Chapter 26

Chapter Twenty-Six

RELIC

“What do you think?” Roman asked, holding out his sketch.

He’d returned from Hell earlier that day after Lothar went to take his place.

There was still no word from Lucifer.

Besides a couple of brothers playing pool and Brick watching a movie, the common room was quiet.

“Yeah, brother, that’s fucking perfect.”

The drawing Rome had done was better than I’d imagined. From a distance, you might think it was the Tinker Bell from Peter Pan , but up close, not so much. Rome had given my Tink vibrant red hair, cute little fangs, curves for days, and her dress was made of fern leaves.

Rome nodded. “Is your female in your den?” he asked while he loaded the ink.

“I fucking wish.”

“Like that, is it?”

“Somehow, I need to convince her to let me get close again, so I can explain what’s happening between us, but I’m not sure that’s gonna be easy.”

I’d been outside her new place every night, making sure she was safe. I hadn’t seen her though, not since she thought she’d released me from her deal, and she hadn’t answered any of my texts or calls. I was pretty sure she’d blocked my number for my own good , and she had been ignoring calls from unknown numbers as well because I’d tried to call from several other phones.

“She’ll come around,” he said. “And if she doesn’t, we’ll grab her and bring her here, and you can keep her in your den until she does.”

I had no idea how to convince Fern I was the male for her, and I was getting desperate. The beast was more than ready to tear through the wards at that house, snatch her, and bring her home—but Fern’s choices had been taken from her so many times, by so many people. I could never do that to her.

“You want to do the smaller one first?” Rome asked.

I nodded, tied my hair out of the way, and sat in Rome’s chair. I wanted this tattoo even more than the Tinker Bell design. The lettering for the neck piece was bold but intricate, just like my female. I tilted my head while Rome transferred the design onto the side of my throat. Where Fern had fed from me for the first time, and also, I wanted it where everyone could see it. I wanted everyone to know I was hers and she was mine because whatever happened, that was the truth.

The buzz from the gun started, and I closed my eyes and let Fern fill my mind—every perfect inch of her—mind, body, and soul. My fucking body ached for her. The absence of her was like a physical pain, sharp and jagged. I thought about her hand on my chest that first time, and the air burst from my lungs. I wanted her hands on me again. I wanted her warmth beside me every night, her voice telling me good morning.

Rage slowly seeped in, and I tried to fight it back, but it was impossible. Her own coven had banished her, cut her out like a disease, because of the blood in her veins and the color of her eyes. They’d sold her to a monster—someone who had tortured her, scarred her, terrified her so badly that she wasn’t able to recognize when someone truly loved her, because I did. That’s what this huge feeling inside me was. It was love. It was pleasure and agony all rolled into one. A bone-deep wound that only Fern could heal.

The rage grew bigger until time passed in a blur of images in my head—of finding her the way I had in that room, of hunting down the ones who had hurt her and ripping them apart piece by bloody piece. Rome moved from my neck to my chest. My Devil Dogs ink was on one side, and Tink would be on the other, right beside my heart.

I opened my eyes when the buzz of the tattoo machine stopped. Rome held up a mirror. It was her, my Tink; she was under my skin, marking me the way I was desperate to mark her.

“Nice work, brother.” I stood, cracked my neck, and tried to shake off the fury pulsing through me.

“You heading to the pit?” Rome asked, not missing where I was at right then.

I nodded, clenching my fingers.

Somehow, I needed to get a handle on this anger before I did something I fucking shouldn’t.

* * *

FERN

I waved goodbye to Sutton and Phoebe, and Phoebe lifted her phone, reminding me to call if I needed them to come get me.

I gave her two thumbs-up and walked into the clubhouse, my heart hammering in my chest.

A hound I didn’t know had let me through the gates when I arrived. He said Relic was in the dens, then stunned me by giving me the code to go below ground before he went back to the garage. The code wasn’t given out to just anyone. The alpha’s mate and pup lived down there. Only those the hounds trusted completely were allowed to come and go on their own.

Relic had obviously told them to let me through if I showed up, but he would have had to have Warrick’s approval, and the alpha wouldn’t just agree to that, not if he saw me as some random female Relic was spending time with, right?

My pulse rushed faster, and my hands shook at what that could mean, at what my heart was trying to tell me it meant.

The big room was empty, which wasn’t normal. While I’d stayed here, there were always several hounds up here, drinking or hanging out or whatever. I strode to the door on the other side, feeling like I was doing something wrong and I was about to get caught at any moment. Like the hound who had let me in would realize his mistake, that I wasn’t who he’d thought I was, and toss me out. My nerves almost got the better of me.

I almost turned around and left, but instead, I took a steadying breath and punched in the code. Still, I hadn’t expected the door to open, that it was some trick. But the sound of the lock sliding free on the other side echoed through the door, and when I tried the handle, it opened.

I tried not to freak out as I walked through before shutting the door firmly behind me. I took the stairs as quietly as I could down to the dens because still, I felt as if I wasn’t supposed to be here. I quickly rushed along the main cavern to Relic’s quarters, and gathering my courage, knocked on the door.

But no one answered.

I tried the handle. It was locked.

Shit .

I really didn’t want to do this in front of an audience, but there was no other choice, obviously, so I headed to the common room, where the hounds often congregated, but I knew it was empty before I walked in. There was no rumble of voices or sounds from the TV or of them playing pool.

A roar echoed down the cavern, and I turned as cheers and howls followed.

What the fuck was that?

It was muted and distant, but it was definitely down here.

Yes, I was afraid, but I knew whatever that was, Relic was a part of it, and suddenly, getting to him overrode everything else I was feeling. I headed down another one of the caverns toward the sounds. I turned time and again, following the roars and growls and cheers, going deeper into the underground maze of caves.

The sounds grew louder. I was almost there.

I rounded a bend and turned into a wide opening that led directly into a huge cavern, big enough for the entire pack with room to spare.

Through the crowd, I could see the edges of a pit dug into the ground. It looked to be several yards across, and the walls were blackened and charred. The hounds surrounded it. Some were yelling instructions, some howling. Others stood with their shirts off, their bodies battered but quickly healing. Brick was across from me; the young hound was busted up pretty bad, and he was nodding while Dirk talked to him. I searched the room full of males for Relic, but I couldn’t see him—

A vicious snarl came from the pit.

Goose bumps lifted across my skin and raised the hair on the back of my neck. Without thought, I shoved through the crowd, rushing forward, and sucked in a breath.

Relic was down there. He and Rome were trading blows. Both showing no signs of stopping.

I stepped closer, about to call his name, but a hand landed on my shoulder, stopping me. I spun around. Warrick shook his head as he gently but persistently steered me back from the edge and behind the crowd.

“You need to stop this,” I said to the alpha when he was looking down at me.

His expression was unreadable. “Relic needs this, Fern.”

Anger sliced through me. “To be beaten bloody?”

“Yes,” he said, shocking the hell out of me. “We fight for many reasons, but mostly, it’s because, at our hearts, we are animals. That’s what a hound does when he feels threatened or afraid or cornered—he attacks. He burns off all the adrenaline pulsing through his veins, blinding him, making it impossible to see the way forward. We fight to see the truth.”

I blinked up at him, my stomach knotting. “Why would Relic feel that way?”

War studied me. “Right now, Relic’s feeling a lot of things he’s never felt before, and after six hundred years of fuck all, it’s a lot for him to process.” A small smile curled his lips. “You gotta know, Fern, he’s in there right now because of you.”

“Me?” My heart somehow raced faster, and the nerves grew more intense. “I’m nothing … to anyone.”

His chin jerked up, a look of surprise on his face. Then he barked an order for the hounds in front of us to move before directing me back to the edge of the pit. Relic and Roman were still trading blow after blow, so hard that the smack of fists against flesh echoed through the room. Relic looked, gods, feral. Fury burned in his now-red eyes, but not at Rome. No, his anger was focused inward. This was all about releasing whatever it was he was feeling.

“Take a good look at him, Fern,” War rumbled.

I took him in—inked skin slick with blood and sweat, face contorted with rage, those glowing red eyes. His hair was tied back, his square jaw hard, his teeth clenched, canines elongated. He was breathtaking. The most beautiful being I’d ever laid eyes on. My gaze dipped to that perfect mouth again, then down to his throat, veins bulging—I froze, locking onto something on the side of his neck, something new. A new tattoo. Bold, swirly lettering scrawled low on the side of his throat.

Four letters.

Fern.

Sweet Lucifer, my name was inked into his skin—right over the spot where I’d first fed from him.

“I know you’ve been let down a lot in your life, Fern. I know you’ve been made to feel unwanted, but you definitely mean something to him,” War growled low beside me.

Relic’s gaze sliced to me, his red eyes finding me and locking on. That moment’s distraction earned him a fist to the face. Relic staggered back, straightened, and shook it off. Then, he walked right past Roman to the edge of the pit and launched himself out.

I couldn’t fucking breathe.

Relic advanced on me, and his brothers parted, giving me room as I backed up—not because I was afraid of him, no, because I was afraid that this wasn’t real, that it was all a dream and I’d wake up.

This is no dream.

Trembling, I tried to gather my control as he stalked me.

Jagger jumped in the pit with Brick behind Relic, and the hounds turned away, ignoring us, choosing to watch the fight rather than whatever was about to happen between Relic and me.

Relic closed in, until my back was to the wall, and I had nowhere to go and nowhere to look but up at him. He was breathing hard through his teeth, his gaze searching mine. Without a word, slowly, his big body shaking, he dipped his head to my throat and breathed in deep, a low growl rolling from him on his next exhale.

When he lifted his head, his eyes were still glowing, but they weren’t red anymore; they were gold.

“Relic?” I whispered.

He cupped the side of my face, the rough tips of his fingers sliding gently down my cheek, making me shiver, and he waited. Waited for me to say whatever it was I’d come here to say.

But looking into his eyes, gods, I thought I knew the answer already. “I never owned your soul, did I?”

Still, he didn’t answer, just kept his wide beast’s eyes locked on me.

I stumbled on, tripping over my words. “R-Rune said no one Hell-born has a soul, not the kind a soul collector can own. I-I never had any control over you, did I?”

He shook his head.

“And you … you were with me because …”

He looked at my mouth, then back up, but he didn’t fill in the silence like I desperately wanted him to, to make this easier on me. What he’d said to me on the phone, when I thought I’d released him, filled my mind.

“You don’t own shit, Fern. Everything I’ve done with you—for you—was because I wanted to.”

“Because you wanted to … be near me.”

The beast flashed through his eyes, the predator right there, watching me, so goddamn intense.

Finally, he spoke. “You never had control over me, not for one second—at least, not the way you think. Everything I’ve done with you, every minute I’ve spent with you, has been of my own free will. Because I wanted to be there.”

“Not the way I think?” I whispered. “What does that mean?”

“You tell me,” he said, voice pure grit. “Why do you think I couldn’t stay away from you, Fern? Why do you think, to me, you are the most beautiful, sweet, lovely, sexy, fucking perfect female to ever exist?”

I opened my mouth, then snapped it shut.

“Say it,” he said huskily.

I shook my head. “I can’t.”

“Why?”

“Because it can’t be what I want it to be. It can’t be that,” I said, voice breaking as tears stung my eyes.

He curled his fingers around the side of my throat. “I’m in love with you, Fern Honeycutt. You are the only one to ever make me feel this way. You are the reason I can feel this way because you were created by the Fates to be mine and I was created to be yours. You are my mate, Tinker Bell. The day I walked into that shop, the first time and saw you standing there, was and forever will be the very best day of my immortal life.”

The things he’d just said, it was everything I’d ever wanted to hear.

“I’m scared,” I whispered.

“Me too.” He brushed his thumb over my jaw. “I’m fucking terrified you’ll leave me again.”

I reached up, taking that strong throat between my hands, one of them over his new tattoo. “I’m terrified you’ll come to your senses and realize I’m not who you want or that this isn’t real.”

“That will never happen, and I promise you, it’s real.”

“Are you sure?” I said. This felt too good to be true, like every one of my childhood dreams—that, one day, someone would save me, love me, want me—had become real.

“Yeah, Fern, I’m fucking sure.”

“You really love me?” My voice sounded strange to my own ears. My heart was pounding so hard, I was trembling.

“Fuck.”

He swiped his thumbs over my cheeks. They came away wet. I lifted my hand and felt my face, and my fingers came away wet as well. I’d had no idea I was crying. I didn’t cry. I never cried.

“I’m so fucking in love with you, Tink,” he said in his gorgeous, gritty voice.

All the air was punched from my lungs, and I had to drag in a desperate breath. “The last time someone told me they loved me, I was seven years old,” I said, still whispering because I was too scared I’d break this spell I’d somehow cast over him or be thrust out of whatever fucking beautiful alternate universe I’d stumbled into.

“Baby, you’re killing me.” He pressed his lips to the top of my head.

Tentatively, I touched his sides. Then, letting the fear drop, I wrapped my arms around him. “Oh gods, this is really happening,” I choked out. “You’re really mine.”

Relic growled, scooped me off my feet, and holding me close, carried me from the room.