Chasing Scarlett: A Breeder Romance

12.The Funeral III

“No,” I hiss, snatching my shirt off the floor and I pull it over my head angrily. “I don’t care whatever bullshit deal you have for me. How dare you walk into my home, charm me out of my clothes and still think I’d be stupid enough to even want to hear the lies you sputter with your stupid golden tongue?”

I’m forcing my feet back into my pants, and I think I’ve got it the wrong way, but I don’t dare take my eyes off him. I don’t know how I failed to recognize him. I saw him at the revelry. Funeral. Whichever. And just like the others, he was hellbent on catching me. Over the years, he’d sent his men to come find me. They didn’t live to tell.

Eyeing him, I wonder how many times I’ll have to shoot him to kill him. Admittedly, none of his cronies ever had wings. And none of them looked like…that. It’s why I know he’s more dangerous. The less hideous, the more sneaky, cunning.

Lord Fionn c***s his head at me, watching me watch him as I make a fool of myself, putting both legs into one pant hole. “I offer you protection. A seat by my side. You all but need to part your thighs for me and hand Maeve’s crown over.” The rich timbre of his voice delivers a sharp note of arrogance that makes me want to kill something.

I cut him a frosty glare. “I’ll pass, and believe me when I say I’d give you the crown if it wouldn’t return to me and give me hell for abandoning it.”

A golden brow arches with interest. “It is true then. The Goddess chose you.”

I snort. “Your Goddess f****d up my life.”

He pushes off the wall, stalking for me. “Do you not see the things we could achieve together? There hasn’t been a vessel in thousands of years. How can you not want this? To be Queen of Avallen? A Kingmaker? Maeve’s crown sings for you. You could have anything you want! Riches beyond measure! Power to rule universes, to control every being. To call forth an army and have them do your bidding! You have the power of a Goddess within your grasp and you tarnish it!” He is so close now, I can see the small red around his iris pulse. Once. Twice.

“Do you have any idea how many have died to acquire what you so carelessly toss aside?” His voice drops an entire octave lower, and the temperature in the room goes so cold, my teeth begin to clatter. “Do you know how many I have killed to find you?”

I back up, but find that there’s nowhere to run when the back of my calves hit the bedstand. Heart thudding, I leap onto the bed anyway, eager to put enough distance between us because I don’t trust that he won’t pin me to the bed when he gets the chance to. “I don’t want it! This!”

A wrist snaps out, catching my chin and he tilts my head up, so all I can gaze upon his him. Golden irises expand and my body begins to relax. "You want this," he whispers, his breath tickling my skin. "You want me. Everyone does. My charm. My power. My protection. My seed. Think long and hard about me, Scarlett. Think about my proposal, day and night. Think of everything I could give you. With me, no one else will try to take you. Not even those four who have stolen your life from you."

It is that thought that snaps me out of the trance he's trying to put me under. He has no idea why I ran from Ohio. He has no idea why I've stayed hidden. Other than the fact that every of them wants to instil their seed into me, there's something else. Something they can never find out. Something the brothers shouldn't know.

Because they'll take from me, my greatest love. My treasure.

Their Goddess didn't just bestow me with a crown. She restored what was stolen from me. Months after I ran, I discovered I was with child. I found? No. A wolf had picked the scent off me when he pinned me to the bed, ripped my clothes and tried to take me. He'd smelled the 'pup' off me, and decided that he'd still f**k me anyway. Maybe I'd conceive again and bear twins.

I'd managed to get him off me and I'd killed the fucker with a broken bottle piece in his left eye, rammed in too many times that he could no longer heal himself.

The first person I ever killed. And I didn't regret it. He was an animal. I got the pistol the next day.

It's why I had to kill to live. It's why I must hide. To keep her safe from a world that will rip her apart. To keep her safe from her father, whichever of the four it might me. To keep her safe from me and these powers I cannot fully control, yet. To keep her safe until I can protect her. Because when they discover the truth, they'll try to kill her. And I doubt the brothers, for all their power hungry intentions, will want to accept a female. Because, in Avallen, princesses were never heirs. They'll kill her, capture me and breed with me.

This, is what I mean when I say their Goddess f****d up my life.

I level Fionn with a cold stare as I push my gun against his chest. Against the too slow beat of his heart. "Get out of my apartment or I'll kill you."

Full, luscious lips that remind me of nectarines tilt. "Bullets won't hurt--"

I don't hesitate. I pull the trigger.

His body jerks back violently, his face contorting with more rage than pain as his wings flap, tearing him apart from me. I pull the trigger yet again, with unbeatable speed, and it hits him square in the chest, a few inches away from the first shot. Gold spills from the hole, and his eyes swim with terrifying darkness as he flashes his fangs at me, covering the wound with his fingers. "I'm going to kill you!"

I bring the lip of my gun to my mouth and kiss it, before c*****g it in line with his head and closing one eye. "Did you know? Kingsley's Montgomery's nickname was sharpshooter. I learned from the best." A rumble of displeasure travels up my throat. "You don't threaten me in my home."

My finger pulls taut, but the bullet meets empty air. I look around, confused at the empty room for a first few seconds. Then it dawns on me. Right. The Fae can travel, just like I did with the crown. Well, I'll be f****d.