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)
Far more collected, General Cyderial addressed his guest. “General Thayer, it’s time for you to leave.”
“Understood.” Where I found hope, Thayer had only a look of measured concern, maybe even a look of pity for his compatriot. “I commend you on your restraint, old friend. She is a handful.”
Turning to go, the stranger gave me a quick measuring look. “It would be a worthy thing if you could learn to care for your mate as much as you seem to care for my Maeve.”
This again? “She’s not yours!”
Cyderial stepped between us, adding an edict to Thayer's dismissal. “The academy will be in full lockdown until this situation is resolved. Maeve is off limits so long as she resides on these grounds.”
No more jests or mockery, General Thayer retreated toward the door. “You have my word that I will follow your example, so long as I am able.”
The door closed.
Only Cyderial and myself in the beautiful, terrifying room.
Unsure what to say, I muttered a soft, “Thank you for keeping him away from Maeve. She won’t want him.”
“I can’t keep Thayer away from Maeve forever. He is a general. Nothing can prevent him from taking her whenever his self-control runs dry.”
“But… you just ordered him away.”
His reply was stern. “From you.”
Scowling, he reached for a security panel near my shoulder. A series of codes were activated requiring voice identification and a retinal scan. Per lockdown protocol, the lights immediately dimmed, fading until only a soft red glow signified students were under the highest threat. Shutters would be falling over every window and entrance. Deadbolts tumbled into place, sealing every door within the academy, including the only exit from that room.
I was trapped in Cyderial’s office.
No men scratching at the doors would be able to breach the stronghold now. Not even another general. Maeve was safe.
But I was in grave danger.
The general who had killed my friends would order my gruesome execution next. Most likely a public hanging, so no impressionable young girls would be tempted to follow the terrible example I’d set.
Or, by the look of the vein jumping at his temple, the general might kill me right there with his bare hands.
13
Cyderial’s face hovered over mine. The low red light sharpened the planes of his high cheekbones, exaggerating shadows and menace. Red shone off his pale hair, those vicious eyes behind the drape of blond glowing scarlet.
If I had not already known the man was incapable of mercy, I might have begun begging at that very moment.
A thrumming base began building low in his chest, reverberating in the air between us like a feather-light brush of sound against my skin. Far different than the pounding drums of aggressive threat, yet somehow much more perilous.
I didn’t know this sound.
Unknowns made me nervous.
The awful pair of us were already close, but he eased closer still.
Too close.
If these were to be my final moments, I wanted to be brave. But I was not brave, my instinct to run screaming at me to move my legs and flee. But for some reason, the noise he made kept me pinned. Held me there—right there—to await destruction.
The fog was never going to be mine.
Maeve was never going to be truly safe from Thayer.
And I was going to die without having ever lived.
At least the room smelled nice and I was surrounded by pretty things. That is what I would think of, not that he was slowly reaching forward to take me by the throat.
Lightly, his grip circled my neck.
A ghost of a smile, malicious and starved, played over his lips when my racing pulse was under his thumb.
The man never smiled, a dry smirk all I had ever witnessed.
This smile let me know it was personal.
I would pay for what I’d done.
Voice heavily distorted with anger, he broke down every last word of condemnation. “The idea that you would have let some random man fuck you, desecrate your body….”
I swallowed, the action only emphasizing his grip on my throat. Expletives were rarely used by those around me, but the implication made it clear. “Fuck” was a dark word for intercourse.
Dangerous, he asked, “Would it have mattered whose cock was inside you?”
Another new word.
Tilting my head back so I might measure his every move, I confessed, “No.”
“You would have let anyone touch you any way they wished?”
Was that pain in his expression?
“Yes.” If that’s what it took.
He closed his eyes, drew in a slow, deep breath, and released it.
“I should have done this a long time ago.” The hand about my throat pulled me marginally closer, close enough that his breath warmed my lips. “If you are giving away your body, then consider it claimed.”
Before I might fully grasp the insanity he’d just spoken, his mouth crashed down in a harsh, punishing kiss.
This was not a boy’s tentative explorations in the secret dark, but a fully grown man taking whatever he wished from a woman with no experience in how to defend against such things.