Page 113 of Pretty Little Prey
Thump, thump.
So. Hungry.
“I don’t know what is worse: a prey queen or a parasite.”
Luna’s back stiffened. Her steps stuttered as she paused.
From across the room, Daxton met her gaze and smiled warmly—having no idea what these immortals muttered about her. He waved her over to join him.
Thump, thump.There was so much blood in the room. Hot blood pumping through immortal bodies. Powerful blood that would taste so good to her…
“Gods, imagine our king stooping so low. So many high-born dragoness shifters to choose from and he is fated to a leech.”
“To share a mate with the snake,” one exclaimed in horrified disbelief.
“Who is she going to feed from?”
“If our king wears a bite mark of a Dark One, I will retch.”
More red fogged over Luna’s vision. Her narrowed eyes could hardly squint through her rising haze of wrath. Her throat felt like she had swallowed flames that burned her sensitive inner flesh. She could not even drink hot tea to soothe the pain; it tasted like ash water to her.
“Monster,” another murmured.
“Killer.”
Thump, thump.Thump-thump-thump-thump-THUMPTHUMPTHUMP.
Luna glanced around the room for the accelerated heartbeat. It sounded as if some creature feared for its life. Her fangs throbbed in her mouth at what she saw.
A large, male predator shifter sat at one of the circle tables in the corner of the ballroom, lifting a mouse by its tail. Playing with it. Scaring it, as he pretended to dangle it over his mouth. Chomping his teeth—as if he would eat it whole.
And it was not simply a mouse.
It was a rodent prey shifter in its animal form.
Luna did not know what came over her. She imagined the wave of bone-melting fury to be similar to being possessed by a ghost. Her vision glazed over. Her white fingers tightened into fists. Her teeth ached, needing to bite. To pierce.
And suddenly, with a speed she had never known before, shelaunchedherself at the man. She broke his wrist as she freed the mouse shifter from the male’s fingers. The animal dropped to the floor and scurried away.
Then, her fangs sank into his neck. She sucked so hard, the man nearly fell out of his chair. This time, her victim did not moan. Lunawantedto cause him pain, so no drugging venom was released in her bite. The man screamed in agony. And screamed. And screamed.
Maybe she should have felt guilty, but in her mind, she kept seeing him toy with the prey shifter. She kept seeing Rohan and Bastille do whatever they wanted to whoever they wanted with no remorse.
These predator men deserve to be put in their place.
She sucked from his neck harder, reveling in the pleasure she took from hurting someone who hurt others.
And chaos erupted around her.
“She is perfection. An angel,” Daxton was telling one of the oldest members of the Council of Immortals.
As a fellow reptilian, Orfus—a chameleon shifter who could turn invisible to the naked eye and remain in human form while doing so—was like an elderly uncle to Daxton.
“Ah, yes, I remember young matehood well.” Orfus smiled tenderly at the new king. “You must be ecstatic to have found her.”
“I just wish I had been able to keep her from the Dark Ones. Turned into a vampire…” Daxton cursed. “It’s despicable what they did to her.”
“AHHHHHH,” a shrill scream broke through the grand ballroom.
