Raw- Rebirth

by Belle Aurora

Weird.

  Yep. This was definitely strange.

  And when he stood and spoke, it came out a growl. And that growl had all kinds of messed up images running through my head. “I told you not to leave this fucking room, but you come and go as you please, like an entitled toddler. Fuck what your very presence on the streets is doing to your family.”

  Oh, yeah. He was pissed.

  My beautiful brother was mad at me.

  Oh, no. I did not like that. “Van,” I started slowly, a frown marring my delicate brow.

  “No,” he snarled, and when I took a step away from him, his face turned expressionless. His tone much the same. “This was a mistake. I thought you were ready, but you’re not.” He took in a deep breath. “Which is why we’ve decided that you’ll no longer be leading The Dragons.” My mouth gaped as he went on. “The vote has been cast. I’m taking over, Ling.”

  I blinked over at him, my gut clenching hard with suppressed anger.

  Like hell he was.

  Holding myself like the queen I was, my face remained void, when I stated, “A mutiny, Van?” A soft laugh shot out of me. “Really?”

  But the Van I loved was nowhere to be seen. Instead, Van the douche took his place. “Call it what you will. I’ve already started damage control.” His cold stare held me fast. “I never should have listened to you. But that’s my fault. I trusted you, and I should have known better.”

  His words cut me deeply.

  This fucker.

  Panic flared deep in the core of my very being. “Van, think about this.”

  “I have.” He nodded. “I am.” He looked me up and down. “What a shame you turned out to be, Ling. You’ve taken us from being one of the most prominent and trusted firms in the southern hemisphere to being your own personal playthings, treating our men like children then punishing them when they misbehave. Our reputation has suffered in your command. Your ‘I don’t give a fuck’ attitude has cost us more than you’re worth, I’m afraid.”

  What the fuck? He’s never spoken to me as such.

  “So here’s what’s going to happen.” He took a step closer to me, and I didn’t trust the peacefulness in his tone. “You’re going to sit here, in this room, like the doll you were born to be, and you will listen to whatever it is I say because you know I have your best interest at heart.”

  That was the plan? He was locking me away like a retarded sibling?

  My blood began to boil.

  Did he even know who I was?

  That was so not happening.

  “You will no longer have anything to do with The Dragons. You won’t see them; you won’t talk to them. You won’t even see our brothers anymore because I know how great a manipulator you are. When the time is right, you will live at my house with me, where I can keep an eye on you at all times.”

  My anger rose to hot, heavy rage.

  He took another step forward. “And when you invite me into your bed,” he spoke low, “I will come to you.”

  My heart started to beat faster.

  The rage turned to white, blistering fury.

  No. None of this was working for me.

  “We aren’t normal, Ling, and I’m sick of trying to be something I’m not. So I’ve decided to stop fighting the darkness inside me and embrace it instead.” And he smiled so viciously that I saw my father in that hollow grin. “It’s quite freeing. I can see why you live the way you do. I think you’ll find I make a half-decent king. And, in private—” Another confident step closer. “—you can be my queen.”

  My insides twisted painfully, and when I lowered my eyes, my brother mistook my position for one of submission.

  I heard pride line his voice as he reached out to cup my cheek warmly. “My pretty little doll.”

  We were royalty in our own rights, but I had something my brother would never have. Tenacity. It was something you were either born with or you weren’t. It couldn’t be taught. Lucky for me, I had the shit in spades.

  Playing the role he very clearly wanted me to play, I reached up slowly to smooth his lapel and I kept my eyes lowered, as I asked a hushed, “Come to bed with me?”

  Van wrapped his arms around me, resting his hands just below the small of my back. “Do you want me, Ling?”

  Did I want his highness?

  No. “Yes,” I muttered quietly, and when he moved us towards the bed, a calmness I’d rarely felt flowed through me, radiating warmth in a cold situation that would not end well no matter how it played out.

  At the side of the bed, I ran a hand down his chest to his stomach, lower still until my fingers rested just under his navel. “Lay down.”

  As his eyes fixed on me, he did as I asked, and when I climbed over him, I put my hands to his chest and sat low on his stomach. I leant in close until my front met his and I could feel his heart thumping in his chest. He was excited by this, our shame. His heart called to mine; it beat for me and me alone, and I slid my hands under the pillow, pressing myself into him in a purely sexual way.

  My brother’s eyes hooded in pleasure, and I smiled coyly in return. “Are you sure you want this? I’m a dangerous woman, Van.” My voice turned breathy. “Once you have me, you’ll never be the same.”

  Van’s soft smile made my stomach ache, and when he uttered a rough, “I love you,” I came to realize he did.

  He really did.

  Van thought The Dragons would thrive under a king, but he didn’t appreciate what The Dragons had when they had it. I know he thought he was doing what was best, but he was already making terrible decisions, and regretfully, I wouldn’t stand for it.

  “You think The Dragons need a king, brother mine?” I asked sweetly, trailing kisses along his jaw.

  “I do,” he grunted out as I ran my tongue along his chin.

  Did I want my brother?

  I wanted a lot of things.

  I wanted him to understand me.

  I wanted him to realize his error.

  And most of all, I wanted him dead.

  Kissing his cheek, I spoke against his stubble-rough skin, “My beautiful brother, you have been the sunshine in my darkness. You have picked me up every time I fell, and I thank you for that. But I need you to hear me now, and hear me well.” I moved then. My lips a hair’s breadth away from his, I looked Van in the eyes and whispered viciously, “I am the motherfucking king.”

  In a move he did not see coming, his eyes widened as I sat up, lifting the hunting knife out from under my pillow, up over my head, and as I brought it down into his chest, my eyes widened and my lip curled. The surprised sound he made when the seven-inch blade entered his body was music to my ears. I brought it mechanically down over and over and over again, and every time the knife slid into him, a harsh grunt escaped his mouth. Wet warmth splattered my face, over my eyes, but I didn’t dare shut them. I needed to see the exact moment the light faded from his eyes.

  I counted every blow.

  My steady hand stilled only when I reached sixty-three and Van’s chest looked like minced meat.

  My white covers now colored red, I sat back and pursed my lips, looking down at my brother, panting lightly. He wheezed and coughed, and as his body shook, I took the hunting knife and slowly licked the blade. As I did this, our eyes met.

  The expression he wore was an equal mixture of shock and pain, and I didn’t give a solid fuck. “I’m sorry, Van, but I guess you could say my answer to everything you just offered is...” I paused a second, my face darkened, and I spoke slowly, “No.”

  He opened his mouth and attempted to speak, but all that came out was a sickening gurgling sound.

  I should have just slit his throat, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to watch.

  “This could have gone differently. You know that, don’t you?” When he didn’t answer, for he couldn’t, I took his head in my hands and moved it in a slow nod. “That’s right. I didn’t want to do this.” I cupped his cheeks, and he gasped for air as I moved his head from side to side in a shake of th
e head. “But our visions clashed, and one of us needed to go. And it sure as fuck wasn’t going to be me, Van. You know I’m too selfish to share what’s mine.” His harsh wheezing got weaker. “This right here? This is what makes me a good leader. Nobody’s safe, Van. Nobody. I guess what I’m trying to say is—” I held him fast as he took in a short, stuttering breath. The exhale never came. And when I dropped his head, I blinked down at my bloodstained hands. “—long live the king.”

  The silence started to turn on me as my actions played in my mind on repeat. And for some unknown reason, sitting over my brother’s dead body, I just couldn’t find the will to care.

  This was my castle, yes, but I’d never rule again. When it was found out what happened here, my life was forfeit. Luka Pavlovic would put a bullet between my eyes.

  Because that’s what you did to sickly animals.

  You put them down.

  I thought about what to do now, but only one option stood out.

  If I was going out, I was going out with a bang. And when I finally detonated my atom bomb, the explosion would be felt all over. I would shake every fucking window in this shithole of a town.

  A bloodstained smirk stretched at my lips as I slid off the bed and stalked out of the room, barefoot and painted red.

  Yes. They would feel me. I’d make sure of it.

  Boom, bitches.

  Chapter

  Thirty-Seven

  Lexi

  “No word?”

  I poured my coffee, looking down at the black and gold mug, my lips pressed thin. “Nope.” When my eyes met Luka’s, I shrugged and forced a smile that I knew didn’t reach my eyes. My response was listless. “He’s never really been the ‘calling to check in’ kind.”

  At my semi-annoyed tone, Luka smiled fondly. “No, he hasn’t.”

  Over the last few days, Luka Pavlovic and I had gotten to know each other, and as the days went on, an unspoken understanding was formed. A mutual tolerance. He no longer treated me as a burden, and I no longer gave him the sass of a hormonal thirteen-year-old. Unlike Twitch, Luka was actually something of a conversationalist, and the more we spoke, the more I came to like the man.

  And in our shared hatred of a highly reckless woman, we were perfectly matched.

  After all, Luka had a lot to lose in this situation. While I didn’t rate losing his position as highly as losing my life, Luka’s reign was important to him, as much as my life was to me.

  Every time I thought of what Ling was capable of, I pictured my son growing up without his mother, without his father. And that scared the shit out of me. There was so much I wanted to be around for, so much A.J. needed me here for. I wasn’t ready to meet my maker. Not yet. Neither was Twitch. So I gave him time because truthfully it was all I had to give right then and there.

  As I sat next to him at the table, I ran a hand through my hair with a sigh and turned my weary face to him. “What’s in Cuba?” Luka lowered his gaze, running a finger over the table, and I narrowed my eyes on him. “Does it look like I’m running, Pav?” He looked me in the eye. “No, I’m right here, and if you knew half the shit that man has put me through, trust me, even you’d tell me to hightail it out of here.” My eyes softened. “But I’m here. I’m waiting. I just want him to come home.”

  “He will,” he said immediately, before adding, “There’s only one thing in Cuba, Alexa, and for your sake, I hope Twitch isn’t stupid enough to bring that shit here, because—” He shot me a look of unmistakable displeasure. “—I will not be pleased.”

  The way he was looking at me made my heart stutter.

  “What if he doesn’t come back?” I whispered, and my eyes swept low to my hands, completely unfocused as I quietly stressed.

  And for the first time since I met him, Luka Pavlovic sounded uncertain of himself. “You could stay here, with me.” He really was a sweet man once you saw past the intensity he wore like a hefty armor. And when I opened my mouth to speak, he added certainly, “But he’s coming back.”

  Luka sounded so sure. I wish I felt the same. “How do you know?”

  Missing Twitch came in waves, and today I was drowning.

  He spoke low and cracked a wide smile that I was sure had panties melting all over the world. “Because I would come back for you.”

  Sadly, only one man’s smile affected me. It was crooked and full-mouthed and made him look something like a naughty boy, and I adored it.

  I rolled my eyes but softened it with a laugh. “Lady killer.”

  “Acquitted,” he uttered quietly, and as he walked away, he winked, and I wasn’t sure if he was actually joking or not.

  I should not have been chuckling the way I was.

  Definitely not.

  My skin prickled almost painfully as goose bumps trailed my arms, starting from my shoulder all the way down to my wrist. My brow knitted tiredly, and when the light breeze hit my arm, I frowned in my sleep and snuggled deeper into the covers.

  Only there were none.

  The wooden bedframe creaked and my eyes snapped open, blinking rapidly into the darkness, and as they adjusted, my heart jolted.

  “Angel.”

  The whiskey-smooth whisper was a balm on my soul, and I sat up and lunged at him, throwing my arms around him with a rough exhale. He permitted me to hold him to me firmly, pulling his head into my bosom as I knelt beside him on the mattress. I pressed firm kisses to his head again and again, and when he put his lips to the valley between my breasts, my nipples tightened with a desire that wouldn’t be denied.

  Without a word spoken, I reached for the hem of my nightie and whipped it over my head, leaving me in nothing but a pair of tiny silk panties. My voice thick with emotion, I ordered him to, “Kiss me.”

  Hearing the need in my voice, he did as commanded.

  The moment his lips touched mine, I was lost. Moaning into his mouth, my hands found his belt and I tugged at it desperately, managing to loosen it before popping the button on his jeans, reaching in and taking his stiff length in my hands, palming it tightly.

  Twitch’s mouth went lax as he released a low groan.

  I needed him inside me. Right now.

  In the darkness of night, I pled on a whisper, “Please, baby.”

  The slight hitch of his breath told me I was not alone in my need.

  Lightning fast, he flipped us, and as he towered over me, a stiff yank had my panties thrown down my legs. When my hands found the bottom of his tee, he muttered a rough, “Leave it.” The insistence in his tone had my core weeping. Kneeling between my legs, he held his cock in one hand then lowered himself, sliding inside me with a roughness that forced a small whimper out of me.

  And Twitch gave me what I desired.

  Completely dressed, he fucked me hard, he fucked me fast, and for the first time in years, he fucked me missionary, his mouth desperately seeking mine. But I needed to feel more of him. My hands moved jerkily, lifting his tee to feel his hard chest on my heaving breasts before wrapping my legs around his hips and meeting him thrust for thrust.

  It was urgent. It was rushed. And, more than anything, it was completely inebriating.

  Together, we were perfection.

  You couldn’t beat this.

  A grunt passed his lips, and he muttered tightly, “Missed you.”

  As he drove into me ruthlessly, I breathed out, “Love you,” and when I did, he stilled entirely, searching my face in the dark, reaching up to lovingly cup my cheek before leaning in and capturing my mouth in a firm kiss that spoke entire poetic verses while all I could manage were empty lines.

  On the cusp of release, I elevated my hips with a low moan, and he took the hint, pulling back, then pushing all the way into me. My core clenched tightly, and Twitch panted into my mouth as he held my face close, screwing the last six days of anxiety out of me. Body tight, I sunk back into the mattress, my lips parted, awaiting the train to hit me, and when it did, I shook. I shook as though I’d been electrocuted, my orgasm hitting har
d and fast. He swallowed my moan with a kiss that bruised, and when he stilled, looking me dead in the eye, I felt his cock throb. And as he spilled himself inside me, all was right in my world.

  For the moment.

  The sounds of our harsh panting called out into the silence, and Twitch put his mouth to my neck, gently biting me. Smiling softly, I wrapped my arms around his head, treasuring the feel of his mouth on me. His stinging bites worked their way from my neck to my collarbone to my shoulder, and when his teeth clamped over my skin, my core clamped around his still-hard cock, lovingly, like the sweetest of kisses.

  God. I missed him.

  It was funny how you could desperately miss being intimate with the one you loved, but when you hadn’t been held in a while, you realize sex isn’t what you missed after all.

  He kept his mouth on my skin a long time, and when he finally lifted his head, I held his gaze, running my fingers from his temple down his scratchy jawline. “You’re back.”

  And as his brow furrowed, I just knew Twitch had heard all of what I said. Even the parts I tried to hide. “Not likin’ the surprise in your tone, baby.”

  Well, what did he expect?

  I smoothed his brow with gentle fingers and ignored his statement. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

  “Yeah, and Pav ain’t happy,” he muttered, and he sounded so tired that my arms tightened around him, offering what comfort they could. “So we’re leavin’ first thing.”

  He was back.

  He came back.

  Secretly overjoyed, I pulled his head down and pressed my mouth to his forehead with my warm, kiss-swollen lips. “Okay, honey.”

  Although I was relieved he was back, something inside me refused to let go of him, and no matter how we rearranged ourselves, my arms remained tightly secured around my man.

  Lucky for me, Twitch didn’t seem to mind.

  My eyes widened at the three people facing off with Luka Pavlovic, and when Luka spotted Twitch and me approaching, he closed his eyes, shaking his head slowly.

  “I want you out,” he muttered.

  “Pav.” Twitch put his hands up in a placating gesture. “Let’s talk.”