Fighting Destiny

by Amelia Hutchins

  Thirty Eight

  We buried Larissa on a sunny day beneath the old oak tree inside the Guild’s cemetery to the musical lyrics of the Lumineers Ho Hey. We followed her wishes with the exception of the roses, she had wanted yellow ones. She got thousands of red roses. The Seattle Guild showed up en masse to honor one of our fallen and to celebrate the end of the killers reign now that he was locked up.

  No one thought it weird that the Fae were still tight lipped on how the Mage had created a puppet and used her to infiltrate their ranks as an Heir. Ryder and his group were careful of what they spoke of when we were around now, as if hiding something from us. I was more worried about if, or when they would retaliate against the Light Fae for the slight against them.

  Arianna hadn’t been Fae. She’d been a Witch from the Seattle Guild. I’d given her peace after five years of her soul being torn to nothing more than a wisp of an aura that had once belonged to a beautiful Witch. She’d been kidnapped a few years ago, which told us this was much bigger than we had thought it was. It was good news and bad news. We’d stopped one, but he hadn’t been working alone. They rejoiced, while we grieved.

  There was no winning in this one, only sorrow as the news cameras and press sat outside the gates waiting for the Guild and Fae to finally make a press release about how she’d fooled us all. She’d been put together to do just that, the missing pieces had been used to ensure she could do so. We’d gotten a few answers, but once again, it had left us with many more questions that needed answering.

  It was bittersweet and a grand event. Larissa would have loved to see the cemetery full of Vampires, Fae, and Witches. I don’t think any had ever been in the same location of their own free will without there being a threat of war involved before.

  I hadn’t been able to use magic yet so Alden had done her funeral rites for me. He’d blessed her with enough magic to pass through this life into the next, even though we weren’t’ sure she’d go there since right now her soul was in limbo.

  We stood there until everyone was gone, myself and Adam with the fourteen Fae who stood at our backs as an unbending wall of muscle. Everyone filed out slowly, Adrian and Vlad waited behind with the Fae until Adrian stepped through and laid a single yellow rose on the casket. He shook his head and turned around to face Adam and myself. “I’m sorry I put you through this, both of you.”

  I met his beautiful eyes but said nothing. I was barely holding the sobs at bay as it was. I nodded and slipped my arm through Adam’s and leaned against him for support. I had borrowed a dress from the few things Larissa had left at Ryder’s house. The idea of going home had me ill.

  After the funeral was over, we were heading to my parents’ house. We’d decided to move in if I could do so. I couldn’t go back to the apartment and we were officially no longer welcome inside the Guild, even though we’d found the killer and as far as they knew Ryder had taken him out. The fact was, we were Fae and no matter how much we wanted it to change, it wouldn’t.

  We were having a hard time adjusting, but Adam had found a friend in Zahruk, who was teaching him what he would need to know about feeding when the time came. I had Ryder, who hadn’t been pushing me yet, but the time would eventually come.

  He’d been torturing Joseph for days now and we’d learned he was only one of many seeking to destroy Faery and any caste who stood in their way. This was why they had gone after Ryder, or so we believed. We still had to figure out who the Mage worked for and why he’d targeted Fae in the human world instead of their own.

  We ended up heading back to Ryder’s place first so we could drop off the entourage and take a smaller group with us to the house. Ryder was being protective and it was chafing, but at the same time it was nice to have someone else protecting me and Adam for once.

  “Syn, I need to see you in my room before we take you to the house,” Ryder said running his hand through his hair.

  I nodded and followed him, I hadn’t said much since waking up. I’d been a shell of who I had been before and while I was healing, it wasn’t an instant process. It still felt as if I was watching a movie of someone else’s life play out before my eyes.

  When we reached his bedroom he quietly held the door open for me and closed it as soon as I passed inside. He leaned against the door blocking my retreat if I wanted to run “I can’t do this anymore Syn. Your silence is fucking killing me. I miss the fucking Fairy jokes, the light shining in your eyes when you smile. I can’t believe I am actually saying this…but I miss your sassy fucking mouth Pet.”

  I blinked at him and shook my head, “I just lost one of my best friends and you miss my sassy fucking mouth?”

  His lips turned up until he was smiling, he stepped closer and pulled me against him. His eyes watching me intensely as he did so. “I need to feed and I want it to be from you. Since I need to teach you Syn, I could do both at once. You have yet to hit the Transition but it would show you how to when the time was right. If you don’t want to…well I won’t force it. You are under contract, out of everything in it—you didn’t argue my feeding from you. Just so there is no misunderstanding between us, I sent Claire back to Faery when you agreed.”

  I didn’t answer him. Hearing that he had sent her away had created a warm fuzzy feeling inside of me though. I smiled as much as I could manage and started clumsily unbuttoning his shirt as I met his eyes giving him all the answer he needed. I wanted him and right now he was the perfect distraction. I knew he wasn’t the Dark Prince. He was more than that—so much more than that, but I didn’t care right now.

  He was ancient and deadly and yet he’d been gentle and comforting when I needed him most. I’d signed the contract with the agreement that he teach me what I needed to know to live. While I didn’t embrace the idea of being Fae, I had no plans on dying because I was too stubborn to feed. His hands glided down my back until he found the zipper on the back of the dress and undid it slowly.

  When it was undone, I let the dress slide down my body to pool at my feet. Ryder hissed and before I knew what he was doing, he pinned me up against the wall, his knee between my legs as his hand held mine high above my head. “I hate that I want you Syn and I hate that I can’t stay away from you or that no matter how fucking hard I try to get you out of my head—you stay.”

  His mouth clashed against mine gently, as I opened and allowed his kiss to consume me. His other hand reached down and pushed past my panties, rubbing over the nub that lit up my insides instantly. He groaned as I moaned against his mouth, his words penetrating my mind. He hated that he wanted me as much as I hated that I wanted him.

  He removed his hand and picked me up as he pressed me against the wall. I ripped the buttons from his shirt, unable to wait to touch his flesh any longer. He grinned as his mouth claimed mine again, with a deep urgency I felt in my soul.

  We moved from the wall to the bed, where he dropped me roughly and continued working the buttons on his jeans until his sex jutted out, ready, with come glistening on the bulbous head. He bent down low, as I lifted my hips, he pulled the panties down and off of me and yet he held my feet up. He held my legs apart and growled deeply from inside his chest as his eyes feasted on what lay between them.

  “I’ve thought of little else besides fucking you since we left Faery. Gentle or hard, decide because I can’t do both right now.”

  “Ryder,” I whispered not knowing which I preferred. I wanted both, I wanted him. I ran my hands down my stomach watching his greedy eyes follow them, until I got too close to touching myself, he growled and shook his head in warning. “Just make the pain stop, make me not think, make me feel dirty.”

  He smiles wickedly, “I’m going to fuck you Pet, I promise to not stop until your legs tremble and the only words you can say is more and now. Syn, I’m the kinda dirty that doesn’t wash off, remember you asked for it,” he went down to his knees still holding my feet and used them to pull me forward.

  His hot breath teasing, as it fanned against my cold flesh, his
tongue darting out to draw small circles on my flesh as he got closer to where I needed him. He stopped, looking up to meet my hungry eyes. “It might shock you at first, if it’s too much, tell me to stop and we can try again when you are ready.”

  Stop? I was about to ask him what he meant, when his mouth touched my core, tongue flicking long hard strokes over my clit, I was trembling from the sensation when it started. I felt it. The throbbing need was removed with a desire so hot and wild that my body hummed with it. My eyes closed as my head thrashed from side to side as orgasm, after orgasm shook my entire body.

  I was so wrong before, this was why they let them feed, this was why women sought them out. Everything inside of me liquefied, my thighs trembled as his mouth continued, his eyes lighting to liquid gold as he fed from me. Me. Not Claire. Not another woman, he was feeding from me and I was enduring it. When he stopped feeding, I held his head in place and demanded more.

  He growled and I felt him smile against me there. He reached his hands beneath my legs and pulled me closer, forcing my legs over his shoulders as he gave in and sucked hard and soft at the same time. His fingers entering me and joining in the assault. I exploded again and while I shook from the sheer force if it, when I opened my eyes he was leaning over me with masculine pride shining in his eyes.

  “You’re fucking amazing, you are unlike anything I have ever tasted before,” he whispered waiting as I rode the ever growing wave that was rushing through my body. I was floating and falling at the same time. It was like a deadly drug pulsing through me and yet it was beautiful at the same time. I was lost in his golden glow, his eyes swirled as if an entire constellation of stars sat lost inside their fiery depths. “I want my cock buried so far inside of this tight pussy. Can I fuck you Pet, can I?” He smirked.

  I tried to speak, my tongue wasn’t working and it took several attempts before I could finally speak. I just laughed and laughed until Ryder was staring at me like I had lost my marbles. I laughed until I cried and when he scowled at me, I laughed even more.

  “Syn….” He wasn’t sure what was happening and maybe I was having a mental breakdown, but I knew he would pick up the pieces.

  When I couldn’t laugh anymore, I rose up and pushed him over onto his back. I straddled his hips and lowered my mouth to his and nibbled his bottom lip, before kissing it gently as he growled his approval. I kissed his neck while my neither region rubbed the moisture he had created over his glorious hard cock.

  I knew he wouldn’t allow me to tease him for very long, his cock throbbed with need already. He growled low in his chest as I kissed down his jawline and then lower as I worked my way down his body nipping and then kissing him, until I rested above his cock. I flicked my tongue playfully, enjoying as his hips came off the bed for more attention as my own had just done for him moments before.

  I took him into my mouth, caressing him with my tongue as he growled and rocked his hips. His hand grabbed my hair and forced himself further inside my mouth, until I pushed back up and took more and then I felt it, a tingle inside of me that demanded to be let loose on him. It wasn’t dark or cold, it was intense and animalistic and yet it wouldn’t fully allow me to take from him and feed. I met his encouraging stare and continued to take him in my mouth, watching as his head dropped from where he had gone up on his elbows for support so he could watch me as I took him in. He growled and then cried his release as he came inside my mouth.

  I didn’t stop until he was on his back moaning, it was empowering to know I’d satisfied a glorious beast such as him. I’d made his legs tremble until he exploded. I climbed up his body as he had done to me and watched his as his eyes met mine, sated and yet still glowing. I smiled as I felt him grow hard again.

  He rolled me over beneath him and entered me slowly, his eyes watching me as I accepted him. It was intimate, as if our souls had connected in that moment of time. And nothing else outside this room mattered, “You are mine Synthia, if any other feeds from you he will die, do you understand what I am telling you?” He drove himself to the hilt inside of me ripping a gasp of pleasure from deep in my chest.

  “I belong to no one,” I said wrapping my legs around him as he prepared to pound inside of me punishing me for disobeying him days before.

  “Wrong, I’m claiming you Syn. Right now, right here, you are mine.”

  He pulled out, his eyes glowing fire as his brands pulsed beneath his skin and his hair rustled as if a wind had just swept through the room. He pushed himself in and out until everything inside of me once again starting to build towards another climax. I met his thrust, kindling the fire until it exploded and left me shaking as I held on to his shoulders as he pounded into me, until the only sound in the room was his flesh meeting mine and our mutual screams of pleasure.

  The obsidian ring surrounding the gold in his eyes bled over and expanded until his eyes were black pools. He spoke in a strange language which sent a ripple of power pulsing through the room and through me as well. He threw his head back as he found his own release and sagged until his forehead rested on mine as we gained control of our breathing.

  We lay there for minutes neither of us wanting to break the silence, the serenity that came with release. I reached up with my mouth and kissed him, knowing I wouldn’t get many more chances to. I was going to turn a new chapter and I wasn’t sure where it would lead me. I intended to help him with the details he’d mentioned in the contract renewal I’d signed, but that wasn’t for a few weeks.

  When I redressed and waited for him at the door, I peeked at him from beneath my lashes, he was so beautiful, masculinity mixed with a sexual allure most magazines would pay millions to photograph. And he’d been mine even if it was only for a little while. I swallowed the urge to wrap my arms around him.

  He shoved his arms into the sleeves of his new shirt since I’d ripped the buttons off of the one he’d been wearing when we’d arrived in the room. He lifted his head and met my eyes. Something showed from within—something dangerous. I blinked and it was gone, as if it hadn’t been there. But I’d seen it, he wasn’t Dark Fae, he wasn’t any kind of Fae I’d ever heard of before. He was an unknown—that I’d just allowed to feed from me.

  “Something…wrong, Pet?” He asked as he closed the distance between us slowly as if he was stalking prey.

  “Thank you Ryder, for teaching me to feed,” I said ignoring the fact that I’d caught a glint of something pacing inside of his golden depths as if it was caged inside of him, or worse. A part of him.

  *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

  She blows my fucking mind. I expected a succulent sample and got a glorious feast instead. She fed my inner beast. He gorged on her glory, until I had to fight him for control. He wanted her, fuck did he want her!

  She amazes me. She consumes my mind when she shouldn’t. I’ve fucked thousands of women, none of them come close to how she tastes, or the bloody fucking gasps she makes when I enter her sweet pussy. Those sexy fucking noises drive me insane with need. Drive him insane with it.

  Glorious mind fuck, it took me going in, to bring her out. She came out stronger, not broken and shattered, as so many who fold into their minds do. She went through hell, she watched someone she loved die and she learned from it, grew stronger because of it.

  She showed no fear, as I fed. She didn’t succumb as the others normally do, no one has ever asked for more from me. No woman has fully satisfied my hunger before—ever and yet she just fucking did. She gave until I was full and then demanded I take more. Never before since my Transition has that happened.

  Her eyes colored, glowing enough to show their true beauty. And that she’s full Fae, full fucking Fae. Hidden from us, kept secret. She’s royal to her sexy fucking core, her eyes the most beautiful one’s I have seen, glow with the feeding. And she tried beautifully, like a fucking Goddess. She’s going to be wild in her Transition and I plan to enjoy her when it happens. She will be mine, brought over by me alone, my cock inside of her, fucking her, tasting her
.

  Impossibly clueless and yet so fucking smart and beautiful. So fucking mine. I branded her, couldn’t stop myself and couldn’t stop the beast. She saw him, at a glance she saw him push to the surface as he demanded to be let loose, to show her his beauty.

  Her body begs for my touch, my mouth, my fucking cock. She takes everything I give, demands more and gives everything back. She’s pure, her touch excites me, makes me feel like an untried youth about to explode in his fucking pants.

  Her mind is my temple, one I want to examine at leisure. See how she thinks, what she wants. How she gets knocked down and gets right back fucking up without thinking twice, she comes up swinging, harder, smarter and changed.

  If the rest of the fucking Fae had half her heart, we wouldn’t be in this fucking mess, our world would be safe. Our children would be thriving instead of dying before they can Transition. Her children would be fierce, loyal and a fucking force to reckon with. My children.

  I smile at her and watch her eyes narrow. So fucking smart, she knows I’m plotting, planning. She’s waiting for me to fuck up, to see what I am. More so now that she’s seen him pacing inside my head, rattling his fucking cage to get her. Soon, soon she will be ready for him.

  Soon she will help me track down those who are trying to kill my world, while I hunt down the one I seek, the one who can heal my world. She may hate me when it is over, I’ll face that when we get there. Until then, I plan to make her mine in body and soul.

  Thirty Nine

  My parent’s house was the same as it had been when I had left as a child. Pictures of the three of us covered the shelves my father built, while symbols from the Witches rituals were etched in the thick wood walls. We’d eventually have to redo it and add new wards. Not that any of the other wards had been helpful since Ryder and Joseph had both walked right though them.