Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 64359 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64359 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
The fanfare has finally faded away, but I still feel sensorily overwhelmed. The world is too big, too hot, too rough, and I am wearing a damp towel. I hear a footstep behind me.
“There you are! I’ve been looking for you…”
“Hello, my queen.”
A large hand closes around the back of my neck and a wave of horror flows through me as Emrys takes hold of me. He turns me around to face him, and I feel all the fear I have been forgetting to feel the last few days running through me at once. Emrys is a valker the same way a black hole is a star. He is the most evolved and most dangerous form of valker. He is taller than the others, he is even more handsome than the others, and his magnetism is irresistible.
“You know, anybody sensible would have fled the very first night. Actually, anybody sensible would have never landed at all. But you lack sense, deliberately so. You are not stupid, but you are foolhardy to an extent I cannot believe.”
“I…” The attempt at speech fails in my throat.
Emrys has plenty to say for the both of us.
“I thought they were mad when they told me that my mate awaited me,” Emrys says, his tone incredulous. “You must surely be the maddest little creature in all the universe. To have led me on this merry chase, to have fired upon me, to have cost me millions in ship repairs, to have disrespected and refused me… only to come to the very place where you are needed. Why?”
“Why not?”
“Why not!? Because I am the incarnation of every evil creature that ever existed, and you know it to your marrow. Your presence gives me the uncomfortable feeling that this is somehow a trap, though how could it be? You are the prey.”
“I know,” I smile. My smile isn’t triumphant. It’s guilty, and a little confused, and a lot still afraid.
I’m not sure what the hell I’m doing. All I know is that it felt good and empowering to be treated like a queen, and that’s the way I want to feel. My every whim and desire has been catered to. Emrys is even speaking to me with a little less contempt and loathing. I think he might be pleased to see me.
“With you here, and me here, it is safe to say that homecoming has begun,” he says. “Let’s get you out of that towel and into something appropriate.”
He whips the towel off my body, leaving me naked beneath his blazing red gaze. I feel a sweeping sensation of warmth, almost as if a volcanic presence has manifested in the very room in which we stand.
“Beautiful,” Emrys breathes. “You have been worth the chase.”
Those words of affirmation feel good. He and I have been testing one another from the moment we first laid eyes on one another. I cannot forget that he was the first to find me. The first to lay his claim to me. This moment may have been fated from that one.
He wraps me in his alien embrace, taking charge of me inexorably. The fear I have always felt in his presence is melting into excitement as his arms wrap around me. He picks me up, because I am far too short for him to hold me without breaking his back. As my feet leave the floor, I feel a wave of perfect helplessness. After all this time running, I have given up in a fundamental way. He has me, and I am going to let him have me. All the pampering has made me soften, or maybe it’s just that I am starting to slow down. One can only run so far for so long.
Emrys’ fangs slide over my neck, grazing tender skin lightly. There is a sting as they sink in, a moment of connection that links me with him more closely than I have ever been linked to anybody. I have been fucked before, but this is something far more intimate than being fucked. I am being consumed. I am being taken as nourishment.
He bites down deeper and I am helpless as the predator begins to feed on my blood. My muscles relax and leave me in a tranquil state in his arms. This is the realization all prey must have before meeting its end in the jaws of a predator. There is a moment in which the creature, no matter how swift, how desperate to escape, offers its neck in the ultimate act of submission. Emrys may very well be ending me in this moment, and if he is, there is nothing I could or would do in order to stop it.
He sinks down onto a couch with me. I am barely aware of where we are, or what is happening to me. All I know is that I am being taken and drained.