Page 153 of The Forbidden Dragon King

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“Do these hurt too?” Quintus asks, fascinated.

He pushes on one harder, as if to test it out.

Possibly, to hurt me.

Shadows flutter around my wings in distress.

“Not as much as the wounds I’ve slashed through the dragons,” I reply, sweetly.

“Savage.” Quintus roughly turns my head to the side.

Then he runs his fingers down my neck. He rests his hand threateningly around my throat.

My heartbeat speeds up.

On the sacred ash, don’t let him be into breath play.

Did Maximinus make clear like with my other marks that I wasn’t to be damaged?

Quintus doesn’t appear to care.

He leans closer.

I can’t see his face, only smell the sickening wine laced on his breath. “Scared, pet?”

He tightens his hold.

I battle not to struggle, as my heart pounds.

I look up at Quintus with a frosty expression, while he chokes me. His fingers dig in deeper, crueler.

My lungs burn.

I won’t give him the reaction he wants.

“You can’t win.” He leans close enough that I can see how avidly he’s watching my face, chasing the smallest flickers of anguish with a predator’s hunger. His pupils are dilated. “Your body will react naturally in its desperate struggle to survive. You’d better be a good little pet, if you want me to let you breathe.”

I sneer.

Does he think that this is new to me? I’ve needed to play that role to Maximinus since I was dragged to Bael.

Clichéd second-rate bully.

Yet these violent hands of his dared to touch myOmega. I’m going to make this bloody dragon sorry that he hurt my soulmate.

“There’s that delicious hatred.” Quintus breathes in my pheromones, sighing in delight. “You smell better now.”

Lightheaded, I clench my hands compulsively.

Against my will, my legs begin to kick. My body thrashes in an involuntary attempt to escape and draw oxygen into my burning lungs.

“That’s it!” Quintus humps against me. His cheeks are flushed. “Struggle.It makes everything much more exciting. I want to feel that I have fully conquered you, sweetheart.”

Lights flash in front of my eyes.

I can’t pass out.

I can’t.

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