DE HUG

fur blanket. My body ached as if it had been trampled, every

b, my inner thighs and shoulders were marked with the d

was his name. He had fulfilled his side of the bargain

ving his silhouette, as still and imposing as a mountain.

ement. This time, in the clear m

d features like a god's statue. Nothing like the "old monster" I had ima

ossed the room to the bedside, a roll of ban

ist, his touch rough, and began

y precise. He examined my wrist the way one might inspect a newly acquired weapon.

ouldn't he

ill a cold monotone. "I don't l

ation, but beneath them, a strange sense o

ard my neck. I touched it instinctively;

anded, his voice l

xposing my throat to him. He leaned in, and his cold fingers applie

ed up, putting distance between us again, as if the op

on," he declared, his tone

n't let this go,

he scoffed. "They

ure cloaked entirely in black stood outsid

ssued an order to the guard. "From now on, she is your seco

one knee in an ancient salu

me. The "Ancient One," Gabriel Kane, hidden away in the Serrano castle's forbidd

had planned to seek an alliance with, once I had

mething that might have been a smile touched his

ck into the shadows, as i

my "master." "Rest. Heal your wounds. I need you in perfe

hiver down my spine. He wasn't going to keep me a

For the first time in this castle of betrayal

powerful beast in the ki