Page 26 of Wolfkissed
Not if I can help it.
In fact… I step closer to the werewolf. “Kier, do it.”
Valen’s amber eyes are fixed on me, and the mirth seems to have left them. “Are you sure about this, princess? What if I take a bite out of you?”
“Will you?” The cold sweat running down my back belies my bravado.
I can hear the smirk when he asks softly, “Would you like me to?”
Cold fury crashes into me. “You joke about this as if it’s a light matter. Your kind almost finished me off as a child, but I survived. Don’t make me reconsider Kier’s proposal.”
He’s silent after my outburst, still watching me intently, as if trying to read me. It feels as if something has shifted in his posture.
When he lifts his bound hands, I recoil, my breath leaving me.
Kier moves in quickly, shoving him back with his boot, sending him sprawling. “You don’t make a single move toward our mistress, you hear that, dog? Or I’ll string you by the balls over the manor’s entrance.”
I let out a breathless laugh, born of nerves, and wipe a hand over my mouth. It’s a dark, bitter feeling, losing control right after I’d convinced myself I could do this.
“Swear,” Kier goes on, “swear to me, dog, that you won’t touch her or I’ll cut you down here and now.”
Valen snarls, twisting and getting back on his knees. He lifts his hands and snaps the rope tying his wrists together. “You want to test me, human? Go ahead.”
“You—”
“I haven’t made a single fucking move against any of you since I was dragged here. Are you prodding me to make me losecontrol? Fuck that. You call me a dog. Is it my bite you seek? I may be an animal, but not all animals are born equal.”
Swallowing hard, I stand my ground. “If he takes the muzzle off, do you swear not to harm us?”
“I have no appetite for human flesh,” he says dismissively. “Or fragile human ladies.”
That’s a different kind of attack, but the fear already coursing through my body doesn’t leave much space for discomposure born of humiliation.
Is he implying he doesn’t find me attractive as a woman? Or that I’m too weak to deserve anything more than pity and contempt?
Either way, it shouldn’t matter. My walls wavered for an instant there, but his remark is rebuilding them so fast I’m reeling.
“Muzzle,” I snap. “Off.”
“You want to see my face, Princess?” he taunts me, his bound hands clenched in their black gloves. “My mouth? My teeth?—”
“Shut up.” Kier slaps Valen’s face so hard, it jerks to the side. “Mind your manners. If you insult her again, I’ll wring your neck for good this time.”
Valen slowly turns back to face me and the mirth seems to be back in his golden eyes. “What sort of manners do you expect from adog?”
Muttering angrily to himself about mangy dogs and ungratefulness, Kier walks behind the werewolf. It’s almost funny. This situation keeps vacillating between the ludicrous and the impossible.
Then my breath catches when Kier unclasps the muzzle at the back of Valen’s head and removes it.
I don’t… know what I’d expected.
Not true, I do. My memories are filled with vicious snouts full of sharp, yellow teeth, chins covered in blood dripping down necks and chests.
Not a chiseled jaw and a firm, luscious mouth, sharp cheekbones, and again those eyes, even more magnetizing now under the fall of his wild, silver-gray hair.
It’s all wrong. Monsters aren’t supposed to be beautiful.
Strangely, Kier doesn’t seem to be as affected as I am. “There you go. Unmuzzled. Bert, where are you? We’re ready.”
