Forbidden (A New Adult Paranormal Romance) by Dawn Steele Page B

even when I was touching your girlfriend’s most intimate parts. A fantasy involving the two of you in that dungeon would be a feast for the senses, a spectacle maharajahs would pay for. You will both be able to command any price.”
    Aein narrowed his eyes. The golden beetles, which had been sent to scout this world, did not prepare him for this. But then the golden beetles were notoriously piecemeal when it came to gathering information, especially when so many of them were quashed before they could return. In Spora, there was no room for relations within the same gender. He wondered if this was a common Blue Planet trait.
    “What is a maharajah?” he said.
    “A great king who commands many elephants. I see by the look on your face that you have never heard of elephants. They are enormous creatures.” The hand crept to Aein’s manhood. “Enormous.”
    It was strange that the inhabitants found him attractive. This body was unwieldy and deformed. Walking upright was a challenge, and having four limbs instead of six even more so. It was strange to be found beautiful at all, he who always had been considered so hideous that Sporadean children clutched their parents as he walked by: “Mother, why does the fifth prince look like that?”
    “Perhaps you should untie me,” Aein said. He was not sure how this act would be performed, but he knew – given the perpetrator, who now cupped his testicles with mounting pressure – that it would be cruel and degrading.
    “Not so fast, my beauty.” Scarface unfastened the ties in the front of Aein’s woolen pants. Aein felt extremely uneasy. This was all wrong, like Snow White being fondled and that Karsissian slave being raped and thrown off the spire. He wore nothing beneath those pants, and as Scarface prized the flap open, Aein wondered if he should wake the others. Or would they join in?
    “Please,” he said softly, “it will be . . . better if you untie me.” He didn’t know exactly what would be better, but his bonds were beginning to chafe his wrists.
    Scarface raised Aein’s tunic to reveal the hard flesh of his stomach. “Perhaps,” he murmured as he caressed the ridges. “So fine, like a marble statue. Truly, you’re made like the gods.”
    Aein strained against his bonds, his stomach muscles rippling.
    “Did you know,” Scarface said, his breath hot in Aein’s face, “that it’s likely your girlfriend never escaped. Hansel, who is not with us, has cannibalistic tendencies. He has no doubt tracked her and is at this very moment serving her ripe body to his sister on a platter of herbs and spices.”
    The awful realization dropped on Aein. His world stopped rotating and he could see, with great clarity, Snow White with an apple in her mouth, bound and wheeled into a large stone oven. Red sparks exploded in his eyes. Before he himself could understand what was happening, his bonds had come apart and his wrists were bruised and free before him. Scarface’s jaw fell open, but before he could yell, Aein struck his head with a blow that sent the older man sprawling.
    His own reflexes surprised him. He didn't know he could move so fast in this cumbersome body.
    Scarface rolled to his feet and drew a wicked-looking knife.
    “So,” he said, “the beauty awakens his inner beast.” He lunged at Aein’s chest.
    Aein neatly sidestepped the knife and grabbed Scarface’s outstretched arm. With a strength he didn’t know he possessed, he broke the arm at the elbow. Scarface screamed. The knife fell and thudded onto the ground.
    The men around the bonfire woke up and jumped to their feet. Gorm reached for his sword while Milky Eye seized his axe. Aein faced them, his hands bare.
     
    #
     
    Snow White gripped the armrests of her chair. They were only three in the tower chamber now. Gretel had locked the door behind her and pocketed the key.
    Twin One, whose name was Wilhem, had tied her wrists to the armrests with rope. His intentions were entirely honorable.