After a few minutes, she prompted him. "You were saying?"
Ren ground his teeth as his thoughts went back to his youth-to a time and place he hated with every part of his being.
Even now, he could see himself running through the bright summer forest of his island home, chasing after the buck he'd been hunting. The beast had been elusive and it'd led him to a clearing where a woman bathed alone in a pond that was at the base of a whispering waterfall.
Never had he seen a more beautiful maiden. Her long black hair had fanned around features that were perfection incarnate. Her dark, tawny skin had been so flawless that his mouth had watered for a taste. And even though he was invading her privacy, he'd been unable to tear his gaze away from her.
Completely naked, she was floating on her back, her eyes serenely closed while her breasts jutted out from the water. Her hands had moved through the water in a mesmerizing dance that was in synch with the pleasant, gentle tune she was humming.
His prey forgotten, he'd moved closer, taking care to be as silent as possible.
All of a sudden, as if she'd sensed his presence, she opened her eyes and pinned him with a harsh glare. Narrowing her gaze, she rose out of the water to show him her entire naked body as she walked toward the land where he stood, gawking.
Ashamed and embarrassed that he'd spied on her, he'd felt his face heat up. Turning away, he tightened his grip on his bow and started to run.
"Wait!"
Her unexpected command had literally frozen him in place. Before he could think better of it, he stopped moving. With his back to her, he'd heard her leave the pond and make her way over to him.
A few seconds later, her hand had brushed across his shoulders, smoothing his braid. And when she'd moved it to trace the line of his jaw, his entire body turned molten. She sucked her breath in sharply as she fingered his biceps. "Aren't you a handsome one? You know, if you're going to spy on a woman during her bath, the least you could do is kiss her first."
Stunned, Ren hadn't known how to respond to that. He wasn't used to women coming on to him. All the women in his town knew who and what he was, and they either avoided him or mocked him for it.
None of them had ever tried to seduce him.
Licking her lips, she'd fisted her hand in his hair and pulled his head down for her kiss.
His senses had reeled from it, and when her tongue brushed against his ...
He'd been blinded by pleasure.
Windseer had pulled back to give him a salacious grin. Then, taking his hand into hers, she'd led it to her breast so that her hardened nipple teased his palm. "You act as if you've never seen a naked woman before."
The softness of her skin had amazed him. Her body was so different from his. Supple. Sweet.
Succulent.
And he'd been long past the age most men lost their virginity ... another truth that shamed him and left him open to attacks from others whose vicious cruelty rammed home why no woman would have him. Ever. Until that moment, he'd never been kissed.
She'd nipped at his chin with her teeth. "Are you not going to speak to me?"
He hadn't dared. The last thing he'd wanted was for his stutter to betray him and leave him open to more ridicule. She'd think him stupid and push him away like everyone else.
So he'd kissed her again while he fingered her puckered nipple. Within a few minutes, he'd lost both his virginity and his will to her. After that afternoon, he'd been a fucking idiot where Windseer was concerned.
She asked. He gave.
He'd have done anything to keep her.
Even kill his own father ...
Ren winced at a memory he wished with the whole of his being he could take back and change. But there was no way to undo any of it. Windseer had claimed him with her body and he had been her most willing slave.
How could anyone screw up their life so badly? One wrong move. One foul decision ...
An eternity of regret.
And all because she and Grizzly had needed a blood sacrifice. Not from a worthless piece of shit like him, but from a whole-blood ...