Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
The hall fell into a dead, breathless silence and it seemed to Braze that the entire audience was mesmerized by the trainer’s reckless flirting with a bloody, horrible death.
Throughout it all, he remained on a knife’s edge of alertness—his senses cataloging every twitch of the beast, every shift in the crowd’s energy. His body was a live wire, ready to explode into motion if he needed to because he did not trust this situation at all.
And yet, beneath the primal thrum of danger, a part of him was still achingly, maddeningly aware of the soft, steady, oblivious stroking of Kaitlyn’s hand on his cock—a persistent and exquisite counterpoint to the threat happening in the center of the room.
The two sensations—mortal peril and desperate, restrained pleasure—were twisted together into a single unbearable tension, and Braze was trapped, utterly, between them.
Fuck, he thought. When is this going to end?
16
KAITLYN
Kaitlyn felt mesmerized by the show playing out in the U-shaped center stage between the tables. She hadn’t been to the circus since she was a little girl, but that was what it reminded her of. The trainer had all the flashy showmanship of a ringleader and the Kriver was an absolute nightmare—she couldn’t look away from the spectacle of it all. Also, the warmth of the cinnamon wine still singing in her veins made everything pleasantly fuzzy.
She still had a loose grip on her Protector’s cock, but she was barely aware of what she was doing with it. Her head felt light, and she hardly noticed that Braze’s entire body had grown tense and hard beneath her.
She was leaning forward, watching the whirling vortex of snapping tentacles spinning around and around the Kriver trainer when the lights suddenly started to flash and strobe again. The sudden, blinding flashes made her blink and gasp—they actually hurt her eyes.
Kaitlyn wasn’t sure if whoever was working the lights thought they were adding to the drama of the scene, but for her, at least, they weren’t adding a thing—in fact, it was making the entertainment much less entertaining. She winced and shaded her eyes, annoyed by the lighting change.
But the blinding, flashing lights seemed to have a whole different effect on the Kriver. It let out a shrieking roar that made Kaitlyn let go of Braze and clap her hands over her ears instinctively.
The angry creature turned its many tentacled beaks—which were still spilling around the trainer—inward. Suddenly Kaitlyn heard another shriek—one of terror and pain.
“No!” the trainer screamed. “No, don’t—behave! Stop! Stop! Stahhhh…”
The last word died away into a horrifying gurgle and when Kaitlyn dared to look, she saw why.
The Kriver had shredded her trainer—literally shredded him. He was nothing but a bloody pile of blue flesh and hair and a jumble of long, thin bones.
Oh my God, Kaitlyn thought, staring numbly at the gory sight. It looks like he was put through a cheese grater!
But before she could fully comprehend the awful sight before her, the angry Kriver reared up on its hind legs. Its swirling tentacles were still screaming and writhing—they flung droplets of the trainer’s blood and gobbets of his flesh into the crowd. The gore even reached the Empress’s table—Kaitlyn felt something warm and slimy splash against her chest and run down between her breasts.
Looking down, she saw with horror that it was a piece of bloody blue flesh, leaving a slippery trail over her skin.
“Ugh!” she gasped. Reaching into her cleavage, she snagged the piece of flesh with her fingernails and flung it away. But she was so distracted by the gory task that she didn’t realize what was happening.
The lights had stopped flashing, but the Kriver was still enraged. She bounded away from the bloody jumble of bones that was all that remained of her trainer and headed right for the dais where the Empress’s table sat.
The Kriver bounded once, twice—covering the distance between the blood-soaked stage and the dais in terrifying, ground-shaking leaps. Its single amber eye was fixed, not on the Empress, but on the source of the sudden movement—on Kaitlyn, flinging the bit of flesh from her chest.
At last Kaitlyn looked up and her stomach seized into a fist-sized piece of ice. Cold clarity sliced through the last of the cinnamon wine haze.
Me—it’s coming for me!
Screams erupted from the tables below as a wave of panicked women in silken gowns and elaborate headdresses hastened to disengage themselves from their husbands and scrambled back from the huge, U-shaped table configuration. Chairs overturned, plates shattered and wine spilled everywhere.
But on the dais, there was a frozen, horrified silence.
The Empress stared, her mouth a perfect ‘O’ of outrage. Aria had somehow managed to twist all the way around in her husband’s lap and had buried her face in Dinky’s neck, squealing. The guards at the periphery stood like ornate statues, staring stupidly at the Kriver, their ceremonial spears useless in their stunned hands.