Broken Fae

by Caroline Peckham

  I took enough to satisfy the gnawing beast which lived within me and pulled my fangs free of his flesh before healing the bite for him.

  “Thank you,” I said, offering him a grin as I felt my magic coming alive within me again and used it to heal the wounds which had my body aching.

  “The bath’s ready!” Safira called from somewhere outside the room.

  “That sounds like heaven,” I admitted with a groan. My skin was coated in too many unthinkable and questionable substances and the idea of washing them from my flesh almost had me purring along with the Lions.

  Marie darted into the room a moment later, her golden eyes fixing on me as she prowled closer. “Come on,” she urged, holding a hand out to me expectantly.

  Leon was grinning as I cast him a look and he nodded in encouragement for me to follow his mom from the room. Marie led me down long tiled corridors past so many doors that I had to wonder what the hell they even used all of this space for. Were there countless stolen treasures hidden behind each door? Each of them worth a small fortune and being desperately hunted by the FIB?

  The sound of running water reached me a moment before I was guided inside an enormous room which was filled with clouds of steam.

  In the centre of the room stood a huge, wooden bathtub which Safira was in the process of filling with her water magic as Latisha added salts, oils and potions which smelled sweet and citrusy at once.

  “This looks amazing,” I admitted gratefully as Safira and Latisha finished their job of preparing the water and stood to approach me.

  “Such a pretty girl,” Latisha purred, reaching out and pulling my ruined shirt over my head.

  “Oh, erm, I can probably undress mysel-”

  “Such beautiful eyes,” Marie cooed, bending down and pulling my filthy socks off of my feet.

  “Seriously, I can manage-”

  “Our little Leonidas has done so well,” Safira added proudly as she yanked my pants down.

  My half protests went ignored and within moments, the three of them had stripped me of all my clothes.

  “This is getting weird,” I said as I folded my arms over my bare chest and frowned at them.

  “It’s just tradition, sweety,” Marie said, her eyes shining with warmth. “It’s how Lionesses welcome a new addition to the pride. We help to groom you before the official claiming.”

  “What’s a claiming?” I asked and the three of them laughed, exchanging looks.

  “It’s just what we call it when a Lion and Lioness are together for the first time after choosing to be mated,” Latisha explained kindly.

  “Oh. That’s a super weird thing for you to be encouraging me to do with your son.”

  They all laughed again, clearly not feeling the least bit embarrassed.

  “Won’t you let us welcome you into the family with our traditions?” Safira implored and I found myself caving at the eager looks in their eyes.

  “Okay then,” I agreed. “But I don’t know what I’m doing.”

  “No worries, sweety. You just hop into the bath and we’ll have you looking fit for the king of beasts in no time,” Marie said kindly.

  “I can manage that,” I agreed.

  The tub was so big that there was a set of four steps to climb up into it and it was kinda hard to forget that there were three Lionesses watching my naked ass as I clambered in. But as the hot water lapped around my skin and the potions mixed into it soothed away every ache in my body, I quickly forgot my concerns.

  Safira set to work washing my hair with the aid of her water magic and some seriously expensive looking bottles of shampoo and conditioner. Then Marie and Latisha took a hand each and started scrubbing away the dirt and blood beneath my nails.

  I spent over an hour with the three of them scrubbing, moisturising, painting and primping every inch of my body and by the time they were done, I had skin as soft as butter, perfectly manicured hands and pedicured feet and hair so silky that it could have rivalled Leon’s. They’d given me a white silk robe to wear and soft slippers for my feet and I felt like I’d been reborn in that warm water.

  The three of them cooed over everything from the combination of aqua and silver in my eyes to my freshly cut and dyed lilac hair (I’d questioned them on where they’d gotten that dye and they’d been very evasive about just how long they’d had it ready for this day).

  Leon’s moms led me back out of the bathroom and down the hall again until we reached a room at the far end of the house on the second floor. It was huge, the bed in the centre of the space big enough to hold eight people and the mixture of white and golden decoration screamed of money.

  They ushered me into the middle of the room, giggling and purring as they fixed stray strands of my hair and fussed over me more than I’d ever been fussed over in my entire life.

  I smiled indulgently, not really used to getting so much attention while not entirely hating it either.

  A knock came at the door while they were fussing and the three of them suddenly leapt away from me as Leon, Reginald and Roary filed into the room.

  Leon offered me a smirk as the three of them lined up before me and I hesitated as they all seemed to be waiting for me to do something. Leon had had a shower and changed too, his golden hair shone like sunlight and his grey pants and white dress shirt combo looked spotless.

  “I’m gonna need some help here,” I admitted as they all continued to look at me expectantly and Latisha hurried to explain what was going on.

  “The Lions will exert their Charisma and it’s up to you to pick your mate,” she breathed in my ear.

  “Pick?” I asked in confusion. That was a weird ass thing to ask me to do.

  “If your Lion is your true mate then your head will never be turned by the sway of another. Think of it as a test to prove your compatibility with your Lion and to cement your place in the pride.”

  “Okay, super weird to ask me to pick between Leon, his brother and his dad, but I guess I can manage that.”

  The Lions all laughed and I folded my arms as I waited for them to hit me with their gifts.

  Roary’s lips twitched with amusement a moment before he unleashed the full power of his Charisma on me. I could feel it washing up against my skin like the lapping of a tide. My gaze trailed over him and I noticed things I hadn’t before, like the way his broad shoulders filled out his shirt and how his golden eyes burned with a dark intensity full of untold promises.

  Reginald’s Charisma was even more potent as it struck me, urging me to take note of his powerful stance and the way his golden hair shone with countless highlights.

  My lips twitched with amusement as their gifts crashed against my will like waves trying to beat down a cliff made of pure iron. Because there wasn’t a thing about either of them that could sway me from my Lion.

  My gaze fixed on Leon and roamed over him hungrily. I was pretty sure he wasn’t even using his Charisma, his faith in our bond allowing a smug grin to hook up the corners of his mouth.

  I shot towards him suddenly, wrapping my arms around his neck and pushing my fingers into his beautiful mane of golden hair.

  “My Lion,” I growled possessively, looking into his silver rimmed eyes with the most profound sense of certainty washing through me.

  Whatever other doubts I may have had about what had happened with this bond, I knew for certain that the stars had been right about one thing: he was meant for me and I was meant for him. I could feel it in the tightness of his arms around me and the heat of his flesh on my skin. And I could feel it in the way my heart was pounding and the way my soul scratched at the surface of my flesh like it wanted to be joined with his.

  Leon purred as he leaned down to claim a kiss from my lips and the Lionesses all started clapping enthusiastically.

  I laughed as I broke our kiss, glancing around at Leon’s family as they looked at us expectantly. For a moment I was afraid that they weren’t actually going to leave and that this claiming thing was something they wante
d to witness. But before I could ask that awkward as fuck question and voice my absolute refusal to engage in that, they all made a move to leave.

  Each of them paused to nuzzle against us as they went and I couldn’t help but smirk at the look of utter joy on Leon’s face.

  The door clicked shut behind them and I looked up at Leon as we were finally left alone for the first time since we’d left the clearing in The Iron Wood.

  “Are you alright?” Leon asked me in a low voice, trailing his fingers down the side of my face.

  I opened my mouth to say yes, offer him the simplest answer, the easiest one that would allow me to fall into his arms and bury my pain beneath his light, but that wasn’t fair. I owed him more than that. He deserved to have every piece of me now, not just the filtered parts.

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “It’s…a lot. And the way the other kings reacted to us being bonded…” Tears swam in my eyes for a moment and Leon frowned.

  “I’m sorry,” he breathed, reaching out to brush a tear from my cheek as it fell. “I didn’t mean to trap you or chain you like this. I know that you wouldn’t have made this choice if the stars hadn’t forced you into it and-”

  I pushed up onto my tiptoes and kissed him to silence that train of thought. “Don’t ever think you aren’t enough for me, Leo,” I growled. “And don’t for one second think I only chose you because the stars forced me to. I chose you way before that. You’ve been mine for a long time. And I’m sorry if I didn’t make that clearer to you. I’m sorry I made you feel like I was only using you for the joy your company brought me. I want you to know all of me. Have all of me. Anything and everything you want to know is yours. And I’m yours. Whether the stars had chosen it or not.”

  Leon groaned as he kissed me again, his mouth hot and needy against mine as he gripped my face between his hands and I melted into him with my heart pounding.

  “I’m sorry I was so stubborn,” he said as he broke away from me. “That I didn’t want to hear your reasons for hiding things from me. I guess I’ve just always felt like the least important person in my family and I suddenly felt like I’d been losing in a competition for you too. Like everything you’d shared with Ryder and Gabriel and kept from me meant you didn’t feel as strongly for me. But I was an idiot.”

  “You were,” I agreed with a smile. “And so was I for not trusting you sooner.”

  He kissed me again and a lightness swept through my soul at just how right it felt to be in his arms. He was the sun and I was the moon, but instead of circling each other we’d finally found a way to come together and now that we had, we’d never be torn apart again.

  “Are you going to tell me what this claiming thing is about?” I asked as Leon’s mouth moved to my neck.

  “It’s a Lion tradition,” he explained. “But you’re not a Lioness, so you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. We don’t need to mate the Lion way, we’ve already done it our way.”

  “Maybe I want to make you mine in every way,” I teased.

  A purr rumbled through Leon’s chest at that admission. “Are you sure?”

  “Tell me what you do.”

  He twitched a smile. “We wrestle.”

  “Wrestle?” I asked with a laugh.

  “Yeah. And then once I’ve got you pinned down, you submit to me, body and soul.”

  “I didn’t peg you for a dominant, Leo,” I teased, toying with the buttons on his shirt.

  “All Lions are dominant,” he replied with a growl in his voice that made a shiver run down my spine.

  “Is that so?” I asked, with a challenge in my tone.

  “Yeah. But for a Lion and Lioness to mate, she has to accept him as her king, let him prove that he can overpower her and then offer herself up as a prize for his success.”

  “Sounds kinky.”

  “I don’t need to dominate you to know you’re my mate,” Leon said, but the look in his eyes said he wanted to do it all the same.

  “Seems like a shame to go against tradition though…”

  A low growl sounded from Leon as he looked down at me. “Are you sure you want to?”

  “You have to overpower me, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And what if I’m the one who overpowers you?” I raised my eyebrows challengingly as I backed away and Leon stalked closer.

  “You might be strong, little monster, but you’re no Lion.”

  “Is that so?” My fangs snapped out and I bared my teeth at him in a challenge.

  Leon’s gaze fixed on me and he slowly unhooked the buttons of his shirt. I backed up as I watched him push it off of his shoulders and let it fall to the floor, revealing the curve of his muscles which flexed beneath his perfectly bronzed skin.

  “Are you going to try and run?” he asked.

  “No,” I replied, rolling my shoulders back as I waited for him to pounce.

  “Some Lionesses submit without wrestling,” he said. “You can just drop that robe and lay down on the bed if you want to?”

  I laughed because we both knew that wasn’t happening.

  Leon snarled as he lowered into a fighting pose.

  “I think I like this side of you, Leo.”

  “We’ve got a whole summer together to find out about every single side of each other, little monster. I’m sure there’s a few of yours I’d like to discover too.”

  I opened my mouth to reply but before I could, he leapt at me.

  I gasped in surprise and sprang back, barely escaping him as his fingers brushed against my robe.

  “We’re not playing cat and mouse, Elise,” Leon warned as he came for me again. “This is supposed to be a wrestle, not a chase.”

  I bit my lip at the sound of my name in his mouth and twisted away from him again before shooting around and leaping up onto his back.

  My fangs brushed his neck but he caught my ankle and yanked me off of him, tossing me down onto the enormous bed with an excited growl.

  I bounced in the middle of the springy mattress and Leon pounced on top of me a moment later.

  “Why the hell is this bed so big?” I asked on a laugh as he pinned me beneath him.

  “Because it’s made for a Lion to sleep in with all of his Lionesses,” he replied, knocking my thighs apart with his knee. “But I think I’m good with the one.”

  I laughed again as he reached for the tie holding my robe closed and yanked it undone.

  Cool air kissed my naked flesh as the robe fell open and Leon groaned with longing.

  I waited until he moved his hand to unbutton his pants then caught his biceps in my grip and used my gifted strength to flip him beneath me instead.

  Leon laughed as I pinned him down, the robe I was wearing half slipping off of my shoulders and revealing my naked body to him.

  He ripped his wrists out of my hold and we rolled across the bed again, fighting and scrambling to get the upper hand.

  Every time he managed to flip me beneath him, he released a growl of satisfaction which had my heart pounding in anticipation and I found myself half wanting to give in and let him win. But the predator in me just couldn’t bow to him that easily.

  He threw me down on my back again and the mattress flexed and bounced beneath us as I growled with frustration. He was strong enough to match my gifts and I panted as I fought to gain the upper hand.

  I slammed my palms into his chest, knocking him back before rolling over and crawling away from him.

  Leon snarled, catching my robe and yanking on it as he tried to use it to reel me back in, but I shook my arms free of it before he could. Pushing up onto my hands and knees as I scrambled away.

  Leon growled behind me and I cried out as he pounced again, his weight flattening me onto the bed beneath him as his teeth nipped at the back of my neck playfully.

  “Submit,” he demanded, his hands locking around my wrists as he used his weight to keep me beneath him, the hard ridge of his dick grinding against my ass.

  I was panti
ng with the game and the ache between my thighs demanded more from him. I wriggled fiercely for a moment but he didn’t shift an inch, his weight immobilising me as I lay flat on my stomach beneath him.

  “Submit, little monster,” he snarled in my ear, his stubble grazing the sensitive skin there as he shifted his hips against me with need.

  I growled at him but I couldn’t deny the ache I felt to give in to him, to let him take me, claim me, bind me to him in yet another way.

  The words stuck in my throat and I couldn’t force myself to agree to submitting, but there was one thing which I could say to end this torment which was true enough.

  “You win, Leo,” I panted. “I’m yours. So take me.”

  He growled hungrily, his hand shifting between us as he unbuttoned his fly, knocking my thighs apart as I pushed my ass up against him.

  He kept his weight on me, immobilising me as a deep purr rumbled in my ear and I gasped as he suddenly thrust into me.

  The thick length of him filled me in the most delicious way as he drove himself all the way inside me, hitting me deep and hard and claiming me in a way my body had been begging for. He owned me in that movement, my body taken hostage by him and the fullness of his cock deep within me as my body stretched to accommodate every inch of him and I moaned with pure, wanton need.

  Leon growled as he shifted his hips, his grip moving so that his fingers bit into my ass and his other hand held his weight just enough not to crush me, though not enough to let me up.

  I cried out as he drew back and slammed into me again and again, dominating my body and laying siege to my heart. I raised my ass into the motion, taking everything he was giving me and claiming him right back as he set my heart racing and my flesh trembling.

  He kept going, fucking me harder and harder as my screams were muffled by the mattress beneath me and I could feel the walls of my pussy tightening around him. I could hardly do a thing aside from take every solid inch of him just as hard as he wanted to give it to me and my whole body came alive with the feeling of him possessing my flesh.

  Leon dropped the barriers on his power and suddenly the heat of the sun licked through me as I welcomed the touch of his magic into my body and my own power blended with his.