Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 156210 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 781(@200wpm)___ 625(@250wpm)___ 521(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156210 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 781(@200wpm)___ 625(@250wpm)___ 521(@300wpm)
“Only you see all of me. Only you understand,” Kyran whispers as he pants into my ear, pressing sweet kisses to the side of my head and to my shoulder, but his cock is shrinking, and soon enough, I feel it retreating from my body with a wet slap.
I don’t yet have the brain capacity to ponder my future with him, but I’m lying under him, pumped out and sweaty, and couldn’t be happier. My hole aches a little, but even that only serves as a reminder of the fuck of the century.
And he’s right. I do see him. Easily. Even if his whole face was covered in shadow, I would have recognized him.
“I do. And I won’t let you go,” I turn, and when we end up side by side, I cup his face and kiss him. Feeling possessive over someone is new to me, but I embrace it. I’m not here to just take his affection. I’d fight for him.
Kyran opens his mouth, as if he wants to tell me something, but he hugs me instead, resting his head on my chest and curling his large form at my side, as if he couldn’t imagine a better place to be.
“Will you stay?” he asks.
I nod, surprised by how easy the decision is, and I tear up again. “Yes,” I choke out. For the first time in my life, I have someone of my own. Someone who promises to take care of me, someone I can trust, and depend on.
Kyran lets out a gasp, like a dog striving to comfort its master, and when he cups my face with his clawed hands, there’s nothing monstrous about his strange features. He wants me, cares about me, and I can trust him with my life.
We kiss, slotting together like two hands during prayer, but a soft thump makes my lover look up. Can something endanger us here?
The sense of peace and relaxation drains out of me when I spot golden tracks appearing to our left like burns in shadow.
“The stag,” Kyran utters.
Chapter 33
Kyran
If anyone else understood how easy it can be to find the Stag of Sunrise by sinking into the shadowild, the hunt would have been long over. The golden tracks don’t stay visible forever, fading into nothingness after a few moments, so we follow their path through the black expanse, adjusting our clothes as we go.
Anticipation throbs around my teeth, as if I could kill the creature with a bite to the throat, not crossbow bolts and daggers, but as excited as I am to seize my prize, it can’t compare to the joy of Luke’s promise.
He will stay.
He wants me to take care of him.
He’s to be mine forever.
Joy flows through my veins like pure moonlight, and as I prepare a silver bolt and load it into my crossbow, all I can think of is the need to prove my own devotion to this human who has changed my life in ways I couldn’t have anticipated.
He’s accepted me the way I am. A sunspawn. A beast surrounded by shadow. I can let go of all inhibitions when I make him mine.
“We will leave now, and he will be nearby. Stay ready,” I whisper, even though the stag won’t hear us until we leave the shadows.
Luke stares at the golden tracks. “No one got to him yet,” he says with a smile and a healthy flush on his cheeks. I could watch his face all day and not get bored. But I stifle the desire to pull him against me and choke him with kisses and instead stroke his cheek with the back of my hand. He leans in, his eyelashes flutter, and I can’t push away the realization that something’s changed between us for the better.
I have a lifetime to prove he’s made the right choice.
But the stag might end up taken down by someone else at any moment, so I nod at my promised, steady myself, and let the shadows part. Moonlight is blinding as we step back into the material world, but it can’t rival the glow of the stag’s sunrise coat.
We’re in a clearing. The animal is drinking from a tiny brook cutting through the mossy ground, but it senses my human the moment he appears. Its antlers are like massive branches peppered with gold dust, and when the stag faces us, heat rushes to my face, as if the Sunlight emanating from the beast is burning me already. I don’t have to check to know my shadowcraft would be useless against this beast.
I send a bolt at its neck and grab another one, preparing to shoot, but the scent of blood soaking the pale fur seems to enrage the stag, and it charges toward us with a roar that makes the ground shake.
I urge Luke to run while I go the other way, to take attention off my human. But as soon as we go in two different directions, instead of chasing me, the creature focuses on Luke. I assumed it would chase the person who attacked it. Wrong. Luke’s presence has the Stag of Sunrise frantic as if my promised is the cure to the pain it’s feeling.