He pushed up from the ground, staring down my body, and his mouth opened to reveal razor-sharp teeth. He growled, lowering his mouth again, running his nose against the hard nipple of my breast that responded to his mouth against my shoulder.
“So pretty, little one,” he hissed thickly, nipping my nipple until I shivered with fear as his serrated teeth threatened to rip my poor nipple off.
He chuckled, watching my reaction. His clawed fingers moved between us as he held himself up by one arm, rubbing against my wetness that his close proximity had created. His claw pushed against the thin material, lifting it away before pushing his claw into my panties. In all reality, it should have torn me apart, but it didn’t. The hardened curve of claws skimmed my sensitive nub, and my legs spread while his eyes lifted. “Mine?”
“Please?” I was uncertain what I was asking him for since he was all sharp edges and razors.
I should have been screaming my head off for help, but no one in this entire realm that could stop this creature if he wanted me. His deep, husky laughter created more heat in my core, and he inhaled, watching me, learning me.
Knox lowered his mouth, brushing it against mine as his scent hit me full force, causing my body to jerk with the magnitude of it. It wrecked my senses, holding me prisoner to the raw, terrifying need to spread my legs and beg him to fuck me. It was terrifying, and yet it excited me knowing that he could either fuck me or destroy me if he chose to.
Knox rattled loudly from deep in his chest, and I followed it with mine, which was feminine sounding. His men entered the clearing, covered in blood as they watched us together through heated stares. I looked away from them to gaze back up at Knox, watching the predator that held me beneath him, trapped.
He was dripping blood from his lips, and his teeth were serrated weapons that scraped over my flesh, stealing a gasp from my lungs as they touched my throat. His cock pushed against me, and I shuddered, noting it was much larger than he’d ever let me experience. He pulled back, staring at me coldly.
“You and your people brought the realm to its knees for this pathetic dream to claim another realm. I will be the one to bring them to their knees as I watch them die, burning this dream to nothing more than ashes. You, sweet girl, you will be on your knees, watching me as I rain down fire on the Nine Realms until there is nothing left. You will crawl and bleed for me, little one, but you will not die.” He rattled loudly with his declaration and his men watching him as he continued to rattle until the trees trembled from the sheer velocity of it. “I will enjoy you as they cower in fear, knowing I am hunting them to extinction. You will be mine, and mine alone, woman.”
Yowsers.
That wasn’t ominous as all get-out, now, was it?
My hands trembled as they lifted, pushing through his hair while I brought his mouth to my throat. I bared it to him like a sacrificial lamb, and he smiled against it. His heated lips brushed against my wildly beating pulse, rushing blood to my brain with adrenaline coursing through me wildly, as he rubbed his erection against me unabashedly.
I turned my head, brushing my lips against his as he stared into my soul, devouring pieces of it slowly, meticulously. Knox had a beast, and that beast was a heartless prick who wanted to hurt me, and I wasn’t sure why I wanted him to, but I craved it. I craved him. All of him, uncaring that he had just admitted he was my enemy.
Embers moved in his eyes as if there was a fire within them that called to me. His mouth dropped against mine, brushing across it carefully, without hurting me, as if it was a coherent choice not to damage my flesh. He spoke of hurting me in one breath while holding me as if I was something to be treasured with the next. It confused, excited, and called to me.
His hands pushed the hair away from my face, watching me as I took in the changes and found them beautiful. I lifted against him, inviting him to take me, without being able to ignore the visceral need for him to fuck me right here, right now. Knox was burning from the inside out as if we were alike beneath the flesh we wore. His hand drifted to my stomach as a wicked smile filled his lips, and then he leaned down, whispering huskily against my ear.
“You’re so fucked, little Aria. You have no idea how much the thought of you on your knees, pleading for me, excites everything within me.” He inhaled against my ear, bringing his hand up against my throat, and I shivered with need as he chuckled. “Soon, I promise.”
“Knox.” I shivered as he pushed his erection against my belly. The power lessened in the clearing as I exhaled, pushing myself against him as white-hot need ripped through me. His head pushed against my shoulder as the rattle sounded again, but when it lifted, and he peered down at me, his gaze was once again the color of a turbulent ocean that could sink ships with the storm raging within them.
“Do not ever fucking do that again, Aria,” he uttered as his eyes turned to a deep, storm-colored blue. “Do you fucking understand me? If they had captured you, you wouldn’t have walked out of these woods tonight.”
“They weren’t the ones that terrified me, Knox,” I admitted softly, watching him as his lips curved into a dangerous grin while his gaze searched mine, but the moment he inhaled, his eyes grew heavy with lust.
“Careful, little lamb, you smell good enough to eat right now.”
“I kind of like the way you devour me,” I admitted.
He shivered and shook off whatever had taken control as a masculine grin lifted the corners of his mouth. Unlike mine, his wasn’t all about sex. It was more about things like murder, ripping alphas apart like they were nothing more than a wispy scrap of paper, and putting them right back where he had found them because apparently, it was rude not to, but in a few more pieces than they’d been before. He moved his hips and smiled wickedly, lowering his mouth to mine before he inhaled.
“They didn’t touch you.” His tone held relief as he studied me, letting his gaze drift to the shirt that was still wet from where he’d grasped my nipple between his massive teeth. His hips pushed against mine, and his heated blue eyes rose to lock with mine, raw need banked in their depths.
“I never planned to let their game get that far.”
He stood, pulling me with him as he picked something up from the ground and placed three tiny canisters into my palm. “They weren’t planning on playing fair, Aria. They planned to rape you and then remove your head. Why are you even out in the woods alone after dusk?”
“Dimitri found portals on our property.”
“And you intended to keep it from me?” He watched me as a tick in his jaw hammered, anger starting to take root as he assumed we were withholding things from him. I rolled my eyes at his reaction.
“No, of course not, jerk. The first thing we asked Dimitri was if you had been notified before us, and when he said no, we asked why you hadn’t been. He said considering Amara’s situation, he wanted to tell us first. We planned to figure out the location of each and then show you where they are.” I left out the part where Dimitri had questioned Knox, and he shook his head.
“What else did he say?”
“He doesn’t like me fucking you and thinks I should be with someone of my own stature within the Nine Realms. He doesn’t like that I sleep with you and that I don’t even know what breed you are, which is a violation of the covenant. I told him to not worry about who I fucked. He got pissy, but he dropped it. Anything else you want to know?”