Page 38 of The Princess and Her Grand King

"Galilea made me feel strange things. But I was okay with it, for it distracted me from my misery. Until I found out why she made me feel that way." He stared out at the ocean. "I felt so angry, deceived… Guilty. I thought sending her away was the best thing to do."

"But it wasn’t, was it?"

At first, he felt nothing but emptiness. Then the nightmares came more frequently, followed by dreams of her in his arms, in his life. It was torture.

Here he saw the family he had lost, the empty pit that was once the center of his universe. On the other side, he saw theSoulbondhe had lost—a female whose body he craved, whose scent he was addicted to.

Daemonikai had drifted into a new version of hell.

"Those memories…" Evie spoke softly. "The ones you recovered from your feral time… they didn’t make things easier, did they?"

As if that hell wasn’t enough, those lost memories came.

Daemonikai recalled the night they flooded his mind. Vivid, fragmented images.

Emeriel patiently hand-feeding him.

His beast mounting her again and again.

The surge of rage he'd felt as he tore apart the slave master who dared to touch her.

How she'd summoned him to court, and he had answered, driven by a need to protect her. A need to possess. To keep her safe from harm.

Finding a strange contentment in her presence. Emeriel had been his beacon of light in the face of his mindless instincts.

He recalled holding her in his arms in the dead of night as she bravely cuddled against his fur.

Memories of how she'd risked her life repeatedly to be with him. Satisfying his sexlust. Coming to him during her heats, and he, in turn, plunging into his ruts, even in his feral state. His instincts along the line of;Must take her, must make her mine.

“I don’t want you to die.”Memories of her crying as she said those words. She had hugged his beast form in the hallway after he saved her from armed assassins.“They are going to kill you, and it hurts me so much. Please, don’t die.”

“Here,”she had whispered, baring her delicate throat to him.“Drink from me. Take what you need.”

He could still taste the sweet nectar that was her blood, the heavenliness sliding down his throat. He remembered her tears, her pleas for him to stay alive and take his male form again.

Emeriel had loved him wholeheartedly.

In a feral state where he had nothing but pain to give her, she had given himeverything.

That was the beginning of his illness.

Daemonikai pulled himself from the swirling vortex of memories and stared at the seashells surrounding him. "Emeriel is a little being stuffed full of love and light."

"The gods do not make mistakes, dearest," Evie agreed.

Now that he was finally opening up, it was easier to confide in her. To pour out his mind… his doubts.

"That girl deserves better than to be saddled with an ancient like me. A male who once razed an entire village to the ground."

"That was millennia ago, dearest.” Evie bent down to pick up a spiraled seashell. “What she deserves is to be with herSoulbond. Let the past stay where it belongs… behind us. You are a better male now. A wonderful one. If you weren't, our people wouldn't be so devoted to you. And they are."

She examined the shell for a moment, a blissful smile on her face, before tossing it back into the ocean. "You've already secured your place in history as Urai's greatest ruler, a title you'll hold for all eternity. I am so proud of the male you've become."

"Our people don't like her, because of what she represents." Daemonikai's eyes trailed the movement of the shells as they vanished beneath the waves. "They hate the idea that mySoulbondis human. They would have killed her two years ago if I hadn't set her free."

Evie’s smile faded. She nodded, understanding in her eyes. "The people will need time. They love you deeply. In time, they will come to accept and protect what you care about. I have faith that Emeriel will win them over."

She paused, turning to look at him. "But don't let their reservations become the wedge that drives you apart again, dearest. For five millennia, you have lived for them and their expectations. You put them first, as a king should, and you love them greatly. But it's time you did something for yourself, my love. Damn everyone else. After all, you lost us while saving them."

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