Total pages in book: 164
Estimated words: 152666 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 763(@200wpm)___ 611(@250wpm)___ 509(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 152666 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 763(@200wpm)___ 611(@250wpm)___ 509(@300wpm)
“No, you most certainly will not. I will prove it. There are plenty of towns we can detour into as we pass. I’ll give you a tour of the destruction your products have plagued the magical world with.”
“Look, maybe people are mixing stuff in ways I haven’t thought of or intended. Their misuse isn’t my fault, but I would’ve fixed it. If there had been a problem, Granny would’ve mentioned it because it would’ve affected sales. And I would’ve fixed it. Sales are higher than ever. If people were dying in droves, how would sales continue to increase?”
“Addiction keeps sales on the rise.”
“My village tested batches all the time, but Raz was the only real habitual user. He wasn’t addicted, though. A small thing like punishment kept people from forming a habit. That’s it. Wouldn’t widespread death and danger keep people away?”
“Do you not understand what addiction is?”
“I don’t make chemically addictive drugs!” I yelled at him. “For the last fucking time—“
“I’ll show you,” he cut in, crushing me to his body to get me out of his face.
My core pounded. I wanted to punch him. I wanted to fuck him. Electricity surged through me and heat burned my middle, dripping down in that way it did when tensions with him rode high. I clutched onto his shoulders, my breath shallow. I could feel his heart racing against mine, his hardness pulsing against my core.
I would not give in. Not this time. I would not rip off his clothes and bang him right here. I would not!
Chapter 18
Aurelia
It was the longest day of my fucking life, and with a past like mine, that was saying something.
I didn’t give in. That was the one win I could claim for the day. I did not reach down and slip my hands between us to capture his hard length. I didn’t devour his lips or sink my teeth deep into his neck to mark him. I didn’t even gyrate against his unbelievable body to relieve the tension. I sat still in broody silence and stared out at nothing, silently dripping with pleasure as the horse jostled our bodies against each other.
We did stop once, as he’d said we would, but it was for a quick meal and a bathroom break before we were back on the road. He didn’t let me ride with Hadriel. He didn’t even take off the saddle so I could ride behind him. Nope, I was back in his lap, leaning against his chest, both hands in his shirt to have skin-to-skin contact and pretending like it was a normal thing to need to touch someone so badly.
Now, with dusk fast approaching and my body feeling like it was a jigsaw puzzle with the pieces put back in all the wrong places, we finally stopped. He gave me a curt command to dismount.
“Can’t.” It was the first word I’d uttered since our argument.
“What?” he asked as the rest of the pack dismounted and began making camp.
“I can’t dismount. My body is too stiff. I’d fall off.”
“Why didn’t you tell me—“ He cut himself off in angry frustration. His fingers dug into my back, both crushing me close and clearly displaying his annoyance with me. “Fine. Hang on.”
His hand slid down to my butt as he stood in the stirrups, pulling me up with him. He leaned forward, bracing one hand on the saddle and keeping my chest flush with his before swinging his leg over the horse and basically jumping off. He landed gracefully, both arms around me now, one under my butt and the other across my back.
I waited for him to put me down onto my feet so I could stretch or bend or just fall down and stay there. Instead, he ensured my legs were still wrapped around him as he followed the others to the right and into a little clearing.
“Don’t you worry about how it looks when the alpha carries a prisoner around like this?” I asked in bewilderment. “Or rides with her like you were. Or . . .” I thought back to when he carried me through the camp, his cock stuck inside me, our activities incredibly obvious. “Or walking around in the middle of fucking?”
“No. They trust that I’ll do my duty.”
“But they’re not concerned about the moral dilemma of fornicating with the enemy?”
“No, because of what I just said.”
That didn’t make sense to me at all. They were pretending to be the good guys, but they were cool with an alpha participating in morally gray activities? I mean . . . fucking the enemy? They should not be okay with it. They really shouldn’t. I mean, I wasn’t okay with it.
And maybe that was actually the crux of the problem. Because Granny had filled me with stories of alphas capturing women and using them to their liking. That wasn’t new. The issue was I liked it. Not rationally, obviously. Logically, I was not okay with any of this. I did not want my body intimately reacting to the man who had abducted me, killed my family, threatened my community, and was unlawfully keeping me prisoner. It was wrong, ass-backwards, and it was seriously, unequivocally fucked up. I just wished my stupid body would get on board!