Read Online Elijah by Jacquelyn Frank - Free Book Online

remaining debris of the spilled food that was on the floor. She remained well out of his reach this time, unusually silent as she worked.
    As he watched her in similar silence, Elijah was forced to recall the first time he had seen her. It had been in Kane’s home immediately after Kane’s mate, Corrine, had been abducted. It had been there that they had first come to understand that Ruth could be a potential traitor to Demonkind.
    It had been Siena’s sources that had led them to the truth of that particular matter. But as seemed to be his sudden habit around her, he had been hostile to her instead of being grateful.
    Again, it had been an affliction of pride that had instigated the behavior. He had been very irritated that she had been able to unearth the betrayal where he had not. Irritated and embarrassed. It did not matter that she was better equipped to get such information from the start, it just mattered that she had been the one to tell his King how poorly he had done his job, however unintentional it may have been.
    On top of that, he had not been able to take his eyes off her. She was a breathtaking creature, a beauty one could not help but admit to being unparalleled, even if she was a Lycanthrope. That was saying a great deal, in Elijah’s mind. He knew very well what three centuries of war had done to his perspective concerning her species. He was prejudiced, angry, and unrelentingly unforgiving. So for him to show any appreciation to any of them for any reason was nothing short of a miracle. A miracle, and a total truth. Demon women were very beautiful creatures, inside and out, and there were some that were blindingly attractive, but none he had seen could outshine the Lycanthrope Queen. She was golden, luminescent, and she held herself with all the pride and stubbornness of dignity of her race. He had absolutely no right to be attracted to her on any level, never mind with the ferocity he had experienced. She had turned those enormous eyes on him, meeting his appraisals with an unconcerned air, and Elijah had felt as though she had stolen the very breath from his body with just that single, unblinking look.
    It had worsened the day she had joined their forces in battle against the onslaught of human killers at the Battle of Beltane. He had seen Lycanthropes in battle countless times, but he had never once seen anything like her. She was a full-blooded huntress, a warrior of remarkable speed and lethal beauty. She was as merciless as he was, efficient once her mind was set to her purpose. She did not hesitate or shy from the kill. In fact, she reveled in it. And so she should.
    The necromancers had deserved their fate. They had harmed and destroyed innocents, some of them her own people, and retribution was the only acceptable punishment.
    Elijah remembered smelling the scent of the hunt on her, the blood of her prey, and the adrenaline of her victory. He remembered that moment vividly because he had never known such a fast and hard reaction of arousal as he had in that singular, unbelievable instant. His blood had been high and hot, the lust and delight of justice riding him like a wicked mistress, and then those golden eyes of a woman warrior fresh from her victims’ throats had skimmed over his body like a siren’s touch. It was as if her hands had run over his naked flesh, determined and skilled and just as bold as she was when she hunted anything else.
    Then she had spoken to him, completely oblivious of how she had affected him, and made a statement that had haunted him almost day and night for the months since she had uttered it.
    He had spoken briefly of his mistrust of her, a knee-jerk reaction to the confusion pounding through his mind, and she had responded.
    “I would think you an utter fool if you did not doubt me, warrior. Instead, I am forced to respect your uncommon intelligence. Now what, do you suppose, should I do from there?”
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    With those words she had proven herself to be