Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 165649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 663(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 165649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 663(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
“Ferro . . .”
He reached for her hand, curling his fingers around hers, bringing her palm to his chest. “You will be with me, Elisabeta, and therefore safe at all times. My brethren will be close, and they will protect you as well. Julija, your friend, is here with her lifemate. Lorraine, my sister-kin, is here and anxious to befriend you.”
She remained frozen, staring up at him, too terrified to move. He brought her fingers to the warmth of his mouth, his strong teeth scraping the very ends of them, sending spirals of heat dancing through her veins.
“If you become overwhelmed, just look to me. I will shield you. I am your lifemate, Elisabeta. Everyone we come across, including my brothers, will expect me to be old-world and overbearing.” He showed her his teeth again, this time looking for all the world like a predator. “We can communicate as we did earlier, just the two of us. You tell me what you need, and I will provide it. I do not expect you to suddenly, after centuries of captivity, know how to speak with strangers or handle situations unfamiliar to you. I am proud of you for just choosing to rise and face your lifemate. I am told I am quite intimidating.”
She glanced up at his face. He was walking her across the healing grounds toward the exit, not striding fast but setting a leisurely pace, enough that she could slide her feet, one in front of the other, not lifting them, her heart beating as if it might fall out of her chest. His tone invited her to find amusement in his statement. She wished she could laugh, but she was too scared. Still, just having him so close gave her courage. Thus far, Ferro had shown her nothing but kindness. She had to believe he would continue to do so.
2
A slumber for the ages, hidden within your retreat;
Awaken from your nightmare, feel the ground beneath your feet.
Ferro looked down at the top of Elisabeta’s dark, gleaming head of silky hair. He could feel fear coming off of her in waves. His woman was no mouse. She thought herself closed off to him, terrified that he would think she wasn’t worth anything at all to a man as “ferocious” as she thought him. She considered him a true Carpathian warrior and he supposed he was, although he didn’t think much about it. He had passed far too many centuries hunting and destroying vampires. It was simply what he did.
She had been little more than a child when Sergey Malinov had taken her from her home and placed her in a cage away from the world. Everyone had thought she was dead. Her brother, Traian, had searched for centuries for her, but no trace of her had been found. No one suspected the Malinovs were in any way connected to her disappearance. Sergey had hidden her from his own brothers. Not even they had suspected she existed.
The little glimpses into the past Ferro had caught in her mind were more than disturbing. They were horrific, and he’d encountered many terrible things in his lifetime. She was so alone and could only rely on the vampire who had taken her prisoner for everything needed to sustain her life. It was no wonder she was terrified to go out into the world.
Right now, as they paused before stepping from the healing grounds into the actual gardens of the compound where the main house, the lake and the smaller homes were located, he knew the wide-open space, without the bars of her cage, made her feel a little sick and disoriented. He pulled her close to his body, beneath his shoulder, to give her more of a feeling of being surrounded. He locked his arm around her waist while they stood there, just looking over the gardens.
“It’s really quite beautiful, isn’t it?” he asked, to distract her.
He’d never really noticed the beauty of nature, at least not in centuries. He hadn’t seen in color until he’d heard her voice, that low moaning beneath the healing grounds when she’d called out to try to keep from having to emerge to be fed. Now, the various shades of color on the leaves intrigued him. The blue of the lake, the surface shimmering silver and frost in the moonlight.
What he really wanted to do was pick her up in his arms, take to the sky and carry her back to the monastery secreted high in the Carpathian Mountains. He would have no problem telling his beautiful, fractured woman what to do and guiding her gently into the world they would create together, but he was her lifemate and he provided what she needed. She needed to know that she had her own power.
After centuries of being enslaved by a vampire and treated so cruelly, Elisabeta would never be like Andor’s wife, Lorraine, a very modern woman who Ferro respected and admired but would never be compatible with. He wouldn’t want that. He couldn’t live with that. He was too protective, but he didn’t want Elisabeta to feel fear, not of the world around her and never of him. He would seek every solution possible to figure out a way to help her find what was taken from her—her own power.