by S. A. Parker
I’ve never had a reason to drop the walls before. Never wanted one.
Until now.
In the end, handing that intimate part of myself to Dell was the easiest fucking thing I’ve ever done.
I look inside myself to where I’m cradling that sterling tether attached to my heart like a fucking pussy, wondering how the hell I ever coped without it. My little mate fits me so perfectly … like a glove specifically created for both my soul and my cock.
Groaning, still half asleep, I rub my palm against my pulsing rod, hard and ready for her again. It’s like she’s put a spell on my dick. I swear to fuck, if she asked him to jump, he’d bounce up and down saying ‘how high?’ I’d probably be pissed off about the lack of self-control if I didn’t enjoy it so much.
If Drake thinks he’s going to be the first to plant his seed inside her, he’s got another thing coming.
Fuck.
I barely recognise this version of myself.
The moment her soul kissed mine, I knew I was screwed. Fucking done. I realised I’d not only met my match, but something far, far more.
Dell is the answer to the riddle this world keeps choking on, because it chewed her up and somehow still spat her out whole. The others think it was her heritage which gave her body the fortitude to survive those years in the darkness—the shit she had to endure.
I disagree. It’s much simpler than that.
She’s been through the fucking worst this world has to offer, and for most of the time, I was none the wiser as it tore away at pieces of my mate. Some might say she lost herself through it all … I say she’s fucking incredible. While pieces of her crumbled, my glorious little Queen protected the most important bits, fortifying them over time, moulding herself into something formidable … whether she realised it or not.
She’s everything this fucked up world needs. More. She’s everything I fucking need.
She’s a beacon of hope. The brightest fucking light. How did I miss her all these years? It’s something I’ll never forgive myself for. I’ll always hold myself partially responsible for the shit she’s been through, and I intend to spend the rest of eternity making it up to her.
She’s mine now. I’d go to Death’s fucking doorway so that woman could continue to breathe.
She doesn’t understand the implications of what her and I just did together, what she willingly gave to me … but she fucking will.
Opening my eyes, I lift my hand to shield my face from the glare as my morning Dell-induced wood becomes too stiff to bear any longer. If she’s still asleep, she’s about to wake to my cock sliding between those pretty white thighs. I twitch at the thought.
“Do you remember your safe word?”
No answer.
I roll over, see she’s gone. Frowning, I draw a deep whiff of air.
Something smells … off.
“Dell?”
Silence.
She’s probably bathing. She did run her mouth earlier about my seed crusting down her thighs, right before I tied her wrists to her ankles and licked, nipped, and fucked her all over while she squealed my name so loud that I had to compel Aero to fucking walk back to his room. Nosey bastard. Like fuck was I going to share Dell with him on our mating night.
I climb out of bed and walk to the door of the bathing chamber, expecting to see my glorious, white-winged goddess lounging in the water, soaking herself clean of my seed.
It’s empty.
That sterling tether on my heart fucking tugs, becoming so taut my hand flies to my chest in an effort to soothe the strain.
Fuck.
Is she regretting our bond? Fighting it? If she tears it out it’ll fucking kill her.
“Dell?”
I grab my discarded pants, dragging them on, my cock pointing at the sky when Drake steps out of the Bright and straight into my fucking bedroom.
His nostrils flare, eyes wide, wings fanning out, his dark side permeating me with a poisonous glare. He pulls his lips back from his teeth and fucking hisses at me.
I flick my wings out wider, puff out my chest, and bare my canines at the fuckwit, filling as much space as I can. “Put them away!” I roar, because I don’t have time for this shit.
I should have known it was too good to be true. Should have known she would fucking regret it.
“What have you done to her?” Drake growls, hand clutching at his chest, clawing at his flesh like he’s trying to hold it together … just like me.
Fuck …
I try to keep my voice calm as I answer, though I don’t feel fucking calm. “I mated with her, then we slept. You hurting?”
He’s suddenly in my face, nose to nose, the scent of his desire to rip my throat out potent and desperate. “Yes,” he grinds, and I can sense his vulnerability, the pain he’s feeling that isn’t his own … because he’s my brother in all sense other than blood. I know the fucker like I know my left hand.
He’s not in pain. He’s in fucking agony. Her agony.
“Drake …” I say, watching his beast lose the battle.
I’m slammed with the full brunt of his power, like ten thousand nails hammering into my organs.
Motherfucker.
I grit my teeth, body filling with warmth before I swiftly expel it, sending my will to take hold of his limbs and secure him in place, though it doesn’t stop the continual flow of ‘fuck you cunt’ he’s sending straight to my insides.
Dell thinks I’m the overpowered one. She’s wrong. There’s a reason Drake has so much control most of the time. Because if he loses it? This happens. The pain I’m experiencing right now, it’s enough to kill a regular mortal. Fuck, it’s enough to kill an immortal High Fae. The only reason I’m not falling from the blow is because I’m drawn from the same fucking cast as this brutal bastard.
Beads of sweat are trailing both our faces as I try and gather the grit to talk. I gasp a few breaths, making an odd sort of groaning sound and his eyeballs narrow, the white in them entirely suffocated.
He’s deep. He’s really fucking deep …
“Stop … Dell … danger…”
The agony thickens as his beast dishes me an extra layer of malice and I fall to my knees, barely registering the pain of them crashing against the floor with Drake making me feel like he’s tearing me limb from fucking limb.
Kal and Aero blast their way out of the Bright, just when I think I’m about to pass the fuck out.
Drake falls to sleep, thudding to the ground in a golden heap of muscle. I curl forward in a heaving mess, thanking the Sun for the neutralising bastard that’s Kal, even if he does have better abdominal muscles than me.
Aero’s clutching at his head like it’s caught in a vice, his skin a tepid grey as he grits his teeth against something only he can hear.
“The fuck happened?” Kal seethes, checking Drake’s pulse. He probably had to dish him an extra layer just to get the bastard to respond. He gives more than us, trying to keep the peace since everything went to shit. I can tell it’s starting to take its toll. “I had to triple dose him! Fuck …” He slaps Drake on the side of his face, hard, probably making sure the cunt’s still breathing.
I couldn’t give a fuck about Drake right now though, he’ll live. That sterling tether is tearing at my chest, I’m not sure I’m as confident about the fate of my mate.
“She’s not okay,” Aero groans, visibly wrangling his dark side for purchase. “She’s not fucking okay!”
“Tell me everything!” I roar, working to uncurl my body, turning to face Aero.
He looks heavy, weighed down. His gift takes its toll, too.
He can’t escape it. Ever.
Aero shakes his head, levelling me with a glare that tells me everything I need to know.
“Who the fuck has her?” That tether tugs again, my hand flying to my chest. Hand on his own chest, Drake writhes on the ground in his sleep.
When Aero doesn’t answer, I spear my glare at Kal, hair dishevelled, and black sleeping pant
s slung low on his hips.
“Don’t look at me! He woke me up by dragging me through the Bright with him! I’m just as much in the fucking dark as you are!”
Aero claws at his hair, face sharpening as he wrestles his beast. He’s going to have to wrestle mine too if he doesn’t hurry the fuck up, because the brutal fuck is tearing at me from the inside, desperate to break free and hunt our mate down himself. He chose her just as much as I did … if we lose her? Something tells me that a part of me won’t survive it.
Aero paces, shaking his head. He drops down, kneeling on the ground, cradling his head in his hands.
Kal and I share a look, converging towards him.
The silence, the anticipation, is destroying me from the inside out. Not for the first time since we met Dell, I wish I had his fucking gift. “Aero … fucking answer me!”
“I’m trying to concentrate!” he roars, refusing to meet my gaze, lost in his own head. Lost in hers …
I pace the room, give my body something to do other than stand there looking like a fool. I’m not good at this, standing around … waiting.
“There’s more than one,” he finally grinds out, halting me in my tracks.
Kal’s hiss shreds through the space between us. “What the fuck’s that supposed to mean?” He levels me with a lethal stare. “How the fuck did you lose track of her?”
I don’t know how to answer. She was right here ...
If something happens to her, there’s only me to blame.
Aero screams into his hands, snatching our attention, sending his anger out in a palpable wave; his features sharpening as his wings unfurl from his body.
Kal shoots me a look, all animosity between us disintegrating as we recognise the greater threat right now.
Aero’s untameable beast.
I know what he’s asking with that one look alone. One nod and he’ll put the savage bastard to sleep, too. But I won’t do it. We need him. We need as much information as we can get … or something tells me we won’t see her again.
I won’t accept that. I’ll never fucking accept that.
I stride forward, coming to stand before Aero.
He crouches, hissing into his hands, slowly losing himself to the only connection we have with Dell.
“Focus, brother. Fucking focus. She needs us.” I don’t know how I sound so calm. I’m not calm. I’ve got a fucking storm raging inside me.
Aero stands, muscles coiled, canines lengthening as his eyes become shadowed pools.
“Hold it in, Dawn. Hold it fucking in!” I grasp his shoulders and he roars, glaring at me with a feral gaze.
Kal shifts beside me, his voice firm and calm, no doubt dishing Aero tendrils of the happy stuff to gently level him out again, though hopefully not enough that he loses himself entirely. “We need you, Aero! Dell fucking needs you! Come back, brother ...”
Aero’s eyes lighten, his canines retreat, and he looks at us, trembling, visibly exhausted. He slowly shakes his head, sweat beading at his brow.
“What? What is it?” My own beast is sniffing the air, ready to pounce …
He drops to a crouching position, shoulders slumped, shadowed face drawn. “That’s all I’m getting. She’s filtering her fucking thoughts again.”
“Not the king?” Kal asks.
Silence fills the space for seconds, minutes, while Aero continues to listen. “No,” he finally says, with an exhale of breath. “Not the King.”
“Thank fuck,” I hiss.
Aero stills, listening again, gaze distant, head cocked to the side.
I know something’s coming, can feel it in the air. Can feel it flooding from my brother before me.
He pulls in a shuddering breath, scent thickening, closing his eyes and clenching his fists.
Fear.
He’s fucking afraid.
Aero says the words that chill me to the bone. “They won’t let her leave alive.”
My beast roars beneath my skin, tearing through my confines and breaking his way to the surface. “Are you fucking sure?” we growl, deep and guttural, in a voice that doesn’t sound like my own ... because it’s not.
It belongs to both of us.
Aero matches our gaze with his own, has the good mind not to flinch as he looks upon the face of my inner darkness.
I can feel myself dripping the malice my beast wants to inflict on the fuckers who sought to harm our mate. He’s salivating for their blood. We both are.
Aero nods. Once. Slowly … “Positive. And I have no idea where they are. Neither does she.”
My beast tears into the Bright without another thought.
We'll find her.
We’ll tear the world to fucking shreds if we have to.
We will find her ...
The end of book three.
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Acknowledgments
Thank you, Mum and Dad. You are a pillar of support and have always urged me to follow my dreams. I never expected those dreams would compel me to write a story about a prostitute who has conversations with her vagina, but we’ll ignore that finer detail. I know you are proud of me, and that’s all that matters!
Mum, when I read you the first chapter of book one of this series, you never once batted an eyelid at all the slippery vaginas, never once told me I should write something more pertinent. In fact, you proceeded to sit down and brainstorm the rest of the series with me while we laughed hysterically over highly inappropriate innuendo.
Thank you for making me feel validated every day of my life. Thank you for the countless hours you have spent helping me to polish my work. I couldn’t have done this without you.
My darling husband - thank you for believing in me, for reminding me of my untapped potential ... I bet you never expected it would spurt onto the pages of a book in the form of a reverse harem, huh?! (Insert laughing face here) But in all seriousness, thank you for sticking it out with me.
Nana, thank you for inspiring me with your creativity, and for showing me how strong and independent a woman can be. I love you, and not a day goes by that I don’t miss you.
Lauren, thank you for the hours you invest into helping me. I can’t wait to repay the favour when you release your first book. Most importantly, thank you for laughing at my vulgar sense of humour and dishing it right back at me.
Chinah, thank you for all your amazing suggestions, and I’m forever awed by your incredible copy editing skills! Not to mention all the brainstorming sessions, pushing me to take my writing to the next level.
Brittani, thank you for all the hours you pour into proofing for me, for being so thorough, and for constantly bringing sunshine and laughter to our little BETA team!
Angelique, thank you for your ongoing support. For loving these characters and making me feel such incredible validation!
Talarah, I couldn’t be without your endless support and encouragement. Thank you for being you, and for always bringing a smile to my face!
To everyone else who has supported me along this journey that has only just begun, thank you!
About the Author
Sarah Ashleigh Parker
Sarah is New Zealand born and lives in the Gold Coast, Australia with her husband and their three children. She discovered her love for the written word early on, devouring book after book and creating her own stories in her spare time, winning various competitions throughout her school years for her quirky imagination.
It’s only recently that she has been able to fully immerse herself into writing, being at home with three young children and an unquenchable thirst for creativity.
And so, with the timing being as good as it ever gets, and the passion and determination of a woman possessed,
Sarah threw herself into becoming an author. Juggling an eclectic mix of manic writing, editing and proofing sessions, child rearing, homemaking and everything else life throws around, she somehow makes it work.
Sarah’s preferred genre is adult fantasy romance and contemporary romance.
Spawn of Darkness Series
A Token’s Worth
A Feather’s Worth
A Lover’s Worth
A Woman’s Worth - Coming Soon