by K. C. Hamby
“Um, thank you. I appreciate it, really. Other than Nina, genuine appreciation and acknowledgement of how much I do is hard to come by.” Her eyes meet mine and the right one is completely gray. Just like it was when I met her. Just like it was when I said I would marry her.
She gives me a crooked smile and I lean into her side, more than proud that she is my Mate.
Mine.
Chapter 65
Edelina
I’m almost exploding with need to kill something.
Well, more like someone. Raven specifically.
It’s almost like the itch to take out a target of mine, but this is burning. My blood is hot in my veins and pushing me to kill her.
Kill the wee cunt who hurt you.
The burning seems to be coming from a furnace flaming where my heart is supposed to be, and the furnace is full and needs room to burn.
But I’m not big enough.
I pace, back and forth beside the beach, wind blowing my hair all around my head and in my face. And I’m so fucking agitated, I want to pull it out.
After Ash and I came back to Olympia, I did research on Nemesis. Relentlessly. I hardly got any fucking sleep because I was so sure I would find the answer of what lives inside me if she does. If I am her incarnate.
She’s a remorseless goddess, only seeking to make sure justice is served. She gives what is due to those who commit wrongdoings and makes sure they burn in hellfire. Like Hecate and Selene, she was a Titan, living long before Zeus’ rule.
She was a personification of revenge and known as the punishing deity, ruling those who committed heinous crimes an eternity of torture she chooses, mostly based on the person’s fears.
Nemesis is also the only true-winged goddess. Her wings were of fire; they were ember-tipped and grey-feathered tools to help her see everything from above, allowing her to seek a fair judgement on the souls of the dead. Her main purpose was to keep the balance between the good and bad, making sure everything was fair and even.
She employed the three Furies, Alekto, Megaera, and Tisiphone to aid her in her quest of justice and indignation and they became goddesses of vengeance. They swore their forever loyalty to Nemesis and carried out the calls for revenge.
My need to avenge myself and kill Raven, my burning hands, the fire in my blood…all of it makes sense. But if Nemesis is in my soul waiting to be released, how do I let her out without killing myself in the process?
I know it would kill me; I can feel it with every beat of my burning heart. To submit to her would be to let go of me, who I am, who I was. I don’t know how without destroying myself.
I hold my hands in front of my face, watching the steam rise from my skin and disappear into the air. I’ve been a Fury for years. I’ve never burned someone with my hands.
Until Raven came and blew my life up with her presence. She woke that sleeping rage within me I locked away so long ago.
I sit on the sand, head buried in my hands as I let my hot tears drop to my palms.
“Why cannae anythin’ be fuckin’ easy for once?” I sob, hope shriveling to nothing in my soul. Just a memory, just a wisp of ash floating off in the wind.
“It could be easy if you wanted it to be,” someone says from beside me.
I don’t even flinch. I knew she would come; I knew she would answer my soul’s call.
“How can it be easy?” I ask Hecate as she sits beside me on the sand. She’s back to her dress of veiled darkness.
“Edelina, I will always give you a choice. I know you have figured out who lies within you, who causes that burning flame beneath your skin. But you do not have to become her. You can say no.”
“I…” I never thought I could choose to deny something divinely bestowed upon me like this. I thought it was what I had to do because it’s my destiny. Isn’t that what I’ve always been told?
Hecate chuckles under her breath, her cold hand reaching to grab mine. The contrast between it and my hot skin is nearly disturbing. “Fierce Eddie, don’t you know you choose your destiny?”
And with a soft, understanding smile, she disappears in a plume of purple smoke.
Chapter 66
Ash
Three assassinations in a week. Goddamn.
And Angus fucking wizard-whipped my ass on one of them? This is all so exhausting.
At least the jobs weren’t hard to pull off. Little poison here, little stabby-stab there…it was fine. No problem.
I’m glad I’m done for a week. I can just hang out with Eddie.
I hop off the ferry and wave to the captain before making my way to the apartments. It’s dark, but the stars are out, and the moon is almost full. It’s not too hot, not too muggy. All I need is a snuggle session with my Mate and it’ll be perfect.
But my wolf stirs in my chest, pushing me away from the apartments and to the beach. I wonder why Eddie is there instead of inside. She only really does this when she’s upset.
I mean she hasn’t been exactly happy since our little, tiny, totally not a big deal but probably life-changing discovery last night. She could be a reborn goddess. And not one of the minor goddesses like she is now. Nemesis is a fucking huge deal. She would be an original deity. Older than Zeus.
Potentially more powerful than Zeus.
But I’m worried. She keeps telling me she feels like she’s going crazy and something inside her is pushing, trying to get out. And she doesn’t think she’d be okay if it did.
And I can’t lose someone else to a fucking deity.
She’s sitting in the sand by the beach, staring out at the water when I walk up. The moon reflects off the waves and illuminates the breaks in white light.
“Babe? What’s going on?” I ask, walking closer slowly so I don’t scare the shit out of her.
She looks over her shoulder at me with a small, sad smile. “Mo gràidhe.”
My love.
I plant myself beside her and wrap my arm around her shoulders. She leans into me instantly, nuzzling my chest. We sit in silence for a while, just enjoying each other’s touch and closeness.
“I spoke to Hecate today,” she mumbles against my shirt.
“You…what?”
“Aye, she paid me a visit. I asked her to.”
She doesn’t look at me. She just stays leaned against my chest with her face pressed against my shirt. I play with her soft hair with my other hand and press my lips together.
“Why is that?”
“I told you I felt like I was goin’ mental, wantin’ to claw myself out of my skin? I couldnae stand it anymore, so I called on her and she came.” She works hard to keep her breathing even, but I can tell she wants to scream. “It’s true. Nemesis is within me.”
Fuck.
“I mean, that’s good, right? You now have answers to what’s been going on,” I reason, hoping to all hell she’s not about to tell me there needs to be a goddamn sacrifice to become Nemesis.
The last time a sacrifice was needed, I lost my fucking sister.
“Aye, it’s good. But Hecate told me I dinnae havetae choose to become her. That I make my own destiny. And it’s just got me out here thinkin’ about life and such. What I will choose. What I wantae choose.” She sighs and pulls away from my chest, locking those golden eyes on my face. “Have you ever wondered what it would be like if we werenae Lupi? If we were just normal people?”
I open my mouth to answer but stop just short. Have I thought about it? Sure. I almost had it in Seattle. I had the house. I had the girlfriend—but yeah, that didn’t turn out so great—I wasn’t an assassin or an Alpha. If I thought about it hard enough, I could almost have had a normal life.
“Yeah, I have. Back in Seattle, I almost had a normal life. But there was always something missing in it. It was never perfect and almost overrated.” I let my lips tilt a little in a sad smile. “But if I weren’t Lupi, if I weren’t an assassin, I don’t think I would have ever met you and that’s not acceptable to me. You were the missing piece I didn’t have.”
I love Eddie’s fierce and joking side, but this Eddie, her loving side, is my favorite.
“Do you not want to be a part of this lifestyle anymore?”
She sighs, looking away from me and to the ocean. Her eyes are bright, sadness burning there like melted trophies and shattered pieces of a dream.
“I’ve never had a normal life. I tried after my family died. All the good that did me. And I fucked it up, I almost killed myself, and I had nothin’. I dinnae love anyone, I dinnae hate, I dinnae feel anythin’.” Her breaths are getting frantic and she stands to pace in front of me, but I don’t calm her.
I think she needs this.
“I was nothin’. Just a shell for others to use as they pleased. And I dinnae care.” She takes a breath but doesn’t move to wipe the fast-falling tears from her eyes. “When I got out of all that, I promised myself I would never go back, I would never be that person again. But I was still empty. At least what I was doin’ as an assassin was good for the rest of the world, but I was sleepin’ around, trynae feel somethin’ good from someone. Tryin’ to heal myself.” She’s sobbing the words now, basically screaming them to the sea like the waves could take the past away with their ebb and flow. “I was broken. I could feel the broken pieces of me stabbin’ my chest every time I hoped I was healed, and it wasnae good. It ached like I could die from it, it hurt.”
She turns to me, throwing her hand in my direction with pain dripping from her eyes.
“And then you were here, lookin’ at me with those amber eyes that could see into my soul. The first broken pieces were put back together. And more and more until I was whole. I was whole.”
She drops to the sand and crawls into my lap. Her hands wrap around the back of my neck and she is mere breaths from my face.
“I dinnae ken if I wantae normal life. But I ken that, no matter what I do, I will always want you with me. You made me whole. You gave me love and showed me I was worth it. I am worth it. It’s somethin’ I dinnae think I can ever properly thank you for, but I will spend my whole life tryin’.”
Eddie’s lips meet mine with a ferocity that blows my fucking mind. It’s not hungry, it’s not needing or wanting. It’s not simple. It’s full of all her love and gratefulness and it has my chest burning from the intensity. She’s sharing her feelings physically and through the bond at the same time and I am completely enraptured.
I grab her waist and pull her closer, needing to have her as close to me as possible.
And then the feeling changes oh so slightly and her lips are more aggressive. A small moan escapes between them, and she grabs at my shirt, tugging it over my head. Her hands touch my chest, stomach, shoulders, back…and I’m tossing her shirt to the sand a moment later.
Every touch is loving, every brush of fingertips full of care and thought. Soon we are both without our clothes and Eddie has pushed my back to the sand. Her mouth and tongue travel all over my skin. I can’t help my groan when her lips meet my neck as she settles herself onto me. She leans back slightly, meeting my eyes as her hips roll to the crash of the waves. My hands move from her hips and up the sides of her stomach, feeling the slight rise in the skin where her slashing tattoos are marked.
“I love you,” I whisper, staring into my golden forever with this amazing woman.
Her lips tilt and her jasmine breath brushes against my cheeks. “And I love you, mo gràidhe.”
Chapter 67
Falen
As soon as our feet touch the ground, I’m pushing Nina’s back into a tree.
She moans against my lips and grabs at my shirt, throwing it over my head and to the ground. I take hers off and lower her to the flannel blanket protecting us from the forest floor. Her breaths are heavy and move her chest up and down, teasing me. I attack her freckled skin with my tongue and kiss her everywhere I can get ahold of; her chest, her stomach, her breasts, her neck, I want all of her right now.
I slide off her shorts and touch her thighs, teasing her a bit by dragging my fingernails up and down.
Once she’s squirming under my hands, I caress her, right where she is begging to be touched, lightly. Her back arches and a full breath pushes from her mouth.
“Fal,” she breathes.
Smirking, I replace my fingers with my tongue and Nina’s gasp is my reward. My hands grab her hips and hold her still, right where I want her. I move my tongue the way she loves, and her moan has the birds in the trees fleeing.
Her pleasure builds slowly and then drops all at once. Her fingers curl into my hair and hold me where I am as her body twitches and hips roll, moving my tongue harder against her.
I groan into her skin, loving how she tastes when I’m the one who added the spice of pleasure to the mix.
I push myself on all fours and watch her come down from her high with rising hunger of my own. The inside of her thighs are glistening and damp, slowly being overtaken by gooseflesh. She’s gorgeous lying on the blanket, her hair a mess around her head and her tan skin almost glowing as her chest rises up and down.
I need her to touch me.
She sits up as if sensing what I want. “Why do you still have your pants on?”
I look down at myself. Half-naked. Glancing back up, I say, “Because you haven’t taken them off me yet” and wink.
Her smile is devious and seductive with that goddamn lip between her teeth. She makes me lie down on my back and wiggles off my jeans with a little of my help. She’s immediately kissing me, my thighs, my hips…
Okay. I guess this is fair. I teased her too.
“Nina,” I groan, playful frustration cracking my words.
She laughs against my thigh, the breath from her mouth touching me before she does. But then she’s there, tongue and mouth working in tandem and driving me fucking crazy. I don’t have control of my body and I twitch more than I care to admit.
I think I may not be able to take it anymore. I’m so very close to the edge.
And then she uses her fingers. And her tongue.
“Fuck,” I grumble and bite my own forearm to keep from yelling to the trees. It doesn’t take me long at all after this. I’m diving headfirst into tingling pleasure radiating all over my body.
I moan against my arm, muscles spasming beyond my control. My breaths are heavy as Nina crawls up me and lies on my chest, spent as I am.
Her arm rests over my stomach and I wrap her under my arm, kissing her forehead.
“Goddamn,” I’m finally able to mutter.
“Mhm,” Nina agrees.
“Do you know how agonizing it is to wait to have you all to myself?”
“Yep, pretty sure I was in the same boat, Faligator.”
I shake my head and laugh, touching my fingers to my lips. “Well, I was the captain of that boat.”
***
“Where are we, anyway?” Nina asks after tugging on her shirt.
I button my jeans and reach my hand out to her. “Let me show you.”
She takes my hand and I pull her along after me. Where we are now, we are surrounded by trees, but that’s because I wanted Nina all to myself for a little while. If she saw what I was about to show her, she would be mesmerized.
Call me selfish, I don’t give a shit.
I push through the last bit of trees and turn around, walking backwards as I pull Nina into the open.
“Ready for this?”
“Yes, please,” she chirps, bouncing on her toes.
“Alright, look.” I move out of the way so she can get the full picture.
“Oh, my god,” she murmurs, fingers covering her lips.
I brought her to Colorado, out in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. Her eyes are wide, eating up the scenery. There are mountains everywhere and they are huge. They have small snowcaps on the very tops and are framed by a pink and blue sky.
“Is that a waterfall?” Nina whispers, pointi
ng down way below us.
“It is, yes,” I agree, biting my lip. I hope I did well with this surprise. She said we should visit the mountains, so…
She hates it, the Monster stirs for the first time since I pushed her away when I was with Nina’s dad.
She had told me to shoot him, for goddess sakes.
It would make you even, she had told me.
That’s when I made the comment about him having good aim. It was snapped and I had to pinch myself to pull out of my head enough to lock the Monster away.
And now I ignore her, watching Nina gaze at the sky.
“What do you think?” I ask, stepping up to her side close to the edge.
Push her off, the Monster screams.
I don’t have to banish her this time. My wolf rises to the challenge of the Monster threatening my Mate and shoves the bitch back in her hole.
“I think…” Nina turns to me, fingers still on her lips, but they are hiding a smile. “I think I want to live in the mountains.”
My eyes sting. “Yeah?”
She nods, eyes wide and bright. “Yes. I love it. It’s so beautiful here. It…it feels like home.” She wraps me in her arms suddenly, squeezing me very tight. “I love you, Fal.”
I smile and kiss her hair, running my fingers through the waves. “I love you, Nina.”
Chapter 68
Nina
We Move into my old room seconds before my dad and Selene pull up in his little blue truck.
“Good timing,” Fal says, fixing her dark clothes so they don’t look sexified.
That was…one of the most amazing views I have ever seen. The mountains called to me, as if waiting on me to come stay awhile. Fal is so freaking wonderful. I hope we can move to the mountains soon.
And the sex…
I curl my toes at the thought.
Fal catches me staring at her and smirks. “See something you like?”
“Fal,” I scold. “Don’t start that again. If you get me all…sexually excited and can’t do anything about it, I’m going to be pissed.”
