The Cities

by K. A Knight

“I don’t know, but I married us, you accepted the ring.” He shrugs and I sputter at him.

  I yell, tackling him to the sand and holding a knife to his throat. “Tell me,” I grit out, almost snarling at him.

  He just smirks up at me, cupping my arse in his hands. “So demanding, my wife.”

  “Dray,” I warn, deadly serious. Again, not that he cares.

  “Me and Nan worked out our issues, I asked her to marry us, and she did. You’re wearing the ring, we are husband and wife,” he says, like it is that simple.

  “You. Married. Us?” I ask slowly, making sure I heard him right.

  “Yes, soulmate.” He grins up at me. “Isn’t it great?”

  Fury wells up in me at him taking my choice away, the need to make him hurt rising with it, and he must see it in my eyes, because his darkens and he grips my ass harder. Throwing the knife to the side before I kill the crazy bastard, I do the only thing I can think of to hurt him—I lean down and bite his neck, hard. He thrusts up against me even as he yells, and I am ripped away, sent tumbling over the sands. I roll with it and land in a crouch, glaring at him as he gets to his feet and prowls towards me, blood running down his neck from my bite, surrounded by clear teeth imprints.

  I move back, circling each other. “That’s not a very nice way to treat your husband,” he teases and I scream as I jump at him.

  He catches me mid-air as I smack into his chest and then he throws me to the ground, following me down and pinning me. He yanks open my thighs and presses between them, letting me feel his hard cock as he rubs it across my pussy. “That’s better,” he whispers, leaning down to kiss me. I let him, relaxing like he’s won, and when he slips his tongue between my lips I bite down. I can taste his blood as he groans into mouth, deepening the kiss, forcing me to taste him and the copper tang of his blood. Jerking my mouth away, I turn my head to the side.

  “Dray!” I shout, pissed.

  He grabs my breast through my shirt, making me gasp as my anger melts with my lust until I need to move, I need to get it out of me. I thrash, thrusting at him to get him off me as I wiggle away. Flipping to my front, I crawl away, dragging myself until I can jump to my feet and turn to face him. He watches me with a smirk, crouched on the ground, but gets to his feet again.

  “Fine, get it all out, then I’ll fuck the rest out, but you are mine, soulmate. Always have been, always will be. This changes nothing except I wanted everyone to see, everyone to know.” He shrugs then, holding his arms open. “Give it your best shot, Champion.”

  I hold up my hand and go to take the ring off but he snarls, his eyes flashing in warning. “Take that ring off and I will tie you to a bed in this place and fuck you senseless. I don’t give a shit about your plan or needing to get your other men. Try me, soulmate, I dare you,” he growls, his voice deadly, so I drop my hands and instead grab my whip.

  Uncoiling the whip, I launch it through the air, and it wraps around his wrist. He laughs so I tighten it, and it cuts into his skin, but he just smirks. Winding it tighter around his wrist, he uses it to reel me in until I stumble into his chest and have to let go of the whip as I pummel my fists into his chest.

  “It’s my fucking choice! You don’t ever get to take my choice away!” I scream.

  He growls then, grabbing my chin hard. “I would never take your choice away, I’m not one of those bastards who hurt you. But you were never getting away from me, soulmate. This? This marriage was for me, because I love you more than anything in this world. I wanted you to know that I always have your back, and even now when you have lost your family, I will be it,” he snaps, forcing my eyes to his. “Don’t you ever compare me to those bastards,” he growls, and I can tell he’s pissed as hell now.

  He sweeps his leg out, knocking me to the sand, and pinning me with his body again. I don’t even know why I’m fighting anymore, I’m not even pissed, I just needed to tell him he couldn’t take my choices from me. Now? Now I want the fight that comes with an angry Dray, I want to take it out on his skin, so I keep fighting even when I shouldn’t. Because I never know when to stop.

  He restrains me there, while I kick and buck as he kisses down my neck. “We were two fractured souls, just waiting and searching for each other, but now we are whole like we were meant to be.”

  I still then, panting into the sand. He thinks I have stopped fighting, so he relaxes, his grip loosening, but he should know by now I never stop fighting. I flip us and I am on him in a second. The fighting turns to lust as I bite at his lips, smashing his hands to the sand on either side of his head. He throws me off him, growling as he jumps after me. He grabs my arms and spin me into his chest, pinning my arms behind me back, and I stop fighting, looking into his eyes as he keeps me there, on the edge of pain as he hoists my arms up farther, forcing a gasp from my lips.

  “Are you really that bothered or do you just like fighting me?” He smirks.

  I narrow my eyes on him, struggling a little, but the pain forces me to stop and he leans down, biting on my bottom lip before sucking it into his mouth and then letting go with a pop. “I think you just like fighting, I think you secretly love the idea of being married to me, you just want to fight and fuck.”

  “Then fuck me and find out,” I taunt. He’s right, but shit.

  He narrows his eyes on me and smashes his lips to mine again, sweeping his tongue in and tangling it with mine. Groaning into his mouth, I press my chest further against his, my pussy already wet from our fight. Kicking my leg out, I knock him over. He stumbles, falling into me, and we tumble to the sand behind me. I grunt into his mouth as he knocks my breath away by landing on top of me, but it got me where I wanted to be, so I can’t complain.

  He rips my shirt over my head, leaving me in just my bra, before he flicks open my jeans and pulls them from my legs, tossing them behind him as he takes me in from head to toe, licking his lips as he does so. I want to get back at him, I want him as pissed and wild as I am, so I grin and slowly sit up. He frowns, but I just laugh as I flip to show him my back. It’s silent for a moment and I hold my breath, wondering how he will react. I shouldn’t have worried, not for a moment. After all, this is the man who just married me without even telling me.

  “Soulmate,” he snarls, his fingers tracing around the tattoos I got. “I-Is that a Seeker symbol?” His voice is raspy and sends a shiver of need through me as he presses his whole body against my back, fitting himself behind me like a glove and whispering into my ear, his warm breath hitting the shell. “Did you mark me on your body? So everyone would know?”

  “Don’t get too big headed, I just liked the symbol,” I tease, and his hand wraps around my throat from behind, just a warning with no real pressure, but it makes my heart race and my nipples pebble as I push back into him. “Yes, it’s your symbol, and Major’s above it.”

  “You marked me on your body,” he repeats.

  “You marked me on yours,” I fire back, almost rubbing against him now from the way he is holding me still without even thinking. His strength astounds me and sends lust pouring through my veins, making my pussy drip.

  “Do you know what this means, soulmate?” he purrs, his voice low as he licks at my ear, his hand tightening slightly.

  “What?” I almost groan, needing him inside me.

  “I can see my mark on you as I fuck you from behind. Fuck, just thinking about it has me nearly exploding. Thinking of you writhing beneath me, fighting me as I take you, my brand standing out against your skin.”

  Sands below, what a fucking image.

  “Then why don’t you?” I dare, pushing into his hand, cutting off my breathing as he nibbles at my ear. He roughly pulls me back against him, my ass slamming into his hard bulge, which he rubs there.

  His hand releases my throat and I almost whine out loud as he laughs into my ear. “Bastard,” I mutter.

  He slips his fingers down my belly before slipping into my panties and cupping my wet pussy. I bite my lip to stop myself from groaning, th
en press down into his hands, spreading my thighs for him. He strokes me, murmuring dirty nothings in my ear before he pulls his hand away, leaving me panting and on the edge of just throwing him to the ground and fucking his brains out.

  “Dray,” I warn and he laughs into my ear again, and I go to turn but he presses his hand into the middle of my back, pushing me to the sand. I fall to my hands and knees, and he kicks my legs open farther, yanking off my panties in one move, letting warm air caress my exposed pussy and ass as I feel him shift behind me. Leaning on my forearms, I wiggle my ass backwards, needing him inside of me.

  A swat lands on my ass, making me moan at the fire that races through my cheek, I push back and he does it again and again, his hits getting harder and harder. I know this will hurt tomorrow, in a good way, and I can’t stop the moans leaving my lips as I rock against thin air, the pain climbing higher and higher, and then he grabs my hips, slams me back, and slides into me in one thrust, forcing a scream from my throat.

  He is the only man I have ever screamed for and it takes me by surprise.

  He doesn’t give me time to adjust, causing a bite of pain as I am forced to stretch around him as he pulls out and slams back in, again and again. His hips hit my ass, chafing the already red cheeks, only adding to it as the pain meshes with pleasure. “Dray,” I demand, pushing back into him as his hips slam into me, his balls slapping against my skin with each thrust.

  “Mine,” he growls, his hands biting into my hips as he bends over me and licks up my spine, circling the tattoo of his symbol before nipping at the skin there.

  My breasts drag against the rough ground with each thrust, and everything blurs together. It’s too much, my body is overwhelmed, and all I can do is hold on as he claims me here where we first met—our blood mixing into the sand below, his ring on my finger, and his mark on my back. How far we have come.

  I push back to meet each thrust, and when he twists his hips and smacks my ass again, an orgasm rips through me, pulling another scream from my throat as I fight him just like he said I would. My hands claw at the sand, and my body twists and turns beneath him with the power of the release blackening my eyes for a moment as I try to relearn how to breathe while he continues to fuck me ruthlessly through it, my pussy milking him.

  He grabs my hair, winding it around his fist, and yanks me up on my knees, my back slamming into his chest as he deepens the angle. Pain flows through me from my ass and I groan, not able to move much in this position, just taking his fucking as he builds me back up again. “Please,” I groan, needing to come again. He tilts my head to the side using his fist, pulling on the strands, and claims my mouth, his tongue tangling with mine as he dominates me.

  He lets go of my hair before reaching between us and playing with my clit for a moment, making me moan into his mouth. He drags his finger down my wet center and then presses it to my other hole, slipping just the tip in. It sends me careening over the edge and I scream into his mouth, clawing at his arm and side, everything I can get my hands on as I shudder against him.

  He roars into my mouth, yanking away from me as his hips stutter and he fills me with his come, then stilling behind me as we lean into each other, both sweaty messes and weak as hell. I tumble to the sand and he follows me down, softening inside me before he slips free. We both groan as he collapses on my back, panting as he shifts slightly to the side so he doesn’t crush me, and neither of us speaking.

  Holy fucking sands below, that was incredible.

  He lays an open-mouthed kiss over the tattoo, making me smile into the sand at the gentle way he does it. It’s so opposite from the rough way he just fucked me. He really is a contradiction, and I guess now my husband? The thought doesn’t bother me as much anymore, and I know he wasn’t trying to control me, claim me, or make me any less. He just wanted to show everyone that he loves me and that we belong to each other, and make the most out of whatever time we have left in his blood soaked world.

  “I love you,” I say softly, and he wraps his arm around me, pulling me to my side and cuddling in behind me.

  Fuck, I’m going to have sand in all sorts of places later.

  “I love you always, wife,” he whispers against my skin, kissing my shoulder again, right over a scar.

  “Crazy fucking husband,” I joke, and he groans behind me.

  “Fuck, that’s hot on your lips. Say it again.”

  “You are insatiable.” I laugh as he presses against my sore red ass.

  It goes quiet for a moment, as both of us become lost in each other’s arms, the joking and laughing of our men drifting to us on the night air. Last time I got up and left, but now I regret that, so I promise to never regret a moment again. “So, soulmate, want to fight or fuck?” he teases, repeating those same words he said to me last time.

  “Both, always both.”

  The Last Supper

  After we have dressed, we head back to the celebration. I need to speak to some of the guards here, and put people in charge for when I leave and just in case I don’t come back. I also need to speak to my generals. Dray and I are leaving tomorrow, and they need to be made aware of exactly what needs to happen. I leave the ring on, the stones catching the firelight and shining as we make our way through The Ring. It seems so strange here now, like the weight of Ivar’s reign has lifted. There’s more laughter, I don’t spot any slaves, and everyone is drinking and enjoying themselves.

  I stand for a moment on the edge of the crowd, just looking out at them all. Who knew a slave girl like me would end up here? Dray reaches for my hand, twining our fingers as he looks out with me, and I feel nearly complete. There is a hole at my back and other side where my other men should be, but hopefully next time we are here, they will be with me and I will be complete again.

  “Let’s get something to eat before you start giving orders, I’m hungry,” Dray says, tugging me along with him.

  I roll my eyes but follow him over to the building that holds the cafeteria. People are spill out of the doors, drinking and eating, and spread out outside because there obviously isn’t enough room inside. I nod at some and greet them as we pass, but it’s like the mention of food has reminded me how hungry I am, and my stomach growls and I grin. I’m used to going without eating, but I’ve been spoiled recently, and it’s clear my stomach is used to it now.

  When we step through the door, the chaos hits me square in the face. It’s really loud in here with men drinking, fighting, and eating over ever surface. Women sit on laps, joking and teasing men, and I grin at the sight. This feels like a home no bike on the road ever could. I head to the bar in the corner, grab a bottle, and head to the table where Erik, Henry, and Bern are sitting with a few others. Dray goes and gets us some food as I hover over the table. A Seeker gets up instantly, nods at me, and moves to a different table. I sit in his spot and they all grin over at me, and Bern hollers in laughter when he spots the ring on my finger. I flip him the bird and down some of the alcohol as they all whoop and howl. Word must spread, because soon everyone is looking over at me and changing our names.

  Sands below.

  I turn to see Dray grinning as he hops up on a table and holds out his arms. “It’s true, I have been tamed!” he yells, and everyone stomps and cheers. “The Seeker King now has a queen!” he finishes, and toasts everyone with a stolen drink. He tosses it back, grabs two trays, and saunters over to me, plonking one in front of me as he straddles the end of the bench by my side.

  “Really?” I mutter, but he winks at me and I can’t help but smile.

  Eventually, everyone quiets down and goes back to their own conversations, and I work my way through the meat on my plate as I listen to them all.

  “So, tomorrow we leave?” Erik inquires, watching me as he sips from his metal goblet.

  I nod around a mouthful of meat before washing it down with some booze. “We’ll eat and then I’ll go over everything, but yes.”

  Bern butts in then, slamming his fist onto the table. “I can
nie wait to get back at those Cities fuckers,” he declares loudly.

  “We will win.” Henry nods.

  That makes me feel better. I’m not leading them to slaughter, but I know I’m right. This is about more than just my men, they wont stop there. They will keep coming and the Wastes will fall into chaos, becoming easy for them to snatch and rule, and from what I’ve heard, they don’t rule fairly. The North has suffered enough, they need to be stopped, and if it means we have to lose lives to do it, then so be it.

  You can’t save every life, you just can’t, and sometimes you have to sacrifice to save the many.

  Major’s words ring in my head. Did he know what he was preparing me for, or did he just know the burden of leadership? I will sacrifice before this war is through, I know it, but I won’t be asking for that without giving myself. I will be right there alongside them, fighting until the bitter end.

  I finish eating and sip my booze as I join the conversations, laughing and joking with my men, and forgetting everything for a while. We play drinking games, watch a Seeker get knocked out, and Dray only kills one person. Overall, it’s a good night, but I can feel time passing and I know I need to have our discussions before we leave and get some sleep. Who knows when we will get to sleep again? It won’t do to fight tired.

  Erik must notice, because he tosses back his drink and stands. “Come on, generals, our queen needs us.”

  “That sounds filthy,” I mutter, and Dray laughs next to me and leans in.

  “It better not be, I still have twenty blades on me,” he threatens, and I look him over, wondering where they are hidden before I shake my head and stand, drinking the rest of the bottle. Bern and Henry follow, while Dray grabs more meat on his way out, munching as we head over to the meeting room. I would bring them to Major’s office, but I remember his letter, and honestly I don’t want strangers in that space. I look over at Bern. “Will you grab me the head guard of The Ring please?”

  “Aye, Ma Queen.” He plods off, and he’s so big, people dodge away from him, clearing his path. I grin as I carry on walking.