Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 76857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76857 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 307(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Pressing his fingers to my lips, he interrupted, “I personally vetted each human in your cadre of farmers. I selected the location of your vigil, personally chose the hybrids to guard the walls at your back, and scheduled the days you would be allowed some fresh air. Often, I was even standing in the fog, watching over you. I was there the day the vorec broke your leg when you were seventeen. When it happened, I think I lost about a thousand years off my life.”
I pulled his touch from my lips, scowling. “Allowed fresh air?”
“Your face has always been an open book, every expression a delight.” He traced the shape of my scowl with a smirk. “When you’ve been insulted, you become especially fierce.”
Irritated that he could get under my skin so easily, I hissed, “How would you feel to find out your whole life was one grand lie? That you grew up in a fishbowl so your tormentor might groom you to his unhinged standards? I’m not an exotic pet, Cyderial! Do you treat me any differently than the human men you spoke of? Sex, secrets, trickery, flattery—for what?”
He said it simply. “So I can know the woman I love is safe.”
His mania was too much, my agitated rejoinder keen. “And who keeps me safe from you?”
Hand sliding behind my neck, he drew me near to breathe the words against my lips. “Anyone, hybrid or human, who tried to keep me from you would suffer a painful death at my hands. Every last human in this city would die screaming in the fog if that’s what it took.”
Ice ran through my veins when I realized he meant every last word. “Is that what you’re planning to do to them?”
Utterly sincere, he replied, “If I must.”
Our conversation had taken a shadowy turn, and in the gloom lurked the whisper of some dark truth I hadn’t quite grasped. He was scaring me again. “My mother lives in the city. Her children and relations.”
Flippant, he stole a daring kiss from my lips. “Then they better not try to take you from me. It is as simple as that.”
I already knew him to be unmerciful toward those suffering through the rigors of the academy. For ten years, he had deceived and misled me, time and time again. General Cyderial, my bonded mate, was the master of misdirection, of distraction.
And he did nothing in small measure.
Already teasing my body to life with doting touches, as if to draw me away from the horror of my suspicions. Already working to unravel my thoughts, so I might smile at him and purr.
Because I understood exactly what he vowed. I had already lived it.
There was far more at stake here than heat, addiction, or even my own happiness.
Selfish intentions or not, Miranda’s wisdom had been more valuable than female guidance. It was a dangerous warning. Every choice I made had power to contain the insatiable general—or to unleash him. Every mistake would have a consequence.
So much as a single wrong glance or a troubled sigh might inspire my doting, possessive mate to overreact. That he might threaten the annihilation of an entire species if he had the inkling it would be best for me.
Just as his monstrous love had upended the safety and sanity of my academy sisters and brothers for a decade.
“You do not need to be frightened, my love.” Cupping my cheek, he thought to soothe the growing horror my traitorous expression revealed. “Trust me, remain obedient and permissive to all you must learn, and you will find peace in my care.”
Straddling him, open and vulnerable, close enough to breathe his breath, I found I could not hide my growing sense of dread. “Promise me you will not harm the humans.”
While his reawakened cock teased at my body and his hands drifted to my breasts, he claimed my mouth before whispering, “No.”
His dreadful refusal forced me to acknowledge a stark, terrible truth. I was the only thing standing between every last soul in the city and a terrifying juggernaut. My duty from that moment forward would be to show my mate that humankind did not need to suffer as my academy sisters and brothers had suffered. After all, I had been created for a single purpose.
And I intended to fulfill it.
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BORN TO BE BOUND
Alpha’s Claim, Book One
She had made it this far... wide eyes peered through the narrow slit between wool cap and layer upon layer of dingy muffler wrapped around the lower half of her face. No one seemed to be paying much attention as she passed, ignoring the creature in the stinking, oversized coat when it hesitated at the bottom of broad stairs and looked up at Thólos Citadel. Clutching tighter to the bottle of pills in her pocket, madly gripping her lifeline, she took the first step.