Read Online Embrace the Wild (The Blood Rose Series Book 6) by Caris Roane - Free Book Online

deny that the lack of cramping he experienced meant something, but he felt it in his bones that Willow’s blood had strengthened him. Even his muscles felt bulked up. He looked down at his thighs and could see that his leathers were tighter than before.
    Power flowed through him as well with streams of energy that made him feel like he could do anything.
    But it couldn’t be true.
    Please don’t let it be true.
    His mind rolled backward to how Willow had bathed him. And that’s when a profound longing slammed through him all over again, and he stumbled, losing his footing.
    He levitated quickly or he would have fallen over the precipice.
    Sweet Goddess, this just could not be happening. Not to him.
    And the sex and the vines and Willow’s soft yielding body beneath his … and her blood. Her own responsiveness and their shared cravings for each other …
    His heart hurt and his chest felt caved in. He gasped for breath he couldn’t find.
    Willow.
    No, please, no.
    Surely the pain in his stomach would return any minute now and set him free from an entanglement he couldn’t afford.
    Surely.
    He waited a minute … five … then ten. But for the first time in two-hundred years, since he’d risen to mastyr status, he had no pain. And from the events of the past two years and from the first time he chased Willow through the woods, it all made sense now, especially his complete and utter obsession with her.
    There could be no doubt; Willow was his Goddess-be-damned blood rose.
    He roared the depth of his frustration, letting his loneliness, his anger at the evil forces in his realm, and his blood-needs rage into the air. He was only surprised that the entire forest didn’t catch fire with the depth of his distress.
    When the last roar echoed down the hollows, he began coming back to himself.
    Willow was a blood rose.
    And nothing could change that.
    The problem was that she could never be his blood rose.
    He’d been in his recently built communication center and he’d read the exchanges of the bonded mastyrs, those who’d gone through exactly what he was experiencing, but who had also embraced their women. He knew the signs, especially the sudden release of centuries of terrible cramping in his stomach because only a blood rose could take that kind of pain away.
    In his case, however, there were tough obstacles preventing him from ever bringing Willow fully into his life and he honestly didn’t see how they could be overcome. His own duties demanded all of his time, and he couldn’t be distracted by a woman. There was that. But worse, he’d played a terrible role in her father’s death, so how would Willow ever be able to forgive him for what he’d done?
    He cringed inwardly. The memories flooded back of when her father held a sharp blade to the troll’s throat, threatening to kill him. Malik had tried to calm the grief-stricken husband down, but nothing could reach him. When the tall, fae professor sank the blade, cutting deep, he’d given Malik no choice; Malik had fired a single, powerful hand-blast straight into his head, killing him instantly.
    The troll had almost died as a result of that cut.
    Willow’s fae father had essentially chosen death-by-Guardsman rather than live without his half-wraith, half-fae wife, leaving Willow orphaned.
    And now the woman whose father he’d killed was his blood rose.
    What a fucking nightmare.
    Just when he was ready to release another set of roars, his phone rang. Pulling his cell from the pocket of his leathers, he was surprised to see that his housekeeper, Francesca, was calling him.
    And she never called.
    Sweet Goddess, what now?
    “Francesca? What gives?”
    “I am so sorry to bother you, Mastyr, but Davido is in your living room asking for you.”
    “Davido? The ancient troll who lives in Merhaine Realm?”
    “Yes, that would be him. Davido the Wise. And he’s pacing.”
    “He’s pacing?” Malik tried to recall if he’d ever seen Davido pace.
    “He seems