Shara walked to the bed as carefully as she could while Balladyn watched her. The pain was excruciating, but she would survive it. She was glad to have something to cover her body from Balladyn’s gaze, even if it was the horrid black dress that barely concealed her breasts or her ass.
When she turned to him, Balladyn held out a pair of black heels that dangled from his fingers. Shara put them on, never taking her eyes from him. She hadn’t understood hatred and loathing until then. Now she realized she had only ever touched on the emotions.
Until Balladyn.
He gave a nod. “Perfect. Let’s get us a Dragon King.”
She walked out of the chamber beside him, animosity growing by leaps with each step they took.
*
Kiril came awake instantly when he caught Shara’s scent. But she wasn’t alone. Dark Fae were with her, though they hung back while she entered the house. He was hesitant to assume that she had betrayed him. Then again, she was a Dark.
Kiril wanted to unfurl his wings and spread them wide, to roar and take to the skies. Instead, he remained quietly laying in the cellar listening.
Shara’s steps took her all over the house searching from one room to the next. She spent extra time in his bedroom, and he wished he could see what she was doing.
Eventually she came down the stairs and walked to the front door that she threw wide. “He’s not here,” she shouted and turned to sit on the stairs.
It wasn’t long before the footsteps of thirty Dark entered his house. It was everything Kiril could do not to burst through the floor and tear them to pieces.
“Are you sure this is where he lives?”
“Yes, Balladyn,” Shara answered crossly.
Balladyn. Kiril should’ve known.
He scowled when Shara’s tone penetrated his fury. She was angry, her tone clipped. So she wasn’t here of her own volition.
“Ask Farrell’s men if you don’t believe me.” Shara’s voice was icy.
Kiril grinned. That was the spirit he knew, the passion he’d felt firsthand in his arms.
There were three seconds of silence before Balladyn told his men, “Search the house and the entire grounds. Leave nothing untouched. If the dragon is here, we’ll find him.”
When the footsteps of Balladyn’s men faded, Kiril wasn’t surprised when Balladyn remained behind. He wanted Shara. Kiril didn’t need to see the Dark to know that. He could hear it in Balladyn’s voice.
“Where is he, Shara?” Balladyn asked.
Kiril already hated Balladyn for taking Rhi, but now he wanted to personally do him harm for thinking Shara was his.
“Why would I know that?”
“You were sent to seduce him,” Balladyn stated. “I assume you did your job well.”
Shara made a sound at the back of her throat. “Do you think a Dragon King would reveal anything to anyone?”
“You’re lying.” The certainty in his voice spelled danger for Shara. “Perhaps you’ve already forgotten the feel of the whip.”
Kiril saw red. Balladyn had hurt her. The Dark’s fate was sealed. Kiril would be the one to personally kill him, and he would enjoy every minute of it.
“Cut me to pieces, and it still won’t change what I don’t know,” Shara said, breaking into his thoughts.
“Nor will the fact change that I’m going to capture the Dragon King.”
Shara thought she was going to gag on the words. Part of her had hoped Kiril was there so she could seek his help, but in the end she was ecstatic that he wasn’t. Where he was, however, was the question. His Mercedes sat in the drive and the keys were on the entryway table where he had tossed them when he’d arrived the previous night.
Had it really been twenty-four hours since she had left Balladyn and waited for Kiril at the manor? What she wouldn’t do to rewind time and have those hours with Kiril again. She would beg him to take her away and leave Ireland, the Dark, and her family far behind.
But she knew Kiril would never do that. He was an honorable man, a man who had come to rescue a friend. Only when he had Rhi would he return to Scotland.
“Did you hear me?”
Shara stopped short of rolling her eyes as she looked at Balladyn. He was out of place in Kiril’s home, a foreign object in a residence of peace and pleasure. “Did you say something?”
His face mottled with rage. “Our Claiming will be talked about for centuries.”
“I’m not going to be your wife. I’ve already told you that.” She stood when her bottom began to hurt. The more she walked, the more she worked out the ache. Sitting or being still for a long period of time made the pain worse.
Shara leaned against a wall and sank her nails into her palm when she heard the crashes upstairs begin. The Dark were literally tearing things apart. As if Kiril would be hiding under a bed or chest.
“You were practically begging yesterday,” Balladyn said.
“I don’t fear you. My family wanted me dead for centuries, and now I’m your captive. You can threaten and torture me all you want, but I won’t be a part of the Claiming nor will I tell you anything about the Dragon King since I know nothing.”