Wild Lands, Copyright © 2021 by Stacey Marie Brown
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the authors’ imaginations. Any resemblance to actual persons, things, living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. Published by: Twisted Fairy Publishing Inc.
Layout by Judi Fennell at www.formatting4U.com
Cover by: Jay Aheer (www.simplydefinedart.com
Edited by Hollie (www.hollietheeditor.com)
Edited by Mo Siren’s Call Author Services ([email protected])
Jordan Rosenfeld at Write Livelihood, Developmental Editor (http://jordanrosenfeld.net)
ALSO BY STACEY MARIE BROWN
Contemporary Romance
Buried Alive
Blinded Love Series
Shattered Love (#1)
Broken Love (#2)
Twisted Love (#3)
The Unlucky Ones
(Má Sorte—Portuguese)
Royal Watch Series
Royal Watch (#1)
Royal Command (#2)
Smug Bastard
Paranormal Romance
Darkness Series
Darkness of Light (#1)
Fire in the Darkness (#2)
Beast in the Darkness (An Elighan Dragen Novelette)
Dwellers of Darkness (#3)
Blood Beyond Darkness (#4)
West (A Darkness Series Novel)
Collector Series
City in Embers (#1)
The Barrier Between (#2)
Across the Divide (#3)
From Burning Ashes (#4)
Lightness Saga
The Crown of Light (#1)
Lightness Falling (#2)
The Fall of the King (#3)
Rise from the Embers (#4)
A Winterland Tale
Descending into Madness (#1)
Ascending from Madness (#2)
Beauty in Her Madness (#3)
Savage Lands Series
Savage Lands (#1)
For those who curse my name and call me evil…
This book won’t change your mind.
Table of Contents
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
About The Author
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Sweat trailed down my face, my arms shaking as I lowered myself an inch from the floor. Puffing air through my teeth, I locked my jaw and kept my focus straight beneath me, zeroing in on the grainy cement floor.
Gray.
That’s all there was. Floor, ceiling, walls. The uniform they put me back in. Even the blanket and pillow on my cot.
Gray.
I think the pillow used to be white, but time and use had discolored it.
Funny. Germs, dirt, and secondhand items used to bother me when I was the girl who went to glamorous parties and fought because she was good at it, not because her life depended on it. Before prison, I used to be a lot of things, and sometimes I couldn’t decipher if I’d changed for the better or not. Another thing lost in the in-between.
Gray.
A mix of two things that weren’t even considered colors, which seemed perfect for my current state. Suspended between darkness and light, between life and death. I hovered in nothing.
Waiting.
“One hundred.” I marked my last pushup before dropping and rolling onto my back with fatigue. My gaze traveled over the small windowless cell, my new home deep under Lord Killian’s castle. The scents of dirt, decay, and grain still lingered in the walls. I could tell it had been converted from a food storage cupboard to a cell quickly, like he hadn’t been prepared for a prisoner until moments before my arrival. Inside the ten-by-ten room were only a cot, portable toilet, and sink, which had been crudely bolted to the wall.
All gray.
I was starting to wonder if the void of color was its own torture, expanding the days into years, cruelly killing me by dullness and boredom. The days in the House of Death were hell, but at least I had been busy. Here minutes blended into hours. I only filled my time by exercising, aiming to regain the muscle mass I lost in Halálház. But boxing shadows and doing pushups only filled so many hours.
Able to keep time by counting the food trays delivered to my chamber, I estimated I had been here roughly two weeks since that night.
Since him.
My chest filled like a balloon, causing me to sit up against the cot with a huff. Razor-sharp emotions of hurt, anger, and embarrassment churned in my body. How had I fallen for his act? I couldn’t believe I’d let his half-fae ass twist me into a pretzel and make me believe he actually gave a shit about me. That there had been something between us—something visceral, sliding and rolling against my skin, grazing my soul.
Even now, I swore I felt him skittering around me, tapping at the edges of my unconsciousness. In the moment between sleep and waking, I would hear my name, a tug on my soul, his presence coiling around me like a viper. Then it would be gone.
“Fuck him,” I muttered and pulled my legs into my chest, my nails digging into my palms. Half of my fury was aimed at myself. I was the one imagining him trying to reach me, that through space, time, and against all logic, he was here, trying to comfort me in some way.
How pathetic was that?
The man completely betrayed me, cut me so deep it was hard to breathe, and I still thought I could feel him like some fucking ghost. Like the myth he was. Warwick Farkas, The Wolf, the legend. The ultimate betraying asshole.
Working out helped me forget my moment of weakness. I put a wall up around myself, fighting against my deeply disturbed psyche that called to him instead of Caden.
Caden.
Sucking in, I dropped my head to my knees. The image of my best friend tore another hole in my heart. I had been so close. To home. To him.
Click.
Locks scraped across the metal door, a shrill sound through the cubicle like the wail of a newborn. I lifted my head slowly. I had grown numb to guards coming and going without a word or threat. Day in and day out, they dropped off a tray, took the old one, and did not respond to any of my questions.
Standing up, clothed in just a sports bra and loose pants that hung off my hips, I grabbed my shirt off the end of the bed. I focused on the door swinging open as a guard stepped into the room, his gaze finding me. It was almost insignificant, but his notice dropped to my toned stomach and barely covered chest before darting away.
A ruthless smile curved my lips as I sat back on my cot coyly, my eyes rolling over the pretty fae guard as he scanned the space.
“I cleaned my room, Daddy. Can I go play now?”
I taunted, leaning back on my hands, my voice full of underlying meaning.
His cheeks turned red under his pale skin, his teeth clamping together. He looked all of eighteen, but with fae, appearance was deceiving. He could have been hundreds of years old, but this guard seemed especially young and naïve, too easily flustered when I teased him. I had to find my fun where I could.
He stepped out of the room, clearing the doorway, springing taut in a soldier’s stance, his chin tilting high.
“All clear, sir.”
Then I heard the soles of shoes hitting the stone floor. Alarm sprang electricity up the back of my neck. A figure stepped around the guard and into my space, forcing me to suck in my breath.
Killian. The leader of the fae in Hungary. Power and magic emanated from him, my skin sizzling, my spine crunching against the wall, and my body freezing.
I hadn’t seen him since that night, as if the king had forgotten all about the lowly subject locked far below in this makeshift dungeon. I thought he would parade me around, taunting Istvan with his prize. He hadn’t.
“Ms. Kovacs.” His smooth honey voice poured over me, slipping effortlessly down my torso to my thighs. I clenched my legs. His voice was the opposite of Warwick’s rough, deep timbre—as if you crawled through gravel, rubbing against every erogenous spot. Killian’s voice glided silkily over your skin, skating against you.
Fae had the power to glamour and seduce humans, reeling us in like fish on a hook with their incredible looks, magic, and pure sexual magnetism.
He took a step closer to me, sliding his hands into his trouser pockets, demonstrating he had not one inkling of worry of me attacking him. Even with just one guard, I was no threat to him.
The fae ruler wasn’t in his position for nothing. The stories and rumors about him were almost as legendary as Warwick. Killian was ruthless and cruel, but where Warwick relied on brute physical strength, Killian was strategic.
Even within the walls of Human Defense Forces, he was considered extraordinarily handsome. Exquisite. If you could call a man that. Beautiful and sexy, he pulsed with power, confidence, and entitlement. His violet eyes popped against his dark brown hair. Wearing a dark suit, his scruff and hair were perfectly trimmed. He looked to be only in his early thirties, but I knew he was far, far older. Tall and built, oozing charisma, he reminded me of men I saw in Western glamour magazines I used to smuggle into my room as a young girl.
His attention locked on me, the magic he held vibrated off the walls, digging into my soul. Shifting on the tiny cot, the metal squeaked as I adjusted my weight as I moved.
“I apologize for not coming down to see you sooner.” His charming tone made me think of a pinata, harmless on the outside but stuffed with implication. “You have made quite a mess for me to clean up.” He strolled slowly around, his power pushing against me, trying to intimidate me.
“Halálház is in complete ruins, and the new one must be built in a secret location at night. Half of the convicts have escaped, and because of you, I had to give up one of my most prized assets.” He tipped an eyebrow at me, but I stayed silent. He watched me for a full minute before he spoke again.
“Little did I know some no-name thief in my prison would be the ward of General Markos. A fragile human who still had the capacity to survive through it all, including the Games, and captured the most feared and brutal killer’s interest enough to get out safely.”
“Wasn’t he doing it for you?” My lip lifted.
Killian’s mouth curled with a tight complacency. “It took a little persuading to get him to do the right thing.” Killian stepped closer. He pulled one hand out of his pocket, rubbing his chin. “What is it about you? You are not fae; you should hold no sway over us, no power to fight our glamour. However, you have resisted it when no others have. How?” He tilted his head, his gaze pinning me to the wall.
Resisted it? What was he talking about?
“You are a conundrum, Ms. Kovacs. A wave crashing into everything. Twisting, breaking, and flipping everything upside down the moment you enter.” He smirked, his fingers tapping his full bottom lip. “I have known Warwick for a long time. Ruthless. Cutthroat. Cruel. But with you…” He shook his head. “You even have my sentinels here completely bewitched.”
My gaze dropped to the blond guard behind him. He still stood at attention, but his eyes darted to me, his cheeks blooming with a deeper shade of crimson.
Killian folded his arms over his chest. Even in his fancy suit, I could tell the man was muscular.
“What should I do with you, Ms. Kovacs?”
“Is this a multiple choice or fill in?” I countered. “Because I vote you set me free.”
“I could always kill you.” The sentiment rolled over me like butter, hiding the danger in the velvetiness.
“But you won’t.”
His eyebrows curved up. “And why is that?”
“Because you need me for something. Bargaining. Leverage. I don’t know, but you didn’t scour the Savage Lands for me, lose your greatest asset, and keep me here for weeks just to kill me.”
A slight smirk tugged on his full lips, his eyes running down me. “You are nothing like I thought you’d be.” His violet eyes locked on mine, holding me like I was caught in a web. My heart sped up under his scrutiny. “You’re right. I would not kill you right away, but you’re wrong for the reasons why I want you. I don’t care about your pathetic humans. The ones whose arrogance let them think they have a hold here when all it would take is a word from me to end them.”
“You don’t want to use me for bartering with Istvan?” I swallowed.
“Barter?” Killian’s head tipped back with laughter, the sound plunging tingles of warmth through me, hitching my chest. Fury at my body’s response to him showed on my face. I tugged my legs tighter into my frame.
“What would I possibly need to barter for, Ms. Kovacs? I am quite curious what you think I’d need from your kind.” He tipped his head to the side. I pinched my lips together, not answering. “You humans always believe you are far more important than you are. Your lives, your needs, are above all else: earth, animals, nature’s resources, even people of your own species.” He smiled. The flare of something feral underneath his pristine image radiated off him, his eyes flashing. He leaned into my face, and I could barely breathe. “But it’s a lie, Ms. Kovacs. You can all walk around in your delusions, telling your offspring the same falsehoods. But your species is at the bottom of the totem pole. And in a blink…” He snapped his fingers against my cheeks. His breath brushed down my throat, hitching my own breath. “You can be taken out.”
Air ripped raggedly through my airways, his words settling in around me. This whole time I thought I would be a carrot to be dangled, a prize to be used against the Human Defense Force’s general. It was something Istvan always warned Caden and me about—that our enemy would use us.
“So, what do you want with me then?” Dread sparked with adrenaline tore through my nerves.
“Wrong question.” His voice slipped down my neck, spearing my skin with shivers. “It’s what am I already doing with you, Ms. Kovacs.” His fingers slipped over my ear, tucking a strand of hair, sparking goosebumps down my flesh. “You are turning out to be far more interesting than I could ever have imagined.” His proximity pinned my spine to the wall, my lungs hitching as fear rushed into me. His eyes drifted over my face. “I can’t figure out why you are different from the others. Why have you not succumbed? How are you able to resist it when no others have?”
“What others? Succumbed to what?”
A sneer curved his mouth, his violet eyes glistening. He stepped away from me, his hand digging into the pocket of his jacket, pulling out a tiny pill, holding it up.
My gaze dropped to the object, my throat clogging at the sight of the neon blue pill between his fingers. I recognized it instantly, the color so unique. It was the same kind I had stolen from the train the night I got captured.
“As soon as I discov
ered who you were, I had your items sent here from the night you were apprehended. I was curious. Why would the ward of General Markos be on the train robbing from her own kind?”
I locked on the strange pill, my throat bobbing.
“Tell me what these are.”
My eyes darted up to his, my jaw locking down.
“Why were you after these?”
Nothing.
“You think it’s wise to defy me?” Anger bloomed in a blink, his eyes igniting in fury, enveloping me. “Speak!”
Silence.
“I order you to talk, Ms. Kovacs.” His lids narrowed, his focus sharpening. A swirl of energy crackled around me, tugging at my tongue and jaw, but broke like waves against the rocks the moment the magic touched my skin.
His nose flared; a nerve in his jaw twitched.
“Answer me. Now!” I could feel the power of the order. The demand hissed in my ear, but I only locked my teeth together, pushing against the sensation. “I said speak!” His hand caught around my throat, slamming me back against the wall, ripping air from my lungs. His form seemed to expand, magic emanating from him. “Last chance.”
“I don’t know,” I croaked out.
“You expect me to believe that?” His face was an inch away from mine, his thumb pressing into my throat enough to make my heart jump and stutter. “I found your bag full of these pills. Tell me why you were taking them. What do you know about them?”
“I don’t know anything,” I spat. “I swear.”
“I have very little patience today.” His cheek twitched, his thumb sliding up and down my neck as if he were taunting me.
“I told you I don’t know what they are.”
“Do. Not. Lie. To. Me.” He clamped down harder. My nose flared. My chest puffed up and down, searching for air, my spine protesting as he continued to push it against the wall.
“I’m not.” Holding up my chin, I stared at him, oxygen wheezing through my nose.
Wild Lands (Savage Lands Book 2) Page 1
