A Throne of Ruin (Deliciously Dark Fairytales 2)

For once and for all, he is not going to claim us. Let it go.

“Go…inside,” Nyfain said, gripping the wood now, straightening up slowly. “Go in…your room. Lock it. He’s…pushing too hard.”

That’s because the dragon just accessed more of that big well of power he has, my animal said with pride.

I wish I could punch you in the vagina.

“I’m sorry!” I said to Nyfain. “That wasn’t me! My animal is being a real shit.” I stepped into the tower room quickly and grabbed the door.

“I know. Go!”

I slammed the door, but I had to quickly open it again as Nyfain turned toward me, his eyes glowing brightly. After grabbing the key out of the lock where he’d left it with a shaking hand, I slammed the door again. Metal clinked, but I got the key in and turned it right before the handle spun. A moment afterward, something thudded against the wood, as though two palms had collided with it. They slid off in a moment.

Need coursed through the bond, hard and hot. It dribbled down my body like lava, making my nerve endings tingle as it flowed toward my core. A gush of power filled me, overwhelming me. With it came a strange sort of serenity.

My hard breathing was the only sound in the quiet room. His scent drifted from under the door.

A low, amused chuckle sparked electricity across my overly sensitive flesh. Nyfain’s raspy voice had taken on a dangerous edge, filled with malice and carnal sin. Crackling with power and confidence.

“You can run, my princess,” he said, and it was obviously his dragon. “You can hide, if you’d like. But I will find you. I will drag that passion out of you, kicking and screaming if I must, and claim you. You are mine.”

Goosebumps covered my flesh, and my animal pounded me with her pleasure. My stomach flipped, and damned if my knees didn’t go weak with the urge to run. To hide. To fight. And to be taken.

Fuck, what was wrong with me? These weren’t the thoughts of a normal person. These were the thoughts of—

A shifter in mating lust, my animal supplied gleefully.

You’re dead to me. I pushed off the door with some effort.

She laughed, feeling absolutely no remorse.

Footsteps led away from the door. He was leaving me be, thank the goddess.

I moved to the window and looked out, catching my breath.

You should have let him mate us, she thought. Claim us. The dragon would’ve.

I shivered but didn’t respond. She wouldn’t understand why I wanted to honor Nyfain’s wishes, not when I did want to be claimed by him. When I wanted to claim him so no other woman ever would touch him without knowing I’d been there first. He just felt so damn right.

But Nyfain knew the score better than anyone, and I was learning what was at stake within this curse. Primal urges were well and good to access power, but to beat the demon king, we’d need a heavy dose of logic and strategy, too. The beasts’ desires were shortsighted.

Knuckles rapped on the door, thankfully pulling me out of my reverie. A shape came into view below me at the same time, Nyfain walking out beyond the garden without a stitch. He turned and looked up at my window for a full beat before changing into his animal. He puffed up his chest, tilted his head back, and roared so loudly that the windowpanes shook.

Something stirred in my middle—a memory of a golden dragon cutting through the sky, his roar pulsing within me like a command. A call to arms. A leader summoning his people.

And now…a mate calling his beloved.

My animal thrashed against my hold. Fire filled my blood, and stinging pain rolled over my skin. She stretched for the surface, expanding until my skin felt tight, itchy. Needing to come off.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” I said, bracing my hands against the window frame. “Do not try to force me to change.”

She continued to slash at my control, desperate to get to him.

The dragon huffed, and flame spouted from his nostrils, boiling across the dead grass. Blackness curled in its wake.

In a moment he launched forward and ran, all robust muscle and sinewy grace even when ground-bound.

Tell me you wouldn’t fight for that, my animal demanded. Tell me that he isn’t worth tossing everything aside for.

I turned and crossed the room to the door. “What would I be tossing aside? I don’t have anything.”

I twisted the key and opened the door to find Hadriel frozen with wide eyes darting all around.

“You okay?” I asked.

“What was that?”

“That was Nyfain. Haven’t you heard his roar before? I have, loads of times.”

He shook his head in tiny jerks and shoved past me into the room. “Not like that. That was…” He blew out a breath. “And my stomach was finally settling down. It would be ideal if I didn’t shit myself right now.”