Nevertheless, he was a killer like all the rest of them. He had hunted and brought down countless animal spirits over the centuries. He was infamous for his ruthless efficiency.
One stroke of his sword, one stab of his dagger, one shot of his arrow—that was all it took to defeat even the largest, strongest Beasts.
Queen Gaia’s silver eyes narrowed slightly as she scrutinized him.
He knew that look.
Bloodlust and simplylust. His ugliness did not exclude him from her voracious appetites.
For a thousand years she had ruled the known world alone, without a Consort to balance her dark passions. She was not a female who shared power. She was brutal and easily angered.
She reigned with an iron fist and possessed no mercy. Her subjects obeyed out of fear rather than respect. And though she was a stunningly beautiful woman, even the strongest of Dark warriors bore her attentions only when she demanded it, never voluntarily.
Those who shared her sadistic bents, she found less attractive. For, she sought to force her dominance upon others, to subjugate and enslave. The less willing or more rebellious a person or people were, the more she wanted to conquer and submit them.
As Zai was one of the strongest Dark warriors in her arsenal, she always wanted to submit him.
“Come here,” she commanded, her blood-red lips curling in a cruel smile.
Zai’s muscles locked as he inwardly braced himself. Outwardly, he showed no emotion as he took the steps stoically to stand before her throne, elevated on a dais.
“Closer,” she growled, crooking her finger.
He moved until he stood immediately between her spread legs, his crotch level with her face.
Without preliminaries, she reached beneath his tunic with both hands as if she owned his body (which, for all intents and purposes, she did, as she owned everything in this empire) and untied his loincloth, letting the scrap of leather fall to the ground.
There were at least a dozen guards stationed around the throne room, including two sentinels standing on either side of the throne, just a couple of feet away.
Zai could feel their glowing red eyes upon him. He could scent both their relief that it wasn’t one of them, as well as their reluctant arousal watching the Queen atplay.
Queen Gaia had always loved an audience. The more there were to observe her indulgences of bloodlust and violence, the more she fed off the high.
Her sharp nails dug into his private flesh as she handled him roughly, bringing him to hardness despite his abhorrence of the act.
He let himself drift away mentally even as he remained physically rooted to the spot. This, too, was something to which he had inured himself. And if he showed any of the revulsion he felt, it would only further fuel her bloodlust and sadism.
He wondered as she proceeded to rape his body whether this was all that life offered. For the entirety of his existence, it was all he knew. Violence, pain, killing, screams of horror and vengeance.
Dark Ones were supposed to be the masters of the universe. But Zai had only ever felt enslaved.
~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~
“Sin, stop worrying,” Anya said, brushing a long tendril of hair behind her ear.
“We are safe here. This cavern is nigh impenetrable and well-hidden besides. I know all of the escape routes through the secret tunnels if I have to run—”
Sin opened his mouth to interject, but she spoke briskly over him.
“—and Icanrun if I have to, despite being bigger than a whale. I am strong, you know. I may have a Pure One base, but I am still animal at heart. Or have you forgotten the scars I’d carved into your thick hide?”
This, she said with a saucy smile, intended to distract him from the danger that surrounded them.
It almost worked. Anya was irresistible when she was saucy. She was irresistible to Sin no matter what.
She was his Mate, after all. They both had the mating marks to prove it, having hunted each other like the predators they were—she, a golden lioness, and he, the rarest of all predatory cats, a dark blonde liger.
Despite that he was twice her size (he was bigger than all other cats except for the Tiger King himself), she met him claw for claw, fang for fang. She was his match in every way. She had pursued him as much as he had hunted her.