Dark Fire by Christine Feehan. Dark Series – book 6

“With that human?” Barack hissed softly, menacingly, between clenched teeth.

Syndil stuck her chin in the air belligerently. “It is not your business.”

Barack’s hand slid up her arm to the nape of her neck. He caught her chin in his palm, holding her still while he bent his head to hers. His mouth fastened on hers right in front of them all. Hot. Burning. Sweeping away everything that had gone before and replacing it with heat, with a smoldering fire. Barack lifted his head reluctantly. “You are mine, Syndil. No one else will have you.”

“You cannot just decide that,” she whispered, her hand pressed to her mouth, her eyes wide with shock.

“No?” He placed both hands on her shoulders. “In the presence of our family, I claim you for my own. I claim you as my lifemate. I belong to you. I offer my life for you. I give to you my protection, my allegiance, my heart, my soul, and my body. I take into my keeping the same that is yours. Your life, happiness, and welfare will be cherished and placed above my own for all time. You are my lifemate, bound to me for all eternity and always in my care.” He spoke the words aloud, decisively, furious with her that she couldn’t see it, that she refused to acknowledge his right to her.

“What have you done?” Syndil wailed. She looked at Darius. “He cannot do that. He has bound us together without my consent. He cannot do it. Tell him, Darius. He must obey you.” She sounded on the verge of hysteria.

“Have you never wondered why Barack did not lose his feelings as Dayan and I did?” Darius asked her gently. “He laughed where we could not. He felt desire where we could not.”

“With every human groupie who gave him the eye. I do not want such a lifemate,” Syndil said firmly. “Take it back, Barack, right now. Take it back.”

“Well, that is too damned bad,” Barack snapped. “I am your lifemate, and I have known it for some time. You merely refused to see it.”

“I do not want a lifemate,” Syndil protested. “I will not have some pompous male directing my life.”

Barack’s harsh features softened to sensual male beauty. “Fortunately for you, Syndil, I am not pompous. I have a need to discuss this with you while we are alone. Come with me.”

She was shaking her head even as he was drawing her out of the bus.

When they were gone, Desari turned to her brother. “Did you know? All this time, did you know?”

“I suspected,” Darius answered. “Barack saw colors. He retained so much of what Dayan and I lost. When Savon attacked Syndil, Barack was a monster unlike anything I had ever tried to control. He raged for weeks, so much so that Dayan had to lend me his strength to keep him under control.”

“I did not realize,” Desari said softly.

“We kept it from you because he was so violent and angry, we worried for his sanity. After losing Savon, we didn’t want to worry you with the possibility of losing Barack also. I realized he was experiencing not only the male need to protect but also the grief and rage, the violation and betrayal, Syndil was feeling.”

“He went to ground for some time,” Desari remembered.

“I sent him to sleep to keep mortals and immortals alike safe. He was so distraught, in so much pain, I could do no other. Syndil needed the time to let the horrifying experience fade enough that Barack could cope with her pain.”

“That’s why he was so quiet, so unlike himself these last weeks.” Desari nudged Julian. “Why would he wait so long to claim her?’

Julian shrugged with his casual, elegant grace. “It is long since we have had women born close to their life-mates. I know of no such case, so I cannot answer. Perhaps the proximity allows the male many more years of freedom.”

“Freedom?” Desari glared at him. “Do not talk to me of male freedom, lifemate. You stole my freedom from me just as Barack has stolen Syndil’s.”

Tempest stirred, caught by the conversation. “She can refuse him, can’t she? I mean, these are modern times. Men can’t just carry women off against their will can they?”