“I will not apologize because words mean nothing. Only actions.” A declaration, but not touted as such. He spoke them softly, but there was nothing gentle about War. Only stark truths that could bite as much as they could heal.
The beast liked him for that. She found the truth refreshing, but not enough to forgive.
“Make it up to me,” she demanded.
His dark eyes changed, the color altering from onyx to a shade of deep burgundy wine. The hands at his sides went limp as she closed the last foot between us and rested a delicate palm against his chest. Through the thin material of his shirt, a heart thundered.
“Ruby…” He murmured my name like a prayer. Maybe it was a plea. I was not the one he had to appease, much as he might wish it.
“Did I stutter? Make it up to me.” The Siberian winter held more warmth than the voice that came out of my mouth. Laran did not shiver or balk. Nor did he hide from her command.
He stayed still as stone when she wrapped my hand around his shirt, twisting the fabric to pull him closer. She could sense the conflict he felt within. A storm brewed with such intensity. A need, want, and desperation to be burned by her. By me. He was not like Julian who tried to cover his wants, nor was he like Allistair who pushed me persistently. He was hot and passionate, and his feelings were as muddled and needy as my own.
His lips loomed before us, and she did not hesitate.
My mouth crashed into his. Hot and fierce. She wrapped my hand around his neck, maintaining an iron grip while my lips parted his. Heat swept through my system like a monsoon, relentless in the things it made me feel while doing desire’s bidding.
Laran gripped my waist as he hoisted me from the ground. My legs instinctually wrapped around his waist, his cock pressing into me. He carried me with an assuredness and every step rubbed against my swollen clit. I ground against his bulge while his hands slid from my waist to cupping my ass, digging his fingertips into my skin.
A purr escaped my throat, dark and needy as the beast met him head on and without hesitation. I…I was not in control, yet I felt every movement. Every scrape of my jeans against my clit. Every thrust of his tongue as he tried to consume me as much as the beast tried to consume him. For all intents and purposes, it was me, but without the reservations.
I reveled in it, knowing that my mind would be torn with indecision if it were really me in control. This was so much more freeing in many ways, and the beast knew that.
My back hit something hard and solid, but Laran plowed through, a thud reverberating as the door came crashing down. In this moment, I didn’t care what we destroyed. I didn’t care as we slammed onto the bed. He started to pull back, and I ripped the shirt from his chest.
A growl rumbled in his throat as he bit my lip. Hard. Copper and sweetness spread between our lips. He broke the kiss right when I gasped, taking in a breath of chilled air. His hands slipped beneath my damp sweatshirt and skimmed my ribs as he pulled it over my head, taking the shirt I wore with it.
I arched my back into his touch. He was so different than Allistair and his need to dominate. Or Rysten, who was sweet and sought to please me. Not even Julian, who’s very essence held a pain that made me want more.
Laran wanted me to burn and to burn with me.
I loosened my hold around his waist, letting my legs drop to either side of him and dangling my feet over the edges. He skimmed his lips over my half-naked body, letting the chill air slap my sensitive skin. Without asking what I wanted or needed, he began tugging at my boots, and made quick work of pulling away my socks and layers of pants. He tugged them free with a growl, and the beast smiled and sat up to watch him.
Bared before him in only my panties and bra, Laran got on his knees. With my legs hanging over the edge of the bed, we were eye level as he reached around and unhooked my bra with a swift flick of his thumb. The straps slid loose over my shoulders, the cups falling away from my breasts to the floor beneath us.
He wrapped a well-muscled arm around my waist and pulled me to him. His bare chest brushing mine as he consumed me in another passionate kiss. He pulled away to trail his kiss down my neck, taking his sweet time to leave bites as he went.
I wasn’t sure what it was with all of them and biting, but I didn’t want it to stop.
I moaned inwardly, but the beast made not a sound. He dipped his head lower and took my nipple between his teeth. Pleasure shot straight between my thighs and I ground against him, arching my back to give him better access. He let out a groan of approval and continued his descent while the beast leaned back on her elbows and watched.
Laran’s perfect physique was speckled with scars, dark and light. The skin did not warp or edge at an odd angle; it was blissfully smooth, but the stories of his past marked him. Much the same as the red brand that peeked out over his jeans. From this angle, it looked like some kind of knot made of fire, but my attention wavered as he trailed his nose down my chest, over my stomach, and to the triangle of cotton between my thighs.
He breathed in my smell and kissed my sex through the thin material that separated us. I was drowning in sensation, unable to do anything, but not wanting it to stop.
She ground my feet into the edge of the bed, lifting my hips for him to make her intentions clear.
He growled, blowing a wave of heat through my panties and straight to the most sensitive part of my body. My hips bucked once, outside both her and my control.
“Tell me she wants this,” he groaned against my inner thigh. My breath hissed between my teeth as the beast stared down at him.
“She and I are the same: two sides of one coin.”
“That is not what I asked,” he growled as he bit into my thigh. He gripped my panties tightly and ripped them, exposing my puckered flesh, ripe with arousal.
“Please us both and you’ll find out,” she said, swaying my hips before him.
Indecision weighed on him as he watched the beast flout my body. Our body. She wasn’t human, and she truly would not give an inch if Laran didn’t please her. Maybe he saw that, or maybe his own need was consuming him.
Parting my folds, he blew once over my clit before locking his teeth around it and sucking sharply. The beast purred, fisting his hair in my hand. He shifted lower, moving his hands to my thighs, grabbing me roughly. He spread my legs wider and leaned forward to brush his nose over my skin.
“You smell like you were made for me,” he murmured. The beast cocked an eyebrow at him, waiting impatiently for more. Laran growled and twisted his head to the side, sucking on the flesh of my inner thigh. The beast didn’t make a sound as my heart hammered in my chest. Laran nipped at the skin with his teeth, trailing down the inside of my thigh, a moan escaping from her lips.
“You’re teasing me, War,” the beast breathed, her voice unsteady. There was a huskiness in my voice—her voice—that let him know just how much this affected her.
Laran’s fingers pressed into my legs as he brought those nips back up my thigh and licked my wet and waiting flesh. He thrust his tongue inside of me without warning, pushing my thighs down onto the bed, exposing my cunt.
My back arched as pleasure drove me to rock against him, pushing my hips more with every thrust and flick of his tongue. Slipping two fingers inside me while he nipped my clit with his teeth, gliding them back and forth as I tightened and fluttered around him. As my body began to shake, he pulled back his hand, sliding his arms beneath me to hold my hips steady and pull me closer to his mouth. My climax built, my body uncontrollably curling forward as she locked my legs behind his arms, shifting my hands from his hair to both shoulders.
Only a moment before it happened I realized what she was going to do, but it was already too late. Laran pulled back only a hairsbreadth, when a burning started in my palms and tore through both our bodies like a wildfire.
The aching pressure and searing pain swirled together, triggering my orgasm as Laran took my clit in his mouth, sucking hard. The beast receded instantly, pushing me forward to scream in ecst
asy while my body writhed, pouring pleasure onto the bed beneath us.
The release was long and mind-shattering. I was still gasping for breath when it stopped, shaking from a bone-deep exertion that didn’t make sense. I unhooked my legs from his arms and tried to shift back, but Laran grabbed both legs and pinned them down as he rose to kneel over me. His eyes blazed with a scorching heat that would have turned me on again, had I not seen what now adorned the top of his shoulders.
“Laran, I—”
“Did you want me?” he interrupted. The sincerity in his voice shook me.
“Yes, but—”
“Then don’t apologize,” he replied.
“What?” I asked, my voice edging with hysteria.
“I know this seems like a big deal to you—”
“It’s a massive fucking deal. Look at you!” I snapped.
Whatever desires and things we wanted to say would remain unspoken as we both jumped up when a door slammed at the other end of the house and Julian roared, “What happened here?”
For devil’s sake…
I wiggled my way out from beneath Laran in record time, slipping my robe on right as Julian stormed around the corner. He stopped short of the broken door that littered my floor in pieces. I crossed my arms over my chest and stared at the ceiling while silence spread between us.
I didn’t look, because I didn’t have to. Julian’s emotions turned from concerned and desperate to shock laced with anger. The polite thing to do would have been to ignore what happened between Laran and I, let me get dressed, maybe even ask about the dead bodies or blown window.
Is that what he did?
Oh no.
Instead, he said, “Why is War branded with your mark?”
Jealousy did not look nice on anyone, human or demon.
But damn I was good at inciting it.
**Laran**
She branded me.
Twin pentagrams now adorned my shoulders, identical to the one between her breasts. Except these were not black, but blue. They glimmered faintly in the evening glow coming from her window. Swirling. Moving in a way that brands normally did not.
I touched the tips of my fingers to them, but the skin was unmarred.
Old magic.
Even older than I.
I swept my gaze across to her, wanting nothing more than to reach out. She gave me the greatest gift that could be bestowed on me. The highest honor.
I was the first mate.
And she felt guilty about it.
Possessiveness and territorialism pounded through me, wanting to pummel Death into the fucking ground for what he was doing. The fucker was jealous it wasn’t him. It just as easily could have been if he didn’t have a stick up his ass and would just talk to her.
He didn’t need to make her feel guilty about it.
I took a step closer and her sapphire eyes flared with heat.
That’s it, baby. Come to me.
My mind reached out tentatively, trying to brush against her fragile psyche. She’d yet to display any form of telepathy, but I wish she had.
Oh, I wish she had. The things I was going to do to her once I had the chance…once I got Julian the fuck out of here.
“War!” Julian shouted. It reverberated through my very bones, yet none of us had spoken a single word. I cut my eyes to him.
“What the fuck are you doing? Can’t you see I’m in the middle of—”
“She hasn’t transitioned yet, you fool!” He never shouted. Never raised his voice. In the eons of our existence, I could think of only a handful of times.
It was the tone of his voice that had ice racing through my veins.
She hadn’t entered the transition. Not even after branding me had she entered the transition, but oh, she smelled like it. Time was not on our side, and I just made the situation infinitely more complicated and likely to blow.
Because there was no way I was going to be able to stay away now.
It was hard enough not to run to her and fall to my knees.
To give her everything she deserved.
I was claimed and owned as the first mate of the next queen, and I couldn’t even act on it.
Fuck me.
Chapter 13
“Well…she was not very happy with you all for leaving me unprotected, and we had a little problem with getting her to comply…”
The beast huffed inside of me, purring like a fucking kitten after what she’d done.
Yeah. Little problem didn’t even touch the tip of the iceberg on this one.
“The beast.” Julian’s jaw did that thing again where it ticked. “She branded him?” he asked.
I nodded guiltily.
Julian said nothing as he glanced between us, schooling his face into a neutral expression. Somehow, I didn’t think Laran was buying his show any more than I did, but whatever. He was the one that would barely look at me most of the time, pretending he was uninterested. It wasn’t my job to figure his shit out. I wouldn’t feel guilty. If I had anyone I needed to feel guilty towards, it was Laran. He was the one I’d branded.
“Well. I suppose we should talk about what happened that led up to this.” He motioned between me and Laran, a pile of clothes, torn panties and a ripped shirt, at our feet. I bit off my retort about how none of this was happening before they showed up. There wasn’t a lot of point. Blaming people got us nowhere.
“Where would you like to start? With the mob I found outside of my shop this morning, or how I was attacked this afternoon when I got home?” I crossed my arms and gave Julian my best neutral expression. His brows bunched up slightly as a small amount of surprise leaked through.
“Start at the mob,” he replied.
“Please,” Laran added. I gave him a tight-lipped smile and Julian rolled his eyes.
How very human of you, Death.
I gave them a brief rundown of the morning, skimming over what I tattooed on Kendall’s face and moving onto the attack. Both Laran and Julian stayed relatively quiet, apart from the occasional outburst of ‘why did you do that, Ruby’ or ‘I can’t believe you put your life in danger, Ruby’. By the end of it, they both were watching me with troubled expressions.
“The transition is looming near. Laran should have known better than to—”
“Oh piss off, Death. I’m not in the mood and it’s none of your fucking business.” With that, Laran stormed out of my bedroom.
“Are you sure about that?” Julian responded, his voice no louder than a whisper.
Oh for devil’s sake, can’t we all just get along—
A banshee scream reverberated through the house, shattering the window in my bedroom. I clapped both hands over my ears and pushed my way past Julian and into the hallway where Bandit was screaming bloody murder along with her.
“Moira!” I shouted, but she couldn’t hear me over her own scream. I shoved into Laran hard, jostling him enough that I caught sight of her on the other side of him. Her eyes flashed to mine and the screaming died in her throat instantly.
Bandit ran toward me and started scratching at my bare legs. I reached down and scooped him up, cradling him to my chest. The ringing in my ears didn’t abate, even after she ran and nearly tackled me to the floor. Laran placed a firm hand against my lower back, holding all three of us up as she threw her arms around me.
“I’m so sorry, Ruby. I just saw the dead bodies and lost my shit. I thought something might have happened to you, but I hadn’t felt anything and that just made it worse and—”
“Shh…” I whispered. Her fawning over me, while kind, wasn’t helping. That damn screech of hers was going to make me hard of hearing one of these days. Not to mention poor Bandit was going to need a visit to Dr. Lummus to make sure she didn’t cause any real damage. Oh, he was going to love that. She fed him tuna while I rubbed his belly to keep him calm enough for her to be able to give him a simple physical. And when he needed shots? Ha. I was dragging Moira’s ass with me for this one.
“What
the hell happened here?” she asked, pulling back to glance at the body and pile of ash behind her.
“I was attacked by hunters,” I murmured, moving around her. I walked several feet across the cold concrete floors. The footsteps echoed in the absence of furniture, aiding the howling wind outside. I leaned down and picked up the ceremonial blade buried in the ash pile.
“Is that what I think it is?” Moira squeaked. I glanced up at her and took a deep breath. She held her arms crossed over her chest, her forest green hairs stood on end. Goosebumps. I blew the glittering ashes off the blade and the runes lit up.
“That depends on how much you believe in ghost stories,” I murmured. “I’ve heard rumors of assassins for hire that can take more than just a life.” Moira’s eyes never left the knife as I turned it over in my hands.
“Demon hunters?” Moira whispered.
I nodded solemnly.
“Who would hire someone—”
“The imp,” Julian answered gravely before the question left her mouth. She stopped short, her face turning a shade deeper.
“He needs to be dealt with,” she demanded. She balled her hands into fists. Guilt and outrage battled within her, but in the end, only a creeping helplessness and fierce need to protect me remained.
“He will be,” Laran vowed. A gust of wind swept through, carrying the ashes out of the busted window. He knelt to exam the body: the man shot between the eyes. Julian moved out of the shadows, his eyes sweeping across the dead assassin with nothing short of a clipped fury and cold cruelty.
“You said they looked alike?” Julian asked. I nodded. “That’s unfortunate,” he murmured to himself. Julian narrowed his eyes on the body, running his fingers across his jaw. He brushed his thumb across his bottom lip but didn’t seem to notice. His full attention was on the dead before us.
“Why is that unfortunate?” I breathed, barely wanting to ask.
“Because they were not human, nor were they demons. The dead body before me is Seelie, and your savior knew that.” I took a daring step towards the body. In life, his skin was the color of lead. In death, it had darkened to slate; weathered and ashen, like a corpse much older than this one was. His wide eyes were the darkest crystalline white, but held no vitality to them.
Wicked Games Page 9