Page 30 of Her Tortured Beasts

Father scoffs. “Half the males are vying for her. Youngandold. If you don’t take her, she will be snatched up by someone within the week. Her father wouldn’t stand the slight, of course, but that’s besides the point.”

So he’s already discussed it with them.

I pinch the bridge of my nose as pressure builds in my sinuses. Smoke threatens to stream out of my nostrils, and it’s not going to?—

The faint sizzle is the only warning I get before a band of wicked flame latches around my throat. I suppress a shout at themalicious burn that seizes me, my hand reaching for my neck before I drop it, staring at my father.

His eyes are wide with rage, his right hand upturned as the whip of flame stretches between us.

Dragon flame on human skin is a maddening sort of torture.

The scent of burning, then charring, flesh fills my nose, but still I maintain my father’s stare. Agony threatens to consume me, but it manifests as only a tremble.

His voice is a scalding, draconian hiss. “Do not think you are being givenchoices, Xander.” And here it is. I have been waiting for this moment. “I indulged you as a child and it ruined you. A decade with those creatures couldn’t help you. You are still spoilt.”

I stare at him, unblinking. Unwavering. He wants me to submit. To buckle under his power. He would enjoy it to see me cry.

Just because I know he’ll hate me for it, I keep my voice low and calm. “I will marry Francesca if that is your wish, Father.”

Something flashes in his eyes. Surprise. Irritation.

He lowers his hand, and the flame unwraps itself from around my throat. I remain ramrod straight in my chair.

“Leave, before the scent of you spoils my office.”

I rise slowly, leisurely. Straightening to my near seven-foot height without a tremble, I turn on my heel and stalk out the door. Agony spreads through the flesh and tendons of my neck, all the way through to my trachea. I’ve lost feeling in some places where the nerves are damaged.

But it doesn’t matter.

Because two things have happened tonight. One, it is now confirmed that my father has not forgiven me for my so-called transgression. And two:

Flores Drakos has realised that I am no longer the spoiled teenager he once knew, but a full grown, hot-blooded dragon male.

And his rival in every way.

Chapter 15

Aurelia

Even my eagle eyes can do nothing to penetrate the darkness of this prison. Nor my owl eyes. Nor any nocturnal creature I know.

It’s an infinite sort of darkness in here. The kind of the dark that can swallow the spirit.

I won’t let it. Not while my mother’s name still sits on my tongue. Because I don’t believe Ghoul for a second that they’re ‘testing my vision’. This will give me a chance to think.

I feel my way, one hand on the wall, the other stretched out in front of me, and find a spot of comfortable concrete.

And I sit. And wait.

Perhaps that voice I’ve been hearing every night won’t be able to reach me here.

Chapter 16

Ghoul

7 days later

We watch Aurelia through the thermal cameras, my team and I. It’s no longer Solomon’s team, and I think he gets that now.

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