Page 43 of The Hunted

They could sew them shut on the outside, but that didn’t change the inside.

It didn’t change who he was.

What he was.

Every part of Arelle knew it, now.

Every single part of her could feel it.

Their blood mingled.

Purple and red turned maroon.

She shuddered on top of him when he stared up at her—her throat flexed with every swallow, her heart racing as though the organ were about to come right out of her chest. Each shift of her hips on top of him reminded her that she was entirely naked, and nothing separated the softness of her sex from the rigidness of his cock.

He couldn’t possibly know it.

Couldn’t understand that change in the air.

The bond had begun.

They could shed their blood. Separately. Together. It could mix all it wanted, but when the mating came into play, it began something that was almost impossible to stop. There was no going back now.

She’d not meant for this.

Arelle was still powerless to stop it—not that she was sure she would even want to.

• • •

Eryx

Pain.

From the moment Eryx came back to consciousness and opened his eyes, the only thing he had felt was just pain. From the bottoms of his feet, to the very top of his fucking head. At first, he thought the pain was just that widespread. He quickly realized it was localized to his legs, chest, and throat.

The second thing he realized?

He was staring at her.

The mermaid.

The mermaid.

And she’d saved his life.

As the air sucked into his lungs with every fast pull, tasting of dampness and earth, water poured from the aching gills in the side of his throat. It was a strange feeling—the sensation of them opening for him like that, as natural as breathing.

Because shit …

That’s what he was doing.

Breathing.

He should have been amazed by that. Fascinated how the parts of him that he’d taken from his mother helped to keep him from drowning just long enough for this mermaid to save him, but he couldn’t focus on that.

Not when he stared at her.

Not when that smell in the air had him sucking in another lungful. It tasted like nothing that had ever touched his tongue before, and he was sure he wouldn’t ever find anything like it again. His gaze darted from the shimmering spattering of blue-green scales at her temples to the backdrop of the black sky behind her.