Page 34 of Ruled By The Alpha

Not once in the entire history of his existence had anyone done that for him.

All his life, all he had done—all he had known—was destruction. Now, he wanted a different legacy.

She lay flat on top of him, panting hard, her lush mouth inches from his, her wild mane of pink and silver hair covering her face. He brushed it back and looked up at her in awe. “You are far stronger, sneakier, and less puny than you appear.”

Her eyes went wide. “I-I am?”

“Yes.” He was pleased by the glazed, soft look his words put on her face. “You were a worthy opponent. I have chosen my prize well. Only the strongest of fighters like myself could capture and tame prey such as you. It makes my victory and yourcapitulation and defeat all the sweeter—even without your blood and death.”

“Defeat?” The soft look on her face vanished, her pretty eyebrows slashing downward. “No.” She slammed her hands against his chest, trying to wiggle out of his hold. “I yield nothing! You need to let me go.”

“Never.” He held tighter, satisfaction and a new, but not unpleasant, calm settling inside him.

Despite her foolish, false protests, she was his, and she was caught once more.

She was never getting away from him again.

Chapter 4

Before she could blink, Anara was lifted and pinned beneath the beserketh. Impossibly strong hands encircled the very wrists that burned and throbbed every time he was close.

“Now, you stay where I put you.” A cord encircled one wrist, then the other, binding her arms to vines that snaked out from the rocks, trapping them above her head.

Thrashing against the ties did nothing. The roots were buried too deep, keeping her tethered to the ground.

There was also the shameful fact that she was fighting herself too.

Though she was loathe to admit it, some primal part of her was happy to be caught by him once more. Thrilled to have his scent filling her lungs, his warm skin against her own. Ecstatic to be helpless to his touch. The new power surging through her craved more contact, as if her body understood that he was the spark that would send her soaring once more.

Plus, even when grounded, she’d liked lying against him as he tucked her hair behind her ear and praised her in that rumbling voice of his.

For a few heartbeats after she’d brought them both safely back to the ground, he’d looked at her as if… as if she was worthy. As if she was not just prey, not just a puny creature hiding, burrowing deep beneath the leaves, but a predator in her own right.

She knew it was dangerous, but she’d gloried in it all the same.

Until he’d ruined it with his talk of defeat and victory and blood and death. And then tied her up.

“Safe now.” With a satisfied grunt, the beast wrapped another vine beneath her breasts, lashing her upper body to the ground as well.

Safe? While the captive of this male? She didn’t think so.

She wasn’t as worried about him killing her any more. He’d said he would not and, even if she was fool to trust a beast, it was clear he intended ruination of a different kind.

But that was exactly the problem. Death by his hands would have been horrific. But the confusing sensations his touch engendered were a torment of their own.

“Let me go.”

He snarled. “Never.”

She expected him to fall on her. Instead, he stepped back.

To her surprise, her hips and legs floated upward. Her back bowed as the vines kept her arms and chest trapped to the floor while her spine stretched upward, her legs fluttering in the air.

It dawned on her then what he intended—and, fates help her, it wasn’t horror that pulsed through her veins.

Possession gleaming in his stare, he stepped between her floating legs, spreading them wide. The ragged cover was ripped from her hips and tossed aside, baring her to his gaze, exposing her shameful secret: even now, even afraid and uncertain, she was drenched and aching, desperate for his touch.

“What are you doing to me?”

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