Beauty & Rage (Broken Crowns Book 1)

by Natalie Bennett

  She slightly stirred and shifted under the blanket before rolling onto her side, never waking from peaceful slumber. Only when I reminded myself that she was in the clear did I truly begin to relax.

  After far too long, my queen was home, in my bed, exactly where she belonged. With her securely beneath the citadel roof, I could begin furthering my agenda.

  ~5~

  The second I opened my eyes, my head began to spin. I took a breath and sat up, willing it to stop.

  That’s when I noticed my skin had been scrubbed with a strangely familiar blossom scent, my hair brushed back to its usual silky texture, and I was no longer naked.

  My breathing no longer labored and the pain was now an ache I couldn’t compare anything else to.

  Something was still very wrong.

  A fireplace off to my left cast dancing shadows across a gold-colored ceiling

  I kicked the heavy duvet from my body, needing to get it off my clammy skin. The mattress beneath me felt like a cloud, clearly one of high quality, which had me scanning this new room, taking it all in.

  The furniture was all high class baroque; even in the near dark, I could make out the beautifully hand-crafted headboard. The walls were the same burgundy as the bed linens and the carpet had a matching damask pattern.

  This was a male’s space. The bed smelled like expensive cologne, something that had become a rarity.

  Feeling a tingling sensation as the hairs on the back of my neck rose, I looked around the room again.

  My heart thudded in my chest the second my eyes came to rest on him. He sat in one of the chairs positioned near the fireplace, the same one that had been empty just seconds ago.

  The bedroom doors had never opened, so he had to have been in here with me the entire time. What senses I did have let me know right away that this was a depire.

  He wasn’t moving; his chest didn't rise, and he never blinked. My voice abandoned me. I glanced towards one of the windows, tempted to dive out of the damn thing and hope for the best.

  Turning my head back in his direction, I steadily rose from the bed. I took a slight step to the side; eyes radiating intensity tracked the movement.

  He stood up, the movement so silently fluid I would not have believed he’d been sitting had I not seen it with my own two eyes.

  The man was a mountain taller than my height of barely five feet.

  “Do you know who I am?” His voice. It was the one from the room of horrors, smooth and masculine wrapped in silk. This revelation did nothing helpful for my mental state.

  “You’re…the king,” I nearly mumbled.

  Without him lifting a finger, the small lamp on the nightstand flickered on. I swallowed at the small show of power. It did not bode well that Reyes Straykova was alone in a room with me, or that he was looking at me as a predator does their prey.

  I had so many questions, but before I could voice a signal one, a cramp twisted my gut so severely I nearly doubled over. My internal temperature continued to raise steadily, skin going from clammy to a cold sweat.

  This was different than from the first time I woke. This time, there was a need beginning to take root deep within me.

  Having never felt anything like it, I couldn’t voice what I needed. My eyes flashed to Reyes who stood by, regarding me silently.

  “What have you done to me?” I breathed through another cramp.

  Ignoring my question, he came closer, movements still far too fluid for a man his size.

  “It’s beginning,” he said.

  “What’s…?” I sucked in a ragged breath, the scent of him pouring into my lungs.

  My body’s reaction was instant. Heat rising, another cramp rolled through my mid-section and, to my horror, a gush of fluid came from between clenched thighs.

  I flew to the nearest corner, wanting him nowhere near me. Space did nothing to make the heat abate; if anything, it worsened.

  Reyes halted his approach, seemingly unfazed by the state I was in.

  I peered at him dressed in crisp black attire. He looked far too attractive for his own good. The hair on his head was darker than midnight and sexily slicked back. His petite goatee was perfectly trimmed.

  His face was far too beautiful to mask the monster beneath; smooth bronze skin and perfectly proportioned masculine features crept towards a chiseled jawline.

  When I realized my eyes were moving down his person, I tore my gaze away. What his clothing wasn’t covering, it framed perfectly; I didn’t need to use my imagination. He had long muscular legs, a well-defined torso judging from how the jacket was hugging him, and the arms of a sailor.

  Suddenly, with not a word spoken, he released a small trickle of the power he’d been keeping completely masked.

  “What did you do to me?” I questioned once more—pleadingly—struggling to understand my body’s signals.

  “Ice,” he replied calmly, as if that one word explained everything.

  “What is that?” I snapped at him, smashing myself further into the corner and bringing palms to either side of my face.

  “Little demi, you were dormant. I’ve found a revolutionary, nearly fail-proof solution for that.”

  The truth washed over me like a bucket of cold water. He had done more than drugged me, much more.

  “The injections? That IV?” I spat rhetorically.

  Now it made sense, why so many had died; their bodies couldn’t handle whatever changes were forced upon them.

  Another trickle from Reyes and I could feel my primitive nature awakening with a starving force. Fighting these feelings was like battling an avalanche of snow with an umbrella. My demon wanted the powerful depire in the room and was doing a damn good job of letting me know it.

  “It’s pointless to struggle; you’re simply prolonging the inevitable. Let me make you whole.”

  “Whole?” I choked out. “You’ve made me unnatural!” I snarled and ground my teeth together as another onslaught of need spread through me.

  “Then we are more alike than before.” His answer only pissed me off even more.

  “You had no right,” I breathed through clenched teeth.

  “Well, no one stopped me.” He spread his hands and grinned at me, releasing another trickle. “Once this has past you can rest.”

  Mortified when I felt myself growing wetter, arousal slick between my thighs, I slid down the wall, tugging at my hair. A dark voice inside my mind whispered, urging me to go to him. Reyes stood like a statue; only his eyes tracked my every move with calculated precision.

  I clenched my fists to try and gain control of trembling hands. My mind seemed to only want one thing: the man a few feet away.

  I fought through the haze as if I were drowning at sea. How was I going to get away from him? There was no exit but the door behind him, and I highly doubted he was going to step aside and let me out of the room.

  It dawned on me then that he too had to be affected by my rapidly increasing pheromones. The men in the supe world had primitive instincts instilled in them from birth, their inhuman natures making their react in certain ways. He may have been the one forcing my newly awoken demon into a state of mindless ecstasy, but he was not immune to basic instinct.

  His self-control was commendable. A weaker male would have spread me open and fucked me right where I sat huddled on the floor.

  No one knew exactly what the depires were, aside from the common knowledge that they were a synthetic mixture of supes.

  If you took every breed of us and put them in a blender, you may get whatever the hell Reyes was.

  That alone made him much more Alpha than any other male. I dared to glance at him through lowered lashes, and I saw it. In his eyes was the need—no, the carnal urge—to claim me.

  Now, I was desperate.

  “What do you want from me? How do I make it stop?”

  His eyes crinkled, an amused grin spreading across his face. “I want you to lie on the bed and spread your legs.”

  My stoma
ch dropped. I was foolish for even thinking he’d give me an out.

  “You think I’m going to sleep with you?”

  “Sleep? There will be no sleeping, my queen. I’m going to fuck you many times—every way imaginable.”

  I didn’t respond to that—couldn’t, for fear of treacherous desire creeping into my tone.

  Remaining where I was, minutes or maybe hours went by, and my resolve began to crumble. Whatever cocktail of drugs had been forced into my system was now sloshing through my veins, doing exactly as intended.

  Reyes sensed this, for he began to undress. He undid his watch and gently tossed it down along with his shirt. My eyes had a mind of their own, locking onto a torso that could have been chiseled from stone. The strange marking wrapped around his entire left arm, similar to a shaded tattoo, only made him more appealing.

  Another minute or two elapsed. With tears rolling off my face at the hopelessness of it all, I finally spoke out.

  “Please make it stop,” I whimpered, full of shame and burning need.

  Before I even realized he had moved, I was on my back, exactly where he wanted me.

  He had the pink chemise torn off my body within seconds.

  I trembled beneath his hungry eyes as he finished undressing, cock proudly on display and jutting away from him.

  Sage hues lifted to stare up at the man seconds away from claiming my body. Another string of power, this one stronger than the others, had my heart stuttering in my chest, mouth slightly parting. Still, my gaze remained locked with his.

  The definition of darkness is the absence of light. Reyes' eyes were one of the biggest contradictions I’d ever seen. They were the color of hot molten lava, yet overflowing with so much darkness that it was impossible for them to contain anything else.

  Many would have turned away, rightfully terrified, or fallen to cower at his feet.

  I eagerly spread my legs, giving him a full view of the slick desire between them.

  His eyes swept over me from head to toe. “You are perfect.” His sickly sweet nothings meant just that.

  I needed him to shut up and fuck me. A wicked grin spread across his face as I reached for him on my own accord.

  Dainty hands grasped firm shoulders; there was no preamble from there. He gave me what we both wanted, what we both needed.

  As he positioned himself between my legs, I began to get an idea of how large he was, his thick cock already pressing between my lips.

  “You’re not pure.”

  My hazed mind had no regard for those words. Had I been in a sane state, I’d have latched onto them.

  Reyes eased himself inside me, spreading me further with calloused fingers. I tensed and wriggled at the uncomfortable intrusion, digging my nails into his biceps.

  “Relax. Let me in.”

  Couldn’t he tell I was trying?

  He leaned down and trailed kisses along my jaw-line and a soft moan turned into a hiss as he pushed his thick cock inside me inch by inch.

  Once he’d breached me, forcing me to adjust around him with a delicious burn, he withdrew completely and then thrust fully inside me. I cried out, releasing his biceps to fist silken sheets.

  Reyes gripped each of my thighs and gave a devilish grin before proceeding to fuck me as if he hated me. My hands desperately grasped at his sweat-slickened skin as an odd sensation grew inside my core.

  My pussy clenched around his cock and I clawed at his muscled back, feeling scars beneath my fingertips.

  "Reyes," I whimpered, and soft lips found mine.

  "Shh, I'll take care of you." He slipped a hand between our joined bodies and his thumb found its way to my clit.

  The feeling inside me built and built.

  When the orgasm hit, I felt myself contract around him as a wave of white-hot euphoria crashed over me. The scream of pleasure that tore from my throat echoed around the room.

  Reyes cursed and began thrusting to the point of causing me pleasurable pain. I was too breathless to do more than mewl beneath him. My wetness could be heard every time his dick pushed inside. He had my second climax building at breakneck speed.

  “Are you ready to be mine?” he asked amid my destruction.

  “No,” I managed to breathe out through his relentless movements.

  His eyes lit up with a sick, gleeful look and he lurched down. Lips came to my ear, whispering, “This will only hurt for a moment.”

  Not a second later, they were at the junction of my neck and shoulder, warm breath fanning over naked skin.

  Fangs sank in, blood spilled onto the sheets, and tears rolled down my cheeks from the agony of his dark power being pushed into me. He tore what he wanted from my very soul and replaced it with himself.

  His hips continued thrusting into me, coaxing forth another rush of pleasure. My mind didn’t know how to differentiate the two, bringing them together in a white-hot flurry of climax.

  He timed it just right, pushing more of his darkly seductive power into me, triggering my demon to hold it like a kiss. I felt it happen then—an iron chain weaved its way around every part of my mind, body, and spirit.

  I became undoubtedly his.

  After I came again, he found his release, buried deep inside me.

  His hands roamed my body and he breathed into my ear, telling me I belonged to him.

  “Welcome home, my queen,” were his last words before pulling away.

  ~6~

  I should have known we were just getting started. After that first round, I had no idea how long Reyes stayed planted inside me. Long enough that moans turned into nothing but small whispers and soundless screams. I lost myself in the delirium.

  When the effects of the drug didn’t wear off after two days, I was fully convinced it was in the water he forced me to drink, but I was in no state to protest.

  I stayed in a state of mindless bliss for five days.

  Five days of Reyes and I.

  Five days in his bed.

  We stopped for me to eat and him to do whatever the Purgatory King needed for the day, and then it started over again.

  It didn’t matter that he was a stranger, a fucking monster. The only thing that mattered was that he spread my legs and fucked me until it felt as if my body would break apart.

  When we showered together, he would wash me gently and then roughly take me in the corner. Sleep, sex, and food became my daily routine. His name became a chant, always spilling from my lips.

  When I did sleep, he would pull my naked body close to his and force my head to his chest. The way he watched me when we were together was far too intimate a path for my mind to go down in the heat of our hungry, fucked up passion.

  It wasn’t until the sixth day—after we’d showered and he laid my tired body in fresh sheets—that everything sunk in.

  Emerging from the haze, the first thing I noticed was the swirling black mark that ran from just beneath my right breast down to my hip. It signaled to everyone that I had been fused, mated. The location couldn’t be chosen and truly didn’t matter when it could be sensed, even by demis like me. All would be able to tell that the man I was now bound to was powerful.

  A bubble of utter despair and total self-loathing welled up inside my chest, threatening to overwhelm me. I shoved it down, refusing to fall apart. If I didn’t give myself time to grieve for my father and our kingdom, I sure as hell wasn’t shedding a tear more over this.

  I rose from the bed I’d spent far too much time in and went into the bathroom. I flipped on the light, bare feet moving to the vanity that took up one whole wall.

  Bright sage eyes watched me approach in a thick pane of glass.

  I brought my fingertips to the mark, languidly tracing over it. If I were honest, it was quite pretty.

  The meaning made it ugly.

  It was like a collar, and Reyes firmly held the leash.

  I continued to stare at my person, wondering what it was that he saw. He’d made sure to tell me in a million different variations I
was beautiful, perfect. The months had not been kind to me. A body once nicely toned with an ass that jiggled was now disgustingly thin, hip bones poking out.

  On the right side of my neck was evidence of his bite—multiple times in the same spot.

  It was an ugly wound that was already scabbed, surely going to scar. A pairing could never be unpaired, but it could be strengthened. I could only assume that was his intention; it gave him more sway over me.

  A tighter hold on that proverbial lead.

  Done correctly, it could be a blessing. To fuse with someone strong, intelligent, and capable of protecting if need be were all positives when choosing a life partner.

  Now, the selection process made much more sense. Depires were all of those things. It was only natural they’d want a partner somewhat on the same level.

  It was still so risky, though. Some pairings could be hell and drive one to insanity. Abuse, cheating on the male’s end—who could still find pleasures elsewhere, unlike us—and generally hating who you were bound to as Reyes and I now were…forever.

  Shaking my head, I grabbed one of the many camisoles he had brought in for me and slipped it over my head.

  The bedroom door swung open just as I returned, and the same vampire I knew was responsible for delivering my meals stepped inside, carrying yet another food tray.

  The dimpled smile was unexpected, and a drastic change from his previous disposition.

  “He wanted to ensure you were fed,” he explained in an even friendlier tone.

  “I’m not hungry,” I lied.

  His smile never faltering, he placed the tray on the small round table on which I’d taken all my meals for the past few days and then left the room. The door was closed behind him, lock clicking into place from the other side.

  My stomach chose that moment to release a low grumble.

  I went to the table and eyed the tray’s contents. It was a simple meal of grilled chicken cut into thin strips, steamed vegetables, a soft roll, and bottled water. The silverware was low-grade plastic. I wasn’t sure why that mattered; it wasn’t if I could take Reyes down with a fork or butter knife.