Seduced by the Beast

Seduced by the Beast by Jaide Fox Page A

Book: Seduced by the Beast by Jaide Fox Read Free Book Online
Authors: Jaide Fox
Tags: General Fiction
wife.”
                “I thank you for
your hospitality, my lady.  Please, call me Swan.”
                “And you must
call me Ashanti.”  She gestured toward a pair of chairs sitting before the fire
that Swan had scarce noticed.
                Ashanti sat with
little grace, her heavy belly making her awkward.  Swan followed suit.
                “I came to offer
you some company.  Shadowmere can be a brutal land.”
                “Yes, it can.”
                “It has been too
long since I’ve seen a woman of my kind.  You are an outworlder, are you not?”
                Swan looked at
her, surprised at her canniness.  “Yes, how did you know?”  It was to be
expected she would be regarded as an outsider--she was, but Lady Ashanti had
seemed ... well, like a normal to her.  Not one to pick up on the subtleties of
human or not.  But then, she’d never ventured from Avonleigh before, customs
were likely different in other parts.
                “I was human once. 
Those alike can recognize one another.  Though, I’d never thought Raphael to
break old law and bring another into Shadowmere.”
                “You were human? 
And now you bear a beas--forgive me.  My mouth runs away with me.”  Swan
blushed at her rude remark.
                Ashanti
chuckled.  “I was much the same as you, in the beginning.  I find no offense in
the term beastman, or beastwoman.  That is what they are, what I am.”
                How she could be
both was beyond Swan’s reckoning.  It seemed an improbability, yet she couldn’t
deny that the woman lived here among the beastmen when humans did not.  There
had to be some truth to it.  And if so, she would bear her husband’s child--a
halfling?  The rules she’d thought herself just beginning to understand were
dashed away.  “How can you be human, but not?”
                “Circumstance
brought us together.  I was cursed, much the same as you.  Blasien saved me, as
I did him,” Ashanti said, elaborating on the matter no further.
                Ashanti’s eyes
shone with love and happiness.  Such depth of feeling warmed Swan’s soul.  That
such could be found between two races astounded her, for it did not seem
possible for her.  Here, Swan felt like she was merely some tasty morsel to be
devoured.
                “I warn you,
though, if Raphael seeks the blood bond ceremony, you must wrestle a promise
from him for it to be completed in private.”  She laughed softly, a faraway
look in her eyes.  Ashanti continued, “They can know your mind once a
connection is formed.  It is why they are such renowned lovers, knowing your
wants and desires before you even truly understand them yourself.  Ah, you do
not know this?”
                That couldn’t
possibly be true.  It was too ... too unbelievable.  They were not mages, to
delve into the minds of others.  Even Morvere had not the power to read her
mind.  She dismissed it as fable propagated by old wives.  “There is nothing
between us.”
                Ashanti slanted
her a shrewd look that spoke volumes.  “Nothing but reluctance, I gather?”
                Swan flushed at
her knowing look, feeling as though her transgressions were scrawled across her
face.  Could everyone read her so easily?  It was no wonder she’d landed
herself in such a predicament.  Raphael had not helped matters at all either. 
She’d become so distracted from her purpose by him it was disgraceful.  No
responsible ruler would put anything before her people, and she must remember
to do the same.  Any less would be a betrayal of trust and duty.
                “Raphael is a
hunter.  They are different than other beastmen.  Vampiric powers flow through
their veins, allowing them the ability to touch without being near. 

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