Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 99485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
I knew as soon as I saw her that she was MINE.
It's called The Lightning Strike--the feeling a Brute gets when he finds his Fated Mate. I knew Aurora was my Fated Mate, but how could I get her?
She's a Princess but worse, she's Untainted with pure human DNA--they don't want anything to do with my kind. I guess I can't blame her--I'm a criminal after all. A member of the Four Families--Clan Cruel to be exact. Sure we dabble in extortion, gun-running, gambling, and illegal cloning. But that doesn't mean I won't do anything in the universe to make the curvy little human mine and taste her until she moans my name and tugs my horns.
Aurora
All I knew about Slade was that he was the Enforcer from Clan Cruel who collected our Tribute every six months. Muscles strained the expensive suits he wore and his golden eyes followed me everywhere. The way he looked at me made me quiver inside so I tried to avoid him.
I had no idea he had decided I was his Fated Mate.
Apparently, he's been watching me for years and now he sees his opportunity--my foolish younger brother has gambled away all the tribute money. With no other way to pay, I'm forced to accept his proposition--Slade wants to marry me and make me bear his heir. For six months he gets to try to impregnate me. If I get pregnant, I have to stay.
I'm not staying.
I might have to marry the huge Brute, but I'll never have his child.
Author's Note--Cruel Union is a forced marriage, Dark Mafia Romance--the first book in the new Brutal Universe Series.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
PROLOGUE
AURORA
HAVING MY ENEMY’S BABY
Goddess of Mercy, I can’t believe I’m doing this, I thought, staring at myself in the antique mirror I had inherited from my mother. A girl with long brown hair and brown eyes stared back. I couldn’t understand what the huge alien Enforcer saw in me—why he wanted me so badly.
By the standards of my people I was past my prime—a spinster never expected to marry. And I wasn’t thin either—my body was too curvy and full-figured to be considered pleasing to most men.
And yet, Slade wanted me.
He wanted me not just as his wife, but as the mother of his heir. He had told me he expected to breed me! How could I allow him to do that? How could I open my legs for my enemy and let him plant his baby inside me? And why did the thought of it give me a dark thrill of desire in the pit of my stomach?
Stop it! I scolded myself. You don’t want this—you don’t want him.
That was true—I was sure of it. I didn’t want anything to do with the Brutal crime lord—the head Enforcer of Clan Cruel. He was huge and frightening and the bulge I saw in his trousers let me know I was in for a wedding night as cruel as the name of his clan. But still, the way he looked at me with those burning golden eyes…
I pushed the thought away and tried to think of something else—anything else. But Slade’s image kept popping up in my mind’s eye. Oh Goddess, how was I ever going to get through this wedding?
And even worse, how was I going to survive the honeymoon?
I closed my eyes and tried to think back. How had this all started? How had I gotten to this point? Was there any way I could have avoided it? And had Slade really been determined to make me his all along?
I just didn’t know…
1
SLADE
HEAD ENFORCER OF CLAN CRUEL
“You sure you’re ready to Bind this girl?” Turk asked me, throwing back another shot of Prithian Sour. His moving neon tats—a sign of Clan Savage—flexed over his dark grey skin as he signaled the bartender for another. “She’s an Untainted you know—she isn’t going to come easy.”
“Yeah—she’s not gonna want anything to do with your ‘Impure’ ass.” Drake laughed and flexed his wings—a sure sign he was from Clan Ruthless. Their Elders had mated with the Dr’gons of Ni’malth Prime—a strategic trade. The result was that the males of their family could fly—pretty fucking useful in battle.
“Like Slade gives a fuck,” Rath growled. He rubbed his curling horns, now painted silver, with one gloved hand. The metallic shine was a sign that the Chieftain of his Family—Clan Vicious—trusted him implicitly. “He’s gonna take her no matter what she wants—she’s his Fated Mate.”
“I’ll take her all right—but I won’t force her,” I said, knocking back my own drink—a Corthian brandy that had a deceptively sweet start and then burned like a fucking fireball going down. “I won’t have to,” I added.
“Oh no?” Drake demanded. “Then how the fuck do you expect to keep her with you?”
“Yeah—I thought you wanted this little human like you wanted your next breath.” Rath adjusted his gloves which ended at the wrist—he wore them to keep from feeling too much. Clan Vicious’ abilities could also be a liability at times.
I clenched my jaw as I tried to keep myself from reacting to my friend’s words. Deep down, I felt the Darkness inside me stirring but I took a deep breath and pushed it back down. My own family—Clan Cruel—had mixed with the Night Walkers of Midnight Prime. The thing inside me was useful for battle…but it could be a problem sometimes.
“I want her so much I fucking ache—she’s all I fucking think about,” I admitted in a low voice. “But a forced Binding isn’t what I’m looking for. In fact, I’m not even planning to Bind her to me at all—not completely anyway.”
Turk shoved away the droid bartender—who was just about to pour his drink—and slammed down his glass to give me a look.
“You’re going to do a partial Binding? What the fuck, Slade? Are you looking to be in pain? Are you some kind of masochist?” His fangs showed, making the last word into a hiss. Clan Savage had Serpentine blood in their ancestry.
“I’m not worried about it, if that’s what you’re asking,” I said coolly, motioning for the bartender. The droid moved forward mechanically, pointing its spout-finger at my drink to refill it with more of the same. “She’ll come around. Untainted or not, no woman can resist their Fated Mate for long.”
“He’s got a point,” Drake said, flexing his wings again. “But still—what a fucking hassle. Why choose an Untainted for your Fated Mate?”
“You know as well as I do that you don’t get to choose,” I pointed out. “She’s just the one—I’ve known from the first minute I saw her.” As I spoke, I ran a hand over my golden horns—a nervous habit that helped sooth the Darkness inside.