We gave Sylas and Evangeline the spotlight a few days ago.
Now it's Thorne and Imara's turn. 🔥
If Sylas and Evangeline are a slow burn built on longing and restraint, these two are built on mutual irritation, stubbornness, and an alarming amount of sexual tension.
Or, as I've started calling them:
Loathing to lovers.
Here's another sneak peek from Soulbound...
****
Imara's eyes enliven as she lifts her shield in her other hand and holds it against her body. "The first one to yield loses."
I nod in agreement, and we take a defensive stance. The women form a ring around us, their excitement contagious and buzzing in the air.
Imara's muscles tighten with readiness, and she strikes first. Fast. Brutal. No hesitation. I block, and she's already moving again. We trade blows, my hammer clashing with her sword. She feints left, striking right. I dodge, counter, and she deflects. Her footwork is flawless, her hits precise. She parries and spins, advances, and dodges my next swing. If she were fighting a human, there's no doubt in my mind that she'd have won already.
We strike harder, move faster, but I'm still holding back. My tempered Darkborn speed versus her skill and determination.
She flinches when my hammer grazes her side, and I chide myself for such a close call. But as her shieldmaidens cheer and her sword nicks my throat, I almost falter in surprise. She's making me work for it, I'll give her that much, though I'd expect nothing less.
Sweat drips down her temple. Blood beads on my neck. Mud splatters our clothes. But we don't stop, and every time our weapons meet, the air between us crackles. The Darkborn in me is getting dangerously restless, and I need to end this.
When I see an opening, I use my speed to step inside Imara's guard and disarm her with a twist of my wrist. Her sword flies from her grip, but she doesn't stop. Imara uses the momentum, drops low, and knocks my legs out from under me with her shield, and I go down hard, hammer still in hand.
A raucous cheer resounds, and with one foot on my hammer wrist, Imara straddles me with the other. Leaning in, she presses a dagger to my throat. "Do you yield, Darkborn?" Her voice is breathless, but her eyes burn with excitement. Bearberries, sage, and her arousal fill my senses, and after dropping my hammer, I grip her hips. My runes burn beneath my skin, and a sound I've never heard before tears out of my chest.
Imara goes still above me. The dagger doesn't move, but neither does she.
Somewhere behind us, the cheering dies.
I yearn to flip her beneath me and take her right here as the Darkborn surges through me. Every instinct I have wants to taste her. Now.
She blinks at me.
Gripping her hips tighter, I lift her off me instead and set her on her feet. "I've got work to do." Panting for breath, I shove my war hammer into my backstrap.
"Thorne?" Her voice snags on my name as she takes a step toward me.
I grab my fur cloak. "I have to go." And with that, I make my way through the parting warriors toward the stable, desperate for distance.
The shield commander may not feel it, but the soul bond is a lodestone in my chest, pulling me toward her. Toward danger. I have already burned once—alchemy fire took my mortal life, and left me hollow and remade.
I will not survive that kind of loss again.
So, I run.
****
Yeah.
That's going well. 😏 These two are everything in Soulbound. Just you wait and see...
🔥 THORNE + IMARA
⚔️ Darkborn Defender + Shield Commander
🖤 Loathing to lovers
🔥 A soul bond - what???!!!???
⚔️ Two people who would much rather fight than talk about their feelings
You don't want to wait for October 20th, the finished ebook is available EARLY exclusively from my bookshop with instant download.
👉 READ SOULBOUND EARLY https://harleyblackwell.com/products/soulbound-the-darkborn-2-early-release-copy