Read Online Bound By Fate: A Novel of the Strong by Amy Knickerbocker - Free Book Online Page A

Liv left the bed and slipped into the bathroom. As she set about getting ready to face him, she thought back to the one time she had seen the daemon so long ago.  
    Per custom, she was not to be presented to him until his father passed and he assumed his place as Tenn. But never one to obey her parents, Liv had snuck away one afternoon when she was just nine years old, intent on seeing the Tenn, her Tenn, for herself. After all, she had reasoned at the time, it could be aeons before she’d become his own.
    It had been a crisp, late-summer highlands day, much like the one that might await her just outside these walls. Liv blushed as she remembered watching him in the heathered fields beyond the castle walls, laughing with his friends, a pale-haired daemoness at his side.
    He had looked so happy, so beautiful.  
    And, now, that daemon waited for her downstairs.  
    When she was dressed, Liv took one last look at Wolfie, who lay sprawled and sleeping amongst the covers in the small cast-iron bed. He had made himself completely at home, cat-style, with not a care in the world.  
    “Must be nice, Wolf-man.” Body alive with the strength of Toran’s venna, she bent to run a cheek against the cat’s belly, mesmerized by his silky soft fur. “It’s time for me to go out there and see what this is all about.”  
    She shivered.
    Stepping out of her room, Liv found herself in a well-lived-in den, its decor as masculine as Toran's bedroom had been. A giant flat screen TV hung above the mantle. A leather couch and oversized chairs formed a cozy sitting area around the hearth. One wall featured a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf stacked to the brim with books and DVDs. PlayStation controls lay tossed across the ottoman, game boxes scattered on the floor.  
    Opposite the fireplace was an opening that led to an arched stone gallery that ran the entire perimeter of the building. Leaning over the balustrade, she took in the immense room below.  
    The crest on the ornate mosaic floor told her exactly where she was. Liv was looking down into the great room of Caisteal Vimora, royal seat of the Vimor daemons.  
    Holding her breath, Liv listened for signs of life in the dimly-lit castle, with just a hazy sunlight filtering in through lead-glassed windows. Hearing nothing but the odd hum of silence, she made her way down the wide stone stairway. At the bottom, she paused. Up ahead on her right, she saw an open door. Crossing the great room floor, she peeked inside.
    A desk lamp illuminated the imposing figure of the Tenn tucked behind a glass-topped desk.  
    Sensing her presence, he raised his head to eye her in the doorway. Casting out, she tried to gauge his emotions only to find that any he might have had, he kept carefully masked.
    Okay. Breathe.
    She stepped into the room.
    Glancing around from just inside the doorway, Liv was struck by the incongruous modernity of the furnishings in what was, essentially, the throne room of an ancient daemon race. An array of monitors graced one corner of the desk. A bank of flat screen TVs covered the far wall, the muted feeds of various business channels dancing haphazardly with the firelight.  
    Despite the blazing fire in the hearth, the room felt cold.
    She turned her eyes back to him as he stood in greeting.
    His bloodied shirt was long gone, his wound from earlier completely healed. Dressed as males did on the human ‘el, Toran wore jeans and an untucked dark blue button-down shirt with subtle gray stripes, its sleeves rolled to his elbows. His forearms were muscular and tanned. His dark, almost black hair was short but stylishly rakish.  
    He watched her with intense, coffee-colored eyes.
    Though they were essentially strangers, a starry-eyed warmth washed through her. It was the same feeling she’d felt at laying her eyes on him so many years ago. Stunned by his beauty, Liv could do nothing but stare.
    “You have aged well, my king,” she said at last.
    At her whispered words, his eyes