Frost Fae (Dark Fae Kings #2) - Meg Xuemei X Page 0,44
to pull me into his arms. “I’m with you. I’m here.”
I’d been okay with the lion, but when he shifted to the Fae king, all I could see was the image of the cold bastard Winter King overlapping him.
“Stay away from me!” I cried and staggered back, throwing up a hand in front of me to fend him off.
Baron stopped in his tracks, hurt, hesitation, worry, and fury twirling in his amber eyes all at once. “You’re my mate,” he whispered. “I’ll never harm you.”
“Don’t call me mate,” I said, my shivering voice dripping with venom. “I’m no one’s bitch, and I’ll never be one of your Fae bitches in your harem. You don’t own me. And none of you will ever touch me again!”
“What did he do to you?” he asked quietly, shades of sorrow and rage coating his eyes.
I spat.
He winced and swallowed. “I don’t have a harem, Evie. I’ve never had one. I might have a past, but you’re the only woman in my life since I met you, and you’ll always be the only one.”
“I don’t care about your lies,” I sneered. “All Fae kings have a harem, and the Winter King paraded his right in front of me.”
Baron blinked. “He wouldn’t stoop that low.”
I snorted, and Baron reached my side in a blur. Before I could shove him away, he’d put his jacket on me. His scent of summer and sunlight warmed and safeguarded me, and I hated that he still had such an effect on me. I hated that I craved to lean on him even after what his brother had done to me.
The longing and need in his eyes spelled how much he wanted to have me in his arms, but the torrent of rage in my eyes stopped his advance.
“What really happened, Evie?” he asked, fury churning in his molten golden eyes. “You were on a date with that lucky bastard. Why weren’t you tucked safely in his castle? Why were you wandering alone in the perilous forest, unguarded and unprotected?”
“It wasn’t a date,” I said, my eyes burning with cold, phantom fire. “It was a trap. The Winter King lured me in, and then the Dawn Queen showed up. They were plotting my demise before I made my escape. My friends warned me about your kind. Nothing good will ever come from entangling with a Fae. And don’t tell me that you’re different. Sooner or later, you’ll show your true colors, just like your half-brother.”
My gaze swept over the slope of the valley, and my stomach suddenly churned with intense worry. Rydstrom hadn’t caught up with us. I’d left him behind to face an armada of monsters alone. Then to ease my guilt and anxiety, I tried to harden my heart. He and Baron might have come for me, just as Rowan had once saved me from the assassins in the woods. But as soon as I didn’t fit into the kings’ agendas, they’d turn on me.
Yet, it still didn’t feel right leaving the Night King to his fate.
“I heard a distress call,” Baron said, his expression shuttered. “Both Rydstrom and I heard it. I’m better at tracking in my lion form, and the Night King specializes in covering up our trail. I’m sorry we were late in reaching you and you suffered, but we couldn’t let the enemy force detect our presence, for fear that our foes would harm you before we could get to you.”
I still glared at him as pain, numbness, shock, rage, and humiliation bombarded me like a hailstorm.
“I don’t care,” I said. “I’m walking away from you, from all of you. I’m leaving this behind—”
“No, you don’t get to walk away from me,” he said fiercely, “as I’ll never walk away from you.” Then he was in my face like a flash, his hands grabbing mine and shoving my palms against his temples. “Search me. See if I have any deception against you. Look into my soul and see my true feelings for you.”
His pain, desire, pride, and ambition rushed to me, but just under his riot of emotions, his unbridled love and loyalty and commitment to me took deep root. I dropped my hands from his temples as if burned, and staggered back.
“It’s called scalding in Fae magic,” Baron drawled, studying me. “I’m an open book to you now.”
It dawned on me that no Fae would ever let anyone scald their mind. “I only peeked at the iceberg of your past.” I didn’t want to