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Figures disperse quickly, preparing for our departure, and I move across the deck with my little bond.

Hands reach to take her from me, but I merely shake my head, a low growl building in my throat. If anyone tries to touch her, they will be without limbs. The mere thought of another’s hands on her skin sends a fresh wave of possessiveness through me.

I would kill for this mortal girl, slaughter and maim every soul aboard for touching her. It’s unreasonable, logically I know this, yet the bond she has awoken within me sees no reason—it only sees her.

“I’ll carry her,” I say, my voice leaving no room for argument as another set of arms offers.

My guards exchange glances, but they know better than to question me. They carry on with downcast eyes, though I can sense their curiosity. None have seen me like this before. They know any feeder I keep would perish after only one bite, so I have a habit of only feeding from the elderly humans at hand. It’s been my preference for many years. They’ve never seen me feed from someone like Alessia.

The lycans onboard may have enhanced senses and their pack instincts, but they haven’t figured out what she is to me, and I need to keep it that way.

I just hope when I stop at the neighboring kingdoms, they too are just as daft as Zander. The moment they understand her significance, she becomes a target—a weapon to use against me.

My guards know better than to question or speak freely with Zander’s mutts aboard. Every word, every glance, will be reported back to the Lycan King, and if any of them suspect what she truly is to me . . .

I’m not looking forward to explaining myself to Demon King Xavian and requesting permission to check his markets. It will raise questions I don’t want to answer.

But I can’t arrive unannounced. Protocol demands patience, and patience has never been my strength. Especially now that I know, at any moment, it could get out that I am close to breaking my curse.

I want my curse broken and my people safe. Yet peering down at her small body wrapped in my arms, I don’t want those things nearly as much as I want her. It’s irrational, and I can’t explain it. I knew bonds were savage according to what I’ve seen with others, but the feeling she induces is obsessive.

I would kill and die for this mortal already, wage wars against kingdoms for her. That terrifies me knowing that there may not be a line I wouldn’t cross, no limit to my desire and need for her.

I carry her straight to my suite, moving through the narrow corridors. The ship creaks around us as the crew makes final preparations for departure.

My quarters take up the stern of the ship. The door is heavy oak bound with iron, reinforced against intrusion—or escape. Knowing my father had a forceful way of taking young women as feeders, the room was built like a fortress.

This ship was our home away from home during the war after the mages fled. They refused to fight for the kingdoms they were bound to. They warned the kings of the cost, the bloodshed, and the toll it would take on our land and resources.

No one would listen, so they abandoned their posts and the kings they were bound to.

This ship and many others scoured the seas looking for the mages, hunting them to extinction. They never mended the blood oaths they broke, and like those present the day the mages burned, my father experienced a death fit for such savagery. He was the last to die of the ruling kings, burned from the inside out.

I shift her weight to push the door open, careful not to jostle her more than necessary.

The room beyond is spacious by ship standards, a large bed, a desk, and shelves lined with books and maps, all bolted to the floor. Windows line the back wall, offering a view of the receding coastline. I’ve spent countless nights in this room, alone with my thoughts and the endless stretch of water as we hunted for land that was not swallowed by the seas.

Now, with her here, the space feels different. Smaller and more intimate.

I lock the door behind us, sliding the heavy bolt into place with a satisfying thunk. Only then do I allow myself to breathe. The air is thick with her scent now, confined in this space, and it floods my senses anew. I move about the room, closing the blinds to ensure no light filters in as the day approaches.

My fingers brush against the pulse at her throat, and the sensation is electric. I can feel the blood rushing beneath her delicate skin and can almost taste the power running through her veins. Her magic called to me from the moment I walked into that feeding room, but after tasting her once, the need is nearly unbearable.

I want to taste her warmth, not just on my tongue, but in my veins. To bind her existence to my darkness until even the light cannot touch her without passing through me first. The thought sends a shudder through my control, heady, sharp, and dangerous.

No one has ever affected me this way. Not in centuries of existence. Not through countless wars and countless feedings. Her slight frame in my arms feels like it weighs nothing, yet the burden of restraint she places on me is crushing. I’ve drained the life from men without hesitation, and this half-starved girl has me trembling with a need I dare not satisfy.

CHAPTER 19

• King Kylian •

WITH GREAT RESTRAINT, I lay her on the bed, watching her shift slightly as her body settles against the mattress.

When I pull a blanket over her shoulders, she stirs but doesn’t wake. The steady rhythm of her heartbeat is loud to my sensitive ears. It calls to me like a siren’s song, promising warmth and satisfaction if I give in. I know that drinking from her again would likely end with me lying unconscious on the floor.

The mages really did make us the cursed crowns, so much so that I have been given a mortal woman whose blood calls to me, yet I cannot indulge in it without the risk of being injured. As if stealing the sun from me and making my hunger insatiable wasn’t bad enough, now they’ve given me her, the one temptation in the world I cannot claim without the risk of killing us both. I step back forcefully, clenching my fists at my sides.

Four days.