Or maybe it was just a trick of the light.

“I’m not yours, Feral. And at this rate, I never will be.”

“It doesn’t matter that you have the mating mark of that murderer disgracing your flesh…” He stepped forward, eating up the few feet of distance between us until he was just a kiss away. His fingers brushed the scar on my shoulder. His touch was still silk-soft, like that tender part of him I craved so much was still here even though his words were as cruel and bitter as ever. “You’re already mine.”

He brushed down to kiss my shoulder again, and this time, for the first time, I flinched away from him. “You’re wrong. I’m never letting you touch me again, Feral. Not after this.”

His face contorted into a vicious sneer, strips of shadows and moonlight accentuating his severely handsome features. It suited him.

Moonlight and shadows.

Black hair and ink, white skin.

Cruel monster and sensual lover.

Vincent Feral was two sides of one coin, and I never knew what side he’d land on.

I stumbled away from him, and he was there, charging after me with a vicious glint in his eyes that told me he’d bite me as soon as he was within reach of me. I had a feeling he wouldn’t bother making it as sweet for me as he had when he’d fed on me in the throne.

“Stay back! Don’t touch me!”

I tripped and fell. Scrambling back on my hands, my spine met the wall. I was trapped, cornered with nowhere to run. He was on me in the next pound of my heart, peering down at me with a savage grin stretching the mouth that was still crusted with my blood. Gone was the man who’d pleasured me with those very lips only minutes ago. Now he was just a snarling, ravenous animal, looking fit to breed or feast, I wasn’t quite sure.

But I wasn’t scared. I never felt that with Vincent, no matter how feral of a monster he was capable of being.

Gawking up at him in awe, I couldn’t help but gasp. It wasn’t made in fear, rather, complete rapture. Like I was staring up at a dark god who held my fate in his terrifying grip. I was completely and utterly transfixed by the dark energy and raw power rolling off him.

His raven black, sweat-drenched locks fell in pieces over his sanguine eyes, and for a moment, I wanted to give myself over to the male, to surrender to the dark magic lapping at my skin in places that made me shiver in wicked pleasure.

Whatever he was, it was somethingpowerful.

“We had a deal,” he growled in a voice that didn’t even sound like his own. It was all gravel with a grating timber that had the marrow of my bones trembling. “Your blood for my secrets. Don’t you want to know how your father died?”

I was so enraptured by this ruthless male that I thought maybe he’d mesmerized me. But that only worked on full-blooded humans. No, this was just my own body completely drunk on the potent and exotic allure of The Feral King.

I was at war with myself. My human side wanted me to run away and never touch this mess of a man ever again.

And the lusty female vampire side of me was absolutely riveted and wanted nothing more than to submit to him.

As if gleaning the conflict raging inside me, he stroked my neck with that gentle touch that had me purring beneath him. Arching down, he brought his lips to my ear and whispered, “Don’t you want to know what creature it is you’re about to mate?”

Goosebumps erupted all over my body, which made him laugh—a guttural, bone-scraping sound—and he trailed his lips down over my throat. When I felt his fangs brush the flesh there, I came to my senses.

He was going to bite me over the place Eros had already claimed. The place that would carry Deathwish’s mark and his alone.

“Keep your secrets,” I managed to say on a raspy hiss. “I don’t want anything from you anymore.”

Feral wore the terrifying expression of hunger and pain and rage.

It sent a bolt of electricity through me.

On top of me loomed a beast who was on the brink of losing his control.

I had to get out of here.Now.

I brought my knee up as hard as I could, right into his groin. He howled and lurched off me. I was on my feet in an instant, moving to snap the abandoned sheet off the floor. I jerked my eyes up to see Vincent had the same thought at the same time. We both went for it, but he was quicker. Plucking it from the floor, I almost crashed into him, and another predatorial growl burst from him. He hooked an arm out to snag me, but I was already on the other side of the room beside the door with my hand on the handle.

“You’re going to need this.” He held up the sheet as he slowly stalked forward. “Come be your king’s good little whore, and I’ll let you walk out of here with your dignity.”