Page 19 of Claimed In Darkness

I turn, fast enough that I catch him off guard. I swing, but he’s already expecting it.

He grabs my wrist, yanking me closer until I’m flush against him, skin against silk.

His breath is warm, ghosting over my lips.

“Careful,” he murmurs. “The more you struggle, the more you look like you crave this.”

I snarl, wrenching away from his grip.

“I will gut you,” I say, my voice shaking with certainty.

He smiles, slow and satisfied.

“Maybe,” he purrs. “But not today.”

Perhaps never in forever.

8

ZEPHIRAN

She’s burning with my mark.

Mine. My slave. I like the sound of that.

The mark I branded onto her skin pulses, glowing faintly in the dim candlelight of my chambers. A reminder. A warning. A leash she cannot break.

She hates me for it.

I love watching her struggle.

She’s wrapped in the red silk again, the very one she tore off her body the night before. I made her wear it again. Forced her into it with nothing but a look, and the knowledge that disobedience would be met with punishment.

Tonight, she will fulfill her role.

Tonight, she will pretend to be mine so that my goals can be met--all of them.

I stand behind her, my hands gripping the edges of her shoulders, staring at our reflection in the gilded mirror before us. She’s tense beneath my touch, her body coiled tight, ready to strike.

“Loosen your stance,” I murmur against the curve of her ear.

She flinches at my breath on her skin.

Good.

“Damn you,” she mutters.

I drag a hand down her bare arm, the silk slipping against my fingers like water over stone.

I hum, unbothered by her defiance. “You’ll have to do better than that when we arrive.”

She glares at my reflection, her dark eyes smoldering with rage.

I slide my fingers lower, brushing the bare skin of her thigh, lingering just to watch her body betray her.

She dislikes this.

She abhors how easy it is for me to control her.

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