AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 1
Croygen
Horse hooves pounded across the rocky ground, high above the fog, which still blanketed the valley below. Pinnacles of plant-covered rocks spiked high into the muggy air in dramatic formations, like blades turned in battle to the blue skies above. Dense green foliage trapped the humidity, and a buzz of insects hummed loudly in my ear.
Every sense was alive. Every nerve sparked under my skin, but nothing penetrated beyond the superficial. My thoughts, my drive, my goal were on one thing. I was a madman obsessed, and nothing would get in my way.
It felt more like I was possessed, a demon seizing me from the inside out, directing me as if I were its pet.
Anger kept the fear simmering underneath, or maybe it was fear that kept the anger checked. Both spurred me forward; my gut twisted at the task ahead.
Save Katrina and find this matter calledthe nectar.
This substance would change the world as we knew it, giving humans fae-like qualities. Equal power. And this wouldn’t be used for all to come together for some kumbaya moment. No, it would be used for war. To annihilate the “others,” no matter the costs. Humans had tried it before with fae, sending us to the Otherworld. Now no such place existed. Earth and the fae world were one, and humans were duking it out for supremacy, trying to find ways to once again be superior.
This would give them even footing to challenge us, annihilating us for good.Ifthis substance was as real as it was said to be. A Dr. Novikov, an old associate of the demented Dr. Rapava, was alleged to have located it and was now on the run, hiding in the caves. But outside of this rumor being spread through the papers, no one else had seen it, held it, or had proof of it. We might find Novikov sitting in the corner of the cave, hugging a rock, whispering to it, calling it “Precious.”
And Kat’s life was on the line for an item that might not even exist.
Her face flashed in my mind, taking me back to the night before, recalling how her pussy locked on my cock, pumping me dry. Her purr wrapped around me, making me feel like nothing in the world could take me down. As if I finally found my place—the home I wanted to stay in forever.
It was the most intense, insane sex I had ever had. This coming from a man who’d had hundreds of thousands of partners over the centuries. Kinky, deviant, sweet, violent, slow, S&M, dom/sub, I’d had it all. This was different. It consumed me, drowned me, and had me so satisfied I thinkIwas fucking purring, yet I craved her the moment I was no longer inside her.
Which had me feeling sick with guilt and crazed with need.
I still tasted her on my tongue. Her release still coated my cock, and her smell lingered on me. But there was more than that—a strange sensation, as if I could feel her pulling me forward, like I knew where she was, and she needed me.
But it was all in my head. Ithadto be. Because… no, it just had to be.
It was a one-time thing. A line I shouldn’t have crossed in the first place. I never should have touched her. Katrina Roth, the daughter of Friedrich Roth, my old first mate, the man I stabbed through the heart.
The woman who was once my family was now my enemy.
“So, you plundered her treasure, huh? Pilfered the booty? Jolly’d your Roger? Did you scream out ‘Thar she blows!’”a voice jabbered in my ear, crunching my shoulders higher.
“Sprig.” I choked out his name. Underwear fluttered against my cheek, his “cape” flapping in the breeze.
When he learned Kat was gone, he put it on, saying, “Super Sprig is on the case.” He tucked his backpack with Pam in my side saddle, climbing on my shoulder, chanting his hero song.
“I can understand whyBhean chaitran off.”
“She didn’t run off.” I clenched my teeth, guiding the horse over the terrain. “She was taken.”
“Sure.” He snorted. “So you say. Be honest, rum-licker, she was Dear John-ing your ass.”
“What?”
“Dear John-ing.” He sighed like I was an idiot. “She dumped you and ran. Probably so common you forget it’s not what women do after you fire in their hole.”
A rumble gurgled up the back of my throat. My patience and mood were on the cusp of annihilating everything in my anger.
“Sprig…” Annabeth’s horse trotted closer to mine, its rider’s tone full of warning. She could sense how thin the line was I walked. “Why don’t you ride with me for a bit?”
“Oh, I couldn’t leave the booty-humper alone in his time of need. When he has been so brutally and cruelly dumped like that? I mean, she even faked getting kidnapped to get away from him.”
“She didn’t fake—”
“I mean, that’sbad, sooooo humiliating. Not sure how he is even able to function today and is not rocking in a corner. She must have beendesperateto get away. PoorBhean chait.What she must have gone through.I’ve thought about doing that when I’m around him too—”
