Wicked Flames of Desire

by Lily Thomas

  Sticking her chin high into the air she strode through all the fire giants not letting them scare her away. Every once in a while, one of them would give her a lewd glance, and her skin crawled.

  She kept her feet moving underneath her. Either she would end up walking straight out of here, or she would be stopped. Either way, it didn't matter all that much to her. Roxanne couldn’t wait for her father to rescue her.

  As she approached the edge of the camp, she had a group of fire giants trailing close behind her. So much for walking out of here unnoticed as she’d wished. Yet Roxanne was unfazed. She could do anything she set her mind to. She was a woman of high birth and privilege. Nothing could get her down.

  Right as she had that thought a rough hand wrapped around her upper arm pulling her back so hard she almost lost her balance.

  Whipping around to see who would dare handle her in such a way she found herself face to face with a fire giant. A very unappealing looking fire giant, whose face was twisted up in pure rage. A scar ran down from one eye to the crease of his mouth.

  A pit fell into her stomach as she grimaced. His fingers were starting to dig into her sensitive flesh.

  He growled down at her, his face only a few inches away from hers. His stale breath washed over her, but she held her shoulders high. Never would she back down. Her father had raised her to be strong and strong she would be, even if she were scared witless.

  As he kept growling down at her in different tones, she realized he was speaking to her.

  “I don't speak your language, so I have no idea what you’re saying.”

  Taking her other hand, she tried in vain to paw free his grip on her arm. Then his other hand whipped out to snatch her hand, as he pulled her up against his broad chest.

  Terror spiked through her. She had no idea what this fire giant might do to her. With the way he was handling her she had no doubt it would be something distasteful. She had courage, but she wasn’t stupid, and she knew she’d just walked herself into danger.

  His hand wandered down her side to her bottom, and she squirmed like there was no tomorrow. She needed to get out of his grasp. In vain, she looked to the other fire giants for help, but they were all cheering this brute on with laughter. It was all a little fun game for them. She meant nothing more than a bug under their boot.

  Not willing to give up, Roxanne kept trying to get free by wiggling in his grasp. Every time she moved, his hand only clamped down on her even harder.

  All of a sudden, the fire giant grunted, his grasp on her loosening enough that she was able to pull away quickly.

  The fire giant slumped to the ground in an ungraceful lump, as the fire giant leader who’d kidnapped her stood above the motionless body.

  “You killed him?” She asked in amazement that he would harm one of his men to save her.

  He smirked at her like she was stupid. “No. He will wake with only a headache… in a while.” His ability to speak her language was flawless.

  Roxanne folded her arms across her chest. “He should be punished for what he attempted to do to me. You should have more control over your men.” She stuck her chin high in the air defying him to disagree with her.

  Darkness fell over his face, as his eyes zeroed in on her. Stomping over to her he made a grab for her arm. “The only one who should be punished is you.”

  She saw it coming and twirled away from him with some quick action from her feet.

  Giving a mighty growl, he feigned one way and snatched her when she tried to escape his grasp again.

  “Let him lay there until he wakes.” Her fire giant growled to the gathered crowd who were now looking at the prone fire giant. “Unless you want to endure the same.”

  Without even paying her any more attention, he dragged her all the way back to the tent. Roxanne did her best to dig in her heels, but it did nothing. It didn’t even slow him down one bit.

  The fire giants followed them calling out what she was sure to be some grotesque ideas. It was, perhaps, a blessing that she had no idea what they said. Roxanne was more than able to fear what they might be thinking, and now she had a furious fire giant dragging her back to his tent to do god knows what.

  Perhaps she’d gone too far. This wasn’t her world anymore, and her high birth would mean absolutely nothing to these fire giants.

  Once inside the tent, he rounded on her. “You are not in your world anymore. Stay within the tent or face the consequences of leaving. Don’t test my patience anymore, for I warn you, it will not last much longer. Just give me a reason to punish you, and it will be my pleasure, female.” His fingers dug into her arm, as he gave her a couple of shakes.

  Her irritability got the better of her, and she yelled at him. “My father will come, and he will hunt you down like the vermin you are! Soon your head will adorn the gates of the castle, as others have in the past!”

  It wasn't something she’d enjoyed, but her father had deemed it necessary, after one of his big raids. Those heads had always deserved to be placed there. They bolstered the people, to see that the giants could and would be destroyed.

  Slowly, his crimson eyes searched her face trying to see if she was serious or not.

  When he saw her smirk of triumph, his face darkened with hot wrath as he asked in a deep growl, “The others?”

  “Yes.” Roxanne stuck her chin in the air.

  She knew she was venturing onto what might be dangerous ground with this fire giant, but she couldn't resist it. She wanted to get him peeved. It was hard to fight her inner spirit.

  Of course, this fire giant wouldn't know anything about the heads her father collected from his battles.

  She did know for a fact that there were some giant heads at the king's castle currently. She thought them grotesque, even if they were giants. Their sightless eyes watched everything and everyone who passed through the castle gates.

  “The other what?” He asked as his head descended towards her.

  Roxanne felt as though she might be in danger, but would she be able to resist poking the beast?

  “The other heads that usually adorn the castle gates. Heads of giants who he’s destroyed for the king.”

  “You find nothing wrong with what your father does?” He barked down at her, as his other hand clamped over her other arm. His fingers tightened on her arms, causing her some discomfort.

  “No!” She yelled directly in his face. “From what I have seen, so far, you all deserve to be driven out of our land! Nothing but mindless barbarians! The lot of you!”

  “Your lands? Like hell, they are all yours.” His face was a mask of pure fury.

  Knowing she was going to endanger her life if she kept spouting things off, she clamped her mouth shut. She wasn't going to utter another word. Clearly, hearing that members of his species had their heads on display was only going to frustrate him beyond her control.

  “You’ll stay here inside the tent if you want to see another day,” Daerrin growled over at the frustrating human. “I won’t punish my men for killing a human, and I won’t always be around to halt my men. If you die, then you die, and no one here will cry about it.”

  Her jade eyes burned with rage, but she stayed silent. His eyes briefly passed over her. He enjoyed the fire in her eyes. It matched her fiery hair, which was currently pulled back in a braid. She must have tamed the mass of hair while she was inside his tent.

  He bet she’d look even better if her hair were freed better able to match its owners explosive spirit.

  “Is that all?” Her voice broke through his thoughts.

  “It is.” Daerrin spun on a heel and stormed out of the tent before his thoughts drove him any crazier.

  He wasn't sure he could vouch for her safety among his men. The fire giant queen might be a human female, but that didn't mean the fire giants were about to accept every human female that crossed their path. Elizabeth had earned their respect after some time. His little human, though, would have her life in peril, if she kept acting foo
lishly.

  This war was brutal. They hadn't a choice. Their king had tried his best to avoid it, for the sake of their human queen, Elizabeth. Yet the war had been unavoidable because the humans hadn't been willing to keep their battle to just the rock giants.

  He couldn't let any harm come to his captive female if he wanted to use her as his tool for revenge, but he wasn’t about to tell her that. Daerrin meant for this to be a lifelong torture for her father.

  But he was going to have a hard time of it. Every single one of his men had lost something precious in this war. She could become a source of revenge for any one of his warriors.

  She wouldn’t be safe until he got her to the castle. Then Elizabeth would take charge of her safety and well-being for him.

  He couldn't believe what she had told him though. Heads?

  He used to have three brothers and a sister. They were in a village that her father had burned to the ground, before Daerrin and his men had been able to get there to save them. The bodies of the giants were so charred there was no way to know who was who. The bodies had been buried in unmarked graves, as there were no identities to put with them.

  He had only been able to recognize his parents by objects they’d been wearing when they perished.

  Thoughts of what heads might have adorned the castle gates haunted him. Many of the burned bodies in his home village had their heads missing. Now he knew it hadn't been beheadings. It had been trophy gathering.

  It was unbelievable that this human female felt this could be right. A man as evil as General Johnston had to beget evil seed. Daerrin was sure this proved she was just like her father. She hadn’t even balked at the idea of heads adorning a castle’s walls.

  Here the humans thought they were barbarians, but the real savages were the humans. There were no human heads on the fire giant castle gates.

  The war was taking a terrible turn. Both sides were getting vicious, but the fire giants were still sticking to their border. The king, Stryme, didn't want this to get too out of hand. They had already lost so many good people, and so many had been forced to move deeper into the forests.

  The day Daerrin had ridden into his burned village was a day he would never forget. It haunted him day and night, and his dreams were no respite from the haunting memories. It was the day he’d lost everything.

  His parents had both been shot in the back with arrows. His father’s body had been sprawled on top of his mother’s, clearly, trying to shield her from the onslaught of deadly arrows but to no avail.

  But that hadn’t been enough for the humans. Then they’d set the whole damn village on fire.

  It had been a heart-wrenching experience for him. The war had never touched him before that moment. Once it did, he started fighting the war like it was his life.

  The war was now the reason for his living.

  Revenge drove him forward every day. He would have his revenge for his family. He hadn’t protected them, so this was his way of repaying them for not being there in their time of need. He would avenge them if it were the last thing that he did.

  Now was not the time to be recalling the past. He had to get this human female back to the castle, so he could focus his attention on fighting a war.

  Daerrin went in search of his commander. They needed to be leaving before he jumped the human female in his tent and slaked his lust. His cock seemed to have a mind of its own. It wasn’t bothered by her being a human. It loved the brief glimpse of her nude body.

  It took him only a couple minutes to locate Ler among all the soldiers. The man was tall and built like a warhorse. Daerrin would be surprised if Ler didn’t outlive them all. He was the most level-headed fire giant Daerrin had ever met.

  He called out to him. “Get the men ready to move out. Once my tent is back down, I want to be on the move.”

  Ler gave him a mock salute and went about getting Daerrin’s orders done. Ler was a good man who had also lost his family to the humans, but he didn’t seem to be as hell-bent on revenge like Daerrin was which perplexed Daerrin. He knew everyone dealt with grief in their own way, but he figured Ler would still hate the humans.

  He turned on his heel and went in search of his horse. He was trying his best not to think about the human female still in his tent, but the image of her body kept plaguing his mind. She had a body made to please a man. He had seen that much. There’d been a nice plumpness to her hips and those rose-tipped breasts of hers. He felt his cock jump back to attention, and he groaned in frustration.

  He just didn’t want to be the man to take pleasure from that delectable body. She was the spawn of his enemy. Her body might be appealing, but the thought of who she was curbed his incessant attraction to the vixen.

  Daerrin hadn’t captured her to have a bed partner. He’d caught her to haunt and tease the human general.

  Chapter 4

  Roxanne stayed inside the fire giant’s tent. Not because he ordered her to, but because of the way the other giant had handled her.

  She rubbed her sore arms. She’d been grabbed and yanked around far too many times for her liking. Dammit, she was a lady, and she was used to more respect than this.

  So far, the leader hadn’t tried to harm her though. He had taken her clothing rather rudely, but she was unharmed, for the most part. Roxanne rubbed her arms again.

  All she had to do was remain alive. There was no doubt in her mind that her father would come to find her as soon as he was able.

  There was no way for Roxanne to know what the fire giant leader had planned for her. Clearly, he held a grudge against her father, and she was the one bearing the brunt of his attack. Maybe she could convince him of the error of his ways.

  Her father was the king’s number one general when it came to repelling the fire giants. He had destroyed too many giant villages for her to count. Of course, he had made enemies out of the fire giants.

  Yet, Roxanne had the feeling that this was more personal than just a job. The giant leader had said her father had destroyed his family. This wasn’t a normal campaign. This was revenge.

  She had no idea if she should fear for her life. Perhaps the giant intended to kill her in the same way his family died. She prayed it was quick. She didn’t want a long drawn out death.

  Roxanne might have too much spirit for her own good, but she didn’t have a high pain tolerance. She would do anything to avoid pain.

  This situation was due to her father, not that she blamed him. He hadn’t wanted her to live on the border. It had been she who insisted on living in the border castle with him. She should’ve known better.

  She had such a range of emotions flying through her, and they kept shifting. She felt frustration for the situation she was in, and she felt terror at the thought of what might happen to her.

  As time passed, she felt irritation start to itch at her skin. Unfamiliar sounds were coming from outside the tent walls. Growls and grunts from the fire giants sent prickles racing over her skin.

  Eventually, she had to give up on pacing around the tent. Roxanne was too exhausted mentally to stay on her feet. This whole day was moving so quickly, and she was having trouble keeping up with it all.

  She still felt like it was all a hazy dream. None of this could be happening. Her life had always been so orderly, and this was throwing her for a loop.

  As she sat down on the ground, the leader of the giants burst into the tent sending her heart skittering into her throat.

  Roxanne shot back up to her feet. He was already tall enough, and she didn’t want him to have more of a height advantage on her.

  “We are leaving.” He grunted over at her.

  Her eyes took in the armor he wore. Her heart thudded in her chest from fear, she was sure, because she’d never find a brute like him attractive. It made him seem even more massive and deadlier.

  “Can I at least know who my captor is? Or does that need to remain a mystery?” She arched an eyebrow.

  He froze and glanced over his shoulder at
her. His eyes pierced her with their intensity, as he processed what she’d said. It was like he thought giving his name would give her an advantage over him, which was ridiculous.

  “It could do no harm.” She added as he continued to stare at her.

  With another grunt, he finally gave her his name. “Daerrin.”

  Roxanne raised an eyebrow. It was an interesting name with the way he said the r with a growl. If that were indeed how he said it, she would never be able to pronounce it correctly.

  “Yours?”

  She smothered her shock. She’d never thought he’d be interested in her own name. “Roxanne Johnston.”

  Hopefully, he wouldn’t be insulted she couldn’t say his name correctly, but she’d give it her best shot.

  Folding her arms across her chest, she cocked a hip. “My father will want me back. He won’t care about the cost.” She wasn’t necessarily saying money cost. She was sure her father would burn down the whole forest to find her.

  Daerrin nodded his head, as he cast her a smirk. “I’m hoping your father will try to get you back. I’ll make sure he never does though. He will have a lifetime to mourn your loss as I will have about my family.”

  “You’re going to kill me then?” Did her voice just tremble? Roxanne frowned.

  “What?” He sent her a puzzled look.

  “You said you want him to mourn a lifetime. How can he mourn, if I’m still alive?”

  Daerrin seemed dumbfounded by her statement. “I’m not like your father.”

  “From where I’m standing you’re acting like the brute you accuse my father of being.”

  Daerrin’s face turned beet red, as he blustered. “I am nothing like your father. If you remain alive, your father will be tortured for a lifetime. I said nothing about killing you. That would be too easy on the both of you.”

  “It is still the same.” Kidnapping her didn’t make him any less of a brute.

  “Don’t make me put your gag back in your mouth.” He threatened her.