The Rýkr Duet

by M. E. Clayton

  While my father had been an asshole of the biggest order, those inappropriate orgies he had subjected me and Griffin to had come in handy this morning. While I’ve done a lot of shit I now regret, this was the first time I’ve ever gone down on a girl, and the experience had been so incredible that I wondered how I was going to get through the day without doing it again.

  I also knew the experience had been mind-blowing because I’d done it with Neve. Our bond was not broken, and I imagined tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes when we finally consummated that bond.

  Because that’s exactly what we were going to do tonight.

  “Are you okay?”

  Her blue eyes slid my way. “My arm doesn’t hurt anymore.”

  I let out humorless laugh.

  What did I expect?

  She wasn’t Avalon, all accepting of what we were and what all this meant.

  “Your arm doesn’t hurt anymore,” I murmured. I gave her a terse nod. “Well, then I guess my work here is done.”

  Neve didn’t comment right away, but when she finally did, she asked, “We’re the proof your father wanted, aren’t we?”

  Unfortunately, we were. Our bonds were unbreakable, no matter how you looked at it. Griffin had saved himself completely for when the time would come, and I hadn’t. Still, it appeared as if my bond with Neve was just as strong as Griffin’s bond with Avalon was. Astra had been able to refortify the foundation upon which our people and town were built upon with this little experiment.

  He’d been right about it all and it fucking sucked.

  “We are,” I agreed, breaking the news to her.

  “Why do you think it hurt so much?” she asked.

  I shrugged a shoulder. “We’ve been trying to break the bond for so long, our bodies might have just been confused about what was going on,” I answered. “Once we…connected, maybe it couldn’t anymore.” She looked thoughtful. “I really don’t know, Neve. Though I know a lot more than you do about how we’re made and what we’re about, I’m still not sure how this is supposed to work between us.”

  Her eyes flashed. “What if I don’t want it to work between us?” she asked, and icy resentment slid down the back of my spine. “Sexual chemistry is not love, Easton.” She let out a deep sigh. “And I want to love the person who I’m going to spend the rest of my life with.”

  My eyes narrowed. “And when that person who you love so much wants to touch you? Kiss you? Fuck you? Then what?” I asked with a little bite to my voice. “If you can’t endure that asshole holding your hand, how are you going to be able to endure the rest of it?”

  Then she hit me with some real bullshit that sounded too plausible for my liking. “Maybe it’s because we’re close to one another,” she suggested. “Maybe if you go back to Rýkr, the distance will diminish the pain to some minor discomfort like before.”

  I was across the seat with my fingers squeezing the fuck out of her jaw before she knew what hit her. I could feel the winds begin to howl again and my eyes flare with that icy hue. “Listen, and listen well, Neve,” I growled. “If you think I’m going to give up what it feels like to have you in my arms, you’re out of your fucking mind.” She whimpered when I squeezed her jaw harder. “You’re mine, Neve. Whether you like it or not, whether I like it or not, you’re mine, and I’m not going back to Rýkr. At least, not without you.”

  Neve jerked her head from my hold. “You seriously think I want to meet your father after what he’s done to us?”

  I leaned back. “Trust me, no one is madder at that man than I am over what he’s done, but since neither of us can go back and change the past, it is what it is.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “I’m trying to be a gentleman, but if I need to fuck you and make you bleed all over the backseat of your car to prove that you belong to me, I will,” I threatened. “Don’t test me, Neve. You have one power that can’t compare to the three I have.”

  She lifted a cool brow. “According to everything we’ve learned from Griffin, those three powers you have don’t work on me.”

  “That’s true,” I agreed. “But they work on your parents.”

  Christ, hate never looked so beautiful.

  “I don’t need a superpower to kill you,” she shot back. “And that’s exactly what I’ll do if you dare hurt my parents.”

  Yeah, no way was I ever going to let this girl go.

  “Then don’t make me have to,” I fired back. “Accept this shitshow for what it is and give in gracefully.”

  “Like you are?” she sneered.

  “I’ll be the first to admit that I wanted nothing to do with you and what my father had done,” I told her. “I was all for holding out and fucking up everything he had set out to do. However, that all changed the second the flavor of your pussy hit my tongue, baby.” I practically hissed that statement, and the girl did not appreciate it.

  “So, sex is the answer?” she scoffed. “Liking each other isn’t necessary?”

  My back straightened. “You just came all over my face and fingers, Neve,” I reminded her tauntingly. “I’d say you like me well enough.”

  Then she hit me where it hurt, even if she didn’t realize it. “I’m sure I’m not the first girl to cum on your face or fingers.”

  “Am I the first guy whose fingers and face you’ve cum on?” I snarled, jealousy doing its best to create another storm all around us.

  Her eyes quickly shot downward before meeting my gaze again. “Does it matter?”

  My hand was around her neck, my fingers digging painfully into her soft skin. “I might not have been the first, but I’m going to be the last, Neve,” I vowed. “No one else will ever touch you again.”

  “You don’t deserve my virginity,” she hissed between her teeth, and those five little words did wonders for that green-eyed monster that was threatening to choke me.

  “Deserving or not, it still belongs to me,” I replied mercilessly. “And I am going to take it, Neve.”

  “Of course, you are,” she sneered. “You probably collect virginities like baseball cards.”

  I let go of her neck and leaned back to give her some space. “What are you talking about?”

  “I said that you probably don’t care how many virginities you’ve taken,” she repeated, and that’s when it hit me. When I said I wasn’t going to take her virginity in the back of her car, she had assumed I’d only been talking about her virginity. That’s when her demeanor had changed, and she had turned frosty on me, even after an epic orgasm.

  “You sound jealous, baby,” I mocked.

  Her chin went up. “Hardly.”

  Knowing that nothing good would come out of antagonizing this little spitfire, I stuck my face in her neck and licked her like she was my favorite treat. When I felt the tension leave her shoulders, I said, “My dick has never slid inside a pussy before, Neve.” I wrapped my arm around her waist and positioned us back to how we’d been when she came for me. “While I’ve done a lot of things I regret now, I saved my dick for you, baby.”

  Neve moaned underneath me. “I still hate you.”

  I pushed up against her, my hard dick rubbing up against her sensitive clit. “I hope you do,” I chuckled darkly. “Your hate for me is going to make it so much sweeter when I finally do make you bleed all over me.”

  She pushed at my chest and I let her. “You’re an asshole, Easton.”

  I smirked and sat up. “Get used to it,” I fired back. “I’m not changing for anyone. Even you.”

  The bell rang, signaling that first period was over, and that was her freedom pass. “We need to get to class,” she said, righting her clothes and not looking at me. “I’ve missed enough school because you of you and your fucked-up family.”

  “Fine,” I conceded. “But this isn’t over, Neve.”

  The look she shot me would have leveled a lesser man, but I just blew her a kiss.

  She flipped me off.

  Chapter 10

 
; Neve~

  To second period, to the moon, to Mars, or to goddamn Hell, I didn’t care where Easton had made off to. I was still an emotional and physical mess and there was only one person on the planet who could understand how messed up I was over this.

  I raced into Avalon’s Biology class, and as soon as I spotted her, I lied to the teacher. “Family emergency!” I cried out as I grabbed Avalon from her desk and hauled her out of class before the teacher could even comment.

  Avalon didn’t say a word as I dragged her down the hallway until we came upon the first girls’ restroom I saw. Once we were inside, I kicked open every stall to make sure we were alone. I supposed the polite thing would have been to just look underneath the stall door, but I was still a frantic mess over what had happened in the car.

  When I was done making sure we were completely alone, I turned to face my sister, and she was standing next to the sink counter, and she looked stunned.

  I let out a frustrating sigh. “My bond with Easton isn’t broken,” I blurted out.

  Avalon’s eyes widened. “How do you know?”

  “Because I almost had sex with him in the backseat of my car just now,” I confessed.

  Her entire body collapsed against the counter, her eyes wide, her mouth a perfect surprised ‘o’. After a few seconds, she was a stuttering mess. “You…you…and Easton…just now?”

  I nodded, then went on to tell her everything. Well, everything minus the intimate details. Now that she was no longer a virgin, I was pretty sure she’d get the picture without me having to spell out everything little thing. Griffin never left her side, and so I knew they were getting it on whenever they could. After all, they had eighteen years to make up for.

  If you thought about it, so did I.

  When I was finished, she still looked shocked. “The thunderstorm was you guys?”

  I winced. “Technically, it was Easton, but, yeah, that was us.”

  “Holy crap,” she whispered. “It’s going to be like…the end of the world once you guys sleep together if that storm is any indication,” she predicted.

  I just stared at my sister. “Can you focus, please?”

  Her pretty face took on a look of confusion. “So…this is a bad thing?”

  “C’mon, Avalon,” I practically whined. “I’ve made it clear how I feel about not having a choice with my future. Not to mention, I can’t even stand the arrogant prick.”

  Avalon winced. “Neve, I don’t think you’re going to have a choice in the matter,” she replied. “You’ve already felt how powerful the pull is. Do you really think you can just walk away from that?”

  “He’s a dick,” I repeated. “Even if we’re bonded by some stupid…stupid…whatever this is, how am I expected to live with an egotistical jackass for the rest of my life?”

  My sister grinned. “Oh, c’mon, Neve,” she drawled out. “He can’t be that bad if you were ready to lose your virginity to him in the backseat of your car just now.”

  I narrowed my eyes at her. “Did you forget the part where he manipulated my ignorance on the matter and offered to make all that pain go away?”

  “Okay, that’s valid,” she mumbled. “But it’s not like you’ve been super sweet and welcoming to him, either.” I cocked my head at her. “What? It’s true.”

  “Be that as it may, I’m still not the one who went crashing into his life, upending it without any regard to how it would fuck him all up,” I pointed out. “If I was being rude, it’s because I have a right to be, Avalon. Easton and Griffin came here with the advantage of knowledge what all could possibly happen, and that was a pretty shitty thing to do.”

  “Neve-”

  “They wait until we’re a heartbeat away from turning eighteen to spring this shit on us,” I continued. “They knew we were going to be our most vulnerable on our birthday, but instead of making an appearance six, four, or even two months ago and easing us into all this slowly, they came blowing into town like two magical tornadoes, destroying everything we ever thought we knew.”

  Her face softened, and I knew it was because she didn’t see things my way. She was lucky enough to like Griffin on top of being bonded with him, so she wasn’t in the same boat as I was. There was no fight between her and Griffin. At least, not the way Easton and I had been fighting against the loss of our free will.

  “There’s only one person to blame for all this mess, Neve,” she said. “You resisting Easton isn’t going to help anyone.”

  “That’s another thing,” I kept on. “Do you honestly think I’ll be able to ever meet their father and not want to kill him?” While I still wanted answers, I found myself getting angrier and angrier.

  Avalon chuckled. “Probably not, but I just don’t think it’s fair to make Easton pay for something he didn’t do, Neve. We’re all victims here, even if me and Griffin are taking it a little better in stride.”

  I let out a deep breath, suddenly feeling exhausted as shit. “What are we going to do?”

  Avalon let out an identical deep breath. “We have until the end of the school year before having to decide anything concrete,” she reminded me. “Griffin has already agreed to stay for the duration. I’m sure Easton will, too.” She shrugged. “That gives us a while to learn more about all this.”

  “I just can’t imagine…” I shook my head. “I just can’t see myself playing nice with their family.”

  “Well, they’re not going to kill us, right?” she said, surprising the hell out of me. “We could always go to Rýkr, demand answers, then leave if we don’t get the answers we want.”

  “Easton’s the firstborn,” I pointed out. “He has obligations that Griffin doesn’t.”

  Avalon didn’t say anything for a while. I knew that logical brain of hers was working overtime, but there was still so much we didn’t’ know about all this that there was no way we were going to find the answers during second period in the girls’ restroom at school.

  Finally, Avalon said, “I can’t tell you what to do, Neve. All I know is that if you don’t plan on making this thing with Easton work, then do not sleep with him.” She stressed that last sentence. “Once you do that, you’ll find it impossible to step back from him again, and that can only lead to misery. Sex will only multiply that pull by a million and then you’ll really be screwed.”

  “Are you forgetting he threatened our parents?” I asked haughtily.

  She cocked her head. “You and I both know that was just Easton grasping at straws, Neve. No way would he do that and alienate us both. Never mind that you’re his future, but Griffin is programmed to choose me now. Easton is not going to chance losing his brother by doing something he can’t come back from and messing with our parents would qualify.”

  I couldn’t disagree. When it came down to it, I was certain Griffin could and would talk his brother out of doing something too stupid to recover from. “I hate this.”

  “I know,” she quickly replied. “I do.” Avalon sighed again. “Look, we’re not going to be able to figure it out right now, but if you are serious about not wanting to be with Easton and Rýkr, then stay away from him, Neve. Trust me when I tell you that sleeping with him will only make things worse.”

  “Total honestly?” She nodded. “I’m not sure if I can do that,” I admitted. “If he touches me again, I’ll probably drop down to my knees willingly.”

  Avalon laughed. “Then definitely don’t sleep with him if you’re still in doubt. Free will aside, the connection is more powerful than you can imagine, Neve.”

  “I’m just so confused.”

  “So, am I,” she confessed. “But I’m not confused about Griffin, if that makes any sense.” She waved her arm all around her. “I’m confused about what all this is going to mean for me, but I’m not confused about him. He’s the only thing that makes sense to me right now.”

  “And that doesn’t scare you?” The idea of being so dependent on another person was frightening to think about. “I mean, what if something happ
ens to him? How does that work?”

  “I don’t know,” she replied. “But there’s only one place we can get the answers to those questions, Neve. You know it and I know it.”

  “And if their asshole father refuses to answer those questions?”

  “Then his sons will be faced with a life-changing decision,” she replied smoothly. “He either answers our questions to our satisfaction, or he loses his sons.”

  “You can’t guarantee that Griffin and Easton will choose us, though.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong,” she disagreed. “Easton might not choose you because you’re still resisting what you are to him, but I know for a fact Griffin will choose me. He’ll have no choice. He can live without his parents. He can’t live without me. Not any longer. No more than I can live without him.”

  The bell rang for first break and I knew the restrooms were going to be flooded soon. This conversation was going to have to wait or be taken elsewhere. However, I knew it was going to have to wait since Griffin would be looking for Avalon.

  “We’ll talk more tonight, okay?”

  Avalon nodded. “Of course.”

  Chapter 11

  Easton~

  I knew the deal. I knew we weren’t supposed to use our powers while we were here, but it couldn’t be helped. I had to talk with Griffin, and it couldn’t wait.

  We had second period together and when he was close enough to sit down in the desk next to me, I said, “Block me.”

  He asked no questions, and while he was blocking me from the view of the class, I concentrated on Mr. Alverez and had him facing the classroom, saying, “We’re going to have fun today, students. Instead of another boring computer class assignment, I’m going to let you guys have a free period where you come up with interesting, original social media ideas. You can even pair up if you’d like.”

  The class erupted in cheers and Griffin didn’t take a seat until I looked up at him and showed him my blue gaze versus the icy shade that they’d been for those few seconds.