“Hmm…” he continues to hum as I watch his fingers in the mirror trace the skin just above the cowl of my dress.
Melting at the strength behind me, I go blissfully blank. The utter safety I feel within Gideon’s arms at this moment feels unparalleled.
“I see passion,” he continues as he moves my hair to one side. “I see strength.” His fingers graze the side of my scar as he emphasises, “I see beauty.”
Gulping down a breath, I close my mouth tightly, afraid to say something I cannot take back.
Gideon gives me a warm smile that never leaves my face and grasps my hand in a tight, warm hold. “Come. Fury is likely to burst through that doorway if we are alone for even a movement longer.”
Lazily nodding my head in agreement, I lace my fingers through his and hold tightly as he manoeuvres me out of the suddenly small space. Or maybe it only got small because of the large shifter within it.Goddess, he truly is massive,I gasp inwardly as he pushes through the curtain.
We find Fury overlooking the desolate ground beneath the tower.
Enormous windows create a wide, arched pocket against the opposite side of the room to where the stairs are located. In my tired and heart-worn state, I did not notice it before, but upon closer inspection, the window depicts a huge wolf leaping with exposed fangs, a dragon spewing fire from above and a massive, tentacled creature emerging from the water. And in the centre stands one being. I almost expect it to be Fury himself, but as my feet draw closer and Gideon loosens his grasp on me, I find myself stepping beside Fury without hesitation, noticing the difference in the male and the picture.
“This person—this being. Who is it?” My voice is quiet, but I am sure he hears every syllable, every breath I expel.
A chuckle leaves him, but not in a way that tells me my question is in any way funny. No. He exudes disgust and anger. “That is the object of my destruction.”
Looking up at him, I can see a smoulder blow through his blackened eyes as if he is reliving a long-forgotten memory.
Suddenly, the air around me stills, and iron fists grab hold of my shoulders and push me against the window I was admiring. I expect it to shatter, but it holds under the force Fury is raining down on me. “I know you have the key, little pet.”
Experiencing a new kind of whiplash, I try to edge my eyes around Fury’s frame to catch sight of Gideon, but every part of Fury overshadows my own.
Grabbing my chin, he angles my head upwards and hisses. “He cannot save you. Gideon is mine, and he follows my orders. Just like you will become mine.”
“I—what?” My body starts to tremble with the ice seeping through my veins.What key is he talking about?
I do not have any keys.I am here for Saff and, in a long-drawn-out, convoluted way, my kingdom. Haven is going to die if I don’t find help. I thought that help would come from the Goddess, but instead, she bonded me to a fae. A fae, of all creatures, and I believed they could help. Maybe Rivern still can, but I promised Saff we would find her egg first, so here I am, standing in front of this ominous-looking winged male from my dreams. Not the good dreams, either.Not that I had any of those. No, this daemon standing before me oozes darkness in a way that makes my body both shiver and blister. An unforgiving contradiction.
“You see, I have a proposition for you, Pet. One you will not be able to pass up.” My mouth gapes open at the audacity of this male, but colour me intrigued because my body does not inch a muscle out of his grasp.
“You will bond with me…” I boil at the beginning of hisproposition.Ashen salt lingers on my tongue.
“I will do no—” His hands move to take mine, pinning them on either side of my head. His forehead leans in, and he pushes his nose gently across the edge of my smaller one, which only makes me more furious.
“Let me finish, pet,” he growls out, his breath whispering over my cheek.
“I am not your pet,” I equally growl underneath him.
Fury moves like lightning, hoisting me up into the air releasing my arms and moving us face to face, chest to chest and groin to rigid, naked torso. The shivers begin to turn southwards within my body, creating a strange but alluring feeling within my lower half as I dig my fingers into the toughened muscles of his biceps.
My bare feet dangle as Fury holds me around the waist. “You will hold your tongue until I am finished,” he grinds out. Then, like a completely new person overtakes his body, a snide snicker moves from his lips as he says, “Pet.”
“Argh.” I squirm in the daemon brute’s arms, thrashing my legs and hitting his broad, cold chest, but not making a dent.
Fury doesn’t hide his amusement from his body as I pummel him with my soft fists. “Are you quite done so I can finish what I am saying?”
Tiring from my assault on the frustrating monster holding me, I give one last open-palmed face slap, which barely makes the damned asshole move, and I give up, slackening in his grip. “Now I’m done, you big brute.”
“I must admit, pet, that fiery side of yours is a huge turn on, so feel free to expose the claws more often.” His smirk widens, and I huff “bastard”under my breath.
“Now, now, I may be a bastard, but at least you understand where we stand.”Goddess, he is right about that. Fury pushes all of my buttons, but I don’t feel the need to hide from him in any way. It is disconcerting.
“As I was trying to say,” he continues with his wide, shit-eating grin that I want to slap off his face again.
Instead, I interrupt, “If it wasn’t for Saff’s egg—that you seem to be holding hostage—I would throttle your overgrown neck, you pretentious dickwad.”
