The only thing to cut through the fog of my bloodlust was Ryder's voice and I finally fell still over a groaning, bleeding Bryce as he spoke.
"I think you won, baby," Ryder said, the barest hint of amusement in his tone which I was fairly sure no one else would notice.
I looked up and found him standing over me, offering me a hand to pull me to my feet. The moment I was upright, I grabbed him, fisting my hand in his shirt and yanking him closer to me as I bit him. Ryder caught my waist and dragged me nearer so that my body was pressed flush with his as I drank deeply from his sinfully delicious blood and everyone seemed to hold their breath as they waited to see what would happen next.
I pulled back, licking my lips and Ryder released me fast enough with the audience looking on then moved to kick Bryce to draw his attention up to him.
"What the fuck was that?" Ryder snarled. "Because I know it wasn't my second getting his ass handed to him with hardly any sign of a fight."
Bryce groaned as he clutched his wounds, his magic tapped out so that he couldn't even heal himself. I’d been running pretty low myself before I’d bitten my Source.
"You're done, Bruce," Ryder spat, looking away as the rest of the Brotherhood sniggered at his use of the wrong name. Ryder didn't make a show of scanning the crowd, looking straight at Ethan and pointing at him. "Looks like you're my new second, Shadowbrook. Don't let me down."
Ethan leapt up, cupping his hands around his mouth and howling with excitement, making all of the Lunar Wolves join in instinctively. He started leaping about in victory, shouting and hollering and I noticed his foot accidentally swinging into Bryce’s face as he rushed about.
Ryder's gaze flipped to me and I dropped my mental barriers as I felt his hypnosis pushing at my mind. His voice sounded in my head as he made no attempt to construct a visual to go with the image.
I want a word with you. Come to my room.
I arched an eyebrow at him, but he was already walking away, apparently believing that I was going to come running like a dog just because he'd whistled.
I shot away in the opposite direction, having every intention of letting him sit around in his room on his own for the rest of the afternoon unless he decided to call me and ask me to come nicely. But as I sped around campus and realised I didn’t exactly have anywhere else to be and I was probably cutting off my nose to spite my face, I soon found myself outside his window.
I'd run right around the edge of the lake as I raced off the last of my excitable energy from the fight, so Ryder had made it back before me and he'd pushed his window open too.
I leapt inside and pulled the window shut, folding my arms as I scowled at him.
"What?" he asked from his position reclining on his bed as he casually tossed a silencing bubble over us and a concealment spell over the window. He had a hand behind his head and now that I wasn't distracted by Bryce, I noticed he'd shaved his dark hair down again so that I wouldn't be able to grab onto any of it anymore.
"If you want me to come and see you, you should ask nicely," I said with a pout as my wet clothes and hair dripped onto his carpet.
"No," he replied, his gaze dropping to the white shirt which clung to my body and had turned transparent around the text so that my red lace bra showed beneath it.
"No?"
"If you want nice then you should go hang out with Simba. You don't come to me for nice. I'm the villain in your little fucked up love story."
"The villain doesn't get the girl." I pointed out.
"He does. If the girl is just as bad as him."
"Sounds like you're in luck then."
Ryder smiled and the sight of it took my breath away. Seeing him happy got my heart racing and now that I was able to get a close look at him, I could see that that was exactly what he was. Happy.
"I keep thinking about the way you looked when you killed that bitch," I said, my voice dropping as if someone might hear and inadvertently taking on a seductive edge as I moved closer to him.
"Oh yeah?" Ryder asked, sitting up and placing his forearms on his knees as he looked at me. "How did I look then?"
"Powerful," I said slowly, falling still in front of him, just out of reach. "Strong. Bloodthirsty. Unstoppable. Irresistible."
I bit my lip and Ryder stood slowly, looking into my eyes like he was hunting for the truth of those words and liked what he found there.
"Killing her felt like breaking off shackles I'd grown too used to wearing. The weight of them had been dragging me down for so long that I didn't even realise I was carrying them all the time."
I smiled at him in a sad kind of way. "And now you're free."
"Now I'm free," he agreed.
My gaze dropped to the neck of the black wifebeater he was wearing where I could just see the top of one of his scars peeking out above the edge of the material. I couldn't imagine the pain of the wounds he must have had inflicted on him to have scars like that. It was almost impossible for a Fae to be injured so badly that magic couldn't fully heal the damage.
I caught the hem of his shirt in my grip and slowly tugged it up over the hard ridges of his abs until I pulled it over his head and tossed it to the floor.
Ryder watched me as I reached out with my fingertips and began tracing the lines of the silvery scars which crisscrossed his torso, goosebumps peppering his cold skin in the wake of my touch.
"I guess I'll never fully be rid of her," he commented bitterly and I looked up to find him scowling at the marks on his body like he wished he could tear them from his flesh. "I'll never be able to totally forget how weak I was when she held me. How much of me she broke. How she taught me to crave pain in return for pleasure. I'll never know the man I would have been if she'd never caught me."
"Your scars don't tell me that you were weak once," I said firmly, holding his gaze as my fingers continued to trace the paths of raised, silvery flesh across his skin. "They prove your strength to me. And I wouldn't want you any other way. I want the man who lived through this and destroyed the person responsible for doing it to him. The fact that you learned to wield pain into strength only makes me love you more."
Ryder didn't say anything for a long moment, watching me as I continued to caress his scars and the heat between us built.
"But you don't always have to be strong with me, Ryder," I added. "And I don't believe you have to feel pain to enjoy pleasure."
Ryder frowned at me and started to shake his head, so I pushed up onto my tiptoes and captured his lips with mine, kissing him softly, deeply, tasting the pain in him and driving it away.
I pulled back as he tried to up the pace and smirked at him. "Did that hurt?" I asked, tipping my head to one side as he tried to hound forward and I stepped back.
"No," he ground out.
"And did you like it?"
"You know I did. It doesn't mean that I could enjoy sex without pain though."
"Have you ever tried?" I challenged.
Ryder growled as he stalked towards me and this time I didn't run as he tried to catch me.
His hands closed around my waist, fingers digging in hard enough to bruise as he gripped me tightly and I gasped as he kissed me like he wanted to devour me, not answering my question even though I knew the answer.
My back hit the door but instead of tearing at my clothes, he slowed down and pulled back, looking at me with a frown like he wasn't sure if he wanted to do this or not.
"I love it when you're rough with me, Ryder," I said, my hands sliding down over his abs until I hooked them into his belt and pulled him closer by it. "But I just want you to know that you don't always have to be if you don't want to. I don't want you to pretend with me. I want all of you, the hurt and pain and lust and the love. Every piece of it."
Ryder looked at me for a long moment before reaching out to peel my saturated shirt off of my body. I raised my arms to let him before unbuttoning my jeans and slipping out of them too, kicking my sneakers off before wrapping my arms around his neck as I stood
there in my matching red bra and panties.
Ryder captured my lips with his and picked me up so that I could wrap my legs around his waist.
He backed up to his bed with me in his arms, his tongue raking over mine, his stud making my spine arch as I felt the keen press of it.
He dropped down onto the bed with me in his lap and I moved onto my knees as my hands slid over his chest, caressing his powerful body as our breaths came faster and the need between us grew more potent.
Ryder's hand ran up my spine and I sighed with pleasure as he slowly unclasped my bra before sliding the material down my arms.
"That might be the first time you've ever taken a piece of my underwear off without destroying it," I murmured against his lips and he groaned in appreciation as his calloused hands began to caress my breasts.
He tugged at my nipples gently, teasing me as I began to slowly rock back and forth in his lap, moaning at the press of his erection between my thighs.
Our kiss deepened as my fingers reached his waistband and I unbuckled his belt before slipping off of his lap so that I could tug his jeans and boxers free.
When he was completely naked, I stood before him in my red panties and drank in the desire in his eyes as he watched me.
"This feels like its own kind of torture," Ryder growled as I caught hold of the sides of my panties and took my sweet time rolling them down my thighs.
"That's because you're spoiled," I teased. "Too used to getting your own way."
"Not with you," he replied darkly. "You don't make anything easy for me."
I laughed at that comment before dropping my panties to the floor and stepping towards him again.
"Nothing worth having in life comes easy."
Ryder reached for me as I moved to straddle him and I kissed him again as I lowered myself into his lap.
I gasped against his lips as the hard length of his cock pressed against my opening and he groaned with pure need as he felt how ready I was for him.
My tongue slid across his and he ran his hands down my arms before catching my wrists in his grasp and moving them behind my back, holding them at the base of my spine so that my breasts were thrust forward as I sank onto him.
I lowered myself slowly, enjoying each and every inch as I took it in and moaning as his piercing carved a line of fire inside of me that had my body tightening around him as I bathed in the feeling of it.
Ryder kept my hands behind my back as I started to ride him, but his grip wasn't bruising, just tight enough to give him some semblance of control.
I tried to keep my pace slow as I moved up and down but as he began to thrust in time with me, I leaned back, breaking our kiss so that he could hit that sweet spot deep inside me as we began to move faster.
Ryder's mouth dropped to capture my nipple as my cries of pleasure filled his room and his tongue stud rolled across the pebbled flesh in time with his thrusts.
Each time his dick hit that perfect spot, the piercing in it just made the pleasure spike harder before rolling down my inner walls then returning to do it again.
Ryder continued to suck and nip at my flesh, one hand releasing my wrist so that he could grip my ass and help drive me down harder.
When I cried out even louder than before, he released my other wrist too, growling with desire as I rode him harder and my hands began to explore his chest.
I shifted forward again and kissed him hard, my fingertips sliding over his scars and his flexing biceps as he continued to rock my hips down firmly.
I could feel the pleasure in my body building to a crescendo, an ache filling every inch of my skin which demanded satisfaction.
"Come for me, baby," Ryder demanded against my lips.
"Not without you," I panted back as my muscles filled with tension desperate to break free and I held it at bay with pure force of will.
Ryder growled as I kissed him again like he still didn't think he could, but I could feel how hard he was, how close to oblivion and I knew that he was just as close to caving as me if he'd only let himself.
"Please, Ryder," I panted, my body near to breaking point as a desperate need consumed me. "Please."
"Fuck," he cursed as he kissed me harder and with a deep thrust, his dick swelled inside me and we were suddenly falling apart in each other's arms.
I cried out as ecstasy poured through my body and I shook and trembled on top of him, kissing him deeply as I felt him shudder beneath me with a heady groan until we finally fell still.
His tongue caressed mine and his hands slid up my back before tangling in my hair and I shifted back to look down at him.
"If I say I told you so are you going to spank me?" I teased and he laughed darkly.
"Don't tempt me, baby. I haven't suddenly started wanting to cuddle," he warned but as he said it, he fell back onto his bed, bringing me with him, shifting us around until we were lying side by side and leaning back on the pillows.
"If you say so," I teased.
He swatted my ass hard enough to sting and I gasped in mock outrage as heat spread between my thighs.
"How about we cuddle for an hour and then I let you tie me up and dominate me to your heart's content? No hard limits and no safe words," I joked and he laughed, but it was dirty and full of promises that made my toes curl.
"You might regret making that deal with me, baby," he warned as he tugged me closer and I wound my leg over his thighs as I laid my head on his chest, right above the black X I’d inked across his heart.
"I doubt it," I replied, kissing his tattoo, grinning to myself and he growled hungrily in answer.
"Y ou really need to get over it, fratello," I murmured to Leon who was sitting in the front of my Alpha Romeo as we sailed along the darkened streets of Alestria. The whole city was lit up in Christmas lights and people were out drinking in the streets already.
Elise was in the back with her feet up on the seats, her head bobbing to the music she was listening to through headphones. I'd decided to drive us to my house with everything we were taking home over the Christmas break instead of stardusting to the perimeter of the huge property where the wards were placed and then carrying it all up to the property. And as well as that, Mamma had asked me to pick up my ancient Aunt Lasita who refused to travel by stardust, saying it was the stuff of the Shadow Realm and anyone who used it would have their mind addled by the stars in vengeance. Ironic really, considering she was about as cognitively present as a ciabatta.
Leon was honest to shit pouting, staring out the window like a bug had crawled up his ass and died, and I didn't want to spend the whole party staring at his fat lip.
"Leone!" I snarled, using my Alpha voice that made my younger cousins shit themselves. He glanced over at me in surprise and I pointed at him, keeping one eye on the road. "It's the Winter Solstice, do you want to spend it in a room alone? Because that's what'll happen if you walk around with a face like a slapped culo. I won't let you ruin this party, piccolo cucciolo."
His lips parted in surprise at my words. "Did you just call me a little pup?"
"That's what you're acting like so that's what I'll call you until you pull it together," I growled, taking a road deeper into Oscura Territory as we closed in on Aunt Lasita's place.
"I can't believe you're trying to Alpha Wolf me right now," he muttered. "You should be apologising. And look at Elise, she doesn't even care anymore."
I glanced in the rear view mirror to find Elise had her eyes closed, totally lost to her music as she mouthed along with the song and a smirk pulled at my lips. "She's apologised fifty times to you in fifty different ways, I'd say she's done, fratello. So it's time for you to be done too. Well, actually that time came and went, but still. It's Christmas, stronzo."
"Pfft, Christmas. I never liked Christmas anyway," he sulked.
"Says the guy who dressed up in a full set of Christmas lights at the solstice last year and sang Come All Ye Faeful at the top of his lungs, on the roof, at four am, outside my mamma's window."<
br />
Leon snorted a laugh at the memory before schooling his expression. "That Leon is gone. Dead. Buried."
"You are such a bambino!" I punched him blindly, keeping my gaze on the road and he started hitting me back, the two of us half wrestling as I fought to keep driving straight and defend myself at the same time. "Figlio di puttana," I hissed.
"Screw your puttana," he shoved back into his seat with a huff, lowering the Aurora Academy baseball cap he was wearing over his eyes.
Dalle stelle...
I pulled up outside the row of houses on the nicest street in the east of Alestria. The porches were stately and each had their own finely kept little yard out front. Aunt Lasita's was different, some would say offensive to the eyes. It had amulets hanging from an apple tree and all kinds of mythical statues and trinkets on her lawn with supposed magical powers that would ward off enemies, demons and star damned ghosts – or so she believed. If there was a mythical creature she hadn't heard of, she believed in it without a doubt the second she did. I'd once tried to explain to her that she should be more worried about the real monsters in the world, but she'd told me my brain was infested with Dragon grout, whatever the fuck that was.
I parked up out front and pushed the door open, surprised when Elise jumped up, tossing her headphones on the back seat and following me onto the sidewalk. I glanced back at Leon who was frowning under his hat and shook my head at him.
Elise sighed as I locked the car. "I did not sign up for these Lion moods. Vampires don't sulk, Dante."
"He'll get over it eventually," I said as I opened the front gate and moved through the wards I'd left there, allowing Elise through too. I'd had to come here at night and cast them in secret because Lasita believed they were unnecessary and that her own weird and useless objects on the lawn would protect her if Felix came knocking. She'd turn my head into a cabbage if she found out, but I'd cast them subtly enough that she wouldn't be able to sense them, especially when her head was in the clouds half the time.
"He's going to stubbornly ruin Christmas first," Elise said with a huff. "But I've tried apologising every way I can think of and now I'm fed up. Does that make me a shit mate?"
Broken Fae Page 37
