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 was still furious, of course—the Brute who’d tried to take her was going to die as soon as I found out who he was. He had to be punished—I could feel the Darkness pent up inside me roiling with rage. But thinking like that was going to make it come out again and I couldn’t afford that—not when Aurora was looking at me like I might gobble her up at any minute.
I would have to deal with it later, I decided. Right now I had to calm my new bride down and heal her wounds. I could smell fresh blood and I knew that she’d been hurt trying to get away from me. I needed to take her back to my suite at the resort and try to ease her fear.
But later that son-of-a-bitch was going to pay, I swore to myself. He was Clan Ruthless—his crimson eyes and large, leathery wings proclaimed it loudly. Not only had the bastard tried to kidnap the wife of another Clansman, he’d come to another Clan’s territory to do it!
If Clan Cruel had been disputing with Clan Ruthless, it might have made sense, but there were no conflicts between us right now. This could start one though. I needed to talk to Drake—he was Clan Ruthless and this information had to go straight to the Chieftain of his Clan. He needed to know that one of his own was marauding in another Clan’s territory.
But for now, I had to tend to my wife and pray I could convince her that I wasn’t a danger to her—not even when my Darkness came out. How was I going to manage that, though?
The easiest way to calm her down was to be close to her—to give her skin-to-skin contact and let her smell my scent. Fated Mates are naturally attracted and calmed by each other’s pheromones. They also leave a kind of trail that we Brutes, with our superior senses, can follow. That was how I’d been able to find her.
When I’d come back and found her missing from our table, I at first assumed she had gone to visit the ladies room. But then I caught a whiff of her scent in the air and her fear and panic came through to me, loud and clear. I also smelled another Brute—and I knew at once he was from a different Clan than mine.
I had followed their scents to the parking area and found Aurora just in time. And thank She of the Four Faces I had! If I had lost her…
I clenched my jaw, doing my best to tamp down the Darkness inside me. It wanted to come out again—to find that fucking bastard who had tried to take my bride and tear him limb from limb!
But the dark rage I felt wasn’t going to help right now. I told myself that I had to concentrate on Aurora. Somehow I had to win back her trust.
I just wasn’t sure how in the fuck I was going to manage that.
13
AURORA
We didn’t say much on the flight. Slade was too busy piloting the ship and I was too busy watching him from the corner of my eye to see if he would turn into the enormous dark figure with the white, knife-like teeth again.
I had been frightened of him before—mainly because I was dreading what was going to happen on our wedding night. Now I had a whole new fear. What was the beast that he became? How dangerous was it? Could it come out at any time? Did he have control over it?
All these questions swam through my mind as I watched him fly the ship through the dark skies of Rigelis Nine. But I wasn’t sure if I could ask them without making him angry again—without making the thing inside him come out. So I kept my mouth shut and huddled against my seat, feeling tiny and frightened and alone.
At last Slade flew into a large horizontal opening in the side of another tall building. He landed and turned to me.
“All right, Princess—we’re home. Or at least the place I’m calling home for now.” He sighed and ran a hand over his golden horns. “Hang on, I’ll come around to get you out,” he told me.
“I can manage!” I protested but he shook his head.
“No, I’m going to help you. The last thing we need is for you to fall and get wounded again.”
I bit my lip—how had he known that I was wounded? My palms and one of my knees were stinging fiercely after falling on the pavement but I hadn’t said anything to him about them. And none of my injuries was obvious—I had my arms crossed protectively over my breasts and I was turned away from him.
Nevertheless, Slade seemed to know. He came around the other side of the ship and reached for me to help me out.