Smell. Regina. Pussy.
Wait.
Wait.
Pussy? Yes, pussy. My regina’s.
“Princess?” I cry. “Where are you?”
“Here,”comes a voice, soft and beautiful like a moonbeam.
“Mine,”I say to the world.“Where have you been?”I demand angrily.
“It wasn’t my fault!”she protests. Always so sassy.“I came for you!”
The black haze lifts from my mind, and when I see the room, when I seeher,I roar.
Chapter 32
Aurelia
Savage bellows into the room, black pupils swallowing his irises. I roll over on the medical bed, panting with desire and trying to force my brain back into focus. The Collector’s eyes are wild as Xander holds her still, the points where his fingers touch her bandages gushing blood. “Let her go, Xander,” I say.
Savage leaps off the bed and pulls me towards him. “Regina,” he whispers against my mating mark, his voice breaking.“Aurelia.”
I lean into his face, cupping his cheek. “I’m here,” I say. My eyes flick to Katerina, trembling with fury andmorbidhunger. “Your regina is here now.” It takes everything I am to disentangle myself from him and get to my feet. I stalk forward. On my right, Lyle is still struggling to keep Scythe pinned to the wall. “Xander,” I say again. “Let her go.”
He doesn’t want to, that possessive mouth tightening before his hands come off her.
Katerina darts for the door, but I’m ready. I’ve been ready for a while.
Power floods my right leg, and I launch after the crocodile. She sprints down the corridor, kicking off her boots and running barefoot across the tile. I charge after her, watching her muscles for signs of direction change. She shouts for her guards, her servants, for anyone, and although I hear voices and other shouts, no one comes to her aid.
Katerina reaches the foyer and shoves the door open. Her servants blink with confusion. Connor’s eyes go wide as I whoosh past him, my feet slapping hard against the tiles and then the dirt. I feel my mates charging behind, all four of them dogging my steps, snapping and growling.
I inhale a lungful of cool night air as Katerina makes a beeline for the river. For her crocs. It’s then that I pounce, throwing myself through space and grabbing her by the back of her shirt, yanking her backwards and right into my arms.
“Scythe!” she screams. “Scythe, save me!”
The snarl that tears from my throat is pure, vicious fury.
My power snaps around her—serpentine, feline, canine, draconian, and shark all in one. Fear perfumes the air as I bury my hand in her hair and wrench her skull back, snarling into her face, with a lifetime’s worth of people trampling me behind my rage. “Nothing will save you from me. Not the Wild Mother, not your crocodile skin, and certainly not Mace fucking Naga.”
I bury my sharp canines into her cheek, ripping out a chunk of flesh and spitting it out onto the dirt. Katerina screams in horror and outrage, her legs kicking out against my power and failing as I rear back and slam my teeth into her neck. The taste of blood and flesh drives me near rabid, and I shift.
Four limbs, low to the floor, and terrible, long jaws with enough force behind them to break a skull. Katerina chokes on her own blood and scrambles away from me, kicking up dirt, but Ipursue. For each step she takes, I take two, and I’m on her in an instant, my entire world focused on flesh, even my matesfading away into the distance. Elation fills my veins, golden joy spinning through my head.“This is for Lorian,”I tell her before my jaws clamp around her neck.“This is for my mates.”Bone crushes in my mouth, the crack reverberating through my body and filling me up with utter, primal satisfaction. “And this is for my leg.”
Chapter 33
Xander
My bloodthirsty, hungry,vengefulregina eats Katerina Crocdylus with all the relish of a full-grown crocodile. Long, scaled jaws tilt upwards as they crunch and snap and swallow.
Savage goes on his hands and knees to stay close and eagerly watch. He licks his lips and I just know he wants to join in, but I only worry about her stomach and what that flesh will do to it once she returns to human form.
Aurelia spits out Katerina’s head and begins on her body, chomping down on her shoulders. I spare a glance for my brothers, not fighting now that they’re fixated on Aurelia. Scythe is staring at Katerina over Lyle’s shoulder, and I’m sure whatever remains of the curse is now just oxygen, but he’d descended into his shark so deeply that he’s not responding to the lifting of the spell yet.
“Scythe,” I say. “If you want a piece of this, I’d get some now; otherwise, your regina is going to have all of it.”
