Valiant Heart by Angela Addams Read Free Book Online Page A

absolutely. But not to me.”
    â€œYou and your Amazons, you have a warped idea of what we’re offering.” Lance pushed her finger aside, sick of it in his face. “We aren’t after control. I’ve trained for you. I’ve prepared my body, my knowledge, honed my mending skill for you. I’ve devoted myself to the idea of you, my Huntress. There was nothing selfish in that. It was all for you.”
    â€œYou men are all the same,” she scoffed. “The protectors, the hero. What makes you think I need all that? Why are you so sure that I’m weak without you?”
    â€œI didn’t say you were weak,” he growled. “I’ve seen you use your magic. I know what you’re capable of. But I can give you more. Make you stronger, better.”
    She cocked her eyebrows, crossed her arms. “Make me better?” She shook her head. “Like I said, you men are all the same. I’m a wolf slayer. A favorite to my queen. A skilled mender. Once day soon I’ll be a commander, a leader of a team. And all this without even knowing you existed.”
    Lance wanted to grab her, shake sense into her, kiss her, wrap her in his arms, make love to her on the grass under the light of the stars and moon. To give her everything he had, everything he’d been waiting to give to his one true soul mate. She didn’t need him, fine, but he sure as hell needed her.
    â€œI would be good to you. I would take care of you.” Lance hated that he sounded so weak, begging for his Huntress to feel something for him.
    She flinched. “I don’t need anyone to take care of me. Ever.” Took a step back. “The only thing I’ve ever gotten from men has been pain.”
    Lance didn’t like the sound of that. It made him growl. It made him want to go out there and find whoever had hurt her, rip his throat out and grind his skull to pulp.
    â€œI’m not seeking your pity. I’m stating a fact so that you’ll understand. I don’t trust men. Just because you’re marked as a Hunter doesn’t mean you’re any different.”
    â€œBut I am different. I’m your Hunter and you are my Huntress. Soul mates, partners, bonded. That’s the way it has always been.” He reached out to her. “I’d never do anything to hurt you.”
    She stepped back from his hand, pain flashing across her face before she turned from him. “I’ve heard that before,” she murmured as she walked away from him, once again not looking back.

Chapter Six
    Images of Him
    It was past midnight and I needed sleep, yet here I was, tossing and turning on a huge down filled mattress, alone and feeling what? Lonely? My sister Huntresses were all enjoying the Hunters, and I was used to having them with me. On the road for months, sleeping under the stars on the hard ground, the smell of grass and trees comforting, the sounds of the forest all around. My sisters stayed up to keep watch, sharpening their weapons, the rhythmic zing of metal pulled from scabbards.
    That’s what I was missing.
    Not Lance.
    I snorted.
    Not my Hunter whom I barely knew, whose smell I couldn’t get out of my nose. Whose touch had left a ghostly imprint on my flesh.
    I trailed my fingers over my stomach, my mind replaying his fingers there, on my body. In my body. Mmmm , it had been good, I’d admit to that. I hadn’t been with a man in years, no cock to fill me for so long. It had felt so good. Too good.
    I shifted my hands up to my breasts, cupping as he had, thumbing my nipples roughly, pinching and flicking. I bit my lip, remembering how his callused palms had abraded me just right, my nipples aching to be soothed and suckled. I slipped one hand down my body, fingers gliding along soft skin. Past the elastic of my white cotton panties and straight to my clit. I stroked myself, fingers dipping between my pussy lips, coating in my juice, hooking into my hole to