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Abby gaped as she came to an abrupt halt. “Excuse me?”
“I know. You don’t need to say anything. I am glad that they at least had the consideration to dope up the poor girl first,” he said with a grimace. “It’s one thing to enjoy the degradation of a creature as one feasts on their pleasures, but this is far more unusual. No doubt it’s one of his majesty’s ‘experiments’ that he so loves to conduct with his monstrosities.”
She blinked rapidly and swallowed back her nausea. She felt as if she were going to be sick. At her side, Samir snarled and backpedaled, his tail tugging violently at the ties holding it in place. Zayman stepped back, giving the monster berth as he stared at him nervously.
“And you just… let this happen?”
His gaze snapped up from the manticore once he was certain that Samir would not break from his bounds and gave her a churlish look. “I don’t allow anything. I follow orders. It is how I’ve risen so high in the court to become the king’s trusted right-hand man. It is a lesson that you should learn as well,” he retorted coolly. “If you had done as you were paid to do—as your family would have done—and simply killed the beast, then you would have remained oblivious to this aspect of court life. I should have known better than to trust a mere girl with such an important job!”
Her eyes shot to him, her jaw trembling with her anger. “I was trying to do what was right.”
Zayman snorted mirthlessly. “What was right? Look at you! You’ve brought a dangerous monster straight into the heart of Veldala. What if he broke free? Then you would have a bloodbath on your hands.”
“And perhaps you would deserve it,” she replied, biting out every word.
His eyes widened, and he took a step back from her. “That is madness. You are no hunter!”
“Zayman? What is going on here?”
King Decort walked toward them; his brow furrowed with confusion. He was not as old as Abby expected him to be, given that he was a king. There was only the smallest hint of gray in his beard, but his features bore the softness of a child. His gaze fell upon Samir then and she saw the true depravity within him as his expression lit up and he licked his lips with his thick tongue hungrily.
“This is it. The manticore. Oh, isn’t he splendid,” Decort crooned rapturously. “I cannot wait to see what he’s capable of.”
“I’m quite certain that he’s eager to show you,” Abby agreed darkly.
The king laughed. “Is he indeed? Marvelous. Simply marvelous.”
“Your majesty, I don’t think… ” Zayman protested, but Decort cut him off with a disgusted look.
“Oh, shut up, Bibal. I don’t care what you think. If you are not going to participate and join in on our pleasures, then you can leave.” A cruel smile tugged at the king’s mouth. “Though I imagine you will be staying. You may protest, but your dick gets hard at these little displays, and you’ve fucked a siren once we cut off her wings, removed her treacherous tongue, and pinned her down for you. Consider this an even more exotic experience.”
“Yes, Zayman, do stay,” Abby agreed, disgust roiling in her stomach.
The king smiled at her and chuckled. “You see even your little huntress. Even she understands the allure of the forbidden appetites these creatures possess. It spices up the fucking to see a monster’s inhuman cock plow whatever pussy or ass they decide to rut.”
Abby gave him a brittle smile in turn as Zayman continued to back away, a cruel and angry sort of glee rising within her as she anticipated what was about to happen. “No, I don’t think you understand, King Decort. I came here with the intention of ridding you of monsters. It is why he is here as well,” she said, nodding toward Samir. “And now I see we get to do exactly that.”
The king’s smile fell. “I don’t understand,” he murmured, but his eyes widened with a satisfying amount of fear as she whipped her blade from her belt.
She had the key for Samir’s chains, but she ignored them for the moment, focusing on the greatest weapon at his disposal. Summoning all the brutal force she possessed, she slashed through the strategically placed ties, keeping the binding straps in place. A broad grin stretched across her face as his tail whipped free through the air and buried deep within the broad chest of King Vincent Decort. The king’s eyes glazed with the force of fiery venom pumping into him, and his mouth gaped in a silent scream as he reached for Zayman as the gutless worm fled.
Abby shook her head as the screams began, but she ignored them as she bent to her task, quickly unlocking clasp after clasp, the clatter of the chains falling away mingling with the sounds of terror from the courtiers. They had clearly emerged from the blissful fog long enough to notice their king laying prone on the gold floor, his face swelling and discoloring and were now rushing in a blind panic to flee. Samir’s tail whipping through the air stirred them to a greater frenzy, and she blinked in surprise when several were brought low, but projectile barbs viciously flung from the thick ridges of Samir’s tail.
He rose above them all like a shadow of death. With one hand, he stripped off the gold plate covering his mouth and let out a deep roar that shook to the foundation of the palace. It was no mere roar but was laced with magic that she could feel ripple and spark in the air and borrow deep into her bones. Her mage blood responded to it, captivated by its power as he bellowed again, and flames rushed over the surface of the floor as he leaped forward in his attack.
Screams filled the air as he ripped through the courtiers. The servants he ignored, leaving them to go in peace as they gathered up the girl from the altar and hurried away fearfully. Even in his rage, he protected them. Abby smiled and pulled out her crossbow, locking an arrow into place. She shot the gilded courtiers, who would have gladly feasted and fucked while an innocent girl was torn apart until she ran out of arrows. At that point, the brutal death from her javelin suited her fine. Abby pulled it free from her harness, sending it flying through the air to bury into the naked chest of a mostly nude male with gold paint applied to his loins, emphasizing the piercings that run up his cock, many of which were connected by delicate chains. She gave them a curious glance as she stalked past him, wrenching her weapon from his chest. She killed until blood became like a second skin, until she at last stood above the one man who had brought her out there.
Abby smiled down at Zayman and dropped her javelin on the floor at her side as the sound of pillars cracking from the force of magic and rising heat of the fire filling the throne room. “You didn’t expect me to return, did you? I wasn’t supposed to. You were so surprised when I appeared at the gates and that was because I was supposed to be murdered by your henchman—my supposed guides—once I finished the job.”
“You should have died,” Zayman spat out, blood gurgling from his lips. Although small compared to the size of Samir’s stinger, one of his long barbs stuck out from her employer’s chest. “You are no proper huntress.”
She cocked her head as she considered him, drawing out a long knife from her belt, her smile widening. “No, you are right.” With one deft motion, she sliced through his throat, enjoying the sight of his blood welling up and spilling forth, purifying the depravity of the palace along with the other blood drenching the stones. She leaned down as the light went out of his eyes. “I am a monster.”
Samir was as anointedas she was, blood coloring his fur crimson. To Abby, he was still the most magnificent male she’d ever seen. He stood before her, regal as a king, his mane dripping and his green eyes burning with a fire she wanted to be remade in.
Zayman had been right. She was no hunter. Deep inside, she’d been a monster all along. Perhaps that was what her own mother had seen within her only daughter that had convinced her it was something that needed to be controlled and tempered by marriage to another hunter. Perhaps even her father and brothers had seen it hidden behind her eyes, waiting to be set free. And now that it was, there was no going back. She understood that now.
Abby Sinclair, monster and huntress extraordinaire, stepped into Samir’s open arms, relishing the connection that she felt with him and only him. She had made her decision in the desert and hadn’t even fully realized it, not until confronted with the evidence of what she would have been forced to defend, no matter how sickening it was. Abby didn’t want that life. She wanted to protect the desert with Samir and to fall in love all over again with him every day.
