Chapter Ten

Thalia”s laughter rings out, bouncing back from the trees as she tries to race away from me, her blonde hair flying back. Her hips sway with every step she takes. She looks like a little forest fairy as she runs, dodging trees and scurrying around the brush.

My cock throbs, heavy and aching.

I put on a burst of speed, reaching out to drag her back into my arms. I yank hard, sending her toppling against my chest.

She cries out, trying to fight me, but I”m not in the fucking mood to lose. She”s mine, and she”s going to learn.

”You thought you could run from me?” I growl, pressing her up against a tree. Her breasts crush against the rough bark, drawing a moan from her lips. My hand rakes down her side, ripping her leggings down. Fury and desire churn through me in tandem, making my balls throb.

Christ, the way I fucking ache for this girl.

”You thought I wouldn”t catch you?”

”Let me go.” She struggles in my arms, trying to get free. Unlike last time, she”s not going anywhere, though. I have her right where I want her.

I rip her panties down, exposing her gorgeous ass. I want to fall to my knees and worship it, leave my marks all over it. But I don”t.

My hand lands against it in a hard smack.

”Troy!” she sobs, her head flying back.

”I warned you not to fucking run from me,” I growl, spanking her again as I rip through the button of my jeans. After what happened last time I chased her through the woods, I don”t want her getting hurt. But she decided to play with fire today, trying to push me over the edge. Now, she”ll pay for it.

She sobs again, pushing back against my hand. Eager for every fucking thing I do to her.

I smack her other cheek, watching the way her flesh reddens as it bounces and jiggles.

My cock springs free, hard and heavy.

I spank her again, roughly thrusting two fingers into her at the same time.

”Troy!” she screams, rising up on her toes as she shatters around me, already so high for it, she can”t help herself. Her pussy convulses around my fingers, rippling and clenching.

I pull them out, attacking her throat as I kick her legs apart and thrust into her, roaring at the way her muscles ripple around my cock.

”Fuck!” I shout against her skin, my voice garbled. She feels so damn good.

”Troy,” she moans, writhing in ecstasy. ”Oh, God. Troy.”

I pound into her, fucking her hard and deep, driven to the brink of madness for this woman. My lips never leave her skin as I claim her against the tree, rough and wild. She”s just as untamed, begging me to keep fucking her, to take her harder, to give her more.

I give her everything, slamming into her, pressing her harder against the tree. I crane her head back with my hand in her hair, giving myself access to the pale column of her throat.

”You feel like heaven, sweet little Thalia.” I rake my teeth down the side of her throat. ”Come before I decide not to let you.”

”No,” she whines, trying to deny me. Trying to fight me. As if she can. We both know her body is mine to command every bit as much as mine is hers. I decide when she comes and how hard. I decide how much she can take and when to give it to her. She”s mine, all the way down to her soul.

”Don”t fight me, angel.” I slip my hand between her body and the tree, seeking her hard little clit. ”You know I”ll just take what I want. This body is mine. I can do whatever I want to it.”

Her pussy clenches around me as if she loves hearing that she belongs to me as much as I love saying it. Perhaps she does. She was made for me in every way—my perfect little filthy angel.

I press my lips to her ear, nipping at the lobe as I grind my thumb against her clit, pumping my hips into hers. ”My body is yours too, sweet Thalia,” I whisper against her ear. ”Every fucking inch of me belongs to you.”

”Troy,” she gasps.

”No one will ever touch me.” I nip her throat again before moving back to her ear. ”No one will ever have any part of me. I”m yours.”

”Oh, God,” she cries, her head falling back against my shoulder as my confession sends her reeling over the edge. She unravels like a thread, shaking and crying out in my arms.

I groan, pressing her tight against the tree as the clench of her body around me rips my own orgasm from me. I spill into her again and again, filling her until my cum drips down her legs, and I”m the one shaking and gasping.

Until I”m the one lost. In her. In love. In what we”ve become together.

”Troy,” she whispers, melting against me.

I drag her away from the tree, pulling her into my arms to hold her as we come down. My lips run across her forehead and cheeks, raining kisses down on her. My heart pounds, every beat sounding out her name.

”Thalia, I—”

A shadow moves several yards ahead. I shift my gaze in that direction, only to freeze when I realize it”s not a fucking shadow. It”s a man sheltering against a massive tree, hiding in the shadows as if to keep himself from being seen.

He”s fucking watching us.

”Shit,” I growl, yanking Thalia behind me to hide her exposed body from his gaze.

As soon as I do, he realizes I noticed him.

He disappears deeper into the shadows.

How long has he been there? How much did he see?

Did someone send him, or did he simply stumble upon us? I don”t know, but worry claws at my insides, sending paranoia churning through me.

Samson is still looking for information on Thalia. We”re still waiting for him to bring news about my father. We don”t know if hers is searching for her. There are pitfalls and unknowns everywhere. Is someone watching us? Following us?

I”m going to find the fucker and ask. And then I”m going to kill him slowly for thinking he has any right to watch me fuck her.

”I need you to run back to the cabin and lock the door, angel,” I murmur to Thalia, not taking my eyes off the spot where the prick disappeared.

”What? Why?”

I don”t want to frighten her, but I can”t lie to her either.

”Someone was watching us.”

She goes rigid in my arms. ”Do you think…?”

”I don”t know, but I intend to find out,” I respond, murder in my voice.

”No!” She clings to me, her hands a vise on my arms. ”Please, Troy. Please don”t leave me alone out here. Please!”

The panic in her voice cracks my heart in half. I”ve seen her a thousand different shades of turned-on and happy. I”ve heard her laugh and shout and moan. I”ve even held her in my arms when she cried, each tear eviscerating me. But I”ve never seen her so damn afraid.

It”s intolerable.

”It”s okay, angel,” I murmur, pulling her into my arms, trying to soothe her. ”It”s okay. I won”t go.”

”Promise me,” she pleads, clinging as if I”m her only lifeline. Perhaps that”s how she feels. Out here, it”s just me and her. I have Stonehaven and connections to the outside world. But she has no one but me. If anything happens to me, she”s on her own out here, forced to keep ahead of her father all by herself.

I can”t let that happen. Until she has my ring on her finger—until the weight of my name protects her—I have to be careful. She needs me to keep her safe. It”s the only way to ensure she remains free.

”I swear to you, I”m not going anywhere,” I promise, quickly tucking my dick back into my pants before I scoop her into my arms to carry her back to the cabin.

She presses her face to my throat, trembling in my arms. I take one last lingering glance at the place where the man disappeared, memorizing it, and then turn and stride back toward the cabin, my thoughts tangled up in the woman in my arms and fears for her future.

She doesn”t speak on the way back to the cabin. She just rests quietly in my arm, shivers ripping through her periodically. It”s a far cry from the naughty, mischievous little minx who smirked at me over her shoulder and took off running not even an hour ago, taunting me to catch her if I thought I could.

Is she simply afraid of losing me, or is there something more? Whatever she isn”t telling me…I have a feeling it”s part of the reason why she”s so afraid. I just don”t know how it”s connected or what it could be.

What could she possibly be so afraid of me finding out?

The answer hits me like a ton of bricks, pieces slamming into place. She”s the princess—the one my father expects me to marry.

It”s the only thing that makes sense. That”s why she won”t tell me who she is. It”s why she ran away. It”s why she doesn”t want to go to Stonehaven. She”s my princess.

And I fucking told her that hell would freeze over before I married her.

Jesus Christ.

Horror washes through me in a flood.

What did I do?

Christ. What the fuck did I do?

I glance down at her, my heart in my throat. She has no idea that I”d drop to my knees right this second and pledge my life to her. Because I told her differently.

I have to fix this.

But I can”t do it from here. At least not all of it. If her father sent that bastard, I”m the only one capable of calling him off. I need to see my father immediately.

Christ. I need to go to Stonehaven.

I stride inside the cabin with her, kicking the door closed behind us, shutting the world out. I carry her straight to the armchair in the corner, settling onto it with her in my lap.

”I need you to promise me something,” I murmur, running my hands through her silky hair. ”Promise me that you won”t go outside without me.”

Her sapphire eyes fly to mine, welling with tears. ”Y-you”re going after him.”

”No.” I catch one on the pad of my thumb when it spills over. ”I promised you that I wouldn”t, angel. But there”s something I need to take care of back in Stonehaven. Something important.” I want to beg her to come with me, but I know she won”t. She”s still too goddamn afraid. Until I erase the reasons for that and make sure she knows that she has absolutely nothing to fear from me or anyone, she”ll continue to be afraid.

That”s my fault. Mine and her father”s. We”re fixing it. Right fucking now.

”Oh.” Her bottom lip quivers. ”W-will you be gone long?”

”Not even long enough for you to miss me.” I smile, brushing my thumb along her bottom lip. ”By the time the sun sets, you”ll be back in my arms where you belong.”

She bites her bottom lip, gathering her courage around her, and then nods bravely. Christ, she”s so fucking incredible. I don”t know a single other princess with the nerve to do what she did—to leave everything behind in a bid for freedom. She didn”t hesitate.

This whole world is foreign to her. Fable Forest is full of magic, failing portals, and mythical creatures. But she ran here anyway, without a second thought. And she”s stayed. Despite my rough ways. Despite the filthy things I”ve demanded of her. Despite everything, she”s stayed.

I”ve never been more unworthy than I am of the gorgeous little angel sitting on my lap. But my heart is hers anyway. Every piece of me is hers. And one way or another, I”m going to ensure she knows that she never has to run again. She never has to worry again.

The words are right there on the tip of my tongue. The truth—I love her. But I swallow it back. The first time I say it to her, I don”t want it to be when I”m preparing to leave her. I want it to be when she knows that I”m never leaving her side again—when she knows that I know exactly who she is, and I mean every damn word.

”My soul is yours, angel,” I breathe instead, pressing my lips to hers in a hard kiss. ”I”m leaving it in your hands.”

When I arrive in Stonehaven, I go straight to see my father. I find him in his study. He looks frailer than ever behind the massive mahogany desk, his gray hair thin, his face lined and gaunt. I”m not fooled, though. His body may be weak, but his will is still forged from steel.

”Come to argue your case again, Troy?” he asks, eyeing me wearily.

”No.” I push the door closed, leaning up against it. I study him for a long moment, curious how he became this man. I always thought the loss of my mother drove him mad—that he was a kind, benevolent king before she died. But since finding Thalia, I find myself questioning my memory more and more.

I think, perhaps, he was always the man he is now. My mother simply softened his rough edges. Without her here to keep him in check, the harsher parts of his personality have grown wild. If there”s a tyrant in this room, it”s him. I”m simply a product of my raising.

When you live with snakes, you learn to strike.

With Thalia, I don”t have to be that man. I won”t be that man. She deserves someone better. My mother did, too. I hope, for her sake, my father gave her better while she was alive.

”I came to ask her name.”

”What?”

”The princess,” I repeat. ”What is her name?”

He cocks his head to the side, eyeing me. ”Now you want to know who she is?”

”Tell me her name, Father,” I growl.

”Thalia Rosewood.”

”Did you plan on telling me that she”s missing?”

His eyes widen in shock.

He didn”t know.

So, he didn”t send the man in the forest today. I didn”t think he had, but I needed to be sure. I searched the forest high and low before I left Thalia alone, worried about leaving her out there. But I found no traces of him. He was long gone, tire tracks leading away from an old dirt road a mile from the cabin.

He didn”t stick around if someone sent him out there to spy on us. She”s as safe as she can be in the cabin. She won”t leave it, and she won”t let anyone inside.

By the time I finish here today, no one will be looking for her anyway. They”ll know I have her and she”ll stay with me until our wedding.

I throw my head back and laugh at the sour look on my father”s face. ”Rosewood didn”t tell you, huh? He really is a bigger prick than you are.”

”What do you mean she”s missing?”

”I mean, she ran away nearly two weeks ago.”

”How do you know this?”

”Because I know where she is,” I smirk, stepping deeper into the room. ”And if you want me to marry her, you”ll tell her father that he isn”t going to look for her. He”s going to leave her the fuck alone. If he doesn”t, as soon as the ink dries on the marriage license, I”ll push him out of his fucking kingdom by force.”

”I didn”t authorize that, Troy.”

”Do I look like I asked for permission?” I arch a brow at him. ”The two of you signed the contract without our consent. Now, you have it. But we aren”t playing by your rules, Father. You”re playing by ours. The princess is mine. But if either of you try to interfere, you”ll live long enough to regret it.”

”Are you threatening me?” he growls, jolting forward in his chair with far more strength than he pretends to have.

”No. I”m promising you,” I snarl. ”Try to come between me and her, and I will destroy this fucking kingdom and the Rosewood kingdom, brick by brick, if that”s what it takes. She”s mine.”

He stares at me for a long moment, our eyes locked in a silent battle of wills, and then, surprisingly, he throws his head back and laughs, cackling as if I just handed him the keys to my soul.

”Congratulations, boy,” he says, his fingers drumming against the top of his desk. ”Now, you”ve found something worth fighting for. You”ll have no interference from me. I”ll see to it that Rosewood leaves the girl alone, too.”

I stare at him, caught off guard. Is he actually giving me what I want for once in his miserable life?

”Aurora would be proud,” he says gruffly, the first time he”s spoken my mother”s name in twenty years.

”No,” I mutter, shaking my head. ”If she could see us now, she”d be fucking horrified, father. You know she would. This is the first thing—the only thing—I”ve done right since she died.” I turn and stride for the door.

As my hand hits the knob, his voice floats back to me, soft and somber.

”Me too, son. Me too.”