THIRTY-SIX

DRAVEN

My eye lids still felt heavy as they slowly fluttered open, and my body weak. A groan escaped my lips when I realized I’d slept. Unbelievably so. I waited for my eyes to adjust to the daylight when I felt a movement beside me, someone snuggling closer. I stilled, waiting for my beast’s usual protest, but it didn’t come. My eyes moved to settle on her face as she slept peacefully, a satisfied smile on her lips. She was having a dream.

My beast had a reversion towards women being too close or showing too much affection. It has been that way ever since I was sixteen. It was his way of rebelling against my father. King Cadeyrn-ruaidhri wanted me to be everything that he was, but my body rebelled. My father was a tyrant, a manipulative son of a bitch. He took away my childhood and growing up for me was all hard work and torture. People that called him a psychopath were not so far from the truth.

For the longest time, I hated a woman’s skin grazing mine. It’s why I never allowed any