The Breeding Prize - Aya Morningstar Page 0,54

risk a look backward.

I wanted to see Philos still on the ground, bleeding out and not coming for me. Instead I see him just a few feet behind me. He limps with each step, but he's running fast. Faster than me.

My blood goes cold in my veins, and I try to run faster. Maybe he's giving it everything he's got. Maybe if I can just go a little bit faster for a little bit longer, he'll collapse and never catch up to me again, maybe—

He tackles me to the ground. I hit the cracked plains hard. My cheek smashes against the soil, and my shoulder and elbow cry out in pain.

His hands grab hold of my waist, and he begins tearing my clothes off.

"I am Philos," he says, "and you are my fertile prize."

I scream and thrash against him. I slap and punch his face, but he pins my right hand down to the ground with his wrist. I hit him as hard as I can with my off hand, but he just laughs as he rips my shirt off. He gropes my breasts, and I try to bite into his forearm. He slaps me upside the face. Hard. I reel back in pain, and then I feel his disgusting hands all over me. He pulls my panties down but doesn't remove my skirt. I force my legs tight together, but he rips them apart.

I look up and see that he's naked now. His cock is massive, but it's hanging flaccid between his legs.

He presses himself on top of me. His lips find mine. His tongue goes into my mouth. I bite it, and he starts to choke me. He squeezes my neck hard, and only when I stop biting his tongue does he let off. He forces the kiss as his hard and naked body presses against mine. I feel his disgusting dick between my legs, but it's not hard. It's still soft.

He pulls away from kissing me, and I spit in his face.

He snarls and looks down at himself. He grabs hold of his soft dick and starts stroking it, but it's like a wet noodle flapping around.

I laugh at him. "You keep talking about a 'fertile' prize, but that's all you've got? All this obsession with breeding, and you can't even get hard?"

"I used all my energy growing my body. I need to eat. Once I do, I'll grow my dick so big that you'll regret ever insulting me. I'll split you open from the insides, you fertile whore."

He takes a step toward me, and I see an opening. I remember having this thought with Raiska, that I couldn't hurt him no matter what I did, but there was one thing that might have hurt even Raiska, and I expect it will hurt Philos too.

I fling my leg up and kick Philos in the balls. The pointy wedge of my shoe hits true, and he doubles over in pain.

I turn and run, and that's when I see a cloud of dust in the distance, and a single figure riding toward me. Six-dimensional light flares from the shadowy visage, like a beacon in the night. The light is shaped like a crescent moon. A scythe.

Twenty-Four

Raiska

I see her. And Philos.

He's writhing on the ground, and she's running toward me. Shirtless.

Anger flares in me. If he laid a hand on her, I'll cut his fingers off one at a time. Revenge can wait though, I need to get to my Muru first. She's all that matters.

I dig my heel into the destrier, and it whirrs louder. It runs faster than it has since I first mounted it. It senses my urgency. I feel at one with the mechanical being, as if I was always meant to ride it. Maybe it has fully felt how dire my situation is, and it can relate to me. Perhaps destriers mate for life as well, and as another being that takes lifemates, it knows what I feel.

I leap off the destrier as I reach Annabelle. I land on my feet in a cloud of dust, and I pull her up against me. I hold her for a brief moment, because I have another matter to attend to first. "Are you okay?"

She nods and says "yes," but I know that she was not fully unharmed.

"Stay behind me," I order, and I bring my scythe back as I step toward Philos.

He looks up at me and laughs. "You got lucky, Valittu."

"She's chosen me," I say. "You