Couldn’t.
The moment I looked into those orchid eyes and felt our souls collide, watched her breath hitch like she could feel it too, I knew she was for me.
Mine.
Gifted to me by the Gods themselves.
She couldn’t walk away fast enough, but she already had mehooked.Under her fucking spell.
I hunt that fluttering pulse …
She just needs time to catch up. To taste me.
For me to taste her.
She’ll have plenty oftimedown here while she mulls over her mistakes. A caged eternity to take me into her iron-clad chest and accept the fucking truth standing right before her. Acceptusand forget the sick bastard who manipulated her into believing she washis.
“What happened to him?” she rasps, pulling me from my thoughts.
“The Great Purge almost ripped him apart,” I mutter, though the words still come out like they’ve been sharpened on a whetstone. “Tore him down to his base urges. Turned him into ananimal.”
The last word strikes like a blow, and my delicate flower flinches.
Looking over my shoulder, I study the monster. Remember the strong, cunning man I used to know. He’s in there, somewhere.Every time he begs for death, I see a little of my father peeping through his inky eyes. A little more of the man who fed that bestial, broken part of me and called it perfect.
Calledmeperfect.
He never looked at me craven and quaking. Never begged me to change. He gave meeverything.
Until Rhordyn took him from me.
“That’s all that’s left of the man who raised me. If I hadn’t kept him safe all these years, gone above and beyond to keep him fed and healthy so he doesn’t have to leave this place, he would’ve been hunted.Slain.”
The refugee kid locked in the cell behind Orlaith lets out a squeal.
I narrow my eyes on her—a small, huddled shadow in the gloom, peering at me through eyes bulging with pure, undiluted fear. His next fucking meal if she doesnt stop looking at me like that.
“You feed him children,” Orlaith says, distracting me, her voice barely a whisper.
I sigh.
Almostperfect.
“He’s picky. Sometimes he refuses to feed unless he’s given something … irresistible. I have to mix it up. Vary his diet. Get him excited.”
Her gaze slays, fearlessly picking me apart. A look that spears straight to my fucking loins.
Shrugging, I run the back of my hand up the smooth expanse of her throat. “I have no choice, petal.”
“Youalwayshave a choice,” she chides.
My heart stills, a whisper from the past creeping to the surface, wrapping around my neck.
Tightening.
Ignore the voice in your head, Non. Listen to mine.
My voice will never hurt you or tell you to do horrible things.
