Page 120 of When Ashes Fall

Briar’s head swiveled toward the door, and her mouth opened before she clamped it shut. She knew better than to call for him. I was in the mood for either fucking or murder, and I could hold off on fucking long enough to kill.

“A yes would have sufficed!” Dromon shouted back.

I didn’t hear the retreat of his steps over the crackle of her power, the riotous beat of her heart, or the blood pulsing through my ears, but I knew he’d gone. He wouldn’t disobey me… unlike the heathen in my arms.

When Briar’s head twisted back to me, my mutated face reflected in her eyes, but she didn’t recoil from me. Instead, she glowered at me.

“Put me down!” she ordered.

“You dare to command me? Oh, little thorn, you’d better be careful, because I can inflict far more pain than you.”

“You already have!”

I grasped the knot on the back of her head and pulled her head back to further expose the delicate column of her throat. My previous brand stood out starkly against her otherwise pristine skin.

But those marks weren’t the beast’s. The monster vibrated with excitement at the idea of branding her as her struggles rubbed her silken skin against my cock.

Don’t do this, a small, rational voice whispered to me. Don’t force this on her.

That small voice was right, but the beast wanted nothing to do with what was right as its fangs rested against her skin. All I had to do was bite down, and she’d bear the beast’s mark for the rest of her existence, but I didn’t move.

Briar went still against me; her breath came in rapid pants. Her nipples pressed against my chest.

When my fangs grazed her neck, she jerked against me as blood welled from the scratches. The beast purred as I licked away her sweet blood, but I still couldn’t bring myself to bite.

I knew the awful feeling of being confined, helpless, and abused. Many nights, I still woke sweating and with my heart racing from the persistent nightmares of the harem.

Sometimes it took as long as an hour for my heart to return to normal and my brain to accept that I was safe in my room. While I could never feel completely safe as long as the casters lived, they couldn’t get me in Wildwood. They could send awful, spell-bound creatures, but they couldn’t capture or kill me.

Am I really going to force this on her?

YES! the beast yelled.

If given the choice, it would force sex and the bond on her, but I couldn’t. Even I wasn’t that fucked-up… yet. Who knew what the future held?

Taking a breath, I reined the beast in, but it wouldn’t allow me to cage it completely. My jaw cracked as it transitioned back to normal. My fangs wouldn’t fully retract, but my paws returned to hands, and the tips of my claws remained extended.

Pain twisted in my intestines and spread through my veins as the beast howled in dismay. “Oh, fuck,” I breathed.

When my forehead fell to Briar’s shoulder, I shuddered as my fingers dug into her back. I should let her go. I couldn’t.

While she didn’t relax into me, some of the rigidity left her body.

“You are my mate, and I will claim you again as such,” I grated against her silken skin.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE

Briar

I didn’t say anything. I was too frightened that if I denied him again, he’d mark me. And while his mark wouldn’t bind me to him in the same way it bound him to me, I didn’t want it on me.

Knox was awful. He was cold, rude, distrusting, and an all-around hairy-balled dick.

He still hadn’t apologized for any of the things he’d done. Yet, I felt the anguish in his body and the desperation in his fingers biting into my back. I was his mate; he was determined to claim me as such, and I suspected the beast was tearing him apart after having been denied.

I’d tried to hate him, but my heart ached for him and everything he’d endured. He was once the best man I ever knew, and the casters tore that away from him. He didn’t deserve any of what happened, but neither did I.

His harsh breaths warmed my shoulder as he shuddered again. The tormented sound he emitted created an echoing one in my chest.