“What the fuck?” she whimpered as she glanced around.
“You thought you’d walk in here with his scent clinging to your flesh and I’d do what? Just accept it? I warned you I wasn’t interested in sharing you with anyone else, didn’t I? You’re beyond my reach in that realm, but I swear to the fucking gods, you’ll feel me when you return to your body. You’ll feel me everywhere. Your flesh. Your pretty, willing cunt. I won’t stop until you’re bruised, marked, and nothing more than a mewling, crying, coming mess beneath me.” Her silver brows shot up on her forehead at what I’d said, swirling gold eddies churning in her lovely eyes. The moment she turned, eyeing the high cliff the library had churned up from my fantasy, a gasp broke from her fuckable lips.
“Knox, this is insane. I came here to talk to you. I promise, there’s no one else,” she pleaded, ever-so-fucking prettily, before turning back to find me inches from her. She was a good hunter, but I was better. I was faster than she was still. Brutality was something I excelled at, which she was fully aware of. She had been at the receiving end of my rage. “Please, listen to me.”
I traced the delicate curve of her jawline. She was the loveliest creature I’d ever clapped eyes on before. Aria’s beauty wasn’t in her flesh. No. It was in her mind. Even the way she thought, was enchanting. The girl was strategic in everything she did, and while everyone else was playing checkers, she was stacking the chess board ten steps ahead of everyone, including me. She leaned into my touch, which made the next part more enjoyable. Shoving her over the edge, her eyes rounded in horror before a blood-curdling scream ripped from her lungs.
“And so we begin, my pretty prey,” I murmured before jumping over the edge, enjoying the sight of her gown lifting as she plunged toward the water below.
Chapter Twelve
Knox
Aria shifted her body at the last moment, diving beneath the watery surface. A moment before I broke the surface, I mirrored her pose, penetrating through it seamlessly. I allowed myself to plunge to the bottom of the river, making it there just in time to see her push off the sleek stones and shoot up for the surface. Her toned legs kicked against the water as she rushed toward the shoreline.
I rose to the surface, only allowing my nose above water long enough to draw in a deep breath. Then I sank back underwater to watch her crawling over the silt of the beach. The moment she hit dry land, her eyes returned to the water, searching it for any sign of me. Aria didn’t stick around for me to pop out of the water, though. Instead, she bolted into the forest, and my body heated at the idea of hunting her.
She was about to recklessly run through the perilous forest to gauge her reflexes. Then again, it was also for me to watch her stumbling through the woods as I hunted her down. Aria was fucked. There was no other way she’d escape this forest tonight. She wasn’t stupid enough not to leave her body unguarded.
I’d made sure she wasn’t that neglectful when I’d chased her around the realms. The moment she entered this world, I’d begun ensuring she became hard enough to survive it. Lowering her guard would result in my exposing her mistake. She’d assumed I hadn’t known right where she fucking was, but I’d had her in my sights the entire time.
The way she thought, though, it had left me stunned. I’d assumed her move, but she’d been steps ahead of me without me being the wiser. I’d go to make a move, then step back, because she’d done something so mind-boggling, that I’d wanted to see her achieving it. While I was playing checkers, she’d been playing chess. She fixed the board without me realizing that she’d made a move. However, how she moved the pieces in such a strategic, merciless way was mind-boggling. It left me struggling to figure out her next move before she made it.
Aria’s brain was a work of art, and the thing I liked about her most. It calculated a problem, subtracted the incidentals, isolated the target, and then went to war against her target. The woman was created to wage war, and gods save anyone stupid enough to stand between her and what she wanted. She skillfully outmaneuvered me, which I wasn’t even upset about. She’d read the Art of War, yet it was undeniable that she was the entire book placed into one gorgeously-packaged woman.
Breaking free of the shimmering, moonlit surface, I shot toward the shore, then prowled toward the forest. I didn’t need to run because I could hear the erratic beat of her heart. The fragrance of her adrenaline mixed with the delicious scent of her arousal. The same arousal that would soon drip down my fucking chin.
I strolled into the dark forest, pausing as the sound of her feet crunching over the dry leaves met my ears. A smile curled over my lips as I took off after her, anticipation for what was coming, humming through me. My cock twitched at the thought of being buried deep inside her tight, needy cunt. I fucking loved the way it clenched around me, sucking me further into her haven.
Every step deeper into the woods brought me closer to her, and the veneer I wore around others steadily shed. Out here, we were animals with the urgent need to rut like beasts in the wild. The moment Aria’s inhibition started lowering, I felt the primal instinct rising within her as well.
The sound of her footsteps paused, as if she wasn’t certain what was happening. It sounded like she was spinning in a circle, searching for any hint of me in the area.
Our kind wasn’t meant to be tethered by the constraints of humanity. The Nine Realms were filled with beasts, monsters and those who thought themselves humanoid. None were meant to be clothed or held in constant captivity of their flesh. A beast ruled each realm, be it one who wore flesh or fur—it mattered little.
The hunt was instinctive. My base nature was driving my actions to relentlessly hunting Aria’s sexy, gorgeous ass down and fuck her so roughly that she’d never get me out of her system. Never mind the fact that getting her animalistic nature to kick-in would keep her safer where she was inside the new realm.
If I was right, Ember was riding within her as I hunted Aria down. The moment she felt me, she’d realize what I was doing and lend her host her abilities. Those abilities would keep Aria protected.