King of Flesh and Bone (The Pale Court, #1)

by Liv Zander

“Your heart will beat for eternity, and no age shall befall your warm body while in my service, little mortal.” The King’s dark whisper hushed against my sweat-pearled temple. “Welcome to the Pale Court.”

“My court is so… cold.” Gentle fingers brushed wet hair over my shoulder before they trailed down my back, making me arch away. “Shh… never evade my touch, mortal, or deny me your warmth.”

“Every part of you, my little one, will serve me for eternity, starting with those lush lips. They will wrap around my length while I thrust against the back of your throat. And once you know the taste of my seed by heart, I will make every other orifice mine to play with. To fill and stretch until you quiver with need, begging me to allow you release.”

“My little mortal.” Deep, predatory, the King’s voice cut through my next step, letting my foot stall mid-air. “Let’s see how long it’ll take you this time to kneel before your king.”

“Mmm… you can’t imagine, little mortal, how I ache to plunge into your warm flesh. To have you again and again until we’re both so consumed with need, we will redefine the meaning of eternity.”

“Of course, my woman shall have a goblet.”

Because he had broken my legs.

Brother..

“You’re mine, Ada.” His dark whisper against my ear pebbled my skin. “My servant, my plaything, my woman. I’ll never let you go.”

“I am the heat between your legs, the throbbing in your cunt, the moan in your throat, the tremble in your bones, and the ache inside your belly, hungering to make me sate it.”

“As old as time, born from nothing, I came into existence with one purpose: to rule and rot the flesh and bone of all that lives, so I may cleanse the Earth of its remnants and command over them. Theres’s no place, my little one, where you could hide from me. Not forever.”

You may call me Enosh.” Like the corpses in the throne. “Enosh? What does it mean?” “Form. Some may call it appearance.” A kiss against my temple. “It is my true name.”

for a god formed to perfection, her imperfections fascinated me the most.

It was only right that Ada now sated the desires of my flesh and suffered the crimes of my flaw—utter possessiveness. My little mortal had come to me. And I would keep her. For eternity.

“Stubborn, insolent, beautiful woman,” he rasped. “Take your pleasure from me, Ada. A reward for my good little mortal, and how stunning she looks, collared and chained.”

“Flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone. Never my whore, forever my woman.”

“Do I not stroke and pet and dote on you for hours, little one? Tease this little bud until it peeks from its hood, hard and needy? Like this. Mmm, yes. Slow. Gentle. That’s how my woman loves it.”

“Mmm, my little one got herself all wet again, making such a needy mess between her legs that I shall tend to. Let me have a taste of my woman’s cunt.”

“Why did you do this? Why make a grave?” Seconds ticked into eternity as he remained silent until, after a heavy swallow, he said, “Because I do know the sorrow and agony of losing a child.”

My daughter died in Njala’s belly when the commander slit her throat.”

“You’re about to wed the King of Flesh and Bone. Correct me if I am mistaken, but that, my little one, makes you a queen.”

Mmm, such was the ignorance of her mortal mind. She didn’t understand that I favored an eternity plagued by her ambition over a single stroke of time without her by my side.

“Child or no, you are precious beyond all, and you have my devotion for eternity.”

“Love comes unbidden and has no care for precautions, turning us into fools for liars and monsters.”

“Neither is it a decision.” “No, it is not. Love comes into existence between the flutters of a heart and grows awash in the heat at one’s core.”

“Decades. Centuries. Eons. One day, you will love me. And on that day, when you become wholly mine and nobody else’s, I shall open my gates and return to my divine duty.”

“How extraordinary,” Eilam’s voice wafted around me. “There is more life in you than in any before. More than I need to sate this hunger existence has cursed me with.”