Two days later I woke up with the sunlight streaming into my eyes through the tall floor to ceiling windows in the warm room. My head was throbbing, but I managed to sit up and look around the room. A large black stone fireplace was in the wall across the room and the pale grey walls were nearly bare. A few shelves held medical tools and medicinal supplies. At the back I noticed a large Ashwood desk with scattered papers and books.A closet door stood ajar and I could hear someone within rustling through the shelves inside. At my left a small table held an empty bowl of what smelled like broth and an empty pitcher of water. When I swung my legs over to get out of the narrow hospital bed a wave of nausea rushed over me and I nearly fell from the bed with a loud groan as I swayed toward the floor.My breath whooshed out of me when a sturdy body caught me and gently laid me back into the bed once more. After a few dizzying seconds my head stopped spinning and I managed to open my eyes ag

The shadow king stepped closer once more and leaned in until his mouth was near my ear. "I'd much rather give you a reason to spread your legs for me again.""No, wait." I pulled away with a continuing sinking feeling in my gut. "I might not be a prisoner but I'm still a Mithran princess and you're the king here. What happened on the journey here... We both know it was wrong."Caliban growled and straightened to his full impressive height. "You think I don't know that? That I don't know my desire for you is depraved and dangerous?"He grabbed me by my upper arms and pulled me into his hard chest and I gasped. Tears were building in the corners of my eyes as my swarming thoughts and exhaustion slammed into me."Why else do you think I avoided you to the point I didn't know what state you were in? I was trying to purge you out of my system by burying myself in busywork. Yet it didn't work!" His lips fell on mine and I whimpered from the force of his kiss."You've plagued my mind since t

I clamped my teeth down on the blanket and released a muffled scream while kicking my legs wildly."What just happened?" I hissed to myself while looking around the room. "This is the bedroom of the shadow king and I woke up with him between my legs!"I palmed my face and rubbed my eyes as if when I moved my hands away, I'd wake up from a dream. But I needed this moment alone to think through the situation I was in as everything seemed to be happening at breakneck speed.On my way to marry Duke Ayden Sulien my carriage was ambushed by the Thanaten king, Caliban Mor'gen. His soldiers had killed my handmaidens and guards then his soldiers were slaughtered by a ghoulcat.During the journey to the shadow elf capital, we had argued and given in to the veracious desire that drew us together even though we were born enemies. Now we were in the palace and after the misunderstanding of my brief imprisonment there was a strange sort of relationship that was continuing to develop between me and

"Daddy!" I sputtered and coughed in the upstairs hallway, lungs already dangerously full of smoke.The fire crackled all around us-my childhood home going up in flames.My father gripped my shoulders tightly, painfully, giving me a little shake. The eyes of his Wolf glowed with fury and hate. Not at me. But for the Alpha who had come to destroy him. The monster intent on cutting us all down and wreaking havoc...until not a person or a possession remained.My father yelled to be heard over the roar and crackling of wood around us, "Get back, Hycinth! Go to Luca at the safe house! Go now! Run!""No, Daddy!" I wailed again, tears streaming down my face. I didn't want to leave him. He was hurt. I could smell it. Blood from several deep claw and bite wounds wafted into the air. The scent of iron oxide, a byproduct of his leaking life-fluid, combined with the oppressive stench of carbon dioxide released by the flames, burning my sensitive nose. I could barely breathe.His beautiful face twi

"Why?!!!" I roared out my frustration and prowled across the room like a caged animal, then back again, stopping only to hurl a bottle of hundred-year-old Scotch across the room at a bookcase. I watched the glass break, amber liquid saturating the books and yelled at the top of my lungs, "Why her?! Why couldn't it be anybody but her?!" Clearly, the Moon had it out for me, the sly bitch. Because there was no more hilarious mistake than making that female my mate!My father sat reclined in a comfortable chair, utterly unaffected by my foul mood. When he could get a word in edgewise, he asked evenly, "Are you ready to tell me why you're having a temper tantrum like a two-year-old and destroying the study?"I growled and flashed fang.Instantly, he was on his feet and in my face, a sustained growl reverberating in his chest. Even in his fifties, the man was cut with rugged bulk and muscle, hewn and cultivated over thirty years as Alpha of Adamant Moon. He was respected, and he was feared.