Happy Saturday Spankings everyone! This week we have another snippet from my upcoming book ‘Tara’, the second book in my Daughters of Eltera series. The first book, ‘Fae‘ is available now if you want to read it and catch up before this release later in the month! In this scene Alaric and Tara have been eating breakfast and trading truths back and forth, in the #WIP Wednesday bloghop Alaric revealed he was an assassin, and Tara revealed she was a slave. Alaric is… a little stunned after her confession, but I think he recovers well!

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“I told you there was another god that enslaved me, and all those like me, for eternity. Well, that wasn’t a joke.” Tara lined up her silverware to the right of her plate, tucking the napkin into her lap. “When someone lays a claim to me the curse makes it so it’s almost impossible for me to disobey. There are control bands, they cause extreme pain if I ignore a command. You can imagine, I’m sure, what most of my masters have wanted from me.”

She didn’t want to look at him again, she didn’t want to see that look cross his face when he realized what she was and what that meant. If he hadn’t wanted to touch her the night before when all he thought was she was some weirdo sleeping in a cage babbling about humans and gods – now there was no chance for normalcy. He’d look at her with pity, or disgust. Maybe he’d stare at her like Gianni had, totally removed because she wasn’t real, or human… because she was nothing.

“I’m glad I killed him then.” Alaric’s voice was so quiet she wouldn’t have heard it if she’d moved, and her eyes snapped up to his. Those brown and green eyes were furious, and his lips peeled back from his teeth as he spoke again, “I’ve only felt that way once before, and I’ve never said it out loud, but in this case? Bastard deserved it.”

“Do you –” She started to speak but he cut her off this time.

“I understand, trust me.” He put his own napkin in his lap and started to butter a slice of toast. “I assure you I will not hurt you. Not like that. Not at all.”

She couldn’t respond. Her hand picked up her fork unbidden and cut off a corner of the omelet in her shock. His eyes were still blazing, but it was because of Gianni, not her.

“Now… will you answer my question? What do you want to do today?” He bit into the toast and Tara forced herself to swallow the bite of the omelet.

“Anything?”

“Anything.” He locked his eyes on her again, his strong jaw was clenched and it made the line of it stand out.

“I want to be around music.”

—

He’s kind of swoonworthy, even though he doesn’t make all of the best decisions at the beginning of this book, he gets it all figured out. It’s a hell of an adventure until they get there though! Until then, make sure to stay tuned for a cover reveal for ‘Tara’ and check out these other snippets below!