Page 115

“Mmm, fuck,” she moaned.

Her hands clawed into his back, dragging down with such force that his vision blurred.

“Get off me!” she shrieked a breath later. “I-I’ll fucking k-kill you!”

Forcing himself to pull away, Lucan grinned.

“Now, is that really what you wish, or do you want to come against my cock again?” A shadow wrapped around Elarian’s chin, forcing her gaze to meet his. “Do not lie to me, Elarian.”

Rolling her upright atop his hips, Lucan slid his hand down her side, fingers slipping underneath the hem of her thigh slit. Squeezing hard, Elarian answered with a delicious squeal. Something sparked to life in those wild, pale eyes. Leaning forward until her breasts brushed against his face, Elarian wrenched the chain free from Kyare’s neck. Sitting up with a wicked smile, she dangled it in front of his face. A thin trickle of silvered blood coursed down her chest, staining the silks wrapped around her breasts.

“I killed him—” She gestured sharply with the chain, “—easily enough.”

Her words sent a rush of heat through Lucan. Cock swelling against her growing wetness, he instinctively thrust up even as she lowered the metal to his neck.

“Kyare was a pawn,” he replied, the words heavy upon his tongue.

Elarian let the chain’s weight—still warm from blood—rest against the hollow of Lucan’s throat. An uncomfortable but not entirely unwelcome feeling took hold.

“Is that a challenge, Lucan?”

Groaning at her words, he pulled her hand back to his mouth, sucking on another finger drenched in blood. Iron and salt stoked the inferno burning hotter with each breath. Blood was blood, but oh, gods, he fucking needed to taste Elarian again.

A wretched thing with honeyed blood! A godsdamned scion of death wrapped in silk and Lucan’s scent.

They stole away from reality to indulge in impossible dreams during those first two nights in his bed, but bliss always came at a price—and he knew he would never be able to pay the one Elarian asked.

So he forced himself away.

Cared for his blade. Indulged her needs. Pushed her just enough until she hungered for blood and willingly cast aside her hatred of Lucan for the chance to kill.

He told himself this was merely her reward.

But now he lay in a pool of blackened blood, an assassin straddling him with a chain at his neck while he slid his tongue over her slender fingers.

Lying in the face of the obvious could only last for so long.

Shifting his weight, Lucan’s hands wrapped around Elarian’s wrists, then flipped her. Shadows wound around her forearms until they were bound tight above her head. Chest heaving, she bucked beneath Lucan’s hips.

“Now, now,” he said in a disapproving tone. “Do not get greedy, Elarian. One death is plenty.”

“Fuck you, Lucan,” she spat back, writhing against the shadows now looping around her ankles. “You are a fucking sickness. A black rot deep in my heart. I fucking despise you.”

The wolf returned—a feral, ravenous beast hungering for blood.

“I doubt that very much.”

Lowering his hands, he wrapped each finger around her bodice and ripped down with ease, exposing her breasts. He twisted one pebbled nipple cruelly between his thumb and forefinger until Elarian shrieked.

“We both know you could have found a way to kill me numerous times this past week; yet each morning, when you awoke with a new mark at your wrist and your fever abated, a part of you grew to wonder, What else is there? Didn’t it?”

“N-no,” she gasped through the shadows tightening around her throat.

Her defiance only stoked Lucan’s need to feel her cunt stretching wide as each piercing filled her tight hole. Clawing at his pants, they slipped to his ankles. In the cool, dim room, the heat radiating from Elarian called to him like a siren song.

Lucan lowered himself until the swollen head of his cock rested gently against her cunt; she trembled at his touch. Unable to help himself, he pushed himself in just enough to feel her wetness inviting him in.

“Don’t lie to me, Elarian,” he growled. “Liars—” Lucan thrust himself in deeper until he felt her shudder as the first piercing stretched her wide, “—are punished.”