by Mina Carter
She blinked, shaking her head a little to clear the sudden erotic images. It had been a secretly held fantasy of hers for years, but the reality was very different to what she’d imagined. Now she was confronted with it, the look of interest on the face of a Warrior rather than the noble knight she’d imagined, it was as scary as hell.
“I did,” he said simply, still standing by the bed, an immovable wall of leather and muscle. He had that utter stillness which some of the older Kyn had, the ability to cease to move completely, to become a living statue. All apart from those blazing silver eyes that were tracking every movement, every breath she made.
“Hmm, why?” She asked, a frown creasing her brow.
Marak shook his head slightly. “It was my fault. I should have put that Rogue down straight away. I didn’t. I left you in harm’s way too long…and allowed you to get hurt. Nearly killed.”
Her response, when it came, was short and clipped. “Uh-huh,” She ran her hand pointedly over her neck again. “And biting me here?”
Marak cleared his throat and looked down for a second. “Ahh yes, that. I apologise… I will of course be speaking to your father about recompense.”
“Recompense?”
Even to her own ears Maria’s voice sounded slightly strangled, a sure sign that she was getting wound up. But to her intense irritation the Warrior studying her with single-minded concentration seemed not to notice. This was why she was glad Kyn-males didn’t look at her as a possible mate. One bite and they thought they owned you.
“Yes, to your father for sullying his daughter,” he explained, “You will—”
Maria cut him off mid-sentence, before he could suggest what she knew he was going to suggest. Sullying indeed. It was like something out of the last century, and if he uttered the word ‘recompense’ again she was going to do some serious damage with…
She looked around quickly for a suitable weapon and came up blank.
She shook her head, knowing her irritation was written across her expressive face and not caring a jot about it.
“Look. I’m sure you did what you thought was necessary at the time, and I’m very grateful that you saved my life and all. But I’m fine now. You’re fine. No harm done. Let’s just forget this happened, call it quits and move on. OK?”
She started to climb off the bed, intent on just getting out of there and away from his disturbing presence. She was beginning to remember more about that dream and just how good it had felt when he’d bitten her…and now she was aching to do the same to him. Wrap herself around him, mould herself over that hard body and bury her lips on his neck, trailing kisses along the skin before she found the right spot…
“I was going to say: we’ll get married,” he ground out, breaking her out of her reverie. The sentence little more than an order, uttered with an arrogance and conviction that left Maria in no doubt that he was used to giving commands and having them obeyed instantly.
She shot him a look that hopefully concealed the shock coursing through her system and ignored the sudden, instinctive desire to say yes to his proposal.
“Look,” she tried again, grabbing her boots from the floor and jamming her feet in them. She had no clue where her socks had gone, but at this moment she didn’t care. All she wanted to do was get away from this madness. And him.
Zipping up her boots she stood, the few inches they added to her height giving her extra courage. She still didn’t come past mid-chest on the big male who stood at the end of the bed but hey, a girl had to work with what she had.
“There’s no need to go that far. You’re a Warrior, I’m sure you don’t need a wife hanging around your neck like a millstone.”
And I don’t need an arrogant, sexy as all hell, hottest-thing-on-the-planet husband dictating my every move.
“I mean, no one really knows that much about Dhampir anyway,” she pointed out in a reasonable tone of voice. Especially considering the agitation that was running rampant through her body at the moment. She tore her gaze away from his strong throat, looking somewhere, anywhere else.
She needed to get out of there and fast, before she did something stupid. Like plaster herself all over that gorgeous body and beg him to bite her again. Or let her bite him. Her body hummed with need, and she didn’t care much which it was.
She studied the floor and did her best to conceal her reaction to him. Unfortunately, being able to conceal her feelings and reactions weren’t Kyn abilities that were strong in her. That or the ability to lie well. It had taken her a long time to practise either well enough to get out of her father’s court and start her crusade against the Rogue. A crusade which she knew was in danger again right now, if he decided to push this marriage thing. As soon as her father found out she’d been bitten, her fate, and Marak’s, was sealed.
“Hey, what is your name anyway?” she asked suddenly.
He had to be an older Warrior. His eyes were too grave, too knowledgeable to belong to a youngster. Absently she cursed herself for not studying the Warrior caste more. After all, she had tried to emulate them in her own training, using similar methods to hunt and kill Rogue. Well, ok, to try and kill Rogue. Up to now her track record wasn’t looking so hot.
*
Marak shrugged at the question, hiding his wariness behind a stoic mask.
“What does it matter?” he countered, a little stung by her rejection. A rejection that had come before he’d even gotten the question out properly. She was from a noble house. She obviously didn’t find the mere Warrior he appeared to be good enough, and Marak didn’t want to find out if her answer changed when she found out who he really was.
And everything she said made sense. She was half-Kyn, not some new human convert. She’d been brought up in their world, knew the rules that governed them all. Didn’t have to be watched and taught…
”I’m just some Warrior doing my job,” he said dismissively, turning his back on her. “Go if you want to.”
There was silence behind him, then rapid footsteps across the room and the sound of the door opening and closing quietly.
“Shit,” he breathed, leaning one arm and his forehead against each other on the heavy bedpost, eyes closed as his hands clenched into fists.
“Marak, you’re an idiot.”
His voice was little more than a whisper in the darkness of the room. All his instincts raged at him to follow her, not to let her get away.
She was his. His female.
He’d bitten her, brought her over into the night-world. Admittedly she’d only needed that last little step, but it still made her his. His instincts screamed at him to go after her, but grimly he ignored them.
She didn’t want him. She would go home to her family and find some nice Kyn guy to settle down with…a safe, pleasant guy a world away from the Warrior who had saved her life. Another guy who would provide for her, give her the blood she needed. Maybe even children.
That did it. The image of her luminous with happiness, her belly swollen with child, someone else’s child, snapped the last of Marak’s control.
He opened eyes burning with rage and roared, the primal beast within breaking its bonds as he moved, crashing through the door and going after her.
“Mine!”
Chapter Six
Maria hurried across the large lobby and headed for the front door. Navigating on instinct, she was thankful that the place was simply laid out and, more importantly, pretty much empty.
Apart from one human maid, who took one look at the bloodstained and torn state of Maria’s clothes and hurried past quickly, the former Dhampir saw no one else. She’d always wondered what it would be like to be fully Kyn, what the difference would be…and well, not much really.
Her senses were a little shaper, but they’d already been sharp. Her hearing seemed to be more acute though, picking up the maid’s heartbeat easily as she disappeared off down the corridor. But the main difference was hunger.
A deep clawing, gut clenching hunger.
<
br /> She rubbed her stomach uneasily. She needed to get to her father’s and feed. Pronto. Her father kept bagged supplies in the fridge for just such a purpose. Well actually, that was in case he fancied a snack, but Maria knew the rules.
Newly turned Kyn did not feed on humans, not until they’d learned to control themselves and their hunger. She decided that wasn’t going to be a problem for her. The very thought of biting and feeding from a human made her feel slightly sick. Pressing her hand harder into her stomach to try and settle the feeling, she reached out and started to open the door.
She didn’t complete the action.
A large hand reached over her shoulder, slamming the door shut with a resounding crash. Maria whirled around, a retort ready on her lips, a retort that died unuttered as her gaze collided with one of warm quicksilver. Before she could move the Warrior crowded her against the door, his hard muscled body pressing against hers. His hand drove into her hair, holding her still at the nape of her neck.
“You’re not going anywhere,” he growled as he leaned down to kiss her.
It was the hottest kiss Maria had ever experienced. No gentle exploration, but a deep and darkly dominant kiss, plundering her soft lips and demanding entrance to the silken depths of her mouth. His tongue brushed over hers as he thrust seductively, pressing his body into her until they both moaned.
And then when Maria didn’t think she could possibly take any more, he lifted his head, eyes boring down into hers. In them she read everything: burning need, hunger, loneliness, fear, hope, desire… She caught her breath, the sheer depth of emotion there shocking her to her core. Eyes wide, she lifted her hand to smooth gentle fingers across his cheekbone. A lover’s touch as inside her, her soul stirred and called out to him, recognising a kindred spirit.
He turned into her hand, nuzzling for a second before he captured it with his. Eyes never leaving hers he nipped the soft pads of her fingers, the thrill that shot through her making her catch her breath.
He kissed the palm of her hand before dragging the tip of a fang across the sensitive flesh on the inside of her wrist, a look of such erotic promise in his eyes that she groaned. Leaning her head back against the door, she was surprised she hadn’t melted into a puddle and slithered to the floor at his feet.
They were so caught up in their own sensual world neither of them heard the sound of a door opening somewhere down the corridor, nor the sound of approaching footsteps. “What the hell? Marak, kindly explain yourself!”
They froze at the imperious voice, Marak with his lips still pressed into the delicate skin of her wrist. Deep colour washed over her cheeks as she realised they’d been caught in the middle of a delicate situation.
Ohmygod. A few more moments and they may have been actually going for it up against the damn door. Despite her convictions about needing no man, all it had taken was one hot kiss from the right Warrior to have her whimpering in need and almost begging him to take her, to make her his.
*
Marak closed his eyes, his body taut and virtually shaking with the control he was exerting not to just haul her to someplace silent and act on all the dark impulses surging through his mind. Most of which involved both of them getting naked and acting on the desire that even now stretched tight between them.
“Elsveth, your timing, as usual, is impeccable,” he bit out, casting a glance over his shoulder.
It was as bad as he feared. The entire Lord’s Council was assembled behind them watching with interest and, in some cases, satisfaction. Of course they would be satisfied. They’d just caught him in a compromising position with a female. He wouldn’t be surprised if Elsveth wasn’t already mentally rehearsing the words for the binding ceremony.
He sighed in resignation, pulling Maria closer to him to shield her from their curious gazes as long as possible. He dropped a kiss on the top of her head, “I’m sorry, little one,” he murmured, aware that he’d removed all her choices now. Even if she refused him, which he had no intention of letting her after the way she had just responded to his kiss, the Council would still put pressure on her for this union. But try as he might, even the shield of his larger body didn’t last long.
“Oh my god! Maria, is that you?” another voice demanded, echoing sharply around the large lobby. “Is…is that… That’s blood! What the hell have you done to my daughter?”
“Dad! I can handle this!” she insisted, pushing at Marak’s broad shoulder so she could peer around and look at her father. Marak didn’t move, their eyes locking for a moment in a silent battle. Finally he nodded and relaxed a little, moving slightly to the side so she could see what was going on. His arms slid around her and pulled her against him possessively, his hard gaze sweeping the assembled lords, daring any of them to argue his claim.
“You’re fine my bloody arse!” Garen Ravensford retorted. “You’re covered in blood, your own blood! Marak…” His voice dropped low and threatening. “Let her go or so help me god, I’ll kill you with my bare hands.”
Marak’s grip tightened, his lip curling back in the faint hint of a snarl as he locked gazes with the Kyn lord. He wasn’t giving her up. They’d have to take her over his cold, dead body, and the look he gave Ravensford stated that clearly.
“Despite the fact he is an irritating bastard I believe that’s called Regicide, which I’m fairly certain is treason, not to mention being somewhat hazardous to health. Your health Ravensford.”
Kalen’s voice broke through the silence in the room as two tall figures stepped between the couple against the door and the assembled lords. Kalen and Vixen. Their stances were passive, non-combative. But matching looks in their eyes said that could change without notice.
There was a furtive shuffling as the power balance in the room shifted, a subtle movement away from Ravensford as the council made it clear that, if he went loco and attacked the three, he was on his own.
They might have outnumbered the Warriors, but they all knew those were easy odds for the Warrior caste, trained killers in every sense of the word. Plus Vixen scared the lot of them.
“I don’t care!” Garen’s face was tortured as he took a step forwards. It was obvious he cared deeply for his daughter, fear for her stark in his eyes as he looked past Kalen. “If he’s hurt her…”
Kalen’s grim expression relaxed somewhat. He half turned, jerking his head towards the couple, who were wrapped up in each other again. Marak held the woman possessively, his stance protective as he sheltered her from everyone in the room with his own body.
“Look at them,” Kalen said quietly. “He’s bonding with her already. At the moment, Ravensford, your daughter is the safest woman on the planet.”
Chapter Seven
Regicide, wasn’t that…murder of a monarch?
Everything, time, the events around them, slowed to a standstill for Maria as she looked up at the man who held her. She knew her shock was mirrored in her eyes, her ability to hide her feelings gone the same way as her self-control had high-tailed it over the horizon when he’d touched her.
“You’re Marak?” she asked, her voice little more than a whisper, searching his face for the truth. He didn’t answer, just nodded silently. He didn’t need to. The answers had been there all along, his unspoken aura of command, his arrogance and order giving…and this place? How could he be anyone else?
She bit her lip, nibbling it in her agitation, a bad habit. She’d only gone and gotten herself bitten by the damn king. The guy heading every matchmaking mama’s eligible bachelors list for the last couple of hundred years… Hell, she could practically hear them gnashing their teeth at her already.
“Right, they’re gone,” Kalen’s voice announced from somewhere over Marak’s shoulder.
“Move, you great oaf!” Maria demanded, pushing at his brick wall of a chest until he moved a little and she could see the two Warriors behind him.
“Now can you two please get a room? I have to see much more of this lovey-dovey mushy shit and I’m gonna thr
ow!” Kalen groused, a bad-tempered look on his otherwise handsome face.
“So how about it, little one? You fancy taking this Warrior on?” Marak asked, turning back to her as the other two Warriors left, sniping at each other as usual. He ignored them, concentrating her with an unreadable expression.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were the bloody king?” she demanded, one eyebrow arched.
“Would it have made any difference?”
“Hell no!” Maria snorted. “I’d have run faster.” she added, a teasing light in her eyes.
“You know what’ll happen if we go upstairs, don’t you?” He leaned in to drop a kiss on the soft skin of her neck, right over where he’d bitten her, and breathed in deeply. Scenting her.
This was it, crunch time.
Did she play it safe or did she give into everything feminine in her and take the biggest chance in her life?
“Err duh! Do I look stupid?” she threw back. “We go upstairs, get naked and screw each others’ brains out. Sound about right?”
She made her decision, a giggle of mischief rising in her throat as she took in his stunned look at her blunt statement, revelling in the dark look that followed hot on its heels.
“Actually…who says anything about going back upstairs?” she asked wickedly. “If I’m going to let you bite me again, I know the perfect place…”
“Why did you want to come in here?” Marak asked a few minutes later as they slipped through the heavy door into the main hall. Shrouded in darkness, the large banners on the walls and the plush furnishings were rendered monotone in the moonlight that stole in through the high arched windows.
Maria smiled, reaching up to kiss his neck, open mouthed kisses and tiny little nips that had him growling at her.
“I’ll bet you never did it up there, did you?” she whispered, nodding her head towards the throne at the end of the room. His eyes widened a little, then immediately darkened. “I think I’m going to like having you around, little minx.”
