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“I shall use it in your memory, sweet Gwen,” he said into my ear.

Then all hell broke loose.

33

ARRAN

I tried to honor my word. I really did.

Even if the beast inside of me raged when that elemental trash touched her hand and ogled her breasts. I was determined to stay out of it, so long as no actual danger befell her. I’d gotten what I wanted out of this endeavor. I knew where she went. I listened to every word they said, determined to find out why. By the time she dropped her dagger into the bar top, I had pieced enough together to have suspicions. At least enough to question her about later.

We might have returned to the goldstone palace without incident.

Then he pulled a knife.

I shifted in a second, my roar shaking the rafters.

Fae of all ages and abilities ran screaming from the tavern. Someone threw up a wall of ice to protect themselves. Another used wind to break open the windows, other elementals scrambling out behind them, heedless of the broken glass. Only knowing one thing—fear.

I saw none of it.

My beast, dark and feral and free, had eyes only for Veyka.

The three males that stood between me and Veyka? My jaws closed around whatever part of them was in reach, whipping them to the side. If they were dead, I wouldn’t regret it.

The male called Jax, the one who took her gold and gave her a gut wound in return? I ripped his head from his body.

His skull crushed between my teeth, soft and pliable as a plum. I could taste his magic, flowing in his blood as it coated my tongue. Fire-gifted. He’d have been better off trying to burn the tavern down around us than to stab her.

Veyka.Mine.

My animal eyes found hers, blue and bright even in the dim midnight tavern.

Her chest heaved up and down.

Up, down, up, down.

For once, I didn’t notice her breasts.

No, my beast was smelling for blood. Without thinking, I touched the tip of my dark nose to her shoulder, nudging her, seeing if she was truly all right.

There was no wound in her gut, no blood wetting her dark clothes.

Her eyes slowly lowered, staring down at the long snout. My snout.

I saw it as she might have. I realized—I’d shifted.

Fuck. I hadn’t meant to do it. But the moment she was threatened, the beast and I became one and the same. There was no thought, no conscious decision, only the need to protect what was mine—ours.

Now I stood before her, on four legs, a beast. The reality of the Brutal Prince.

Fuck.

I didn’t wait to see the horror written on her face. I shifted, thankful that when I did, the blood and gore dripping from my teeth would disappear along with my beast form.

There was not a single soul left inside the tavern.

Just Veyka and I, standing there staring at each other with a thousand questions and no answers between us. For what was only the second time in my entire life, I felt helpless. It was the one thing I had vowed to myself never to feel again. And yet this selfish slip of a princess had brought me back to the lost, scared child I had once been.