Embracing Destiny

by Hutchins, Amelia

  I waved my hand, and the earth beneath our feet rumbled as the courtyard expanded, sending a new wall around the approaching courts before they’d even entered the gates. I stared down at my hand while the others around us stared at me. The walls grew taller while I watched, sending thorns and spikes over the tops, making them impossible to climb. It looked like something out of a horror movie, pulsing with a dark power that itched to drink blood.

  “When did you discover that ability, Pet?” Ryder’s wide eyes took in the massive walls and deadly thorns, smiling.

  “Just now,” I said. “They are safe and within the walls. They can set up camps below, and we will deal with them when we finish mourning. I need a drink, and then I need you alone for a while.”

  “I hope that includes us naked,” Ryder grinned, and I turned, finding Spyder watching me, wiggling his brows.

  “Hey, not judging. You get that dick, girl. You earned it. You also put a ring on it.”

  “I didn’t put a ring on his cock,” I frowned.

  “You should. It will make that shit last longer. Not if it’s a vibrating ring though, that shit ruins everything.”

  “Nod, smile, and walk by him. He is very immature. He’s Spyder. His entire world revolves around his dick.” Lucian smiled, turning away and vanishing from sight without as much as a ripple of power disturbing the air.

  “He’s not Batman,” Spyder announced offhandedly, wiggling his brows. “He’s Papa Smurf, and I’m Brainy.”

  “These are the guys that are supposed to keep us safe?” I whispered to Ryder.

  “I’m not calling him Big Papa,” Ryder said, cracking a smile.

  “There it is,” Spyder chuckled. “We have lost people, and it fucking hurts. The pain seeks to destroy you from the inside out. Don’t let it control you. Channel it. Use it. As Danu said, ‘Anger is good, wrath is better, but rage, rage is fucking beautiful destruction.’ Winning a war is empty as fuck, trust me. We’ve fought a lot of them and never lost. Winning isn’t some glorious fucking thing where you get a trophy at the end.” He exhaled, shaking his head as his dark eyes held mine.

  “You get fucking graves, and those deaths follow you everywhere.

  “This war isn’t about winning. It’s about saving a world, and that shit isn’t ever easy. Not to mention your mother, God love her tits, but she was a selfish bitch. Danu centered her entire world around her husband. Everything and everyone else that didn’t fit into her world could fuck off or die for all she cared. Keep that in mind, Synthia. She wasn’t lying about what she told you today.”

  “And what did she tell you?” Ryder asked carefully.

  “That is what I wanted to speak to you about, without ears around us. Preferably after you’ve had your way with me, Fairy.”

  “You two kids have fun,” Spyder chuckled, walking away.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Ryder stood silently, staring out the balcony window at the funeral pyres that continued to burn long into the night. My heart ached for him, knowing he’d lost three of his brothers in one night. Brothers he had grown up with, protecting them long before I’d ever been created.

  He was in pain I couldn’t fix or ease, and that knowledge wrapped around my heart, clenching it hard. It was deep-seated grief tearing him apart from the depths of his soul. He’d walked into the tower and froze, unable to move from the grisly sight awaiting him. I wanted to take the pain away, and yet I knew I couldn’t. No one could erase or lessen his sorrow.

  Nothing touched the grief we felt. No amount of alcohol could numb it to a dull ache. It was a soul-deep, earth-altering sorrow that echoed through our souls, imprinting them with a darkness that held its hand upon our throats. We would survive this, but would we want to?

  “I love you,” I whispered to the beast, hiding silent agony from within the dark shadows of our bedroom as he watched his men mourning their families below. “I will love you forever, Ryder.” I removed the necklace holding my mother’s essence from my throat. She’d given it to me upon her death visage before I’d left to marry my beast. I’d worn it ever since, refusing to remove it no matter where I went or what happened.

  Silence echoed through the room as Ryder stared down at Dristan’s pyre. The comforting words his brother had said did little to ease his passing for Ryder. Instead, it fueled Ryder with anger, driven by a need to avenge those who had been taken from us. I was with him on that page, but to battle the gods, he’d have to be stronger than one.

  I was Ryder’s ride-or-die girl, and he knew it. I didn’t need to say those words out loud for him to know that whatever he did, I’d stand with him. I’d honor his choice, regardless of where it left me.

  I inspected the single drop of essence as it mixed with ambrosia already in the cup I held. Placing it on the nightstand, I closed the vial. Standing, I picked up the goblet and walked to Ryder, kissing his spine while I held my hand out, allowing him to accept the drink. Swallowing hard, fear pricking against my mind, I studied the glass as Ryder lifted it to his full mouth and downed it in one gulp.

  My heart knocked violently against my ribs with the knowledge of what I’d done, what it could mean for us. I wouldn’t lose my husband to a god as I’d lost the others. Ristan had yet to allow another person to hold his son; not even his mother was allowed to touch the wee thing. Finley had insisted on checking the infant out, but Ristan had snarled, turning multicolored in his true form with a whisper of wings that had made us all pause and stare.

  Ristan had been born with wings, horns, and a tail, much like his son. Alazander hadn’t liked how lethal those things were, so he had them removed when Ristan was old enough to survive the violent procedure.

  Zahruk was currently fucking anything he could to ease the guilt he felt for Darynda, and it was troublesome. The dark circles beneath his eyes reminded of me of the nightmares he’d mentioned, sticking in my mind.

  We were all falling apart tonight, and grief was driving us to act out. We were lashing out at each other as we muddled our way through the tragedy that had left us barely breathing.

  “Ryder,” I whispered, tears swimming in my vision as I placed my hands on his shoulders.

  He turned, tilting his head. His obsidian eyes mixed with golden galaxies as if burning constellations of stars were held within them. His power flowed through the room, and his hands gripped my shoulders as an angry slant tilted the corners of his mouth. A growl vibrated through his chest, and he silently studied me as he was filled with the power of the Goddess of Faery.

  “I’m so sorry, but I will not lose you,” I whispered as he growled, shoving me against the wall, glaring into my eyes. “I love you enough to let you hate me.” I swallowed a broken sob as his hand tightened around my throat. “For Faery and those who need us, we cannot be weak. For the people who gave all and the stars they ride, from now until forever, I claim you as My King.”

  “What the hell did you do?” he snarled, staring at his hand as claws extended, black and gold veins pulsing through them. The black wings on his back unfurled, the lines within them matching his veined arms. The dragon markings on his chest grew, stretching as he evolved.

  “I transformed you into the beast they created you to become. Now I have made you into the God of Faery. We will not abandon the land or our people. We will fight to save both. You planned to leave Faery, and I cannot allow that to happen. The Stag told me secrets, Ryder. If the fae leave the land, they will become mortal as a man. You promised me forever, and I intend to hold you to it.”

  “It wasn’t your choice to make, wife.” He snorted as his eyes narrowed, turning angry and promising violence.

  “No, but you would have turned down Danu’s essence merely on principle. You and I, we are the only chance this world has left. You intended to take the horde away from Faery. I sensed it. I felt it to my fucking core. You didn
’t tell me, not because you couldn’t. You chose to keep this from me because you planned to do it and then allow me to learn about what you had done after the fact. It’s easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission, right?

  “Our children are tied to this land, accepted by it. I am not going to sit back and watch you become mortal. Do you understand? I will not watch you age and die and be forced to go on without you. I will not watch my children age and die with their mixed blood that links them to this land. If we abandon Faery, we become part of the next world we join. The fae are creatures of nature, and if we seek to take them out of this world, into the land of mortals, we condemn them to become that.

  “I am a goddess, Ryder. You cannot make that choice for me. You cannot ask me to give you forever and then plan to take it away without so much as a whisper. We are Faery and the fae who will not bow before any god who demands we do so. Bilé can bow before us, or he can die. You changed my life without asking me, and so I have done the same to you. You brought me here. You made me love this land and those who reside within it.” Ryder turned to walk away from me, but I grabbed his arm, stopping him.

  “Ryder, you killed Adrian to have me, so you don’t get to leave me. I would have remained mortal had it not been for you hunting me during the Wild Hunt. You transported me through a portal, igniting the fate of this world. I set it on fire when I entered. Had you never brought me here, it would have been okay.”

  “So you fucking poison me?” he demanded hoarsely.

  “You brought me into this fight as much as my mother did. You don’t get to choose our path alone. I gave you Danu’s essence, but only you can decide if you want to accept the next step. Choose me, Ryder. Don’t leave me here alone. If you reject the essence of the gods, I will understand and honor your choice,” I said with tears running down my cheeks.

  “But you need to understand this: I will pull away from you. I will begin to distance myself so that when you walk away, and I am left here to fight Bilé alone, I am not brokenhearted when I do. I fed you a sliver of my soul to combine the beast within you as one. Your beast was created to hold the essence of the gods, to make you into one. I was only meant to anchor you for a little while until Danu could figure out how to turn you into a new god to rule her people. I died, and she used her life to save mine. She used the essence that was supposed to go to you for me. I stole your title by dying, and now I am giving it back to you.”

  “By taking my choice away?” he demanded, growing taller as he pushed me against the wall, squeezing his hand tighter around my throat.

  “You are not listening. I chose to become a goddess. I chose you instead of death. Only you have the final choice on whether you accept the essence and evolve, or refuse and you will remain the same. I only gave you the chance to choose your next move.” His hand loosened, and then he stepped back, watching me as I remained against the wall.

  “I have to choose what, exactly?” he snapped harshly, glaring at me with a lethal look that broke my heart. “You or my brothers’ lives, Synthia? I fought for them. I have continued to fight for them. If it’s between becoming a god and watching them die, you can bet your pretty little ass I will choose to save my brothers every time. I just lost three of them tonight. Three that I have fought with every-fucking-thing I had in me just to keep alive since I was old enough to do so. I have murdered thousands of creatures within this realm. Do you think the dead’s families want me as their god?”

  “They will follow you,” I replied carefully, not moving from where he’d left standing. “If you choose to lead, they will follow you because you’re not a monster. You are not your father. You fight for your brothers, not against them. They accepted me without even knowing me. You were born to be the King of Faery, and I, your queen. Who better to be the God and Goddess of Faery and of the fae than us?”

  “I expect treachery from my people, from Bilé, not my fucking wife.”

  It felt as if he’d physically slapped me in the face. I nodded slowly as tears burned behind my eyes. “You’ve made your choice.” I bowed my head and turned to leave the room.

  I was grabbed from behind and thrown onto the bed. I lifted onto my elbows to glare at him. Ryder smiled coldly while studying me as my clothes caught fire, turning to ashes before it damaged my flesh. His black and golden wings spread wide. The talons on the edges lengthened while I swallowed hard, hissing as he allowed his power to cover every inch of my body.

  “You don’t get to run away from me, little girl,” he snapped callously. His words rumbled from deep in his chest, followed by the sound of an inhuman growl. I sat up, only for his magic to slam into me again, knocking me back against the mattress. “You don’t get to decide who I become. Obviously, you need to be reminded of who and what I am,” he hissed, using magic to lift me and slam me down against the bed on my stomach. My legs spread apart while magic captured my hands, pulling them behind my back and holding them in an invisible grip.

  The first assault was a slap of magic that landed on my ass, causing my body to jerk as it continued. He wasn’t even touching me, and yet he was spanking my ass. I cried out with each punishing slap of magic that struck me, reddening the flesh while he studied me from across the room.

  His magic filled my pussy, stretching me as if he was taking me in his beast’s form. I opened my mouth, mewling, crying out as it moved hard and faster within me. Ryder pushed the magic deeper and deeper. I trembled as he held me locked between pain and pleasure, teetering on the brink of an orgasm. I felt him releasing more magic, noting the sound of his bare feet walking across the floor.

  “You want to hurt me? I can hurt you too, pretty Pet. You aren’t strong enough to win against me, goddess or not. I am the Horde King and everything it entails. I don’t need a crown or to become a fucking god to own that sweet, tight pussy. I already fucking own it. I don’t need it to win a fucking war. They created me for war and to rule this world. One trespass against me was okay. You took the beast away without asking. You combined him with me, and I forgave you easily, which was obviously a mistake.

  “You think your mother is on our side? You were acting on instinct, and I let your trespass slide. She assumed the beast was the murderer that hid within the man. She was wrong, Pet. The beast was just the one riding within because I am the monster, of that you can be assured. The beast didn’t murder Adrian; I did. The beast didn’t claim your tight pussy after I hunted it down in my world. I did that too.

  “All you did was make the monster that held the beast stronger. Alazander may not have been strong enough to hold his monsters at bay, because he was too weak to embrace his demons. I made peace with my demons long before I ever met you. I promise you, sweet wife, I am the fucking monster, and I plan to remind you of that now.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Ryder was in control, his cock pushing against my lips, forcing me to open my mouth to accommodate him. His hand fisted my hair, using it to guide his shaft deep into the tightness of my throat, pulling my hair until my scalp ached and tears swam in my vision. He hissed silkily, groaning as he fucked my mouth without mercy, using the action to show me who he was, uncaring that it hurt. I didn’t need a hand guide to figure out his anger was mixed with grief, and I was his outlet for both.

  He withdrew without warning, causing me to cough as he turned me onto my back. Pulling my legs up awkwardly, he straddled my body, nuzzling his head between my thighs, pushing his cock back into my throat. His mouth fed ravenously against my core, licking and sucking vigorously as he fucked my throat gloriously. I moaned, unable to stop my reaction as his finger pushed into my ass, stretching it as he added another.

  Ryder’s magic released my hands, only to spread me wide as he continued to eat my pussy, lapping at it like a crazed beast that couldn’t sate his hunger. His tongue entered my core, growing until he was fucking me with the length of it. I whimpered as it became
too much to take all at once.

  Light burst behind my eyelids and air refused to gain passage through my throat as the orgasm he created started to take over my basic needs, like breathing. I wouldn’t reach it. I realized that fact as my legs went limp where he held them apart, fucking me hard with his tongue.

  Throaty laughter rippled through the room, slithering over my flesh before he reduced the size of his tongue and stepped away from me. He watched as my body crumpled, and my chest rose and fell rapidly. I gasped for air as I stared at Ryder walking around the bed, watching me like I was nothing more than prey.

  I sat up slowly, only to be slammed down again. He spun me in place, and my legs spread until they ached where they met my body. My arms lifted, slowly roaming down my sides as his magic controlled my movements. My fingers stretched out, pushing against the pleasure nub at the center of my apex.

  “Ryder…” I whimpered huskily, watching his predatory gaze find mine, locking on to it. I opened my mouth to speak, and something clamped against it, holding it open, and yet I felt nothing within my mouth. I couldn’t talk, couldn’t beg him to end the torture I was enduring while everything within me craved the delicious orgasm he held just out of my reach.

  Stroking his cock, Ryder examined me silently as I pleasured myself, unable to stop. My fingers slid through the wetness of my core, pushing into it as I fucked myself, controlled by him. It was a slow, meticulous speed meant to keep me from coming. I moaned against the magic holding control of my throat, jerking and crying out as something pinched against both nipples hard enough to make them throb. I would come apart, and I doubted he would prevent it this time.