“And what do you want?”
The question threw me off. What did I want? My life had always been about survival. But I had to want more than that.
Maybe a good king, a just king. Someone who categorized strength as more than physical prowess. Someone to clean up this mess. I’d like a safe realm for my niece or nephew to grow up in once they were born. And since I was dreaming here, I’d like to find my true mate.
I didn’t really believe in fate. It was nice to pretend for a second that maybe there was a male who was as gentle as he was firm. Someone…good. But a good man around here would take a damn miracle.
“You couldn’t give me anything I want, Sire.”
“Let me try?”
“Do I actually get a choice in the matter?”
His gaze trailed to the crowd, who all watched us with bated breath, then to his guards. When he centered his blue eyes back on me, they were colder than before. “No. Understand, if I let you defy me, the others will follow. Your first duty as queen is to teach the others to fear me.”
I took a step back, and then another. “I don’t want you. But I don’t fear you.”
The heart fell from his hand with a sickening thud as he pushed to his feet. A sadistic grin stretched his lips as he rolled his shoulders. “We’ll see about that. Now, get back here and shift. Show your king the true form of his mate.”
His command was teeming with the power of the crown. But once again, it had no effect over me. The demon chuckled. “Youarestrong. That’s good. You’ll need that to endure me.”
My stomach heaved with dread. I moved to run. But in one easy stride, he was looming over me, his shadow consuming my small frame. He grabbed me by the arm, his grip crushing and cruel.
That’s when my demon took over.
She burst to the surface, and for one excruciating moment, it felt like all my bones were breaking, my skin being ripped off. Then the piercing agony was gone as quick as it had come.
“There’s my beautiful queen,” the king said through a grating chuckle that scraped over my scales like jagged metal.
I had every ability to fight my beast and take control over our body in our demonic form. But there was a strong pull from her; she wanted to fight for us. So I let her. I descended into the back of my mind, watching behind a haze of dark thoughts as she fought the terrifying male.
She lasted for so long. Almost holding her own, dodging his blows and moving around him as fast as lightning. She didn’t want us to run anymore.
She was intent on killing him.
There were a few times she got close, talons slicing toward his throat. But the third time she tried that, he caught our wrist and spun us to face the crowd, shoulders pressed up against his bare abdomen, the back of our head barely meeting the muscular swell of his pectorals.
The heat of his bare skin slammed into us, and his aura teemed with violence and danger, wrapping around us like a blanket intent on strangling me.
I tried to bring myself back to the surface, but she took a page from Abaddon’s book and held me down.
“Stay inside. Close your eyes. It will be over soon.”
It was the first time she ever comforted me. For all the years I knew the demon spirit inside me, I never knew her as a coddler. What I did know was that she kept her promises. And she had promised to protect me.
So for once, I listened to her and receded into the deep recesses of my mind where Abaddon couldn’t reach me while the stronger part of me took the brunt of the invasion I could barely feel.
Thanks to her.
As I sank into the darkness of my own psyche, I promised myself that one day I would kill Abaddon. I would draw it out so I could savor it.
“Scared of me now, My Queen?” the archdemon muttered into my ear between his lewd grunts.
Fucking monster.
That’s what he was. But what he didn’t realize was that no matter how much he hurt me, I would never be afraid of him. Because one day, I would prove to him that my beast was the one to be frightened of.
5
