I dropped my blade and scooped her up in my arms. “What happened? Tell me. What happened to you?”
At first, she tried to be strong for me, but I could tell from the way she embraced me that something, or someone, had terrified her. “I’m fine. Really, I am. Please don’t worry. I’m okay,” she said. She wiped away her tears with her small palm but still her lips and chin trembled. “I was sure you’d left forever.”
She was reassuring me too much for it to be the truth. Her words sounded forced… “Never. Now, don’t lie to me, my angel. Tell me.”
Sara shook her head. “Never mind me. I’m worried about Angelica. They’ve taken her—the sheriff is holding her on suspicion of witchcraft. They’re planning to try her. They’re out for blood, Bors. We have to help her.”
Angry though I was, I wasn’t surprised. In this place, a woman who used her mind or her body was damn near guaranteed to be labeled a witch. But I’d known Angelica a long time, and I knew the sheriff, too.
The situation wasn’t quite as bad as Sara might think. “If the townspeople are after her for witchcraft,” I told Sara, “the safest place for her tonight is in that holding cell.” What she didn’t know, or could not have known, is the sheriff had been a discrete paying customer of Angelica’s in his days before he found his wife and from what Angelica confided, he was always decent as well as satisfied.
She blinked up at me, as if searching my face to see if I was just trying to make her feel better.
“Honest,” I reassured her. “The sheriff won’t harm her. She’ll be okay for tonight. So, now tell me what the fuck happened to you.”
“Tell me what happened with the clan first, please,” she said. Still she evaded me. The more she dodged my questions, the more worried I got. “Are we getting married?”
I realized I hadn’t even told her the news. There was much she needed to know, much I had thought about while I was away from her. But for now, I kept it simple. “We are. I have the decree.”
She wrapped her arms around me and nestled her cheek against my chest. “Thank the good Lord,” she gasped. “Something good at least.”
I carried her across the kitchen and laid her down on the daybed, kneeling beside her, with my arms still wrapped around her waist. The oil lamp illuminated her, so I could see her better; I saw no sign of injury, but she was clearly upset and her clothes were a mess. “I’m going to ask you one more time,” I said, barely containing my anger. “If you don’t tell me what happened, I’m going to take it into my own hands. And I’m not responsible for who gets hurt if I do.” I traced the cupid’s bow of her lip, forcing myself to be calm for just a few moments longer. “So tell me what the fuck happened.”
Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and nodded. And finally did as she was told.
My rage wasn’t red any longer. It was black. They’d put their fucking hands on my woman, my possession, my future wife. The thought of men anywhere near her made my blood fucking boil.
I’d already sworn to myself that I would kill them—and I would fucking kill them. I’d tear them limb from limb and feed them to the wolves for what they’d done. But first, I had an even more pressing need: to claim her as mine, once and for all. What I was feeling was the most primal of all human impulses. It was only thing that mattered:
Breeding her to make her mine forever.
When I’d settled her, her arms looped around my neck. Her sweet, warm breath at my ear.
“I want you inside me, my King. I need to feel all of you.” Her words echoed my own thoughts, her eyes flickering like green flames. “I want you, Bors. Feeling you filling me with your iron cock will make me feel better. It will make me feel safe.” Her words were hard, sure and they ignited a flash of the animal inside me, and there was no more holding back.
I grabbed her roughly, flipping her over on the bed and pulling her up onto her knees in front of me. No other woman had ever or would ever exist; it was as if my past fell away entirely. In her, I had discovered both my purpose and my pleasure.
Kneeling behind her, I parted her ass cheeks and licked the opening of her pussy. At the same time, I lightly rimmed her anus with my thumb, until it opened up enough for me to slide my thumb inside. I needed her to fucking know, to fucking feel, that any other man risked his goddamned life by even looking at her. The entirety of her belonged to me.