Ashes of Chaos (Legacy of the Nine Realms Book 2)

by Amelia Hutchins

  “I guess we’re going back up the way we came down,” Knox muttered, turning to stare at me before a devious smile played on his lips. “Do you have rope in one of the packs?”

  “Of course,” Brander stated, eyeing Knox curiously.

  “Get it out,” Knox stated. “You’re going to secure my little runaway to me. She’s going up with me. I don’t trust her not to try something stupid to escape me again.”

  “You’re joking, right?” I asked sputtering, turning to stare up the cliff, noting that it wasn’t slate at all. It was obsidian, polished by the elements into a glassy finish. “What the hell is that?”

  “It’s an unknown anomaly. Whether naturally made by the Nine Realms or man, no one knows.” He watched me as I shivered, fear pinching my face. I could feel power pulsing from it and wasn’t sure if they could feel it too. “Don’t worry; I won’t let you die. I have so many things planned for you. It would be such a waste to lose you so soon after catching you.”

  “I can’t wait to see what that includes,” I grumbled, unable to look away from the obsidian covering the entire cliffside, mirroring a fortress.

  We started forward, and I winced as a shard of glass cut into my foot. I bent, pulling it out, and I stood, crying out in surprise as Knox lifted me into his arms, staring pointedly at my bare feet.

  “I lost my slippers in the water, saving your ass.” My lips tugged into a pout, hating that I felt precious in his arms as he smiled, placing his mouth close to my forehead while the men moved ahead of us.

  “Don’t worry. You won’t need them when you’re on your knees at my feet, Aria.”

  And there went the moment.

  The man knew right where to aim to bring me down from ever thinking he could care about me. It was like he had some secret map to every part of me. The moment his fingers touched me, they moved as though he could sense every thought and knew my deepest, darkest desires.

  I felt him to the very center of my being, like he snapped the cords of my restraints, unleashing something primal within me. When I’d relented to the desire and feelings toward him, he’d open his mouth and say something to fuck it all up.

  “I’m not getting on my knees for you.”

  “Everyone has a breaking point.” His lips curled into a smile as my frown deepened. “You don’t want me to break you because I know your weaknesses and your strengths. I know your fears and your desires. I know what drives you and what can destroy you.”

  “Are you planning to destroy me, Knox?” I asked. His smile dropped, and he worried his lip with his teeth before the smile returned, and steel entered his eyes.

  “You’re my enemy,” he admitted without looking at me, as if doing so would break the steel he erected around him once more. “And considering how easily you just submitted to my will, you’ll give us both what we crave soon enough.” He stopped at the edge of the cliff as Brander approached, and Knox set me on my feet. “Wrap your legs around my waist and don’t move. Tie Aria to me, Brander, and let’s get back to the army. I need to get her into a tent and mark her with my scent. Based on how she smells, I’m surprised the entirety of the Nine Realms isn’t hunting her sweet scent down like rabid beasts.”

  “Isn’t that why you keep biting me? Oh, but someone did remove your ownership tag, didn’t they?” I asked, watching as he lowered his head, securing my bound hands over his neck as he gripped my hips roughly, helping me settle my legs around his waist. His smile turned wolfish, promising to draw blood. “I don’t care how I smell. You’re not touching me. Your mark will have to do, at least until I can have someone else replace it. Dimitri offered, and honestly, I think he’s more akin to my needs.”

  “You’re mine, Aria. I’m going to fuck you so hard, and sink so fucking deep inside of you, that you’ll never be able to work me out from under your skin, ever.” I swallowed, studying the conviction burning in his eyes.

  His hand lifted, capturing my jaw, and he applied pressure until my mouth opened, tipping it up and forcing my stare to lock with his in a silent battle.

  “I am not yours!” I snapped, shuddering violently with need. His eyes sparkled with the knowledge that my body was a spring preparing to uncoil violently.

  “You. Are. Mine. And by the time I am finished marking you, you won’t want me to ever leave your body. That’s the difference between that mutt and me. When I claim something, I mark it on a level so deeply embedded within the soul, that no one could erase it.” Knox leaned forward, biting my bottom lip before he growled, smiling as he pulled back with victory shining in his eyes. “That’s the difference between a monster and a man. I mark to kill or own, and I want to fucking own you, Little Creature. You and I both know you were built to be savaged by me and me alone. Now, be a good girl for me and shut that bratty mouth before I fuck it to silence your taunts.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Brander tied the rope around my thighs, and then around Knox, securing it onto us like a harness, forcing my body flush against the male who was enjoying the situation entirely too much. Brander finished his task while Knox held me up, rubbing small circles into the back of my thighs, listening to his men while studying me carefully.

  Done with his task, Brander joined the other men and started ascending the cliff. Knox waited, watching their path up the cliff as they chose the safest route to the top. His attention slid back to me, and I swallowed, noting the heat burning in his eyes, my body tightening with an awareness of just how exposed I was to him. His devilish grin told me he had realized the same, as he stepped closer to the cliff face, resting my rear on a rock.

  “If you do anything to hinder the climb, I’ll push your perky ass against the nearest rock and fuck you into submission. Do you understand me?” he asked, dropping his stare to my tongue, which had darted out, wetting my lips.

  “Perfectly,” I whispered, hating that his scent was rendering me stupid.

  I understood I wasn’t human, but responding to Knox’s enticingly male scent how I did, was for the birds. Everything within me wanted him, and while I realized it was my basic instincts working against me, I knew that if we started, we wouldn’t stop anytime soon. My body rubbed his, and I closed my eyes against the feel of his warmth heating me.

  Hands cradled my face moments before soft lips brushed against mine, forcing my eyes to open. Knox stared into my eyes before lifting his head to the men scaling the cliff. I could feel his need against my apex. His thickness pulsed as his scent drifted to me, removing all reasonable thought from my mind.

  “The moment we get inside a tent, I’m fixing that issue you’re having. You’ll end up forcing me to fight my entire army with your scent.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I’m fucking you, end of discussion.”

  “That isn’t happening,” I argued, glaring at him as he grinned like it was cute, and as though I didn’t have an opinion. “I’m not sleeping with you, Knox. End of discussion.”

  “You want me, woman.”

  “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t, but it changes nothing. I am your enemy, and you’re mine. We’re not lovers. We’re not even friends. I’m your hostage, which means my vagina is out of your coverage area.”

  “Out of my coverage area?” he asked, narrowing his eyes as they sparkled with amusement.

  “Yes, exactly.” I nodded, glaring at him as his lips curved further, revealing his sexy-as-fuck dimple that pissed me off. “If I were a map, I’d be the spot marked out of boundaries for you. Consider it unobtainable territories, and so far beyond your reach, you can never conquer it. If I were a palace, you’d never breach its walls, or get through its gates.”

  “You seem to forget, Little Monster. I’ve already laid siege to your borders, scaled your walls, and planted my sword into the queen’s heart.”

  “That’s a horrible analogy!” I snorted, and he smiled wickedly.

  “I took your virgin lands and claimed them for my own. I set your borders on fire and battered past th
e wall no other had penetrated before me, woman. Tell me I didn’t.” he challenged, fire smoldering in his stare.

  Peering up the cliff, Knox checked his men’s status and location, still making their way to the top. My fingers slid over the rigid muscles on his neck, and I tensed, knowing I was losing the fight I held over my control as his scent continued to slither through me. Knox’s attention swung back to me as my hands continued their slow perusal of his muscles.

  When he opened his mouth to speak, I lost the fight, pulling him against mine. I ravished his lips, pushing my tongue past them the moment he allowed it. I moaned huskily against his lips as he returned the kiss. Lifting his hand to my neck, he tilted my face to permit better access as his tongue moved against mine.

  It was a demanding kiss—the type of kiss you never wanted to end. When Knox finally pulled his mouth from mine, he searched my expression before our eyes locked.

  “How’s that battle going, Aria?” he whispered thickly, pulling me tighter to his hard arousal that I rubbed against, rocking my hips as an orgasm threatened to consume me. “Yeah, I’m about to fuck you like a castle in which I’m setting siege. I am going to pound against your defenses, set fire to your bailey, and then I’m going to plunder every ounce of pleasure you have while pillaging until you beg for mercy, of which you know I have none. You’re not out of my coverage area. You’re mine, and if you’re not careful, you’re about to snap what little control I have.”

  “You don’t lose control, bastard,” I pointed out, hating that I couldn’t put distance between us while tied to him. My arms around his neck left his lips too close to have control over my brain.

  His laughter was dark as he studied my face, peering lower at my erect nipples. He grumbled in irritation, finding hard pebbles begging that he taste them. Ignoring their plea, Knox lowered his hands to my legs and fixed my dress’s skirt to assure it didn’t hinder his climb.

  Sliding his hands between the ropes and my dress bunched between my legs, he freed the fabric but kept his hands in place. Rubbing his thumb along the inside of my thigh, he forced my eyes to his, and we stared intently at one another. Then, slowly, he pushed his fingertips against my sex, finding the swollen nub with ease, as if he had some direct link to its location and how to work it perfectly.

  “Everyone loses control, Aria. Your scent would make a saint sin. If I were you, I’d fight harder to conceal it because everything within me is demanding I bury my cock into your tight cunt, and mark it with my scent so that no one else tries to touch you. So, be a good girl and hold on tight so I can get us up this cliff and satisfy that need.”

  “This climb is suicide, and you know it,” I whispered, fighting the urge to call him out, to see if he would lose control. I was sick and tired of being the only one with control issues.

  “Who the fuck climbed down the cliff in the first place?” he asked, grabbing my legs as he stepped back, preparing to jump to the first set of outcropping rocks.

  “Who’s the idiot that followed me over the edge?” I stammered, shivering when his scent assaulted me as if he were purposely projecting it to fuck with me.

  “I did. If I hadn’t, you’d be dead right now.”

  “You don’t know that. I could have saved myself; you know?” That was a lie, and we both knew it. Had Knox not stopped me from jumping off that last edge, I’d have fallen to my death. Not to mention that he’d given me air in the water funnel, preventing me from drowning, and he saved me from impaling myself on all the rocks in the rapids. But who was counting?

  “You’d have fucking died, and we both know it. You’d have never made it to that cliff alive in the first place. I should spank your ass to punish you, but you’d enjoy that, wouldn’t you?” he chuckled, dropping his stare to lock with mine.

  “I doubt it, asshole.” Ignoring him, I turned my attention to his men moving up the cliff, and Knox still didn’t start climbing.

  Knox dismissed me, gazing up at the men before he pushed me against the rock, brushing his hand over the arousal wetting my panties, amused that my eyes grew hooded from his simple touch. He used one hand to pull my panties aside and slid two fingers into my body.

  I moaned loudly, rolling my hips against his hand as it slammed firmly against my sex, his fingers pumping into my body twice. Suddenly, he growled, withdrawing them, pushing his fingers into his mouth to suck them clean while I watched, my core throbbing, wanting release.

  “Remember that control issue?” he asked, his tone etched with lust. “It’s snapping.”

  I crushed my mouth against his without warning or thought. I moaned against the softness of his lips, trembling with a need that rushed through me like a wildfire hitting a dry field in August.

  My hands pulled him closer as he shoved me against the slate, devouring my mouth like he was going to war against it, conquering it with no mercy offered. I rocked against him, purring loudly as what little control I’d held snapped along with his.

  A rattle built in Knox’s chest, swallowed by my mouth, and I refused to cease my attack. Everything within me desired and wanted him to take away the clenching need that consumed all coherent thought. Arousal coated my pussy, enticing him to take what I offered. His tongue captured mine, dominating it easily until I was moaning against his kiss, wiggling my hips with a silent invitation.

  Coughing sounded above us, and Knox slowed the kiss as his hands brushed over my thighs. Pulling back, he pushed the hair from my face. I shivered, and my lips trembled for more, my teeth catching my bottom lip to hide the quiver of need from his triumphant, smug expression.

  “Careful, Aria,” he warned. He moved his hands from my legs and crouched, jumping to grasp onto the first outcrop of rocks. We hung there for a moment, and he smiled wickedly at me before pulling us up easily. “You kiss me like that again, and I’ll assume it’s an invitation.”

  “It would be stupid on your part to assume it was anything other than hormones.”

  “Keep lying to yourself, and you might actually start believing what’s coming out of your mouth. I sure in the fuck won’t,” Knox growled, crouching, and shooting us onto the next outcrop of rocks. “Scared, Little Lamb?” he teased softly, peering up as he continued to scale the cliffside.

  Every sinewy muscle in Knox’s body pulsed with the climb, taking us higher and higher as fear thundered through me. I didn’t dare close my eyes, even though I wanted to do just that. My heartbeat mirrored the sound of his war drums pounding in my ears.

  “Terrified,” I admitted, holding him tightly, fighting the urge to close my eyes.

  “Good, because you’re in my world now,” he warned. “We’re playing by my terms, Aria. You may beg me for mercy, but remember, I don’t plan to give you any.” I didn’t respond to his taunts. I didn’t need to since they didn’t deserve a response.

  Knox’s body was sleek and predatory as it climbed skillfully up the rocks. The air grew thinner the higher we went, and I lowered my head as my heart raced, and fear filled my mind. I was utterly powerless against him, and worse, I was powerless to do anything right now, and that sat ill with me.

  I didn’t have magic. The cuffs on my wrists had ensured that, and if we fell, that was it. We’d simply become a splash of color against the earth. I turned against the curve of Knox’s neck, and he stopped, slamming me against the rocks as a lethal rattle built in his throat, and I yelped in surprise.

  “Keep your fucking teeth away from my throat, woman,” he hissed coldly, his eyes black as night.

  “I wasn’t going to bite you.” My brows pinched together in a frown while I searched his face. “I don’t understand why you think I would do that at this height, considering you’re holding my life in your hands,” I admitted, and then cried out as the thundering sound of rocks sliding against others exploded above us.

  Knox shoved my body beneath him, holding me tightly as rocks rained down from above. They slammed against stones on either side of us, sending more rocks down the mountain in an
avalanche of deadly debris that crashed loudly against the ground below.

  I shivered against the realization that I may very well die before we made it to the top. Purring started, and I realized in embarrassment that I was crying and choking Knox out as he held me tightly beneath him.

  He’d used his body to shield me from the rocks and was now fighting to calm my fears. My lips brushed against his softly, thanking him for understanding that I was losing my shit.

  After a few more moments had passed, he stepped back, jumping to the next tier of rocks, and then the next. He climbed as if created to do this from birth.

  Every time we’d catch up to the others, he’d pause again, purring softly as he noted my reaction. His purr was a sedative, calming everything within me. I purred in response, replicating his.

  Knox jumped to the next rock, and I screamed as it gave way, sending us crashing down the cliffside. I held onto to him tightly, while he reached blindly for anything to stop our fall. Shouting sounded from above, and I breathed him in, remaining perfectly still as he fought to save us from death.

  His legs hit something solid, and he pushed up, forcing me back against a jagged rock that bit into my flesh. Pain coursed through me, and I gasped as he cradled me, turning us so I wouldn’t crash into the rocks.

  “Aria,” he whispered, using his fingers to lift my chin to see my face, which I’d buried against his chest. His purr sounded again, filling my body and calming my racing nerves and pounding heartbeat echoing in my ears.

  “I’m okay,” I admitted, ignoring the pain in my side.

  After a moment of catching his breath, Knox stared upward and then back at me. “Hold on tight. I’m getting us the fuck up this cliff before it ends both our lives.”

  Knox didn’t wait to see if I did as he’d asked. His muscles bunched, and his scent increased until I could not stop myself from rubbing against him, heat blooming in my cheeks. If he noticed, he kept it and his taunts to himself until finally, Brander helped us up the climb’s last crest.