Page 61 of A Fate of Wings
“Fuck,” he said. “She killed the fae king.”
Even worse, fear filled my body. Whoever ‘she’ was, it petrified me because the fae king was a revered supernatural being on Earth. Humans worshiped him. Fae adored him. I squeezed my eyes shut. Would she kill us? Cillian too?
An eternity passed as we lay locked in fear together. There was a niggling sensation in my body. This man wasn’t unknown to me.
“She’s gone,” he said, lifting his hand from my mouth.
“Who are you?” I asked.
He let me go. I rolled to my feet in an instant and stared at him.
“Thea?” His brows dipped low over his ebony eyes.
“Who is Thea?” I backed into a tree. The rough bark grazed my hands.
He tilted his head. “You are.”
“You… know me?”
At last, someone knew my name. Recognized who I was. Even if it was an enemy and I was about to die, I’d learn a little about myself.
He puffed out a breath. “Of course, I’m your mate.”
Was this beast my mate? I let my gaze rake his body. Was he the father of my little boy? They both had black hair. A similar stubborn tilt to their chin, but I couldn’t risk Cillian’s safety if he wasn’t his father. More than ever considering the size of this monster, and those talons, let alone the horns that would frighten most people on Earth. I wouldn’t risk Cillian, nor Cara and Seamus, if he was lying.
“I don’t believe you.”
His lips wobbled on his handsome face because even if he resembled a monster, he possessed a rugged charm that wasn’t unappealing. “You didn’t believe me the first time, either.”
“First time?” I rubbed my forehead. The darkness thickened inside my head as I strained to remember any fragment of my former self, of the chance he was my mate.
“What’s wrong with you?” His voice dipped to a deep resonance.
“Nothing,” I snapped.
“Then come home with me.”
“Home?” I echoed.
That word. Home. I’d spent so long daydreaming about what my home looked like, but this beast had never been in those imaginings.
“The Autumn Court.”
The blackness inside my mind darkened. My head pounded. I gasped at the pain turning everything black, my vision too. Warm, muscular arms scooped me up a second before my legs gave way. The leather against my skin surrounded me with a heady scent of the beast underneath yet again.
I peeled my eyelids open and stared up into his eyes. “I don’t know you. I don’t know me.”
He gathered me closer to his chest as though we weren’t close enough, as though he wanted to crawl inside me and make me whole again with his presence. “I don’t understand.”
In a gentle hold, this close to the beast, my body responded. My skin hummed in pleasure with the skin-to-skin contact. My gaze fell to his lips as my nipples hardened. The tight tips thrust against the cotton of my dress, eager to have his mouth on them. My thighs clenched as a quiver took up residence in my body as though it remembered his previous touch. My body recognized him. That was the only plausible explanation. Not once had I experienced an overwhelming lust for a man here.
Was this beast friend or foe, though?
“Let me go.” I kicked my legs in a futile attempt against his massive strength. He was so much larger than me.
“Never.” His muscular arms held me tighter. “I’m never letting you out of my sights again, Thea.”
“I’m not Thea.”