Page 19 of To Run with the Wild Hunt

"I want to remember," I said, before he could finish. "Please." It made me shudder to plead, even knowing he couldn't force a bargain out of me. He was the soulmate of my soulmate, and we could owe each other only what we chose to owe, our eyes open and with truth on our tongues.

"You may not like what you find," the Master warned.

"I can't live like this. I can't find balance like this." I shuddered, my dull claws digging into my palms. "We're supposed to be equals. We can only be master and hound if it's a choice, if I can choose, if I hold out obedience as a gift and she takes it from me. But I'm— I'm—" My voice cracked, my whole body shaking. "I'm broken."

"My poor hound," he murmured, running his silver finger-bones through my hair. "You were never meant to have to come back from your base nature, or to remember how to be a man." The Master took a deep breath, his thighs tensing. "Forgive me, Keilain. I should have known you would need help shaking off my power."

I looked up at him, shocked at hearing him apologize.

He merely smiled, a soft expression. "You're not broken, Key. Part of you is locked away. Let me show you." He took another deep breath. "Close your eyes."

The force of his command flooded into me, something I could choose to resist because of Lexi.

But I didn't resist. I closed my eyes, shuddering with pleasure as the warmth of obedience flushed my skin and curled through my blood.

The Master's breath scudded across my throat as he lowered his face towards mine. "You are Keilain Ueteroxe, the Prince of Teeth. Remember."

The Vicious Prince

Keilain Ueteroxe

The warg between my legs snarls, the sound vibrating through me. I lick my lips, squeezing my heels against her ribs to urge her forward. My squad follows me, spears and bows at the ready as we advance through the woods towards the open meadow. Only a few more steps…

I kick her and we leap forward into motion, the wind tearing through my hair with reckless abandon. I can feel the ache as the young horns on my forehead grow, too fast for anything natural, my skin tearing and blood running down my face as the wild magic of Faery changes my body towards the monstrousness I've chosen to embrace for my beloved paramour.

I bare my sharpened teeth. Faery knows me. Faery loves me. I won't ever be alone.

"You look like you want to eat him, love." My paramour runs her tongue along my throat, the promise of heated nights behind the caress. "Are you going to make him bleed or come?"

"Both, I think," I purr, wrapping my new tail around her bare thigh, hard enough that the silver bones of my bare spine scrape her skin where they've grown through my flesh, the hint of blood warming the air. I smell it so much more clearly day by day, giving control of my body over to the woman I love and the magic of Faery. "I could bite his cock while he spills. Would you like that?"

She whimpers, pain as much a pleasure for her as any gentle touch. "Make him scream?"

For her, I'll do anything. I can be a monster if she longs for it. I'm already becoming one.

I hiss as my claws catch on my thigh, tearing the skin open. "Fuck. Fucking black night!"

I hate it, love it, want every part of my body to reflect the truth of my soul and yet despise that it makes me bleed. A man should only ever bleed from battle or sex, never from stupid fucking accidents because he doesn't understand his own body anymore—

"I liked you better when you were kinder." Her voice is dismissive. Disappointed. She has nothing left to ruin, and now I mean nothing to her.

"When have I ever been kind?" I sneer, hating the unhappiness that twists in my gut. I shouldn't care that she doesn't want me anymore, but I can't bear that she's leaving. I want to keep what I've taken, whether that's prey or a paramour.

How dare she?

She made me this. I threw myself into the teeth of Faery for her. I wear horns and claws and bare silver bone for her. How can she hate me now? I did it for her.

The branches lash me as I race my warg through the woods, rage and stymied desire burning through me like a forest fire. I don't care, I can't care, I won't care, it doesn't matter what I lose—

The elk doe that had been my lover runs through the forest, fleet and terrified, her fear stark on my tongue. Just a game, it was always just a game, but it's not a game any longer. I have nothing left to lose.

Any man can call on the Wild Hunt if he's willing to forget everything but the taste of his prey's blood. To give up his body, and become a hound.

My body belonged to her. I can't bear to look at myself—to feel myself. I don't even have a body to lose.

I'm screaming, my throat torn by my howl, blood on my tongue and pain searing through my soul. I just want to forget—

"Please! Take it away!"

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