It wasn’t a dream.
Everything came slamming back. Vincent had kidnapped me, taking me away from my mates, and was now carrying me off to Fairie. His tattoos had come off, the ravens swirling around us as they carried us to the bottom of the ocean.
He shook me to full consciousness, continuing to pour a slow and steady rush of air into my mouth. Vin didn’t need to breathe, so he took the oxygen from his lungs and siphoned it into mine to keep me from drowning.
He’d never let me go. Death would never separate us.
I’d be his forever.
Instead of hitting the bottom of the Atlantic, we resurfaced. I ripped my lips away from Vincent’s and swallowed down large gulps of sweltering air. It tasted of rich earth, faintly of ozone, and sharp floral fragrances that made my stomach flare with ancient human instincts.
Danger, a voice in the back of my head rumbled.
Vincent swam us to the bank of the river we'd emerged from. The moment sand seeped between my toes, I tried to thrust him away, but his herculean hands easily encircled my waist and hoisted me into the air.
The breath I’d collected was knocked from me when my soft stomach collided with his stony shoulder. “L–let me go, you a–a–asshole,” I wheezed, the severity of my demand lost with my fragmented words.
When he emerged from the water, like some sea monster sporting his half-drowned prize, I weakly beat my fists into the planes of his back and got a savage smack to my ass for the trouble.
“Quiet. Unless you wish to draw all the predators of the jungle to us.”
“Good. Then I can watch them rip you apart.” To emphasize the last syllable tearing from my throat, I brought my foot down on his groin with as much force as I could muster.
I felt his chest collapse beneath my thighs with his snarl of pain. He threw me down onto my back, my lungs knocking together from the impact and brought himself down on top of me. His clawed fingers sunk into the sand on either side of my head, and his knees spread my legs apart, leaving me to feel like a pinned insect beneath him.
Once again, I was his prisoner.
I hated how beautiful he looked on top of me. He was soaking wet with his jet-black hair plastered to his pale brow, and pebbles of water clung to his lashes like dew. The delicacy of them was a dramatic contrast to the severity of his strong and masculine features.
“Until my seed takes root, the feminine scent rolling off that sweet cunt of yours will remain strong. So you’re the one that will be ripped apart by all the males that stalk this jungle. I can’t fight them all.” He dragged a claw over my lips, and when I bared my fangs, biting at him, he withdrew his hand with a chuckle.
“Now, keep that bratty mouth of yours shut unless you want me to find my own way of keeping it occupied.”
Tears of anger pricked my eyes.
It was all too much. His body crushing mine into the sand, his heady and virile scent, his fever-hot touch, and brutal devotion in the form of cruel words.
Intense arousal spiked my blood. I loathed how much my body craved this male and how little control I seemed to have over it at times.
I struggled to summon the words I wanted to say to him because none existed that would properly convey just how far the hell-deep chasm of my rage stretched. “Y–you bastard! You’re lucky my monster’s asleep. Otherwise, I’d have your head for this stunt.”
His mouth quirked into a pompous smirk. “Who would keep our little queen filled and sated, then?”
He nudged his pelvis into mine, and I realized he wasn’t talking about food.
I moved to slap his face, but he caught my wrist in midair and flipped me until he was on his back, with me straddling his lap. His hands bit painfully into my hips, keeping me anchored to him. My cheeks flamed as his cock twitched right where I was seated.
“Fuck you, Feral.”
He shook us both with his booming laughter. His wings stretched out on either side of him, his feathers drawing patterns in the sand. “That’s the plan. As soon as we get you to safety.”
I stared at him in total disbelief. “You really are a monster, you know that? If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have come within a pube’s width of drowning in the first place, you maniac!”
A flash of annoyance streaked across his face, and all the mirth behind his eyes disintegrated. “Keep your voice down. I won’t tell you again.”
“Why? Oh right. Because of all the monsters. What was all that BS about this place being safer than home? If I die, you’re screwed, Feral. Don’t forget, my grandfather is literally Satan. If I don’t take part in the war for my father’s throne as the vampire queen, I’ll become the princess of Hell and rage a whole new war on your ass.”
A vein ticked in the fae’s jaw. “That’s not how it works.”
