“GeneralTilcot!Unhand her at once!”
Filling a meaty palm with my right breast, the general chuckled, breath sticky against my cheek. “Well, well. It appears your attitude is catching, little slut,” he murmured, toying with delicate flesh. “What is it about you that inspires such… disobedience?”
My eyes fluttered closed, for there, in the dark, I could pretend. There, I could put myself back in the forest, lost in the throes of a night terror. Anywhere was better than this, at the mercy of my father’s murderer, allowing the Eidolon to chew a hole through me. Hoping itwould. Hoping it would eat me up before it was too late.
“Get your hands off that girl,” the High Priestess breathed, cold fury straightening her spine. “I’ll not ask again.”
“I’d very much like for you to stop me,” he returned, then pinched my nipple so hard I gasped, teeth bared. “I’m going to fuck this little slut, right here. Right now—” He fisted my hair, giving me a shake. “I can’t breed her yet, of course, but there’s plenty of time for that once she’s free of Rawlings’ influence. Do you think he’ll feel it?” the general asked, ravaging the tip of my breast. “Do you think it’ll be his last thought, knowing there was nothing he could do to stop it? That’s right,” he whispered when I jerked, hands scrambling for purchase, meeting the wide blue eyes across the room. “It’s all been arranged. The Golden Boy will die a traitor’s death. Today.”
With a mighty snarl, the High Priestess lunged—and was struck down by a savage backhand. The blow landed with force enough to send her crashing into the pedestal, toppling the glass case containing the chains and the very last dregs of hope. The case shattered against the concrete wall as the High Priestess fell. Dazed but breathing, the rings of gold scattered about her crumpled form.
Unperturbed, the general’s hand continued wandering. “Where was I? Ah, yes,” he murmured, hiking my skirt up, inch, by painful inch.
“You’re pathetic,” I whispered, forcing myself upright, right hand planted on the desk. Eidolon drinking deep, I kept my eyes fixed on the crumpled form of the High Priestess—useless as she was. Unable to benefit from the deaths of two rare and dangerous things, or guard the last of the Goddess’ chosen from becoming living wraiths.
Fully aroused by the violence, the general pressed himself against me, grinding my hip bones into the edge of the desk. Exposing me with the flick of his wrist, he flipped my skirt over my bottom, then jerked my scarred hand behind my back. Twisting until my shoulder screamed, rough fingers covered leather and gold. Putting too much strain on a knot that wasn’t meant to last, the leather came undone.
Poised to fail on the edge of Truth.
“He did this to himself, you know. Rawlings. Taking you like he did? Without permission?” the general laughed, and stripped his salvation away, letting bracelet of leather and Eidolon fall. Clattering to the floor. “It was stupid. The actions of a traitor with something to hide.”
Pinned beneath him, the general didn’t notice what he’d done in freeing me. Missed the flex of my spine as the bond kicked my heart back to life, as Asher’s strength poured through my every nerve.
The captain’s scent filled my brain, his impossible ki flooding my veins with molten ore. His wrath almost came bursting from my lips when he tasted my distress, when he learned the cause. Territorial fires burning hot enough to make even Kas’ claim on my soul crisp and char, he raged. Immolating the stench of the general’s ki from my very blood, and in his blind frenzy, left the bond wide open.
“Please… don’t…” I shook my head, trying to free my wrist asfeelingrushed to fill my veins. To break the connection of skin on skin before the hunger woke and burned away all sense.
But… why? Why should I fight so hard against it when my bonded parasite was finally seeing sense? When bending knee to the beast could save us? Why should I fight to spare this man—thismurderer—from a fate he was so desperate to court?
Snarling, I bared my teeth, eyes squeezed shut against the flood of ki both foreign and intimate. “It’swrong.”
“Wrong and stupid,” Tilcot agreed, blind to my struggle. “But it won’t take much to convince the powers that be. Their perfect Golden Boy is unfit to have a Priestess of his own. Thought he was clever enough to keep you all to himself,” he whispered, reaching between us to fumble with his belt. “But things have changed since the early days. There’s no Priestesses left. None who aren’t already ruined by the chains. You see, our greatest triumph was also our greatest blunder. The chains give us your power at the cost of fertility. The bound Priestesses are barren. Each and every one. Which means no hybrid soldiers for the Emperor to play with. The Golden Boy knew that, of course,” he said, and the naked heat of swollen flesh came free against my thigh. “And if he’d been smart, he’d have left you unbound, put a brat in your belly, then used it to gain favor with the Empire. With such leverage, he might have traded you in for better standing. Better ranking. Might have been able to buy himself the rank of a general. Alas…”
“He’s not a good man,” I hissed, eyes squeezed shut, shoulder all but wrenched from the socket. “But he’s better than some.”
Setting his length between my thighs, the general laughed, beginning to thrust. Spearing through delicate tissue too dry to tolerate such unwanted action, his fingers tightened on my hip, and, breath picking up, he pressed his lips to my ear. “They might have let him keep you, then. After all, it’ll be a few years until we can produce a new generation of Priestesses.”
My eyes snapped open.
The tethers binding dark wings disintegrated atmycommand, for there, through a door left open, was the thing I coveted most.
“Dear Goddess,no,”the High Priestess whispered, waking to face a thing of nightmares. Struggling to stand before she’d fully opened her eyes or gathered her senses.
“Oh, you didn’t know?” the general crooned, unaware of the thing he’d released. “I’d have thought that was rather obvious, by this point,” he murmured, and stepped back, spinning me to face him. His erection bobbed between us, swollen and grotesque, straining toward reddened breasts. “I’ve chosenyouto be the first of our Tritan breeding stock, little slut.”
My hands, fingers curled into blunt claws, had found purchase on his wrists. Knuckles white, in spite of the great feathered beast unfurling behind my ribs.
Feasting.
“Harper—don’t!Step away from her. You have to before—”
“A good slave thanks her Master when he gives her a gift,” the general continued, then jerked my bottom to perch at the edge of the desk, reaching for the swollen bit of flesh dribbling between us.
“Mmm, yessss.Thank you,”I drawled, and with a slow roll of my neck, I met his murky gaze.
And smiled.
Chapter 11
