Total pages in book: 164
Estimated words: 152666 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 763(@200wpm)___ 611(@250wpm)___ 509(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 152666 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 763(@200wpm)___ 611(@250wpm)___ 509(@300wpm)
But why?
“You know why,” my wolf sang within me.
“Shut up,” I said out loud, pushing off the trunk and walking fast.
I’d put my team in jeopardy. That was inexcusable. I’d walked onto that trail and fucked the enemy in clear view. If I’d been seen, this territory would’ve known they’d been breached. Their defenses would’ve gone active and my people would’ve been scrambling. We were the best at what we did, but being caught unawares would’ve thrown even us off kilter. I’d been reckless. Stupid. I was a bad excuse for an alpha.
“You acted exactly how an alpha would have,” my wolf argued. “Except you should’ve knotted her and pumped our seed deep inside of her.”
My legs turned to jelly and I staggered, bending to rest my hands on my knees and dropping my head. I was painfully hard again just thinking about doing that. I’d barely stopped myself earlier, preventing myself from pushing deep into her tight little pussy and locking her to me. I’d wanted to. Oh, heavens how I’d wanted to. It had taken all my will to resist.
I’d lost control. That couldn’t be argued. I’d lost control and it could not happen again, regardless of the situation. I had a job to do. A duty I would follow to the end. I owed my allegiance to the dragons. They’d given me a home, a title, a great life, riches, and power. I led a huge faction of that kingdom, and I would not jeopardize their trust in me. I would not.
I had to push past this. I had to ignore her effect on me. It couldn’t change my feelings about what I was doing. It couldn’t make me veer off course.
Gods help me, though, she’d felt so good. Unbelievably good, unlike anyone I’d ever touched. Like a piece of me I hadn’t known I’d been missing. An important part of the whole.
“You know why she felt that way,” my animal pushed. “Like air to a suffocating man.”
Yes I fucking did. In this forgotten, out of the way village I’d found something so incredibly rare, so absolutely precious, it was almost a myth. Very few people ever found theirs. Most people only dreamed of it. I’d known it when I’d seen her outside of that work shed; I’d felt her calling to me even from the distance. I’d been sure of it as I beheld her on the path, unable to keep from stepping out to meet her.
That woman was my true mate.
And she was my enemy. My target.
Fuck!
I blew out a long breath, straightening up slowly.
It didn’t matter. I was stronger than this. I had worked my whole life on developing my iron-clad will. She’d taken me by surprise—fine. Now I knew. Now I could prepare. I could get my head in order. She would not derail me.
“And if she runs like you advised?” my animal asked.
Oh. That.
I grimaced and nearly shouted out my frustration.
I definitely shouldn’t have told her to run. That had been one slip-up of many. She was the one we were sent here to find, there was no doubt.
I’d just been so thoroughly in the moment that my primal sense had kicked in—my need to protect what was mine. Because she was mine. There could be no denying that fact, as shitty as this situation was.
Fuck, why me? Why her? Of all the people in the entire world, why her?
Time to do damage control.
In halting steps, I headed for the little cottage far removed from the village and all its people. Granny, they called the owner. Just a lovely, sweet older lady who baked pies and hooked people on drugs. Killed them, sometimes. Ruined them, other times. If it wasn’t for Finley, the dragon queen, we would’ve lost a great many in our kingdom. Others already had. It was inexcusable, what was coming out of this village. Unconscionable. For anyone to be okay with it . . .
My resolve hardened, remembering who we’d lost.
True mates didn’t matter; she needed to be taken down. It was my duty to see this through, and I would fulfill my task regardless of the obstacles. Maybe I was being punished for past wrongs, maybe I was being challenged by the Gods, but whatever it was, I would not stray again.
“We’ll hunt her down if she runs,” I told my wolf. “Just like we hunted her and Granny to this hidden village. She will not escape me.”
I rolled my shoulders, taking another moment to collect myself. I’d need to shift and connect with my pack. If the woman got to Granny’s cottage and sounded the alarm, we’d need to move in fast.
The only good news was that there didn’t seem to be any of Granny’s people roaming the internal territory. The perimeter had been well fortified. Granny had a very thorough setup, with an alert sentry line and a well-scheduled patrol. They couldn’t be everywhere at once, of course, so Granny had applied faerie spells and potions to the vulnerable areas, blocking admittance. In one space she’d even set up a demon gate requiring a magical key of demon origins to get through. They were the best systems criminal gold could buy.