.
    With the passing of days into weeks, a change had come over her. She no longer sought violence for its own sake. She remembered her actions of the last century in a state of stunned and horrified recounting.
    Jacqueline had been a self-serving narcissist. She had ruined her son and daughter with her indifferent neglect.
    Watching Scott come to her aid, despite her attempt on his former soul-meld's life, was salt in the wound.
    Jacqueline did not deserve any pity.
    She covered her flat belly with her hand. Her eyes fluttered shut while she leaned against the porch post. Domiatri at her elbow caused her to start. His aloof face looked down at her.
    He had told her how it would be between them, and she had accepted what he offered the first night he'd come to her. Jacqueline remembered his words with startling clarity.
     
    “If you do not wish to lie with me, it will matter not. But know this. The former sickness of your mind and the wellness of it now are due to your proximity to Faerie. Nothing more and nothing less. If you agree to bear a child of a pureblood Sidhe, then your reward will be to return here and suffer no longer.”
    Jacqueline had looked at Tony, her abuser, as he slumbered artificially but mere paces away.
    Her gaze found Domi's unerring silver eyes shining at her not in tenderness but want. Jacqueline understood what she was. She'd spent most of her life in machinations of manipulation. She was adept at recognizing it in others.
    She'd borne two children, and this third would be with a man not really human but a parody of humanity. Her gaze roamed his bright green skin,