Beauty & Rage (Broken Crowns Book 1)

by Natalie Bennett

My lids barely fluttered before he was suddenly right in front of me, crowding my body backward. I’d been staring right at him and knew for sure he hadn’t moved, but here he was.

  “My queen, take a good look around you. This is hell, and I am king.” He placed his hands on my hips and soft lips came to my ear, whispering, “You have two choices in my court: kneel or bleed.”

  “I bow to no one.”

  He laughed, the sound low and menacing. “Oh, how you’ve changed,” he sighed, grabbing my thighs.

  “What are you doing?” I shoved at his hands, fruitlessly.

  “Bringing you to heel.”

  There were very few words spoken after that. I protested. I bit him, finding his skin that was so soft to the touch was impenetrable when trying to harm.

  In the end, it was all for naught. I still found myself stripped naked and on all fours, back on the bed saturated in our scent.

  There was instinctive arousal between my legs, helping to guide Reyes’ thick cock inside me, stretching my pussy inch by hardened inch.

  He gripped my hips and fucked me harder than he ever had before. I fisted the sheets beneath me, ashamed of the moans of wanton pleasure mixing with my breathless gasps.

  There was a slapping sound as his balls smacked the globes of my ass. I struggled for clarity, fighting the demon inside me that reveled in his brutality.

  “You dare still deny me?” he growled, thrusting with abandon. His power seductively stroked the part of me that was lost in delirium, demanding I give in and submit to him. It would never happen.

  “You will!” His voice bounced off the walls as he held my face into the damp mattress.

  Repaying me for my bite, teeth sank into the same juncture he’d left his mark before, blood spurting from the savagery of it. I squealed, wiggling on his cock and trying to escape him. He easily kept me in place, lapping at the wound as his hips continued to snap forward.

  When the pleasure and pain became too much and his cock was covered in my juices, my pussy contracted around him.

  A barrage of moans erupted from my chest and I clenched around his girth.

  “Reyes…”

  His name fell from my lips as I writhed beneath him, pleasure washing over me. He grunted and, with a guttural sound from the true monster he was, his dick emptied and he buried himself to the hilt.

  “I will have all of you, Duvessa, whether you willingly give it or I forcefully take it.” He kissed my cheek before pulling out, ignoring my unshed tears.

  ~7~

  Soft flesh turned hard and dry, nearly brittle.

  The smell of honey became akin to rancid meat as internal organs rapidly deteriorated. A hint of urine joined the other aromas and mess of blood as my meal pissed herself.

  It had taken less than a few words to get the maid alone in one of my many spare rooms, naked and eager for what she thought I would give her.

  She imagined the envy and jealousy from all the other low-level servitors that would come once she bragged about being fucked by their king. She entered the room under the impression that I would give her pleasure. Instead, I took her life.

  The lithe vampire writhed in my arms, her keening turning to silence as I drained every ounce of the life essence from within her. She’d fed recently—I could tell, and since I only supplied the best for my subjects, she tasted divine.

  When I had taken all there was to take; I tossed her lifeless body aside, rose from the blood-stained bed, and wiped my mouth with the cloth I kept in my pocket for such occasions.

  I didn’t give her another glance.

  She was unimportant, just another nameless face that wanted what only my kind could give.

  I strolled to the heavy oak doors and threw them open, stepping out into the hall.

  “Clean that up,” I commanded the lycans.

  “Of course, Sire,” they responded in unison, immediately springing into action.

  I walked to my next destination, unable to stop thinking of my wayward queen now locked away in our bedroom. How could she not see that I’d saved her?

  Duvessa wasn't meant to live on the streets or barter for food, and it was only a matter of time before another man found her and tried to take what was mine. What had always been mine.

  Regardless of the fliers with her face on them, many would not have hesitated to claim her for themselves—especially those who knew her true identity.

  Tying myself to her was something I should have done long ago. It would have prevented a lot of problems.

  No matter, though. Where there was a problem, there was a solution. Until then, my beautiful queen couldn’t be anywhere safer than in our home.

  I only wished she remembered it, but not nearly as badly as I wished she remembered me.

  My footsteps echoed off the dark marble floor as I descended the grand staircase to the first level of the citadel.

  As I passed the solid door leading to the containment cells below, I heard the click of the incinerator starting up. Minutes later, the smell of burning flesh floated through the ventilation system.

  I made a mental note of it as I reached my conference room.

  This issue was going to have to be fixed before the seamstress arrived. Something told me Duvessa would be displeased if she learned of my method of disposal.

  “Hello, gentlemen." My tone was jovial, surprising the supes that scrambled to stand and bow respectively.

  Once comfortable in my designated seat, I directed them to sit back down.

  I glanced around, taking in all who were present. There were two of my few trusted advisers, both my brothers, and those appointed to be at the head of the regions' various supe factions.

  “When will the final blueprint be completed for the new developments?” I asked, getting straight into things.

  “They were submitted for review just this morning, Sire,” Leo, an older fae, answered.

  I nodded, watching him stand and move to the large projection screen at the end of the room.

  “As you can see, they’ve mapped out the new palace to sit in the east, and compound eighty-seven will be placed near the border." He pointed out each structure with a red laser pen, showing exactly where they’d be located. “The town will also undergo renovation.”

  “This will work perfectly for what we need,” I said after studying the screen a few seconds longer.

  A visible show of relief went around the room. After years of planning, re-planning, and a few lost lives, they could finally move past this and begin organizing production.

  Once a few more topics were covered, the meeting concluded, and everyone was given a list of tasks to complete.

  I left the room along with both of my brothers.

  “So, how is our queen?” Cassimere inquired good-naturedly as he fell in step beside me.

  “She’s as lost and confused as I expected. There are hints of recollection, though I can’t be sure they’re of me.”

  Cass slowed. His concern for me was evident in the unbreakable link we shared as triplets.

  Hades felt the same, but his face remained a blank slate.

  “And are you all right with this?”

  “I’ve bound myself to her, regardless,” I replied. It was answer enough. The pairing of our souls was just as permanent as the one we shared as brothers.

  Regardless of who Duvessa had become in our time apart, she would always be the most precious thing in the world to me. One day, she might recall who I was. If not, there was plenty of time for her to learn.

  “There are a few things we need to get in order before she can freely roam about. How are the other two faring?”

  “Scarlett could use an attitude adjustment,” Cassimere answered with a casual shrug.

  Hades chuckled at that.

  I shook my head and grinned. I’d told him to keep a close eye on the succubus. It took four days before the sound of them fucking echoed throughout his side of the citadel.

  What he chose to do with her wasn’t
my concern. He’d laid claim to the headstrong demi two days after Duvessa woke. It took another two for her to wake from the necessary transfusion, receive Ice, and transition.

  “And Jacinda?” I asked Hades.

  “She pays me little attention,” he replied, suddenly somber.

  I hid a smile at his perplexity. The young shifter paid him as much attention as someone did a house fly.

  She wasn’t afraid of him and had a feasible excuse as to why she never responded when he spoke.

  As it was, after a bit more digging, she was now a vital part of our future endeavors.

  With her stuck in Purgatory, it was only a matter of time before her father got word and made a move to retrieve her.

  Duvessa should truly be thanking me. She had no idea what was lurking on the horizon.

  ~8~

  Time seemed to blur in the confines of the room.

  I ate three times a day; the meals were all five-star quality with nothing spared. If I wasn’t showering or soaking in the Jacuzzi, I was sleeping.

  At first, I tried to use the noticeable changes in my body to gauge how long I’d been here. That lasted for maybe a week.

  I was gaining weight, slowly returning to my previous state. However, I knew I would never fully be the same as before.

  My eyes were brighter, the demon part of me that had those slumbering senses was more awake every day, and the bond continually grew. The mark on my side was darker than before, that collar around my neck a little tighter.

  I did all I could to keep myself preoccupied when I was awake. Reyes had brought in a television that now hung on the wall, but the movies had quickly gotten old, and it had none of the channels I needed to see.

  I had no idea what was going on outside of this room. Reyes was an excellent evader, although he made sure to tell me that Jacinda and Scarlett were doing fine. Whether we had different definitions of that word or not was still debatable.

  It didn’t help any that he and small glimpses of Dylan were the only ones I had to converse with.

  By the time Reyes would enter the room after leaving me alone for hours, I was near desperate for company. He was well aware of this; I think he even liked it.

  Some days he would go off and do whatever he did to keep control of the madness he ruled over, and then he would come back and bury himself inside me for hours. His mood played a major role in how our exchanges would go. If he was angry, my body became the outlet for him to relieve whatever was bothering him. At those times, he would always take me hard and fast.

  When he was calm—if it could be called that—he would take his time or add just enough pleasure and pain to make my head spin.

  And then there were days like this one. He was sitting in one of the high-backed chairs and busying himself with an air-pad, sorting through a small pile of documents on the end table beside him.

  I promptly gave up on being nosey when I couldn’t make sense of anything he was looking at. Back on the bed, I lay on my side and studied him, not unusual for me.

  There was no denying my curiosity when it came to Reyes, just as I couldn’t shake the odd feeling of familiarity the more time I spent in his presence.

  “You are so petulant, Duvessa,” he intoned, finally reacting to my exasperated sighing.

  “I am not. I’m restless, Reyes. I have questions you won’t answer, and I’ve been in this room for gods know how long. When do you plan on letting me out? When are you going to tell me what your big plan is for my people? When am I—”

  He sat his air-pad to the side and settled his gaze on me. “Pick one question you want to be answered, and I’ll answer it.”

  I rolled to my stomach and then sat up on my knees, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

  “Just one?”

  His dark brows rose, causing me to backpedal quickly. One response was all I needed to be able to find the remaining answers on my own.

  “When can I leave this room?”

  “I’ll have the seamstress bring in your wardrobe tomorrow.”

  “You’ve got a wardrobe on standby?”

  “Yes, but I prefer you naked or in the chemise. Saves lots of time when I want nothing more than to bend you over and fuck you for a few hours.”

  I refrained from gaping at him—barely. “Are you telling me I didn’t have to stay locked in here?”

  “You think I was keeping you prisoner in our bedroom? Duvessa, all you needed to do was open the door.”

  I shook my head side to side. “No. I did try to open the door, multiple times. It was locked.”

  He grinned at me, showing two rows of perfect white teeth and receded fangs, disrupting the rhythm in my chest.

  I’d yet to figure out what exactly Reyes was. From what I could tell thus far, he truly was a mixture of supes.

  It was as if whoever bio-engineered him had tossed every type of gene and DNA there was together and hoped for the best. Hard to as it was to believe he was even alive, he was very much a living, breathing creature.

  His lips were soft, his golden skin smooth and so warm that sometimes it felt like I was sleeping beside a furnace. His eyes were expressive often when his face was not. And then there was the massive cock between his legs that he used to fuck me daily.

  “Are you done?”

  I blinked, feeling a blush creep across my face. I hadn’t meant to stare so openly.

  “I love it when you look at me,” he replied to yet another of my many thoughts.

  Whether he could read my mind or our pairing just gave him a better understanding of my feelings was still something I was trying to figure out. He was an enigmatic mystery in a multitude of ways.

  “So you mean to tell me I could have simply opened the door and walked out?” I asked, bringing us back to my question.

  “You could have opened the door and told Dylan you were ready to leave. Walk around dressed in a scrap of silk for all to see? No. That would be an excellent way to get half my men slaughtered.”

  I raised my brows this time.

  “That’s a bit…”

  “Possessive? Territorial? I’m not ashamed of that. You’re mine. No one else will ever see you the way I do.”

  There seemed to be a double meaning in his words, but he didn’t elaborate.

  “But you trust Dylan?”

  “That’s different.”

  “How? Is Dylan not a male?”

  He did that freakishly fast movement and was directly in front of me on my next blink. As many times as he’d done this, you would think I was used to it, but that was far from the case.

  I fell back onto my ass and glared up at him. “I wish you’d stop doing that.”

  He brushed off my grievance by reaching down and cupping the side of my face.

  His touch should have repulsed me. I should have hated him for what he’d done, but I didn’t. That was evident in the way I leaned into his touch. I could have easily blamed the demon practically purring in my chest, but if anything, that part of me intensified the feelings.

  “I love the sight of you in my bed,” he crooned, moving his hands to my thighs, easing them apart and slowly skimming around to the globes of my ass.

  He leaned over me, bringing his lips to mine.

  My stomach flipped as his scent filled my lungs; the demon half of me wanted him desperately while my brain told me to stay in control.

  Sensing my inner turmoil, Reyes laughed softly. My head fell back to the mattress and I shut my eyes at the sound of his zipper going down.

  There was a barely audible thud as his clothes landed on the floor. When his fingers found their way to my pussy and began to stroke up and down my folds, they became coated in seconds.

  “You’re so responsive,” he murmured proudly.

  “I’m sore,” I said quietly when his firm chest touched my breast.

  “I guess I’ll have to be gentle, then.”

  He positioned me so that my legs were hooked over his muscled forearms, his cock sliding into me o
n my next breath.

  “Open those pretty eyes. Let me see you,” he demanded gently, resting the heel of his palm against my throat.

  I did as he said, peering up at him through thick lashes. With him no longer using his power, the sex was all so clear; every movement became vividly etched into my brain.

  He rocked in and out of me until I began arching my hips, clenching around his cock and pleading for more. There was little hesitation on his end before obliging my breathy request. Gripping my hips so tightly they bruised, he fucked me ruthlessly, ensuring every pulsing, hard inch of him was buried inside me.

  The muscles in his torso flexed with his every thrust. When he lurched down to seal his mouth over mine, I threaded nimble fingers through his dark, silky hair.

  My juices coated his cock; a squelching sound accompanied the slapping of our skin.

  I was fully lost in the delirium of him; both halves of me always whole as he brought me to climax.

  When the tightening in my lower stomach and pressure in my core became too great for me to hold onto, I let ecstasy wash over me.

  I came with a barrage of long moans and a screaming of his name. He fucked me impossibly harder, moving my legs so that they were on his shoulders, thrusting even deeper.

  The relaxed hand on my throat tightened to pin me down and keep me in place, forcing me to take his cock when I tried to wriggle away. A primal sound fell from his lecherous lips when my pussy clamped down like a vise, milking him of his come until there was nothing left.

  When it was done, he loosened his grip and placed a soft kiss to my sweaty forehead before uttering words that left me at a loss for days afterward.

  “You have given me your body countless times. It’s when I look in your eyes and see I no longer have your heart that I am reminded of who we are.”

  I was nearly comatose when the woman appeared at my side of the bed.

  Her arrival was so unexpected, I failed to stop the yelp of surprise from escaping my mouth.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  She gently tapped my cheek and clicked her tongue. “That is no way for a queen to speak. Get up. By the looks of you, I’ve got my work cut out for me.”