Embrace the Desire Read Online Free

natural causes.
    However, she was not immortal. She could die by another's hand. Even the gods could die.
    The problem was that during the Burning, many members felt the urge to mark their sexual partner as theirs . . . for the rest of eternity. It was a bond that was unbreakable, and if one died, the other would slowly go insane. She didn’t want to be marked and belong to anyone, especially not for the rest of her conceivably very long life. And she didn’t want to mark a man either. If he was not a member of the One Race or a Destroyer, but a regular mortal, his life span would be short, and she damn sure didn’t want to go insane.
    Insane with godly powers sure didn’t sound like a good combination.
    And a Destroyer? They harbored demons under their skin, were ruthless killers, and from the stories she had heard, they were emotionally brutal. Male members of the One Race were few and far between, most already bonded with someone that had taken them through the Burning.
    And if she were to be marked, then what? She had a job she loved, she had devoted herself to helping children of the One Race, and she wasn't about to give that up. Not to mention, she was just turning thirty and had already been through enough rocky relationships to last her several lifetimes.
    If she had a choice she would just stay human and not go through the Burning.
    But she did not.
    She breathed in through her lips, the fragrance of the old books calming her nerves. Shoving those thoughts aside, she looked down at the pile of papers to her right and groaned. Shoving her thoughts of the Burning aside, as well, she turned to the stack of reports by her side.
    Chanta ran her slight fingers through her thick cotton-blonde hair. What exactly had she been thinking when she told her students to do reports on the creation myth? And why had she not picked just one for them. Oh no, she had let them choose their own. Twenty research papers and almost all of them were on a different myth.
    There were just so many gods and so many myths. She should have simply assigned the One Race creation myth, which would have been much easier. And because she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep until she graded each one, she gave in and grabbed another book.
    A rattling noise jerked her from her thoughts. She sat up and went to her knees peering over the couch. Her heart was in her throat, terror only inches from claiming her. Straining, she listened, watched.
    “I’m safe here.” She whispered as her eyes darted around the room. “I’m safe.”
    A faint smile spread cross her lips as a small black cat jumped on the back of the couch and purred at her. Her body relaxed, a sigh escaping her lips. She was safe; she knew that, but still, sometimes an odd feeling of fear crept up her spine and beat at the base of her skull, like a warning bell going off.
    Instantly, she thought of Damon and the night he had revealed to her what and who he truly was. Anger crept over her terror. She was just another member of the One Race, just another plaything in the ongoing war he had with Gyth. And he had used her in the foulest of ways. He seduced her, made her feel things that she had never felt and still hadn’t felt to this day.
    Members of the One Race had to be careful, fearful. They never knew when or where they would be attacked or even how it would happen. Under Damon’s rule, the minions of the Underworld were constantly trying to eradicate the race. And there were so very few of them that survived. If you were descended from a god, the safest place to be was at a sanctuary.
    A sanctuary like the one where she was a teacher. One Race Academy, a private boarding school for One Race children, was one of the safest places on earth. Secluded and hidden behind the guise of a horse farm on the outskirts of Lexington, Kentucky, the academy protected those children. It was the kind of protection she had needed when she was a child.
    She had dedicated the last nine years of