Embrace Me At Dawn Read Online Free

always going to accept me, weren’t you?”
    A smile played at his lips. “Probably. I had to hear you argue your side to see if you were dedicated enough to take the hard work this will require.”
    “ Sneaky bastard.” She smiled. It was hard to stay mad at Bram.
    “ I’ve heard that before,” he drawled. “I’ve got a few conditions before I’ll allow you to join this fight, however.”
    And this was where Bram could truly trip her up. He was a master negotiator, and all she wanted was to jump in and rip out Mathias’s throat now. “What?”
    “ You must appear every morning with the sun for training. You’ll learn to fight in every way Marrok and I insist. You’ll stay each day until we release you. No complaints. It’s hard, sweaty work, and this is no time to worry about your hair.”
    “ I’m not vain,” she protested.
    “ No,” he agreed. “But I guarantee you’ll never work harder in your life. Marrok is relentless, and I encourage it. We don’t have the advantage of a bigger fighting force or the element of surprise. We have to be better prepared.”
    “ I’ll be here every day, as long as you need me to be.”
    “ What will Shock say to that?”
    “ Nothing. I moved out. I don’t even think he knows it. Sabelle said I could adopt a spare bedroom here.”
    “ No. That’s another condition. You return to Shock.”
    “ What ?” She would have thought that Bram would applaud her for leaving a man no one liked or trusted.
    “ You’re going to need energy far more frequently. He’ll give it to you.”
    Anka hesitated. She remembered those first few days after the formation of the Doomsday Brethren. Lucan had returned home from Marrok’s drills completely exhausted. He’d tumbled her into bed every evening, spending hours working her body into a sweet froth of need, then making love to her until they’d both been brimming and smiling. They’d fallen asleep in exhaustion, curled up around one another. Those had been some troubling days, but ones of great personal happiness, so filled with Lucan and his need for her.
    The smile that had crept over her face faded. Now she was going to join the fight, expend the energy to train—and she would need to replenish her energy as frequently as Lucan once had. Did he still require that much energy? She winced at the pain of that thought.
    “ I’ll find a surrogate.” Though she found that thought distasteful, too. Letting some strange wizard paw her… Unlike most of her kind, she’d only ever taken two lovers. Shock had been her first, had seen her though the transition into magic, and cared for her until she’d mated with Lucan. After Mathias’s brutal, repeated assault and a hundred years of mating, she didn’t know how she’d accept another wizard’s touch.
    Bram shook his head. “Whatever Shock’s issues, he’ll keep you safe when you’re not here. I don’t have the resources or energy to expend worrying about you alone at night or with some strange wizard who might deliver you up to Mathias. I might hate Shock, but he’d never want to see you hurt. Besides, I know Shock is capable of giving you what you need.”
    Anka swallowed. If Bram only knew the half of it… Shock not only gave her what she needed—and now craved in order to cleanse her soul—but he wielded it like a weapon, doling it out sparingly, withholding it until she caved into whatever his demands of the moment were and she begged sweetly. No surrogate could give her what Shock could. They’d probably be horrified if she asked.
    If she wanted to fight Mathias and get her revenge, she would have to swallow her pride.
    “ All right, then. I’ll return to Shock.”
    “ I’ll allow you to train with us. As to whether you fight…that will be up to me, Marrok, and whoever teaches you. If we think you’re not ready, you’ll stay behind. This isn’t a democracy.”
    Nothing with Bram ever was. She’d have to earn the right to fight. “No coddling me