Page 28 of The Rat King
“If you would have allowed this sooner, maybe we wouldn’t be in this predicament. I don’t want to force you, Avery, but I will do it.”
“I know,” I said, trying to become pliant under him and he moved his mouth over my skin. This man wasn’t lying. I didn’t think hewantedto hurt me, and I hadn’t fought until now, hoping he’d see it would never happen between us. Or at least just get it over with quickly. But our time was running out, and he only had a few months to change the fate of his people.
On the one hand, I understood. I really did. I spent the last month trying to convince myself to do this very act.
He felt obligated to change the game. “I didn’t want it to be like this between us, Avery,” he said, tugging my pants down my hips, and his shirt over his head. “I wanted you to want me, but maybe once you know my touch, how good I can make you feel…” he trailed off as he planted wet kisses along my stomach, and I let him, all the while my skin crawled. “How I can take control, how you like, and satisfy your needs.”
His thumbs hooked in my panties, and he slipped them off. My breathing hitched, and he glanced up hopefully, but his eyes darkened as he assessed me correctly. It was fear and something less than repulsion, but similar enough that I could hardly disguise it. Still, he pressed on.
“Don’t worry, baby, I know what to do,” he said.
My knees gravitated toward each other, but his clammy hands pushed them apart, as he commanded, “Open for me.” His lids grew heavy as he stared at my very dry pussy. It was going to take a miracle for me to get anything out of this. He placed awkward kisses from my knee to my inner thigh, and tears sprouted in my eyes. I tried to fight them back. I really did, but when his tongue hit my clit, they fell. I jerked, and an encouraged Xavier stroked me with his tongue, then his fingers, then both.
It felt okay physically, but emotionally, I was a wreck. I hated every second of this act that I begrudgingly let this man—my husband—perform on me. If there was some way I could snap my fingers and make myself feel differently, I would. But I couldn’t get out of my head.
I’d never caught lasting feelings before with anyone who I was intimate with. There had been an attraction, at least. Not this icky feeling I got as Xavier groaned into me, all the while lapping away. I stared down at him, and my stomach rolled. Was there something wrong with me?
My legs clamped together on their own, which only spurred him on more. But he didn’t misinterpret the sob that wrenched from my throat. His head snapped up to me and he took in my tear-stained face. His face darkened in a way that scared me more than Nighval’s ever had. It was like in a split second the man, this king, was transformed. I scuttled back on the bed like a crab, my eyes going wide. He didn’t say a word, he didn’t need to. We both knew what was about to happen. I never should have believed him.
His hand wrapped around my ankle, tugging me toward him. I kicked with my other foot, but he grabbed it, dragging me underneath him. His hands fumbled for the buttons on his trousers, but I wrapped my legs around him squeezing so he was close and couldn’t get them undone. He didn’t have a shirt on for me to execute the chokehold I’d learned.
He grabbed my breast roughly until I cried out. “That’s it. You cry real tears when I treat you nice. I’d rather have you cry out in anger instead. You say you don’t want it rough, but I’m catching onto your little game. You want me to fight for it, don’t you? Fight for you like Nighval would fight for you. Get your blood heated and take you.”
What was he saying? “No,” I cried, and beat my hands against his chest as he reached behind me and unclasped my bra.
“That’s the fire I was looking for, my queen.” He drove his hips into me so hard I grunted in pain and my legs loosened for half a second. His fingers dug into my ankle. He pulled my leg from around him and flipped me onto my stomach. I tore at the covers, trying to drag myself away from him.
He grabbed my thighs pressing me down on the bed with his body over me. The rough texture of his trousers told me he hadn’t gotten his pants down, thankfully. I threw my head back, cracking him in the nose, and he gasped. I tore forward again, shooting a quick glance toward the open window. I didn’t have much longer before the church bells gonged and it would be a rat-man raping me. That was not going to happen. I had to get away, but he was so strong. Too strong.
Oh Goddess. I knew what I had to do. He had my ankle again, but I kicked out, catching him in the chest, knocking him back just enough that I could dive forward. I wrenched my drawer open, fished the carving knife out from inside and spun to my back in a flash.
A wet, slippery sound shocked through the room, along with a pained cry, and I looked down to where Xavier had thrown himself on top of me. The color drained from his face, and I know mine did the same as both of our eyes tracked down to my hand.
The black stone hilt of the knife was in my white knuckled grip and the silver steel blade had disappeared into the flesh of Xavier’s stomach right under his ribs. Blood, a lot of blood, dripped from the wound onto my stomach, and I knew this was bad.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
His brows wrinkled, but then his confused expression cleared. He didn’t move, still resting himself on a forearm over me. His eyes widened, and he stared into my eyes as horror etched his.
“I’m sorry, too. I thought you wanted— I didn’t mean to—” he said, then his body went limp over mine.
Oh my God. There was a dead king on top of me, and I was covered in his blood. The blood would be soaking into the bed, probably pooling on the floor beneath the bed, if I had to guess by the amount of it pouring from him.
I killed someone. Shit.
This was not what was supposed to happen. I was supposed to fall in love, but I killed him. Technically, he impaled himself on my knife, but no one here would see it that way.
I had to get out of here. Nighval would find me during the next full moon, so I had to find a way to get back to my aunt and warn the witches before then. Or find their mother, which might not be such a great plan, considering I just killed her son.
Fuck.
I tried to suck in a deep breath.Okay, step one, get the dead body off you.Placing my hands on Xavier’s shoulders, I heaved. His body slumped to the side and with another shove, he rolled onto his back. I glanced at his face, his dead eyes staring up at the ceiling. Oh god that was a bad idea. I’d seen people close the dead’s eyes in movies, so I did the same. As I leaned over him to do it, his arm twitched, and a keening scream jumped out of my mouth before I could stop it.
Shit.
A knock sounded at the door, and one of my helpers called, “Everything okay, Your Majesty?”
Surveying the room for something to shove in front of the door, I called, “Peachy!” I waited for the footsteps to retreat, then I dragged a large chair in front of the door and wedged it beneath the handle.
