Page 5

CHAPTER 5

E irik

The scent of the intruder comes to my nostrils as soon as I step inside the palace. I pause at the bottom of the stairs, my body on high alert, my training coming to the surface like a well-oiled machine. I shut my eyes, focusing on my hearing and my sense of smell, my senses sharp as I clear the distractions from my mind.

Yes, someone is inside my house, upstairs in the room where I sleep. In the room where I keep something worth more than all the gemstones and gold on Valcan.

Hidden where no one will find it is the lifeblood of the entire Huugwor nation, waiting to be delivered to Chancellor Ry as soon as the negotiations for our historic alliance are finished. It’s the key to our survival and our best weapon against the ever encroaching evil of the Empire.

I would die to protect it. Kill to protect it.

Wrath courses through my veins as I understand that whoever is there knows what they’re looking for. This is no accident. They are here to steal the very essence of my kind.

It’s a theft they won’t live to regret.

I climb the stone stairs slowly, my keen hearing focused on the faint sounds coming from the bedroom. So faint, I can barely make them out, even with my superior Huugwor hearing. This isn’t some ordinary burglar, not with that level of stealth. This is a professional.

Not that it matters.

I pause at the top of the stairs. The smell that comes from the room leaves me numb, and I blink in confusion. If I believe my nose, and I do, there is only one intruder. And this thief is human. Human and female.

It doesn’t matter.

But it does. I’m not one to kill a female. She doesn’t need to know that, though. Soon, I stand in the doorway to my bedroom, watching the small figure of a black-clad woman trying to move the sculpture I used as a decoy.

Anger rises and spills into my bloodstream as I understand I was right. Whoever she is, she is there to steal the Soul Stone I brought with me as a gesture of friendship to Chancellor Ry. But first, she has to unlock the safe, and I won’t let her get close to that.

“It won’t move for you,” I say, bracing my weight on the door frame, watching her reaction as I disrupt her concentration.

The female startles and jerks away from me. Shadows play on her face, but I get a glimpse of her rounded, delicate features. I don’t usually find human females attractive, preferring the stronger features of my own kind, but this one stirs something inside me. She’s beautiful, with dark hair so fine and straight it looks like silk, stray strands fanning her cheeks. A skin pale like moonlight drapes over her fine bones. She looks soft and meek, but the glint in her gaze says otherwise. There’s a hardness there, just under all that softness.

I look at her, forgetting for a moment that I should be stopping her, not staring.

Then she moves, and the spell is broken. The female withdraws her hands and takes a step away from the crystal sculpture I used as a decoy, and her gaze slides to the open window to her right.

“Don’t be stupid. I’m faster than you,” I instruct her, shaking off the annoying fascination. “Surrender now, and I won’t hurt you.”

Terror fills those dark, dark eyes, but she pinches her lips by just a fraction. She stands close to the decoy, tucked away in the corner, with little chance for escape. Adrenaline floods her system instantly, filling the air with her potent pheromones. It stirs the predator inside of me, a grumbling low in my gut. My spikes push through my skin and I let them, knowing full well the impact it will have on her. I’m rewarded with the sound of her breathing speeding up. Even with the low light, I can see it in her eyes, that instinct to dart and run like a small prey.

Good. She should be scared.

“Have you nothing to say? Not that it would help you in the slightest.”

I feel the smile spread across my lips as her eyes grow wider. Her human vision isn’t keen enough to see details in the near darkness, but I know she can see my teeth glowing in the dark. Her scent of fear sharpens, but she doesn’t surrender.

She’s like a tiny warrior, clad in more pride than sense.

I move toward her and she takes a step back, her movement graceful and confident despite the smell of fear, her stance aggressive. She lowers herself to a crouch, her entire body so still she could be made of stone. A quick glance to her right and I know she’s calculating her chances of escape.

Impressive. I expected her to collapse in terror, beg for mercy, even, but it seems like she won’t give up without a fight. It’s not something I expect from a human female. It’s strangely alluring, that much bravado in such a tiny person.

“Do you intend to fight me, little thief?” I scoff, more pleased with her fearless attitude than I want to admit to myself. “You’re no match for me.”

Even if she carried a weapon, there is no world in which this would be a fair combat. The female is like a mouse, a tiny creature who, for some hubris, decided to face a lion.

It would be amusing if it wasn’t for the secrets she’s trying to steal from me.

“I stole nothing yet. I didn’t have time.” Her voice rises, rich and light. And infinitely steadier than it should be. “I’m going to leave now, and you’ll never hear from me again.”

She should fall to her knees and beg for mercy. Instead, she braces one hand on the floor, fingers spread wide open, her entire body stiff and ready to bolt.

I misjudged her. She’s no mouse and not meek like an animal. This is infinitively more interesting.

“Don’t even think about it,” I growl, my body responding before my mind can formulate any coherent thought. “Just surrender and I will be merciful.”

To prove my point, I force my spikes to retract, retreating inside my skin.

She watches, her large eyes on my body as the deadly weapons disappear. There’s a palpable lowering of the tension as she locks gazes with me again. Removing my spikes from view always has that effect on humans, no matter how insignificant that is. I can extend them in a heartbeat if I need to.

But the little thief doesn’t know that. Not yet.

“Fat chance, big guy,” she retorts with that same tone, somewhere between a snarl and a hiss. A tone that makes my hackles rise in challenge. A tone that makes the rumble grow down in my groin. An exquisite kind of challenge.

That female stirs a response in me like none has in a long, long time. And I can’t afford this distraction, not when I’m tasked with the most important mission of my life.

The little thief shoots a furtive glance to the side, and I read her intention before she can make her move. I step sideways, cutting off her way to the open window.

“You’re either very foolish or very brave,” I say, not bothering to soften my tone. She needs to come back to her senses and realize she has no choice but to obey me. “There’s no way you’re leaving without giving me some answers. Now be reasonable and surrender before you do something you’ll regret.”

The female stares at me, the whites of her eyes flashing in fear for just an instant. Still, the stubborn turn of her mouth and the way she pinches her lips tell me she already made her decision. She’s not going to surrender. This one is going to fight.

Then she moves, quick and agile, with a surprising speed for a human. She lunges forward, but it’s just a feint, and she darts in the other direction as soon as I reach for her. She’s good, I’ll give her that.

No, good is too tame a word for her skill. She’s excellent. But she’s still human. She’s no challenge for me.

I reach for her as she shoots to the side. She almost evades me, but then my open palm hits her back and she’s thrown out of balance. She lets out a small cry when I wrap my arm around her waist, trapping her, twisting her in midair. I fall to the floor with her, landing on top of her, trapping her completely under my much larger form.

Still, she doesn’t give up.

She screams a stream of curses as she struggles under me, her small body pushing against mine, trying to get free. My instincts rise to the surface as I grip both of her wrists, then lift her hands above her head and trap them in my much larger hand.

“Stop struggling,” I growl, my face inches from hers. Her dark velvet eyes are enlarged with fear, but she’s still brimming with the urge to fight me. I can see it in her eyes, feel her wriggle under me, unwilling to submit despite the obvious fact that I’m the superior warrior.

I can feel all of her this way and another instinct rears its ugly head inside my gut, taking hold just under my navel. My cock hardens in the confines of my pants, casting its own fog over my already compromised sanity. I’m Huugwor; I’m a predator, a warrior. She has no idea how her struggles provoke my instincts to dominate and control.

I’m dangerously close to losing said control, and I know she needs to stop before I do.

“I. Said. Stop. Struggling.” I enunciate each word, and my free hand reaches up and closes around her throat. I couldn’t look away from her lovely face if I wanted as her eyes grow with fear and her lips part in panic. As my fingers squeeze just a fraction, the female stills. I can feel the entire length of her body under mine, the pace of her fast breathing, the way she keeps the panic at bay, but just barely.

It’s arousing something inside me I worked long and hard to keep at bay. Something that rears its ugly head and bares its teeth. She’s in danger in ways she cannot understand.

She’s all female curves and soft places and the scent of her fear mixes with the sensation of her female body helpless under mine. The adrenaline in my blood pumps straight to my cock and my balls harden painfully.

I lean in, barely aware of what I’m doing, until my nose rests just behind her ear, my face surrounded by the silk of her hair. I growl there, inhaling her scent, fresh and floral. The smell of the rain, deep in the crystal caves, dripping from the stalactites in the sweet humidity of my home.

“Fighting me is pointless, little thief.” I don’t recognize my own voice. It’s not the voice of a civilized man. It’s the voice of the warriors who once roamed the vast dry lands of my people, ruling with swords and drenching the desert’s thirst with the blood of their enemies.

The voice of a man I can’t afford to become.

“I’m not one to go down easy, Huugwor.” There’s still fight left in her voice, a desperate kind of defiance. The last snarl of a cornered animal.

It forces my admiration. It also makes me want to bite her nape and cover her body with mine. Naked.

I have to get a grip, I tell myself. This female is not a Huugwor mate. She’s a human and a thief.

It takes a lot out of me, but I manage to regain a semblance of control.

“Is that so?” I push back on my elbow until I hover just above her face. “And how do you see this going for you?”

My fingers are still wrapped around her throat and I can feel her pulse, too fast despite her bold words. She can pretend, but I know how terrified she is. I feel the smirk stretching my lips and I’m rewarded with a burst of fear in her large, dark eyes.

This close, I can see her perfectly despite the low light. Her oval-shaped face is delicate, with high, broad cheekbones and slightly slanted eyes of a sumptuous dark brown. Her hair is cut just under her ears, lustrous and almost jet black. Her mouth is perky and full, very round, with an upper lip almost as wide as her lower lip. Above that mouth is a slim, pointed nose, dainty and pretty. She looks like a kitten, with fine features and delicate, milky skin.

A surge of lust rushes into my veins as she glares right back, her eyes squinted in defiance.

“You’re going to keep fighting me, are you?”

I shouldn’t delight in taunting her, but there is no denying what she stirs in me as her glare sharpens, her pointed chin lifting.

“With what fangs will you bite, little kitten? With what claws will you scratch me?” I muse, knowing full well that teasing her is cruel. She has no chance against me.

“I wouldn’t underestimate me if I were you,” she retorts, refusing to accept my victory over her. “It’s a mistake no one makes twice.”

Yes. I believe her. She’s small and light, agile. She moves without sound and I believe with every fiber of my being that she’s as dangerous as a spider, hiding its deadly venom behind a fragile exterior. Not that I will give her a chance to strike.

She took a huge risk, stealing from me. And she lost her bet.

“Who are you?” I ask her, returning to my duty.

She remains stubbornly silent, her lips pressed together. There’s steel in her gaze, in the way she suppresses her fear to face me.

“No?” I growl, a new stirring in my crotch at her refusal to give me what I want. “I can make you talk.”

Fear enlarges her eyes, and her breathing quickens when my spikes elongate along my arms and back. My fingers are still closed around her throat and her pulse becomes erratic underneath my fingertips. She’s afraid. Good. The female’s eyes latch onto my spikes and I see it the moment she surrenders.

She’s a hissing kitten, yes, but not a fool.

“Sasha,” the female says in a breath. “My name is Sasha.”

“Well, Sasha, you’re going to answer my questions. If you tell me what I want to know, I’ll let you go. Do we have a deal?”

She says nothing, her gaze shooting daggers at me.

“Let’s start with an easy one, shall we? Who sent you here?”

She pinches her lips and her gaze moves to somewhere in the distance, above my head. She’s dismissing me, refusing to even look at me.

“That’s an awful decision you just took,” I tell her. “I’m not a very patient man.”

She swallows, and I follow the movement of her throat with fascination. The stirring grows low in my belly and I feel pre-cum wet the inside of my pants.

She’s mine, I think, although I have no right to think that. She stole from me and I caught her. She belongs to me now.

I know it’s wrong. I know that’s not the law of Tartarus, but I don’t care. I’m Huugwor, not human. I don’t answer to their rules. I only answer to the desert, to the endless plains without water, far beyond the reach of the Empire.

“Huugwors don’t take kindly to thieves, Sasha,” I inform her. “By the laws of the desert, you belong to me now. The only way you can regain your freedom is if I free you. And I will only free you if you give me the answers I seek.”

Sasha exhales a long, shaky breath, but still, she remains silent.

She challenges me, then.

“Let’s see how much it will take for me to change your mind.”

As her jaw clenches in a stubborn line, I feel the smile spread across my face.

The smile of a savage.