Total pages in book: 20
Estimated words: 17648 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 88(@200wpm)___ 71(@250wpm)___ 59(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 17648 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 88(@200wpm)___ 71(@250wpm)___ 59(@300wpm)
“Yes,” I answered honestly, my voice small in the vastness of the hall. “I didn’t mean—”
He moved toward me, slow, controlled, but there was an edge to his stride. His very aura had the rest of my words stuck in my throat.
“I told you that you were free within these walls,” he said, voice low and sounding deep like thunder. “This place can be terrifying, I’m sure, but you’re safer here than anywhere else.”
I swallowed hard and nodded, not sure why I trusted him. Not sure why his words made me feel like this was where I should have been all my life.
His black gaze scanned the room. “This room is frightening for you. I have no doubt. But this is a place of memory. Of battles won.”
I glanced at the nearest statue, at the way the creature’s stone wings loomed behind it—high and intimidating.
“No one will bother you. You’re under my protection. But my subjects will stare—”
“Because I'm human?”
“Because you’re different,” he said, his gruff voice gentler. He was only a breath away from me now, and the scent of him was so intoxicating that I actually swayed slightly.
“I smell your fear. I smell your confusion.” He reached out and cupped my cheek. “You’re so fragile.” He inhaled deeply. “You’re so beautiful and perfect that I want to destroy anything that even thinks of taking you from me.”
I sucked in a sharp breath at his words… and what they did to me. I felt heat, the kind of warmth that settled between my thighs and made me tingle in places that certainly had never felt that before.
I shook my head, closed my eyes, and gathered my composure. “You keep saying that I’m yours.” I bit my bottom lip and felt a flush cover my cheeks and neck. “Why me?”
Blaylock stared at me, his expression unreadable again. But there was something softer there now, something cracked open behind his onyx eyes.
“Because when I saw you,” he said, his voice low and distant, as if he were replaying that moment when he saved me. And he had. He’d saved me from far more than he’d ever know. “I felt this fire inside of me. One I'd never experienced before. It made me feel alive, my little one.” He stroked his claw over my cheek. “You’ve seen things in your life and experienced pain. You’ve been frightened for far too long, but you didn’t break. I knew then you were destined to be mine and mine alone.”
His words sank into me like the claws he had pressed to my skin, tugging at something I didn't know had been buried deep.
“I’m not strong,” I whispered, not sure why I’d said the words. “I’ve been slowly breaking my entire life.”
“Maybe,” he murmured, his gaze locked on my mouth. “But despite it all, you survived.”
I couldn’t speak. The lump in my throat was too thick. I didn’t know if I wanted to cry, scream, or fall into his arms and tell him I never wanted to go. That this felt… right.
But I stayed where I was. I didn’t move or speak or even breathe. His presence wrapped around me until I was cocooned in everything that was Blaylock.
“You mesmerize me, my perfect, little human… in ways that make no sense to a beast like me. You are mine, Katrina. Not as a prize. Not as a prisoner—”
“As yours,” I whispered, finishing his sentence.
He leaned down, his voice just above a whisper along my lips. I closed my eyes and shivered. “As my queen.”
I wanted to deny him. To push him away. But I couldn’t. I didn’t want to.
Whatever he had to offer, in that moment, I knew I wanted it all.
7
KATRINA
Days passed. Or maybe it had been weeks. Time felt like it moved differently in the Dark Realm of Shadow Vale.
Each morning, I woke in the same grand room, wrapped in heavy furs, the scent of smoke from the ever-burning fire in the hearth filling the chamber, and the intoxicating scent of Blaylock all around me.
I dreamed of him nightly. Or maybe he’d been coming to see me, watching me sleep and adding another fur atop my body to keep me warm?
The bruises on my body faded to yellow, and the ache and wounds on my feet healed. Although I was still unsure of my situation, fear no longer consumed me.
Blaylock hadn’t locked me in. He never chained me and never forced anything. He let me have free rein, even walking with me as I explored, like my silent sentry.
He watched me.
Not just with those onyx, endless eyes but with an unreadable desire, a tension that I knew was passion. He never spoke of wanting me, but he didn’t need to. I felt it surround him. I knew I stirred something in him that he didn’t understand.