As much as I hated him, as much as I knew on a logical level that I had to find a way to get away from him before he couldseal our bond, my body wanted him. My pussy throbbed and fluttered, desperate for more. My skin was tingling with pleasure from where he gripped me with a hunger that would leave bruises in the morning.
I’dneveradmit it to him. I could barely admit it to myself, but my body wanted him. He was the enemy, and now, so was my own body.
“You evil fucking monster—” My outburst was cut off with apinchto my labia. It didn’t feel sexual. It was demeaning, like he was flicking a bad cat on the nose. The jerk he gave to the makeshift leash did nothing to make me feel like less of a naughty animal.
“Keep it up and I’ll show ya—make ya feelevery feckin’ inchof just how monstrous I am.”
Headlights in the distance had me gasping. It was like a bucket of icy cold water had been dumped on my head, tearing me from whatever spell held me in his trance.
“Help!” I screamed, waving my arms. “Somebody help me!”
We were on an old commercial street, and the sleepy end of it at that. Everyone had gone home, and not even late night St. Paddy’s drinkers were within ear shot. But the car in the distance filled me with a surge of hope.
“HELP—”
Balor plucked me off the ground, grumbling in guttural Irish. Tucking my thrashing body beneath his arm, he walked a few steps until we were tucked out of view from the street.
That in itself would have been enough to dash my hopes of rescue… Until a magical doorway appeared in between the alley trash bins in a swirl of flame and cinder.
On the other side of the doorway, it was green and lush. Absolutely beautiful.
And every little cell in my body was abuzz with ancient instincts, telling me this place wasn’t for humans, and if I went in there, I wouldn't be coming back.
I screamed and begged and kicked at Balor. None of it worked.
He only swatted my butt, scolding me for being noisy, and stepped forward into the Otherworld.
The path back to my world, and all hope of ever going back, vanished in a blink.
Chapter Ten
Balor
I’d been so close to fucking her right there in the street.
I had her there, exposed to me, pink and panting with her cunt soaking wet and walls fluttering in anticipation. Practically begging for me to take her. And her scent,fire and fury, she smelled like she’d been forged just for me.
In the old days, I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself. Control had never been my strong suit. What did I care if the humans saw me? I couldn’t shift into my true size and crush them beneath my feet, but I could burn them to a crisp before they got within a hundred feet of us.
Maybe it was some deep part of me that was slowly shaking awake. The king within, or whatever remained of him, knew his mate deserved to be bonded somewhere comfortable and safe. Not on the side of the filthy road.
She might have been a mortal—and a fecking McCrum at that—but regardless of the fact that she was my sworn enemy, I could touch her.
That condemned her to a fate worse than death.
Maeve would be my wee queen of the giants.
Not that there was anything for her to rule over, only bones and faded memories.
I half-expected the portal spell not to work. Those cultists, descendants of the Tuatha Dé Danan, were after my eye for its ability to open a pathway to the magic realm of their ancestors. What if their stray bullet had destroyed all hope of me performing that spell too? The irony was fecking demonic.
Unholy relief rippled through me when the portal opened in a burst of writhing flames. Lush foliage rustled in the breeze, and a potent wave of energy swept through the portal, licking against my skin like fire.
Stepping through the portal to Tír na nÓg was a rush.
The magic here leaked from the trees, seeping into the soil and bleeding into the air. It was old and potent and even Maeve must have sensed it by the way she went still in my hold.
My castle walls had crumbled and the forest had long since taken over. But the gardens were the same. Faded memories of smoking a blackweed pipe here, high as a fecking fairie, pushed to the front of my mind.
