Broken Fae

by Caroline Peckham

  Before I could ask him what was up, a heavy thumping started up at the door behind him.

  "Leon!" Dante shouted, pounding against the door again and I would have been tempted to believe that he was in the midst of one of their pranks if Leo's face wasn’t written with fury. "Come on, you know it wasn't like that!"

  "I can't look at your face right now, Dante," Leon snarled before throwing a silencing bubble around us so that we couldn't hear anything more from beyond the room.

  "What's wrong?" I asked, shifting onto my knees and reaching for him as the sheets slid from my naked body.

  Leon's gaze fell over my curves and he huffed out a frustrated breath before turning and grabbing one of his sweaters from the closet and then forcing it down over my head.

  "Don't try and tit-notise me right now, Elise, I'm pissed at you too." He folded his arms as he stood over me and I frowned.

  "You mean like hypnotise with-"

  "With your tits, yeah. Not today. How the fuck could you guys do that to me?"

  "You're going to have to enlighten me, Leo," I said with a frown as I tried to figure out what was going on. It was Sunday and I'd slept in after everything with Mariella last night and only returned here a little while ago when Ryder had headed to the gym. I still felt wrecked, especially now that my extra nap had been ruined.

  "I thought that everything between us was clear. I thought that the five of us had the start of a good thing going? I thought you and me understood each other. I didn't expect you to betray me like this."

  "Betray you? What are you talking about, Leo?" I made a move to stand and he snarled at me with such ferocity that I hesitated, feeling the wash of his Charisma pushing at me, willing me to submit, apologise even though I didn’t understand why.

  I fought against his power and shifted closer to him, standing beside the bed as he began to pace, growling beneath his breath. I swear if he'd been in Lion form, his tail would have been swishing back and forth like a pissed off tomcat.

  "Of all the things I thought being mates with you might bring me, I never would have imagined this," he muttered. "My own Lionesses all banding together like a bunch of fucking traitors and sneaking off into the night-"

  "Did the Mindys do something?" I asked, struggling to figure this out.

  "Not the Mindys!" he snarled, whirling on me and moving close enough for our chests to brush as he glared down his nose at me. He really did seem to be hurting, but I couldn't understand what I'd done to even try and fix it.

  But as I looked up at him, my heart twisted at a terrifying thought. The silver rings in his eyes marked him as my one true love. He'd been more than generous and accepting of my feelings for the other kings, but what if that was changing? What if he didn't want it anymore and wanted me to be his alone like the stars had intended?

  "Is this about me and the others?" I breathed fearfully, my heart racing in panic.

  "You know it is," he growled darkly.

  "You're unhappy about me and them?"

  "I'm going out of my fucking mind over it," he agreed. "I can't stop picturing it over and over, but I don't even know if what I'm imagining is accurate or if I'm just torturing myself by thinking about it so much."

  "I thought you liked picturing it?" I asked with a hint of desperation to my tone.

  Leon shook his head angrily. “I don't think I can handle this. I thought I could, but the more I think about it, the more it just cuts me open. I just can't understand why you'd do this to me. Am I not good enough now? Is that what you all decided, to just cut me out?"

  "We'd never cut you out," I gasped, shaking my head in denial as I caught his hand, but he ripped his fingers out of mine with a warning growl.

  "Liar," he snarled. "Did you really think I wouldn't find out? Dante couldn't wait to tell me in the showers. I bet the four of you were laughing about it all night."

  "About...Leon, I'm confused. Are you angry about me having relationships with the others? Because I thought-"

  "What the fuck are you talking about?" he demanded. "I'm upset because you all went on a mission without me!"

  "A...mission?" I frowned. "What-"

  "You, Gabriel, Dante and Ryder all ran off into the night to kill Ryder's arch nemesis and left me behind!"

  My lips popped open and I almost laughed except that I could see how angry he really was about this.

  "It wasn't like that," I murmured softly. "Ryder and Gabriel were going after her and then Gabriel saw a vision which showed that they wouldn't succeed unless Dante was with them and I was with him when they came looking for him and-"

  "And you all skipped off on a mission without me, like it didn't matter at all that one member of the team was missing," he snapped bitterly.

  I opened my mouth to protest further then stopped myself. It might have been a bit of an overreaction, but he was clearly hurting over this.

  "I'm sorry, Leo," I said, catching his hand again. "It all happened in such a rush, but I can see why you feel left out. I promise it won't happen again."

  He gritted his jaw and didn't say anything.

  "Do you want to punish me?" I offered, biting my lip.

  "You don't deserve orgasms," he growled, though his gaze dropped down to my bare legs for a moment like he was at least a little tempted.

  "Okay," I agreed, reaching for the hem of the sweater he'd forced onto me and peeling it off to reveal my body again.

  Leon growled in warning, making the hairs raise along the back of my neck and my nipples harden as he reminded me just how dangerous the king of beasts could be if he wanted to be.

  I reached for his towel and tugged it off of him, licking my lips as his hard cock sprung free of it and dropping to my knees before him.

  Leon cursed me but took a step forward, grasping my chin and angling it up so that I was looking at him.

  "There's no free passes with me, little monster. I'm not just going to forget that I'm angry with you because you suck my cock."

  I opened my mouth to reply but he shifted forward, pressing the head of his dick to my lips in a clear demand and I instantly responded by wrapping them around his thick shaft.

  Leon gripped the back of my head and drove himself into me without waiting for me to do it myself, his cock grazing the back of my throat and making me gasp in surprise.

  He thrust into me again roughly and I bowed to what he needed from me, allowing him to guide my movements with his fingers fisted in my hair as he fucked my mouth hard, glaring down at me the whole time.

  I moaned around his shaft, shifting my tongue over the head of his dick every time he pulled back and taking him deep as he thrust in. I was getting off on the way he was using me, loving the taste of him coming undone for me and my own body began to hum with need as I brought him to ruin.

  With a growl of angry lust, Leon came hard in my mouth and the salty taste of him spilled down my throat as his grip in my hair tightened enough to hurt. And then suddenly he was gone.

  He grunted in frustration, grabbed a pair of sweatpants from the closet, yanked them on and stormed out of the room, leaving me aching for him on my knees.

  The door slammed behind him and I sighed as I sucked on my swollen lips and I pushed myself to my feet.

  Leon was seriously the most easy-going guy I knew, but he also threw a fit like a cat in a bucket of water if something did manage to pierce his happy exterior and cut him where it counted. I was going to have to do better than a make up blowjob if I wanted to win him around but right now, I just needed a shower.

  I shot around the room and grabbed everything I needed before heading off to wake myself up in hot water and figure out how to fix my Lion issue. No doubt he was just as pissed at the other guys as me and I was sure I could get Dante onboard with making it up to him, but I doubted I could get Ryder or Gabriel to even admit they'd done anything wrong, let alone apologise in any way.

  By the time I'd dressed in a pair of ripped jeans and a white shirt with the words Don’t give a
fuck splashed across the front of it, I’d already missed breakfast. I used my air magic to dry my short, lilac hair into loose curls for a change, painted on a pale pink lipstick and then shot down to Devil's Hill to hunt for my Lion. The air was crisp and cold but the sky was clear and on these shorter days that almost always meant Leo would be out here topping up his magic.

  But despite the shining sun, Leon wasn't anywhere to be seen and I got the feeling that was intentional. As I scanned the crowd, I noticed a distinct lack of Mindys too. No doubt he was off being pampered by all of them somewhere while he pouted and I was sure he'd have told them not to breathe a word of his whereabouts either if he didn’t want to be found.

  I huffed out a breath of frustration and Laini's voice made me jump.

  "Aren't you supposed to be perpetually happy?" she teased and I turned to find her tucked beneath the shade of the tree which sat at the top of the hill. “Now that you’ve met your one true love.”

  The book in her lap was so big it was comical and I smirked at the title of it as I dropped down beside her. The art of reading. No doubt that was written by a Sphinx and as much as I loved a good book, I had to wonder how that two ton megalodon could be entirely filled with words dedicated to the art of reading more words. Surely it was a pretty simple equation of sit your ass down, open a book and translate the squiggles in it into words. Not that I’d be having that discussion with her because I was sure if she got onto the subject, I’d never get her off of it again.

  "We are currently in the midst of a fight," I explained, dropping down beside her.

  "What did he do?"

  "It was me, actually," I admitted. "I kinda left him out of something without realising how much it would bother him and now he's pissed at me. I tried apologising but no one can throw a strop like Leon when he wants to."

  "Maybe you can get him a gift to make up for it?" Laini suggested.

  "Yeah, maybe. But he's stupid rich and just steals everything he wants so it’s kinda hard to get him anything he doesn't already have."

  "Maybe you could get his name tattooed on your ass?"

  "Perhaps," I agreed with a laugh. "Or I could go full Lioness for the night and do every little thing for him."

  "Hmm, Lionesses have it weird," Laini admitted. "The weirdest part of all is how they seem to base their own happiness on their king's. I'd much rather gain satisfaction from a leather-bound beast with a thick spine and enough dirty words to get my pages turning."

  "You have strange relationship with books," I teased.

  "About as strange as your relationship with blood," she tossed back.

  "Touché."

  "I guess you haven't seen him then?" I asked hopelessly. Even if Leon had walked right past Laini while she was sat here reading there was a fair chance she wouldn't actually notice him.

  "Unfortunately not," she said, her gaze drifting back to the book with a not so subtle hint that our chat was over.

  I laughed as I got up again, trying to think where else Leon might go and coming up blank.

  I wondered if Dante would have any ideas and decided that it wouldn't be a bad place to start. I said goodbye to Laini and shot down the hill toward the Acrux Courtyard where the Oscuras were all lounging around the picnic benches enjoying the sunshine while the good weather held.

  I hesitated as I looked for Dante, but just as I realised he wasn't there, a hand circled my wrist and I was tugged around to face Bryce Corvus who was spitting with rage.

  "Looking for your Oscura side piece, whore?" he asked venomously, shooting around me and shoving me hard so that I stumbled straight into the Lunar Brotherhood side of no man’s land before the bleachers.

  The gang members assembled there all perked up as I fought to keep my feet before them and I met Ethan's surprised gaze for half a second before whirling back around to face Bryce.

  "Funny how you only ever come at me when your leader is nowhere to be seen," I goaded as my fangs snapped out. "Are you still jealous because Ryder won't let you bite him?"

  "You're nothing more than a whore he pays for with blood," Bryce replied cruelly as he sneered at me and I noticed more students shifting closer to watch our interaction with interest.

  “Yeah!” Cindy Lou shouted from the side lines where she’d conveniently appeared just in time to see Bryce start on me.

  "What's going on?" Ryder's voice cut across the crowd and the Lunars all parted like the tide as he strode between them, a deep rattle resounding in his chest as he glared at his number two.

  "I saw her," Bryce hissed, not backing down as he pointed at me. "I knew she was whoring herself out to Inferno, so I followed her and saw her go into the boathouse with him."

  Ryder's green gaze flicked to me for a moment and I burst out laughing. Because for all the reasons that Bryce could choose to hate me, he was going with who I fucked. Or who he thought I fucked. Because I hadn't actually had sex with Dante in the boat house and even if I had, Dante had started warding that place when we were alone in there after Tabitha tried to kill him. I knew for a fact that no one could so much as peek their nose in there while he was inside without him letting them pass these days.

  "If you're going to accuse her of something then at least make it believable," Ethan scoffed and I shot him a look of surprise as he backed me. "Take a look at her eyes. You seriously think that she's skipping out on her mate to go fuck Inferno or anyone else?"

  "I know what I saw. She held his hand, she was giving him a look like a bitch in heat and he practically shoved her inside with the clear intention to bury his filthy Oscura cock in her-"

  "If you were so sure of what you were about to witness, why not follow us and get proof then?" I asked, narrowing my eyes on Bryce as my limbs tightened in anticipation of a fight. He'd been asking for this for a long time and I was done waiting to finish it. I was ready to kick his ass like the pathetic motherfucker he was.

  "Because there was a ward keeping me out," he ground out.

  "So you heard them fucking then?" Ethan piped up. "Because I know a screamer when I see one and I bet Elise here can bring the fucking roof down when she's coming."

  Ryder hissed at him in warning and Ethan raised his hands in surrender, a cheeky grin playing around his lips like he enjoyed pushing Ryder's buttons just enough to get a reaction without pissing him off enough to incur his wrath. Apparently that wasn’t a line Bryce had learned to walk.

  "You know what, Bryce?" I challenged. "I think it's time that you voiced your real issues and stopped trying to hide behind bullshit like a little bitch."

  "My issue is that you're a power hungry whore and a traitor and I want to see you on your knees before the King of the Lunar Brotherhood, begging him for mercy while he offers you none."

  "Is that what you want, Ryder?" I asked teasingly, as I turned my gaze to him. "You want me on my knees?"

  Ryder's face remained blank but the heat in his gaze told me he was remembering having me in that position more than once. In fact he'd had me like that while Dante did exactly what Bryce was accusing me of and he'd loved every fucking second of it. I wondered if Bryce's head would explode if he found out about that.

  "Or is that what you want, Bryce? To get down on your knees for your King? To please him in every way and then beg him to let you bite him the way he likes me to?"

  Bryce shrieked in rage and shot at me but I'd been expecting it and I leapt aside, bringing my foot around to kick out the backs of his knees before pouncing on him.

  He threw a blast of water at me before I could get my hands on him and I barely managed to get an air shield up in time to block it.

  It was the moment he needed to get to his feet again and we immediately fell into a fierce battle of magical force as he directed a torrent of water at me and I fought to counter it with a gust of wind.

  Bryce bared his fangs at me as our magic collided, gritting his teeth as he threw his all into it. We were so evenly matched that I could feel my power waning with the effort it
took to hold him off.

  With a grunt of determination, I flicked my wrist, leaping aside as I let his water attack break through my defence and stealing the air from his lungs before he could redirect it at me.

  Bryce's eyes widened and he threw both palms at me, engulfing me in a bubble of water as he tried to drown me and I struggled to keep my control over the air in his lungs.

  The shouts of the watching crowd were distorted by the globe of water I was trapped within but I didn't even try to escape it, instead splitting my focus as I fought to create a pocket of air around my mouth so that I could breathe.

  Bryce managed to suck down a single breath as my concentration slipped, but I quickly locked down the air in his lungs again as I started breathing within my bubble.

  My jaw locked tight as I entered into a stare off with Bryce as he glared at me, and the orb of water I was suspended in started to get colder as he began to freeze it.

  Panic thundered through my limbs but as I noticed how slowly the frost was forming around me and how strained Bryce looked, I realised that his magic was burning out.

  I grinned like a psycho and flicked my fingers at him, knocking him onto his ass with a gust of wind which made his hold on his magic shatter.

  The orb of water split apart around me and I managed to land on my feet as it cascaded everywhere with a huge splash and most of the onlooking crowd leapt back to avoid getting wet.

  Cindy Lou got drenched though and I barked a laugh at her drowned cat look before tearing back into the fight again.

  I shot towards Bryce with water dripping from my body, and leapt on top of him just as he seemed about to pass out from lack of oxygen.

  The moment I slammed my fist into his face, I let him breathe again and he sucked in air as I punched him once more.

  I released all of my rage on him over Old Sal and my mom and Gareth's death as I punched and punched and punched, my knuckles splitting and bleeding and making me feel physical pain along with the ever present ache in my heart.

  The crowd were yelling encouragements and insults in equal measures, but I couldn't focus on anything other than the piece of shit Fae beneath me.