by Leith Briar
My wife’s parting words ring in my ears. Be safe. I did not promise her that, but I did promise her I would be home soon, and already I miss the sight of her face. The smell of her. The feeling of her warm body pressed up against mine when the night grows coldest.
She has never strayed far from my thoughts, and I would sure as shit like to be home with her soon.
“Alright,” I nod. “But hold off. Wait until their numbers are low before you breach, and then we can follow behind you.”
“Aye,” he says, motioning for his brother to follow him.
I wait until they are out, dashing silently across the rocky terrain and barely visible in the darkness.
Giving them a few minutes start on us, I grab my sword in one hand and shield in the other, taking my mind away to dangerous places. Places I keep only for these moments. I have no anger against these creatures, no rage, so instead I think of times that are so faded now it is like trying to recall a dream. That is usually enough to get the horns breaking out and the redness simmering below the skin, and that is all I have needed on this planet so far.
But tonight it is four of them to each one of us.
Memories of all the old wrongs can only take me as far as I was that day in the cave with Sophia.
Sophia.
It occurs to me that now, long after my old memories have turned to dust… I finally have something to get angry over. Really, properly fucking angry.
I know exactly what I need to do.
Whistling under my breath, I look along the line of men and see the familiar sight of the change. Eyes glowing faintly. Horns breaking through skin. Teeth just grazing against lower lips. My right hand — now more of a gauntlet than a hand — locks around my sword.
I give them a nod on either side, and then we move, climbing out of the trench like stalks breaking free of the ground.
The Ghrimsk have no idea until Brody fires a line of arrows through the air above our heads, and the first few bodies fall to the hard ground with a thud.
That is when they move.
Another loose of arrows.
More bodies.
We are close now, too close for a third round of arrows if we were human, but we are not human and our arrows bounce off our hard skin like raindrops.
The closer we get, the more they snarl. They make clicking noises as they move, scurrying around and trying to regain a formation.
I think of Sophia as I charge.
I think of losing her. I think of someone else touching what is mine. Grey hands on her perfect silky skin.
And that is the last thought I have as the world turns red and the mist descends.
Chapter 24
Sophia
I must have blacked out.
Or perhaps I was drugged?
I have no recollection of any of it.
My eyes open and bright everything burns them. Electricity bright. There are lights above my head, making it hard to see anything else.
Beside my head, the beeping of a machine.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Garbled thoughts run through my head at a dizzying pace. I’m in a hospital? Have I been saved? I’m home?
Or perhaps this is a mental hospital and I never really left?
At this point, that explanation seems quite logical.
I try to move, to sit up, but I’m strapped down on a chair-bed. My wrists, elbows, ankles and knees. I tilt my head. My stomach is bare and there are wires and sensors attached all over. I’ve grown. I look… pregnant. Unmistakably pregnant.
I turn my head and after blinking rapidly for what feels like an eternity; the room starts to come into vision. Familiar stone walls, with sconces and firelight flickering against the shadows.
There’s a desk behind me, almost too far to be able to see it. Vrexor.
“Ah, you have awakened. We cannot have that now, can we?”
His chair scrapes against the stone floor and he makes his way over to me.
I begin shaking my head frantically, the panic rising in my chest.
“No! Please let me go.”
“I am afraid I cannot do that. The child you carry is of great importance.”
Think. Think. “Colm said I wasn’t to be touched.”
“The Beast is not here. The Beast would do well to remember his place.”
I shake my head. “I’m not going to run. I swear it. Just let me go.”
Vrexor comes into full view over my head now, blocking out most of the light from above me. “This is for your own safety, girl.”
That’s when I see the needle. Fear has me locked up tight, a grip so strong it’s nauseating. But it doesn’t last.
A sharp prick, and then a slow decent into a vast nothing.
Chapter 25
Colm
As the silhouette of my castle comes into view there is a feeling in my stomach I have not experienced for the longest time. At least, never outside of my home planet. It takes me a while to realise what it is.
Excitement.
I used to dread this. The feeling of going back to normality, when all I really wanted to do was explore those foreign lands. The first night of our return after a victory — and it was always a victory — would be spent drinking and feasting and retelling the events of each war to the Balachs. It would soften the blow, somewhat.
But this time there is no blow to soften. This time, it actually feels like coming home.
I can almost taste her on my lips as we get closer to the castle. My mind is replaying our last night together, and I fear I will eat very little at the feast — if anything. No. Far better to eat after the feast, alone in my chambers with the woman who has consumed my every thought sitting on my lap. Or my cock. Either would work.
Balachs are waiting in the courtyard to collect the horses. They will be fed and watered and rested after the long days’ ride. No sooner am I down from Sgail, than I hear Loche saying my name frantically behind me.
Instantly, I know something is wrong.
“What is it? Where is she?”
But I do not wait for an answer. I am already storming to the front door while he tries to run to keep up with me. He is muttering nonsense while I am trying to feel her, to tune into her thoughts.
And I feel nothing.
How can I feel nothing?
“Where is she?”
This time, I try to listen for his answer.
I swear I try… but I can feel my horns breaking free, my jaws swelling as my teeth are forced out.
Loche’s eyes go wide and he takes a step back. “She is in the cellars with Vrexor. I am so sorry, Colm. I tried to—”
I stop listening after that.
My jaw tightens as I cross the great hall. Where is Shaxrin? He should be here already, and yet he is nowhere to be seen. I will rip the head from his neck if he sanctioned this, consequences be damned.
The journey to the cellars is a blur. I barely see anything. If he has hurt my precious girl…
Stop. I try to stop myself.
No Bhiast has ever touched the Plaigh before. To do so is punishable by death. I am trying hard to summon a fuck to give about that.
I walk down the long dark corridor, kicking open doors to my left and right as I go. Behind me I can hear people following, though I see none.
Finally a door opens and there is light.
I take in the scene before my eyes.
Vrexor sits at a desk, his head flicking up quickly at the sound of my interruption. Behind him, strapped to a bed, my…
I storm the room, grabbing his neck with my hands and forcing him up against the wall.
“Colm!”
A voice behind me, whose? I care not.
I am already squeezing. The creatures black eyes go wide while his sharp nails claw at my forearms. He draws blood. I care not.
“Colm!” That sound again.
There are arms around me. Two. Four. Six. All grabbing me. All keeping me from the
thing I want most. Eight. Ten.
I should ram my horns clean into his skull. Why waste time with strangling him? Surely that is a mercy — to die by suffocation. I would like to kill him in crueller ways.
“Colm?”
A voice.
This time soft. Weak.
Sophia.
I drop the creature, the thud of him against the stone floor beautiful. Around me, five of my men still fight to control me, but I will not be controlled.
Not now.
She is naked. Devices strapped to her stomach. Her round stomach. She is…? I break free of their grasp and am beside her almost instantly, shielding her with my body while I rip the wires to fuck.
I am still in my changed state and nothing will calm me down.
“Get the fuck out,” I shout to them. “Take that thing with you.”
“Colm,” Brody, I think, probably about to argue with me.
“Out!” I roar.
“Colm!” This time it is my sweet girl, and there is fear in her eyes. I will make it better. I will take the pain away — give her a better kind. My kind. The kind that will ache for days.
“Come here.” I am in a frenzy by the time I undo the last of her straps, and I am picking her up, covering her with my furs and shielding her naked body.
“Put me down,” she whimpers, but I do not listen. She is confused.
What did he do to her?
I will kill him, for sure. But first there are more pressing urges to take care of. I only want one thing right now — and that is seeing her securely impaled on my cock.
Everything else can wait.
Chapter 26
Sophia
“Put me down!” I say the words again, louder this time, while I thump on his chest with my fist.
I don’t think he can hear me, or at least if he can, he is choosing not to listen.
He rips me from the chair-bed and picks me up the way a groom would carry his bride.
“Colm, please, listen to me.”
“Shh, now. Shush, my precious girl. I am going to make this better, you will see.”
He’s already carrying me away. Along the dark passageway. Up the set of spiral stairs. Along another corridor. And into his bedroom.
He’s going to….?
My heart thuds in my ears.
I’m still mad at him. I only just found out he hated me, he wanted to kill me. Well, who knows how much time has passed, that conversation could have been weeks ago. My stomach has swollen larger, but I can remember nothing. Only waking up briefly once and being put back to sleep again.
He lays me down on the bed and turns away, pulling the huge sword from his back and letting it crash to the floor. Next, he rips off his kilt, and when he turns back around, there is a fury in his eyes like I have never seen before. Once colder than the moon, now they are burning.
I scramble back on the bed, trying to find something to cover myself. I can’t let him do this… not when he’s like this. I trusted him once, the first time, but that was when I thought he actually cared.
How stupid I was.
“Colm, stop it!”
I’m shouting, hoping he will see sense, but I fear he is long beyond the point of that. He gets on the bed and stalks towards me, and I swing my legs off and stand up.
His head tilts to the side, confusion written across his face.
“We need to talk,” I tell him.
The confusion goes just as soon as the words are out.
“No,” he says, shaking his head. “No talk. I can see with my own two eyes what you feel the need to explain.” A quick glance at my stomach tells me what he’s talking about, but he doesn’t give me the chance to correct him. “Come here. Let me claim you. I know you need this as well as I do.”
I shake my head, unable to find the words. Perhaps if he was really seeing me — really listening, I would try harder.
Instead of arguing, I back away. He’s off the bed and beside me in a second.
“Why do you run from me, little princess?”
I take a step back, and he takes a step closer.
“You are not yourself.”
He laughs at that. “Maybe not. I will not hurt you, though.”
I take another step back, which he matches.
“Well… I might hurt you. But you will enjoy it.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
This time he takes a step forward, and I’m the one who has to match it. And another. Quicker now. It’s as if he’s herding me somewhere. He reaches out and gives me a gentle push until I’m back where we started, full circle, standing with the bed to my back.
“You tease me. How many nights have I dreamed of your face… the things I would do to your body? The things I would make you do to mine.”
My back is against the bedpost now, just as it was on that first night. I can already sense what is coming now, and all I can do is gaze up at him with wide eyes.
“Why do you do this to me?” he asks, taking my wrists and attaching them to the hook that sits high up on the bedpost. “I should do the same to you. Send you into a frenzy and then refuse you.”
I squeeze my eyes closed. At least he seems to be talking now… however I sense this is not the time to bring up what I found out.
Or is it?
The alternative would be to keep quiet and let him continue with thinking this is all just a game of me playing hard to get.
“Loche told me,” I say. “I know. I know. And I don’t want to be a part of this anymore.”
He takes a step back and looks down at me.
“You know what?”
I swallow the lump in my throat, wishing I’d found the words to say all of this before he tied me to his bedpost.
“I know why you picked me. I know it’s because you hated me, and you thought you would kill me. You wanted it to be me, so that you wouldn’t care.”
I don’t know what I’m expecting to see in his face. Guilt, maybe? Panic? Like a husband who knows he’s been caught with lipstick on his collar… the look of sheer distress as he tries to think up excuses.
Colm does none of that.
Instead, he laughs.
He laughs at me.
I open my mouth to talk, to tell him what a piece of shit he is… but he is beside me quicker than I can get the words out. His huge human hand clamps onto my lower jaw, making it impossible for my mouth to open. Unable to see his face now that he’s so close, all I can do is stare straight ahead at his chest while he laughs at me.
“Aye. Tis true. You were chosen by me, specifically. But I never wanted to see you dead. I never hated you. In fact, I think I have been half in love with you since the very first night.” He bends down and kisses the top of my head, his hand still in place around my jaw. “You were so full of fire. I wanted to fucking worship it, not blow it out.”
He does something I wasn’t expecting and gets down on his knees. We’re face to face now, his eyes staring directly into mine. “If I did not love you then, I do now. You took a beast and made him feel like a man. I advise you think twice before you take that away from me.”
His hand slips from my jaw. He’s letting me speak, but I’m speechless. Words flow through my mind like waves, but none of them seem important enough to stick. He just told me he loves me. I don’t think I’m ready to process that yet.
“I’m carrying your baby.”
He lowers his gaze, down my neck and across my breasts, before settling on my stomach. I watch him as he stares at it and swallows. “Did he hurt you? If he hurt you over this, I will never forgive myself. I did this to you.” His words are frenzied again, and my heart aches for him.
“He didn’t hurt me,” I tell him quickly, shaking my head to make sure he believes me.
He lets out a breath and seems content enough with my answer. “He touched you though.”
“I… I don’t remember. I wasn’t awake for most of it.”
He stands up now and begins pacing
the room, his hand around the back of his neck. “I will fix this,” he says. “I swear it. I will have his head.”
“Colm…”
I fear I’ve just kicked off another frenzy.
“Can you let me down now?”
He stops mid pace and turns around to stare at me, as if now only just remembering I’m here.
A moment later, he is by my side, his hand tilting my chin while he bends down to claim my lips. His tongue demands entry. His thigh takes the space between my legs forcefully. His sharp fingers run through my hair, rough and possessive… and I’m not strong enough to fight that kind of fury.
I’m fucking weak, and I know it.
Perhaps with him, I always will be.
He lifts me up, my bangles slipping out of the hook, and then carries me to the bed without our lips ever separating for a second.
“Tell me you will have me?” he says between his fierce kisses. “Tell me you belong to me. Only ever me.”
I’m nodding but he doesn’t give me space to get the words out.
He turns me on my side and slides in bedside me. His sharp hand tilts my head to face him, the other roams free over my body. He bites down on my lip while he rubs my swollen belly, pulls on my breasts, parts my thighs. And all I can do is moan and whimper like a helpless animal.
“I do not think you understand what it is you do to me,” he says as he flips me over again. This time he doesn’t lay back down. This time he stares down at me, his hand coming between my legs and his fingers sliding up and down.
He finds my clit with his thumb and begins circling around while two of his fingers slip inside me.
I grab a hold of his wrist because his fingers are huge, but he just gives me an appreciative grin. “Lie down. Let me watch you.”
Swallowing, I rest my head on the furs and look up at the stone ceiling, remembering the beam up there and finding a spot on it to fix my gaze. His hands feel incredible, his thumb soft and gentle while his fingers are strong and demanding.
“You are so fucking perfect. Spread those legs wider for me. Let me see you properly.”
