Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 69711 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69711 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Krav lets me explore as much as I want until I yawn so widely, my jaw cracks. He commands the jynx to remove the empty plates and dim the orbs.
I stretch out on the bed. He tucks the sheets around me, and I drink in his scent—smoke and chocolate, like a burned s’more. I try to fill my lungs with him before he leaves.
After he bit me to create the soul-bond, he slept beside me until the next morning and I was elated, hoping it was a sign of change. That his walls were coming down. Unfortunately, it seems I was wrong. The following night, he went back to his own bed as soon as he thought I was asleep… and now he’s getting ready to leave me again.
Tired of sleeping alone, longing to be held some more, I summon all my courage and reach for him. “Please… will you stay with me? All night?”
He hesitates, and with a sinking heart, I wait for him to shake his head and stride away. Instead, he leans towards me and lets me pull him down beside me again.
I wriggle with excitement, unable to contain my smile.
“Pet,” he rasps. My butt is grinding against his cock. “I want to take you again, but you need your rest. We need our rest.”
He’s right. Fatigue has settled heavy in my limbs. The sex marathon wore me out.
I can’t believe I’m spooning with a demon. We’re both on our sides, facing the wall of windows. Mount Vracor is a dark silhouette against the starry night.
“The volcano isn’t as active as it was when I first arrived here.”
“Hrmph.” Krav sounds annoyed, as if the lazy mountain offends him. “For now, it merely slumbers.” He trails his claws over me before retracting them so he can hold me tight. “Shall I tell you the story of Mount Vracor?”
“There’s a story?”
His voice is low and rough, falling into a lilt like a lullaby. “Long ago, Ulf made the world. He formed the nine kingdoms and the wastelands, and fashioned the hills, plains, oceans, and all the creatures upon it, including the Alphas, the Betas, and the Omegas. And when he was done, he made to move on, but the land at the heart of his creation was on fire. It was the place where he had made all the life, and it burned with the vestiges of his power. Each kingdom needed a king, but who could rule a land of fire?”
Krav caresses my side, his fingertips playing over my ribs. It would distract me if his voice were not so mesmerizing. The heat radiating off his huge body envelops me in a cocoon of contentment.
“So Ulf raised up a mountain called Vracor—which means heart of the demon—and forged his creation fires once more. He spoke his intent, reached into the burning lava, and drew out his final creation from the very heart of the volcano. The creature was an Alpha, tall and well-formed, with skin the color of cooling lava and the purple sands of the desert. It had horns, fangs and claws, and wings and a tail.” Krav’s tail coils possessively around my ankle. “It was a demon, the first king of Pyreda. My ancestor.”
He pauses long enough, I feel like I’m supposed to say something. “Whoa.”
He chuckles, and I snuggle closer. “And that is how demons came to be. Ulf left Mount Vracor as a symbol of his power—and ours. It is said the volcano is attuned to the king’s moods.”
“Really?”
My body shifts as he shrugs. “That’s what my father told me. It would erupt whenever he flew into one of his rages.”
I wince. More evidence Krav’s dad was the worst. “That’s awful.”
“He was a demon. What do you expect?”
“That’s no excuse for being an asshole.”
“The fires burn hotter inside of us. We are forged in flames.” His hand glides down my hip, his fingertips brushing tantalizingly close to my sex. And I’m wet for him all over again.
I look over my shoulder to peek at Krav, but he has his eyes closed.
“Sleep, pet,” he orders, as if he knows I’m watching him. “It’s been a long day, and we need our rest.”
He’s not wrong. I close my eyes obediently, trying to quiet my thoughts. I keep going back to what Emma said, about Alphas being all about the breeding, and how desperate Khan was to get her pregnant. Krav is an Alpha, too, and yet I still don’t even know if he wants a family. Whenever the subject comes up, he skirts around it.
While it’s still early days for us as a couple, ever since I found out humans and Ulfarri can breed successfully, I’ve repeatedly caught myself fantasizing about it—staying here with Krav and starting a family of my own. Giving him a chance to prove that bad parenting cycles can be broken—even if you are a demon.