by Anna Hill
I looked over at him. “Lio, please. There’s no information he’s going to give us. Do you guys really think he’d give us anything? He’s already admitted he’d give his life for the cause, so we should let him, right?”
Smoke filled the room, and I moved my hands together, pushing the fire closer.
“No, wait, wait!” he said. “There is info I can give you.”
“Eh, it’s probably bogus anyway.” I continued to inch the fire closer.
“Annabelle, please!” he begged. “I don’t want to burn!”
“And my parents didn’t want to die in their own apartment and be found by their only daughter, but we don’t always get what we want, do we?”
“You want to know this!” Jacob said, with more desperation in his voice than I’d ever heard. “If-if you let me live, I’ll tell you where he is!”
My heart dropped. “Where who is?”
“That-that shifter you love!”
“Angelo?” I asked breathlessly.
“Yes, yes!”
“You… know where he is?”
“We have him! We captured him!”
I ceased all fire.
This was what I was really trying to do when I started the fire to begin with: scare him into revealing some last-minute information. I’d kill him anyway, but if I could scare him into revealing more info with me, then I’d truly win.
But I didn’t expect that information to lead to Angelo.
“You’ll lie to me,” I said, as soon as the fire was put out. “You’re going to lie about where he is. You’ll tell me a place where he’s going to be in exchange for letting you go, and you’ll be free but I still won’t have him.”
“No, no, I swear. You’ll be able to tell I’m not lying. I promise. His life in exchange for mine.”
“You’re not going anywhere until I have him back,” I told him seriously.
He nodded. “That’s fine… that’s fine. He’s here.”
I looked at him skeptically. “What do you mean he’s here?”
He pointed a finger to the closet; his hand was shaking wildly.
My heart leapt at the thought that this might be the truth. Could he be? In this very apartment? It wouldn’t make sense for Jacob to lie. If he was lying, I’d know in a second.
I rushed to the door that used to lead to our hall closet. It was where we kept coats, board games, stuff like that.
When I yanked it open, Angelo was sitting there. In a chair, chained up, a gag in his mouth, blindfolded.
I actually began to cry.
“Angelo, oh my God.” I took his gag and blindfold off with my hands, and I could see he was crying too.
“My love,” he said softly before I leaned in and kissed him.
As I did, I heard a shuffling from behind me. I turned around to see Lio, as a lion, on top of Jacob, growling. Jacob had his hands over his face as if to protect himself, cowering behind him.
As if his hands could protect him from a lion.
“He went straight for the door as soon as you were turned around,” Rhyion explained.
I walked over to Jacob slowly, Lio staying on top of him. “What? You didn’t trust me to keep our deal?” I smiled at him. “Eh, fair enough, I wouldn’t trust me either.”
“Please, Annabelle,” Jacob pleaded. “I gave you Angelo.”
“You also took Angelo. And I take it that he was the bait you were talking about earlier, right? He was what you were going to use to lure me out here?”
Jacob was silent.
“Answer me!” I yelled as Lio roared.
“Yes, okay, yes! Yes, that was the plan!”
“So fucking clever,” I told him.
“Look, fine, I may be evil… But you’re not!” he argued. “You’re not a murderer!”
“Oh, but I feel like one!” I screamed at him. “Thanks to you and Robert, I feel responsible for many, many deaths! I have the weight of so many innocent peoples’ deaths on my shoulders. Do you really think I’m going to be bothered by the weight of the death of one bad person? Because I assure you, Jacob, I won’t be. I won’t care. Don’t think you’re going to appeal to my moral side. Morally, I have no qualms about killing you.”
“You agreed that it would be Angelo’s life for mine…” he tried one more time.
“I never agreed, not really. And even if I had… you told me for years you were someone who cared about me. If you can lie, so can I.”
He began to actually cry, desperately. “Annabelle, please!”
“Jacob,” I said slowly, “you killed my parents. You murdered them in cold blood. For that reason alone, I wouldn’t let you live. But I also have it on good authority that if I do let you go, you’ll continue to protect Robert and he will be less accessible to me… You can thank that little old elven lady for letting me know. Speaking of which, this is for her.”
I raised my hand and Lio instinctively got off of Jacob. He began to drag himself backwards on his hands, crying but no longer begging me. He knew it was futile.
“I gotta say, Jacob, I do love seeing you like this, though. A moment ago, you had accepted that you accidentally walked into your death and you were going to take it like a man. And now I have you on your back, whimpering like the coward that you are. You have only ever been brave when you felt safe in Robert’s pocket. Bravery in times of safety… That’s not bravery at all.”
With that, I lit him up in flames.
He screamed for a moment—but just a moment—before he was totally engulfed in flames.
As painful as it must have been, it was still a much quicker death than he deserved.
I turned my attention back towards Angelo, transmuting the chains off of him. He stood up from the chair and ran to me.
I put both my hands on his face. “You will not ever do this to me again, do you understand? You will never leave me like that again! Do you know the hell I’ve been through while you were gone?”
He wrapped his arms tightly around me. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, my love. Never again. I only wanted to find the knowledge we needed… but never again.”
I kissed him quickly, several times. I could hardly believe he was back. In my old apartment, no less.
To think, when Resa first told us that I’d meet Jacob here today… We didn’t know Angelo would be with him.
“Good to have you back.” Rhyion smiled ecstatically.
Lio transformed back and he didn’t seem so ecstatic, but he did say in a serious tone, “Yes, glad to see you.”
“You have no idea how happy I am to see you guys…” Angelo said quietly.
“How long have they had you?” I asked him.
“Not long… a few days. I’ve been on the hunt for those books for a long time. I planned to come back before the fifteenth with or without them so that I could be with you, but Robert found me. They set this plan in motion to send out a ransom letter in a few days, forcing you into some kind of trap. But I knew it wouldn’t work. I knew you’d be at the apartment before that, because of what Resa said. Did you say that… she died?”
I nodded sadly. “Yes. Robert got to her.”
“I’m so sorry, Annabelle,” he told me. He knew how hard I would take it.
“Thank you,” I said quietly.
“We should go,” Rhyion said quickly. “Jacob may have come here alone, but when he doesn’t get back in touch with Robert, they’ll come looking. We’ve accomplished all we needed to.”
“Okay,” I agreed, as I looked back over my apartment.
For some reason, despite all the anguish that had occurred here, I was finding it hard to leave. It felt like my last attachment to my parents, and I thought after I left now… I’d likely never come back.
Maybe I could though, one day. It wasn’t going anywhere.
I put out my hands, and the boys made a circle around me. In moments, were back at home. Jacob was dead… And I had Angelo back.
And now I knew that the murderer of my parents had died
too. I always thought that it wouldn’t be until after I killed Robert that I’d have the satisfaction of knowing my parents’ murderer had died.
And it truly was very satisfying.
I wrapped myself around Angelo as soon as we were back, and I held him tight.
When I left, it was nothing but despair in my head and heart. I was thinking of the possibility that I may never get to be happy with Angelo and it was killing me.
Things felt different now. I felt different. All that hope that I once had that maybe I’d be happy one day… it came flooding back to me.
And all it took for it to return was Angelo.
“We should patrol the village,” Rhyion said to Lio quickly.
Lio nodded, though he didn’t look too happy about it. But he likely knew Angelo and I needed time alone. He was going to give it to us.
The second they stepped out of the house, the tears came back to me.
“I thought I’d never see you again,” I told him. “I thought this was it… you were gone.”
He locked his arms around my shoulders, pulling me in tightly. “I am so sorry I left. I thought I was making the right decision, but I see now that wasn’t true.”
“Me being without you is never the right decision,” I told him. “Don’t ever leave me like that again.”
“Of course, I never will. I’m so sorry. I’ll spend the rest of my life proving it to you, I promise.”
I looked up at him and my eyes were locked on his lips. His indescribably perfect lips that always had a way of drawing me in…
But especially now. I had missed him so much, thought of him constantly, considered th fact that I may never get to kiss those lips again.
I leaned up and pushed my lips to his. He instantly locked his hand behind my head, his fingers digging into my hair as he kissed me deeply.
His tongue locked against mine and I was amazed at how good he tasted. I instantly felt the passion between us.
With Angelo, things were so different from Lio. Lio was like… my slow-burn love. And our love making went slower, we built up more, we made love. With Angelo… well, we went from love to fucking pretty drastically.
Neither one was better than the other. On the contrary, I loved both scenarios so much. Each of them brought something to the table the other didn’t. Sometimes, when I’m emotional and needy, I need to make love. And other times, well, I just need to be fucked by someone who was going to take me fully.
That was Angelo.
Within seconds of our tongues touching, he had me thrown down onto the bed. He lowered his head to the top of my skirt and then yanked it down with his teeth, tearing the lining a little bit. I didn’t care, because the way he undressed me with his mouth had me tingling.
With his hands, he yanked my shirt up, exposing my nude breasts to him. He saw them and instantly the light in his eyes changed. They were familiar, I’d seen this look before, when he turned into a wolf.
His natural instincts kicked in as he slowly began to peel off his own shirt, he knew it got me turned on to watch him take his clothes off. My eyes were zoned into the hills of his ab muscles and the hard shaped V that led down to his penis.
He dropped his pants to expose his rock-hard member to me. He was already ready to go and I didn’t mind because, frankly, so was I. I could already feel I was wet for him. I’d missed him so much and having him here in front of me, naked… Well, it was all I required to be incredibly turned on.
He climbed onto the bed, his naked body hovering over mind, his cock dangling and the tip running over my pussy. I quivered as he ran one hand up my torso and to my breasts, where he grazed his fingers over my nipples before fully grabbing it in his strong hands.
“I’m going to take you,” he announced to me, “I’m going to make you mine.”
My breath got heavy at hearing this, I love when he spoke about what he was going to do to me.
“I am yours.” I said gently.
He smiled as he lowered himself a bit and, without any help from me, thrust himself into my soaking wet pussy.
As I’d been known to, I immediately began wriggling around under him. It was like the pleasure was just too overwhelming, I could never stay still. The ecstasy forced me to move.
But Angelo wasn’t having it. He grabbed both my wrists and pinned them down by my head, my hands were laid up above me. He roughly held me down as he began to plow into me. He wasn’t going to pace himself, he never did. He always started pounding at me right away and I fucking loved it.
And I loved being pinned down by him. It was a reminder of exactly what he had said: he was taking me. He was the aggressor in this situation. I may be his Queen, he may fall to my every command, but in this bedroom I’m his. And it was a relief to belong to him in this moment.
He slid my hands even higher so they were directly above my head, touching each other. Than he moved so only one hand was holding me down, leaving another hand that was free to explore.
At first, he used this to touch my breasts. Grope at them, stimulate my nipples as he sucked on my neck. I knew what he was doing, it was what he always did. He was pushing me to orgasm as quickly as I could. This was his favorite game… pressing my body to it’s limits.
And he was doing a damn good job. I was moaning under his every touch, he knew just how to please me. But I was determined to last. I wanted this sexy to last as long as possible because it just felt too damn good. He wasn’t going to bring me to my edge if I could avoid it.
But I couldn’t avoid it. Because when he finished with my breasts, he moved his hand down lower… to my clit.
He began to pick up the pace, plowing away at me as he started to rapidly run circles around my clit. I literally screamed in pleasure, overtaken by the ecstasy. I squirmed but it was no use, his grip on my arms was tight. He had me right where he wanted me… and he wanted me to orgasm.
I did, violently. It rocked through my entire body. My legs twitched as I screamed out in pleasure. Being completely full of him inwardly while he pleased me outwardly was simply too much to take.
The knowledge that he’d succeeded in what he set out to do pushed him over his edge too, it usually did. He loved to see me succumb to the orgasm, especially at times like this when I fought it.
He let out a guttural, animalistic groan as he filled me with his semen. He was panting rapidly as he finished, slowly pulling out of me as he laid down next to me on the bed.
A smile crossed my face, a smile I could not control. This was exactly what his orgasms did to me, they made me undeniably happy.
And sleepy. I could already feel the wave of tiredness come over me. I knew this feeling… I was going to sleep fantastically.
I curled my still naked body into his, laying my head on his chest.
“You have no idea how much I missed you,” I told him softly.
He kissed the top of my head. “And I, you.”
We said nothing else as we drifted off to sleep together.
10
When I awoke, Angelo was no longer in bed with me.
That instantly made me panic. For a moment, I wondered if him coming home was actually a dream. But no, I could distinguish a dream from reality very easily. He had definitely come home.
So where was he? And was he still safe?
I crawled out of bed. I was still naked, so I went to his closet and grabbed one of his oversized t-shirts and slid it on before stepping out into the hall.
As I walked quietly out, I heard two voices speaking… Angelo and Lio’s. I stopped at the edge of the hall.
“I know, and I’m sorry,” I heard Angelo say.
“You don’t really know, you couldn’t know. You weren’t here, I was. Your disappearance broke her, Angelo. She was a different person. She wasn’t even Annabelle anymore. At times I wondered if she’d ever come back to us.”
My heart broke a little bit to hear Lio say that. I knew I had put him through hell while I was worried about Angelo, and I regret
ted it. But I just couldn’t help myself at the time… I was so overwhelmed.
“I can only imagine.”
“That’s the problem,” Lio continued angrily. “You only will be able to know in your imagination. So do not ever put her through something like that again. I don’t care if you think you know best. At the end of the day, she is our queen, always. She will always know best. Not you.”
Angelo nodded. “You’re right. Lio, I cannot apologize enough.”
“It’s not me you need to apologize to, it’s her. It was her that was broken in your absence.”
“I have apologized, several times. Lio, you know what she means to me! You know I would never knowingly hurt her. I truly thought I was protecting her physically. Even if I died in the process.”
“That is part of the problem, Angelo. You put too much weight on physical safety. There is more than her physical safety to worry about. What about her emotional safety? If you died, she would never be the same. What about her happiness?”
“I knew that she could still be happy here with you. She loves you dearly, I have seen it.”
Lio sighed. “It’s not enough just to love me. I don’t think she even can love me if you’re gone. This love works because it involves the three of us. I can’t make her whole without you. And at the end of this war, when she’s finally queen, she deserves to be happy. She will never achieve that without you. So you must be less careless with your life. It’s just as important to her safety.”
“Of course. Of course, I didn’t consider that. And it will never happen again, Lio. You have my word.”
“Good. It better not. This is vital.”
I stepped out, and they both turned around to look at me, a little embarrassed that they’d been caught talking about me.
“Hey, you were out of bed, and I got worried,” I said to Angelo.
“Of course. I’m sorry, I just went to get some water, and I ran into Lio. I’m going back to bed right now,” he said, as he walked past me and down the hall.
“Okay, I’ll be there in a second,” I told him as I looked at Lio.
He raised an eyebrow. “Do you want to speak to me?”
I stepped toward him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “I’m so sorry, Lio. For everything I put you through while Angelo was gone.”