❝NOW THE DARK BEGINS TO RISE❞

Kershov had started stalking imperceptibly closer to the battered girl, massive paws shuffling quietly and slowly over the claw-torn terra, his upper body held rigidly in space as he locked onto his target. Calculations snapped lightning-fast through sparking synapses—more rapid still than Kershov could complete when constrained by sanity—and his ruthlessly efficient predator-brain decided many things at once. First: the odds of the unknown female fleeing from him were low. She feared him, absolutely. Dawning horror strangled her apparent relief at being rescued from the vampire, turning her already acrid scent bitter and hot with new dread. In a different time, Ker would have taken a moment to comfort her, to soothe her . . . even if his heart had not been in the gentle actions, his presence would say otherwise—for the frost-born Pharaoh could act and manipulate with the best of them. The wolfess posed no threat to him, nor did she present herself as defective; sane Kershov would have glimpsed an opportunity waiting in her lavender eyes. A kind word there, a promise spoken with conviction, and he might have gained another member in his army. But the Beast had no time for niceties. Accumulating pack subalterns conflicted with its current mission. This girl would not flee because although his demonic countenance frightened her, she owed him for saving her hide. Her hesitation betrayed her debt. And even if she chose to run, they both knew that Kershov could catch her in mere seconds.

Catch her . . . and punish her for obstructing his justice.

The complexities of her scent rifled through his perception in less than milliseconds. Terror, pungent on the back of my tongue, spiced with acid-heat; the saline tinge of tears; an iron faintness of blood—from the vampire’s pelt?—mixed with mucus, the lubricant of copulation; the earthy traces of soil from the path she trod . . . what is this greenery? As the damsel mentioned the pack where his Gwyneira resided, the ivory warrior had already deduced of which kingdom she meant: Caidir Olc. Only one place could possibly impress these perfumes upon that salt-and-pepper pelt . . . for in the lady’s robes Kershov tasted carpets of emerald moss and giant shiny leaves and black stagnant water that could come from nowhere but the jungle territory. Ah . . . so this is where the leeches hide.

A low growl reverberated in the deepest pit of Kershov’s chest—an audible sign of his displeasure when the she-wolf insisted on talking rather than directly taking him to Caidir. Did she not see the manic, savage energy writhing in his lightless lanterns? Did she not notice the way his talons dug restlessly into the earth, preparing him to run? “I thank you for your sacrifices,” he hissed coolly, that rumble still texturing his lyrics like granite under silk, “and I promise to repay your generosity by inflicting equal torture upon my daughter’s captor. Your assistance will not have been in vain.” The alabaster gangster had anticipated finding Gwyn dead. As a father, the notion would have sickened him—not just for himself, but for the wasted reproductive labor of Athene, for the travesty of crushing Gwyn’s life when the lass was obviously going to be a great huntress. He would have mourned the loss of a wealth of strength . . . and been consumed by rage for the wrong done to him and his bloodline. Yet the devil currently using his bones examined this possibility with emotionless focus. If Gwyneira were already dead, there was nothing he could do. There was only vengeance—and the Beast had decreed this from the moment it shattered its bonds.

By now, Kershov had prowled nearer until he stood directly in front of the stranger, looming over her petite frame like an eagle hovers over a mouse. He narrowed his pitch-glass windows into slitted blades, his growl simmering into a vicious snarl. “We’ll start with you leading me to where my daughter is. Let us not tarry . . . I do so want to taste vampire meat.”

❝NOW THE DARK IS TAKING OVER❞

♛〖 King of Uyaraut ✦ bonded to Athene ✦ father of many ✦ xathira 〗♛