Page 51 of Warlord's Plaything

She bares her teeth.

"Call it whatever the fuck you want. I’m not stopping."

Her breath is hot against my jaw, her pulse racing.

And fuck—this isn’t just a fight anymore.

This is something else.

Something thick with heat.

With want.

With something we don’t name.

"You lost."I whisper the words against her ear, feeling the way her body shudders.

She hates that I’m right, that she can’t break me like she breaks everyone else.

"Fuck you,"she breathes.

And I fucking grin.

"You will."

And then?—

I knock her out cold.

She slumps, unconscious in my arms, breath still ragged.

I lift her easily, feeling the way her body fits too well against mine.

Like it was meant to.

Like I was always going to catch her in the end.

"Take the rest of them into custody,"I order Kaelith, voice even.

"Kill the ones who resist."

Kaelith studies me, then nods.

"And her?"

I glance down at the woman who has done nothing but defy me from the moment I saw her.

At the wild, reckless fucking creature that has sunk under my skin like a buried blade.

"She’s mine."

18

HIRA

Iwake to heat.

Not the kind from the fire that swallowed House Herox’s war stores.

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