Chapter 677

Hannah was dead asleep in her cell when a bucket of ice-cold water was splashed over her.
“Fuck!” She jerked upright with a strangled gasp, the shock ripping through her so hard she slapped her palms against the floor to keep from sliding.
Water dripped from her lashes as she snapped her head up—and oh, well, there he was.
The lion shifter stood outside her cell, staring at her with all the emotion of a broken toaster, an empty bucket dangling from his hand.
That bargain-bin Mufasa!
“Are you fucking insane?!” Hannah spat, hair plastered to her face and breath puffing out in furious shivers. “What the hell is wrong with you?!”
Her fists clenched until her knuckles whitened, her glare sharp enough to skin him alive even as the cold gnawed through her soaked clothes and made her whole body tremble.
But Taryn wasn’t moved by her anger. He calmly set the bucket down and asked with a voice cold as steel, “Are you ready to talk now, human? Why are you here?”
Hannah looked up at him, amused. Then she pushed herself to her feet and walked to the front of the cell.
“I told you,” she drawled, “I’m not saying a word until you get me Violet. She’s the only one I’ll speak to.”
She leaned her elbows against the bars, tilting her head, staring at him with unbothered arrogance.
Hannah knew her attitude infuriated him. She saw it in the subtle flare of his nostrils. He was good at keeping his face blank, but she had trained herself to read people. And right now, he was at his wits’ end with her.
Since they captured her, they’d been trying to get her to talk. And honestly, Hannah considered it a miracle they hadn’t tried physical torture yet — maybe even creatures like them had laws about hitting a child. Not that she was exactly a child. Well, whatever.
Or maybe because she hadn’t actually harmed anyone, their options were limited. Earlier today they’d even dragged in someone with magic to dig into her mind, but Hannah resisted with everything in her and they left frustrated.
But staring into Taryn’s icy blue eyes now, something told her he wouldn’t hesitate to hurt her if the need came.
“Also,” Hannah continued, “if you wanted to get me naked, all you had to do was say the word. You didn’t need to start with water foreplay.” She winked at him.
To be honest, Hannah had no idea what the hell had come over her. She did not usually flirt with men who locked her up — not that she had many chances to flirt with boys back in Duskmoon Village — but annoying Taryn brought her a weird sort of satisfaction.
At first, it looked like he didn’t understand what she meant. Then his gaze dragged over her soaked clothes clinging to her body, and instead of desire, his eyes darkened with pure rage.
“You insolent human,” he hissed.
Before she could blink, he was at the bars, his hand shooting through the gap to clamp around her jaw. The grip was so tight her eyes watered, but Hannah didn’t flinch. She stared straight back at him, fierce and unyielding. Googlᴇ search
“The only reason you can still run that mouth,” he said through clenched teeth, “is because the Queen hasn’t given her orders yet. You think you’re tough? I haven’t even begun with you.”
His grip tightened, the anger in his eyes turning lethal. “Moreover, I’m not interested in children.”
“A year and two months,” Hannah blurted.
Taryn’s brows snapped together. “What?”
“Then I won’t be a child anymore,” she shot back, lifting her chin. “Would you be interested then?”
Why in the world had she said that?
Hannah had no idea. Something had to be wrong with her head. Maybe because she had zero experience with men, here she was flirting with the first one she found attractive — even if he was probably a hundred years older than her, and couldn’t wait to hurt her.
Yeah, the Angus bloodline had to be cursed to desire something like this. There was no running from it.
Taryn was dumbfounded. His mouth opened as if he wanted to say something only to shut it again. And even though his grip was tight on her jaw, Hannah felt the tiny movement of his thumb as it brushed over her throat once.
He froze as the first was a mistake. Then when she didn’t flinch, he did it again.
A slow, deliberate drag of his thumb over her pulse.
Hannah swallowed hard. Oh, she was so, so screwed.
Her heart hammered violently, heat rushing up her neck. He was so stupidly handsome she could stare at his face for hours. Tall, dangerous, and infuriatingly gorgeous— he was exactly the kind of man she would fall for if she lived long enough to date anyone. And Goddess, he smelled good. Like insanely good it made her stomach flutter.
Then suddenly, as if waking from a trance, Taryn jerked back like he’d been burned.
And in the next second, he snarled, a deep feral sound ripping from his chest as his features shifted, feline and terrifying.
Hannah yelped, stumbling back. “Geez, what is wrong with you?!”
“Touch me again and I’ll snap your neck,” he growled, eyes gleaming with a predator’s warning.
“Technically, you were the one touching me, asshole!” she shot back.
He bared his teeth at her again, though the anger wasn’t as intense as before, more like confusion mixed with frustration.
So Hannah—being Hannah—snarled back. Granted, she didn’t have fangs, just human teeth, but she still showed them anyway.
A pathetic display, actually, considering she technically counted as human. Not all Half-breeds manifested a wolf, and if they did, it wasn’t until eighteen.
So at sixteen-and-a-half, Hannah had nothing but her attitude and a slightly above-average strength thanks to her diluted werewolf gene. Thank you father. Which was exactly why everyone back home thought she was easy to handle.
Suddenly, another guard rushed in and leaned close to Taryn, whispering something into his ear. Not that Taryn’s gaze ever left her.
Hannah had no idea what she’d done to make this man hate her with the fire of a thousand suns—she’d been here barely a day, for crying out loud.
Taryn’s jaw tightened as he listened, his expression changing for the briefest second before settling back into that cold, carved-from-stone glare. Then he straightened, dismissing the other guard with a flick of his hand.
He looked right at her, his eyes gleaming with an emotion she couldn’t name.
“Well,” he said, lips curving into a wry, almost cruel smile, “lucky you. It seems your wish came true after all.”