Tempted by a Rogue Prince Read Online Free Page A

death, and waking to this female. He recalled her saying he was bound.
    They had him chained and had a female in his cell.
    She was a trap.
    Crushing weight pressed down on his chest and his throat clogged. They had sent her in to hurt him.
    To abuse him.
    He snarled and fought his bonds, desperately trying to break the chain between them. He was stronger now, although he didn’t know why. Power flowed through him, strength he hadn’t felt in as long as he could remember. He used all of it on the restraints, bowing off the cold stone slab as he fought them.
    “Please keep still.” She reached out to touch him.
    To lay her hands on his flesh.
    Vail bared his fangs at her and rolled off the slab, hitting the floor hard enough to knock the air from his lungs. He kicked off, scrambling as he attempted to rise to his feet and placing as much distance between them as he could manage.
    “Keep away,” he said in English, using her tongue.
    She shot to her feet and he growled at her, flashing his fangs in warning again.
    “I cannot,” she barked and took a step towards him. “If I don’t heal you, they’ll punish me!”
    Fear shone in her blue eyes. Eyes that implored him to believe her as she took another hesitant step towards him. Her arms shifted, coming forwards, and metal rattled. His gaze dropped to her wrists and he blinked.
    She wore the same heavy cuffs as he, and had worn them for some time judging by her scarred wrists. A foreign sensation bolted through him on seeing the pale streaks of silver and red on her delicate skin. A need that he didn’t understand.
    He felt compelled to take her hand in his and smooth his fingers over the scars, as if that action could erase the ugly marks of her captivity and restore her flawless skin.
    He had no such power, not over flesh and bone. Not anymore. He had forsaken it long ago when he had severed his connection to his people and his powers had withered over the endless centuries since then.
    And he had no reason to desire to use it on this female.
    “Please?” she whispered and he lifted his gaze back to meet hers. “I have to heal you.”
    A healer.
    What species was she? Many could heal and many of those appeared human.
    Including witches.
    He growled at her, unable to stop himself, a reaction to that word that would stay with him until death finally embraced him. She didn’t flinch away. She bravely stood her ground this time, although her heart missed several beats and he sensed the fear she held buried deep within her.
    Not only fear of him. She feared the demons too. And something else.
    Something unknown to him, but something he needed to understand. He wasn’t sure why. It ran deep in his blood, a compulsion he couldn’t comprehend and that made no sense to him. It tied him in knots, twisting his insides, making him feel useless and weak.
    Cursed female.
    He narrowed his gaze on her, studying her delicate features and the way she held herself, drinking in everything about her, searching for a clue as to the reason for his strange reactions to her. Perhaps they had drugged him. It was all a ploy to weaken him and lure him into her trap. They wanted to watch her bring him to his knees. They would laugh as he suffered at her hands.
    They were attempting to play on his compassion, but that had been their mistake.
    He had no compassion left.
    It had been wrung out of him thousands of years ago.
    “Please?” she said again and gestured to the slab. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just have to heal you.”
    He didn’t want to lay on it and allow her to touch him. He didn’t want her hands on him. Caressing. Fondling. Groping. He snarled and flashed his fangs again, and she shrank back, a little gasp escaping her.
    “I would do as she asks, Mate. She isn’t going to hurt you, but if she doesn’t do as ordered, the demons
will
hurt her.” The deep male voice was little more than a snarl and Vail cast a glance off to his left.
    A male with long dark hair