 by Shanora Williams.jpg)
Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 147891 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 739(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147891 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 739(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
After being betrayed by one of the few people he trusts, Caz has become a prisoner in his own mind. For once, he can’t work his way out of a deadly situation…but with a mate like Willow, there’s always a way.
With an ancient, powerful being like Decius, Willow has her work cut out for her, and after working with an old friend to cast a powerful portal spell, she winds up on Earth…with Caz at her side. But just because they’re on Earth doesn’t mean they’re safe. Though weaker, Decius still has the power to haunt them, and he will not stop until he has Caz in his clutches again…even if that means killing every single member of Caz’s Blackwater clan.
With lives on the line and the clock ticking, the tethered couple must use earthly resources to find a way back to Vakeeli—without encountering Decius—so they can wake the Regal Selah and have her kill him for good. As they take this new journey, they’ll soon discover that not all Vakeeli history is true. Just as there are evil beings out to tarnish their Cold Tether, there are noble forces willing to aid them, and they go by the names Korah and Hassha, two Regal goddesses with more power in their pinkies than Decius will ever have.
Caz and Willow only have one shot at a peaceful life. With Decius out of their way, they’ll be able to live freely as soulmates and without their Cold Tether in jeopardy. But as with any bold decision to work with powerful people, there are buried secrets and grueling consequences to face…and they’ll soon find out that Decius was only the start of their problems.
Wicked Ties is the heart-pounding, romantic, and gut-wrenching second installment of The Tether Trilogy.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter 1
CAZ
When I was a boy, my mother would tell me a tale about a woman living a free and liberating life. She’s happy in her own world, getting by as best as she can…then one day, there’s a knock at her door.
At the door is a king—a sizable man with eyes as dark as coals and hair as black as raven wings. And it’s when that king appears that the story takes a darker turn.
Because in her story, the king doesn’t just knock. He eventually kicks her door down, and the beautiful woman panics, having no idea who he is or what he wants.
According to my mother, this free woman had built a cottage between two territories of Vakeeli, an illegal act she wasn’t aware of prior to his arrival. Someone had stumbled across her cabin in the forest and reported it to the king of Blackwater for a few rubies, and the king took it upon himself to seek the person who’d disobeyed the law.
The king expected to find someone he wouldn’t care about—a person he could shove aside and take the home from just to make a reasonable profit. But when he laid eyes on the free, beautiful woman, he instantly fell for her.
However, the woman did not fall for him. In fact, she was afraid of him and wanted nothing more than for him to leave. The king saw her resistance as a challenge and made it his mission to get the woman to love him, so he left that night, but returned many times after, leaving gifts, food, and riches in an attempt to win her over.
The woman wanted none of it. She loved her simple life in the forest and loved growing her own food. And as far as riches, she didn’t need them. She either had or could make everything she desired. Plus, the king was not her type. For starters, he was married, and she informed him of this in hopes that he’d stop showing up.
None of the woman’s rejects sat well with the arrogant king, and he drowned himself in drinks. When he was full of liquor and frustration, he stumbled to her cabin in the middle of the night.
It is there that the king called to the woman while standing at her door, begging her to come out, begging her to love him. The woman stepped out and told the king to go home—that he was drunk and wasting his time.
Infuriated, the king barged into the woman’s cabin, dragged her to her bed, and had his way with her. No matter how much she fought, he overpowered her, and eventually she stopped fighting and lay there, waiting for the nightmare to be over.
Realizing his error after he’d sobered up, the king ran back to his kingdom, leaving the woman to cry alone in the night. Two full moons later, she discovered she was pregnant. Panicked, she sought the Mythics of Whisper Grove, wanting to rid herself of the foreign being inside her.
She begged and pleaded, not caring that getting rid of the baby would send her to The Trench. She didn’t want the king’s baby and refused to carry it. After the nightmare of that night, she no longer wanted to live. This baby was forced upon her, you see, and she wanted nothing to do with it. But all the Mythics denied her—all but one.
This Mythic was a smart man, kind and cheerful. He told the woman he’d help her get rid of the baby without anyone finding out. But it was as he began creating an elixir to rid her of the baby that he told her he could feel the baby’s power in her womb. The baby she was carrying was going to be special and would grow up a protector, with a special gift no one else would carry.
The woman didn’t care. She didn’t believe him. She was set on getting rid of the child and never speaking of it again, so she took the elixir and ran home.
Later that night, as the woman stared at the bottle, ready to abolish the king’s mistake, she felt a fluttering in her womb. She felt this beautiful, innocent life inside her moving, and tears crept to her eyes. And when she closed her eyes, she saw a baby boy in her arms, with cerulean eyes and inky hair. The baby looked at her with so much love—more love than she had ever encountered in her life—and she thought, “It is not the baby’s fault he is in my womb.”
Because of what she saw, the woman tossed the elixir into the fireplace, and for the next six months, she carried the baby, giving birth to him in her cabin with the aid of the kind Mythic who promised to help her.