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I did not recognize myself.
“Answer my question. Bend to my will. Why have you come, sweet one?”
As he spoke, his lips touched my cheek.
“I told you—”
He pulled away, and I met his endless dark eyes.
“Not of your own accord but someone’s. Whose?”
“If you cannot guess, then perhaps you have no right to know.”
“No right?” he asked and inclined his head. “Bold words, vicious one, when you are in my kingdom, beneath my roof, within my arms.”
I glared at him and jerked on his arm, his hand still around my neck.
“I would hardly callthisin your arms.”
He smirked and leaned in, his breath hot against my ear. “And yet you respond.”
Then his lips touched my skin, and I held my breath, pressing my head into the wall as hard as I could.
“Hmm, you are sweet,” he said, his tongue tasting. “I could eat you whole.”
His free hand had gone to the hem of my nightgown again. His fingers slipped between my thighs, but he did not move to the place where I ached. I felt ashamed because he had to feel the heat radiating from me. I felt it everywhere.
“Are you wet for me, vicious creature?”
I kept my eyes shut, my fingers digging into his skin. I wanted to beg for his touch just as much as I wanted to bury an ax in his chest.
The beast lifted my leg and hitched it over his hip, leaning into me. His hard cock pressed into me, coaxing a harsh sound from deep in my throat. Our mouths opened against each other. For a brief second, his tongue darted out to taste mine, and then he chuckled. His laugh slithered over me, feeding both my anger and embarrassment.
I took that moment to charge, pushing him away so violently, he stumbled back enough for me to bolt. I snatched my ax from the floor and fled the room, but as soon as I was out the door, I found myself in a hallway that looked like a wooded lane. My feet now raced over cold ground, past several naked trees that seemed to bow over me. Where before I had been warm within the elf lord’s room, here, the wind whipped me, each cold lash making me tremble.
There was a part of me that did not understand how I had seemed to be within the walls of a castle and was now suddenly running through the woods, but I also knew I had no time to question the magic of the Thorn Prince’s kingdom.
I had to run as far away as possible before he caught me.
As I ran, the path grew narrow, as if the trees were creeping closer. Soon there was no path at all, only the leaf-ridden floor of a wooded forest. Above me, the trees groaned and reached for me, their great limbs coming down on me like clawed fingers. They scratched and split my skin, and I swiped at them with my ax, but some still managed to become tangled within my shift and tore the thin fabric. My sleeve hung off my shoulder, the neckline gaped, and the hem was in tatters. Still, I managed to free myself, escaping the vile wood as it let out into a field that looked more like an endless ocean, the night too dark to see what lay at my feet, but I could feel it.
The ground was tender and wet, and my feet sank in cold mud. I could barely stay upright. I slipped and my ankle twisted. The pain sent me to the ground, and I landed hard on my hands and knees when something sharp wrapped around my legs and squeezed. I screamed and rolled onto my back as thorned vines crawled up my legs, digging deep into my skin. They slithered up my body until they were wrapped around my wrists, holding them over my head, and suddenly, I was face-to-face with the beast.
The prince hovered over me, his face inches from mine, the pendants of his necklaces rested against my chest. Instead of thorns, his fingers dug into my wrists, and his ankles were tangled with mine.
“My brothers sent you,” he said and rested his body against mine. “Are you a spy?”
“Do I look like a spy?” I spat.
His eyes dropped to my breasts, exposed. My nipples had pebbled, hard from the cold, hard from his gaze, which flashed as it returned to mine.
“You look like a distraction.”
“Then perhaps you should let me go,” I said.
“I cannot let you go,” he said. “You must earn your right to be free.”
“Myright?” I asked, the words fierce. I lifted my head, drawing closer to him, lips nearly touching. “I was sent here against my will.”
