Page 90 of Claimed By Fangs and Darkness

He laughed, a shadow already all the way up my thigh. “Want to bet?”

“You promised me youwouldn’t,” I accused.

Kylo’s smile slid into another deep frown. He looked torn, raw. Like I’d peeled off his mask and cracked him wide open. The shadow paused just before it met my pussy that already ached for him.

“Yes, I promised you open discussion and agency and respect. But you are asking me to let you get raped, kidnapped, murdered, or harmed in one hundred different creative ways.”

I flinched at his explicit language.

Kylo’s eyes held me in their depths tighter than his shadows. “And that is animpossiblething to ask of me.”

I shook my head. “I’m not asking that. I’m asking for you to believe in my ability to protect myself. To be cunning and strong and powerful just like you.”

Kylo gripped my waist. “This isn’t about my belief in you. This is about my love for you and my belief in the borns’ capacity for evil.”

Angry tears finally broke through as I gripped his forearms. “I feel it, Kylo.”

The sharp intuition that curled around my vertebrae, the deep knowing in my gut, the way the fates were weaving a clear path for me.

“I’m meant to do this.”

The tattoo on my hip pulsed. Then it burned, and I hissed in pain.

I pulled up my dress to reveal the intricate design surging with power. The blooming flowers were pink and unfurled, a glint of light reflecting from the brass key. The serpent coiled, staring at us.

Kylo gripped me harder, his gaze pinned on my bare skin.

“I’m strong enough.”

He pushed me up against the nearest wall. His jaw trembled, his black hair dipping onto his forehead as his eyes roamed myface. His hands rested on the wall on either side of me and his thigh pushed roughly between mine.

I gasped, closing my eyes. “I’m strong enough,” I repeated.

Too many shadows to count swarmed me, roaming my breasts, then tightening around my torso and my throat and even my mouth.

“Well, angel, I’mnot,” Kylo whispered. “I’mnotstrong enough.”

“I love you, and I’m going,” I said, though my words were jumbled by the darkness that held me in its grip.

I knew he heard them through our mysterious shadow bond.

He didn’t answer. And I had nothing more to say.

Kylo waited, his form trembling with rage and heartbreak.

He waited until I started to grind against his thigh, ceding my power and granting him permission to unleash his darkness however he needed to.

It wouldn’t change my mind.

His shadows released me, replaced by his hands. My breath hitched when he began to grope me roughly, capturing a nipple between his fingers and tugging as he stared deep into my eyes. Still, I ground against his leg, chasing pleasure as a balm against the pain and discomfort. The discomfort of displeasing Kylo when every cell in my body yearned to do the exact opposite.

“Strong enough to survive the born, yet too helpless and needy to resist grinding on my leg, hmm?” His lips curled, the condescension taking a deadly turn. “How fucking dare he think he can so much asthinkabout you and still breathe.”

The shadows whispered Kylo’s thoughts, the contents of the letter on repeat.

Plagued by thoughts of you,I heard, the sound tickling my ear as Kylo pinned me harder against the wall.

Kylo’s kiss was rough and demanding, leaving my lips bruised.