Total pages in book: 179
Estimated words: 169943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 850(@200wpm)___ 680(@250wpm)___ 566(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 850(@200wpm)___ 680(@250wpm)___ 566(@300wpm)
Barnabus leans in toward me. “You little bitch, listen here—”
I slide out of my seat, moving away from him before he can grab at me. I’m playing a deadly game—there’s nothing that would stop him from dragging me out of here with him tonight and hauling me in front of a priestess to marry me forcibly. I need to extricate myself, and quickly. “I have to go.”
And just then, I see a huge, hulking, angry Taurian shape in the doorway, horns swinging back and forth as Hawk scans the room looking for me.
Uh-oh.
“I’ll be in touch,” I tell Barnabus, and then race toward Hawk before he can see me with my ex.
TWENTY-THREE
HAWK
13 Days Before the Conquest Moon
Not every retrieval mission goes smoothly, no matter how many skilled Taurians are sent.
This one? This one was a fucking nightmare.
Everything that could go wrong did. The flags were in the wrong tunnel and we had to backtrack once we realized it. The trainees were useless. The tunnel we actually needed was collapsed. Then when we dug them free, it turned out they had found a nest of ratlings. I’m covered in bites and bruises, and one of the idiots I was trying to save slashed me with his blade because he was waving it about so crazily.
My shoulder throbs under the hasty bandage. My artificial hand aches as if to remind me that it worked doubly as hard as any real hand down in those tunnels. I’m tired, sore, and most of all, fed up with humanity for a day.
I want to go home and sleep and not think about anything until dawn. Maybe two dawns.
I want to go home and roll over the innocent, nubile human woman in my bed—my wife—and lick her cunt until she squeals against my tongue. I want to jerk my cock to the scent of her bathing my muzzle. I want to drink in her soft cries and her panting, let it soothe my irritations like a balm.
That’s what I want.
I want to forget all guild business for at least a night, and focus on plump thighs wrapped around my ears. Nothing would be finer.
When I open the door to Magpie’s, though, I’m surprised to see Gwenna in the hall. She sits in one of the chairs facing the fireplace, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and a candle on the table next to her. She jumps to her feet at the sight of me, a worried look on her face.
“What are you doing here?” I ask. It’s late and all students need to be in bed, because drills start early.
She hesitates and then sighs, shoulders slumping. “Don’t get mad.”
My hackles rise. “And why would I be mad?”
She smiles brightly, her expression brisk. “Aspeth will be back very soon. Any moment now.”
Aspeth is…out? At this time of night? I narrow my eyes at Gwenna, taking in the worried expression she’s trying hard to hide. “Why is Aspeth out and where did she go?”
“It’s nothing—”
I dump my mud-encrusted, heavy pack on the ground and cross my arms over my equally dirty shirt. “If it’s nothing, then why is it happening at midnight? And why are you waiting on her?” When she hesitates again, I continue. “If I wake up Magpie, is she going to be aware of this excursion?”
The look on Gwenna’s face becomes panicked. She clutches her blanket tighter around her shoulders. “She had no choice.”
“What do you mean?” I’m trying to keep the infamous Taurian temper in check, but it’s growing more difficult by the moment. Aspeth is somewhere out there in the city. Alone. Against her will.
When she should be in my bed.
It’s the moon’s influence on me that makes the last part growl through my mind. But nothing good can come of a lone woman being coerced out alone into the streets. “Who is she meeting, exactly?”
Gwenna hesitates. “An old friend.”
“Who’s blackmailing her into going out alone at night?”
She hesitates again, and then falls silent. Whatever she knows, she doesn’t want to speak of. “You have to understand,” Gwenna says after a long, long pause. “No one has ever looked out for Aspeth. She’s the one who thinks she has to protect everyone else. Tonight is no different.”
“Who’s she protecting?” I demand.
Gwenna doesn’t answer. “Aspeth has never had anyone who cared for her. Not enough to look out for her. Not enough to say ‘No, Aspeth, that’s a terrible idea. You can’t meet a man at midnight—’ ”
“So it’s a man?” Hot, possessive fury coils in my guts. Has she lied to me about everything? “An old lover?”
Gwenna shakes her head again. “I can’t say more. I’m sorry. I can’t betray Aspeth.”
Her loyalty to her friend should please me, but it only heightens my frustration. I want to shake the answers out of her. Just shake her and shake her until the truth drops from her like leaves falling from a tree. But she’s clearly doing what she thinks is best for Aspeth, and I can’t hate that, as much as I’d like to. Loyalty amongst a Five should be praised. The last few days wouldn’t have been such a shit show if the Five we were rescuing had given a damn about one another.