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My feet hit the ground, sending me stumbling forward through the ankle-high snow. Something caught my toe. I careened sideways over a root or whatever hid beneath the white powdering, arms flailing for balance. My fingers scratched over rough bark, making me curl my knuckles until I finally found hold on the wide, thick trunk of an oak.
Limbs heavy, I leaned my shoulder against the tree, my chest lifting and falling rapidly. I closed my eyes, the remnants of Malyr’s touch still burning my skin, his shadows still writhing at my core—a grim entanglement of sharp dread and smooth delight.
He had come so close.
Too close!
“Well done, Galantia,” I chided myself. I should have known better than to let him taunt me. “Stepped right into his shadow trap—”
“All the hand holding, all those failed attempts at shifting.” Malyr’s voice, laced with venom, sickened the silence, making me swing around to where he stood before me, his teeth barred. “Yet, you seemperfectlycapable of finding your unkindness when you’re trying to escape me.”
Malyr shoved me against the tree, his body pinning mine, his hands grasping at my hips. He crushed his lips against mine in a bruising kiss, all teeth and tongue, possessive and demanding. His fingers dug into my thighs, pushing up my skirts.
Anger surged through me, dashed with a flare of heat that spread low in my belly. “You tried to force a bond on me again in the orchard, didn’t you?!”
“And what if I had, hmm?” One hand worked its way between my legs, rubbing, caressing, his touch sending shocks of pleasure through me that were wrong… so wrong. “For the sake of a somewhat harmonious future between us, I would prefer for you to give it freely.”
“And if I don’t?”
“I don’t know,” he groaned, lapping at my ear before he nipped at it. “Don’t put it to the test. Bond with me.”
“Leave me alone!”
“On my mother’s shadowy grave, I wish I was a better man and could do just that.” His fingers stroked me, finding the place that made my body writhe in pleasure and betrayal alike. It built around his skilled movements as he circled the little bud through my undergarments, desire coursing through my veins along with revulsion. “I stopped looking for you years ago,anoaley.Why did you have to run into my arms, hmm?Why?” A lap at the corner of my mouth. “Now I’m like a beast trained on the scent of your blood, utterly, irrefutably, immutably fixed onhunting… you… down.”
His teeth pinched my bottom lip, drawing traces of iron. He tasted them with deep moans of pleasure that sent a new wave of heat through me. His hard length pressed against one side of my hip, coercing treacherous tingles into my clit, and… Gods help me, how could I succumb to him so easily? After everything he’d done?
I slammed my fists against his chest. “No!”
Energy crackled through me, splitting me into my unkindness. We dashed through the branches, and behind us, wood snapped and dry leaves rustled as black ravens chased after us relentlessly.
Faster!We had to escape them!
Our muscles burned with the strain of speed, each hurried beat sending a jolt of pain through our wings. We landed on the fence beside a mill, wood creaking under our weight. A creek blubbered past it beneath the ice in some areas, the wheel frozen, resonating the desolate air. Where was Malyr? Still behind us?
We glanced at the sky.
Nothing.
In a surge of exhaustion, we huddled together, letting creamy feathers drift to the snow.
I hopped off the fence, rounded the mill, and pushed through its oaken door inside. Dust particles danced in the rays of pale sunlight that filtered through the open window across, floating around massive wheels and wallowers that slept through winter. Presume I could hide in here, at least until I could regain my composure and—
Ravens fluttered in through the window in a dark cloud, reshaping into Malyr within moments. “Given how you are urging me to give you lessons in flight, let me tell you this: nothing quite exhausts your unkindness like shifting between forms. How long do you presume you can keep up this chase, little dove?”
I backed away until my calves pressed against sacks of stacked grains. “Until you learn to take ‘no’ for an answer."
“If you confuse a beast for a pet easily commanded off, chances are, you will get yourself bit.” Malyr slowly prowled toward me, making me inch back until the grain sacks threatened my balance. His hand shot out, grasping my throat. His long fingers curled around my windpipe just as his mouth lowered to mine in a brutal kiss that ended with a threatening whisper against my ear, “Say it. Saynoto me.”
The moment my lips parted, Malyr slammed his mouth back onto mine. His teeth closed around my bottom lip, nipping hard enough to break the delicate skin. Warm blood spilled into my mouth and Malyr moaned, deepening the kiss, his tongue lapping up the blood.
“You like this… you always have,” he groaned into my mouth as he grabbed my hips, lifting me onto the sacks of grain before he quickly gathered my skirts. His hand found its way between my thighs, pushing my undergarments aside and teasing my entrance with his fingers. They dipped inside me, quickly moving from side to side until a wetsmackingsound resonated in the room. “It must be agonizing, this intense longing for someone you know you should reject. I know all about it. Not a night passes where I tell myself I should send you away, all while I stroke my cock to the memory of your scent.”
Shadows once more streamed into me, a dark river of power that my void swallowed greedily. Delight raced through my veins, tingles of pleasure spreading throughout my body from my core. Only something wicked could possibly feel this good.
Something terribly, terribly wrong.
Malyr’s fingers flicked relentlessly until pleasure coiled tightly around me, my body responding to his touch against my wishes, letting my shout come out as a moan. “No…”
