It was too much, and at the same time, not enough. Those events hadn’t
broken me, despite what I’d thought at the time. Instead, they’d made me
stronger, a fighter, and I knew that my life purpose was to protect these men
who’d weaseled their way into my heart. They were made to be powerful and
righteous kings, and I would do everything in my power to see them on their
rightful thrones.
“You. Love. Me?” he repeated slowly, pointing from me to himself as if
he couldn’t quite understand the meaning of my words.
I cupped his cheeks with my hand, swinging my legs to the side to
straddle his waist, and placed my lips to his.
“Yes. How could I not?”
“I would die for you, Z.” With every word he said, his lips moved against
mine, sparks of electricity dancing in their wake. “I would die for you time
and time again.”
“I don’t want you to die for me,” I responded breathily, our lips
continuing to move against each other’s in a kiss that wasn’t quite a kiss.
“Then what do you want?” Coherence flashed in his eyes as he held my
stare, and I found myself dropping my hands from his cheeks to his strong,
muscular shoulders. Goosebumps pebbled on his skin, but they had nothing
on my nipples, which were suddenly hard enough to cut diamonds.
“What would you do if I answered ‘you’?” I asked huskily, pulling back
just enough to see his eyes.
A tiny grin pulled at his lips a single second before he pulled me back
against him, claiming my lips with his.
But I didn’t just want the taste of his lips on my tongue. I wanted all of
him.
I moved off of his lap and settled between his knees, his legs
automatically opening up to make room for me. His brows dipped lower,
even as hunger filled his gaze.
“What are you doing, little mate?” he asked hoarsely as I slid my hands
up his thighs. When I reached the waistband of his pants, I pulled them down
just enough to stick my hand inside and caress his hardening cock.
“I’m so sorry for everything you’ve been through,” I whispered, my heart
flaying open and weeping for him. Weeping for this man who’d been left
alone in the dark for longer than I wanted to admit. He needed me, needed
this, almost as much as I did. “But you won’t be alone anymore, Jax. I won’t
let you.”
“The darkness in my mind…” His throat bobbed as he swallowed. “It’s
not as dark anymore when you’re here. You’re my light.”
“And you’re mine.” I pulled his boxers down to his thighs and released
his throbbing length from their confines, the tip already beaded with pre-cum.
Jax swore, his eyes turning hooded and half-mast, and I groaned with
need, leaning down to run my tongue along the length of his shaft. I wrapped
my hand around the base of his cock and leaned my head down, wrapping my
lips around the tip. I worked my way down his hard dick, taking every inch of
him I was capable of, while my hand fisted around the part I couldn’t quite
reach. I loved the way he tasted in my mouth, the saltiness of his pre-cum, as
I worked him over with my tongue and teeth.
“Fuck,” he hissed, his fingers tangling in my hair and guiding my
movements.
I moaned my own desire over his length before popping him out of my
mouth, my saliva dripping down my chin. Totally not sexy, but he still stared
at me as if I were a goddess.
I moved my mouth down his length to reach his balls, sucking first one
and then the other in my mouth before moving back to his throbbing member.
But before I could bring him to ruin, before I could destroy him the way I
so desperately wanted to, he gripped my arms and pulled me to my feet, his
lips colliding with my own. I knew he could taste himself on my lips, but that
thought only spurred me on and I kissed him hungrily.
I moved away from him, only for a second, to pull my shirt over my head,
and that was quickly followed by my bra. He didn’t give me a chance to take
my pants off before his mouth fell on my nipple, and he bit down in a way
that sent sparks of heat straight to my core.
He sucked and teased my breasts while I worked on unbuttoning his shirt,
“Z…” he murmured as he shakily moved his hands to my jeans and
yanked them down, my panties following soon after. I stepped out of the
material as he continued to lick and tease my breasts, his teeth grazing my
sensitive nipple as his rough hand rolled the other one. “Everything is so, so
clear,” he whispered huskily.
“What’s clear?” I gasped out, but instead of answering, he growled and
yanked my hips, pulling me onto his lap. I could feel the heat of his cock
between my legs, my wetness drenching his shaft, and I moaned low in my
throat as he began to rub his length against me, not quite entering my channel
yet. “Jax, dammit.”
His eyes flickered from my face to my neck, where my vein pulsed in
tandem with my racing heart.
“I love you more than fucking words, Z,” he said, slamming me down
onto his cock. I wound my fingers into his hair as I began to ride him, using
the rock beneath my feet to propel myself up. His hips thrust to match my
movements, his eyes never leaving my own. I closed my eyes and focused on
his touch, the way he filled me so completely, and a growl of warning left his
throat. “Eyes on me, little mate.”
“Show me you’re mine, Jax. Show me you own me and love me,” I
begged, and a devilish light entered his eyes as he began to pound into me
harder and harder.
He gripped my ass and bounced me on his cock, breaking eye contact
only once to capture one of my breasts in his mouth.
Words escaped me as I gave up any semblance of control I thought I’d
had and surrendered myself to my mate. I knew that if I were to fall, he
would be on the other end, waiting to catch me. He would always catch me.
He slammed into me again and again as I brought one hand to my breast,
kneading it, and the other to my clit. He moved his hand to my hair, gripping
to the point of pain, as his eyes lowered once more to my neck.
“Bite me, Jax,” I whispered. I was offering him more than just my love. I
was offering him my trust as well. Before Aaliyah, he hadn’t fed in years,
afraid that he would do to an innocent human what he did to his childhood
friend. But I knew my mate and I trusted him implicitly. He would never hurt
me, he would never hurt anyone.
Indecision flared to life in his eyes—his want for me battling his own
inner demons.
I tilted my head to the side in clear offering, baring my neck, and with a
hiss that was all vampire, he lunged and bit down on my neck.
The pleasure was immediate and consuming, and I gasped out loud. There
was pain at first, as his fangs pierced my skin, but then that pain transformed
into something beautiful and new. Something I’d ever experienced before.
It was like I could sense Jax’s essence inside of me, could feel his
emotions intertwining wi
th my own. For a brief, brief second, I could sense
the love he felt for me and the hope that I would be able to dispel his madness
once and for all.
But then I was lost to the sensation of his cock rutting inside of me and
his lips on my neck drinking deeply. Euphoria was the only word I could
think to use. It was almost as if his venom shot pleasure straight to my core,
casting my vision in a bright, all-consuming light.
I came so hard that my breath caught in my lungs and I momentarily
forgot how to breathe. My pussy muscles clamped down on his cock,
squeezing him, and he came with a growl of his own, pulsing inside of me.
I sagged forward and rested my forehead against his sweaty shoulder. At
some point, he’d stopped biting me, though I could still feel blood running
down my naked body.
“Fuck, I love you so much, Z.” He gently grabbed my chin until I was
forced to stare into his eyes. My blood coated his chin and lips, dripping
down the column of his throat, and my pulse hammered at the enticing sight.
“You keep the shadows away.”
“I love you too, Jax.” I placed a single kiss to his lips, tasting my blood,
before moving back and staring intently into his eyes. “Even with all of your
shadows.”
“Guys! You need to come…and holy crap. Those are some nice titties,”
Killian stuttered as he appeared on the pathway, his eyes dropping to my
breasts. I laughed lightly, not bothering to cover myself up, before reluctantly
moving off of Jax’s lap. He released a sound of dismay as his cock slid out of
me, and I glanced at the cum dripping down my thighs. Fuck, I needed to find
something to clean this off before I got back into my clothes.
“What’s up, Kill?” I questioned, though he seemed to be tit-notized—
hypnotized by tits, if you were wondering.
“Err…” He absently rubbed himself through his pants, still not pulling his
attention away from my breasts.
“I think we broke him,” Jax mused with a wink in my direction, and that
finally seemed to shake Killian out of whatever stupor he’d found himself in.
He blinked rapidly, turning towards Jax with shock splayed across his face.
“You’re… You…you fed!” he managed to say, disbelief evident in his
tone.
“And you came running over here because…?” I pressed when it became
apparent he’d lost his train of thought. At my words, his face drained of all
color and he hurried towards me, removing his own shirt to help me clean the
cum off my legs. Unfortunately, he wore a white tank top beneath it, so I
wasn’t able to see his impressive collection of tattoos. Though maybe I could
convince him to—
“There’s an army at Paco’s house,” Killian blurted out.
“What?” I stilled, only my eyes lifting to meet his gaze. Fuck. Fuck.
Fuck! We still had time before I was required back at the capital. Why did
they come? What did they want? Or was it Aaliyah planning another attack?
I searched the ground for my dagger, finding it beside my discarded
pants, and I picked it up and began to march back towards the shed.
“Aren’t you going to get dressed?” Killian called in alarm.
I spun to face him. “Dair, Bash, and Ryland are over there. They need my
help.”
Before I’d even finished speaking, Killian began to shake his head
slowly. “The army won’t hurt them.”
“They won’t…?” I trailed off, accepting the clothes Jax handed me. I got
dressed as quickly as I could before facing Killian once more. “How do you
know that?”
“Because it’s not just any army, Z.” Killian scrubbed absently at his
cheek. “It’s your army.”
FOURTEEN
DAIR
I f the kings didn’t want the humans to rebel, they should never have
given them a savior to rally behind. Of course, I doubted the kings
realized that they’d created a living martyr out of Z, but the sentiment
was the same.
She’d answered their unspoken plea to become the leader for the human
race.
I stood shoulder to shoulder with Ryland, staring out into the sea of
unfamiliar faces. All of them human. All of them whispering amongst
themselves as they waited for Z to return. I heard whispers of the Liberator
rippling throughout the crowd, though whenever I got near, they immediately
shut down.
“I don’t like this.” Bash materialized on the other side of me, his eyes
shrewd as he surveyed the assembled mass. I counted at least one hundred, if
not more, humans. Tents had been erected around the perimeter of the
property, almost as if they couldn’t bear being separated from Z. The way
they spoke of her…
It was almost reverent. Worshipful. They seemed to have placed her on a
goddess level pedestal in their minds, and I was afraid of what that pressure
would do to her.
To be quite frank, I was terrified in general.
Who assembled here today was a threat? Would word of this uprising
reach the capital and the kings? What would we even fucking do with all of
these men and women who’d left their homes to follow Z?
“None of us do,” Ryland murmured from beside me. He’d left us when
they first arrived to walk amongst their ranks, completely hidden by the
shadows. He’d listened to their whispers, gauged their intentions, before
declaring to us that they were relatively harmless.
‘Relatively’ being the important word.
Because like all fanatics, they could be swayed. And that was what they
were—fanatics. I had no doubt they would sacrifice Z and all of us on stone
altars if they believed it would help their cause.
“They’re afraid of us,” I whispered. As if agreeing with my words, a
group of women turned in our direction, blanched, and then immediately
whipped their heads away, shaking in fear. I was so used to women—and
even some men—eyeing us with appreciative stares and hungry, wistful leers
that this was unnerving, to say the least. I’d never had people fear me before,
but all of these humans stared at us as if we planned to devour them whole.
“Can you blame them?” Ryland retorted bitterly. His shadows cinched
tighter around him as he moved to perch on a tree branch. “We represent
everything they fear and hate.”
“Power. Royalty. Nightmares,” Bash ticked off in a deadpan voice.
“Precisely. And what does our little mate represent?”
“Freedom. Humans. A return of power,” I responded softly. “Hope.”
And hope could be a very dangerous thing. It built people up, constructed
armies out of men and women who didn’t know how to shoot a gun, but
when it faded, it made people bitter and jaded. They wouldn’t hesitate to turn
their rage on the person who obliterated their hope.
In this case, that person would be Z.
“Do you think Paco will—”
“Paco won’t do shit,” Bash said, interrupting Ryland. “He’s never aligned
himself with the new kings, but he’s also never been an advocate for the
humans. He’ll watch and see how this all plays us. Besides, he’s too fucking
crazy to give a shit anyway.”
Fuck my life. This day had been absolute shit. First, there was the
knowledge that we had to kill our mate in order to save her life. Then there
was the potion that had given me back my legs…but with the caveat that it
would only last for a few hours at a time.
And of course, my insecurities couldn’t help but rear their ugly heads,
believing I was only good for Z when I was whole and on two feet. What use
did she have for me in my wheelchair? The second I ran out of the slimy
green potion Paco had given to me, I would be useless to her once more.
I shoved those ugly thoughts into the ground, stomped on them with my
shoe, and then spat on their grave.
“Oh my god.” Z’s voice was a breathy exhale, and I spun around just as
she exited the forest, Jax’s hand clasped in hers and Killian’s palm on the
small of her back. I noticed with some amusement that her hair was
disheveled and her lips swollen. Good for them. I knew Jax needed her light
to battle the monsters in his head, and if their coupling achieved that, then I
was immensely grateful.
Though I couldn’t ignore the sliver of jealousy embedding itself in my
heart that I hadn’t been able to participate.
“This can’t be for me.” Z began to shake her head adamantly, refusing to
move a single step forward, despite Killian’s urging.
“Is that my little sister I hear?” a booming voice inquired, garnering the
attention of the entire crowd. The people parted as a familiar, dark-haired
man stepped through, grinning cheekily and clutching the hand of a small
girl.
“Axel?” Z’s eyes widened in surprise as she stared at the former assassin.
“The one and only.” Axel released the girl’s hand to give an elaborate
spin, shaking his ass for good measure and causing a growl to rip from
Killian’s throat before turning to face us once more. Everyone was fucking
facing us—all eyes were trained firmly on Z, as if no one else mattered but
her. It made me insanely protective, and I wanted nothing more than to step
in front of her and shield her from their penetrating stares.
But I couldn’t. She didn’t need me to be her hero, not when she was
perfectly capable of saving herself.
“How…?” Her gaze flickered to the little girl still standing beside Axel.
Z’s face morphed immediately, sadness blanketing her features, but before I