Free Claimed by a Demon King by Felicity Heaton

there.
    “Thank you,” she whispered, lost in his crimson eyes and the tenderness in his touch.
    He smiled and he was devastating, setting fire to her blood again and making her insides flutter with need. She looked up at him, trying to force herself to focus on his ridged horns and the fangs that were a constant reminder that he was a demon, hoping they would quench the fire in her heart as the water had cooled the heat in her belly.
    They didn’t.
    He righted her, stabbed a piece of vegetable on his claws and offered it to her. Sable leaned forwards and took it out of politeness, her head a little fuzzy from the grog. He offered another bite, his eyes brimming with curiosity and bright with interest. She took that one too, and the next, and then her reservation melted away and she began to enjoy the way he would carefully select each bite for her, mixing up what he offered, fussing over her.
    He offered a smaller scrap from the plate. Sable went to take it and ended up brushing her lips over his fingertip.
    He growled and her eyes leaped up to his. His gaze burned into her mouth and he looked torn between venturing further with his finger and removing it so he could kiss her.
    What was she doing?
    Her head twirled as she turned towards her friend and her gaze locked on Bleu. He scowled in her direction. Olivia gaped at her.
    Sable blamed the booze. One mouthful had her tipsy and lightheaded, but not drunk enough.
    She grabbed her mug and took smaller sips this time, hiding in it to avoid everyone.
    It was empty before she knew it.
    She stared into the bottom of the clay cup and then looked around the room. Everyone was eating and talking. Boring . This was meant to be a feast. She had always imagined they were jovial affairs, with much laughter and dancing.
    Dancing. She could dance. She wanted to get up on the table and dance to the music floating around the room.
    Music? She didn’t recall there being music before. She looked for the musicians and found none.
    Someone touched her arm and she twisted to look at them. The room whizzed past her eyes, spinning in the opposite direction to her head and her stomach, and she wanted to vomit.
    She needed some air.
    Sable shoved her hands onto the table, pushed herself up and turned around. She fell over her chair, landing in a twisted heap.
    Thorne shot to his feet, darkness flowed into her head and ebbed away again, and she felt as if she was flying.
    She opened her eyes but it wasn’t the burly demon king looking down at her, gently cradling her in his arms.
    Bleu.
    He muttered soft things in his language while his eyes spoke volumes about murder.
    Sable wanted to tell him not to be angry with Thorne but darkness swallowed her.

CHAPTER 5
    Y ou allowed her to get drunk and now she is in need of her own kind.
    Those words taunted Thorne, spoken with contempt and truth that had stung him. A growl curled up his throat as an image of Bleu holding Sable in his arms, his slender female out cold, tormented him. Fury had driven him to lash out at the elf for daring to speak in such a manner to him and for daring to touch his female, but the male had clung to her, and he hadn’t dared risk it in case he hurt her by mistake.
    Thorne had spent the rest of the night lost in thought, his mind with Sable and his heart compelling him to go to her. His pride and sense of duty had kept him at the feast, overruling his desire to see that Sable was well, and that the bastard elf wasn’t anywhere near her.
    When the banquet had ended, the last guests stumbling their ways back to their rooms, Thorne had remained.
    He paced the raised platform, his wings furled against his bare back, his boots heavy on the stone floor.
    He should have known better than to let her partake of their mead.
    He had been doing well and she had been responding to his kindness, and then she had drunk herself into oblivion. Why?
    He growled and his horns curled around in front of his pointed ears.
    The six guards near