Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 140780 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140780 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Whisper took another step toward us as if he’d followed everything that’d happened.
The guards braced themselves to fire and Lucien barked, “You so much as singe his whiskers and I’ll rip out your innards with my bare hands.”
The men swallowed and very reluctantly lowered their weapons.
“You.” Locking gazes with the panther, Lucien ordered, “Go.” The two of them shared a silent argument before the huge predator hissed and slinked back into the maples. He vanished with a lash of his tail.
The guards shifted uncomfortably—highly aware they were being hunted but under strict orders not to hurt the Ashfall companion.
The redheaded guard cleared his throat. “So...she’s pregnant.”
Four pairs of eyes locked onto my belly.
I wrapped my free arm around my stomach as Lucien nodded. “She is.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” Lucien muttered coldly. “Or are you saying I’m too sheltered and stupid to understand that when a girl misses her period—after prolonged ‘activities’—she’s knocked up?”
My thighs pressed together as my mind helpfully bombarded me with images of said activities. Of Lucien on top of me. Inside me. Doing things I’d wanted to do yet never did.
“Marcus knows I’ve never wanted a child of mine to go through what I do. I vowed I would never give in and yet...here we are. I broke my own law and slept with her, and now? I don’t fucking care anymore. My child can serve in my place.”
“I hear what you’re saying,” the guard said gently as if he spoke to a man about to lose control. “But just because she’s pregnant doesn’t mean—”
“It means I get my freedom. Tell Marcus I’m trading my child’s life for my own. Do whatever you want with it. Torture it like you torture me, I don’t care. But you will let me go.”
“Look, I know it’s been a rough day so...how about you return to your room? Get dry and take a nap. Once Marcus arrives, we’ll come fetch you and—”
“Take a nap?” Lucien whirled on the man. “Take a fucking nap?” The words tore out of him, raw and animalistic, echoing across the wet grounds.
The guards instinctively backed up, hands flying to their weapons as Lucien stalked toward them, eyes blazing, rage burning so hotly, I swore steam curled off his shoulders in the rain.
Whisper launched out of the weeping maples, unable to obey any longer.
With the panther glued to his side, Lucien seethed. “You expect me to go back into that cage, even though I’ve given him what he wanted?” He laughed manically, flinging out his arms, silver cuffs glinting on his wrists. “If I go back in there, he’ll kill me one bloodletting at a time. He’ll leave me to rot and crush whatever strength I have left. Fuck that. I’m done. I’m fucking done, do you hear me? So fuck you and your fucking nap. I’m walking out of that fucking gate and—”
“I’m sorry, sir,” the redhead interrupted, calmly, coolly—a heartless jailer in the face of his breaking prisoner. “But you’ll never walk outside these walls in this lifetime. Those are Mr. Ward’s orders. Not mine. You can give him ten children, a hundred children, and his answer will be the same.”
The words hit Lucien like a physical blow.
A sound tore out of his chest—something raw and primal that drove an arrow right through my soul. “I can’t...I can’t stand another day of this bullshit.”
Spinning to find me behind him, he pounced on me. Dragging me into him, he pressed his lips to my ear and hissed, “Do it. Stab me.” Droplets leaked off the ends of his glossy black hair as he quaked. “I’ve said such vile things so you have a logical reason to attack me. If you truly were pregnant, how could you ever let me get away with trading our child’s life for mine?”
His voice turned breathless as if he truly was losing his sanity. “They won’t risk taking me out unless I’m dying. I’m worth too much to risk. You heard him. They have no intention of ever letting me go. They’ll never allow me to walk out of those doors unless I’m clinging to the last dregs of life. So do it. They won’t kill you. Not now. As long as they think you’re pregnant, you’re safe.”
His fingers wrapped around my nape, threatening to break every bone in my spine if I didn’t obey. “I’m not asking this time, Rook. If you don’t stab me...all of this was for nothing. You’ll never get out. I’ll die in here. And...” His lips seared my hairline as he kissed me ever so softly. “I’ll never get the chance to know what it would feel like to fall for you. Never allow myself to drop my guard and be with you in any other way than hate.”
He swallowed a groan. “Every day I’ve spent with you, you’ve made me hungry. And now, I’m fucking starving to know what it would be like to trust you. To taste you, fuck you...be with you, but...I refuse to eat until I’m free. So...kill me. Do it. Fucking kill me, Rook. Please. Before it’s too late.”