Fractured Fairy Tales: A SaSS Anthology

by Amy Marie

  This man was my mate. Mine. And even though we hadn’t known each other long, I did love him. It was one of the things that terrified me. Too much, too fast. We were practically strangers, but I found myself drawn to him like no other, and I wondered how long it would have taken for me to figure it out if my parents hadn’t shared. Probably a while.

  Lorde got to his feet and looked around. “Maybe the universe brought us together because we were meant to heal the hurts of the past. A new beginning of sorts. Both sides were wronged and hurt. Either that or the universe just has a sick sense of humor. If you really want me to leave, I will, but I needed to tell you the whole truth.”

  He left me in the pond after that. The urge to shift and ask him to stay was strong, but I resisted because even if I wanted him, I had to think about what he said. This man, who was sent to kill me, fell in love. It seemed something out of a bad romance novel…or a fairy tale.

  Lorde

  I never understood when someone walked away in a movie or book, they were in pain or had a difficult time doing it. I understood it all now. This may sound like a cliché, and excuse me for that, but it felt like I ripped out my heart and left it at the side of the pond.

  And I thought hearing him run out had been bad. When I’d looked up and found him truly gone, I noticed a side door next to the out of place coffee table and ran after him. I had to try. Now, I could only hope, pray, wish, cross my fingers, and everything else that he heard me.

  Instead of leaving immediately, I decided to give him time to think about what I said. It was a lot to take in, and he wasn’t exactly able to dispute or argue with me. In the morning, I would go. At least by then, I would be able to see the bloody road and hopefully preserve my life a little longer.

  Stretching out on the couch, I used the plush arm as a pillow, and my body sank comfortably into the soft leather. I couldn’t sleep. I scanned the room, picking up bits and pieces of Max in everything. The thing I found that shocked me the most were the swans. He’d been so vehement in his request for me to lift the curse, and yet, above the fireplace hung a painting of a bevy of swans in flight, a triangle of white soaring high in the sky. There was also a swan figurine on the bookshelf near the door. Maybe I’d misunderstood?

  I got up and approached the shelves. The figurine was a mated pair, their heads together, making a perfect heart, and next to it, a picture of Max when he was younger.

  “I was sixteen.”

  Whirling around, I stumbled and grabbed the bookcase, jarring it. Thankfully, nothing was broken. “Max!” I was more than a little surprised to see him so soon—or at all.

  He walked up to me and picked up the black wooden frame. “I was sixteen and had won my one and only swim competition. I’ve always swum but never competed. My friends, I use the term loosely, needed one more for their competition. Each one would do a different event. So, I helped them out. My parents snapped it after I’d gotten my sweats back on. My, so-called, friends were excited I’d won, but they didn’t exactly invite me to the victory celebration. After getting my medal, I left. My parents tried to convince me to stick around and talk to them, but I didn’t. Honestly, part of the reason I did it was to see whether I could, not for them. I’ve never gotten close with anyone, never wanted to. I couldn’t afford to have my secret discovered. Well, I tried once, had a serious boyfriend and everything. I was in college. He snuck into my apartment and saw me shift, and he blackmailed me.” Lifting his eyes to meet mine, he asked, “What makes you different?”

  “I don’t want anything except you. I have money; I only want you.” I closed the short distance between us and cupped his cheeks. “Only you. I don’t care about my family, my supposed legacy, or what our ancestors may or may not have done to each other. I only care about you, and I’m sorry for the reason I came. I can’t change it, and I don’t know that I would. If it hadn’t been for that ‘mission,’ I wouldn’t be here. I’d probably be trying to find the library of Alexandria or something.”

  “Lorde, I want to trust you, I do, but, I’m—”

  Interrupting him, I said, “Don’t think about it. Do what you feel is right. You can trust me, and even if it takes my whole life, I’ll prove it to you.”

  “Is that a proposal?” he smirked.

  “Not yet.” I tilted his head slightly and slammed my mouth against his. Utopia. I’d dreamt of what it would feel like to press our lips together, our tongues trying to wrap around each other, and it was nothing like this. His taste, his warmth, I craved more.

  Hands moved, clothes were removed, and I barely remember that because his touch ignited something within me. Tonight, I didn’t expect that we would kiss, strip each other, and fall into bed, but I also wasn’t going to stop it.

  Max

  The first time I saw Lorde standing at the back of the room at the gala, I wanted him with a desperation I didn’t understand. It was like our souls called out to each other and merged, if something like that was possible. I felt whole around him, and I couldn’t believe it took my parents explaining who he was to me before I understood. Looking back on it all, I should have known. Whenever I was with him, a peace I’d never experienced before, wrapped itself around me and held me close. When we separated, I itched to see him again. I became anxious, and I couldn’t settle. I ignored it and chalked it up to lust and infatuation. How wrong I was.

  After he spilled his guts by the pond and left, I stayed there for a few minutes before shifting and getting dressed. The swan trusted every word he said, believed him explicitly, while I struggled. My human side argued it wasn’t possible, yelling at the swan to see reason, that he was sent here to kill us. It was then I was reminded of the multiple opportunities Lorde had been presented with, and he never followed through. Our souls were linked, joined together by destiny.

  I came back to the cabin and stood at the door, watching him. He couldn’t sit still, and I softly chuckled. Lying back, he popped up again. He shifted, his head turning this way and that. And then he got up and moved over to my bookshelf. Lorde’s hand reached out to touch something, but he jerked it back as if afraid.

  Quietly, I entered, feeling settled because he was near. “I was sixteen.” I’d never really been close to anyone throughout my life, but at sixteen, I had taken a chance. It backfired. I told him about me only joining and racing to see if I could, but it wasn’t entirely true. I wanted to try to make friends. Fizz said I would be a better person if I had some. I didn’t think I was necessarily bad, but I wasn’t super social either. The captain of the makeshift team, Peter, pulled everyone except me to the side and announced there would be a victory party at his house. His gaze darted toward me, and I pretended not to be listening when he continued in low tones, “Don’t spread the word and don’t mention it to Max.” No one spoke up for me.

  I was popular in school. Students of all genders and ages wanted to be seen with me, but that’s where it ended. Outside of those hallowed halls, I didn’t get a lot of invites to attend parties or whatever else they did. If someone asked me out, it was more about the status that could come with dating one of the wealthiest and most popular kids in school. Fuck that shit.

  Lorde was different. Not only was he good-looking and smart, but I could talk to him, and he wanted to talk to me. Our lunch was one of the most enjoyable times I’d ever spent around anyone else. My mate.

  But I was still afraid. “Lorde, I want to trust you, I do, but, I’m—”

  He cut me off, not allowing me to finish that sentence. “Don’t think about it. Do what you feel is right. You can trust me, and even if it takes my whole life, I’ll prove it to you.”

  “Is that a proposal?” I teased, but his words unlocked that final door within me, and I hoped to god, I wasn’t going to regret it.

  “Not yet,” he whispered right before he kissed me, and holy fuck, I was on fire.

  In a split second, everything changed. I came back to talk, to maybe work things out to see if I could trust him, and now I cou
ldn’t get close enough to him. Perhaps this would be a mistake I would regret in the morning, but as we stumbled down the hall to my bedroom, I couldn’t care less because no matter what happened, I would have this night.

  I did what he told me to do. I did what felt right and took that leap of faith.

  Chapter 23

  Max

  “Oof,” Lorde grunted when I pushed him into the wall next to my bedroom door, pressing my body against his, our mouths fused together.

  In the past, it was all about release, tonight, it was about the journey, discovery, and everything in between. I couldn’t get enough of this man.

  I didn’t know who opened the door, but one minute we were standing by the door, and the next, I was falling on my bed with Lorde crawling on top of me. Our clothes were strewn all over the living room, and neither one of us had anything left. When he lowered himself down on top of me, our cocks rubbed together, making me moan with pleasure. Shit, that felt good.

  Something occurred to me right then, something we’d never discussed before: top or bottom. I’d never been the catcher, so to speak, not that I didn’t want to try it, I did. I just never trusted any of my previous partners, and the one time I did attempt it, he was drunk and hadn’t prepared me enough. It hurt worse than the time I pulled a groin muscle and broke my leg doing stupid stunts when I was twelve and was trying to get people to notice me. They took notice when I was screaming bloody murder.

  I wanted to feel Lorde inside me, to experience that with him, but there was a larger, more primal urge in me to take him this first time, to make him mine.

  Lorde grabbed both of our dicks and began stroking them together in his large hand. If he kept it up, I wouldn’t last long. I was already on edge and tried not to thrust upward into his fist, but it didn’t work, and he didn’t stop. His grip got tighter, his pumping faster. My balls pulled up tight, my body gyrated against his, and I screamed his name as I came hard and fast, and he followed immediately after, calling my name before kissing me, our tongues dancing. We were both out of breath, laughing, and smiling as our bodies continued to move against each other.

  The jerk-off session did a lot to remove the urgent need, but it did nothing to completely quell it. I didn’t know if I would ever get enough of him, and I was going to be honest, that scared the shit out of me. His next words brought me back to the here and now, “I want you to fuck me.”

  My eyes flew open to meet his. “Have you ever?” I wasn’t sure why I asked, but I was curious. Plus, if he’d never had something up his ass, it could take a little longer.

  He shook his head. “No, only dildos or my fingers.” You would think I would have thought of using dildos on myself, and I had, but after what happened, I was hesitant to stick anything in my ass bigger than my finger.

  Nodding, I stretched up to kiss him again. It was only then that I realized something. This cabin was my sanctuary, my escape. The last thing I ever thought of doing was bringing a date here. Hell, my parents didn’t even know about this place. I had lube, but no condoms. “Fuck!”

  “What?” Lorde scrambled off of me, almost falling on the floor, and barely landed with his ass on the edge of the bed. His head moved in every direction, scanning the room, searching for something. He was on alert and tense, his hands were palms up, fingers spread, and I could see a small spark flickering. I moved toward him, getting a closer look, but he closed his hands into fists and snapped, “Max!”

  “What?”

  “You tell me.” He was ready for anything, and that both terrified me and excited me.

  “No dragons to slay today, Saint George, but we don’t have condoms, and the closest store is about thirty minutes away.” Fuck, I was hard again and ready to sink into his heat, to claim him as mine.

  His smile had my heart skittering to a stop. “I am far from a saint, in fact, quite the opposite, but I do have condoms in my bag…bloody hell!”

  “What?”

  “In my car,” he groused and fell back on the bed dramatically.

  I tried not to laugh when I said, “Can’t you wave a magic wand or mutter a spell, and they’ll appear in your hand? It’s the way it happens in books and movies.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “This isn’t a book or movie.”

  “Then, hop to it.” When he didn’t move, I leaned forward, licking the precum off of the tip of his cock. He moaned, and then I fell backward and stroked myself. “Fuck.” I threw my head back, the muscles and veins in my neck standing out.

  “I’ll be right back,” Lorde grumbled as he got up, the bed shifting with his movements. I lifted my head and watched him go, his taut ass shaking. I fully intended to bite it when he got back.

  Now that we’d both committed to this, we didn’t want to stop, and that meant getting the condoms from the car. Damn, being with him was nothing like anyone I’d been with in the past. It was so much more…like flying. It was a rush to feel the wind in my face, to soar high in the sky, free from anything and everything. Nothing could hold me down as a swan. Maybe, it wasn’t as bad as I’d thought. It brought me Lorde.

  “Bloody freezing out there. I think I froze my bloody ball sack off!” he yelled when I heard the door slam. His curses got more colorful the closer to the bedroom he got. When he appeared, he threw me a box. I mistakenly thought he was going to pick up where we’d hit pause, but he didn’t. He pushed me toward the end of the bed and dove between the covers. “My knob is going to break off,” he announced.

  I laughed. “Knob? I got a good look at that thing, and it’s a lot bigger than a knob.”

  He glared, and I laughed harder. “Wanker. I think my knob went and hid in my body.”

  Frowning, I really looked at him and could only see a set of eyes peering at me over the blanket. He hadn’t removed any clothes when he came in the room, and between the time the door closed to when he appeared, only a few seconds had passed. “Did you go out there without any clothes on?”

  “I’m only parked out front. It’s a few meters at most.”

  My jaw dropped open. It was supposed to get into the twenties tonight. When I’d gotten out of the pond and shifted, I had to fight off the chill. I tended to be warmer than most because of the swan, remaining even warmer for a few minutes after a shift. That said, even I wouldn’t have been so stupid as to go out there without a stitch of clothing on. “Regret it now?”

  The blanket dropped a little more, showing me his smile. “No. Come and warm me up with your body heat. They say body heat is the best way to stave off a chill.”

  Snorting, I crawled toward him. “Who is they?”

  “Scientists, smart people…who the bloody hell knows or cares.” He grabbed me when I was close enough and rolled on top of me, pressing his cold lips to mine. Thankfully, the blanket protected me from his freezing body.

  A shiver ran through him, and I pushed him away. “Get under the covers.” I tossed the box on the opposite side of the bed and grabbed the lube out of the drawer, putting it with Lorde’s contribution.

  “Only if you come, too.”

  “I wouldn’t wish to be anywhere else.” It was the truth. Regardless of what brought us together or the whys of it, I didn’t want anyone except him. I didn’t want to be anywhere except by his side. Then again, when our bodies were pressed together again, me on top of him, I grimaced. “Shit!”

  “I told you I was freezing. Come and warm me up.” His hand grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me toward him. Our lips met, and the fire ignited once again. He was still cold, but I couldn’t get enough of him and found myself rubbing my body against his—to generate heat, of course.

  We were both warming up quickly. His hands roamed down my back to cup my ass, jerking my body closer to grind our dicks together, precum slicking us up. My fingers dug into his shoulders as I thrust against him. I needed to be closer. It was becoming a moral imperative, and this time, I didn’t want to come from frotting or a jerk session.

  Dragging my lips away from
him, I grabbed the lube and grinned at him. “Spread your legs and lie still.”

  His smile made him appear younger, and I noticed the prominent lines he’d had on his forehead while at the pond were gone, adding to his youthful appearance. If I thought about it, those lines had been there since I’d met him, and now I understood why, or I thought I did.

  “I love you,” I confessed, my eyes growing. I scrambled back in shock, my heart thundering. That had been the last thing I’d meant to admit or blurt out loud.

  Lorde followed me, cupping my face with his strong hands. They weren’t calloused like some. I could tell he didn’t work with his hands in the traditional sense, but they still held a strength not everyone had. “I love you, too.” He kissed me again, banishing, temporarily, my worries and doubts. Yes, he had confessed earlier, but I hadn’t been ready. Maybe, I had been more ready than I believed.

  He fell back on the bed a few minutes later with an expression of utter contentment on his face. His hands slid behind his knees, and he lifted them, spreading himself wide for me, his puckered hole staring back at me. Fuck, I desired this man with a fierceness that surprised me. I never knew I could ever crave someone the way I did him. I didn’t think I could go slow, but I needed to for him, for me, for us.

  Opening the lube, I poured some down his crack before coating my fingers. I massaged his opening, feeling it relax under my fingers, and slid one in up to the first knuckle. I took it out, put a little more lube on it, wanting to make sure he was thoroughly coated, and pushed back in, deeper this time as his ring relaxed more. After a few more gentle thrusts, I added a second finger, moving them in and out, scissoring them to help relax the muscles. Using my digits, I felt around for the one spot that was guaranteed to make Lorde go wild. My fingers crooked, and Lorde shouted, his chest coming off the bed.