Chapter 16

Kaelan

We tracked Hanna and Thorne to the border between the gray and snake kingdoms.

”I”m embarrassed to realize my best friend wasn”t just a traitor, but also an idiot,” I muttered. ”I can”t believe they let us get this close.”

Dare didn”t turn away from me, but I could feel judgment radiating from him.

”What?” I demanded.

”It feels a little too easy, doesn”t it?” he asked.

”You think they”ve laid a trap for me?” I demanded. ”Why?”

”Did Thorne bother to explain why he was running away with Hanna?”

Thorne certainly had—and Dare knew that—but I wasn’t exactly satisfied with his answers.

”I”ll ask him when we catch up,” I promised.

Dare looked unsettled by the promise in my voice. ”I guess that”s better than killing him on sight.”

”I have so many questions for him.”

”Fantastic,” Dare muttered.

”I”m going up onto the rooftops,” I said. ”You three stay out of trouble.”

”You”re not bringing us along?” Dare”s eyebrows arched.

”I don”t need you.” My voice came out gruff.

”I doubt that very much,” Jaia said. ”Someone has to provide your better impulses, since your natural impulses are always of the burn-it-down variety.”

I took a step toward her. My impulses were very much of the burn-it-down variety, but I kept myself in check. Barely.

And Azora had already stepped in front of Jaia. Her cheeks were red as if she were ready to protect Jaia. All my friends had bristled, as if they were ready for a fight.

But Jaia softened at the sight of Azora. She laid her hand on Azora”s shoulder. ”We”ve got faith in you, Kae.”

I hated the nickname from her, but her usually mocking tone had softened ever so slightly---she still sounded mocking, but it was the only way she could say anything tender at all---and it cooled my rage.

My friends wanted to believe I wouldn”t hurt Thorne and Hanna.

”You shouldn”t,” I scoffed. I pointed to the nearest pub. ”Wait in there. Stay out of trouble.”

The three of them traded a glance that I didn”t like, but they obeyed. For now, at least.

I moved up onto the rooftops, moving silently through the town. They had delayed me, but I was sure that had been at least partially their purpose. Hanna and Thorne had the chance to give me the slip.

But then I caught a glimpse of a veiled girl moving through the crowd below. I couldn”t see her face or hair, just the faint roll of her hips, the feminine swagger in the way she moved. She was all lithe grace and an edge of arrogance.

Hanna.

I turned to make sure Thorne wasn”t behind me. Dare”s words about a trap had stuck with me, and I searched the surrounding rooftops, the streets. I was sure Thorne must be hiding in the shadows.

But he wasn”t.

Had he really left Hanna alone?

The thought filled me with a surge of rage.

I tracked her along the rooftops, moving silently.

Two men stopped at the sight of her as she passed, staring at her, and one of them called something before they both laughed. Hanna kept moving without acknowledging them, but she stiffened, the tension evident in her shoulders, in the way her gait changed.

The men noticed. They were amused by it, elbowing each other, smiling. I didn’t hear what they said, but it couldn’t have been anything that would’ve helped save them.

The fury that swept through me was so intense it was almost blinding.

Where the fuck was Thorne? How could he let her walk through these city streets, in danger, being disrespected?

She was my wife.

My mate.

My queen, even if I was going to make her kneel.

I tracked Hanna as she reached the doorway of a building and cast a glimpse back over her shoulder. Her wide eyes tracked the street and rooftop, and I moved out of sight immediately, sliding down the other side of the rooftop.

But the image of her face stayed with me from that one split second. I”d seen it at a distance, but I”d memorized its every detail far too well in the past. Every detail was there with me: the long, graceful nose, the pronounced pink bow and pouty lower lip, the faint scattering of freckles across her rounded cheekbones.

And the cautious look in her eyes, so different from the demands and mischief that usually lit her gaze when she looked up at me. It rankled me.

Hanna was afraid, and no matter how much I”d said she should fear me... something about it left me unsettled.

Luckily, I had someone to kill before I visited Hanna.

I leapt off the edge of the rooftop and landed in front of the two men who had hassled Hanna as they cut through the alley.

They startled, then headed around me, trying to give me a wide berth.

“Who was that woman to you?” I demanded, my voice cool.

They moved faster, the two of them splitting to go around me.

“I asked you a question.” I seized the first one and threw him into his friend. The two of them slammed into the concrete wall in a tumble of limbs, but came off it ready for a fight.

Good. At least this wouldn’t be dull.

I yearned to hurt someone right now.

The first threw a punch at me while the second edged around, scooping a weapon from the trash and trying to get around my back.

I caught the thrown fist and held his wrist in my grip as I whirled around, slamming his head into the cement before I faced his friend. There was a lethal crack.

His friend tried to jump toward me, and I dropped him to the ground before driving my heel into his spine, just behind the back of his head.

“Who was that woman to you?” I repeated.

“No one! I don’t even know who you’re talking about!” he half-screamed, half-begged.

“I can tell you who she is to me,” I said, my voice dangerously quiet. “She’s my wife.”

There was blood splattered on my clothes when I reached the place where Hanna was staying. There was no sight of Thorne, and I frowned, trying to imagine what the hell could have happened to him or been important enough that he had left my wife alone in a strange and dangerous city.

They were staying on the top floor of an abandoned mansion, the windows boarded up except for the ones Hanna had opened to the sunlight. I could see her moving around inside, humming to herself as she apparently... washed her clothes.

It was jarring seeing her living her life like a peasant, taking care of her own needs. But she looked happy, and then she hung an enormous tunic out the window sill, letting it dry in the breeze.

Thorne”s tunic.

Anger closed around my chest. She”d rather play washer woman and wife to Thorne than to me? Washing his socks and shirts and running from me was a better life than I could give her when I had made her my queen?

Maybe that was true with Edric in control.

She drew off her own tunic, raising it over her head, and the veil slipped loose. Her long, shimmering strawberry blond hair spilled over her now bare shoulders.

I couldn”t stay away from her any longer.

I dropped through the window.

She turned and her eyes widened in alarm, her lips parting.

I raised my hands to my shoulders and lowered them, summoning my magic to blanket the space we were in with silence. ”Go ahead and scream, wife.”

”No thank you.” She tossed her long hair, her eyes flashing with her usual insolence.

”No one would come anyway, would they?”

”I don”t need help to handle you, Kaelan.”

She spoke so off-handedly, so disrespectfully, as if she hadn”t just run from me. I”d always been ice, but Hanna made me burn. ”You”ll call me husband.”

She scoffed. ”Is that your kink?”

I closed the distance between us. She took a half step back before she froze, raising her chin and meeting my eyes. That first half step was all instinct---and it was the right instinct.

But she was all fire and defiance.

I wrapped my hand around her slender throat. My hand looked huge there under her pointed chin, and her eyes flickered with feelings that I couldn”t read. ”When you call me husband, you might as well be saying master.”

”You”re an arrogant asshole who needs to learn to l---” Her disrespectful words trailed off as I squeezed, turning into nothing but a huff of air.

She gazed up at me resentfully, but she couldn”t help her fingers from reaching up and clawing at my hand.

”You were saying?” I asked mildly.

I couldn”t grip her so tightly for long, not without hurting her. But for now, I pushed her against the wall. I had to keep her under control before she---

The hard edge of a blade pressed low against my abs.

My sweet wife was apparently ready to disembowel me.

Her lips moved but the words were too choked to hear. Her liquid blue eyes were all I needed to understand, though: a plea for me to listen.

I cocked my head to one side, pretending to consider it.

I liked when she begged.

Then I abruptly released her.

She inhaled a sudden desperate breath, her body taking over, and I used that instant of distraction to strike her hand. I knocked the blade loose of her grip. The knife skittered away across the floor. ”No.”

But I always knew she”d have another blade. She drew it and struck out at me again, and the two of us fought, pushing each other against walls. When her body was against mine, no matter that we were fighting, the desire to kiss her was so strong that I could barely bear it. I tore off her clothes in search of weapons, and she cut my shirt off with a slash of her blade.

”Why did you betray me?”

Crystal blue eyes, welling with tears, met mine. Her voice was a whisper. ”I would never betray you.”

Gods, I wanted to believe that.

I kissed her. I couldn”t help it. Her lips were warm and soft, though her mouth was hard and unyielding at first.

Then she melted into me. Her body swayed into mine, her lips parting. It was a touch full of desire and vulnerability, and it broke something inside me open…despite my best intentions.

I had to remember she was a traitor. I’d been a fool to love her.

With our lips a breath apart, I whispered, ”I wish you weren”t a liar.”

Her eyes flashed as she reared back. I knew she was going to slap me before she did; then her hand was a flash, striking my face.

I didn’t stop her. I could’ve, but I let her palm sting the side of my face. It felt good. Like being alive.

But when she went for it again, I grabbed her wrists and dragged her with me, throwing myself down into the chair. I yanked her toward me so she straddled my lap.

Her chest heaved, her breasts rising and falling.

Suddenly, she had a knife at my throat. “You missed one.”

I thought she was going to attack me. Instead, she whispered, “Kaelan. I love you.”

I stared at her, searching her face.

There was no hint of guile in those wide eyes. For once.

“DidI miss one?” I quirked my eyebrows at her. “It doesn’t matter. I know you’re just as dangerous without your blades.” I gripped her hips, looking up into that beautiful face. “You wanted me to listen? Talk.”

Her face softened. “What is wrong with you?”

“You, mostly.”

She started to move the knife, and I gripped her hand and brought it back to my throat. “You seem to think you need this.”

“I think you’re just as dangerous with or without my blades,” she said. But she didn’t lower the knife again. “You’re under an enchantment.”

“Is that so?”

“That’s why Thorne pulled me away from you.”

“Don’t say his fucking name to me.” The surge of rage I felt was so powerful I could barely contain it.

“Alright.” Her voice was level. “Well. Seraphine intends to marry you, Kaelan. She put you under an enchantment.”

“Do you know any of this yourself? Or is it just what Thorne told you?”

“It’s what I was told.”

“I don’t fucking trust him.”

“He’s your oldest friend.”

“He’s obsessed with you.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

“He can’t bear to see you with me. He tried to ruin everything between us… and you let him.”

“No. You and I are the only ones who can ruin what’s between us.” She tilted her head to one side. “But you can do quite a bit of damage yourself, can’t you?”

“You’re the one who ran away from me. We could’ve had this conversation that night.”

She shook her head.

“Hanna.” I couldn’t make her see reason, not when it came to him. “Thorne could’ve fought me off. If I really were enchanted, he could’ve told me about it so we could fight it together.”

“He didn’t want to hurt you. He loves you, whether you can see that or not.”

I scoffed. “That’s not how you treat someone you love.”

She laid the knife down on the arm of the chair. “I’m not sure you and I are the ones to talk about how you treat someone you love… given that we just fought each other.”

“I’ll always fight with you. But I don’t want to fight with anyone else.”

I wrapped my hand around the nape of her neck and dragged her toward me. Her hands slid up my arms to my shoulders, and she moved with me easily. Her lips met mine in a long, tender kiss.

“I don’t want any trace of him left on your skin,” I said, feeling the jealousy that blazed through my body.

She shook her head, but I didn’t want to hear another word from her sweet, lying mouth. I grabbed the back of her head and pulled her in close, and her lips met mine in a bruising kiss.

Her hips rolled forward, and the hard points of her nipples, the softness of her breasts, pressed my chest. She kissed me so intensely, as if she could never betray me, as if her body was a promise.

Or an enchantment of its own.

The warm softness of her skin against my fingertips felt like home, even though a part of me screamed that she should be a stranger. Her hands roamed over my chest hungrily, as if she had longed for me. She rocked against me with the same urgency I felt, stirring a primal need that threatened to consume all rational thought.

”Kaelan,” she whispered against my mouth. Was it a plea? A prayer? The usual mischief was gone from her eyes, and there was sadness behind them that made me want to fight whoever hurt her.

But I was the one always hurting her.

And I’d never let her go, even if that made me the most selfish bastard on the continent.

Hanna”s fingers wrapped around my cock, and my breath hitched at the contact. A raw, guttural sound escaped me as I gripped her shoulders. She gave me a surprised look but allowed me to push her down onto her knees.

She knelt between my thighs. She looked up, her blue eyes piercing into mine, locking me into a moment of vulnerability. I was the one in control, so why did it feel like the power swung wildly between us? As if neither of us could ever actually be master?

Then her lips curled up at the edges, that usual teasing look, and warmth unfurled through my chest.

She took me into her mouth and swirled her tongue around my tip. Her hand gripped my cock firmly, as if she were familiar with every inch of me and an expert on how to please me.

She raised my cock so she could run her quick, too-clever tongue over the curve of my balls, and I let out a groan before she worked her way down the shaft. Her eyes sparkled at me as she reached the tip and ran her tongue around it, over and over. I wanted to grab the back of her head and force her warmth to envelop my cock until she choked, but I gripped the arms of the chair, my fingers digging into the wood, and let her tease.

Then she did it herself, shoving my cock so deep into her mouth she let out a faint choked gasp. She knew how much I’d loved to watch her choke on my cock before.

A wave of pleasure cascaded over me, drowning out the whispers of betrayal that lingered at the back of my mind. Watching her, feeling the warmth of her tongue and the soft caress of her lips, I was touched seeing my queen bow to please me.

She worked me with her mouth as if it were pleasure for her.

And as she worshipped me with her mouth, I found myself lost in the sensation. The past didn’t matter, not in this moment.

Then as the blissful edge neared, a faint sound outside made me tense, ready to fight. There was no one there, but it didn’t matter; I’d envisioned Thorne’s stupid face. Jealousy burnt through my fog of pleasure.

With a grunt, I pulled away, tugging at her shoulders, signaling her to stop.

”Enough,” I gasped, breathless, torn between the ecstasy she offered and the torment of my doubts.

She looked up, confusion and hurt flickering across her face. In that raw moment of exposure, I released myself, my climax erupting in hot, thick spurts across the canvas of her skin. My heart hammered against my ribcage.

It was my claim on her. She was mine, always mine.

Hanna”s anger flared immediately, her cheeks flushed with indignation.

She stared at me, her lips parting as if to cast an accusation, but she paused. My cum was strung across her pretty, narrow throat, the curve of her breasts; some of it clung to her shining hair.

If Thorne’s touch had been on her skin, my cum was on her even more.

I wasn’t sorry at all.

She wiped her throat with her fingers, disgust written across her lips. “I just wanted to be close to you, to show you how I love you and you dare to fucking degrade me?”

“To degrade you?” I laughed softly, humorlessly, and her gaze rose to mine. ”You took my dignity the day I fell in love with you. You stripped me bare, took everything I thought I was and made me nothing. Nothing but yours.”

Her eyes narrowed, still glinting with the embers of her ire, but she listened—it was one of the things I adored about her, even now.

“You’re so foolish, Kaelan,” she murmured. “You don’t understand anything about love.”

“Well, thanks to you, wife, I understand so much more about betrayal.” Despite my words, I reached out, my fingers brushing against the smooth curve of her breast. Her skin was soft, warm, inviting.

I drew her back onto my lap, cradling her with a possessiveness that surprised even me. My touch became tender, exploratory, as I traced the familiar contours of her flesh, reigniting the heat between us.

”Let me remind you,” I whispered, sliding my hand down the valley between her breasts, inching toward her thighs. The words were nonsense; I didn’t even know what the fuck I was saying, but I knew I felt it. “You’re mine. I’ll always find you, always claim you.”

My fingers skated through the precious wetness between her legs. She moved to wipe away more of my cum, and I grabbed her wrists in mine, pinioning them together. She struggled, but I wanted to keep her covered in my scent.

To distract her, I began to tease my fingers against her clit, the way I knew she liked. Her hips bucked and swayed, as if she wasn’t sure if she wanted to press herself into my hand or pull away.

Her face softened as her lips parted. The connection between us that had felt severed began to weave itself back together, as if it were a bond neither of us could escape.

My fingers stilled at the mouth of her opening. She looked down at me, frowning.

“Fuck me,” she whispered.

I shook my head.

“Fuck me, husband,” she said archly, her eyes smoldering with anger and desire all mixed together.

I let out a soft chuckle. There was only one time Hanna even managed to fake being submissive, and that was when she was on the verge of an orgasm.

“Come for me first.” I bent my head to suckle her breast, and she let out a gasp. My fingers pressed inside her, teasing her channel and her clit at once.

Then she threw her head back as she squeezed around my fingers. I loved that feeling, and I ran my tongue around her nipple as her breasts swayed, her body rocking with her pleasure. She couldn’t control her orgasm now.

I was in control. “That’s my good girl,” I whispered, my breath cool against the damp where my mouth had been on her nipple.

“More,” she pleaded.

I ran my thumb through my cum decorating her pretty clavicle and ran it over her plush lower lip. She looked down at me with narrowed eyes. Then she softened, her lips parting and enveloping my thumb.

I let out a groan as she sucked on my finger, her eyes glinting as if she loved the taste of me. I wrapped my hands around her thighs and pulled her on top of me. My cock slid deep inside her and we let out a mingled groan. I felt her sound all through my body.

The slide of her wetness against my throbbing length sent shivers up my spine, and I gripped her waist to guide her movements—up and down, torturous pleasure that built with each descent.

”Kaelan,” she breathed out, a plea and a moan blended in one sultry whisper.

Her body enveloped me, tight and hot, and I lost myself in the depths of her. Her light copper hair cascaded around her shoulders like twilight’s last glow. The rise and fall of our joined bodies became fervent.

”Harder,” she urged, her nails digging crescents into my shoulder. And I complied, surrendering to the carnal need that overruled thought, pushing up to meet her every descent with hungry force. Underlying our raw desire was an ocean of passion that could sweep us both away…and that had nothing to do with our greedy bodies.

The tension spiraled, coiling tightly within us both, our breaths mingling in gasps and ragged sighs. Hanna”s movements grew erratic, her pleasure cresting as she rode me with abandon. My hands roamed over her, from the dip of her back to the curve of her beautiful ass, urging her closer, deeper.

“I would never hurt you,” I whispered. “I’d kill myself before I hurt you.”

Her palm pressed tenderly against my cheek. She rolled her hips against mine, riding me slowly, looking down at me with an expression I couldn’t read.

“I know you don’t want to hurt me. But magic… magic can make us hurt each other.”

She said those words with so much certainty. As if that magic were something she’d already experienced herself.

Fuck. Those memories from the past must haunt her. I hated that I didn’t know what those memories even were.

“No. Nothing can make me hurt you.”

She rolled her hips against mine again, rising onto her knees, her beautiful breasts in my face. I lowered my head and caught one of her nipples in my mouth, sucking it until she let out a gasp.

Until I couldn’t see the doubt in her eyes anymore.

”Kaelan!” she cried out, her inner walls clamping down around me, pulsing in sweet, rhythmic spasms.

My orgasm climbed in powerful waves, filling her, marking her as mine in the most primitive claim. I tried to hold back my own cry. I didn’t want to lose any more of myself to her.

But as my come pumped into her, I couldn’t help myself. My fingers tangled in her hair, holding her body close to mine.

“Wife.”