Claimed by my Dark Angel: A Forbidden Paranormal Romance (Saints to Sinners Book 1)

by Fiona Darling

  I blink at him through the broken mirror, though his brawny figure is barely visible through my blurred vision. I wipe the tears away with the back of my hand, shaking my head.

  “If only that were true. Then maybe, just maybe I wouldn’t feel so alone all the time.”

  Strong hands clamp around my shoulders and spin me around. His knuckle comes to rest under my chin, lifting my head so my gaze is forced in front of his. “Sophie, you never have to be alone again. Not ever, I promise you that.”

  I sniff, hating myself for crying in front of him. He thinks I’m strong, and I hate to shatter that illusion like the busted mirror in front of me. I spin around and search his chiseled features, searching for any trace of something that seeks to hurt me, buried in the depths of his eyes or perhaps at the corner of his mouth. I find nothing but hot, sizzling, absolute devotion boring back at me.

  “So many promises. You better keep them, by god. Or devil take your soul.” My warning lacks the ferocity I hoped to convey, but deep down, buried in a part of my soul that frightens me, I know I’ll trust him regardless.

  Gideon issues a growl-like chuckle and pushes forward so that my ass bumps into the vanity, pinning me between his rock hard body and the rickety furniture. “Whether I keep my promises or not, the devil will claim my soul regardless, Sophie. Of that, I have no doubt.”

  As if to prove the lengths of his sins, I can feel him harden and swell against my thigh. His breaths become short and ragged, and his great chest heaves in the tight black t-shirt that struggles to contain his brawn.

  What is it about this man that holds my heart captive? A dark and wonderful magic. That’s what he had called this pull between us last night. Had it really only been one day since the meeting? All it took was minutes for Gideon to ensnare my heart, soul, and virtue, and every moment spent with him wasn’t enough. It would never be enough.

  But my mind was still at war with the rest of my body. I ache for this man in his entirety, but the old Sophie had been hurt a thousand times over by people and their promises.

  People who were supposed to love me.

  But newfound lover makes it easy to forget all the pain of my past. His hands grip my waist and lift me up onto the dresser, nudging my thighs apart with his hips. I had stuffed a few outfits in a backpack, knowing I would be in Seattle for a few days while I sought to bring myself peace with Elise’s passing. I regret now, wearing a skirt. By his craven eyes, skipping over my bare legs, and his flaring nostrils, I know he has something wicked planned for me. His gentle hands turn greedy as they dip under the hem of my skirt, the little piece of fabric driving wild.

  “Sophie, I’d sell my soul twice if it meant getting another taste of you.”

  Fuck. I love hearing the husky crackle of his voice, purring my name like it’s the softest, sweetest thing he’s ever had in his mouth. My skin breaks out in bumps, and I know he can feel them where his palms grip the tops of my thighs, edging slowly to my aching cleft.

  I throw my hands up and press them against his chest as if to push him away but I make no genuine effort. His hardened muscles wind tight against me as two thick, devious fingers snake underneath my panties and dip into my wet heat.

  “Gideon, this is wrong. Not here.”

  Despite the protests of my mind, my body is aroused and I am already wet, drenching his fingers in my sinful delight. It’s wrong, it should be wrong. So, why does it feel so right?

  Gideon lets out a deep, guttural growl against my throat, sending a shiver running down my spine. “I’m sick of hearing about right and wrong. I’m fucking tired of rules. I’ve stuck by them before and they haven’t done me any damn favors.” The hand currently not occupied inside me, tormenting me with the dance of his fingertips, knots in my hair. He wrenches my head back, forcing my gaze in front of his.

  Looking into the black void of his eyes is like starring into space, it stretches on and on, full of endless possibilities.

  “From here on out, I’m going to do what feels right to me, not what everyone else thinks I should do. You feel right Sophie, you are the only thing I will ever abide by ever again. Not your world’s rules, and not mine.”

  A tremor rattles my entire being as I sink further into his divine darkness.

  And then, he kisses me. It’s deep and devastating and full of dark promises that penetrate my very soul. The velvety feel of his lips as they glide over mine, the twist of fingers in my hair and in my mound. My body becomes wetter by the second, easing the glide of his digits over my folds as they slide out to spread my juices over my clit.

  I jerk my head back in ecstasy, knocking against the mirror. His eyes flick to the glass and his lips twitch. A hungry, animalistic urge spreads over his face as he watches himself finger fuck me, delving deep into a place he knows he shouldn’t be.

  My pussy clenches tight around his fingers, sopping, wet, and desperate for more. The sheer pleasure his hand can bring me is pure insanity. I can’t wait to have that thick, hot rod straining against his pants, in place of where his fingers are now, stretching and filling me until I can’t take anymore.

  This divine bliss we share runs deeper than flesh. There’s that connection, the magic we both felt the moment I was pulled into his orbit. The emotional bond, the undeniable attraction, and his feral desire to protect and consume me all at once fills me with the rush of an orgasm.

  My hands fly to Gideon’s shoulders, filling the sinew of his bulging muscles. His own hunger spikes as he watches me unravel around his fingers. He pulls his hand from me and works to free himself from his pants. I fumble and as one hand grips the edge of the vanity to brace for his impact I accidental slam the back of my hand into my sister’s copy of Outlander. The book tumbles to the ground, and the piece of paper that served as the bookmark flutters to the floorboards.

  Both of our attention bolts to the paper as it lays face-up, the ink upon the paper containing all the significance of the ten commandments etched into stone.

  Just like that, the spell is shattered.

  The piece of paper is a clue in Elise’s death, and somehow, I know that before even reading what’s imprinted on it. Gideon’s masterful fingers button his trousers back up in a blink of an eye, his attention now plastered to that scrap of paper. He stoops to the floor and scoops it up. Looking at it for a moment, his expression turns hard and unreadable.

  And he hands it to me.

  Chapter 15

  Sophie

  Revolver - 253-555-8855

  I frown at the piece of paper I’m holding in my trembling hand. It’s just a name, a stupid one at that. It’s just a number. It’s just a scrap of paper that was used for something as insignificant as a bookmark. But I know it’s so much more than that.

  I know I am looking at the name of a person that was involved in the murder of my sister. Elise didn’t have friends. She didn’t play nice with anyone. If she cared enough to have someone in her ‘circle’ it was because she was either fucking them for drugs or using the money she got from that side hustle of selling herself to pay for drugs.

  Either way, they were all pathetic creeps who took advantage of desperate women. It didn’t matter if this Revolver hadn’t pulled the trigger that had been held to Elise’s head. He was responsible, in some part at least.

  I just know it.

  And I wasn’t going to stand by and do nothing as I had when my sister was still alive.

  “It’s a Tacoma area code,” Gideon says. He’s reigning in his anger, but I know he shares a similar fury with me at the mere sight of that name, and all the possibilities that lie behind it.

  It’s somebody to punish.

  “The Tacoma pack?”

  He nods. My throat tightens. Shifters.

  “Right before her death, Elise asked me for money. 25,000 dollars.”

  “She owed someone, likely the pack. They’re known meth and heroin peddlers, at least among my kind.”

  His kind. My heart knocks against my chest and su
ddenly it’s difficult to breathe. I’m desperate to ask him what he means by ‘his kind,’ and I am terrified of the answer. Even though I already know it won’t matter. At breakfast, he said he wasn’t a werewolf, and when he’d said as much he spat the syllables as though he loathed even having to taste the word in his mouth.

  My mind grapples for answers but now isn’t the time to be asking him questions. Before my nerves slip, I reach for my cell and frantically stab at the numbers on the screen. 253-555-8855.

  From the periphery of my vision, Gideon’s eyes widen.

  “What are you doing?” he growls. The deep timbre of his voice rattles my bones, but I don’t allow it to sway me from the trail Elise’s bookmark led me to. “It’s probably just a burner phone Elise, I doubt you’ll—” His words drop as a ring meets his acute hearing, and his pupils dilate.

  The ring of the phone buzzes in my ear, nearly matching the rhythm of my thundering pulse.

  One ring.

  Two rings.

  Three rings.

  In one ear, the electronic pulse of the phone rings, and in the other ear, the pound of my heart and the intense heave of Gideon’s breathing. If the phone had been disposed of, it wouldn’t be ringing. Will they see my Portland area code and ignore my call? What would they want with a stranger from Portland? If I’d been thinking, I would have dialed *69. Did drug dealers screen calls? Maybe he would find it odd. Whoever the owner was, they wouldn’t know about Elise’s twin sister in Portland.

  Four Rings.

  Five Rings.

  Then there is a click, and a lump the size of a tennis ball lodges itself in my throat.

  “R-revolver?”

  “Who is this?”

  The voice is gristly and rough. Obviously, someone thinks himself quite the badass. Even with a single word uttered between us, I already hate him with every fiber of my making. Panic and rage crash together, and pure adrenaline slams through my veins. I have to think, fast.

  “Elise,” is all I can choke out. “It’s Elise.”

  There’s a deadly silence on the other end of the phone, a quiet stillness so dangerous it crackles through the phone and electrifies the air.

  “So, you are alive. My boys weren’t lying when they saw you last night. Tried to put another bullet in your head to chase the first. Since that didn’t stick.”

  My eyes lock with Gideon’s. He can hear every word. My dark savior looks fit to plunge his hand through my phone and throttle Revolver by the grace of god or dark magic and whatever else makes him so damn dangerous.

  “I’m alive,” is all I can manage to say.

  “How did you survive? I put that bullet in you and left you in that alley, dead.”

  My blood runs cold. I resist the urge to swallow, steadying my breathing so as not to betray my nerves. I taste the bitterness of my lie, and should I allow my voice to falter, hesitate too long between answers, or my ragged breathing to slip, he’ll dispose of the phone, and I’ll never get answers.

  By sheer will, I force my eyes away from Gideon and hone my attention on the monster on the other line. I can feel Gideon’s rage settling in like a hurricane and should I allow it to settle over me, my composure will slip.

  “I heard about your funeral,” he continues. “By what miracle are you alive? Whatever happened, that bullet must have caused some serious brain damage for you to survive and to call me, when you still owe me 25,000 dollars.”

  A chill flares down my back. The 300-pound beast behind me tenses. The air around us is stifling, something dark and feral is shifting inside him. The string lights flicker and die, I’m not sure if it’s a result of months of being left on or something more profound. Even the walls seem to creak, like they’re trying to get away from this terrifying entity.

  Don’t look at him, Sophie. Focus.

  By force of will, I manage to take my mind off Gideon and crank it into overdrive. He had slapped a value of 25,000 dollars over my twin’s head, and when she couldn’t pay, he murdered her in cold blood. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t close to my sister. She was still my sister. A small part of me had always held onto hope that someday, one day, we would find a way to connect after all the pain of our past had torn us apart.

  That hope had died with Elise. The man on the other end had taken that from me.

  “Why do you think I’m calling you, you fucking idiot?” My sister loved to prod the people who could hurt her the most. “You almost killed me, lucky for me you can’t even use a gun right.”

  What am I doing? I’m going to get myself killed. Gideon’s practically on top of me, his hot breath spilling over me, ready to snatch the phone away at any moment.

  But he doesn’t. I push on in a new role as Elise, starring an avenging sister who has no idea what she’s doing with a scary henchman who seems to know exactly what he’s doing. Too bad that right now, I’m the star of the show. The spotlight’s on me, and if I screw up, our chance of avenging Elise goes down the drain.

  “So I faked my own death. Collected on life insurance money, and now I have your 25,000 dollars in hand so you can call off your dogs.”

  The tension is thick between us, I can almost hear his flurry of questions. How had Elise managed to recover from a head wound? How had she faked her own death? Elise wasn’t an idiot, but was she clever enough to pull off that kind of stunt? Did she even have a life insurance policy?

  Despite his obvious and well-placed speculations, he wasn’t about to deny 25,000 dollars.

  “Fine. Meet me and my brothers at The Half Moon at midnight. Don’t come with the guardian. He’ll be outnumbered.”

  “G-guardian?”

  The word is out of my mouth before I can stop myself. Apparently, me playing dumb seems to be in character for Elise from the irritating hiss on Revolver’s line. “So fucking dense. The guy that used to follow you around like a puppy. Why did you think we told you to ditch him before we started dealing together? He’s a fucking angel, the worst kind of shifter.”

  I can barely breathe.

  My world tilts, and I force myself to remain upright. An angel? A guardian angel? My mind fumbles for the logic, my rationale rushing to push the possibility out of my mind. Angels don’t exist, and there is no way this wickedly-handsome man with devious eyes and sinful extremities that love to make me writhe upon them, came from anywhere close to Heaven.

  His entire demeanor stifles the room and he braces himself for my reaction. I brave a sidelong glance at the mirror. His face is distorted by the hairline cracks in the glass, but the emotions he wears on his face are easy to label as I have become familiar with them over the years like begrudging friends.

  Pain.

  Anger.

  Fear.

  He doesn’t like what he is, and that he’s kept such a truth from me. But I understand his hesitation. He was Elise’s guardian angel, and it makes sense now that Elise kept him away from her, because it was either him or the drugs. The Tacoma pack wouldn’t have dealt with her otherwise.

  And it’s as plain as the hurt, and regret plastered on his face; he stills holds himself responsible. My gut tightens at the thought of my sister, bleeding out in that alley; alone. My grip clenches around the cell phone, knuckles whitening on a shaking hand. Maybe he is to blame.

  “I won’t bring him…” I finally manage, voice so low it’s nearly a whisper. The call disconnects, leaving us in a heavy silence that weighs the room down. I pocket my phone and slowly turn to face my avenging angel.

  Chapter 16

  Gideon

  “I’m going with you.”

  Sophie shoots me a venomous look, one that frightens me to the core. The spasm of fear inside me makes me hate myself more than I already do. My kind isn’t supposed to feel fear, regardless of station. The idea of taking on every shifter in the Tacoma pack with nothing but my bare fists until there is nothing left fills me with righteous fury. Adrenaline punches through my veins at the mere thought.But the idea of my mate facing those bloo
dthirsty, devious beasts on her own fills me with an overwhelming sensation of dread and anger. My inner protector goes mad inside me, thrashing against the walls of my being in desperation to let loose.

  But I had failed in protecting Elise, and as a punishment, I will never shift again. My ability to properly protect Sophie has decreased significantly, and the idea of losing her to the same monsters who took her sister terrifies me.

  I can’t lose her. Even if she shoves me away like her twin, this time I won’t bend, and I won’t cower. She’s mine, and no beast nor man, no god nor demon will take her from me so long as I shall live.

  “Why?” Her voice is shaky and wavering, sure tell of the tears she’s holding back. “So you can protect me like you protected my sister?”

  She begins to weep, and the sight of lament stabs at my heart like a fire-warmed dagger. Even in her sorrow, her heartbreaking beauty is too much for my damned soul to bear. I long to wrap my arms around her in comfort, but I despise that I have become a thing to pity and loathe in her eyes, in all but an instant.

  “I was a fool. Your sister didn’t want me anywhere near her. Even if she knew my nature, it wouldn’t have made a difference. But as her guardian, I should have not given her a choice, I should have stayed by her day and night to watch over her, even if I had to live in the shadows of the alleys she frequented. I paid a dear price for what happened to her. I told you I was demoted, but that word doesn’t do justice to the punishment I have endured.” My voice drops to a tone that feels strange using. Helplessness? I’m baring myself to this human woman whom I’ve just met. I’m emerging from the shadows I wear as my armor, and I’m terrified she’ll be disgusted by the creature underneath. I move to touch her, but my fingers only glide against the silky strands of her hair as she reels back with fire in her eyes.

  “Your punishment? Are you talking about your stipend getting cut? You poor man.” She spits out the venomous words, intent on burning me, but I remain rooted to where I stand, a stony expression worn like a mask over my face.