Page 92 of What Hunts Inside the Shadows

“You were supposed to stay with the Wild Hunt. Not ride off into the danger,” I said, gesturing toward where Fenrir watched. He sat on his haunches, licking his paws clean as if he cared very little for the conversation that was coming.

The fucker was a terrible influence. Unruly bastard was too bloodthirsty for his own good.

“Fuck that,” Estrella said, crossing her arms. She scoffed at me, looking around as if to say that she’d handled herself well enough.

She had. It was harder to justify wanting to protect her when she so clearly didn’t need my protection; she could fight her own battles. But that didn’t mean there wouldn’t come a day when she wasn’t able to handle whatever she foolishly walked into.

The memory of a man standing over her, her neck shackled in iron chains and a sword pressed against her heart, was never far away.

“That could have been you!” I swept a hand out to the tree where the rope still dangled from the branch, a haunting reminder of the games the Mist Guard liked to play once they made the Fae Marked vulnerable, guaranteeing they couldn’t fight back.

In the days before the Veil, it had become a game to fuck the Fae Marked. The Mist Guard loved to rape them, knowing their mates felt their anguish and using that to lure them into traps.

I would die before I allowed that to happen to my star.

I sighed, hanging my head forward as her glare met mine. She was too trapped by the magic coursing through her veins and the price it demanded of her for such untrained use. Her humanity was at risk, and only the blood flowing from her arm would serve as a payment for the death she’d caused.

Her sacrifice.

“I cannot protect you if you’re reckless,” I said, trying to keep my voice soft.

She raised her chin, ever the bright-burning star as she glared up at me. “I never asked you to protect me,” she said.

I chuckled, unable to stop myself as amusement filled me. She was a nightmare to control, impossibly defiant until the end. “Be very careful, Little One,” I warned, reaching out to cup her cheek as I slid my sword back into its sheath with the other one. “You just might need a reminder that you are not the all-powerful creature you seem to think you are.”

She scoffed, her eyes lighting with the challenge. The darkness in her faded slightly, amused by the way Estrella’s human vessel enjoyed the games we could play. “And who will show me that?” she asked, lifting her chin with a taunt that reeked of false bravado. “You?”

I swept her legs out from under her in a single motion, watching as she fell. Her back thudded against the ground, the breath knocked from her lungs as the snow seemed to thicken. It wrapped around her wrists, grabbing her arms and yanking them up above her head. She struggled to sit, but the snow hardened to ice, pinching her tightly and holding her firm.

I watched her eyes darken as she tried to grasp the threads she claimed to see and twist her fingers around them. Her face fell when she realized she couldn’t; the ice holding her was mine to command.

She may be able to visualize it differently than I could, but she was not the heir to the Winter Court. That title and responsibility rested with me alone.

“Winter is mine. I think you’ve forgotten that,” I said, standing over her and staring down at the way her legs grappled for purchase.

“I could bring back the snakes,” she said, a cruel smile lighting her face. The little monster knew just how much I despised them.

“That would take away my chance to play with you,” I said, dropping to my knees beside her. She stilled, staring up at me with interest. “And I think we both know just how much you want that.”

I touched a hand to her stomach, gliding it lower to cup her pussy through her pants. Her hips rose in response, seeking more as I ground the heel of my palm against her. “Gods,” she rasped.

“Yes. We are,” I said, offering her the truth I knew she wasn’t ready for. Estrella shut out the facts she wasn’t prepared to deal with, deceiving herself into believing the information that was right in front of her and easier to accept.

She’d done it with the truth of what I was, and she would do it with her truth until she could no longer deny the overwhelming evidence that she was different.

“What do you want?” I asked, watching as her cheeks flushed. So far from innocent, she might as well have bathed in the blood of her enemies for all the brutality she showed them. Yet somehow, my mate was still a blend of shy and starved when it came to sex. “You’re restrained. I need the words.”

“I want you to fuck me,” she said, raising her hips into my hand once more.

I lifted it from her pussy, grabbing the waistband of her pants and tearing them down her thighs. She gasped as her bare ass pressed into the snow, the cold sinking into her skin as I left her boots on and kept the pants trapped around her ankles.

Yanking open the laces of my trousers, I pulled myself free and used my other hand to lift her legs up. Draping them both over one shoulder, I lined myself up with her greedy little pussy.

When I glided my head through her flesh, she whimpered and raised her hips, fighting against the icy bonds that held her hands pinned to the ground. She was already wet, her body responding to the touch of my cock against her and preparing for what she wanted. Sliding through her, I pressed into her entrance and stared down at where we joined.

Her body spread around mine, accepting me inside of her like she’d been born to do.Thiswas her place, beneath me with her body sprawled out. Taking me and meeting me thrust for thrust. She knew it as well as I did, greedy and desperate, a hunger like I’d never seen existing inside of her.

She groaned as I pressed farther into her and touched a hand between her legs to wrap my fingers around my cock, feeling her body open for me as I pushed in. When my groin touched my hand finally, I pulled it away, shifting my gaze to her face.

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