Page 19 of Shadowed Summer Sun

I stared into the void of his eyes. The wind continued to howl, and the mass of trees surrounding this perfect sand circle seemed to grow thicker and taller.

You will find yourself.

A thrum of something I’d long locked away and never given voice to clicked open. Fire and ice grew in my gut, swirling with the seed of Darkness that spread from my fingers.

“You will give me the power I seek. I will pay your price. And,” I swallowed hard, looking at the blackness consuming my legs and feet and then back up into his face, “I will no longer run from your claim.”

The King of Summer’s End let me fall the short drop to the ground, then spun me around to face away from him, massive hands taking each of my arms and pulling my body flush against his. His face brushed my neck.

“You will run, my Summer. You will run and scream and cry, and I will claim you at last.” A vine quickly wrapped around my throat as he tore his claws through my shirt. “And you will beg me for more.”

The King shoved me forward, and I sprinted into the woods, struggling to regain my footing. Thunder cracked overhead, and rain started to come down in sheets.

Do not run from monsters in the wood lest you wish to be chased.

But I did run, and Ididwant to be chased, had to be, needed to be, and was meant to be.

I ran as fast as my legs would carry me, stone and stick slicing into my feet as branches and Darkness scratched my arms. I cursed at them as pain splintered up through each step. My shirt hung around my elbows loosely, sopping wet and useless. I tossed it aside, and the rain fell freely over my naked skin.

The island was endless, trees and shadows stretching on and on past their previously seen borders. My heart hammered in my ribs, adrenaline coursed through my veins, and wild abandon lit up my soul, daring me to grin into the Dark.

Tearing through the wood, prey fleeing a predator, I was bathed by the rain, a blur in the Darkness. It whipped past me, the loud slapping of my steps against the wet Earth creating a drumbeat that swelled to the size of the trees.

Catching my ankle and flinging me down, the King’s vines appeared like a mass of impossibly growing weeds from the Darkness. It lashed against my back, and I cried out.

I’m not stopping now. This chase isn’t over, King.

I lept to my feet and took off once more, shucking the tendril from my leg and dashing forward.

Running without direction, I darted and zigzagged through the trees, and the rain continued to pour from the black sky. My nipples hardened as the cold rivulets dripped down my skin, a wicked desire pooling between my legs as I ran.

I was desperately wet, arousal sliding down the inside of my thighs and mingling with the rain. The natural wonder of the thunderstorm infused my soul and pulled a primal hunger from my bones. The thrill burning under my skin was almost enough to tip me over the edge.

Forced to pause under the only patch of moonlight I could find and attempting to catch my breath, something moved in the Darkness. Twigs snapping and his tremendous growl echoed directionless around me. I scanned the shadows for a glint of his glowing eyes but saw nothing.

“Mine.”

His voice was in my ear, and the King seized me around the waist, his slick body pressing against my back and ass. I gasped, and it quickly turned to a moan as the King’s vines wrapped back around me, knowing my curves intimately. His hot breath came in rough waves over my skin as he sniffed at my skin. The tips of his fangs ghosted over my neck, sending fresh shivers rippling through me.

Goosebumps rippled over me, I had no idea if I was hot or cold, and the feel of his massive frame behind me, dwarfing me with its commanding size, made my heart flutter, throbbing intensifying between my legs.

He hauled me to the space between two trees and secured my arms behind my back once more, sections of vines creating a belt of sorts across my chest and upper arms. The King used the binding to lift me up, securing me to a long branch that hung overhead.

Lightning cracked through the sky, and it lit up his white skull and muscular, starlit body as the King circled around to face me. I blinked, and he was just in front of me, tearing through my skirts and flinging them into the Darkness.

Still more vines wound around my neck, running down my chest and spreading my breasts, while others went up, wrapping around my hair and pulling my head back. More took my leg, roping around it in detailed, knotted patterns that squeezed. Then the King pulled my leg up, pointing my foot to the sky and binding it to the same branch. My legs were spread open as he readied me for him.

With my arms bound behind me and intricately knotted to the tree branch, I could barely flinch as the cold air swept over me. His smoke-like tendrils pulsed around me, squeezing and roving over my flesh. The ones holding my free leg snatched it from the ground, bending my foot up behind me and tying it in a bent position.

I hung from the vines, one leg extended above my head and thrust up like an offering. I was unable to move and entirely at his mercy. The tendrils wrapped around my thighs were inches from my wet slit, and itachedfor him.

“I can taste your fear, Summer. Your desire as well. My filthy, depraved witch. You drip for me.”

A long black tongue snaked out between his sharp cougar teeth as he dragged his claws over my breasts. Barely needing to bend thanks to my raised position hanging from a branch, the King licked down my stomach to slide his thick tongue into my folds.

I cried out, the icy feel of it cutting into me. I flooded with wetness, and the vines squeezed tighter. The King trailed his tongue across my clit and back toward my ass. Sobbing, I was already desperate for release, trying in vain to pull my legs together against the binds. He took my throat in his massive hand and hummed against my struggle, the vibration against my skin sending me reeling.

The King continued, tasting and penetrating me with his tongue. He swirled it inside me as his teeth pricked at my clit and lips, the tiny jolts of pain heightening the ecstasy. Another tendril of his Darkness probed at my entrance, joining his tongue and stretching me. The mixture of pain and pleasure swirled like a tornado bent on my destruction.

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