CHAPTER 7
BRYN
‘You shouldn’t be here, Dark Realmer.’
I whirl to face the voice and finda large man I haven’t seen before. My eyes dart around for Morgan, but he’s not here. I thought he was right behind me when I turned down the alley just now.
There’s no one here though. I’m alone with this man. He’s heavyset, tall, and bearded with dark hair and a long, weathered coat.
‘Tavish told me about you,’ he says grimly. ‘The slave whore who needs to learn that she isn’t wanted here.’
I say nothing, but I change my stance, widening it subtly for balance while making sure my eyes look fearful.
I hope it will make him underestimate me.
He takes a step closer, eyes roving over me boldly. ‘I’ll teach you.’
He lunges and I dance out of his way, putting out my leg and tripping him, but the cunt doesn’t go all the way down.
He rights himself and moves fast, faster than I thought he would and I realize too late thatIhave underestimatedhimwhen he grabs me and turns my back to him, throwing me into the nearest solid wall.
He holds me there, letting out a yelp when Fate stings him somehow while I wriggle and fight. He grunts in pain when I kick his leg trying to save myself because Fate hasn’t done enough.
I need more!
I feel a rush of something inside me, so quick and so sudden that I’m not sure if it’s real.
A grating sound comes from the roof above us and a large piece of clay tile plummets from it. But he chooses that moment to sandwich me hard against the stone just as it would have hit him, and it misses, embedding itself in the dirt beside him.
He doesn’t even notice.
I don’t have time to think, or to act as he changes his grip, his great hand comes around my neck, crushing it against the wall as he kicks my legs wider and pulls my dress up.
I struggle to breathe. His laugh is chilling.
‘You’ve been a disobedient slave girl,’ he mutters low. ‘I’ll have to discipline you, tan your little arse red, but don’t worry,’ he whispers like a lover in my ear that makes me snarl, ‘I learned what else girls like you need in the Dark after you’ve learned your lessons. I’ll release you afterward, have you mewling for pleasure on my fingers like the Dark Realm whore you are before I mount you! Would you like that?’
I renew my struggle against him and let out a scream of anger and of fear.
And then the weight of his body on mine disappears. I turn quickly, pressing my back flat to the wall and breathing hard.
Morgan is there, I realize in abject relief. He has the man by the throat. He’s lifting him off the ground.
His fury makes him look more orc than fae as he shakes my attacker like he weighs nothing.
The man is gurgling, turning red, but Morgan doesn’t let him go. He slams him into the wall next to me with enough force to make no small amount of dust puff out from the roof’s eaves.
‘I heard what you said, you depraved fuck,’ Morgan snarls in a tone I’ve never heard from him before. ‘You know who I am?’
The man nods jerkily.
‘You know the stories they tell about me, then.’
Another nod.
‘So, you want to mount my female, is that right? Is that what I heard from your foul lips?’
The man shakes his head, eyes wide in terror.
