AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The Centaur lay willingly on the ground, arms spread wide as Ruslan pinned them. My breaths were cold and rapid as my heart raced out of control, and my whole body tingled, muscles tensing as if I was preparing to fight for my life.
“Do as he says. Konsteon is strong.”
“Please, I can’t…”
“You must.”
“Zuriel, I can’t, please, not after what happened to me.”
“We will all die if you do not.”
Ruslan stared up at me, waiting for me to begin. His smoke-gray eyes swirled with pain as he watched me breaking before him.Was he really not going to stop this?
Konsteon must have heard my panicked breaths because he opened his eyes, locking them with mine and giving me a barely perceptible nod.
“I’m so sorry,” I mouthed to him, tears falling freely from my eyes. King Azim wanted an empath, and I would show him exactly what that meant. My emotions soared from the peaks of the Agrenak Mountains and dove to the ocean floor, and I refused to hide my tears from another male who forced me to blacken my heart with his own twisted desires.
With a shuddering breath, I implanted sensations of whips lashing Konsteon in his mind, a type of torture I had endured time and time again, permanently marking my skin. Thoughthese lashes would not mar him the way I had been marred, I still gasped as the first one landed, my traumatic memories surfacing with each subsequent strike. Tears streamed down either side of my face as the brave Centaur jerked and grunted beneath Ruslan. After my own back arched in pain, causing me to cry out, Ruslan jumped to his feet and growled, “That’s enough.” A second before I collapsed against the floor, Ruslan swept me into his arms, a hand cradling my head against his chest, as if he was prepared to flee with me and expected a fight to get us free.
“Did I say we were finished?” King Azim chastised.
“No, I did. If you’d like to continue, you can fight me for the right.”
Father and son stared each other down, unblinking, waiting for the other to cave to the rising tension. King Azim was the first to look away, and Ruslan’s chest loosened, though his heart still thundered against my ear.
“She looks tired anyway, and we do not want to burn her out before our guests arrive for the feast.” The king of the Iron Realm glanced around the room, first at the Angel, then the Shifters. “You are dismissed. I do not need to remind you of the rules for the next two weeks or the consequences for breaking them, do I?”
“No, Your Highness,” they all said in unison, then filed from the room, tension lining each set of shoulders.
“I am trusted to be discreet, so I will be in attendance, but in the background. Please do not reveal my identity to anyone.”
And then they were gone. Ruslan’s glare was sharp enough to kill, and he watched Rares and the king converse, their heads bent together, whispering something too faint for me to hear. But as Ruslan’s arms tightened protectively around me, I knew he heard.
“Let’s see her physical development,” Rares ordered.
“No,” Ruslan growled, his voice low and threatening. For once, I stoked his rising rage, his desire to protect exactly what I wanted. “She is developing just fine, as I have seen with my own eyes.”
“Your word means nothing when we have plans to carry out,” King Azim seethed. “I am growing impatient, and you have blown me off for over a month. I want to see her progress with my own eyes.”
Ruslan’s fury combined with my own, and I shoved at the his, causing him to open his arms and allow me to land nimbly on the ground. I’d had enough of males thinking they owned me and my body. My voice was laced with venom, and I spat rage at the arrogant king. “I will not be some pawn in whatever game it is you want to play. I am not a tool for you to use at your disposal. I am a fucking Fae and Angel, and I will be treated like one – with the appropriate dose of fear and respect.”
King Azim laughed, throwing back his head as I stood there, raging and confused at his sudden change. “Ruslan, you said you had her under your control. That is not what this looks like to me.” His dark eyes sparkled with malice as he nudged Rares with the tip of his elbow, then swept a bejeweled hand across the scene before him. “You see, this is why I must keep my eye on everything. No one ever speaks the truth.”
Ruslan stepped beside me, half shielding me with his body. “I said that I have it under control, not that she is under my control.”
“It appears to me that neither of those statements are true. Instead of breaking her mind like I instructed, you have simply allowed her to strengthen it.”
Ruslan grasped my hand, bringing my ring to the light. “Do you not see this?”
“What I see is the son who beat out all others to become heir apparent losing himself to a female. You are pathetic, Ruslan,and I wish Damir had killed you. He would have been obedient without question.”
With a roar that shook the very earth upon which we stood, Ruslan launched himself at his father. He had King Azim pinned beneath him for only a moment before the king flipped their positions. Ruslan threw him off, and the king slammed into the rock wall, landing on the ground with a heavy thud. Ruslan was on him again in a second, raining down punches before his father kicked him in the side with a crack that sounded like a broken rib. Ruslan grunted, and the distraction was long enough for King Azim to shove his son away from him. He pushed to his feet, face bleeding profusely, eyes glinting with a hint of madness, as he squared up with Ruslan. “You think you can challenge me, son? You are nothing but what I give to you.”
I thought Ruslan was going to rise to the taunt, but he waited, a cold fury settling across him. He took a few steps back, and I realized this was the end of the king. King Azim launched himself toward Ruslan, who unleashed his Dragon, wings snapping from his back, black horns curling from his head, claws replacing his hands, and black fire shooting from his mouth in place of a scream. Rares must have realized what was about to happen at the same moment I did, because he threw a shield in front of the king moments before he would have entered the space bathed in black fire.
My jaw hung wide as Ruslan emptied himself of fire, then sliced through the remains of his burnt shirt, revealing every inch of his tattooed torso, a dusting of black scales peeking through the swirling ink. He was breathtaking in his shifted form, a true predator whose might was unmatched by a simple Fae. He turned upon Rares, who trembled in fear beneath the black fire raging in his eyes. “You will not touch or look upon my mate without my permission. Is that understood?”
The promise of violence in his words, and his lethal bodycoiled and ready to strike, had my blood singing, my core tightening, and my heart racing. His nostrils flared, and he shot me a devilish grin as he scented my arousal. He turned his back on his father and Rares, clearly unconcerned with receiving a response from them. In two strides, he held me in his arms, bending me backwards as he captured my mouth. I was so possessed by the heat from the male in front of me, I only realized we were no longer in the tunnels when he lifted me and threw me onto our bed.
