“So, what you’re saying is, you don’t think us being bonded or whatever is a punishment anymore?”
He shook his head and paused, seeming to choose his words carefully. “No. I think, if anythin’, this is the gods trying to make up fer what they did to me.”
I gaped at him, too stunned to respond. I waited for him to flash me that grin, the mean one I’d seen glimpses of, or any other sign on his face telling me he was joking. Instead, he looked deadly serious.
“I grew up hearing stories about how the gods were on our side…” When I was little, I’d always thought that meant we were the good guys. As it turned out, the gods could be just as petty and cruel as humans.
“Mmm, we’re all monsters in one way or another.”
“What my family did to you…” I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. “Knowing what I do now, I guess I don’t blame you for wanting to take your revenge out on me.”
Balor shook his head again. “There won’t be any punishment. Not for what yer family did, anyhow.”
I blinked. “But your revenge.”
He fiddled with a lock of my curly hair, coiling it around his finger, a half-cocked grin lifting the corner of his mouth. “I’ve found something better.”
Chapter Fifteen
Balor
Ihadn’t given this human my branding mark yet, and I’d already decided waiting an eternity for her was worth it. I could have waited twice as long as I had for her and still, it would have been worth it.
The fecked part was, I’d do anything to make her mine.Anything.
I’d keep her trapped among the bones of my ancestors for the rest of time if that’s what it took to make her soften to me.
She was clay in my hands. So easily molded into my perfect little toy. A toy I’d have to be more careful with than anything else in my long, godsforsaken life.
I’d still make her scream, but her cries would be of pleasure. I’d still make her hate me… hate me for not taking everything away from her sooner.
Maeve McCrum would be my wee queen of the giants. I’d make her mine on the bones of the giantess who’d once begged me for a crown she’d gone to her grave yearning.
I plucked her off my lap and carried her over to the rib bone that arched over my desecrated gardens.
As twisted as it was, there was something poetic about taking a new queen for myself on the bones of my old mate. Especially a McCrum: The very people who put her in the ground.
Maeve stiffened when she saw where I was taking her. “Wait. No! Not there! Take me in the clovers. Or make a bed out of your magic!”
“Giants don’t make love on beds, and queens aren’t crowned in the dirt,” I mused.
“You’re totally fucked in the head!” she snapped at me, her thrashing adorably futile.
I couldn’t argue with her there. But I wouldn’t take her on my ex-mate’s bones if I didn’t know for a fact that there was a part of Maeve that would thoroughly enjoy it. She liked the dark and the monstrous. Too bad her prudish human sensibilities prevented her from reveling in such things. One of the many reasons I loathed humans. They craved pleasure and condemned it all in the same breath.
No matter. I’d lure out the darkness in Maeve, or I’d peel back her layers and pry it out if I had too. Either way, I’d make her enjoy every depraved second of it. My dick was painfully hard just thinking about it.
I placed her on the end of a rib that was only just protruding from the ground. With how it was angled, it made for a perfect makeshift bed. The slight bend in the bone had her body arching with it ever so slightly.
“You said this was your mate?”
I nodded, and suddenly there was the scent of female arousal thick in the air.
Fire and fury, I loved that she had a little wicked streak.
“You’re a monster, Balor. This is seriously fucked up.”
“Yet yer cunt is as wet as ever.” I gripped her knees, spread her thighs and swept a finger through her folds. I chuckled at her yelp of surprise and sucked her juices from the tip of my finger. “So let’s cut the shite, hmm? Yer just as depraved as I am. Ya crave darkness, because it’s all you’ve known fer years.”
