Page 43 of What Hunts Inside the Shadows

Guilt lanced through me, knowing that hadn’t even been my intention. I was just…angry.

I was tired of the useless, senseless death, and seeing the boy lying dead on the bridge for absolutely no reason or fault of his own had been enough to set me over the edge. I longed to hunt down the Mist Guard who had cut him down, to return the favor so slowly he had no choice but to watch himself be skewered by my sword.

“Hey,” Caldris said, drawing me back from the moment of rage. “Until we understand what’s going on with the dark-eyed little monster you harbor, I think it’s best that we keep your more…volatile emotions under control.”

“Did you just call me a monster?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at his face. “I’m fairly certain you admitted that you were a monster, just last night.”

He shrugged, dropping his hand, then moved to the bed, sitting on the edge and leaning forward. With his legs spread wide and elbows on his knees, he steepled his hands in front of him and stared at me with a playful smirk on his face. “Who says we can’t both be?”

“It isn’t funny! I need to know how to control theViniculumso it doesn't happen again. I don’t—” I paused, considering the admission. Even though he had to know how I felt about it, the broad strokes didn’t necessarily communicate my horror. “I wasn’t in control.”

“Come here, Little One,” he said, beckoning me to him when I hesitated. I shoved aside the self-doubt, walking toward him finally. When I stood before him, he reached forward, snagging me by the hips and guiding me until I straddled him and sat on his thighs. The fabric of his trousers rubbed against the most intimate part of me, eliciting a shock to the oversensitive flesh from our night of passion.

The interlude had been exactly what I’d needed. The perfect solution in the moment to the pain coursing through me and the fact that I felt like I would come out of my skin at any time. Like my body could no longer contain what crouched inside of me, waiting for a moment to break free.

“What happened last night wasn’t because of theViniculum,” he said gently, his hands gliding down to touch the bare skin of my thighs. He slid his fingers beneath the hem of his tunic I wore, the gentle caress dancing over my bare skin and drawing a sigh from me. With the bond linked between us, one more step taken to unite our souls, everything felt amplified. I couldn’t be certain if it was because I could feel his desire for me mirroring my own, but something in it was incredibly empowering.

It made me feel free, rather than tethered. As if I could conquer the world with him at my side.

“What are you talking about? Of course it was,” I said, laughing as I stared down into blue eyes that held mine.

“TheViniculumgives you access to my abilities through the bond. I do not have the kind of power you displayed last night. I’ve never controlled the darkness itself,min asteren. That had to come from something inside of you that has been lying dormant all these years because of the Veil,” he answered, distracting me from his words with the slow, methodical circles he drew on my thighs.

“But I’m human,” I protested, shaking my head. I had a human father and mother, a human brother.

“As far as I can tell, yes. You feel very human, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something in your bloodline. Maybe the Fae Mark awakened it, or maybe the surge of power from the collapse of the Veil caused it. We’ll never really know how the Veil might have influenced magical beings who were born in the human realm and never knew access to their power,” he said.

“If I’m not human, what am I?” I asked, not wanting to consider the possibility of being Fae.

“I’m not sure, and unless you take the time to reawaken that part of you further when we’re in a safe place, we may never learn the truth of your lineage. You could be descended from witches, Fae, Daemons…the list is never-ending,min asteren.” He shifted his hand closer to my ass, brushing his fingers over the skin there and grinding me down on his lap.

The distraction served its purpose, sending a pulse of pleasure through my body, but I didn’t miss the diversion for what it was. “You’re keeping something from me again,” I said, gasping as one of his hands left my rear and slid between our bodies to touch my core. He stroked his fingers through the wetness there for him, always ready at the slightest encouragement for the mate I hadn’t wanted.

For the male I couldn’t seem to get enough of, no matter what that said about me.

He stroked my clit with his thumb, slipping two fingers inside of me. My body stretched to accommodate him, a twinge of soreness making me clench down on him as he worked me open slowly. “I have a suspicion, but I’m not certain about it. If there comes a time when I believe it to be true, I’ll tell you. Until then, I won’t have you worrying over something that could be nothing. Is that fair?” he asked, curling his fingers to make me throb with need.

“Nothing is fair when you’re doing that with your fingers. I can’t think straight,” I admitted.

He chuckled, leaning forward to nip at my bottom lip as he pressed harder on the spot inside me. “That is entirely the point, Little One. I want youmindlesswith need for me.”

“It’s working, you twisted bastard,” I said, but I smiled in spite of myself. As much as I wanted the answers to what he suspected about me, there were far more pressing matters at that moment. Especially when I could feel the emotions motivating his silence and avoidance.

Whatever it was, he genuinely wanted to protect me from it, and if Caldris thought I needed to be protected from something, I was inclined to agree with him.

Some secrets were better left in the dark.

He dropped his other hand to the laces on his trousers, unknotting them quickly and lifting me so that he could shove them down his thighs. His cock sprang free between us, pressing against my core as he removed his fingers from me. “Now come sit on my cock, my star.”

Nowthatwas not something I would argue with.

16

ESTRELLA

Iran a hand over my perfectly braided hair, my mind flashing back to the tender way Caldris had brushed it, dipping the brush into the fresh water to help tame the frizz as he worked through the snarls. The action had been so at odds with our position, me facing him, staring into his eyes with his cock softening inside of me, after I’d ridden him to my orgasm and then he’d fucked up into me to achieve his own.

Now, my shackles clanked as I lowered my hands again to the horse’s mane in front of me, the return of the metal chafing against my wrists. “How do you know how to braid so well?” I had asked, leaning into his touch as he managed a perfect fishtail braid and draped it over my shoulder.

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