Page 45 of A Bond of Fire and Roses

I try to manoeuvre myself between them, but the guards charging into the room hold me back. I’m forced to watch as Erax beats Lochlan to a pulp. He doesn’t fight back. He just lays there, taking hit after hit, his fate sealed.

“Please, Erax!” I sob his name out, trying to twist myself free of the guards. “Let him go. Please, just let him go!”

Erax only lets Lochlan go once he’s lost consciousness. Panting heavily, he stands and looks at me. His face is splashed with Lochlan’s blood and the crazed look in his eyes is unlike anything I have seen in a human before. It’s feral. Animalistic.

“Take him to the Keep,” he orders, stepping over Lochlan’s body, “and get your hands off my wife.”

His guards release me. Quickly they follow his orders: they drag Lochlan to his feet and haul him from the room. I hear him groan though I barely see Lochlan through the tears clouding my vision. I caused this. If I had pulled away from him sooner Erax might never have seen and none of this would have happened. This is all my fault.

For a painfully long moment, the room is quiet. Erax thrusts open the drink cabinet by the window and pulls out a half empty bottle. He knocks back several mouthfuls and then breathes a sigh, as if he’s just finished a long day tending his royal duties. As if he hadn’t just nearly beaten my friend to death.

I let my tears fall, letting the pain behind them turn into anger.

“He was my friend.”

“He’s a traitor,” Erax spits. “And, if I’m not mistaken, he’s the friend who tried to help you escape.’

“Tried to free me, yes.”

I immediately regret saying that. Erax is already intent on killing, and I just handed him a knife with those words. He glares at me.

“Free you?” He scoffs, then, in one impossibly swift movement, pushes me up against the wall. His huge body pins me underneath him and his face comes within inches of mine, his breath fanning my cheeks. Slowly he runs his knuckles down my cheek, stained with Lochlan’s blood. “What about now, Mist? Do you still long for freedom?” His hand falls between my legs, and I gasp when he caresses me. A cruel smile works its way over his lips. “You certainly didn’t last night when I made you come so hard you screamed my name.”

“Erax, stop?—”

“Oh, I’m just getting started, and it seems, my beautiful wife, so are you.”

His smile grows wider when I suddenly moan. I try to close my legs, but Erax forces them open with his knee. I’ve never seen him so angry—his eyes so dark and hateful and yet beautiful at the same time. It frightens me. It also makes my body shiver against him as unbidden desire rises through me.

“In the old days, the king would have your head for what you just did,” Erax whispers. “Or lock you in a dungeon and let you rot there for the rest of your life.”

His fingers gently caress me, teasing and gliding over my sensitive area. His smile grows even more wider and cruel when he pushes inside and takes in how wet I am. I can’t help it, and we both know deep down I don’t want to. “I could feed you to my dragon for treason,” he breathes, “and our entire kingdom would watch.” He eases his fingers in and out, his eyes never leaving me. “But I’d rather feed your friend to her, and make you watch as I fuck you in front of them.”

“Please…” I gasp out another moan as he rubs my sensitive spot with his thumb. “Just stop, Erax!”

He stops. As if the darkness with him is melting away, Erax withdraws his hand and pulls away from between my legs. He keeps his other hand on my wrists pinned above my head though, and when he leans in, his eyes are still incinerating.

“Don’t ever… do that again.”

“It wasn’t what you?—”

“Ever,” he growls, grabbing my throat, “again. Or so help me, Maelena, I will burn every man who looks at you. Do you understand?”

His dilated pupils reflect my image back to me, and I’m surrounded by flames that swirl in his eyes. His dragon is just as angry and possessive as him. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I certainly didn’t mean for Lochlan to kiss me. Although it felt so wrong when he did, like kissing a brother. It felt nothing like when I kiss Erax, and my soul feels like it’s on fire.

I nod at him, unable to breathe let alone speak.

“Good.” Erax lets me go. “Now if your friend would like to keep his head, he better not come back here, or I’ll rip it off with my bare fucking hands. Is that understood?”

Again, I nod, my body still trembling from the fear and desire he wrought upon me. Erax pulls away. He adjusts his clothes, sweeps a hand through his hair, then he turns and makes for the door.

“Where are you going?” I whisper, even though I know the answer.

The fact Erax doesn’t reply confirms it. He’s going to the Keep.

As he slams the door behind him, I reach into my pocket. My hands shaking, I hold the picture of my parents as more tears splash their faces, this time for different reasons. No, I will not forget. Just like I won’t forget all the terrible things Erax has done since he burned my world to ash.

I will never forgive him, but I hate the way my legs beg me to go after my king.

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