“Do you really believe that?” His dark voice swirled around me, sending goosebumps crawling over my skin. “I wonder… Did you rob graves for riches? Or was it just an excuse to be closer to death?”
His huge hand cupped my cheek, his claws scouring my flesh as they sunk into my hair. “I can give you a new home.”
My heart slammed mercilessly against my ribs as I gaped up at my captor. His horns stretched high into the air as he loomed over me. Like an angel of death, offering me eternal damnation in the guise of salvation.
“Home? You mean my new prison?”
“It will be a gilded cage, the prettiest one ever gifted to a mortal.”
“So what am I supposed to do? Sit around and be your palace pet?
“Oh…” He drawled, his gravelly rumble sinking straight to my core. “You will be so much more than my pet.”
His clawed fingers tightened around my arm, his hand so big it swallowed it from my wrist to my elbow. He wrenched me out of the chair and pulled my body flush against his chest.
This monster towered over me, all eight feet of him casting a shadow that wrapped around me as palpable as his collar around my throat.
“You will be my slave. You will suffer at my hand, and I will draw pleasure from your beautiful little screams. I will brand my name upon your bones, and carve it into your flesh. You will endure me and my brutality for all eternity. As my pet. My mate. My queen.”
Mate?Queen?
The realization of what was happening came slamming down over me like one of those falling pianos in old timey cartoons. This was my punishment for desecrating Catherine’s corpse.
I was her replacement.
He would torture me. He’d drive me to madness. Just as he’d probably done to her. But this was different. Unlike Catherine, there was a part of me that would enjoy the way he’d hurt me.
And he knew it.
I couldn’t let that part of me determine my fate. I couldn’t be the Lord of Death’s plaything. Because if I accepted, there’d be no escaping him.
Not even death would end our union.
I thrashed against him, but he only held me tighter. “You can’t do this. You have to at least give me a chance to escape.”
The light in his eye socketed glowed with malice. “I don’t have to give you anything.”
“Then I’ll hate you forever. Just like Catherine. Is that what you want? Give me a chance to get back home, and if I fail, then I’ll accept my fate. I’ll be your mate and queen.”
He seemed to consider my words as he canted his skull, and peered out the window over my head—deep in thought.
“Very well.”
My breath caught, making it impossible to force air into my lungs. I hadn’t expected him to agree. “Really?” I choked out.
He slowly reached for my face, dragging a single finger along my jawline as he stared me down.
“You want your freedom so badly? I want to see you fight for it, bleed for it, die for it,” he said, tilting my chin up higher. “You must escape my grounds before time runs thin…”
His hand dropped from my chin to grip my ass, grinding me against the impossibly huge bulge pressed against my stomach. It was a threat—no, a promise.
“Or become mine forever until eternity’s end.”
Eternity’s end.
As much as that twisted part of me perked up at this monster’s demented proposal, an eternity was too long. He was too brutal. Too big. He’d split me open, make me bleed. Then he’d piece me back together just so he could do it all over again.
My pussy throbbed at the thought.
