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I’m confused for a moment by how he seemed to read my mind, but I remember his earlier comment about smelling my fear. I’m sure right now I reek with it.

“Where are you taking me?” I ask. Over the wind, I’m not sure he can even hear my shaking voice.

Eren’s arms tighten a fraction. “I’m taking you somewhere I can feast on you.”

Oh. Fuck.

Lust comes roaring back to accompany the fear, and I feel more than hear the vicious growl that rumbles through my demon.

We round one side of the mountain he yanked me from, ascending even higher. There, so far above the forest floor, another sheer cliff hangs off the side of the mountain, and we head straight for it. Eren brings us down gracefully, the rock ledge acting like a landing pad. I think he’ll let me go then, but he doesn’t. No, instead he turns me around and tosses me over his shoulder like a damn caveman.

I struggle and squirm, but all I get out of it is a sharp smack on my ass, which I only now realize is hanging right out into the night air, my skirt hiked up high on my thighs.

“Eren,” I protest. “Put me down. I’m too heavy.”

Another smack. “Mouthy little thing, aren’t you? And have you forgotten, witch? You’re my prey now.”

“Eren!”

He doesn’t even respond this time, just turns his head and drags one fang down the side of my bare thigh. A warning. My skin breaks out in goosebumps and he does it again.

As we approach the side of the mountain, I glance over my shoulder, straining to see where we’re going. There doesn’t seem to be anything in front of us but bare rock.

“Where are you taking me?” I ask again.

This time, his fang presses down a little harder.

In retaliation, I reach up and run a finger along the edge of one of his black, leathery wings. The feel of it is softer than I thought it would be, and a full-body tremor runs through him in response to the touch.

“Unless you’d like me to toss you down and fuck you right here, I suggest you stop that.”

A wicked, wicked smile turns up the corners of my mouth. I do it again.

Without warning, I’m heaved forward over his shoulder and set on my feet. He’s crowding into me a moment later, taking my mouth with a savagery that draws a sharp gasp from me as he shoves me up against the side of the mountain. The rough stone presses into my back and shoulders, cold and unyielding.

The demon in front of me is even more unyielding. He devours me, giving no quarter. Hands on my breasts, skimming down my waist, cupping me over my panties. Fangs press into the pad of my lower lip, almost hard enough to break skin.

He raises a hand to brace himself against the stone, and suddenly I’m falling backward into a void that just moments before was a sheer cliff side.

Eren catches me before I can fall back on my ass. When I’m upright, I blink for a few moments at the impossibility of what I see.

We’re in a bedroom. Well, a bedchamberfeels more accurate. The space is lit with burning sconces, candles set on the dresser and side tables. The room itself looks like its carved directly from the mountain, with stone walls and floors strewn with dark, plush rugs.

The space where we landed is like a balcony off the room, whatever Eren did to the stone when he touched it opening up a wide doorway. Curiously, I don’t feel any chill mountain air coming in from outside.

With what I’m sure are cartoon-wide eyes, I whirl back around to study the room. On the far side, a huge hearth is carved into the stone wall and a lively fire crackles within. Two plush armchairs are set in front of it on a deliciously soft looking fur rug. There’s a huge armoire covered in intricate carvings on the opposite wall, a wide desk pushed up against another, and a couple of doors on the opposite ends of the room leading who knows where. Deeper into the mountain? To an en suite of some kind?

And the bed.

Immense, canopied and piled high with fur pelts and blankets, it’s like something out of a medieval king’s castle.

“Do you like it?”

The question catches me off guard, as does the soft note of vulnerability in Eren’s deep voice.

“I love it,” I whisper, still taking it all in, unable to look my fill.

Eren comes to stand behind me, hands at the back of my dress. “I’ll see you bare now, wife.”