Under the Veil: Tantalizing Short Stories by Elianne Adams

Author:Elianne Adams
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: romance, vampire, demon, paranormal, magic, werewolves, witch, shapeshifter, shifter, alpha male

Foul Play by Rachael Slate

A Moon Borne Short Story

Arsenius spotted Kyme by the mainmast, brushing her fingers across the manacles that kept his crew safe whenever the beast took hold.

As it had last night.

Squeezing his fists, he inhaled the scent of briny sea water and steadied his feet against the gentle rolling of the ship’s deck. As he unclenched his fists, he forced aside the tinge of crimson threatening to cast its shadow across his vision once again, and stalked toward her. “Careful with those.” She gasped and spun around. Good. She ought to fear him, to tremble before the madness of his frenzy.

Her terror just might prevent her from unleashing it again. He’d rather not reflect on what would have happened if he hadn’t managed to chain himself…

He pried the cuff from her grasp, a silent warning to be wary. Fashioned from a dangerous source, the manacles were powerful enough to squelch the compulsions of a deadly monster.

Me.

“What happened to you last night? Did your father curse y—”

He sneered at the mention of Ares. “You and I would call it a curse. Ares claims the war frenzy is a birthright.” His frenzy turned him into a crazed savage, incapable of any action except wreaking violence. The embodiment of pure, raw bloodlust.

Her gaze shifted to his right arm and upper chest. “What about those markings?” She’d witnessed his inkings the first time they’d met.

The generous bucket of ice water his best friend Thereus had dumped on his head this morning had rinsed away the ones from yesterday. Bloody centaur.

“They form whenever the beast inside me is let loose. I cannot control it, Amazone, so for your sake, don’t ever draw my blood again.” Though he knew better, he leaned in closer. Tempted by her despite every reasonable argument of why he should stay away.

Her stare fixated on his lip… The lip she’d bitten last night, drawing his blood and provoking the darkness inside him.

“Thereus said… He told me I am your mate.” Bright midnight blue eyes flashed at him, half daring him to concede the truth.

You’ll never be my mate. His jaw tightened at her question and he eased back, away from the intimacy of their closeness. “Do not fear, Amazone, Artemis would never permit such a union.”

Never, regardless of whatever assurances Thereus, also the first mate on Arsenius’s pyrate ship—the Adrasteia—had claimed. The lie stung his tongue, but Kyme seemed to accept it as valid. Why shouldn’t she? He gazed into those shining depths, unclouded by any lack of faith in her goddess, Artemis. The small spark of fear over his possible bonding to her had vanished.

If only he experienced the same confidence in his father. But he was no hero, no matter how hard his war god father, Ares, pushed him to become one.

He held her gaze, steady and unfailing, full of conviction he did not feel. At length, she nodded. Aye. There was no sense in holding any hope of bonding to her. She might be his mate, but neither Ares nor Artemis would ever permit them to bond—to unite their souls forever.

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