Free Escaping Destiny by Amelia Hutchins

stronger, and uglier, than most others. The form of the Horde
King is what you see when he and I merge and become one. The first
time we took that form, was when I became Danu’s chosen Heir. Until
your presentation, that form had only been seen by the Horde the
day I killed my father.” A small smile tugged at his lips.
    “What does he look like when it is just him?
Do you know, or do you have to be in front of a mirror?” I teased
softly.
    “He is whatever he wants to be. He is the
spirit of all of the creatures of the Horde and can be any of them
if he so chooses it.”
    “So your beast took me, and did this?” I
indicated my stomach as a whole. “Why? Did he know who I was?” I
climbed out of the tub, because I knew where my questions were
heading, and if he couldn’t answer the next one correctly, I wanted
to be out of reaching distance.
    “No, he just refused to let you go, or belong
to another man. By impregnating you, he did what I couldn’t at the
time.”
    I nodded and continued with my original line
of questioning. “Do you want this baby—our baby?”
    “The child is needed to save this world. He
was smart in claiming you and ensuring you were ours with the
child. We can now move forward with what else is needed to save
Faery,” he replied carefully, his midnight eyes watching me.
    “Do you want this baby?” I asked again.
    “To save Faery, yes, I do,” he continued
evasively.
    “Fucking Fairy, answer the question! Do you
want this baby!?”
    “If it comes with his beautiful mother, yes I
want him.”
    Relief flooded through me; at least he wanted
it. “Did you fuck Claire?”
    His head snapped up, and he glared at me.
“Not since I told you that I would only feed from you,” he
answered.
    “Have you fucked her since you took the
throne, Ryder?” I fixed the question. I was getting better at the
flipping Fairy word games.
    “I have not fucked her since the day you
watched me take her over my desk. I told you that if I fed, it
would be from you. I fed from the pavilion as a whole. I fed from
their emotions, from their fears, and their hopes. Is that what you
wanted to know? I had to feed to save you .” He was smiling
now, like he thought I was cute or something.
    “Funny how saving me wasn’t even saving me,
considering you were the one that I needed saving from…”
    “I told you I would always keep you safe. I
also promised you that I was coming to save you from the big bad
Horde King.”
    “Yeah, about that, how could you say that
when you were the Horde King?”
    “As I told you, I wasn’t at the time. I found
you in your dream right before I took the throne.”
    “You are such an ass,” I grumbled as I got
out and quickly put the sundress I’d discarded earlier, back
on.
    I was turning to head back for the bed when
he pulled me back into the bath with him. I sloshed the water as I
swung my arms trying to catch my balance.
    “Stop fighting me, Synthia. You make the
beast want to come out and play with his new toy.”
    I quickly stopped and looked down at the now
ruined sundress. I tried to make it disappear as he normally did,
but it stayed on. He whispered against my ear, and it dissolved as
if the water had consumed it.
    “Much better, Pet,” he whispered as his arms
wrapped around me, and slid down until they rested on my lower
belly. “We made life,” he growled like a proud peacock.
    “Yes, we made life with the help of your
beast.”
    He snorted, and I laughed. It was strange
feeling his hands on my womb, on the child we’d created, even if
the beast was strutting his shit around inside of Ryder. I leaned
my head against him and relaxed, ignoring everything else that was
going on. Here, right now, it was just the four of us; Ryder, his
beast, our child, and me. Shit, this tub was crowded.
    “Answer me this, what is it that Ristan saw
that made you design the contract to take me from my parents?”
    He exhaled, and I shivered even though the
water was holding