Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Knox
My teeth ground together as I sat behind Briar on Magnazius. The large, bay stallion plodded through the woods toward the heart of Wildwood with the surefooted ease of an animal who’d done this many times before.
Briar sat stiffly before me, fury radiating from her as her bound hands rested on the pommel I’d tied them to. The vine from the harem remained in my pocket; I should have used it to bind her, but I didn’t.
Instead, I’d taken a piece of rope from my saddlebag. I couldn’t bring myself to touch that vine again.
Or is it that you couldn’t bring yourself to place it against her skin?
The question irritated me. I shouldn’t give a shit what happened to this woman, and I truly did hate her, but I couldn’t deny that panic propelled me into the woods when I scented the acute tang of her terror.
I’d spent years hating her and plotting to make her pay for her betrayal, yet the idea of losing her had propelled me to move far faster than I ever had before.
You didn’t do it because you still care for her; you need her alive for the curse.
I’d told myself this often since I’d tied her to the horse, yet I couldn’t rid myself of the memory of my lurching heart when I realized she was in peril. And as that memory irritated me, her familiar warmth beckoned to me.
Over the years, countless women and men had fucked the beast who could get hard for them, but none ever aroused the man… except her.
I’d long since discovered Briar was the reason for my suffering, but to this day, I’d never experienced desire for another woman. I wasn’t sure I ever would, and that, like the beast, was one more cross for me to bear.
I deserved all those crosses and then some, as did the woman before me. The warm, supple, beautiful woman with dirt streaking her cheeks and her chin raised haughtily in the air as she stared straight ahead.
Her carefully coifed hair had come mostly undone during our journey. My fingers dug into my thigh as I restrained myself from brushing it away from her delicate face.
She still smells of strawberries and eucalyptus.
The familiar scent was alluring, haunting… and loathed.
Still, I couldn’t stop myself from inhaling it deeply as it brought forth memories of simpler, happier times. Then, like mist in a breeze, they drifted away to be replaced by the memories that followed them.
My fingers dug deeper into my thigh as my other hand constricted on the reins. This feeling of wanting her and hating her was tearing me apart.
As soon as she fixed the disaster her kind created, I’d decimate her. Trying to ignore the scent of her, I focused on the trees ahead, but I couldn’t shake it as it seeped deeper into me, blocking out all other smells.
We were almost to the road and, once there, it wouldn’t take much longer to arrive at the castle. I couldn’t wait to get away from her, but I wouldn’t let her ride with anyone else, not even Lyra.
“It looks like it’s going to rain,” Briar murmured as the thinning trees revealed more of the gray sky.
Was she fucking with me more, or did she really believe that? From what I knew of Briar, she was fucking with me, but her expression was so guileless it had me questioning myself, and I didn’t like it.
“It always looks like that,” I told her.
Her head tipped back; in doing so, she exposed the delicate column of her throat. How many times had I traced that vulnerable area with my fingers and lips? Too many to count, and each time was more thrilling than the last.
And at the base of her neck, on the right side, the small scar of my marking had been revealed by the shifting of her dress on her shoulder.
Only one of the punctures from where I’d pierced her flesh with my fangs was revealed.
It hadn’t disappeared, but a shifter’s bite never faded from their mate.
The animal I was supposed to become made that mark; if the beast were to mark her, it would look different. Deep within me, the beast made a purring noise too like pleasure for my liking. I’d never heard it from the creature before and didn’t want to hear it now.
The other animal left that mark, but I clearly recalled its instincts compelling me to mark her as mine. That would never happen again; she may be my mate, but I’d never claim her again.
However, I couldn’t deny she was the only woman I’d ever desired, and she most likely would be for the rest of my life. I could tell myself there was a chance I could meet someone else who would stir me, but I didn’t lie to myself.
It infuriated me, but I also accepted it as my punishment for bringing the wrath of the night casters down on my kingdom. I could live for thousands of years and never know the touch of another woman, and I would endure it.
I’d make sure she suffered the same fate.
As we neared the town, flashes of red were visible amongst the trees and underbrush. Briar continued to study the sky through the skeletal, sickly branches of the trees. Her brow furrowed at the unnatural, charcoal clouds above.
When we emerged from the woods and onto the red brick road leading through the town on the outskirts of the palace, the faint orange glow of the sun barely poked through the relentless clouds. More of the endless clouds floated across the sun’s surface, sometimes blocking it completely from view.
“Why does it always look like that?” Briar asked.
“I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?” I suggested.
When she turned toward me, her hair tickled my nose and cheek. A memory of burying my face in her hair and inhaling its refreshing eucalyptus scent blazed across my mind. Her laughter rang in my ears, and joy filled me as she drew me closer.
“How would I know?” she asked.
Her question jarred me out of the past and back into the present. And the present was far less happy than the past I’d tried to bury.
When I first arrived in the harem, all I could think about was getting back to her, saving her and myself.
But as the truth about her came to light, I worked to bury her memory and the way she’d once made me feel indestructible.
She was also the reason why I’d suffered indignities no one ever should.
It took years for me to stop thinking about her all the time. Eventually, when she did cross my mind, it only brought anger as I kept the happier memories suppressed.
Being so close to her again was rattling the restraint I’d spent years building. If I could scrub the memories of her from my mind, I would.
Resting my lips close to her ear, I whispered. “Because your kind did this.”
Her head turned toward me, and our noses brushed as we gazed at each other. Her crystalline sea green eyes filled with understanding before her head swiveled away from me, and her gaze returned to the sky.
“The trees,” she murmured. “That’s why their leaves haven’t started to open yet and why their buds are so small.”
I leaned back in the saddle as I studied her. She truly didn’t seem to know what had happened here, but she was an extremely good actor and very manipulative.
“Is it always like this?” she inquired.