Page 40 of Right Hand Of The Reaper
“Roux? Oh, thank the Gods.”
Someone was talking to me, but I couldn’t pull my brain from the fogginess of sleep. My thoughts moved like molasses. Sticky and slow.
Strong hands gripped my head and was I being rocked? There was a to and fro motion, but it felt weird. Like it was sideways.
“Atticus?”
“Yes. I’m here. I’m sorry.”
Gods he sounded panicked. I tried to remember what we’d been doing but everything felt a little fuzzy. “What happened?”
“There was a block in your mind, and I attempted to breach it. Something’s wrong here, Roux. I’ve never come across anything like this.”
Well, that wasn’t exactly comforting. I mean, I knewsomethingmust be wrong with me because I had no memory of the Before but not this. This just gave me more questions. Like who would do this to me? And why?
I pulled myself up to a sitting position and my eyes immediately fell on the two prone figures on the floor.
“What have you done to my Hounds?” I pushed off the sofa and raced to them, relieved when I found them merely sleeping. Rafe had fallen with his head landing on Rayne’s chest, and they just looked adorable all curled up together.
“I just put them in a deep sleep.”
“Why?”
Atticus sighed. “They came in here ranting and raving at me and it was all very distracting. So, I just put them to sleep,” he said it as if it were the most normal thing in the world. He didn’t even seem apologetic.
“You can’t just put people to sleep whenever you feel like it.”
“Why not?” he asked, cocking his head to the side and looking at me like I was the crazy one. “They were about to transform into their beasts and get in the way. I merely removed that obstacle. I was more concerned about you than your precious Hounds.”
“Well, don’t do it again. Now wake them up.”
“Do I have to?” he said with a pout.
“If you don’t want me to shove my scythe up your ass, yeah, you do.”
He grinned widely at me and there was a touch of madness in it. “As you wish, kitten.”
“Kitten?”
“Yes, you’re cute with little claws and your threats just make me smile. Like a kitten.” He booped me on the nose as he strode towards the twins.
“My claws aren’t little,” I said, whilst releasing my talons. They were about four inches long, black, and finished in a ridiculously sharp point. I didn’t get the opportunity to use them much, but they were definitely not little.
I grabbed Atticus’ arm as he walked by and forced him back to the sofa.
“You sure you want to play this game?” he asked with a grin. “You won’t win.”
I pushed him down and straddled his thighs, wrapping one of my hands tightly around his throat. My nails dug into his neck and he hissed as they broke the skin. Just a little. Maybe I was a kitten, they liked to play with their food too.
With my free hand I sliced through the top button on his shirt. I cut them all away one by one until I could spread his shirt wide open and holy moly. His chest was a wide plane of dips and valleys that I wanted to trace my tongue along. His moonlight iridescent skin was covered in black runes, dark thick lines that swirled across his torso and made him look completely otherworldly.
I whimpered at the sight of him. I trailed a claw down the middle of his chest, putting enough pressure that it left a thin red line but didn’t make him bleed. The muscles flexed beneath my touch and heat coursed through my body, pooling in my core and making me wet.
There was a wildness to him, something savage and I should have been running from him, but I wasn’t. Instead, I was toying with him, pushing him to see if I could make him snap.
His hands wrapped around my waist and pulled me closer, locking our hips together. A moan left my lips as the hard length of him pressed against me and a needy sensation started to burrow under my skin. I could feel something growing between us, pushing us towards a moment that would change us forever. I’d never felt so desperate for someone before. Like my life depended on connecting with them in the most intimate way.
Atticus watched me, his gaze unrelenting as I squeezed his throat tighter. I knew he was playing pliant for me, that he could overpower me in the blink of an eye, and that should have scared me, but it only made me want him more.
