by Meg Xuemei X
“It’s not very nice to curse and call your mate a savage,” he said in light amusement. “The high society you came from must be boring and pretentious. However, I don’t blame you, considering you’ve just revealed your background. Come, my sweet thorn.” His voice turned deep and mesmerizing. “The food is getting cold. It’s my responsibility to provide for you. We can talk about our differences over the fine dishes.”
Nice try. I was anything but naïve.
Marrok ignored my inner protest and offered me his hand.
“That’s not going to happen, Marrok,” I spell out for him. “I feed myself and am proud of that.”
He arched an eyebrow. “But the dinner I’ll offer you is most delicious.”
“The garlic-and-pepper roasted demon meat? Thank you very much, but my answer is a big ass no.”
He chuckled. “Give me some credit, Kaara. Even I won’t eat it. I know my mate has a picky taste, so I’ve prepared deer meat for you with a glass of fine wine.”
My eyes widened. How could he have that luxury?
I swallowed, though I tried not to.
And fine wine.
I squinted to conceal the spark of light in my eyes, but my stomach betrayed me by growling loudly.
“Your body always agrees with me,” he said.
Of course, I loved wine. I would kill for a glass of wine.
How long had it been since I’d had a sip?
“After the dinner and wine—you can have two glasses,” Marrok emphasized, “we can make love properly in my Keep. I guarantee you the mating frenzy will drive us to fuck through the night. When the night is deep and you can’t keep your eyes open after the feast of my lovemaking, you’ll sleep in my arms, dreaming of me.”
Well, well, well… We had a poet on this crappy planet.
“And when you wake up in the morning with my cock buried deep inside you, we’ll satisfy each other again. And then we’ll have a fabulous breakfast together. Do you want to know what the breakfast will be? Your life in the Keep will be better than anywhere else on this planet. I’ll take care of you, Kaara.”
I straightened my spine, pulling my shoulders back. “That’s how you lure the gullible females into your lair?”
“I’ve never needed to lure any,” he said. “Women threw themselves at me when I was only thirteen. I’ve never been lacking in that area.”
A jealous monster roared through me, but I told myself to cool down. Marrok didn’t belong to me. Plus, I didn’t have room for him. I had no room for any man.
“Thirteen?” I narrowed my eyes in distaste. “That’s child molesting.”
“Was it?” he asked. “Then will you protect me?”
I rolled my eyes. “How old are you now?”
“No matter how many women I had, it didn’t matter,” he said. “I’ve always craved to have my true mate. I just never expected to find you here.” His smile darkened. “I’d hoped I could meet you somewhere nicer and safer, so I would be able to give you everything you desire. But looking at you in front of me, this pit in space doesn’t seem too bad anymore.”
My heart fluttered with sudden warmth before sadness waved in. Pandemonium wasn’t pure hell when I was in his arms.
“You’re tempting me,” I said.
“I’m merely offering you a romantic night.”
Romance on the inferno of Pandemonium?
“The dinner sounds appealing,” I said. “But I’ll have to decline the offer. You should get going, Marrok. The night is here, and monsters are lurking at every corner.”
“You think I’m afraid of monsters?” he asked softly.
Who was I talking to? He was considered one of them by most of the citizens of the City of Nine.
“Akem’s phantoms sneak out to the city more often than ever.”
The phantoms were the most fearsome abominations. No one could fight them. Weapons couldn’t kill them. Some said they were an extension of Akem. Fia might be the only one who could keep them at bay, yet she couldn’t vanquish them either, not without her most lethal magic.
I was worried for Marrok’s safety.
“I don’t fear Akem and his creatures,” he said. “But I fear for you. I’ve just found my mate and I won’t chance losing you. My Keep is safer. You’ll be well protected by my elite guards. You don’t ever need to fight or worry for food and shelter again.”
“Do you realize you’ve just insulted the general of the witch’s coven?”
He gritted his teeth. “It sets me on edge that my mate isn’t within my sight.”
“You’ll get over it.”
“You don’t owe the Wicked Witch an allegiance. You can walk away at any time, now that you have me.”
He didn’t know of my blood vow to Fia. He probably had no idea of how it worked. But even without my oath, I’d never abandon my princess.
“If you like the title of general, Kaara, you can have it in my Keep. In fact, you’ll be my queen in the wolf pack.”
“I’m not after the title,” I hissed. “I don’t want to be your queen or any queen. I came here for her, not for you.”
I bit down on my tongue and tasted blood as I realized my slip.
Marrok was making me lose control. He made me almost spill the secrets of my future queen’s origin. Now he knew Fia and I came from the same place and that we had a connection in the past.
The more Marrok knew about Fia, the more he’d be a threat to us, even though he considered me his mate. The only way I knew to neutralize a threat was to eliminate it. The mere thought of rooting out Marrok’s existence stabbed pain so sharp in me that I gasped for breath. It was as if I was tearing a crucial part of myself from my body.
How could I have grown so attached to him in less than a day?
Mate. Marrok had to be my mate.
But why did fate pair me with him and bring us together on a doomed planet? It was cruel. But I had learned that life had no mercy.
Marrok and I had great sex, but there should be more than a reproduction need. I wasn’t even a wolf. Wouldn’t he fare better with his own species, a she-wolf?
Marrok’s face became unreadable. He’d read my doubts and hadn’t taken my rejection well. I figured no females had turned him down before this day. And he’d expected his mate to be more amenable instead of refusing to be at his side.
But I was never a sure thing.
Regrets formed in his sapphire eyes. Was he hoping for a different female—one of his own kind?
That thought hurt.
As I probed his mind, he blocked me. No one else could easily fend off a strong Empath like me—even Fia had to put a full shield against me, but Marrok had just intentionally shut me out.
Really? Hadn’t he said we were one soul in two bodies or two souls in one body?
Now that we weren’t talking but regarded each other silently, I realized how quiet it had become around us. There was no fighting or killing at this time of night.
Cannibals, vampires, and monsters hadn’t come out yet.
Pandemonium was the opposite of my planet. Nesnurn was full of wildlife, sunshine, and bright blossoms. No birds ever visited the City of Nine. Occasionally, wild animals would venture out of the edge of the jungle. Maybe that was how Marrok’s pack had caught a deer, and he’d offered its meat to me.
I fought my every urge not to go with him to enjoy that dinner.
A honey trap, remember?
“Marrok,” I started, then a comet pierced across the murky, dark sky toward us, its tail burning. Part of the sky reddened.
The meteorite hits were getting worse.
For anyone who had never seen a meteor shower, it would be a spectacular sight, but for those who lived on borrowed time and planet, it was a pressing reminder that Pandemonium would go up on a flame one day.
Before I yelled a warning, Marrok lunged at me, throwing me to the ground and covering me with his body. I managed to raise my head to see where the rock hit.
The meteori
te crashed at the edge of the witch’s territory. The shockwave spread and the ground trembled.
Marrok pulled me into his arms and let his body diffuse the aftershock.
I twisted in his embrace to check the Witch Tower. It wobbled but stood.
Fia was in her suite, brooding and absorbing the blow of another day’s failure. Where was the hope for her? She was all alone, yet today I had someone comforting me in his arms and shielding me. I had someone who, at the moment, put my life above his.
I wanted to weep for Fia.
The Wickedest Witch did not bend, and I willed for her not to break.
Marrok tugged me tighter against his hard chest and I stayed there.
My reason kicked in, reminding me that on this perilous alien planet, vulnerability was weakness, and I couldn’t afford to show my weakness.
“Marrok,” I said. “I’m good.”
He pulled me up and checked me all over. When he was happy that I was still in one piece, he traced his knuckles across my cheek.
The small gesture felt so intimate that I held my breath. When I breathed out again, I said, “Anyway, thank you for the dinner invitation.”
“Before I came, I thought of kidnapping you if I failed to persuade you to go with me. In time you’d get used to the life in my Keep, even though you’d fight me at every turn in the beginning. It’d be better for you to hate me than for me to be worried sick about you every second you aren’t at my side.” He swallowed. “It’s against my every instinct to let you go, but I won’t force you. You’re a woman of a strong will and independence, and I’m smart enough not to screw up a chance with you. However, you’re my fated mate, so I can never let you go completely. Even if you cut my limbs off, I’ll still come to you.”
Why would I want to cut him? The fleeting possibility of him ceasing to exist caused excruciating pain in my chest.
“You’ve awoken my wild beast,” he continued. “He won’t rest until he can be with his mate. It’s unfortunate I met you on this planet, but it’s also very fortunate for me to even have a chance to meet you in my lifetime. Kaara, what we have is rare. We’ll both need to make some compromises. Don’t think for a second the mating frenzy will only affect me. You won’t be immune. The harder you fight it, the graver the blow will come when you least expect it. And if you keep resisting it, you’ll go mad. I don’t want you to suffer. Your pain is always mine.”
Marrok was a lot of things I hadn’t expected. As powerful as he was, I’d thought blunt force and intimidation were his strongest suits.
“What’s the compromise?” I asked.
“Since you don’t want to live with me in my Keep,” he said in a measured tone, “I’ll have to come to see you. Anytime I want. And no one can stop me, not even you.”
I studied him, and he held my gaze. What the wolf alpha wanted, the wolf alpha would get.
“Fine,” I said. “But your coming to visit doesn’t mean I’ll have to receive you.”
He laughed. “You’ll receive me, Kaara, every time.”
“I don’t want what’s between us to impair my leadership in the Witch Tower.”
“I thought the Wicked Witch led.”
“I run the tower; she wards it,” I said. Fia couldn’t be bothered with details ever since I’d joined her. She fixed her sole attention on finding the portal in Akem’s jungle. “And since we’ve agreed to form an alliance, you’ll come to aide me at a short notice whenever we’re under attack.”
“Do you have to ask?” he asked fiercely. “Do you think I’ll allow any dead beat to attack you—my mate—without clawing their hearts out first?”
I concealed a smile. “Then it’s settled.”
“I’ll need to come and go freely into the Witch Tower to see you.”
“I can’t grant you free access before we truly establish the partnership.”
“The partnership was established the moment I saw you. I can’t always fuck you in the wilderness or ruin like this, even if you prefer to walk on the wild side. One day our foes will catch us off guard. I won’t put you in that position.”
I narrowed my eyes. “So when you decide to come to visit me, it’s only because you want to get laid?”
“That’s part of it. You know we won’t be able to keep our hands off each other. While I was away from you this afternoon, I was out of my mind thinking of you. Did you miss me, Kaara?”
I had missed him terribly, but I wouldn’t admit it. I put a leash on my emotions.
“You can’t shield your feelings from me, Kaara, Even now, you ache for me. You want me to fuck you again. I’ll be happy to oblige you.”
Marrok was a direct man, too direct for my taste. It was something I’d have to get used to.
“Feel my cock.” He placed my hand on his hardness. I lingered for a second longer than I ought to before jerking my hand back. My blood pumped and my moist mound trembled with ardent need.
“No, Marrok!”
If I jumped on him again, I’d spend the whole night fucking him. If he had to be my addiction, I needed to keep it at the lowest dosage.
I cleared my throat to get his attention since his eyes were heavily hooded with pure lust. “I can’t let you in the tower, and I won’t go to your Keep. So when we need to have . . . business to discuss, we’ll find a mutual ground.”
“That requires double security,” he complained. “It’s not practical.”
I arched an eyebrow. “You mentioned compromise. I believe your security is good.”
“If that’s my mate’s condition to do business,” Marrok sighed, an amused spark in his eyes, “then I’ll have to satisfy her. I’ll scout and secure a place for us.”
We looked at each other. I didn’t want him to leave, but we had to part. He needed to go before the night became more treacherous. He only had two wolves with him. And I needed to return to the tower and check on Fia.
A guilt I hadn’t known seeped into my bones. I’d had the time of the century, yet my exiled princess—the one I’d vowed to guard—was all alone and fearful in her tower.
It felt like I’d abandoned her.
Part of me was changing, altered by a mystical force that I sensed but didn’t have the power to push back. I helplessly watched myself fall, hard and fast in endless space.
“You need to go back to the Keep, Marrok.”
“Already worried about me?”
“I’ve just gotten myself an ally and I don’t want my investment wasted.”
He laughed and my stomach fluttered at the sound.
True laughter was a rare commodity in the City of Nine. After the harsh life here, how could he still laugh like that?
“Just so you know, our pact is based on absolute fidelity,” he said. “We don’t share each other with any third party. And we don’t walk around behind each other.” He bared teeth viciously as if anticipating rivals. “I, Marrok, will tear anyone to pieces if they ever lay a hand on you or try to steal you from me.”
A moment ago I’d appreciated his relative gentleness; now an instant later he threatened violence. But in my head, I was also picturing tearing the females’ throats out if they ever touched Marrok.
I blinked and shoved away those brutal images.
Marrok grinned. He’d seen that.
I would need to work on blocking him out.
“You won’t be able to if your feelings for me are too strong,” he said smugly.
“My feelings for you aren’t that strong.”
“If you say so,” he said, pulling me into his arms and ravishing me with a kiss.
The night is getting chilly. I sent a thought to him to see if it worked both ways.
Marrok immediately broke the kiss, shrugged off his jacket, and wrapped it around me.
He’d wanted to taste me further, but his protective instinct would always consider my comfort and safety first.
“I’m walking you back,” he said.
“I can walk back myself,” I said, not wantin
g my team to see Marrok wrap his arm around my shoulder.
He snarled. “They’ll know I’m your mate and I expect them to respect that. The whole City of Nine will know you’re mine. Right now, I need to see you cross the ward.”
I didn’t want to fight him.
I’d already gotten what I wanted, so why push it?
I stopped at the border of the ward and turned to face Marrok, my hand about to remove his jacket.
“Keep it,” he said. “I like my scent on you.”
If I kept his jacket, he would have to come back to get it.
And tonight I could sleep with his scent blanketing me.
“Goodnight?” I asked and found this normalcy ridiculous.
He grabbed me and kissed me hard and fiercely. I hoped the sensuous burn would stay on my lips after he was gone. When he finally let me go, he shoved something into my hand. “For you, my sweet thorn.” He swallowed before turning to leave.
Under the witch light I saw a chocolate bar in my hand.
My eyes moistened.
I hadn’t had chocolate since I’d come here. How had Marrok managed to get hold of one?
I closed my eyes and sniffed at it without tearing the package off, the faint, rich smell blissful.
Even though I wouldn’t go to his Keep, he still found a way to feed me.
All of my life, I’d been taking care of others, and now I was being taken care of.
I turned off the witch light and searched for Marrok’s retreating figure.
A huge, grey wolf raised his head under the invisible moons and howled.
Two other wolves joined him.
The grey wolf sprang ahead and vanished into the darkness.
Chapter 11
If Marrok’s mate had been a wolf, he’d probably give her the heart of their hunts.
Since I wasn’t a wolf, Marrok gave me a chocolate, which was rarer and more precious than gold, though gold had no use on Pandemonium.
But I wouldn’t enjoy it myself.
I sensed the stir of Fia’s consciousness as I ascended the marble stairs toward her suite.
