“Knox,” I whispered into the room, my voice husky with sleep and the orgasm still clinging to my throat. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Aria.” Dark laughter filled his tone, and he growled after a moment, closer to the bed, or I thought he was. I was probably hallucinating after everything that had happened today. “It was my pleasure.”
Chapter 18
I awoke to something pressing firmly against me, groaning as every inch of my body ached. Turning, I silently took in the male sleeping soundly beside me, or I assumed Knox did. His chest didn’t rise or fall with his breathing. He looked different in bed, unguarded, and less cold than when his eyes were open. Thick black lashes dusted his sharp, bronzed cheekbones. The five o’clock shadow was thicker, which I itched to touch to see if it would tickle or scratch my fingers as books often said they did.
He looked to be in his early thirties. The erotic scent of his pheromones filling the room made the sexual deviant within me perk up and want to drink the intensity they oozed. His body had come uncovered in sleep, and my gaze greedily took it in. His muscles were sharp, defined with masculinity that couldn’t be denied, no matter how much I wished it was otherwise.
Knox’s tattoos held words, ancient ones that no matter how many times I whispered them in my head, I knew were wrong. Everything about Knox made it crystal clear that he wasn’t from this realm, nor did he care to fit in here. Peering down farther, my mouth went dry with the sheer magnitude of the thing nestled between the dark bed of curls. Knox was hugely endowed, and everything within me said to get out of the bed and get the hell away from him.
I started to sit up but made it no farther than an inch before I was slammed against the bed, and that appendage was resting against my naked belly. I whimpered and stared into azure eyes that were hooded with lust and heavy with sleep. Knox’s head lowered as his mouth brushed against mine. A growl rumbled from deep in his chest, exiting his lips to vibrate against mine.
“You talk in your sleep.” His voice was sexy, filled with sleep, but he didn’t appear to be moving from where he held me to the mattress with his weight. “It’s annoying.”
“And you’re naked,” I pointed out, which probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do at the moment. “It’s annoying, too.”
“You can be naked, too, very easily.”
“No thanks, I’m good.” I blushed as he rocked his hips, pressing his thick cock against me.
He had lifted on his arms enough that when I looked between us, I could see his cock rested over my navel, which meant if he took me, it would bruise my lungs, or maybe even worse. Maybe that was being a little dramatic, but the man was seriously blessed in that department, and he knew it.
I swallowed and moved my stare to his, only to find him studying me with an intensity that intrigued me. My hips lifted and then dropped, and yet he refused to budge. His hands sat beside my head, blocking off any thought of retreat.
He’d caged me in, and the mattress had sunk enough with our combined weight that I wasn’t going anywhere unless he allowed it. Knox didn’t speak, and I was pretty sure he knew how much his silence unnerved me.
My nipples hardened, and my spine lifted, arching with need, and those were things he, as a male hadn’t missed. My knees lifted, and that only pushed him against my body more.
His lips curved into a devilish grin while he watched me plotting how best to escape him. My body didn’t get the memo we didn’t like this prick. Nope, instead, it responded to him. My pussy heated, signaling to the woman within me to let this jerk take what no one else had been able to.
The memory of how his mouth felt against my sex didn’t help because my body was wet, dripping with the need to be taken as I recalled the details. He could smell it, which he made clear as his nostrils flared when he inhaled.
Knox wasn’t even doing anything to me, and I was coming undone just from the intense burning in his stare. His shoulders bunched up as the muscles in his neck stretched. The sharp edges in his face became more defined, and the noise in his chest started, daring me to mimic it again. I knew that if I did, if that noise escaped from my lips, I was fucked. Literally and figuratively. The only sound within the room was our breathing, both rigid, leaving our lungs in short, shallow breaths.
I didn’t dare move or make a single peep while he watched me. I lay there for what felt like hours peering into the depths that threatened to drown me. I inhaled the pheromones and shivered with need. My body tightened, clenching with an aching need I didn’t comprehend or understand. I had little knowledge of males outside of books, and what little experience I had was an utter failure on my end.
Knox may not have liked me, but he wanted to rip the thin panties from my body and take what no one else had taken before. Power slithered over my naked flesh, and my skin pebbled in bumps of awareness. It spread over my entire body, knowing that this beast who watched me would rock my world, turning it inside out if I so much as whimpered.
His head lowered, and the heat of his mouth brushed over my throat, licking the pulse that beat wildly with both arousal and fear. The noise from whatever was within him filled the room the moment his tongue ran over my vein. His cock pushed against my belly rocking gently, and it took everything I had left within me not to moan from the heat he sent unfurling into a ball of pent up need that threatened to seep from my pores.
“Knox,” I whispered breathlessly, no longer caring if he ripped the thin panties off and took me.
“Aria,” he growled, but his voice didn’t come out normal. It came out thickly, gravelly. Warmth spread through me at the sound of it. My nipples hardened more than I thought was possible as moisture banked between my thighs.
“This is really awkward,” I continued wondering if I should point out that if we didn’t stop soon, I’d make that noise and this would escalate to something neither of us wanted.
“Shut the fuck up, woman,” he warned hoarsely.
“Okay,” I hissed as teeth clamped down on my throat. A breathy sigh expelled from my lungs as I felt my body relaxing against his bite. It was as if his teeth had some magic power over my mind, and the moment they touched me, everything within me calmed to mush.
He chuckled against the flesh in his mouth, and yet his bite didn’t hurt. My hands lifted, sliding over his sides until they rested against his chest. He held me there with his teeth, and I all but played dead for him. His hand moved, lowered to run over the side of one breast slowly.
I felt his need to learn every detail about my body. The need to bury himself so deep within me that I’d scream for him was violently exposed in his gaze. It was a raw, animalistic need that I shouldn’t want, and yet I did. Worse than that, I felt my need to tell him to take me to end the slow torture that both of us were enduring slipping free.
I opened my mouth to speak, but he cut it off before the words could leave the tip of my tongue by tightening his bite and whispering through the flesh he still held between it.
“Don’t. You do not understand what the fuck you are asking.” His tongue slid over my flesh, lapping against my pulse as his teeth clamped against it painfully.
“Knox, I…” He lifted his mouth, flipping me onto my stomach as his fingers threaded through my hair. He ripped my head to the side, slamming my face into the mattress before his body dropped on me, pushing his thick cock against my drenched flesh. His hand grabbed an arm, bending it behind my back until I cried out in pain. Fear rushed through me, a healthy dose of it. His rattle filled the room, slipping over my heated skin as he chuckled wickedly while he rag-dolled my body.
“You are seconds away from me ripping you apart, do you fucking understand me, little girl? I won’t be gentle, and I sure as fuck won’t hold you when I’m finished. I would destroy you, and I wouldn’t care what was left of you when I was finished with you. Do you understand me?” he asked, and when I didn’t answer him past the swelling in my throat, he pulled my hair harder, pushing my arm up further, creating pain that ri
pped through me violently.
“Yes,” I said through unshed tears that burned both my eyes and throat.
“Good.” Snarling, he rubbed his cock between my thighs once more before he released me, climbing from the bed while leaving me trembling in fear and lust. “There’re clothes on the chair; get dressed, and get the fuck out of my room now.”
I tried to do as he said, but my body refused to move as tears built in my eyes. I struggled to get up, hating that he’d made me feel weak and exposed, which I was sure he’d done on purpose. A violent tremor rushed through me as I fought to control my emotions.
Sitting up slowly, I didn’t bother to even try to cover myself as my soaked panties turned from heated to a cold reminder that I’d almost just begged Knox to take me. I slipped on the oversized black band tee, pulling my legs into the large gray sweatpants. At the same time, I continued trembling as the adrenaline abated and left me ice-cold.
Not bothering to look at him, I escaped the room with legs that shook. The door to his room led into a hallway I didn’t recognize, and yet I knew without having to be told that I was on the top floor, where he’d forbidden us from entering. Finding the stairs, I made it down them and to the next floor before slipping into my room and entering the bathroom. I turned on the shower and stepped beneath the steaming water, dropping to my knees before the first tears escaped my eyes.
I hated him. I’d not liked him before, but now I hated the prick with an intensity that I couldn’t understand. He had rejected me, and it had been obvious that he’d wanted me. It wasn’t even the rejection that burned me the hottest. It was my reaction to him; to finally be able to feel another’s touch and find pleasure within it, only to be rejected cruelly… It was like a slap in the face that hurt deeper and more painful than it should have.
It took an effort to stand, and the moment I did, I clawed my way out of his clothes and tossed them onto the floor. I scrubbed my flesh raw with the soap, needing to wash his scent from my flesh along with the touch of his mouth that I still felt burning there, taunting me. Using the shampoo I’d brought in my bag, I lathered my hair generously, washing it several times before adding conditioner, rinsing it off, then getting out right after.
It took three minutes to pack up everything I’d brought and exit the room as I’d found it, minus the wet clothes on the bathroom floor that no matter how much I’d wanted to clean the mess, I hadn’t been able to touch again.
At the entrance, I paused hesitantly as Sabine and the others turned, studying me before noticing the bag. I wasn’t staying here another night. If I did, I’d go insane. I could take care of myself and didn’t need some cocky prick ordering me around. I also had to unravel the mess that surrounded Amara, because I wouldn’t let them condemn her to the Void of Nothingness. She was my sister and my best friend. She deserved the truth to come out, and I couldn’t do that here beneath the eyes of Knox, who watched every single thing we did through a microscope.
“You’re not leaving,” Sabine said. “It isn’t safe.”
“I’m not staying here another night, and neither should you guys.”
“We’re in heat,” she frowned, watching me.
“Let her go,” Knox said, entering the room, freshly showered with Regina at his side, staring at me coldly. “She thinks she can survive on her own, let’s see how long she lasts out there.”
“I don’t need you to protect me.”
“Yeah, that’s why my name is on you, isn’t it?” he chuckled darkly, staring me down with a bored look. He looked at me as if I was dirt he couldn’t wipe off his shoe fast enough.
“Go to hell, Knox,” I uttered through the tightening in my throat. Regina laughed coldly, her hand slipping up to wrap around Knox’s wrist before her head rested against his shoulder while her stare burned through me.
“I need to ask you about Amara, and I can’t leave everyone else here unprotected, Aria.”
I looked Sabine in the eye and smiled sadly. “I know. She was sleeping with someone in the Nine Realms; I don’t know who he is. I know nothing else, but I intended to figure it out. Let me know when you’re prepared for the blessing. I will go prepare the house. Be safe, sisters.”
“I don’t like separating,” she insisted.
“I’m the strongest one here. I don’t need you or anyone else to pull magic from. I’ll be okay, Sabine. I’m always okay. It’s my thing, remember? I am fine on my own,” I assured her, turning and walking out the door as Greer rushed to hold it open for me.
“Good riddance, Aria.”
“Bye, Greer,” I chuckled, flipping him off as I left the house.
Chapter 19
I started in the front room, cleaning every inch of the house while I searched for any clue that would prove Amara hadn’t betrayed the covenant of immortals. It was mindless, numbing work, so I’d turned the music up, locking the world out. I’d cast a novice spell that, should any of my sisters be so inclined to come home, they could get through. It would, however, keep everyone and everything else out.
I changed into my joggers and a soft baby blue camisole before pulling my hair into a bun that was more mess than an actual bun. I cracked my neck as I stared at the kitchen floor, still covered in blood. Frowning, I moved deeper into the kitchen, grabbing the bucket we kept beneath the sink before heading outside.
Outside, the sun was already setting and creating a backsplash of vibrant colors that drew the eyes to it. Pausing, I wiped my brow and exhaled while letting nature refresh me. After a moment, I started again, eyeing the large black tourmaline rock that sat in the creek. It wasn’t as large as it had been when we were kids, but then everything had been larger than life when I was a child. Memories had a way of making everything seem smaller, more insignificant as you got older. I dipped the bucket into the creek, hefting it back up before a voice caused me to drop it.
“Jasper?” I grabbed the bucket once more before looking up to find my childhood friend sniffing me. “What are you doing here?” I studied him, noting the way he held himself poised to pounce if I moved wrong.
Jasper was the son of the high alpha wolf. One of the elite pack of werewolves that had come to this realm to settle when the covenant was created among immortals of the Nine Realms. He’d also been my classmate and my first crush, but he only had eyes for Amara.
We’d been forced through endless hours of learning about the realm we had come from and preparing us for the journey we would eventually take back into it. Jasper had been my first and only crush in this town, but he’d also been one of the boys who followed us around, vowing to protect us.
The Nine Realms were created and powered by the original bloodlines. These families began to spread throughout the many realms outside the nine. Therefore, a council was formed from the bloodlines to select and govern a High King who would rule over the lower king and queens in each of the Nine Realms, also chosen by the council.
In order to preserve the Nine Realms, a pact was made between the original bloodlines stating those originals living outside the Nine Realms would be required to send a member of their family back once a year to perform their duties on the council. During that time, each of those representing their bloodline would go to their home realm within the nine, gathering at a secret location to perform a ritual that would reinforce and feed power to the Nine Realms, replenishing their respective magical properties to the realms.
“We used to be good friends, Aria.”
“We also used to be stupid kids,” I muttered, refilling the bucket before I set it down and turned back to study the changes in him since we’d last seen each other.
He’d filled out nicely and grown into an alpha his father could be proud of. Thick black hair clung in gentle waves to his shoulders, while his striking blue eyes watched me with interest. His arms were both covered in muscles and tattoos. The A on his lower forearm marked him as an alpha from the original bloodline. He wore a blue cotton shirt with rough, faded jeans and white shoes.
“We were twelve.” I didn’t trust him entirely, but then I didn’t trust anyone nowadays. Call me cold or jaded, either worked for me. I had sisters I knew would go to war for me, and they meant the world to me. Outsiders couldn’t be trusted, a lesson most had learned the hard way.
“You didn’t have tits back then, and you sure as shit wasn’t this hot.” His voice broke as his eyes lowered to my breasts with heat banking in his electric-blue gaze. “But you do now.”
“My eyes are up here.” I snapped my fingers, frowning while I watched his eyes lifting to mine.
“I always knew you’d be pretty, never this, though.”
“Thanks. Did you see Amara before she vanished?” I asked, knowing he would have noted my sister more than the others. He had slept with her once or twice, after all.
“Aria,” he warned, studying me before he shook his head. “You know I can’t help you. Knox will figure out where she is.”
“Before or after he condemns her to the Void?” I watched him close off to me while his posture became defensive.
“You need to be careful with him, Aria. I know you can feel him, and I know you can sense that he is different from what we are. He’s… more than we are. You need to tread carefully with him.”
“Someone murdered alphas in my backyard. My sister is missing, along with others, Jasper. If it’s true what he says, I need to hear it from our people. I don’t know Knox from a hole in the ground, and I don’t really want to either. Tell me what happened here, please. You cared for Amara at one time. I can believe you, not him. Hell, his bloody house wasn’t here the last time I was, and yet it takes up an entire freaking block, and expands for miles behind the house from what I could see. He has everyone on their knees, and yet no one seems to care or speak against him. Why? Since when do original bloodlines bow to others from the Nine Realms?”
Flames of Chaos Page 12