Special note to my readers:
As you can well imagine, in the creation of any novel, there are many, many scenes which wind up on the proverbial cutting room floor. I often find I toy with a variety of rabbit trails and ideas; some work, some don’t, and I dump the ones that don’t. When I decided to reissue these books, I started filtering through my dump files and was surprised by just how much material I’d created and never used. I’m thrilled to share one such scene below. It’s pretty scorching on the heat scale; the idea, as you’ll see, was that Marco captured Jared while he was in his heat. Enjoy!
Deleted Scene:
Jared paced the length of the cell, first one way, then another. His hands trembled, his ribcage shook with tremors. No part of his body remained under his control. The ridge-hard erection inside his pants seemed a permanent state and had begun to throb and ache with needed release. Soon he’d take care of himself, his captors be damned. Ah, Jared, keep your self-respect. Keep control. Pressing a hand to his eyes, he tried to calm his swimmy vision.
“Ah, king, you’re glowing,” Marco gloated from beyond the binding perimeter. “How intriguing.”
Jared glanced down and saw that his very palms had begun to glow, revealing his core nature. Soon, he’d be unable to resist Changing at all. They would see him, stare plainly upon him in his full nakedness and energy-form.
Shame, shame, such horrible shame. To endure an animal’s mating cycle, and then have his enemies watch him pass through it, stripped bare and vulnerable. Nude for all to see him as a D’Aravnian being of energy. By All, no, he would resist these urges and maintain control.
Spinning on his heel, he paced to the far wall where they might not see, and ventured to touch himself, if only for a moment. Discreetly, he began to rub and pleasure himself through his pants, blind with need of release. Kelsey, bring her! His mind shouted. My mate, my mate, mate.
They wanted him to beg. They wanted him to plead. They wanted to debase him this way—and then kill him. But they could kill him now, so why were they waiting at all?
Panting, he neared the perimeter and found Marco staring openly at him. “Wh-why do you wa-wait?” he managed through strangled gasps. “W-why no-not kill me?”
Marco’s gaze traveled the length of him, taking in his matted, damp hair, his bare feet, his glowing features. In particular, he made a point of glaring at the large bulge in the front of Jared’s jeans, lifting an eyebrow. “It must be odd to go through a mating season. I had a dog once that went this way.”
“Tell. Me. What you want,” Jared managed to spit at him. His core heat rose by at least another degree or two. The Change was surely inevitable now.
“That’s quite simple, my lord,” the dark-eyed enemy sneered. “I wish to see you transformed. And then, once you do Change—which will happen, I guarantee you—we will harness your energy. Your light and power. It will be used by the Antousians as a public display of your defeat.”
“No,” he cried out. “By All. No, please.”
Marco eyed him hard. “This is my promise.”
Jared’s shaking intensified. He understood exactly what this Marco threatened—the capture of his soul. It could be done; had been done to others of his ancestors during time of war. He would not be dead, but certainly not alive either. His Refarian body would be lost to him, gone forever, and he’d be cursed into his other form.
“Please,” he cried out hoarsely as Marco moved away from him. “What is it you truly want with me? What have I done—you are Refarian—yet you do not believe that I deserve the throne.”
Marco spun on him, closing the distance between that separated them until he stood mere inches from Jared, separated only by the energy barrier. For a long moment his enemy regarded him, his full lip curling upward into a sneer. “Oh, yes, my king, I once thought you deserved the throne. You have no idea how much I believed that fact.” The deep rumbling voice dropped lower. “I served you and my queen. Loved you, even. But it was you who betrayed me, not the other way, sir.”