Destructive Embrace

by Robyn M. Pierce

  “First, letting Reid die, and assisting in his death. Now, Wyatt is gone, as he chose to save the life of the woman he kept here, instead of letting her life be taken. I’ve also lost the woman I brought here last time,” I said, willing my voice to be stronger.

  "Zeke, stop," Elyssa breathed. She stepped up behind me and set her hands on my shoulders. "You aren't a horrible person!"

  Though she sounded so insistent, I knew she was wrong. There was just so much that I'd done to harm my family, when I was supposed to be taking care of them all. "I shouldn't have let Wyatt die," I muttered. "I should have taken his place."

  She sighed. "If that was an option, I'm sure that he would have let you," she murmured, stroking my hair.

  I paused. Elyssa barely knew my brother; there was no way she could have known that about him. Unless...

  "No," I breathed, turning around to stare at Elyssa with wide eyes. The woman stared down at me gently, her green eyes full of care and adoration. Those green eyes, which I had so many times compared to my mother's...

  "Mom?" I asked. There was no way. She was a pure woman, someone who would never take over someone's body without their permission. Not to mention, I doubted that she had the power to do so.

  She smiled and nodded once. "I entered this young woman's mind and asked if I could borrow her body for just a short while. She was kind enough to agree, because she cares for you very much," she paused. "Even though you two have wronged your brother, I think you should appreciate just how much this woman feels for you." My mother looked at me with a small smirk, as though hinting toward something.

  I stood up, swiping at my face with my sleeves, and she swatted my hands away in favor of dabbing at my face with a handkerchief. "As for what you are going through, I cannot say that I understand. But I have been looking out for you. You are my boys, after all. And this girl is someone that was meant to come into your lives."

  "Mother, how can you say that when Wyatt is dead now?" I asked, turning away from her and scowling.

  She chuckled. "Because he was never meant to live this long anyway. Wyatt was very sick as a baby. You were never allowed to find out about it, but somehow he made it through anyway, and when he learned of what was supposed to be his fate, he devoted his life to study, to try to figure out everything he could about the nuances of our world.

  "He knew that one day, he would need to give up his life in order to save someone else, and he wanted to leave behind a lot of knowledge for those that he left."

  I didn't understand. "He was sick? Why could I not know about it? And how did he get better?" My head throbbed from the onslaught of new information about my own family and my own life.

  "We never found out what it was; only that he was deteriorating fast. We also never learned what saved him, although I somewhat suspect that it was Tywin that cast some sort of magic on him so that he would be able to survive," she murmured. "Which is why we, Wyatt and I, knew that he was not meant to stay on this Earth so this long."

  "So you never pushed him to play with us like a normal child," I finished quietly. My mother nodded. "He is at peace now?" I asked, trying to verify that I had not, in fact, ruined my family for good. She nodded again, smiling widely.

  "I have to go now, my son," she whispered, taking my face in her hands and pulling me down so that she could kiss me on the forehead. "Take care of your family. They will need you from here on out. You have not overcome all of the obstacles meant for you..."

  "What do you mean?" I asked, staring at her in shock. Before she replied, Elyssa's body went limp, and I caught her so that she wouldn't fall and hit her head on the floor.

  Dmitri

  I knew what I had to do. Reid was back. Wyatt was dead. Zeke was reconciling his actions with who he wanted to be.

  ...At least, that was what I hoped he was doing.

  It was time for me to man up. I had to talk to Olivia about everything that had been going on with our Mating since Elyssa's arrival.

  As I approached our bedroom door, I held my hand up to knock on the door. Suddenly, it burst open, Ollie standing on the other side with a bag in her hand. I stared down at the bag hard. "Are you going somewhere?" I asked, barely able to breathe.

  She looked around awkwardly, shrugging her shoulders heavily. "You tell me, Dmitri," she said simply.

  I sighed and grabbed her hand, towing her back inside our room. Closing the door behind us, I motioned for her to sit down. She complied easily, setting her bag down beside the desk chair as she lowered herself into it.

  "I thought I was in love with Elyssa."

  Her sharp intake of breath contradicted her composed expression. As much as she thought she was expecting it, I could tell that she wasn't. At all.

  "Why are you telling me this, Dmitri? It isn't any way to make a woman decide she wants to stay with you!" Olivia shouted, rising from her chair to meet me face-to-face. Her chest rose and fell with every harsh breath she dragged through her nose, and color flooded her cheeks.

  "Because I know I'm not!" I replied. I was pissed off. Sure, it was wrong of me to have had any kind of inkling of feelings for Elyssa, as minor as they'd been. But it was wrong of Ollie to ignore me as well. "That's why I want to try to make this work, damnit!"

  Ollie laughed darkly. "Make what work, Dmitri? You and I can never work after you all but betrayed our relationship with the whore shared between two of your other brothers!"

  I grabbed her harshly by her shoulders and shoved her back down into the chair. I could hardly control my breathing, and my expression must have been fearsome, as Olivia shut up, and fast.

  "You listen here! Elyssa has made mistakes; there is no doubt about that!" I barked directly in her face. "But she is my friend, and as her friend, I know the full story that you, as an outsider," I sneered, "are not privy to."

  The fear in Ollie's eyes made me breathe slowly, and I released my hold on her so I could stand up straight. "I'm listening," she said, a whimper in her tone.

  "Good. Elyssa was grieving. She is Reid's mate, first and foremost, and when he died, both Zeke and Elyssa were overrun by distress and negative emotions. What they did was wrong, yes, of course, but they were both in a bad place, and they desperately needed what they'd done, in order to keep themselves sane." After giving the short story roughly, I took in a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, and released it as I sunk down to sit on my bed. "I thought I was in love with her, because she was around when you never wanted to be," I whispered, unable to meet the electric green eyes of my Mate.

  Out of my peripherals, I saw Olivia draw her hands up to her face and rub away the stress that was doubtlessly there. "I wanted to be around you, Dmitri," she said. "You were always running away from me."

  I scoffed. "You wanted to have sex 24-7. That doesn't qualify for the type of quality bonding time that I had in mind," I retorted, glaring at her.

  Ollie blinked, remaining quiet. "Is that what it seemed like?" she asked softly. "Like I only wanted you for what you could demonstrate in bed?"

  Nodding, I reached for her hand. "It truly did," I murmured. "And it was annoying, to say the very least," I chuckled. She joined me, setting her hand in mine and squeezing.

  "I'm sorry. It was the only way that I knew how to express the type of feelings I have for you, Dmitri Lanistter," Olivia said, slowly bringing her eyes up to meet mine. She looked like she was finally taking this matter seriously, for which I was grateful. "I will be more open to your thoughts and ideas from here on out."

  I nodded.

  "And I will be more... Open, to the things you have in mind for us as well," I said, allowing a smirk to slide up onto my face. She looked away with a slight giggle as I winked at her. "If you can become the woman you were when I first met you, I will gladly try to live up to the man that you devoted yourself to."

  Olivia looked hesitant about something. After a few moments of silence, she sighed and spoke. “You know this will only work if we leave this place, right?”


  I immediately nodded, knowing we would remain in contact with my family as we needed to. She smiled in relief.

  I pulled her across the gap between her chair and the bed until she was sprawled out next to me in bed. Leaning over her, I wound one arm around her waist and tucked my other hand against the side of her neck as I pressed my lips to hers.

  "I have missed you," I murmured against her mouth. "I know you probably wouldn't believe that if we hadn't had this talk, and I can only hope that you trust and believe the words I'm telling you now," I finished, touching my forehead to hers.

  "Dmitri, I –"

  I kissed her to shut her up. I didn't need to know right away if she could trust me again. I only needed to touch my Mate and to have her close to me, so that I could reaffirm my feelings for her in my own head. Nothing was more important than that right then.

  "Shh." I continued to kiss her, bringing my hands up to her torso so I could undo the buttons on her blouse one by one. As I finished the last button, I knelt above her, sliding my hands into her blouse on either side of her torso.

  She was wearing a pretty bra that seemed to have only half of the coverage that a normal bra would have, which I didn't understand, but it made her breasts look more inviting, so I wasn't too concerned with it. It was light blue, with black lace at the top of the cups. "I like this, very much," I husked, leaning back down to kiss her roughly.

  Olivia responded head-on this time, winding her arms around my neck and clutching my hair by the roots as our mouths moved together. I bit on her lower lip lightly, tugging on it as I pulled my head away from hers.

  "I'm glad you like it," she purred, lifting herself up enough so that she could nip at my earlobe.

  Chuckling, I nodded. "Of course you're glad. Any undergarments that look like that," I paused, licking my lips, "were meant to be enjoyed while looking."

  Ollie nodded energetically before pushing me down onto the bed. She then straddled me and let her hands trail up my shirt. "For someone who fumbles around ladies so much, you know a lot about what things really mean. Are you sure you're not gay?" she teased, pushing my shirt up until it was over my head and tossed onto the floor. She then shrugged out of her unbuttoned blouse and added it to the pile that was sure to grow even more before the night was over.

  "Are you truly doubting my sexuality now, love?" I asked, growling lightly at her. She shrugged. "After the many, many times that we have experienced one another, one would think that you would know by now that my equipment works best for you."

  As I spoke, she looked like the cat that swallowed the canary, until I got to the part where I said it worked best for her. Then she hesitated. "Best?" she asked timidly. "As in, works decently for others?"

  She hopped off of me and I berated myself silently. What an idiot I was!

  "No, that isn't what I meant at all. I just meant it is only for you. You elicit more of a response from it than any woman I've ever slept with, and it has never been aroused by a man."

  I sighed. "I'm sorry. I know I worded that awkwardly... Can we keep going, or do you want to stop?" I held her hand, hoping that she knew I was here for her, even if she didn't want to have a quick romp with me.

  Olivia looked torn for a moment before nodding once. "Let's keep going... I've missed you as well, Dmitri," she said, pulling me back in for another of her kisses.

  This one was mind-blowing as she gently bit at my lips and teased me by tracing her tongue along the edge of my lower lip.

  How could I ever have doubted my feelings for her?

  Zeke

  “You slept with my brother. I don’t want anything to do with you after such an act.” The voice was cruel and the words made me stop in my tracks.

  I was coming up to the main part of the castle from my dungeons, needing more supplies after starting the cleanup process after the day’s horrible events when I heard the voice. Reid. After the long weeks where we all believed him to be dead, having him back was weird.

  But it was a dream come true at the same time.

  “Reid, I – ”

  “I don’t want to hear it, Elyssa,” Reid said, cutting her off. I heard Elyssa choke back a sob and frowned. Peering around the corner, I saw my baby brother and his Mate standing at the foot of the main stairway. Even from my poor visual point at the mouth of my hallway, I could see the tears shimmering in the woman’s eyes.

  “You slept with my brother after driving a silver blade into my heart. I’m not sure which hurt more,” Reid chuckled, running his fingers through his dark shaggy hair.

  He’d cleaned up already, I noticed. There was nothing to indicate that only a few hours ago he’d been ‘dead’ and covered in his own blood. I changed my train of thought as a painful image of Roxann – her heart ripped out exactly as my mother’s had been – popped into my head.

  Elyssa opened her mouth to speak, but Reid cut her off again with a wave of his hand. “Look, I don’t care anymore, okay? Just hold still,” he muttered. I watched as he brought his finger to his mouth. I couldn’t tell what he was doing until he drew his finger away from his mouth, the tip covered in blood.

  Reid pushed Elyssa’s hair away from her neck and pressed the now-bleeding tip of his finger to her Mate Mark.

  “Now, you do the same to mine,” he instructed, tilting his head to the side for her to access.

  Elyssa hesitated slightly before repeating the action. Tears fell down her face and dribbled down her chin as she completed the final step required to annul their Mating. Her expression made my heart ache.

  Reid pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and began dabbing her blood off of his neck. Then he leaned over her and cleaned her neck as well. “There,” he whispered, making me strain my ears to hear him. “It’s done now.”

  Before I could reveal myself, Elyssa ran out of the castle. I worried that she wouldn’t return – therefore taking the Lanistter baby with her – but realized that all of her things were at the castle. She had to come back.

  “Reid, you really are a fool,” I said drily, stepping out of my hallway and toward my brother. “What is your problem?”

  "You have some nerve stepping up to me like this, Ezekiel," Reid told me, not bothering to look at me. "Let alone calling me a fool like you just did. Whatever happened to your manners, brother?" he asked snidely, sneering as he finally turned his gaze down to glare at me.

  "First you fuck my Mate, now you're insulting me for annulling the Mating with her? One would think that you'd be glad that she's free for you to have fun with now."

  I sighed, shaking my head. "Reid Donovan Lanistter. I thought you were more intelligent than this. I happen to have an issue with everything that you just said. Firstly, it wasn't just a fuck. I was grieving, and so was she. Neither of us was doing well since your demise –"

  "– you mean the demise that you both brought upon me, right?" Reid asked sarcastically.

  Out of my peripherals, I noticed his hands ball into fists, but didn't back away. He deserved to hit me. I deserved to be hit for all that I'd done to him.

  "Neither of us was coping well. And she was trying to bring me your journal, but I was... I wasn't acting very much like myself. She snapped me out of it and wound up on my wall again," I admitted.

  Reid held up one hand, grimacing. "First off, I don't need to hear about your little sexcapades with my former Mate, Zeke. Secondly, did you say she tried to bring you my journal? How the hell did she get her hands on that? I kept it hidden very..." He trailed off, eyes glazing over as he fell deep into thought. "Shit. I forgot to put it away after my last entry," he sighed. "Oh well, that doesn't matter. Did you read it?" he demanded, glaring down his nose at me.

  I scoffed. "I didn't take the damn book. What, you think I needed yet another reminder of how I failed to save my younger brother from our father? As if!"

  "So where the hell is it?"

  I arched an eyebrow up at Reid and shook my head with a shrug. "Hell if I know. Maybe Elyssa still has it.
Not that she is now required to give it back to you. Since you're no longer Mates, she has no obligation to you." I was technically lying, but it didn't seem like Reid knew anything about Elyssa being pregnant, so I wasn't going to be the one to mention it to him. I didn't need him to assume that it was mine. "Not to mention, you probably scared her off permanently." Another lie.

  Reid scoffed this time. "As if. She's stubborn... She'll be back in a few hours, I've no doubt about that, brother..."

  I couldn't tell if he was angry at that fact, or if he just didn't care, but I didn't press it. "Anyway. She immediately felt like shit after what we did, I'll have you know. Plus, I found a woman that I fell for..." My youngest brother looked shocked and I smirked. "Yes. The heartless Zeke fell in love."

  "Again," Reid interjected, coughing into his fist. I furrowed my brow and scowled at him.

  "What do you mean, again?" I asked snarkily, crossing my arms over my chest.

  He shrugged. "You loved Elyssa. I could tell. Tywin could tell. Everyone could fucking tell," he muttered darkly, his hands clenching into fists once more. I looked away.

  "I don't know what you're talking about," I lied. He saw right through it, I could tell – not that I was convincing at all – but didn't press it. "I'm not glad that she's free for me to 'have fun with,' Reid," I told him after a few moments of uncomfortable silence. "She deserves happiness, and so do you. Good luck finding another woman who will tolerate you," I said cheerfully, patting him on the shoulder – he snarled at me and shoved me away from him – before walking away.

  "Zeke!" Reid called after me. I ignored him, heading up the stairs to my study. "Zeke Lanistter!" he roared. I stopped.

  "What?" I asked, not looking back at him.

  "You may be my brother, but if you ever again decide to wrong me like you have in the past weeks, I will not hesitate to murder you in your sleep. And I will take your body to Uncle Alberon all on my own, gladly pleading guilty to the crime," he told me.