by Zoey Ellis
Reign to Ravage is an explicit reading experience from sexual scenes to violence and language. Includes disturbing situations and romance of a dark nature. For readers aged 18 and over.
MALLORON
King Malloron’s rage knew no bounds.
He stormed to his temple, his mind empty of all thought except one; he had ruined his mate. Amara’s beautiful, stunning eyes that he loved to see harden on him with anger, the gorgeous blue that had captivated him so deeply at first sight, were gone. And in their place, a blank, white nothingness. It did not change her obvious beauty, but it left her with no character, no expression, no fire.
He did not doubt that she was also deaf. She didn’t respond to his voice or sound of any kind. She simply lay on his bed, still and limp, completely unresponsive to anything he did. That passionate, smart-witted woman who was to become his queen had disappeared, turned into a shadow of her former self. It was not supposed to have happened!
He yanked open the door to his temple and headed straight for the spell book. Flipping to the page made of different parchment, he examined it again. He had followed every instruction, he had waited for the dark moon, he had woven the spell correctly, he had select the appropriate woman. Nothing suggested why it had gone so wrong.
He threw the book down and roared as his anger overwhelmed him. Throwing out his hands, he executed sharp gestures that swept all the beakers and potions from their shelves. As his rage blossomed into true savagery, he tore the books from their shelves, he toppled the cabinets until they smashed down to the floor, he threw orbs that punched into the walls and made the whole room shudder. He did not stop until the entire room was destroyed, leaving only the altar, which was protected by the Ancient Tongue inscriptions, standing.
He breathed heavily, finally still in the center of the carnage he created. Ripped books, jagged glass, and spilled potions surrounded him, but he didn’t see any of it. Nothing in that room would help him fix what had happened to Amara—what he had done to her. There was no spell, no potion, no procedure that would return her to what she was. He knew because he had already tried to fix the last woman he had done it to, his last queen, who had been a Beta.
She had become deaf and blind as soon as the tenebris entered her too, but he had expected side effects because she hadn’t been an Omega. He had been willing to accept any risk and so had she—for the right price. Once she held the tenebris he was able to draw it into him regularly, reinforce his body without all pain and most importantly, without the immobility. Unfortunately the tenebris had burned the Beta woman from the inside out. She couldn’t hold it for long; it had been too powerful for her.
Although she had died as his queen, he could never refer to her as that again. Never before had he had any kind of experience like what he just had mating Amara in her Haze. It sent him far beyond anything he could have imagined. It went beyond fucking, beyond words or games, beyond power struggles and agreements. She belonged to him in every way. In that moment when they were locked together so intimately, when she lay her head on his chest, he wanted to wrap himself around her and never let her go. He caught himself wondering whether she was with child yet and when he would be able to knot her again to ensure it. She was his true queen, the one that was supposed to be at his side. And now she would likely suffer the same fate as the Beta woman.
The energy in the room began to shift, and the inscriptions on the two wooden beams of the altar glowed a bright gold.
Malloron turned to watch it, holding out his hand again and creating multiple magical orbs to prepare for what was happening—he had never seen this before but what ever it was he was prepared for it.
Streams of magic gathered in the center, revolving and pulsing until it stretched into a portal. And his brother stepped through.
Elion froze as the portal closed behind him, his face dropped in shock as he looked around the room.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Malloron growled. He was in no mood to deal with his brother.
“Did you do this?” Elion slowly stepped out of the altar, his expression deepening to disbelief and horror. “What have you done, Malloron?”
“Why are you here!”
Elion stilled. He turned to face Malloron, eyeing the orbs hovering around his hands. “Have you finally gone mad?” Anger crept into his tone. “You had better hope that most of this can be salvaged.”
His anger renewed, Malloron growled as he shot the orbs directly at his brother. Elion moved quickly to protect himself, curving and jutting his arms to pull together a shield of magic. But he wasn't quick enough. The orbs hit his shield, destroyed it, and the remaining momentum knocked him backward.
He yelled as he fell heavily onto the debris behind him.
Malloron advanced, creating new orbs as he approached. "I dislike having to repeat myself, Elion," he snarled.
Elion looked up at him, his jaw hard, but resignation in his eyes. "There is a protection spell on the temple," he muttered reluctantly. "If the temple, or any of its contents, come under threat, then the altar summons the next appropriate family member with Visant blood to protect it."
Malloron sneered down at him. "And you were summoned?"
"I am not as weak as you think," Elion snapped. "Whatever secret you have been keeping to maintain your strength, it is not your real power. It has falsified your Talent to keep you strong. But you are not that much stronger than I am."
"You have no idea what it takes to be strong," Malloron shot back. "Admit that and accept it, and stop getting in my way."
Elion slowly got up. "I would love to never have to see you again," he said, his face dark. "But my responsibility is to the Visant family. You are destroying centuries of work and research. You do not have the right to take such action."
"I have the right to do whatever the fuck I want," Malloron bellowed. "I am the king."
"And yet I am here," Elion shouted back. "Summoned by a spell so old you didn't even remember it."
Malloron breathed heavily. Had he been aware of that spell? He thought back to when his father was alive. The first time he’d been shown the temple was with all of his siblings. They were young, certainly under ten years old. Their father had let them look at everything in the room, before explaining the importance of the history that the room held and the need to ensure that is protected. He vaguely remembered something along the lines of what Elion mentioned, but it was so long ago. The most prominent memory he had of being in the temple was the day his father told him he was the heir and would take the throne.
Malloron glanced down at the spell woven into the rug on the floor that was in place to protect the room from intruders. It was no longer active. The room was no longer protecting itself. He dispersed the orbs and lowered his hands. The inscriptions on the altar were extremely powerful to have transported Elion from Khayola straight into the castle and disabled the ancient spell to hide the temple. If he forgot that was possible, what else had he forgotten? He glanced around the room. The parchment. The parchment the procedure had been written on was older than the book it had been sewn into.
"Whatever your reasons are for doing this," Elion said, his voice low, "I hope they are worth your throne."
“And how do you hope to overthrow me?" Malloron snapped. "Whatever you think you are doing here, you will never take the throne."
"I do not want the throne,” Elion said hotly. “I already told you that no other member of the family will be able to rule Eiros and keep the royal family in existence. But you have now destroyed any chance and hope of being able to combat whatever the other rulers are planning. This is the worst time that you could have decided to destroy your most valuable resource."
Hard pounding on the temple door interrupted Malloron's answer.
When he opened it, Emric leaned against the door frame bent over panting and panicked. "Your Majesty, I've just seen your… guest floating over the city," he blurted out. "She is floating!"
Malloron stomach d
ropped. "What the hell do you mean? She's in my bedroom."
"No, Your Majesty," Banon said as he caught up to Emric. "We were heading to the port as you requested, and we saw her in the air. I don’t know how she is using magic in Eiros, but she is. Emric insisted on coming back to tell you.”
Malloron pushed past them and ran down the corridor. It couldn’t be true. How could she have left his bedroom? She couldn't see! Had there been some kind of side-effect that he was not aware of that allowed her to use magic? Her beacon, the pulse in his palm, had stopped the moment the tenebris had entered her. A dread coiled in his stomach that became wilder the closer he got to his bedroom.
He burst through his bedroom door and saw the confirmation for himself. His bed was empty, and the windows were wide open. He hadn't left them open. He scrutinized the room carefully. How could she have walked from the bed to the window? And why would she? Was she trying to kill herself? He couldn't let that happen. Regardless of her condition, there was no way he was going to let her consider that as an option. She was still his. And even if she was never able to see or hear again, she was his mate and she would remain his until they both took their last breath. She didn’t know it, but she would. He would find a way for her to know.
Emric and Banon arrived at the room and stood in the doorway. "Would you like me to do, your Majesty?" Emric asked, still out of breath.
Malloron went to the window. To one side was the Royal Gardens and the other led toward the castle city. "Where was she?" he asked turning to face them both.
"She was over the castle city, heading toward Norryth." Emric froze, suddenly alarmed. "She was heading toward Norryth, Your Majesty. Toward the breach."
Malloron's face contorted in anger. She was heading toward Brecc and his foolish attempts to create a power source that could rival Malloron. And Malloron no longer even had the tenebris. Sooner or later, he would begin to suffer the effects of not being able to feed from it, and then he will truly no longer be able to get his Omega back.
Focusing his mind, he drew on magic to surround him. "Get to the port and focus on our visitor from the Southern Lands," he said to Emric. "Bring him back to the castle and do not let him leave."
With that, he jumped out of the window after Amara.
Thanks for reading this sample.
Pick up your copy of Reign To Ravage
Remember to join my reader’s group!
Author Note
We have a new Omegaverse couple! Whoo hoo! I wasn’t sure it was going to happen when I first started the Crave books, thank god so many readers were interested. I think I would have written it anyway, but its good to know people are enjoying this world. This story was a real roller-coaster to write. Much of the ideas were developed when I wrote Crave to Capture and then I had to sit on it until the Crave books were done before I could really explore how everything tied in and made sense. One of the things in this trilogy that changes the dynamic between the characters, and causes issues in the story, is the presence of the magical force, the tenebris. This makes the story more embedded in the setting of a fantastical world than a typical Omegaverse. To me, this is a strength of the story—I don’t want to be writing the same kind of stories over and over—but it also means making sure everyone reading it gets a good understanding of the world and setting, which I hope I managed.
Although I plan out my stories, they always change as I write, and I never plan the scenes in depth, I just write the characters’ interactions so they happen ‘naturally’ and progress logically and then by the end of the scene the next direction is revealed, which may or may not coincide with the original plan. Things rarely coincided with the original plan for these two! There was a lot of consideration regarding their connection as a couple vs who they were based on their backgrounds and experiences. Obviously there is more to be revealed, but Amara surprised me as I was writing her.
So I hope this first book has been an interesting start for you! If you enjoyed it, I’m so glad you did and I hope the next installments are just as enjoyable. If you know anyone else who would enjoy it, please recommend it to them. If you didn’t enjoy it, or felt that this couple wasn’t for you, there’s more to come in this series so hopefully I can grab your interest in the future. Either way, thank you for giving it a chance, and please consider leaving a review wherever you bought the book so other readers know what they’re getting into if they decide to try it.
My reader’s group Dark Halos is the best way to get news, bonuses, prizes and also just to chat and drool over sexy bodies with me :p You can sign up via the bonus link in this book or join me in the Facebook group.
Acknowledgments
Randie: This one has been a journey and I could never have traveled it without you. Thank for you being so invested and for questioning me and pushing me to be clear about the story I’m telling. I’m relieved you’re still with me, even though my heroes in this series drive you crazy ha ha ha! I PROMISE Zak will get his spotlight soon, I know you’re waiting for his story. I’m so glad to have you as an editor and friend and, even though you don’t complain and curse me out like you should, I promise I will stick to reasonable deadlines from now on!
Margarita: This is really your book, since it wouldn’t exist without your unwavering encouragement and support. Thank you for being honest and open and putting things in to perspective for me, and also giving me great advice about this story, my career and more. You are truly an invaluable friend and I’m grateful for the positive influence you have on me and my work. You are granted that magical spell you wanted but I’m still not telling you anything till after book 2!
L: Nice try calling dibs on Malloron. *side eye* You’re lucky I want your next story or we’d be fighting it out lol! Thanks so much for your advice and guidance. As always, your views and opinions are a massive help for me to make decisions on my storytelling and I really appreciate you making time for that even when life is crazy. I hope you enjoy the next books.
To my Dark Halos who have shown so much support for my books, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. Thank you for being amazing, I feel so lucky to have such great people reading my books. I know not every story will be a favorite, but I hope you continue to be entertained as I continue to write.
To my friends and family who have been so understanding about the fact I have practically ignored them over last few weeks, thank you so much! I’m grateful that you understand how important this is to me and I love you all to the stars and back x
About Zoey Ellis
Zoey Ellis writes dark-edged, speculative romances bursting with passionate, carnal steam. She loves tortured, possessive, alpha heroes and is obsessed with exploring love in its raw form, and how that can manifest in different circumstances and settings.
Her goal is to build a catalogue of thrilling, sexy, fantastical romances that come complete with roller-coaster experiences, unique worlds, and happy endings.
Zoey is a Londoner, a bookaholic, and a proud collector of OTT possessive book boyfriends she won’t share.
Zoey offers exclusive news, bonuses, and giveaways to her reader’s group, Dark Halos.
Snoop around her online home: www.zoeyellis.com
