She’s Queen of a dying race
Daji, Queen of the fox spirits, will do anything to save her people. Except mate the disarmingly charming Price Wentworth. But allowing Price to roam untethered has made her already weak race appear even more like prey to their circling enemies. To ensure the protection of the fox spirits, she’ll have to feign a show of strength…with Price at her side.
He’s ruled by no one
For Price Wentworth, Chosen of the Horse, teaming up with the Queen is the Lotus League mission he’s been waiting for. Even so, the free-spirited Horse can’t be convinced to settle down, not even with the bewitching beauty Daji. But that doesn’t mean he’s not determined to get close to the Queen. Very close. She hides more secrets than she reveals, including the one that’s haunted him for years.
Together, they will either rule or fall to ruin
In her centuries-long reign, Daji has made enemies. A lot of them. She’s desperate for Price’s help, but handing over Horse’s reins isn’t something Price is willing to do. Yet as passion smolders between them, the lines of ruler and ruled blur. When the curse from Daji’s past takes hold, Price will have to choose between his freedom and that of the fox spirits. Because if the Queen dies, so does everyone else.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events, places, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Rachael Slate
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
First Edition June 2016
Edited by Kelley Heckart
Cover design by NovelArt Designs
Tribal Artwork by Jeanette Palafox
Formatting by NovelArt Designs
Epub: ISBN 978-0-9948764-6-1
Kindle: ISBN 978-0-9948764-7-8
Paperback: ISBN 978-1532906404
For my enthusiastically supportive beta readers. Love you ladies!
Table of Contents
Free Read
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Glossary
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Books by Rachael Slate
Preview of Book 7, IN WOLF'S CLOTHING
Yuánjiāo Island
729 days since the first outbreak of the Red Death
The handcuffs were nothing new.
Price Wentworth yawned, his heavy lids refusing to open as he yanked on his bound right wrist. The cuff didn’t release, so he grabbed for it with his left hand. A sticky, fibrous substance sucked at his fingers. What the fuck? His eyes shot open. Not a manacle, but a cotton candy-like gunk coated his right hand and wound halfway up his arm.
Grimacing at the damp funk stinging his nostrils, he adjusted to the dim lighting of the earthen hellhole he stood in. A handful of light beams filtered through the cracks of the layered cobweb canopy. His arm was lashed above his head, chained by a long cord that dangled from above. After wiping his free hand on his short-sleeved, dark blue shirt, he pinched the bridge of his nose. How had he ended up in this den? And bound?
Screw this. Unless a beautiful blonde strolled into this nasty cavity in the next two seconds, he was outta here.
Grasping his restrained arm, he wrenched downward. The rope didn’t release, even though the strength of the Horse spirit animal inside him ought to be enough to break through. He ground his jaw and tugged harder, but nothing. Dammit.
Muffled shuffling carried from the far corner. He whirled and squinted into the darkness. A leather slipper, adorning a toned, feminine calf, stretched from the shadows.
Right. The fuzz cleared from his brain. The Matchmaker had sent him on a Lotus League mission to rescue…aw, fuck.
The Queen of the fox spirits.
The húli jīng were an ancient, female race of succubi-esque creatures, and apparently, their leader had gotten herself into some shit and needed help. Price wasn’t clear on the details.
He peered toward the elderly regal lady. Rumor had it, she wasn’t approving of his sexual partners. Namely, her subjects. She likely wouldn’t be too happy to discover he’d been sent to rescue her.
The tendrils of her thick, glossy braid, swaying past her waist, caught the beams of light. She lifted one bare arm, her skin supple and smooth. Not wrinkled. Huh. He strained for a closer glimpse. Had he charged into the wrong tunnel?
The gunk binding her wrist ripped; her claws slicing through the webbing. As soon as she freed herself, she glided past him, too deep in the shadows for him to observe her face.
“Hey, mind giving me a hand?” He jerked his chin at his cobweb-coated arm.
“Why would I do that?” She spun, stepping into the beam of light.
Whoa. He straightened. Definitely not the Queen, but a fox spirit all right. Nothing hid the silky, tanned skin or the thickly lashed, expressive eyes and full, pouty lips of a fox spirit.
Pouty lips that had probably never pouted a day in her life. Not with those gorgeous molten copper eyes batting thick lashes at her prey.
He could make her.
Hell yeah. He would make her beg.
Price sniffed and her sweet, floral scent dried his mouth and tightened his groin. Mmm, like ripe cherries. Although he never let himself be distracted during a mission, there’d be plenty of time to relax after he freed the Queen. This vixen was precisely the celebratory reward he craved too. Her rose-hued dress hugged curvy hips emphasized by the thick gold band tied around her slender waist. While not typical fox-spirit skimpy, her plump breasts strained to spill out.
Her attention fixed on a patch of the earthen wall to his right. He sent a little prayer that she would find something of interest on the straw-covered floor and bend over, so he might sneak a peek of what had to be a worship-worthy tight ass.
“Name’s Price. What’s yours, sweetheart?” He flexed his arms, grinning despite the scrunching of his bindings. Just as he found fox spirits irresistible, o
ne wicked look from him and they swooned at his feet.
Like she would in the next minute.
Only, she didn’t. Instead, her tone was detached as she murmured, “Naya.”
He shrugged off her distraction. “A pleasure, Naya.” Her scrutiny shot to him, so he flexed his bicep again. Her lips quirked. Finally, progress. “I’m on a mission.”
She blinked, seeming unaffected by his continued attempts at seduction. “What kind of mission?” The arching of her finely shaped brow was new. This would be more work.
“Top secret.” He winked. “If you come closer, I might fill you in.”
Naya edged forward, but a screech shattered the air. She clapped her hands over her ears, winced, and spun for the wall.
“Hey, wait! You can’t leave me. Saat saum.” Pretty please in Bahasa, the language of the fox spirits. He winced, hoping she’d overlook his pronunciation’s bastardization of her language. A heavy thud thumped above. Dust and debris rained from the canopy, making him gag. Whatever lived in this shithole had come home.
She brushed aside the patch of twigs and grass she’d been studying, revealing a dim tunnel.
“You desert me like this and I’m dead.” What the hell was her problem?
A creaking echoed while the creature overhead settled. “I’m here to save your Queen.” The words hadn’t resonated with the impression he’d intended, but he was starting to get the idea this one wasn’t like the others of her race.
“Are you, indeed?” She twisted to face him, one hand twirling in his direction. “Is this part of your grand rescue?”
“Well, it was, but I hadn’t anticipated being knocked out and bound.”
She tilted her head and planted a hand on her curvy hip. “It’s the neurotoxin in the silk threads. The poison usually renders Kun Peng’s prey immobile. You are fortunate to have awoken before it chose to devour you.”
“You know what that is?” He bobbed his brows toward the beast.
“You don’t? Not much of a White Knight.”
“Hey, I’m only the infantry.” True enough, the Matchmaker had handed him a map and he’d sprinted into the marked tunnel without a game plan. That was his style. On the edges of his brain, he recalled running smack into a snare of fibers. He must have blacked out while the creature had deposited him in this nest of sorts.
Price twisted his arm to reveal the Lotus tat on his inner left wrist. “I don’t call the shots or handle the intelligence. I just show up and kick ass.”
Her lovely gleaming eyes narrowed. “You’re a Lotus? Did the Matchmaker send you?”
“Yes, and yes.” He nodded.
She cast her face aside and muttered foreign, lilting words that sounded an awful lot like the curses fox spirits often screamed when he…well, yeah.
“Fine. I’ll set you free, but as soon as I do, we part ways.”
He tensed as she neared, her honey-sweet scent driving Horse into a frenzy. “How did you wind up in this place? Are you searching for the Queen too?”
“No, someone else, who is no longer here.” With a quick slash of her claws, she cut through the cobweb-like bindings.
Grimacing, he lowered and flexed his hand, then rolled his shoulders. He opened his mouth to thank her, but Naya was already at the opening, crawling through. A sudden, gnawing realization cut into his chest. If she went through that passage without him, he’d never see her again. And to both himself and Horse, that was…
Unacceptable.
***
Daji, Queen of the fox spirits, jolted as a large, warm presence hovered near her. She fisted her hands to stop from twisting around, pressing against this stranger’s muscular chest, and being enveloped in his massive arms.
She never should have freed him. Interest deeper than lust had crossed his strong features while he’d regarded her. One glimpse confirmed his type. He was a male used to getting whatever he desired.
Her clear disinterest was her first mistake.
Freeing him was her second. Now, he not only viewed her as an object worth pursuing, he had the ability to do so.
Damn.
The male had obviously not recognized her true identity, and had mistaken Daji for her heir, Naya. Where was the girl? She’d been missing ever since her initiation, two months ago.
Daji sniffed, blocking out the human’s spicy male scent, and caught a trace of Naya’s floral one. She’d been here, but the scent was old. Either the Kun Peng had devoured her, or she’d escaped. The twisting, stabbing knives inside her chest tightened. She refused to lose another one.
Her race was dying. One by one. A slow, torturous death she had no power to halt. Their one chance at survival was to rally and determine a solution.
Until then, she bore the task of gathering her people together on her own shoulders.
Ignoring the male behind her, she crept forward, through the dirt-packed tunnel the Kun Peng’s other prisoners must have dug. A fearsome, ancient creature, the Kun Peng inhabited both land and sea, transforming from bird to fish as its moods suited it.
Deep grunting echoed behind her. The tunnel was tight, and the male’s broad shoulders were decadently brawny. Good, it would slow him down and give her an ample lead. She’d continue her search for another clue about Naya’s location.
The darkness of the tunnel cut off ahead where sunlight streamed through the opening. As she neared, she paused, blinking into the bright rays.
Omph! Solid weight bumped into her bottom, shoving her forward. She tumbled out of the hole, but an arm snared around her waist and prevented her from falling. The lower half of her body was stuck in the tunnel, the other half dangled above a twinkling ocean. “Argh. Release me.”
“You sure about that, princess?” His firm, strong grip sparked tingling sensations into her core, coaxing out a hunger in her she’d long suppressed, but she stamped it down. The male shouldered forward and the opening widened enough for them to fit snugly.
Too snugly.
His large, warm hand spanned her waist while he hoisted her inside. “A long way down.” He whistled low, peering over the edge.
“Do not call me ‘princess.’ ” The flaring heat of their contact was far too unsettling. Her body had never responded to a male’s touch, never been so ferociously…tempted. She squirmed until he released her, then shuffled around and inched her feet onto the cliff.
“What are you doing?” The timbre of his voice was as rich and smooth as the plucking of a cello’s strings. “There’s nowhere to go from here.”
She tilted her face toward the vibrations, her lips parting. Striking, pale blue eyes dazzled her. The male had an unnervingly gorgeous face. His deep, square jaw, finely arched cheek bones, and the mix of Asian and Caucasian in his features sparked an arresting combination.
“Maybe not for you.” Lowering herself, she planted her hands in the clefts of the rock face and climbed down the cliff. The thirty-foot drop might be daunting for a human, but she used her claws to dig into the stone as she wended downward.
The male stuck his legs out, jiggling them from above, and crossed his arms, watching her.
No beach, just the cliff meeting the ocean as it crashed in thunderous waves, spraying salty water. Not a problem for her. The male might not have an escape plan, but Daji did.
Hanging off the side of the cliff, she extended her arm to the waves and dipped her fingers into the cool waters. She drew her wet fingers to her lips, the briny tang teasing her tongue, and whispered to the droplets, before dipping her fingers into the ocean.
“You really shouldn’t drink salt water.” The male’s suave voice boomed from above.
She ignored him and shifted her stance, resting against the heated stones. Áo would come. He always did.
The male she’d freed? He could find his own way home. Or continue his mission to rescue the Queen.
She snorted. What arrogance. Why had the Matchmaker sent her a Lotus? A rather inept one at that. The woman didn’t meddle unless it was of u
tmost importance, but Daji was already aware of every danger she faced.
Wasn’t she?
The Matchmaker’s aid was welcomed, but Daji wished the woman had passed her request through the Elders of her tribe first. The Lotus had slowed her quest.
A squawking shriek blasted her ears and a flap of wind whipped her hair around her face. The Kun Peng wasn’t the only magical—and hungry—beast on this island. She spun, arms raised in defense, but the winged creature flew toward the male above instead. The large raptor-like animal zoomed around him, seeming to relinquish the chase, but swooped suddenly, razor claws aimed for the male’s throat.
Daji opened her mouth to shout for him to shield himself, but unblinking, the male snapped out his arm, seized the raptor by its neck, and cracked it in half, flinging the broken body into the sea.
Damn. The predator in her gravitated toward the male’s exhibition of his lethal skill. His movements had been effortless. Masterful. He’d destroyed his enemy without so much as a glimpse toward it.
Perhaps this Lotus was not as incapable as he portrayed himself to be.
Bubbles floated to the surface and popped. The fizzing increased and a dark form surfaced. Daji smiled, murmuring thanks while the car-sized turtle lifted his head above the water.
“Holy shit.”
She rolled her eyes at the male’s exclamation and leapt aboard the turtle’s back. Áo swiveled and paddled downward, into the ocean. Good timing too, because the Kun Peng screeched again, likely discovering its meal had escaped.
Behind her, the air whooshed, and a second later, a shadow darkened overhead. She twisted around. The Kun Peng had taken flight and targeted the male. Its shrill squawk pierced the air while the male dove into the water below. She tensed, bracing for his surface, but he didn’t. Seconds passed, pulsing in her veins. The fiery-plumed bird shifted its predatory appraisal to herself and Áo.
“Hurry, wise one.” She patted the turtle’s back, urging him to dive.
The crevices of the turtle’s shell brightened, illuminating with a white-blue glow. The carvings etched into his shell bloomed as the turtle wielded his powers and they sank below the surface.
Reining Him In (Chinese Zodiac Romance Series Book 5) Page 1
