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The Empire of Beasts is a cursed nation where beasts live.
But Elynn is only aware of the latter part, and yet not quite.
As Elynn discovers a solution to save her younger sister from the annual offering to the...
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A RAY OF SUNLIGHT streaming through the window woke me with a reminder of what day it was. Monday.
I'd spent the weekend helping Mum with sewing some clothes women from town had ordered. But now, as the day had come when Chase would be back from somewhere he'd refused to tell me, the trepidation increased with each step towards his manor.
As I was inside, he wasn't here. I wasn't relieved. He would be here eventually, and in the meantime, I admired paintings on the walls as though I hadn't seen them already. But it didn't take Chase long to show up.
"Here you are."
I put on a smile before I turned to him. "Here I am." I took in his outfit. He was shirtless, merely baldric laden with lethal weapons covering his muscular chest, and the archery quiver was peeking from his back. "Were you on a hunting spree?"
He took a step closer. "I was."
I acknowledged his bare, clean hands. "I suppose hunting didn't go well?"
"It didn't," he said half-heartedly and reduced the remaining distance between us by putting his hands on my hips and pulling me closer to his half-naked body. "It's your fault I came empty-handed, Ely."
"How is it my fault?"
His eyes sparkled. The bile rose in my throat while my stomach churned with nausea.
"I couldn't stop thinking about you. You were always on my mind, and I couldn't focus for two days." Chase leaned closer to my ear, and his tongue touched my earlobe. Disgust filtered through me, but I fought back an impulse to shrink back. "Do you want to know what I was thinking about?"
Absolutely not.
"Maybe."
His lips brushed against the skin below my ear. My body remained rigid. But I had to react or else he would know something was—
Oh, who was I trying to fool? Even if he realised something was wrong, he would ignore it. It was his forte to turn a blind eye to everything that was happening around him.
"I thought..." He spun me around. His hands were on my hips as he pushed me against the wall, lips close to my ear. "...how pretty you would look like if I—"
I swivelled my head to look at the end of the corridor where the charcoal-black door was, almost knocking his face, but I didn't, to my disappointment. "What is behind that door?"
Ever since the first time I had stepped into his manor and seen the mysterious door, I'd been speculating on what was behind it. When I was alone, I attempted to get inside, but it was always locked. Whatever was in there, it must be of great value to consider locking it.
"Nothing you should concern your pretty head with." His strong hands went lower my hips and rested on the back of my thighs. "Now, where was I?"
"Chase," I crooned. "What's in there?" I batted my eyelashes.
