Page 23 of The Howling (Monsters of the Yeavering #2)

R eavely is subdued after Fenrother and Alice leave. Alice promised to return, and I can’t help but feel guilty about Kaitlyn, who might still be in Lord Guyzance’s clutches.

We both watch as Fenrother, in his dragon form, flaps off into the sky, with Alice on his back. My stomach dips as the vague recollection of riding Reavely sneaks back into my consciousness.

“You know what I said about wanting to go back beyond the veil?” I say to Reavely.

He nods curtly.

“I want to rescue my friend more.”

“Your friend ,” Reavely says, as if it’s an unfamiliar concept. “The mate of the Wyrm?”

“No.” I sigh. “I’ve only just met Alice. I mean the other human with me in Lord Guyzance’s fortress. I’m concerned he might be…hurting her.”

“He will not be,” Reavely says with some conviction.

“How do you know? He’s Faerie. He’s more than likely doing something to someone.”

“Perhaps not,” Reavely says, turning his head to the rising moon. “In any event, the servants of Guyzance were all freed.”

“They were?” My stomach flips over with joy. “How?”

Reavely doesn’t respond. Instead, he releases a long, low, mournful howl at the ghostly shape of the moon.

It makes all the hairs on my body stand on end and tweaks my chest as if there is an invisible line between me and him.

As if he’s trying to pull my soul from my body. Except it stays put. I put my hand over my heart which hammers there. But it’s not fear I feel. Not while I look at Reavely’s broad shoulders and handsome face in profile. It’s something else, something almost primal.

The urge to run.

As the thought breaks through me, Reavely breaks off his howl, and those stunning eyes are on me, watching my every move, like the predator he is.

“Your soul is perfection,” he rasps. “I can taste it.”

His tongue sweeps his full lips and my core tingles in response.

This is so wrong. Just because I’ve seen one human with one monster, it doesn’t mean my body can be having these feelings about Reavely.

He kidnapped me.

He wants my soul.

He wants me.

This monster is a walking red flag and yet…

Reavely stalks the two paces to my side. I’m rooted to the spot. If I wanted to move, if I wanted to run, I don’t think I could.

“There are other things I’d like to taste,” he says.

“My soul?” I squeak.

“Your skin.” He inhales over me. “And your cunt.”

I should recoil at the crude word, but it’s as if he has magic to keep me here, to make a deep shiver run through me from my toes to the top of my head. To make my core clench so hard I see stars.

Reavely looms over me, so big, blotting out the light. His delicious spicy scent surrounds me. I stare up into his face. His lips part. He is so close to me, so very close.

His head dips towards me, eyes burning, burning.

I know what I want, but then it comes for me, like lightning.

Lord Guyzance, the stench of his magic, his desire, his intention. What he wanted, he wasn’t going to ask for. I was going to give it up no matter what.

It’s blinding, it’s hideous, and there is so much noise.

“Little deer,” a deep calming voice says in my ear. “You are safe with me.”

I open my eyes to find the noise is me, and I stop instantly. Reavely has his arms around me, not holding me tight but instead surrounding me with his warmth and presence.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” I gasp out, pulling away from him.

I don’t run. I don’t want to bring out the predator in him, but I walk into the castle to put distance between us, between what I want and what I can’t have.

The Faerie spoil every single thing they touch, and they have spoilt whatever this might have been.

I don’t think I can let anyone in again.