How The Warrior Fell (Falling Warriors series Book 1) Read Free

staring at him with more bravery than she felt.
    “I will not marry you,” she repeated, backing away from him as he took slow, measured steps towards her.
    Xavier shook his head slowly, his icy eyes never leaving hers. “I’ll ask you one more time, Leawyn. What did you just say?”
    “I refuse to marry—”
    Xavier’s eyes flashed furiously, his hand shooting out and wrapping around the back of her neck in a vice-like grip. Using his other hand, he gripped her jaw brutally.
    “You will become my wife, Leawyn,” he said in warning. He leaned in, rubbing his bearded cheek against her smooth one. “And if I find out you have let another man between your legs come our wedding night . . .” She could only emit a soft gasp of pain as Xavier’s grip around her neck squeezed tighter.“I’ll kill you,” he whispered softly into her ear.
    Leawyn sucked in a sharp breath, and he laughed humorlessly as he drew back and looked into her frightened eyes.
    How had her life come to this?

T HREE DAYS LATER, Xavier sat at a table next to his wife, watching their wedding celebration. It seemed half of the Izayges tribe came over to witness the union, making the six-day ride in record time. Xavier scanned the crowd with his eyes.
    Distantly, he could hear the ocean waves as they crashed against the shore, the sound drowned out by all the laughter and talk that surrounded him. Huge bonfires provided light for the wedding party, and the air was rich with the aroma of smoked fish that was caught fresh for their wedding feast. Drums and flutes provided music for those who wished to dance. Long tables were arranged in a giant broken square that made the perimeter for the festivities. Almost everywhere Xavier looked, there was smiling, happy faces. Their wedding was a cause of celebration, for at last all the tribes in Samaria were connected. No longer was there a rift between the Izayges and the Rhoxolani.
    It was funny to Xavier how two tribes fighting against each other for years came together by the same thing which drove them apart.
    Chienef and Lyricals’ wedding started the war; his and Leawyn’s ended it.
    He thought back to their wedding ceremony, and how she looked up at him in her white dress, eyes misted over with despair. Her dainty hands had trembled when he reached for them. He had held them still when the tribe elder said the marriage incantation that bound them together until death. She had flinched when he had slit his palm, and then hers, in order to press their hands together, joining their blood, and sealing their marriage.
    Xavier glanced over at his wife from the corner of his eyes and had to hold back the grin of male satisfaction. Leawyn was beautiful, more so than the rumors portrayed her to be. For there had been rumors of the chief’s daughter of the Rhoxolani, the most beautiful girl all of Samaria had ever seen. A girl so beautiful, it seemed the Gods have blessed her and the Goddesses have cursed her, because she rivals their own. With hair kissed by the sun, shining as bright as its rays in its loving light, and eyes made from the teardrops from the clouds as the Gods wept from the loss of losing a daughter to mortals.
    She was a child compared to him. Though, knowing that, all he felt was pleasure. Pleasure for having a girl who would only belong to him. Someone who would be healthy to bear him enough heirs to keep his tribe protected. And she would be bearing him children—he would make sure of it come their wedding night.
    Xavier felt a thrill go through him at the thought of claiming Leawyn. Though he was no stranger to the opposite sex, none had made him experience this feeling of possessiveness he felt over Leawyn. The need to dominate her and make her his was so strong it had his jaw clenching.
    Leawyn was beautiful, and she was going to be all his.
    Her smile was rumored to be the brightest of all, and her laughter so pure and heavenly, it seemed the Gods laughed with her, for the sun was