Page 31 of Dark Company

Blinking, I continue to stare at him, as if his words hold no meaning. “I don’t understand.”

“I said, you will step away from that statue and come with me.”

My lips turn down into a frown as my words percolate in my head. This strange Alpha presumes to order me around? It’s far too late for that. I’m no longer in Stanlion, and there’s nothing he can do to force me to leave. Standing up straight, I look at his outstretched hand and sniff. Perhaps if he stays long enough, he can fuck me on the lower dais, but he sure as hell won’t tell me what to do.

“Karis.” His voice takes on an edge tone, almost like a growl.

Once more, my insides quiver at the displeased voice. All around me, the others continue to quake in fear, yet all I can feel is arousal, hot and thick, flowing through my veins.

“I’m warning you. Step away from that statue.”

“Or what? You going to punish me? It’s a little too late for that.”

He steps forward, and my pulse quickens. There’s no way I’m going to let him keep me from doing this. I will not allow a Stanlion Alpha to take away my choices. Before he can even set a foot to the stone stair that leads up to the lower dais, I lift the edges of my gown and fling myself downward, knowing I need to act before he can get me.

No doubt his long arms can pluck me from my spot and drag me downward with an ease that makes the pleasure center of my divine anatomy throb with need. I can’t look at him while I impale myself. It would almost be like him taking my virginity instead of me giving it up.

Staring up at the stone facade of Xiarius, I sink to my knees and slide onto his stone cock. Once more, the air explodes around me, vibrating me with its fury, but I can’t bring myself to notice it past the searing pain that threatens to split me in two. Mouth agape, I lay my hands on my upper thighs, unable to stop the inertia from pulling me down until the top of the knot kisses my poor abused flesh.

Hopefully, they don’t mean to have me take that inside me as well. I can’t imagine myself being able to stretch out any further than I am. Already, liquid flows out, coating my legs, but I’m unable to tell if it’s this mysterious slick or my blood. My breath comes in gasps as feverish hands grab at my skin, rocking me against the unyielding stone.

A loud scream punctuates the silent air as my body becomes locked in place, unable to move as what I can only describe as visions flood my brain. The strange man stands before me, blood dripping from his hands. He bellows to the heavens as tears stain his cheeks. Why is he crying? I long to reach out, to soothe him, but I cannot. I’m stuck here, watching helplessly as he cradles a body in his arms.

From there, the vision morphs, changing to reveal a dark cavern and twinkling lights. Women dressed in dark silks flit about, their gray eyes clouded as they utter words I cannot understand to the night sky. One of them looks at me, her eyes clearing for a moment.

Karis. Daughter of Sonria. Come. We welcome you.

The words ring in my brain as if spoken out loud, but there’s no source. No one that I know of has this voice. And she knows my mother. How can she know my mother? Before I can puzzle through it, Stanlion comes into view. Only this time, it’s no longer the shining, vibrant jewel I know it to be.

Fire rages in every available district, sending enough smoke into the sky to cloud at least two of the suns. It’s as if True Night is approaching in the middle of the day. Destruction. Chaos. Screams wail up into the sky, begging the gods to help them, to save them, but no one comes. There is no salvation.

I’m only vaguely aware of the wetness that coats my cheeks as I stare at the place I was so determined to hate crumble before me. Once more, powerful hands grip me, but this time, they wrap around my waist. As they pull me off of the stone cock, my insides clench, not wanting to be separated.

Despite the pain, a soft pleasure begins to build as the hands move me, forcing my body to slide up and down on the shaft, until I’m wrenched away. My vision clears in time for me to watch the world go upside down as I’m unceremoniously tossed over the brute’s shoulder and taken away.

A shriek of rage frees from my throat as I curl my hands into fists and beat against his back, demanding he let me go. But he doesn’t budge. It’s as if he doesn’t feel my hands striking him. Instead, I resort to kicking out my feet, anything to get him to let me go, but he holds firm.

“Be still, Karis. I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if you keep up with these hysterics.”

There it is again, that growl that makes everyone else cower before him. But it doesn’t work on me. Something must be broken. Instead of fear, an overwhelming heat flows over my body. Arousal zips through my skin at every jostle. I need to be filled again. I need something. I ache. Everything in me cries out for satisfaction.

“I have to fuck my beta!”

He stops, as if my words stun him. For a moment, the world is still, until I feel the bristling of his muscles rippling under my body, as If my words alone caused this beast of a man to react where my fists were simply ineffective. It should frighten me. Gods, the size of this Alpha alone should cause terror, but that he fairly vibrates, in what I can only assume is his fury, does nothing more than stoke the fire that’s already burning in my body.

I can’t control it. Everything he does and says seems to ignite something in me, something primal, something that wants to either fight or fuck with fucking winning out. It’s not that I want to fuck a beta over him; it’s more the fact that I need to finish the ceremony, to see if this is bullshit like my brain is screaming that it is. He, of all people, should understand the need that wracks my body as flames lick over my flesh.

As an Alpha, he should be the first to respond to me, but he doesn’t. He’s able to ignore everything about me, as if him being an Alpha is secondary to being a soldier. How in the fuck is he ignoring the slick that gathers at the juncture of my thighs? How can he hold me this close and yet keep me so far from him?

Instead of responding with words, his large hand smacks the part of my body where my ass meets my thighs, sending pain ricocheting through me. One hand is large enough to cover all of one thigh and most of the other, sending the sharp, stinging sensation through my entire lower half.

I buck against him, desperate to be free from his overwhelming presence. He is far too large, smells too delicious, and feels too damn good against my heated skin. All it gets me is another swat to that sensitive area, but this time, instead of just pain, heat blossoms through my body until I’m nearly writhing on his shoulder.

His imposing hand against the swell of my ass shouldn’t feel this good. It should hurt. I should be bruised. Hell, I probably already am. Then why in the gods am I arching up to him, begging him with my body to do it again? Groaning, I stick my ass in the air and wiggle it back and forth, hoping to tempt him into touching me again.

“Settle, Karis. I will not ask you again.”

“Are you going to fuck me instead, strange Alpha?” I don’t know what possesses me to ask him that, but even as the words leave my mouth, I know that’s what I want so desperately.