Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 55221 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55221 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 276(@200wpm)___ 221(@250wpm)___ 184(@300wpm)
“Georgia!” Valen roars as he storms down the hallway toward me, blood splashed across his face.
Another soldier rounds a corner and shoots at him.
Quicker than I can follow, Valen is on him, crushing his gun and sending the man flying, his yell dying away as he hits the wall in the same spot as the other guard.
And then Valen’s in front of me, face bloody, eyes feral, his hands so gentle as he cups my face. “Did he hurt you, my Blood?”
“No,” I say shakily and lean into him. Safety, my blood sings. Mine.
He sighs and wraps his arms around me, his heart thudding heavily beneath his ribs.
How can a man—a monster—feel like home? I don’t know, and in this moment, I don’t care. He’s here, he’s alive. The vicious buzzing beneath my skin fades into something soothing, gentle waves on an endless shore. I can breathe again.
More soldiers, guns drawn, appear at the end of the hall.
“Stand down!” Gage jogs out and yells. “Everyone stand the fuck do—”
Valen grabs him by the throat and lifts him in the air.
“Don’t.” I’m still pressed to Valen, his other arm wrapped tightly around me. “Don’t kill him.”
Gage kicks and struggles, but Valen doesn’t move.
“Why not?” Valen seethes. “He stole you. Caged you. Dared to touch you.”
“We need him. The humans need him.”
Gage’s face is red, his hands beating ineffectually at Valen’s arm.
“Please, let him go.”
Valen growls but releases his hold.
Gage crumples to the floor and coughs, his eyes bulging as he tries to get his breath.
More soldiers are massed at the other end of the hall, their guns pointed at us.
“Call off your dogs or I’ll snap their spines,” Valen turns so he’s between me and the soldiers.
“Stand down,” Gage cries hoarsely. “That’s a fucking order!”
“You swear you aren’t hurt, kedves verem?” He inspects my face, his fingers roving along my back, my sides.
“No, are you?”
“No.” He tsks as if it were a silly question.
“Coal?”
“Safe. He ran into some Tantun trouble. I saved his ass, as usual.” His eyes narrow. “You put yourself in danger.”
“No, I—”
“It wasn’t a question.” He reaches out and snatches Gage’s keycard.
“What are—” I gasp when he lifts me with one arm.
Swiping the card, he opens Gage’s quarters, carries me inside, slams the door, and takes me to the bed where he pins my wrists over my head and settles between my thighs.
“You ran from me.” His eyes are a chasm, a dark pit that threatens to devour me.
“No, I didn’t.”
“Liar.” He snarls and rakes his claws down my front, shredding my sweater and the t-shirt underneath but not so much as scratching my skin. Then he swipes across, destroying it completely.
“Gage said—”
Another snarl. “Don’t even say his name. I should’ve killed him. You should’ve let me, kedves verem.”
“He said my friends were here. I wanted to see Wyatt and Evie and Gretchen again.” I can’t stop my eyes from watering. “They are. They’re alive.”
He sighs. “Your soft heart was easy to lure out. He took advantage, and you fell for it.”
“No, he told me the truth. I thought they were dead. But Wyatt and Evie were alive. You let me think they were dead even though you knew they weren’t!”
He tsks again. “They were alive when I last saw them. That was all I knew.”
“You didn’t even tell me that much!”
“It would have changed nothing. They were just as beyond your reach as you were theirs.”
“I—”
He slides his claws down the front of my pants, destroying the material with ease.
“What are you doing?” I protest as the fabric falls away, leaving me bare. He surveys me with a hunger that sends a pleasant shiver through me.
“You ran from me.” With an easy movement, he yanks his shirt off and uses it to mop the blood from his face. Then he shucks his pants, his thick cock popping free. “You know I’m a predator, Georgia. And you ran from me.” He prowls over me and pins me again. “What did you think would happen? That I’d let you go?” His pupils are huge, eyes gone almost black. “I’ll never let go you. Never. No matter where you run, I’ll find you. I will always find you. There is no escape from me.”
“I didn’t run. I was—”
He strikes at my neck.
I gasp, my body arching at the pleasure and pain. With a hard thrust, he slides inside me, his cock stretching me as I’m assaulted by a thousand sensations. A moan tears from me, my body on fire, my veins scorched as he pumps in and out of me.
He pulls back and licks my blood from his lips. “You are mine. You gave yourself to me. Say it.”
There is no gentleness in him, nothing of the soft declarations from our last time together. This is a claiming, a marking.
“Say it.” He kisses me, and I taste my blood on his tongue.