Reacting with pure womanly instinct, composed of a millennium full of ancestral wrath, I kicked off my heels.
Caspian’s glower raised to meet mine as their clatter echoed through the room. Bloodlust pulsated within its mahogany hue, a clear warning of what would follow if I trusted my intuition—the chilling, feminine voice that always seemed to hum to me, even in my sleep.
It hadn’t failed me yet, and I knew it wouldn’t fail me now as adrenaline swam through my veins.
Without a second more of consideration, I rolled forward onto the balls of my feet. The frigid, splinter-ridden floor nipped at the exposed skin beneath my stockings. As if controlled by the gods, we acted at the same time. Caspian carelessly tossed the beaten male to the ground as he came to stand, his head dipping to the side with predatorial glee.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he growled, each step toward me cutting through the tension in the air. “In case I haven’t made myself clear, you’remine, little siren.”
As the gap between us shrank, I drew in a shaky breath. A whispered prayer tumbled from my lips, words meant for the gods. It was a plea for a chance in this life, just one opportunity to free myself from the confines of being a woman. With my muttered, fleeting word of worship, I sank into the trust I held with my inner voice.
Pivoting and ignoring the splinters burrowing into my feet, I ran.
CHAPTER 3
Copper-haired Woman
CASPIAN
That foolish little cunt believed she could outrun me? It was humorous that she thought she’d make it a few blocks through the streets of Darswyth before I exited the brothel and inevitably caught up.
Where other women swooned over me, dropping their panties without a second thought, redheads had never been my thing. They were unrelenting and ruthless, but there was something aboutherthat pissed me off more than the average: the fire burning within the very marrow of her bones that I couldn’t wait to snuff out.
I'd willingly bite if she wanted to entertain me in a game of chase while clad in lingerie, for I had no problem worshipping a woman. I just hoped that she caught the intention in my gaze as she peered back over her shoulder at me with undeniable fear, a terror I wished to instill in every person who believed they’d survive my indignation when they disobeyed. Even as her heart drummed in trepidation, submission had illuminated her irises, and I’d be a lying man if I claimed the sight didn’t turn me on.
She was so thin. So fragile. Sobreakable.
Her decision to flee, regardless of my warning, made one thingundeniably clear: she was naïve in believing I’d allow anything I’d claimed asmineto escape. Hunting ran in my blood, and I had been on the prowl since I was a teenager. Nearly two decades’ worth of scouring the depths for a treasure many believed was nothing more than a fairytale pulsated through my veins, igniting a hunger that’d never cease.
Sniffing her out would be easy in a world catered to men like me.
I was born of a need to obtain—a need tocontrol.My essence hummed with the desire to claim whatever I pleased, even if it wasn’t mine.Shewas no exception, and yet, in a room full of far more appealing women with luscious curves and lips that would easily part to please my cock, she became a fixation, and that alone pissed me off. The insatiable thirst that she wrought, a craving I couldn’t decipher, agitated me beyond means.
I’d always known what I wanted, even after I was sold off to the royal family as a young boy. The king wasted no time molding me into a mercenary, someone heartless and soulless by definition. Serving himhad been my pre-determined fate, but so had my restless yearning to become a pirate. It was a dream I never gave up on, no matter how many times myownertried to beat it out of me.
But, in the supposed darkness of my past—something I called mere lore because I gave two shits less about how haunted it made me—I’d met the very man who now kept my head above water. My life raft amidst the treacherous waves of life that threatened to swallow me into abyssal madness.
My best friend and only weakness.
His palms met my shoulders, shoving me forward with a brutality I knew would only ever belong to him. Having experienced the strength of masculinity with the many stout men I’d exchanged blows with, him included, none of my opponents had come close to matching his vigor.
As I stumbled forward, his fingers tangled themselves in my hair. Ripping me back against him, cold steel came to rest against my throat and the scar of my past that lingered there. If it were any other, I would’ve ripped their esophagus clean from their body for touching a spot that continued to torment me, but Syoran Kao remained theonlyexception.
His chest rumbled against my back, each word coming out with seething disquietude. “Caspian Vayne,I thought weagreedto come here for a brief detour andnotcause a scene while our men cleaned the ship?”
Humming, I leaned into him. “If you wished to take me out on a date, you could’ve just asked. You, out of everyone, should know what happens when a blade meets my skin. You threatening me with a good time?”
“I’ll take you out back if you keep mouthing off.” His dagger left my neck only for his knee to slam into the back of my thigh, forcing me toward the front door. “You purchased a whore for your entertainment, who, might I add, has successfully gotten away because of your hot-headed temperament. Not to pour salt into an already gaping wound, but you’ve lost your chance of being tied to a headboard and marked by a woman who would’ve happily obliged, because you couldn’t keep your hands to yourself.”
Rolling my eyes, I glanced over my shoulder. “First and foremost, no one escapes me,ever. Second, we both get off on beating the shit out of aristocrats. I saw a chance to release the pent-up anger I’d harbored since our last sail and figured you’d prefer I bloodied up some stranger instead of a crewmate. Third, I did not purchase her formyself.She is a present forourmen that I just so happened to drop twenty-five thousand bits on because, believe it or not, something stirs in the cavernous depths of my heart.”
“Oh, I know you’re not heartless. You do a terrible job at pretending you are.” Disbelief replaced my ego, and the corner of his lips curled at the notable shift. “I am curious, though. Did you decide to purchase the prostitute for them out of your pure, unfiltered kindness, or because you’re concerned that even the feared Captain Vayne will be unable to tame someone as fervent as her?”
Fucking redheads. Fucking Syoran.
My brows narrowed. “You know my type; she is the furthest thing from it.”
He shrugged indifferently. “They say your taste buds change every seven years.”
