Page 48 of The Hunted

That was all she’d meant to do! Just save his fucking life. To correct her wrongs—or to assuage the guilt that never left because she couldn’t get the image of his mother’s haunted face out of her mind. Instead, this happened.

But did the man know these things?

Arelle seriously doubted it. He wouldn’t know; he wasn’t like her.

“Oh, my Gods,” she breathed.

Behind her, she felt the man shift in his sleep; his arm slung over her naked hip, and his fingers pressed into her skin. He was still sleeping. She could tell by the way his breaths came out steady and even.

The calm after a storm.

But even that touch …

It was possessive.

In his sleep, he reached for her.

Like she had been doing for him, she’d bet. That was why, even after sleeping alone for most of her life, she still found herself awake and tucked into her mate’s side. Because this was how it should be from now on. The bond would demand it, or it would torture her until she gave it what it needed.

“Eryx!”

“Prince!”

“Prince Eryx—call out if you can!”

That’s what had woken Arelle up. Again, she felt him start to shift behind her, a groan echoing against the back of her neck. It had her shivering, a rush of memories filling her mind all over again. All those sounds he made when he pinned her down and fucked her until she couldn’t think or breathe or see.

She’d wanted it.

Needed it.

It had still been a mistake.

Her worst ever.

Arelle would be a damn liar if hearing that groan didn’t make her wet and hot and ready all over again, but she blamed the bond for that. It had to be the bond, didn’t it? The man with his arm hooked around her to keep her in place while he woke up certainly wasn’t the only man she’d laid down with. Her education had included a male companion when she’d turned seventeen—one who’d taught her everything from the act of sex to self-pleasure, and more when it came to mating. That way, she would know and wouldn’t be afraid of it when her time came.

She hadn’t been.

It’d come too easily, maybe.

But her companion—he’d told her something important once. The bond only ties you together; you decide everything else after. The bond between mates could make her want a lot of things, but she still had a choice.

“Eryx!”

Arelle lifted just enough from the ground that she could peer through the brush that led out to the shore of the island. It wasn’t the calm sea that she noticed first, or even the way the light breeze brought with it the scent of sunshine and salt, two of her favorite things.

No, it was the ship.

Quite far off, edging close to the shoreline of a neighboring island, the vessel had men all across the deck shouting a name she didn’t know.

“Eryx!”

They would find them soon. There’d been more than one ship the night before, and there was a very good chance someone had seen her swimming with Eryx toward the islands.

She couldn’t be here …

They were hunters. A lot like the man behind her. One she’d tied herself to. Bonded with.