“I’ll take control over your precious mates. And I’ll enjoy watching them tear you apart.”
I snapped back to consciousness before my eyes had opened. My heart hammered against the roof of my mouth like a drum. A choking gasp ripped from me as my eyelids flung open to find a man crouched over me.
“Get off me!” I screamed, throwing my hands out to slam against a muscular chest.
Soothing fingers caught my wrists, and a melodic voice wrapped around me, murmuring my name and telling me I was safe.
“S–Sterling.”
His fingertips found my face and charted me out as he looked at me with his hands. My vision focused a beat later, and there he was, his eyes cloudy once more. The expression he wore made a sob latch in my chest.
“Sterling. I’m so sorry. What he did to you—” I brushed my own fingers over my prince’s throat, his flesh growing tight with a thick swallow. There was no mark, except for my own mating claim. There was no trace of his master’s abuse except for the shadows seated in the corners of his eyes.
“Shh. That’s over now, love. You did it. You broke the spell.”
He arched down, stroking my mouth with the pad of his thumb—as if mapping my features—before planting a wet kiss on my lips. I wasn’t sure whose tears they were. It didn’t matter. The salt somehow made the kiss all the sweeter.
We were both shaken. His arms trembled on either side of my head; even his lips quivered against mine.
It was well past sunset, well past the point where the other guys were expecting us in the council room. If the Elders hadn’t arrived yet, they would soon.
They’d have to wait.
“The bond isn’t broken yet,” I rasped, urgency making the air in the room thicken. “He’ll try to mind fuck us again if we don’t—”
My words froze on my tongue when a primal noise wrenched from Sterling’s chest, throaty and full of anguish. “I didn’t want it to be like this,” he said in a low tone, the cords in his neck and shoulders stretching tight. “You don’t deserve to be rushed or made to feel like you’re forced into this—”
This time, I was the one to cut him off. Surging off the floor, I claimed his lips in a passionate kiss full of fangs and tongue. He released a grumbling groan into the hollow of my mouth, setting me on fire that somehow filled me with the most pleasant chill.
A white, fiery flame burned between us as he bore down on top of me and flattened me against the floor. His hand dropped to my waist, where the nightgown was still bound shut by its silk belt since he’d only removed it in the dream.
“This may hurt,” he said in a tone that had me shivering in anticipation. “We don’t have time to ease your human cunt into fitting me, darling. This might be less painful if you shift.”
“No,” I said without a breath’s width between our words. “I’ve had enough of that form for one day. I want you to have me like this. Soft. Delicate.” My cheeks flushed. “I want it to hurt.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. I wanted to erase Thomas Knight from my mind completely, even if it was just in this moment spent in Sterling’s arms.
“I only want to feel you. Make me forget everything else.”
Chapter thirty-one
Broken Chains and Forged Bonds
TheeldestKnightprincehad a way of commanding a room full of people just by walking into it. He didn’t have to say or do anything to hold everyone in his vicinity captive. The silver prince emanated that lethal demeanor all Knight vampires possessed, and paired with his effortless allure, he was one of the most dangerous vampires alive.
He could have you in pieces before you even realized you were a goner, yet you were happy to be there just for the privilege of having his hands on you.
The same went for when he had a woman beneath him.
He could break every bone in my body with his pinky finger...or bring me to the crux of absolute bliss. The lips that delivered honey-sweet kisses could be coated in my blood on the next breath.
Sterling wouldn’t lose control, not unless it was on purpose. But just thinking about the scared monster lurking beneath his gentleman’s exterior sent thrills sinking through my core. That’s what made my nights with him as exhilarating as they were sensual.
My jaw fell open when I took him in. He was so damn gorgeous. Shirtless and lithe, with his defined abs clenched and that delicious V between his hip bones dipping past his sweat’s waistband.
A wave of heat washed over me as I brought my gaze back to his face. His snowy hair spilled over to frame his seraphic eyes, ethereal and as white as angel’s down, with the rest of him looking darkly carnal.
Sterling was normally so calculated. The essence of control. But I didn’t miss the way his arms still shook on either side of my head.