All Chapters of BOUGHT BY THE BEAST: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

I woke to the sound of an argument outside my tent.Two voices, low and heated, the kind of fight people have when they're trying not to be heard but are too angry to keep the volume down. I recognized one of them immediately. Kieran's voice carried the particular strain of a man being challenged on his own turf.The other voice I didn't know.I lay still on the cot for a moment, taking stock. My body ached everywhere, a deep, bone-level exhaustion that sleep had barely touched. My hand had bled through the bandage again during the night, leaving a dark stain on the sleeping bag. The fever had retreated to a low simmer, not the raging inferno of the night before, but present enough to keep my skin too warm and my thoughts slightly blurred at the edges.The golden eyes were still there. I could tell without looking because the dim interior of the tent was too sharp, too detailed, every thread in the canvas visible, every dust mote floating in the thin light.The argument outside got lou

The air in the tent became impossible to breathe.The bond inside my chest did not just pull... it tore, violently and relentlessly, like a barbed chain wrapped around my heart and hauled toward the south. I felt him out there in the freezing mountain pass, moving with a speed that defied logic, an engine of pure violence tearing through miles of snow and rock."He broke through the gates," I repeated, the words tasting like ash and iron on my tongue.Kieran moved instantly, stepping directly in front of me to block the exit. "He will not touch you, Rielle. I have two hundred trained fighters dug into these ridges. We have heavy caliber rifles, anti-material charges, and tactical choke points along the entire valley floor.""You have two hundred dead men if you stand in his way," I said, and the rasp in my throat sounded more like my wolf than my human self. "You have never seen what he is when he stops pretending to be a man, Kieran. Your soldiers will not slow him down. They will onl

His thumbs dug into my cheekbones hard enough to leave bruises, but I didn't pull away.I couldn't.Caspian stood over me in the dim light of the command tent, completely naked, his broad chest still smeared with the dark, half-dried blood of the gate guards he had slaughtered to reach me. His skin radiated furnace heat, cutting through the damp chill of the canvas, smelling so heavily of copper, cedar, and raw violence that it coated the back of my throat. His silver eyes were wild and blown wide, the pupils dilated until there was barely any color left, searching my face with a frantic, starving desperation that made my own heart hammer against my ribs."Don't you ever," he repeated, his voice cracking into a ragged, guttural rasp, "leave my side again.""Caspian, listen to me..."He didn't let me finish. His hands dropped from my face to my waist, hauling me off my feet and slamming my body flush against his. The impact knocked the wind out of my lungs, but his mouth crashed down on

The ground split with a sound that tore straight through my ears.The crack in the frozen dirt raced up the hill, throwing rocks and mud into the air like an explosion.I felt the heat rip out of my body so fast my knees almost buckled. My torn hand throbbed, dripping hot blood down my wrist, the skin burning like I had dipped it in fire. My vision tunneled on the green truck on the hill above us.The shock hit the ridge hard.The earth gave way under the wheels of Morgessa’s transport, tilting the heavy truck sideways into the dirt. Two horses reared and threw their riders into the snow. In the back of the open vehicle, Morgessa lost her footing and slammed against the steel frame. Her hands dropped, the green glow on her arms dying instantly.The grip on Caspian snapped.Beside me, the black veins across Caspian's chest vanished into his pale skin. His head snapped back as he dragged in a huge, ragged breath of air. The dead grey in his eyes vanished completely, swallowed whole by br

David was barely recognizable.He hung inside that iron cage like a piece of butchered meat, his bare chest crisscrossed with dark, jagged cuts that were still dripping fresh red into the snow. His face was swollen and purple, his left eye puffed completely shut, dried blood crusting in his beard.The grey blocks of explosives tied to the bottom bars blinked with small red lights, cold and deadly in the grey canyon air.My breath trapped in my throat.David had saved my life on the night Caspian bought me. He had bandaged my wounds, fed me, handed me a weapon, and fought beside us without asking for anything.Now he was hanging by a rusty chain over jagged rocks, waiting to be blown to pieces."David," I whispered, taking half a step forward before I could even think.A heavy, scarred arm locked around my waist with bruising strength, yanking me backward until my spine hit Caspian’s bare chest. The heat coming off him was scorching, his skin slick with sweat and the blood of the rogues