Pacing in my room, I let out a furious sound. Wild animals make just that noise when they are cornered and wounded before they try to fight their way out of whatever situation they are in.

Will I try to fight my way out of this?

The question is silly, even just as a thought. Who would I fight? Fragile little Rue? With her soft skin and gently sloping curves, her red hair and her freckles, she would put up no resistance to me.

I bunch my fists. Somehow, I can’t stop hearing her angry voice in my head.

I don’t want you, Dryas.

Worse than that, too.

You may have had me, you may have gotten what you wanted, but I didn’t want it.

She all but accused me of rape. I may be many things, but I don’t need to take anything by force. It’s a point of pride for me, anytime I sleep with a woman.

Aurelia taught me that. To be… well, not kind and gentle. But to seduce rather than force.

It’s a skill I will carry with me always.

The most terrible bit about Rue saying those things was the look on her face, the revulsion in her eyes. Probably no small part due to shame from what we’d just done.

I throw the curtains back, the moon over the water the only person to listen to my complaints. It looks somber just now, hanging high above the dark sea and the black sky.

“She’s a bitch,” I tell the moon.

The moon stares back at me, unblinking. Rubbing my hand over my face, I lean against the window frame, resting my head and closing my eyes.

You need to fucking calm down, I tell myself. This is how you got into the fight with Arsen. You got angrier and angrier until you fucking stabbed your own brother.

Now he’s dead, just another name in the long line of people who will be delighted to see me in hell. He will probably get the first shot at me, seeing as how we are related and all. If there is any justice in the world, he will get the first thousand shots.

I hear something. A woman’s scream?

Opening my eyes, I stand up. It sounded far away… and Rue has learned her lesson about going out of the castle without me by her side…

But I should check it out, just in case. I slip my feet into my shoes, my mind already going a million miles an hour. Should I check on Rue first?

Thinking about her scowl as she fled the living room, I decide against it. Loping downstairs, I’m out the front door before I really think it through. I walk out from the castle a little, looking right first, and then walking a little to check out the bluffs beside the castle.

Alarms start going off in my head when I see something white on the ground in the distance. I listen carefully for more screams as I jog a hundred yards to the edge of the cliffs.

Picking it up, I recognize it as one of Rue’s oversized sweaters. My stomach bottoms out as I gaze out at the sea as if it holds some answers for me.

All I get is the sound of the surf, the crash as the waves hit the rocks.

“Rue?” I call, looking around. Turning, I scan the area to my left and to my right. “Rue?”

I cup my hands to my mouth, leaving the sweater behind. “Rue! Are you out here?”

Hesitantly, I look back at the castle. Rue is probably right where I expect her to be, stewing in her shame. Still, it won’t hurt just to walk a little farther, will it?

Striding along the cliff’s edge, I half-jog about six hundred meters before I catch sight of something glinting in the moonlight. Stooping to pick it up off the ground, I pick up a dainty silver chain that’s been broken.

I’m not expecting the little bird that drops off the chain, evading my grasp and smashing to the ground. It shatters, breaking into a thousand tiny fragments.

I found Rue’s sweater.

I found Rue’s necklace.

But where in the fucking hell is Rue?

Want to know what happens to Dryas and Rue next? Their story continues in , the next book in the Protect series.

There is something blooming between my captor and I, hot and wet and fragile.

Lust. Obsession. Maybe it’s even love.

But there are still secrets that stand between us, looming large over whatever happiness we might find together.

Dangerous secrets. Things worth killing over.

If I reveal my secret to Dryas, he very well might die to protect me.

The last thing I want is to confront those that hurt me without him at my side.

But I might not get a choice, if Dryas has his way...