Read Online Becoming Bad (The Becoming Novels) by Jess Raven, Paula Black - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jess Raven, Paula Black
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strange at the time, and now …
‘My grandmother is the Morrígan?’ She’d only ever read of the shapeshifting Goddess of Battle. The Morrígan supposedly fought alongside the Tuatha Dé Danann to trap the Fomorians, that much she knew. She prophesied the end of the world. Ash really couldn’t see her frail grandmother being up to that task.
‘Well,’ she laughed nervously, ‘it’s not everyday you learn you’re related to a deity.’
‘Your
grandmother
poisoned my brother against his own people. She trained Connal to contain us and hunt us to the verge of extinction. It was never supposed to be this way.’ He came off the bed like a big cat, fluid and powerful, muscle bunching under tawny skin, and then he dropped, gracefully folding his massive frame onto his knees in front of her. Mac reached for her hands and she flinched, but he merely brushed his fingers over her own. ‘You must see, Ashling, I had no choice. Connal knew it too. He brought you here, to save us all.’
‘I don’t want to be your saviour. I just want to go home, back to my nice, boring life.’ Confusion battered around her skull so much she could have been an arcade game. Nobody was who she thought they were.
Fuck, I’m not who I thought I was
. She was changed. Her thoughts were a mire and she was sinking in the truth of it all. Because if, damn it all, if she was one of them, then she was trapped here, a prisoner of her new biology. His prisoner.
‘There’s nothing for you above-ground, Ashling. Your home is here now. You are safe, with your own kind.’ His voice was deceptively soft. He sounded like he cared and touched her like she could break, or he was stopping himself from breaking her. There was an intensity in the energy around him, reinforcing his point.
He was not going to let her leave.
‘You can’t keep me prisoner. This is barbaric. I’m not one of you. I’ll be fine, back in my world. With the humans.’ Denial, rough and polluting, tried to swallow the truth. ‘There is a way back. I saw those men, wolves, when the doctor took me to the club. They were there.’
‘The black waters can only be traversed during full moon. You have been victim to the Morrígan’s curse once, would you wish that upon yourself again?’
Her emotions shifted and the primal energy within her responded, its claws pressing cuts into her fisted palms. ‘What am I?’
‘You are incredible.’ Strong fingers wound in her hair, bunching it at her nape. He leaned in close, drawing an inhale along her skin and she shuddered, protesting the rein he had on her hair. ‘I can help you, teach you,’ he said.
‘Don’t touch me.’ Her words were ice to the heat of lust in his voice.
His nod was short. Coal eyes bright with the sting of yet another rejection, he rose from her.
Sensing his tension, Ash hoped to deflect his attention away from her. ‘Connal said there were others like me, other girls. He called them latents.’
‘Not like you, Ashling. You are unique.’ Mac paced a small way from her. It made her nervous when he prowled. ‘It’s true we hoped to find a solution to our problem, but those women were weak-blooded mongrels. None could withstand the potency of the bite, or carry a child to term. If the
eitr
didn’t drive them insane, it transformed them into that female you saw back there.’
Yeah, she’d seen them at the club too, a bunch of mindless, sex-driven addicts. ‘Why were they weak-blooded?’
‘Because they are the defective issue of
thegn
matings with humans.’
‘
Thegn
? Like the doctor?’ That bastard stole her blood and lured her back to Form on the pretense of helping her. She had a couple of words for him next time they met. ‘But Connal said they were celibates.’
‘Sworn not to taint the Fomorian bloodlines, yes. But, fallible and subject to temptation on rare occasions, like the best of us.’
She scowled, knowing damn well he was referring to Connal, and what he’d allegedly done
‘My grandmother is the Morrígan?’ She’d only ever read of the shapeshifting Goddess of Battle. The Morrígan supposedly fought alongside the Tuatha Dé Danann to trap the Fomorians, that much she knew. She prophesied the end of the world. Ash really couldn’t see her frail grandmother being up to that task.
‘Well,’ she laughed nervously, ‘it’s not everyday you learn you’re related to a deity.’
‘Your
grandmother
poisoned my brother against his own people. She trained Connal to contain us and hunt us to the verge of extinction. It was never supposed to be this way.’ He came off the bed like a big cat, fluid and powerful, muscle bunching under tawny skin, and then he dropped, gracefully folding his massive frame onto his knees in front of her. Mac reached for her hands and she flinched, but he merely brushed his fingers over her own. ‘You must see, Ashling, I had no choice. Connal knew it too. He brought you here, to save us all.’
‘I don’t want to be your saviour. I just want to go home, back to my nice, boring life.’ Confusion battered around her skull so much she could have been an arcade game. Nobody was who she thought they were.
Fuck, I’m not who I thought I was
. She was changed. Her thoughts were a mire and she was sinking in the truth of it all. Because if, damn it all, if she was one of them, then she was trapped here, a prisoner of her new biology. His prisoner.
‘There’s nothing for you above-ground, Ashling. Your home is here now. You are safe, with your own kind.’ His voice was deceptively soft. He sounded like he cared and touched her like she could break, or he was stopping himself from breaking her. There was an intensity in the energy around him, reinforcing his point.
He was not going to let her leave.
‘You can’t keep me prisoner. This is barbaric. I’m not one of you. I’ll be fine, back in my world. With the humans.’ Denial, rough and polluting, tried to swallow the truth. ‘There is a way back. I saw those men, wolves, when the doctor took me to the club. They were there.’
‘The black waters can only be traversed during full moon. You have been victim to the Morrígan’s curse once, would you wish that upon yourself again?’
Her emotions shifted and the primal energy within her responded, its claws pressing cuts into her fisted palms. ‘What am I?’
‘You are incredible.’ Strong fingers wound in her hair, bunching it at her nape. He leaned in close, drawing an inhale along her skin and she shuddered, protesting the rein he had on her hair. ‘I can help you, teach you,’ he said.
‘Don’t touch me.’ Her words were ice to the heat of lust in his voice.
His nod was short. Coal eyes bright with the sting of yet another rejection, he rose from her.
Sensing his tension, Ash hoped to deflect his attention away from her. ‘Connal said there were others like me, other girls. He called them latents.’
‘Not like you, Ashling. You are unique.’ Mac paced a small way from her. It made her nervous when he prowled. ‘It’s true we hoped to find a solution to our problem, but those women were weak-blooded mongrels. None could withstand the potency of the bite, or carry a child to term. If the
eitr
didn’t drive them insane, it transformed them into that female you saw back there.’
Yeah, she’d seen them at the club too, a bunch of mindless, sex-driven addicts. ‘Why were they weak-blooded?’
‘Because they are the defective issue of
thegn
matings with humans.’
‘
Thegn
? Like the doctor?’ That bastard stole her blood and lured her back to Form on the pretense of helping her. She had a couple of words for him next time they met. ‘But Connal said they were celibates.’
‘Sworn not to taint the Fomorian bloodlines, yes. But, fallible and subject to temptation on rare occasions, like the best of us.’
She scowled, knowing damn well he was referring to Connal, and what he’d allegedly done
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