Page 86 of Crown of Chaos

“They almost captured you, Aria,” he murmured in a raspy voice. He used his free hand to push back the hair sticking to my face and tuck it behind my ear. “I thought I told you to stop being the sheep.”

“Lions appear when the sheep become vulnerable, do they not?” I queried, combing my fingers through his hair. “Maybe I wanted to be devoured by the lion, Knox.”

He made a strangled sound from deep in his throat before lowering his lips to brush them over my forehead. His weight against mine was delicious enough to send need coursing through me. The air sparking with tension, and I shuddered against the scent he was saturating the air with.

“You were lucky that I was close enough to catch your scent. If I hadn’t tracked it, I wouldn’t have been close enough to hear your rattle sounding through the woods,” he said before reclaiming my mouth in an earth-shattering kiss that caused my thighs to clench wantonly. “I should turn you over and spank your fucking ass, Aria.”

“I’m down for that, Knox.” I chuckled, groaning as the room spun and my hand moved to the wound on my head.

“Wicked woman,” he whispered as concern tightened around his eyes.

I squirmed beneath his scrutiny, knowing I was a mess. I could feel the soiled clothing sticking to my skin, and I knew my face and hair were soaked in my own blood. There were other things, too, like the fact that my vision still refused to focus on him.

“Esme?” I inquired softly.

I struggled to get up, to force my body to comply, but Knox pushed his hand against my shoulder, keeping me down. Worry flashed in his gaze as it flicked to my head before moving to the doorway. Magic rushed through the room, and a fireplace lit with a soft glow before a handful of candles placed around the room followed.

“Killian, Lore, and Brander are fawning over her at the moment. She was hurt in the attack, but she’s more pissed off that they caught you both off-guard.” I tried to rise again, but he held me in place. “You need to stay still, Aria. You have a pretty nasty head wound from a mace. I don’t think they intended to take you alive.” That wasn’t something he had to tell me. No one hits someone else that many times unless death is the goal.

“The women I tried to save?” I asked.

“They were all in on it, I’m afraid,” he admitted, pushing another strand of hair away from my face. “They were sirens, which you know can use their voice to fill others with a false need to save and protect them. You both fell into their trap, but Esme more so. She didn’t want to leave them and fought my men to remain with her newcompanions. I ended up slaughtering them all.”

“Is Esme okay?” I questioned with worry deepening in my tone.

Knox had murdered people to protect me? That thought sent a wealth of warmth flooding through me because, while he’d told me as much, I hadn’t actually trusted that his words had been the truth.

“She took a few hard hits to her skull, which Brander worked on. She seems okay, mostly. If we hadn’t been there, you’d both be headless and being displayed on that bastard’s wall right now. He’s been continually spreading rumors to lure you into his forest. He has spent weeks replaying that same scenario within the woods behind his keep,” he snorted, lowering to his knees before what I assumed was a fireplace, where a tiny flame danced.

“Shouldn’t we be escaping?” Not that I thought it was possible. I wasn’t in any shape to be running from anything so long as the room continued to spin and I struggled to focus.

His shoulders shook as if he were silently laughing at me. The scent of magic rushed through the room, and I felt a gentle tug against mine. He tilted his head, and he extended his palm, where flames danced and kissed his flesh before vanishing to ignite the tattoos covering his arms, sides, and shoulders. It was something I’d never seen him do before, as if he’d consumed them into his soul.

“They won’t come here, Aria. They’re not invited onto the land I hid us on,” he explained, slowly running his fingers over my cheek. “You look exhausted.”

“I am,” I returned, grabbing his hand. I twined my fingers through his, needing to feel his skin against mine. Even injured as I was, I craved him and wasn’t about to ignore it when he was this close to me. “You saved us.”

“I’m sure you would have prevailed,” he offered sarcastically, but his words escaped in a roughly spoken tone that curled and shot through my center. “I merely happened upon a beautiful maiden in need of assistance,” he returned before his expression turned serious. “You need to learn who’s worth risking your pretty ass to save. Stop thinking everyone here is a victim because, I promise, they’ve learned to use your need to save them against you.”

“I thought they were being hunted,” I admitted, hearing a moan coming from the next room. “How are theytendingto Esme?” I lifted one brow and waited.

He just shrugged and shifted so he was sitting next to me. “However she wants. She’s not an alpha female. Esme is a beta, and they prefer to catch and release men. If she doesn’t let them fuck her, it’s her choice. Unlike you, who enjoys being chased and captured and forced to submit.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being chased and thrown down by an alpha. In fact, I enjoy when you do that to me. Ember enjoys it, too,” I admitted.

“That comes from being an alpha female. You need the excitement from it and the violence that comes after. It’s your inner beast demanding a potential partner prove his worth, strength, and prowess before you allow him to take you,” he murmured, leaning closer to drag his fingers over the wound on my head.

Lately, when Knox chased me, I got needy as shit. It took a lot of willpower not to purposefully fall and wait for him to catch up.

“You’re man enough,” I said without ire or derision, but then my nose crinkled. “I stink and smell of blood.”

“Sit up and I’ll help you strip out of your clothes. I prepared a bath for when you awoke. Move slowly, and we’ll need to be careful of your hair. That wound isn’t small, Little Monster.”

I did as he asked, finally able to see well enough to confirm that he did actually have a small tub waiting for me by the fire. His ability to deduce what I needed before I asked made heat rush through my chest, and something foreign settled within it.

Knox tugged my dress off and then helped me stand before kneeling to pull my panties down my legs, making sure I was steady as I stepped out of them. When he rose, I didn’t shield my body from him or shy away since he’d already had me in every way. I exhaled a gasp when his hands landed on my hips and his mouth lowered to run his lips over my shoulder.

Knox pulled back, scanning my face for any sign that I was going to fight him. He made a deep rumble of sound before walking me toward the tub and helping me climb in. The water was chilly, but I sank into it anyway as Knox watched.

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