Page 29

MARLOWE

I came to with the familiar scent of cherry and almond enveloping my senses. Warm, dappled sunshine caressed my cheeks, and I tried to stretch, finding my limbs cramped.

“Do you want to walk?”

My mind was cloudy, and I looked up to find my brother’s face smiling down at me. “Hey, how do you feel? Sorry if your head hurts. It’s not a fun power to get hit with.”

My head? Why would my head hurt? And why was my brother carrying me? And why did he have long hair and a beard?

“Wait… you’re dead. Am… am I dead?”

His deep laugh resonated through his chest. “Damn, I must have hit you harder than I thought.”

He lowered his arms and set me on my bare feet. I wobbled for a minute, like a newborn fawn, before feeling steady.

Where were my shoes?

“What do you remember last?”

What had happened to me? What had I been doing? Wasn’t there something about a fight…

My memories of the past few weeks exploded like a bomb, the force knocking the wind out of me as I fell backwards onto the ground. Ezra quickly offered me a hand but I backed away.

“What did you do?”

I cried, unable to keep the panic from my voice. “Where the hell are we?”

He spread his arms, his expression gleeful and childlike. “Vespera—we’re home!”

I finally took in the land around us. Wherever we were, it was definitely not winter—the air warm and the plants in full growth. Trees with braided trunks and covered in bright, iridescent flowers glowed with an ethereal light, and ferns of deep purple and blue grew in patches along the forest floor. The dirt beneath me was soft and rich, releasing a pleasant, cinnamon-like perfume as I rubbed it between my fingers.

A large firefly with wings like a hummingbird zoomed into my face, and I tried to swat it away but it just made a sound like a bell, pulling at my hair.

“Omega! Omega!”

it chimed, nuzzling my strands against it’s tiny cheek.

The little creature had finally stopped moving enough for me to get a good look at it. “Oh my god, you’re so cute!”

I squealed. What appeared to be a tiny woman, her skin glowing, her eyes way too big for her round face, was now sitting on my shoulder. “What are you?”

I extended a finger so it could land on it, but a growl from Ezra sent the creature on its way.

“Hey!”

I snapped. “Why’d you do that?”

“Sorry, pixies are pretty harmless, but they can be annoying. If you’re nice they just won’t leave you alone.”

“Pixies?”

I repeated quietly.

He nodded.

It couldn’t be, there was no way pixies were real. I mean, I had literally just seen one with my own eyes, but… pixies?

Ezra’s stare followed a vine slithering down from the canopy, which then lightly tapped me on the shoulder. I shrieked and jumped about three feet to the side, and I swore the flowers themselves giggled.

“You have to watch out for some of the flora, too. If you don’t show them who’s the boss, they’ll grow all over you.”

“No.”

Ezra crouched down, still way too naked, and tilted his head. “What do you mean, ‘no?’”

I got back up on my shaky legs. “I mean no, there’s no way any of this is real. I don’t believe it. This… this is like one of those immersive experiences, right? You roofied me and took me to some big art installation in Minneapolis or something. Wow, great prank. Now take me back to my pack.”

Ezra sighed. “King Alaroth is waiting for us. We should probably hurry.”

He reached out for my hand but I refused to take it.

“Fuck your king. I don’t want anything to do with him,”

I replied.

“Is that right?”

Ezra’s face paled and he dropped to one knee when a large figure leapt to the ground from a branch overhead, landing silently with the grace of a cat. “Your Majesty, I apologize for her disrespect. Please have mercy, she’s still learning…”

So, this was the king who Ezra worshiped, the one he was selling me out to. He’d been Mr. Alpha-of-Alphas back in Maiingan Hollow, but now he was groveling on the ground, tongue-tied and scared. It made my stomach churn.

Instead of following suit I held my chin high. I refused to show him an ounce of genuflection.

The king was tall, albeit a little shorter than Ezra. His skin was pale and smooth, as though he had been carved from marble. Bright aqua eyes twinkled as they took me in, his jaw angular and well-defined. Long silver hair flowed down his back, tucked behind pointed ears.

He was dressed all in black—tight-fitting pants and knee high boots, polished to a high shine. His top was a loose, silky tunic, opened half way down his chest and tucked into his waist.

Several gaudy rings adorned his fingers, his hands steepled together at his chin. “My, my… finally. Marlowe, the prophesized omega, in the flesh.”

He took a step forward and I moved back, pointing a finger at him.

“Stay right where you are,”

I growled. Ezra winced at my tone but the king merely smiled.

“How adorable, attempting to order me around.”

He looked down towards Ezra, who was still on the ground. “My apologies for surprising you out here. I felt it when you both crossed into the realm and I couldn’t contain my excitement.”

Ezra didn’t respond, his eyes downcast while the king walked around me, assessing me carefully. “The family resemblance is strong, but I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.”

I looked straight ahead, willing my heart to calm down. There was a powerful aura emanating from this male, something I’d never felt before. I knew he wouldn’t kill me, not if I was as necessary as the prophecy and Ezra had suggested, but he could still hurt me or my pack.

Moving faster than I could even perceive, he came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and breathing in my scent. An erection grew against my back, and his panting quickened.

“Ezra, leave us,”

he commanded.

Ezra paused. I could see the fear and worry in his eyes, and honestly? It pissed me off. He was the one who had brought me here, for this very purpose. What the hell had he thought was going to happen?

“Leave!”

My brother winced, gripping his temple for a moment before standing and bowing his head. Then he shifted into a wolf and scampered off into the woods. He stopped for a moment and turned back, letting out a small whine before continuing on his way.

“He’s worried about you,”

he said quietly in my ear.

Even the lilt to his voice had an otherworldly quality to it, somehow both comforting me and keeping me on edge. Like he was luring me into an obvious trap, but I was powerless to stop myself.

“Should he be?”

I asked, finally finding the courage to speak again.

He chuckled darkly, his hands beginning to wander. “Perhaps. I have such wonderful plans for you, Marlowe. I will see them through no matter what, but depending on your temperament, I can imagine your brother finding my methods somewhat… difficult to watch.”

I stayed as still as I could. Fighting would be useless, his strength was overwhelming. What could I even do right now to resist? My own brother, who had just demonstrated himself as the strongest alpha on Earth, had offered me to this monster on a silver platter.

When his hands grabbed my breasts I muffled back a cry, and the king laughed. “Ezra had warned me you were obstinate, and yet you stand here passive as prey. Have you not yet learned how to weaponize your powers? How to fight back against opponents much stronger than you?”

“If I had, I sure as fuck wouldn’t be standing here getting groped by Legolas.”

He hissed, his fingers digging into my flesh. “Your tongue is not one of the powers I was referring to, Marlowe, at least not in this way.”

The king turned me around so I was now facing him. I almost couldn’t look at him directly. He was somehow both too beautiful and too terrifying. “Deny a male and he’ll take what he wants by force. But, offer a little with a promise for more, and he’ll become your willing slave.”

He grabbed my ass and began slowly grinding against me, whispering in my ear. “Seduce me, Marlowe. Give me any bit of yourself you can spare and I will worship you like the Moons themselves. Whatever you want will be yours, I need only your fealty. Your loyalty. And your assurances I may someday be worthy enough to share your bed.”

A strange sensation, like thousands of warm, invisible tendrils, seeped into my pores, and my body began to respond to him. But it wasn’t like when I had been in the beginning stages of heat. That had all felt… biological. Natural.

The slick that now pooled in my underwear, however, felt forced, as though he were wringing it out of me. What kind of power did Alaroth have? Could he really manipulate physical reactions like this? I had absolutely no attraction towards this male, and it made me angry he could compel my body like this.

I tried to ignore what he was doing, and instead focused on what he’d said—a thinly veiled threat to get me to fall in line. He was trying to make it seem like I had a choice here, but the only decision was whether or not to pretend that I liked him. That regardless of which way I went, he’d get what he wanted. So might as well do it the easy way, and then maybe I’d get what I wanted, too.

Of course, I’d never get what I really wanted, which of course was to go home to my pack. It sounded like he’d been waiting a long time for us to show up, so he’d probably never let me opt out of whatever plans he truly had in store for me and Ezra.

So, the real question boiled down to this—submit or protest? Roll over or fight?

If I agreed to his terms, he may let his guard down around me, and I could find a way to hurt him or at the very least escape.

But… what if I played along, and since he knew I was playing along, he would then watch me for betrayal even more closely?

Or I could refuse to participate in his games entirely and dig my heels in every inch of the way. But would I be okay with assault or worse?

My mind was spinning with choices and what-ifs. King Alaroth wasn’t going to be as easy to fool as those idiot farmers or even the Conclave. Maybe he even had magic that could detect lies—I had absolutely no idea what was possible here.

And the worst part of all was that I could hardly concentrate as the king continued his relentless unnatural onslaught on my body. Large hands wrapped around my thighs, pulling them apart to make room for his leg. His lips devoured the skin on my neck, moaning every time he inhaled or I made the slightest noise.

Not a single second of this was sexy or fun, yet he was commanding me to feel like it was, almost in the same way an alpha could bark and force you to comply. It was so fake, and it was pissing me off.

When he started sliding his hand up the inside of my thigh, I couldn’t take it anymore. “Stop!”

I cried, trying to push away.

He paused his approach, his fingers drumming along my skin. “Tell me you will marry me and be my queen, Marlowe, and I’ll stop.”

I swallowed, closing my eyes and offering all my love to my pack through the thin shreds of bonds we had left. I would never go through with this, but I could lie for now. “I’ll-I’ll marry you…”

The king slowly released me, sighing. “I almost wish you had put up more of a fight. You are so delightfully aroused, and I’d wanted to lick you from my fingers.”

Was he actually proud of himself? Did he really think he’d managed to seduce me?

The aqua in his eyes had disappeared as his pupils fully dilated, and he grabbed my chin. “When I finally taste you, I want you in my throne. I want my whole court to see the only female I’ll ever bow before.”

And then he crushed his mouth against mine, thrusting his tongue inside. Pointed canine teeth scraped against my lips and I yelped, withdrawing and checking the blood now dripping down my chin. Now this creep also had sharpened teeth like a vampyr?

The king wiped my lips off with his thumb, grinning sadistically. “Come, let me take you to your temporary quarters. Our engagement must be announced publicly before you’ll be allowed your own chambers close to mine.”

He held out his arm and I gingerly took it, falling in step as we walked through the woods.

Just me, the devil I’d made a deal with, and my brother, lurking in the shadows.