Read Online Embrace Me At Dawn by Shayla Black - Free Book Online

quitting. And no, you weren’t there, but it’s not relevant. Mathias needs to be brought down, and I’m going to help. Tell me what I should have done and we’ll try again.”
    “ All right.” Lucan cocked his head and stared. Clearly, her answer surprised him. A little smile played over his mouth.
    She knew that look; he was up to something. She narrowed her eyes at him. “Is your goal to train me or try to figure out how to make me quit? Seems you’re doing a lot more of the latter than the former.”
    He shrugged with a guilty smirk. “I confess. That was my first plan. I don’t think you belong shoulder to shoulder with a group of men fighting to the death.”
    Anka stepped closer, shoving her face right under his. “I’m not the china doll you married. I’ve already been broken. There’s very little that can hurt me now. I’ll get better. I’ll adjust. I’ll earn the right to fight.”
    Regret overtook his face again, this time with confusion. “Anka, you were a lovely, beautiful mate to me, not a china doll. You—”
    “ Did everything the way you asked of me. Dressed, spoke, walked, socialized. Even fucked. You’d be surprised if you knew the real me.”
    He reared back. “The witch I knew never would have used that language. Further proof of Shock’s bad influence.”
    “ It’s not as if he taught me the word, Lucan. I never said it because I didn’t want to displease you. Just like I never wore pants or fixed my hair in any style except loose curls down my back. Now I’m doing things that feel right to me.” She shook her head. This anger directed at him was neither his fault nor well timed. “Forget it. I’m here to learn, not discuss ancient history. Tell me what I need to know, then attack me from behind again.”
    For a long moment, Lucan studied her like he wasn’t entirely sure what to make of her outburst or the information she’d given him. Anka wondered furiously if he’d ever had any idea how much of her true self she’d repressed to please him. But that didn’t matter, did it? She’d come here to be worthy of this fight. Everything else was shit.
    “ All right. I won’t argue, for now.” Silently prowling forward, he grabbed her arm and spun her, bracing his palm at her elbow. “If I sneak up behind you, your best weapon will be here.” He patted the pointed bend in her arm. “Try to work it past my defenses and jam it into my abdomen as hard as you can. If you’re not getting the opening you want, don’t forget that, for women especially, legs contain some of your strongest muscles.”
    “ I could try to kick someone in the…balls who’s behind me?”
    At her stumble over the word, he quirked a smile, then shook his head. “No. You’ll reach fuck all in that position and put your attacker on guard. His foot, love.” He gently whirled her in front and slightly to his side, leaning around her so that she could see his face. He demonstrated what he wanted with one foot, raising it and stomping it down on the ballroom floor with shaking force. “If someone’s foot had been under mine, that would have hurt like hell, yes?”
    “ Absolutely.” She blinked at him, only now aware that his body cradled hers, and his arm curled around her waist, fingers caressing her upper arm.
    The heat of his touch seeped into her, warming places that had been so dark and cold inside her for months. As he stepped up behind her, his palm brushed up her arm. He hugged her against him again, settling his chin on her shoulder. She heard his exhalation, rougher than normal, in her ear. His other arm wrapped around her waist again, and he held her tenderly, as if the past few months had never happened. She closed her eyes, her breath trapped in her chest, wondering if she’d feel his lips on her neck and his suggestive murmur against her skin the way she had for a century. Her entire body ached with the thought of Lucan holding her again. But he’d bloody moved on. His appearance