Marked by an Assassin (34 page)

Authors: Felicity Heaton

Harbin’s hand tightened around hers, squeezing softly, and she looked up at him. His tender smile stole her breath and she smiled shakily back at him when he brushed a tear from her cheek with the pad of his thumb.

“Something in your eye,” he whispered and she nodded, glad he wasn’t going to tease her over her reaction to seeing the traditional decorations.

Because it had moved him too.

She could feel it in him as he looked down at her, their joined hands strengthening the connection between them, making it easier for her to sense his emotions and pull them apart to identify each one.

Nerves still ran through him, and they only increased as his brother approached, cutting through the crowd in their direction, handsome in his colourful embroidered tunic.

Cavanaugh beamed at her. “Are you better?”

Harbin huffed. “Of course she isn’t better.”

His brother’s smile dropped and he frowned. “Then what is she doing out of bed?”

Aya stepped forwards, between the two brothers, not wanting them to get into an argument because of her. “It’s my fault. I wanted to see the celebration and congratulate you.”

Harbin and Cavanaugh huffed at the same time, both wearing the same look on their faces, one that screamed how unimpressed they were. She released Harbin’s hand and pressed both of hers to her hips, staring them down. They might have grown up in a world away from this one, a place where females knew to bow to the orders of the males, but they weren’t in that world any longer.

In this world, she was equal to them and able to make up her own mind about things.

A soft giggle sounded from behind Cavanaugh and Eloise stepped out, a sight for sore eyes that had Aya welling up again. She looked exactly as Aya remembered her, with her wavy chestnut hair spilling around her shoulders and her golden eyes bright with amusement, and was stunning in her tighter-than-traditional embroidered dress that bore depictions of mountains and snow leopards, and the wild animals of their homeland.

“Ignore them. Boys will be boys.” Eloise held her hand out to her. “We should get a drink.”

Harbin snagged Aya’s arm, holding her back. “I’ll go with her.”

The way he eyed all of the males in the room made it clear that he wasn’t just doing it to support her if she needed his assistance. He viewed the unmated males as a threat to her, his primal instincts telling him that the males would attempt to steal her from him.

She took the steps down to the packed floor, and hadn’t made it another inch before Harbin had his arm slung around her, tucking her close to his front. He growled at several males as they slowly crossed the room to the buffet table against the far wall, and played havoc with her at the same time. The feel of his powerful body pressing against her back, shifting deliciously with each step, stirred naughty thoughts, making her feel a little lightheaded.

She breathed a sigh of relief when they reached the other side and he released her, seized her arms and glared at her.

“Wait right here,” he muttered, his tone dark and dangerous, warning her not to move an inch.

She caught Eloise’s smile as he stalked away from them and couldn’t stop her own from coming out.

“They can be a little overbearing,” Eloise said, her soft voice light and teasing. “It’s so good to see you again. Harbin told us what had happened to you… gods… I’m so sorry, Aya.”

Aya shrugged it off, not wanting to think about the past. “It’s over now.”

Her gaze tracked Harbin as he prowled the buffet table, her smile widening as he kept piling things onto the already full plate. He lingered longest near the sweet things, picking lots of treats that looked delicious. He had come out with her exact age and now he was choosing her favourite foods. Just how well did he know her?

As well as she knew him?

Maybe they really had been made for each other.

He worked his way back towards her, his face a picture of determination, as if he had been issued a mission and refused to fail. He always had been headstrong. She only hoped he would be like it about their bond, telling her straight that he wanted it to happen and not letting her lose her nerve.

Eloise said something and she was so busy smiling at Harbin, thinking about the future they might have together, that she missed it and had to drag her eyes away from him to blankly look at her.

“Sorry?” she said.

The brunette female smiled. “Maybe this is a joint celebration.”

Aya frowned, still sure she had missed something. Eloise pointed to her neck.

She touched the back of it and Harbin went pale, the plate of food falling from his hand to smash at his feet, scattering its contents across the floor and drawing everyone’s attention to him.

Her eyes widened and her ears rang as silence descended, all thought and feeling fleeing her as she fingered the scabs.

Maybe there had been another reason he hadn’t wanted her to leave the room.

The scab marks on the back on her neck were thick, and her fingers trembled as she found four of them. Her mouth turned dry and shivers ran through her, and her eyes sought Harbin’s.

The look in them confirmed he was already aware of it.

The bite was deeper than she had thought.

Not a mere scratch at all.

His eyes were as wide as hers and she could feel he was waiting for her to say something. She couldn’t find the words, not when her mind was reeling, her heart hammering against her chest as the reality of what she was feeling on her neck slowly crashed over her.

They were already mated.

Harbin walked straight through the fallen food, the scattered pieces of the china plate shattering further under his boots, and didn’t stop until he was right in front of her, his heat curling around her and his scent invading her senses.

His eyes darted between hers as she tipped her head back to look up at him.

“I am sorry.” Those three words weren’t the ones she had needed to hear, the ones she wanted him to say to her as the world came tumbling down around her. It only grew worse when he kept going, rambling on, words she failed to take in until she sensed the growing distress in him and heard him say, “There might be a way to undo it.”

That hurled her back into the room, threw her fears and her hurt out of the window as it narrowed her focus down to him and the tremendous pain she could sense in him.

Aya pressed her finger to his lips to silence him, not wanting him to hurt himself further when he was already hurting enough.

“Why would I want to undo it?” she whispered, her eyes locked on his, her feelings steady and constant, there for him to sense if he went looking.

“I’m really not good enough for you. I’m not what you need,” he croaked and her finger trembled against his lips, her heart going out to him as he stood before her, stripped of his strength, left bare and vulnerable, waiting for her to hurt him. She didn’t want to harm him, or break his heart, or whatever he thought she was going to do. She wanted to hold him close and never let him go.

She knew that he viewed his profession and his past as a barrier between them, but to her it was nothing. The moment she had fallen in love with him, she had accepted everything about him—including his life as an assassin and that his main pride was now a guild in Hell.

“No,” she said.

His face went slack and pain rolled through him, shining in his striking eyes.

Aya shifted her hand to his cheek, cupping it as she stared deep into his eyes, and whispered to him, putting every drop of her love into her words so he would hear it.

“You’re what I want.”

She moved closer, pressing her front against his, and cupped his other cheek, holding his face as he exhaled hard. She tiptoed and brought his head down to her at the same time, and breathed against his lips.

“You’re what I’ve always wanted.”

He growled and wrapped his arms around her, gathering her close as he kissed her, a frantic outpouring of love that spoke to her soul and told her the words that he had failed to find too, the ones that seemed so elusive and frightening.

His strong arms crushed her against him, and she knew he would never let her go.

They would never part again.

She jerked when Cavanaugh slapped Harbin on the back, and laughed as everyone closed in, congratulating them. She couldn’t take her eyes off Harbin as he smiled, his eyes bright with it, shining with the happiness she could feel in him.

Happiness she had given to him.

They had walked dark paths, had survived terrible times, but fate had made those paths cross again and now they would be together forever.

They had a pride and a family again.

They had each other.

Harbin pulled her back into his arms and kissed her so sweetly that she melted into him, lost in his kiss and his love for her.

She struggled for the words, filled with a need to tell him, even though she was sure he would feel it in her kiss too. He pressed his cheek to hers, his breath warm on her neck, teasing her and making her shiver, and she opened her mouth, the words on the tip of her tongue.

He stole her voice from her as he whispered in the old language of their species, telling her in the most beautiful and traditional way of their kind.

“I love you, Aya.”

Tears stung her eyes but she smiled as he kissed her again, her heart filled to bursting as she nestled close to him. She pressed her hands to his chest, broke the kiss and whispered against his lips.

“I love you too, Harbin.”

He growled and kissed her again, his love surrounding her and flowing through her, mingling with hers. The love that they shared as fated mates, bonded forever.

A love that would always grow stronger.

A love that was eternal.

The End

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Felicity Heaton is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author who writes passionate paranormal romance books. In her books she creates detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons!

If you're a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter and Christine Feehan then you will enjoy her books too.

If you love your angels a little dark and wicked, Felicity Heaton’s best selling Her Angel series is for you. If you like strong, powerful, and dark vampires then try the Vampires Realm series or any of her stand alone vampire romance books. If you’re looking for vampire romances that are sinful, passionate and erotic then try the best-selling Vampire Erotic Theatre series. Or if you prefer huge detailed worlds filled with hot-blooded alpha males in every species, from elves to demons to dragons to shifters and angels, then take a look at the new Eternal Mates series.

In 2011, five of her six paranormal romance books received Top Pick awards from Night Owl Reviews and Forbidden Blood was nominated as Best PNR Vampire Romance 2011 at The Romance Reviews. In 2012, she was awarded the GraveTells Author of the Year Award, and Heart of Darkness was announced as a 2013 Epic Ebook Awards finalist in the Paranormal Romance category. Many of her books receive five star reviews from readers and review sites alike.

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PARANORMAL ROMANCE BOOKS BY FELICITY HEATON
Stories in the Eternal Mates romance series

Book 1: Kissed by a Dark Prince

Book 2: Claimed by a Demon King

Book 3: Tempted by a Rogue Prince

Book 4: Hunted by a Jaguar