King Athon grabbed my bent knees and roughly shoved them apart, prowling between them. He shook his head, and his gaze wandered over my body from my head down, goingveryslowly. His fingers brushed up and down my inner thighs with the gentlest touch, sending goose bumps along my flesh.
He rumbled roughly, no longer jesting as he had before. “I really must find something I like on you. It will make this easier.”
My chest heaved with an exhausted breath. “Did you like my lips? My pussy? My screams? My nipples? Whatever the Fae fuck you need, I’ll do it if you wouldjust startalready!”
His pink tongue licked over his top teeth, thinking.
For fuck’s sake.
I growled and shoved up, lunging at him. I caught him off guard, propelling him onto his back. I straddled his hips and instantly leaned forward, pressing my mouth to his before he could utter a sound from his haughty mouth.
The tiger growled furiously—deadlyfurious.
I froze on top of him, my lips smashed to his, the tiny hairs on the nape of my neck standing on end. Perhaps I had made an error. That was not a sound I ever wished to hear aimed at me again.
I shrieked in distress when he immediately rolled us, his enormous body pressing down on mine with callous strength.
King Athon’s hand gripped my neck brutally, and his furious, dark eyes stared down into mine—my death hovering in them. He bared his blunt, white teeth, snarling in slow ticks.
“Never be so foolish again. Do you understand, elf?”
“Yes,” I croaked, my mouth bobbing, struggling for air.
I frantically smacked at his strangling hand.
I couldn’t breathe.
The tiger hissed in my face, but he released my neck.
I started coughing hard, wracking heaves against his body that pressed on top of mine. I gently touched the skin on my neck, the entire thing bruised and healingslowly. He’d gone deep with that crushing hold, my brows lowering over my eyes in unease.
My Fae-spark flared.
I slammed my gaze up into his dark eyes as he healed me.
I didn’t speak, keeping my mouth shut.
Especially, keeping my thoughts to myself when he didn’t move his tension-filled body off mine for at least ten minutes straight of silence, his body trembling in barely controlled rage. His solid black eyes stared down at me…but not seeing me.
When he still didn’t come back to me, I hesitantly lifted my hands, not knowing entirely what to do. I hovered them next to his shoulders but decided on a more innocent touch, simply placing my palms on his cheeks softly.
I rubbed my thumbs back and forth over his whiskered cheeks and whispered, “Athon, can you hear me?”
His blink was gradual. Another blink.
“Can you hear me, Athon?” I asked a little louder, still petting his cheeks with my thumbs and holding his face gently.
King Athon visibly flinched, and then his eyes focused on mine, his brows pulling together. His wrathful shivering stopped, and he ordered harshly, “Neverpounce on me when I’m on my back like you did. You do not know what that means to a tiger.”
I lowered my hands from his face, asking bluntly, “That was a shifter issue…and not a personal issue?”
His nostrils flared wide, and he growled, “My father never hurt me physically if that is what you are hinting. I wasn’t his target for pain. This was a shifter issue. When I roll onto my back, I kill.”
My death day had almost come from a blunder on my part, the King of Shifters having barely held off. I honestly did not know enough about his kind.
Duly horrified, I asked quietly, “Are you fine now?”
“Yes, you Fae damned elf.” He snarled. “At least you didn’t try to run afterward. That was your only intelligent action.”
