STORY EXCERPT

A tall, dark-haired man burst out of the room. His piercing black eyes scanned the corridor and fell right on Kier.

Kier’s glamour should’ve held. He’d been in difficult situations like these before, and he’d escaped them unscathed. But the bloodkin’s gaze tore him apart, and in those black eyes, Kier saw despair, death, and lust.

His glamour faltered, and with it, the only protection he had against the bloodkin. Immediately, the bloodkin flashed toward him, so fast Kier almost didn’t see him. By sheer instinct, Kier managed to dodge the first blow, but the second time, his luck ran out. The man grabbed his arm and threw him against the wall with a strength that drove the air out of Kier’s lungs.

Kier blinked away the dizziness and tried to move out of the man’s reach, but the bloodkin flipped him and pinned him against the cool stone.

As much as Kier struggled to release himself from the man’s hold, the bloodkin held him in an ironlike vise. The woman’s voice came again from the room. “Lord Cole? What is it?”

“Nothing,” the bloodkin—apparently named Cole—replied. “Wait in the room. I’ll be right there.”

There was heavy compulsion in the voice, and the woman quieted down. Kier himself melted against the bloodkin, his head spinning and his heart thundering. Was this it? Would he die here, in Tachaka, at the hands of a mysterious bloodkin named Cole?

No, he refused to let it happen. He wanted to go back to his homeland one day, see the beautiful forests, and look into Eli’s eyes again. Moving fast, he head butted the other man and felt a momentary hint of satisfaction when the bloodkin cursed. But Cole’s distraction didn’t last long enough for Kier to escape. A strange force immobilized Kier, the power of the bloodkin too much for him to overcome. For the millionth time, Kier cursed whatever blood anomaly had given this species such power. Elves didn’t have the telekinesis bloodkin did. It seemed like an unfair advantage.

With Kier unable to move, Cole caught him once again, pushing their bodies together, flush against each other. “Shh…Don’t move,” he purred. “I’d hate to kill someone so beautiful.”

Kier shouldn’t have been aroused, not with a stranger holding him trapped in the middle of a palace full of enemies. And yet Kier found himself hardening against his own will. Cole’s cock hardened against his ass, and Kier bit his lip until he tasted blood to stop a wanton moan. What the fuck was wrong with him? Could this be the bloodkin’s powerful glamour?

The way he felt made absolutely no sense, and it threw Kier so off-kilter he could not even protest when Cole pulled Kier away from the wall and down the corridor. He only recovered when the man thrust him inside an empty room and gave him a look that held both amusement and lingering arousal. “Now, you and I are going to talk.”

“Go fuck yourself,” Kier snarled. “I have nothing to say to your kind.”

“Oh?” Cole arched a dark brow. “What is a dark elf doing in the palace, then?”

Kier took a deep breath and focused on calming down. “As if you don’t know.”

“How could I know?” Cole laughed. “I don’t have mind-reading abilities. Not that I particularly care, mind you. Unless you’ve come to assassinate the Imperator, of course. That would be…regrettable.”

The man’s matter-of-fact tone surprised Kier. “You must be joking. You do not care if an elf invades your home?”

Cole shrugged. “Tachaka is not my home. Besides, I am not as obsessed with the segregation of races as you. In fact, I could always see beauty in elves.”

The bloodkin raked a hot look over Kier, and Kier couldn’t help but take a step back. “Let me go. I’ll just leave. No one will even know I came here.”

Cole shook his head. “I think not. How could I ever give up such a great opportunity? Tell you what, how about you and I make a little deal. You give me what I want, and I let you go.”

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what Cole wanted. To his shame, he realized that a small part of him craved what the bloodkin offered. He squashed that idiotic need viciously. “Never,” he told Cole. “I will die before I let such a thing happen.”

Cole hummed thoughtfully. “Indeed. You do realize that if I hand you over to the guards, you’ll be dead before you can even say the Mother Earth’s name, right? There’s really no reason why we have to get to such unpleasantness. All you have to do is suck my dick and make me come.”

Kier gaped at the insane bloodkin in front of him. “You can’t be serious.” Surely the man hadn’t just said what Kier thought he did.

“What’s so shocking?” Cole asked. “A man of your looks has surely received plenty of similar offers in the past.”

“Not really,” Kier replied numbly. Sure, there had been the occasional elf who’d tried to get his attention, but Kier had been content in his relationship with Eli. None of his experience prepared him for the bloodkin’s demand.

“Well,” Cole answered, “I suppose there should be a first time for everything. It’s either that, or I hand you over to the guards. And of course, there’s always the third choice. I can kill you myself.” He took a few steps forward, until he reached Kier. This time, Kier didn’t move, and he just stood there as the bloodkin caressed the side of his face. “And it really would be such a pity. So what do you say?”

Kier stared into the deep, fathomless depths of Cole’s eyes. It occurred to him the name suited the other man perfectly. His gaze burned Kier like hot, fiery coal. The very ground seemed unstable, and something inside Kier yielded. He nodded and leaned into the caress. “Yes.”

ADULT EXCERPT

Kier bit his lip, a slight gesture that might have gone unnoticed to someone else. And yet, Cole immediately caught it and knew Kier craved what he offered.

There could be no hesitation, not now, not ever. Abandoning his shirt on the floor, he made his way to the bed. “You’re not getting away this time.”

He pounced on Kier, tearing at the other man’s clothing with savage ruthlessness. Kier didn’t fight him, just let out a slight gasp that could have expressed anything from shock to pleasure. Cole decided to make sure it would be the latter. He removed his belt and pinned Kier’s arms to the headboard. In one swift motion, he twisted the leather around Kier’s wrists, immobilizing the elf. The belt wouldn’t hold if Kier tried to get out of it, so Cole reinforced it with invisible bindings created by his own mind.

Seeing Kier like that, tied to the bed, at his mercy, made Cole more aroused than he’d ever been in his long life. He was drunk on passion, drunk on Kier, and he wanted to push things further. He wanted take them to the very peak of ecstasy, to make Kier scream in pleasure and pain, to hear the sweet voice of his little elf cry out his name.

Kier’s nipples peaked, drawing Cole’s attention to them. Cole smirked and covered Kier’s body with his own. Without the glamour, Kier’s skin took an enticing light shade of blue, which deepened in key spots. He lowered his mouth over Kier’s pebbled nubs and licked over the dark flesh. Over and over, he teased Kier’s nipples, even giving Kier a hint of fang, without really drawing blood.

Kier moaned and arched against his bindings. “Please…Yes! More.”

Cole removed his mouth from Kier’s delicious nipples and pressed his lips against Kier’s, muffling his cries. He demanded access, and Kier gladly gave it, obediently opening for Cole. Cole ravished Kier’s mouth, tasting the deep recesses of the wet cavern. When he finally broke the kiss, he looked down into Kier’s dazed eyes. “You make no demands here. I take what I want. Understand?”

“Yes.”

Cole pinched Kier’s swollen left nipple. “Yes what, little elf?”

“Yes, Master,” Kier said with no hesitation.

Cole couldn’t have felt more pleased. “Now…Little elf, tell me a word, something you’d say if at any point you want me to stop.” He hated the thought of stopping, now or ever, but he even gave humans the courtesy. Truly damaging someone during sex had never been his thing, and instinct sometimes needed to be tamed. He prided himself on the fact that even when unleashing his passion, he’d never sent away one of his bed partners unsatisfied.

Kier thought for a few seconds, then said, “Rabbit.”

Kier’s choice amused Cole to a certain extent. He had no idea what it meant—perhaps that Kier still had his mind on the bunnies they’d seen on the way. Either way, the word served its purpose. He nodded and proceeded to take off the rest of Kier’s clothing.

When he had the elf naked, he took a moment to just look at him. Kier looked so beautiful, spread out and wanton beneath him. A hard, purplish shaft begged for Cole’s attention, mouthwatering fluid leaking from the tip.

Cole got off Kier and removed his own boots and pants. As he did so, he recalled he still needed a certain item to get to the main event. He rummaged through his abandoned jacket and retrieved a bottle of oil he’d prepared beforehand. On the bed, Kier squirmed, his eyes raking over Cole. He clenched his fists around the leather, the need irradiating from him so palpable Cole could barely restrain himself from giving them both what they wanted right then and there.

He wanted to prolong the moment, to make it last. He wanted to show Kier all the ecstasy he could feel at the touch of an experienced lover, at Cole’s touch. He made his way to Kier’s side and sat at the very end of the bed. Gently, he rubbed Kier’s foot, marveling at the softness of the skin. “Settle down, little elf. I’ll give you what you need.”

With a little sigh, Kier practically melted into the mattress. He seemed absolutely relaxed, although his shaft was as hard as ever. Cole grinned. Kier had brought him great pleasure with his mouth, back before the attack. Cole would return the favor, then fuck Kier’s brains out.

He placed the bottle of oil on the cot within reach, then positioned himself between Kier’s spread legs. Without giving Kier a chance to understand what was going on, he lowered his mouth over the elf’s shaft.

Kier tasted heavenly, just as Cole thought he would. Cole sucked him deep, teasing him, giving just the right amount of pleasure to keep him on the brink. Just to be sure, he squeezed Kier’s testicles in a tight hold. He didn’t want Kier to come until Cole was inside him.

Soon, he’d have Kier’s body molded to his hand and he wouldn’t have to use such forceful measures. Kier would obey his every command instinctively. But for now, Cole needed to be patient and take his time showing Kier the pleasures of the flesh.

He bobbed his head up and down the hard shaft, drinking in the delicious taste of the copiously leaking pre-cum. Kier’s cries sounded in the background, the elf’s entire body tense with unfulfilled desire.

Cole couldn’t take it anymore. He lifted his head and, meeting Kier’s gaze, reached for the bottle of oil. Kier let out a cry of loss upon losing the contact of both Cole’s hands and his mouth, but Cole just grinned at him. He removed the top and poured a generous amount of the oil in his hand. “Don’t worry, little elf. You’ll have what you want soon.”