by Anna Hill
“And if it doesn’t work?” I asked, desperately.
Rhyion gave me a serious look before glancing down to the floor. I knew what he meant.
I had to keep trying to heal him until he was better… or until he died.
I could feel myself begin to panic. My breaths became quicker and quicker until I was hyperventilating. Angelo couldn’t die… not because of me. His death would forever weigh on me.
Lio put his hand on my back and whispered softly. “You need to stay calm, Annabelle. You need to refocus. You are his only chance, and you will help him. You will. You just need to focus.”
I wasn’t so sure he was right. I didn’t know if I could help him… maybe he couldn’t be helped.
But I was his only chance, and I did need to calm down if this was going to work.
I took in a few deep breaths, closing my eyes and preparing myself to attempt to heal him again.
“That’s it… very good,” Lio said softly. “Now focus all that fear of losing him into the power you need to save him. You can do this.”
I nodded, pressed my hands against Angelo, and began to do my work.
I completely lost myself in the focus to heal him. It was almost like I went into a meditative state. I was no longer aware of anything around me, I no longer felt any emotions, I was simply present in one thought and one thought only: the thought of Angelo getting better.
I had no idea how long I sat there. It could have been hours, probably least one hour. Far longer than I had ever needed to heal anyone before.
But, eventually, I did began to feel his pain lifting up from his body. His moans quietly lessened in the background. It was working. I was healing him, and he was going to be okay.
When I felt Angelo’s regular, healthy aura come back to me, I stopped. He wasn’t groaning or in pain anymore, but he was silent on the floor. His eyes were closed. I could feel that he was healthy… but he still didn’t quite look like it.
“Is he okay?” I looked over at Rhyion. He and Lio had stayed on the floor with me the entire time, of course.
Rhyion nodded. “He’s just going to need to rest now. Lio and I will get him over to that couch.” He nodded to the right of the room… I hadn’t even noticed the couch before.
Lio stood up with him, and they both carried a very quiet Angelo to the couch and put a quilted blanket on him. I followed them, not wanting to be far away from Angelo. I felt the instinct to stay close to him in case he needed me once again.
“Let’s let him rest,” Rhyion said.
I immediately knelt down next to him, resting my hands on his. “I’ll stay with him.”
Rhyion carefully touched my shoulder. “No, Annabelle, we need to talk. We need to tell you what’s been going on. And you need to tell us what’s been going on with you, too.”
Right, I hadn’t even considered this. There was so much to say, so much I wanted to know…
But the only thing I could focus on was Angelo’s safety.
I looked up at Rhyion. “He can’t be alone. What if he gets sick again?”
Rhyion nodded understandingly. “Then I will stay with him. You and Lio go talk, please. You two probably should have alone time anyway.”
Of course, I always thought the first thing I’d want to do once I got back to the boys was be with Lio, to spend time intimately with him. And now here I was, thinking it was an unbearable thought to walk away from Angelo… who would have thought?
But I nodded and stood up, patting Angelo gently as I stepped back from him.
Immediately, Lio wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me close to him. It did feel good to feel his warmth again. I felt a safety surrounding me.
We walked toward a back room where there was a simple mattress surrounded by white blankets and a white sheet. Lio shut the door behind us.
“My love, are you okay?” he asked.
All at once, I felt the weight of all the trauma I’d experienced fall off me, and I collapsed into his arms, crying.
“Oh, Annabelle.” Lio wrapped his arms tightly around me.
“I'm so sorry, Lio,” I sobbed. “This is all my fault.”
He scooped me up and carried me over to the bed, where he then sat down and put me in his lap. I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face in his chest.
He gently rubbed my back. “Annabelle, how could this possibly be your fault?”
And now came the hard part… where I had to explain my mistake.
“Jacob was never my boyfriend, Lio. Ever since high school, he only kept me around to keep an eye on me. He’s part of the human elite… Our entire relationship was fake. His only job was to make sure I didn’t use my powers or realize who I was. In fact, that’s why he pushed me to use and take my medication so regularly. He knew it blunted my powers.”
Lio’s jaw dropped. “I will kill him. I will kill that bastard for ever manipulating you.”
“Well, I made it easy to be manipulated.” I shrugged.
“Of course you did! You were a young girl. Your parents died. Of course you were manipulated by him. That is not a fault of yours, Annabelle. Anybody would react the same. Your only flaw is that you trust and believe in people… and that is no flaw at all.”
I shook my head. “It was a flaw this time. I should have realized when he showed up on the shifter island that things weren’t as they seemed. I should have ran from him. I knew better…”
“Stop,” Lio insisted. “You will not chastise yourself for things that are not your fault. I cannot bear it.”
I sighed. “Okay… Fine.”
Lio pushed my hair out of my face—it was sticking to me because of the tears. “In the end, you weren’t manipulated. You did know he was not a soulmate. You knew you were not in love with him.”
I nodded. “Yeah… you’re right. Still, I stupidly kept myself from you out of loyalty to him. All that time I could have spent with you…”
He smiled softly. “You’re spending it with me now. You can spend the rest of forever with me.”
I could.
This was the one fantasy in my head that I never thought would come to fruition when I was trapped. I got to be with Lio… for real this time.
I could have everything that I wanted with him, and this time, with no guilt, no shame, only love.
He leaned in slowly, his lips coming to touch mine for the first time.
For a brief moment, I considered not kissing him. I felt a little weird being in here enjoying myself with him while Angelo was out there hurting.
But Rhyion was with him, and I knew there was no way Rhyion would let anything bad happen to him. And meanwhile, I had just had the worst experience of my life. I desperately wanted to feel something, anything good. I wanted to bury all my misery with pure, unadulterated joy.
The kind of joy only Lio could give me.
So I leaned in too, and our lips touched. This time, it was for real. But it felt exactly like it had in my dreams… warm, electric.
His lips opened up for mine, my top lips between his top and bottom. It was soft and gentle at first but quickly moved into something more. It was passionate, intense, the kissing became faster and we started to roam each other’s bodies.
I let my hand run up his torso, pulling his shirt up and at the same time he grabbed mine. We separated our mouths for a minute to undo the others shirt and then quickly our lips met again.
Though when they met again, he had his skin on my skin. My breasts were pressed up against his chest, he sighed heavily at their touch.
As we kissed I felt myself grinding up against him, I loved the feeling of my breasts on his chest. He started grinding back and I could feel his manhood pressed against me, already I could feel his size and was desperate to see more.
I placed my fingers at the top of his pants and began to pull down slowly. I couldn't see what I was revealing as I was still kissing him, but I felt it as his now naked prick pressed against my pants.
He began to kiss
me even more passionately, his tongue exploring my mouth, excited with the way our bodies were entwined.
And so was I.
I began to pull down my own pants, underwear and all, and when his dick touched my bare mound a shiver went down my spine. I could feel my entire body tingling like it never had before.
I was no virgin, but this was an entirely new feeling for me. Never before had I reached this level of excitement, this level of desire.
I never wanted Jacob the way I wanted him.
I pulled my mouth away from his, though I loved the way he was kissing me, I wanted more. And I had to tell him.
I put my hand on his warm cheek, “I want you so badly.”
“Then you will have me,” he said with a smile, “but not before I taste you.”
I gave a cheeky smile, “have you not been tasting me pretty thoroughly the last few minutes?” I asked.
“Your mouth is not the only place I want to taste.”
Again, I got chills.
He started kissing my neck and then moving slightly lower, reaching my chest and moving down to my breasts where he stopped on one of my nipples.
He opened his mouth and took me inside, sucking at my breasts. I immediately moaned in pleasure, my hands gripping the back of his head. He had one hand on the breast he was sucking and moved the other hand to the other breast, gripping it tightly, groping me like an animal in heat. I could feel the intensity with which he wanted me too and it was damn sexy.
I needed to be touching him too so I lowered my hand to his solid cock and began to run my fingernails down it before gripping it and moving up and down the shaft. He moaned into my breast at my first touch and then began to devour me even more, running his tongue rapidly along my nipple and nibbling at me.
I loved that my touch made him want me even more and I used that to my advantage. I wanted to see how far I could push him, how long it would take until he had to have me.
It wasn’t long after I began rolling my hand up and down his shaft that he pulled away from my breasts and the touch of my hand. He started moving down even lower until he reached my pussy and, without warning, he pressed his mouth to it.
I screamed as his tongue rolled over my clit. He had m instantly writhing and he put both of his hands forcefully on my thighs so that I’d stop moving. He ran his tongue up and down me, even pushing it inside me. I had to grab handfuls of bed sheets to avoid from moving around.
I was soaking wet for him. This was pleasure unlike any I’d ever experienced and I had to have him now… To think, I wanted to make it a game of how long until I made him take me…
In reality, I was the one giving up first.
“I need you right fucking now,” I murmured to him, “I need you inside me.”
He lifted his head from me with a smile, wiping his mouth and getting onto his knees.
He lifted both my legs as he positioned himself to me. I reached down and grabbed his cock, putting it at my entrance, begging him with my eyes to push it inside me.
He did, with one smooth motion. He pushed into me to the hilt and I yelped as I felt him fill me up. He so completely penetrated me that I could feel my walls pushing back for him. Never had I been filled this way, he was hitting pleasure spots that I didn’t even know existed.
I instinctively wrapped my arms around his back, pulling him close to me. My legs swung around his torso and with each push I willed him deeper and deeper inside me.
I became lost in the ecstasy. I couldn’t even think, it was like my mind was somewhere else. I became almost non-human… I was just an entity of pleasure, consumed by my own desire.
Lio appeared to be the same. I could see it in his eyes, he was lost in me. With his elbows on the bed to keep him up, his hands grabbed my breasts as he humped away at me. He licked at them, at my neck, once again I could see the animal in him. He was a lion, through and through. Even in his human form, it was so obvious that this man wasn’t human.
With him not only pounding me deeply but stimulating my breasts, I couldn’t take it any longer. I was going to orgasm.
And he knew it. Maybe it was the overwhelming pleasure on my face or the way I gripped the bed, but he knew he was going to make me cum. And he seemed determined to do it. It was almost like seeing me at the peak of my pleasure pushed him farther.
He began to ram into me more rapidly than before, more rapidly than I even knew was possible. He was moving my entire body up and down, using his full strength to give me an unending amount of pleasure.
I screamed out as the orgasm rocked my body, I could feel the pleasure roll through me in waves. My pussy gripped him even tighter, pulsing with my orgasm as he continued to drill me.
The way I tightened around him in ecstasy was too much for him. He was about to cum too. He pumped a few more times and then moaned in ecstasy and he let out his load inside me, filling me with his warmth.
He didn’t move away from me right away. He left his cock inside me as he breathed heavily above me.
I felt so connected to him. I mean, I always did, I was madly in love with him. But this was something different. This was like our two bodies had became one. It was so damn intense.
He finally got off me, collapsing onto the bed as he looked at me with serious eyes. I knew it had been just as intense for him.
I lay next to him, my breath still heavy, my heart still happy.
“That was…” I began to say.
“Amazing?” he finished for me.
“No…” I said slowly, “I was going to say… that was pleasure like I’d never felt it.”
He smiled softly at me and kissed my head. “I had been waiting a long time to do that with you.”
I smiled back. “Me too.”
Despite everything that happened, I was glad to have this moment. I was so damn happy to have just a second of joy, of pleasure. For a moment, I let myself savor and enjoy it. I deserved to, right? For all the hell I’d been through, I thought I deserved at least that much.
I was quickly brought down to earth, though.
Lio sighed. “Annabelle… I don’t want to be the one to take any happiness away from you… But I think I have to. I think we need to talk about things.”
I raised an eyebrow. "What? What things?”
“What happened after you left. Or rather, after you were kidnapped.”
My heart sank. Of course. Why hadn’t I asked this before? Because I was too wrapped up in the thought of finally being with Lio, of course.
“What happened?" I asked nervously.
He frowned. “They took you, and quickly, Robert’s people began to infiltrate the village. It happened very quickly—it was certainly a coordinated attack. We fought back, but… like you described with Robert, they had magical objects too. Wands, staffs… things that they could use to fight us. We tried to get everyone out in time, but… not everyone made it.”
My heart broke. “People… died?”
“Some, yes. We did our best, but… yes.”
I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes and the guilt welling up in my gut.
“Annabelle, I’m so sorry… but this does not fall on you.”
“Then who does it fall on?” I snapped. “Was I not the one who brought attention to the island? Was I not the one who was kidnapped and unable to fight back? Before me, you all had lived on that island for one hundred years with no problem. Then I come in, and some of you die and you all have to leave?”
“Annabelle, please. It’s not like that. We took you to our home because we absolutely needed you. You didn’t do us wrong—”
I cut him off. “But I did. I really did.”
I tried to breathe. I did think that I had massively fucked up, but I did know I needed to stay calm. I had to be my best self right now. I took a few deep breaths, in and out, before I spoke again.
“So, where are we now?”
“We’re on another island. A much smaller one. An area we used to inhabit prior to finding t
he other island that was much more suited to our needs.”
“So… what is going to stop Robert from finding out where we are now?” I asked.
“You are,” he said nonchalantly.
I jerked my head toward Lio. “What are you talking about? I wasn’t able to stop him before.”
“Because we had no idea that our defenses wouldn’t hold up, and we never asked you to protect us. We thought our own magic had protected us well enough. But now that we know it can’t hold him, we’re relying on you. We still have our own defenses up, but we don’t know how long that is going to last.”
“But I can’t do anything, Lio! I don’t know any magic that could be used to protect us. How do you expect me to do that?”
He took my hands in his. “Annabelle, please. I know you are very stressed out, but you need to relax, okay? Relax. Rhyion has found a way. It’s a very old spell… a spoken spell. So nothing like the magic you’ve done before. But I have no doubt you’ll be able to conjure up the protection we need.”
Okay… so at least there was a predetermined way that I could execute this. But I still had no idea if I was going to be able to do it. I’d never done any spoken spells, obviously. Rhyion had taught me about their existence once but explained it was very old-school magic—that even my ancestors weren’t using spoken spells a hundred years ago. They are over a thousand years old and outdated for the most part.
But evidently, they still had their uses.
“Do you have any of my things? My clothes?” I asked Lio.
He pointed to the closet. “There is a suitcase in there with all your things. I took it from the house.”
I nodded and immediately went to the closet and began to dress myself. I threw on a short black dress—the easiest thing to toss on.
“Where are you going?” Lio asked.
“I need to talk to Rhyion. I need to enact this spell.”
“Annabelle, I don’t think you need to do that right this minute.” I could tell he was enjoying our time together.
And so was I. But there were bigger fish to fry. And I wouldn’t let my desire for Lio get in the way of my duty.
“Lio, be realistic. The current defenses we have in place could fall at any time and more shifters could die. I will not allow that to happen. You should get dressed too, and come with me. If I’m learning this spell with Rhyion, that means you are going to need to stay with Angelo. I won’t allow him to be alone.”