Ashes of Chaos (Legacy of the Nine Realms #2) - Amelia Hutchins Page 0,14

My body didn’t get heated, but admittedly, I found his flirting cute.

It spoke volumes since I turned into a raging sexual fiend every time I was near Knox.

I’d discovered a lot about myself and just how fucked up I was since entering the Nine Realms. I knew that I wanted Knox and that no other male would soothe the ache I felt between my legs, or my clenching need. I hated it, but he’d dug himself so deeply within me I couldn’t rip his claws out.

Dimitri hadn’t given up hope that I’d succumb to his seduction and flirted mercilessly with me. His hands grabbed and parted my legs as he settled between them, cupping my face as he studied my eyes. I watched his tongue snake out, wetting his lips, noting the lust that danced within his pretty blue eyes.

“Can I kiss you?” he asked, watching as I puckered my lips, scrunching my face before I exhaled slowly.

Leaning forward, I let his lips brush against mine and waited for the burning need to tear through me. I craved the primal need. The violence the kiss would rip from me, reminding me I wasn’t human at all, no matter how I looked. It never came.

With Dimitri, it was cute flirting.

With Brander, there was a little heat.

With Knox, he melted the flesh from my bones, revealing the monster beneath the skin I wore. He scorched me down to my rawest form. Knox exposed bones, melting away my human genetics as he showed how deeply he intended to take me. Bare-bones, primitive need, driven by animalistic instincts that demanded we go hard, fast, and the monsters slumbering within us felt our mutual connection.

Dimitri pulled back, narrowing his gaze on me as he frowned. “You’re not kissing me, are you?”

“I was,” I muttered, using my foot to push him away. I moved to collect my knife from where it sat just out of reach beside the witches.

It wasn’t as if they could reach it anyway since I’d removed their arms. Dimitri was quiet, so I peered back at him, noting his stiffened spine as guilt washed through me. I knew he was attracted to me, but Knox’s warning echoed through my head. If my creature surfaced in response to Dimitri’s wolf, he was burnt toast. I missed toast. The food in the Nine Realms was lacking, to say the least.

I crouched down, moving my skirt out of the way of the bloodied witch, and watched as she opened her mouth, preparing to scream.

“You could make this easier on yourself and just tell me what I want to know,” I offered. My eyes slid to another witch secured to a tree, watching me with fear etched in her expression. “You’re next,” I taunted.

Dimitri leaned against the rock I’d abandoned, watching me through thick, dark lashes. He waited for me to slice the dagger through the witch’s side, opening a large gash in her flesh as blood began seeping into the ground. She struggled to escape me, using the stumps of her cauterized elbows to scoot out of reach. There was no escape, just like there was no escape for her victims in the village.

“Could you love him?” Dimitri asked offhandedly, causing my heart to race with the answer as he scoffed. “You will be nothing more to him than an enemy with flesh in which he finds release, Aria. You deserve better than that,” he growled low, unimpressive to the monster within me.

My beast didn’t even acknowledge Dimitri, other than peeking out, rolling over, before going back to sleep. It terrified me that he was right, but then what did I want from Knox? I liked his dick. I enjoyed his touch and the rawness of him as we went to war with each other’s bodies. Did I see a future for us? No. Ghosts that he couldn’t let go of yet broke and haunted him.

Dimitri bent down as his mouth changed, revealing long canines. He ferociously tore into the throat of the witch on the ground, lifting his glowing, sapphire, alpha eyes toward the other tied to the tree. The potent scent of urine assaulted me, and I grimaced, covering my nose from the offensive stench. Death was messy and disgusting.

“Where is the Keeper of Lightning located?” he asked, creeping toward the witch on the tree as I studied his physique.

Dimitri had thick tribal tattoos on his arms, and wolves and skulls decorated his waist, torso, and back. His thick, dark hair brushed the