Page 16 of Queen of the Underworld

She cast a stricken look up into his now-crimson eyes.

And sleep claimed her.

Chapter 4

Hades couldn’t tear his eyes away from the delicate beauty he held in his left arm as his chariot thundered across the black lands of the Underworld, the four great onyx horses that drew it unerringly finding their way back to his temple without his direction.

She lay slumped backwards, her hips pressing to his thigh, his forearm against her shoulder blades and hand gripping her left shoulder to keep her in place. Her scarlet hair flowed in the breeze like ribbons of blood as her head tipped backwards, lolling and exposing the smooth pale column of her throat.

His fangs itched to pierce that creamy flesh.

To mark her so all would know she belonged to him now.

To claim her.

He gazed at her throat, his eyes growing hooded, his mind turning hazy once again as the darkness that had receded to leave him aware of what he had done poured back through his veins and demanded he mark her so no one would take her from him.

No onecouldtake her from him.

She was his.

Despite the guilt that gnawed at him as he stared at her, as realisation sank deep into his soul to rouse fear. Fear that she would be taken from him. Fear that she would despise him. Fear that she would never truly be his.

This had not been the plan.

But what was done was done.

A quiet voice whispered that he could take her back.

Hades snarled and bared his fangs at it, and clutched her closer to him, his talons in danger of piercing her flawless skin. Crimson lightning struck across the land, a series of bolts that flowed in a line to overtake him, the final and most powerful blast hitting the side of a mountain and showering rock down the steep slope as it carved a crater in its face. He would not take her back. She belonged to him now.

He would somehow make this work, and he would somehow find the strength to deny the darker urges that wracked him and coaxed him into surrendering control to them. She was his, wasn’t she? She would serve him well, whether she liked it or not. He gritted his teeth and fought back, struggling to deny that desire to bend her to his will. The darkness was strong though, used his fears against him and spilled tempting words in his ear, attempting to make him do its bidding as it filled his mind with images of this female beneath him, her bare curves pressed to his as he took her and her sweet cries teased his ears.

Hades screwed his eyes shut and growled, desperate to push the darkness back down and claw himself towards the light.

The light.

His eyes flicked open and darted to the female, and the hold the darkness had on him began to fade, just as it had when he had been fighting it in the forest while she had been looking at him. He had lost that fight when she had turned to leave, the darker side of his blood swift to consume him and have him teleporting to her and sending her into a deep sleep so he could spirit her away.

Hades stared at the delicate redhead, losing himself in her.

His heart galloped as fast as his horses, a tremulous and unsteady beat as he was swept up in a strange and powerful whirlwind of foreign emotions.

Anticipation he had experienced many times before, but never like this. He anticipated battle and bloodshed, but now he awaited far gentler things, ones part of him felt sure could even be more satisfying than violence.

Craving he knew well, but it was also different now. He didn’t crave blood on his hands. He craved the feel of her soft skin beneath his palms. He craved her gaze on him, blazing like green fire with the heat of a thousand suns, as it had back in the woods. She had feared him, but then that fear had been replaced with something else, something he didn’t dare believe he was right about.

But what if he was?

Claiming his queen might be easier than he thought.

They hit a bump, jostling her, and he pulled her closer as his chest constricted, the thought that she might tumble free of his grip and injure herself making his talons close over her shoulder more firmly, until their sharp tips pressed against her fair skin once again.

By the gods, she was beautiful.

They raced through a village, and he sensed eyes on him.

On her.

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