Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
“Oh, my!” I gasp in delight.
“What?” Thorn asks.
“He just punched Skor,” I say.
“Shit,” Thorn says, joining me at the cracked door.
“You’re not going to go out there?”
“Absolutely not,” he grins. “If they kill each other, I get you all to myself.”
Skor
My head rings from the blow I saw coming, but did nothing to stop. Best to let the old man get his shot in.
“I told you to never, ever do that again,” Krall snarls in my face. “You promised I wouldn’t have to cover for you.”
“There’s only one way to control a magic creature, and that’s with more magic.”
“She said you made her fuck you.”
“We all make her fuck us,” I say. My jaw is throbbing. The taste of blood is in my mouth. It takes all my self-control not to punch him back, but I know that pretending to maintain composure is better. It will make him feel as though he is the one who is out of control.
“Not with magic, Skor. It’s not supposed to be like this. We’re going to Eclipse City. We’re going where there’s technology and money and a royal family we can serve, and…”
I let him give me the rundown again, how he plans for us to all go off to Eclipse and become glorified porters for the royal pack there. He’s forgetting that was never the plan for Thorn or me. Once we got our mates, we had other plans.
“Sorry,” I say. “I shouldn’t have used magic. She was just so infuriating. I wanted to teach her a lesson after the way she disrespected you, and us back on the train. I was the one with her. She needed to be punished.”
He calms down almost instantly, nodding. “She did,” he says. “And I’m going to make sure I do it too.”
Of course he is. She’s been fucked to within an inch of her life, used for our sexual gratification time and time again, and he’s going to punish her because he has to be the one to do it. It’s not good enough that I railed her.
“Now?” I say. “Or later, when we are in a built-up area?”
He scowls. “Now.”
This is too damn easy.
Tabby
I really thought Skor was going to hit him back, or at least give him some kind of fight. But all he does is say a couple of things and suddenly Krall is spinning on his heel and coming back toward the hut.
I scuttle away from the door as he opens it and comes in, glowering at me.
“I am going to deal with you right now,” he says. “For what happened on the train. We’ll do what needs to be done, put it behind us, and move on, understood?”
I look up into his dangerous, craggy face, and I feel a flush of fear and something else. Excitement? No. It can’t be that. That would be sick.
“Thorn, go cut me some switches,” he says. “There’re willow trees on the embankment.”
Thorn hesitates. “Why?”
“Because I am going to talk to our mate about getting us arrested,” he says.
“You are so weak,” I say.
His eyes narrow. His temper sparks. He crosses over to me swiftly and picks me up under my arms, pressing me back against the wall, my feet not touching the floor.
“What did you say?” He asks the question softly, as if warning me to not dare repeat myself.
“I said you’re weak. You got cucked by Skor, who used magic and you went out and hit him and he sent you right back in here to hit me. Weak.”
He stares me in the eyes and I feel the tension between us. His raw dominance is an energy that is almost as strong as magic though it is undeniably mundane. He and I are the most different of all my mates. Thorn is younger, like me. Skor is magic, like me. But there is a gulf between Krall and me that I do not think either of us can cross. It stretches out in the silence where he thought he knew what he was supposed to do with me, but is no longer certain.
“Fuck,” he curses, putting me back down again.
I can’t believe that worked. I stare over his shoulder at Thorn, who shrugs.
Skor opens the door, looking confused. He obviously expected me to be screaming by now as Krall thrashed me and fucked me and did all sorts of terrible things that would make me hate him. There’s a game being played here, and we’re all taking part.
“Ready to go?” he says.
He’s so fucking smooth. When his plan falls apart, he slides away from it like a snake, not taking any ownership of the fact he almost certainly intended to cause chaos again. I want to hate him, but he’s so damn good at being what he is—evil.
“Yes,” Krall says. “You drive. Thorn up front with you. Stay armed, Thorn. Tabby, you ride in the rear with me.”