Chapter 2

Two

"Ember! I'm so sorry," Triston yelled and dropped down to pick me up, cradling me against his chest. "Are you okay? Did I hurt you?"

Yes, yesterday.

Struggling, I tried to get out of his hold, but he was rubbing his face against me, purring.

"We've been so worried. I thought you might never wake up. It's been two days."

Two days? Well, that explained the urgent need to use the restroom when I finally did wake up.

Finally able to get out of his hold, I headed for the door again.

"Where is she?" Branson demanded as he threw the door open to come inside, too, smacking me with the door and sending me head over tail with a pained screech.

"Shit, that's twice now," Triston groaned.

Branson scooped me up and twisted my body about as he inspected me. "Did I hurt you?"

I yelped at the movements, the spinning around making me dizzy.

He hugged me against his chest and sighed heavily. "You're okay."

"What's all this noise about?" Jolie asked. Her eyes widened when she saw me. "You're awake! It's about time, sleepyhead."

Trying to get out of Branson's hold was twice as hard as Triston's. He seemed to realize I wanted down and gently set me on the floor.

Triston immediately opened the door and held it open, which I was grateful for.

As I hopped towards the stairs, Caleb and Riddick walked in the front door.

Our eyes locked and we stared in silence for several heartbeats.

When they didn't move or speak, that pain in my chest returned, and I resumed my hopping up the stairs.

"We need to talk," Caleb said sternly.

I ignored him and continued hopping up the stairs. Hopping up was so much harder than hopping down. Why was that? Maybe I needed to see if we could alter the shape of the stairs at the new house to allow for easier upwards hopping.

"Ember," Caleb snapped, his alpha tone causing me to freeze.

"Please, talk to us," Riddick said and I heard Caleb grunt in pain. "Please shift and talk to us, Ember."

I stayed frozen, uncertain, but realized I couldn't hide from them forever, and it was childish to do so anyway.

Shifting, I stood and turned to face them, arms over my chest. "What?"

Caleb's eyes darted to my cheek and his jaw flexed as he clenched his teeth. "Scar."

"What?" I asked.

"You have a scar," he growled.

I did? What had I gotten a scar from?

Turning, I jogged up the stairs to my bathroom and looked in the mirror. He was right, I had a scar under my eye. It wasn't a normal scar though, and looked like it was the shape of a star.

"Not a scar," Riddick whispered, "a curse mark."

"What?" I gasped and spun around. "A curse mark?"

He nodded and reached out to touch it, but I backed away, bumping into my sink top. "Don't! What if it can transfer to you or something?"

"You already touched Triston and Branson," Caleb pointed out from in my room somewhere behind Riddick.

"That was in rabbit form before I realized I had it," I argued.

"So, what, you aren't going to touch us?" Caleb asked.

Riddick backed up so he was in my room and I could leave the bathroom.

Walking forward, I leaned against the doorjamb of my bathroom and asked, "Do you even want to touch me?" His arms were folded over his chest and he was glaring at me. "You look like you'd rather fight me than hug me."

"We've confirmed you can't have sense beaten into you at this point," he said and snarled.

"Get out," I whispered.

Riddick raised his hand. "Ember, wait, let's just talk and?—"

"What do you want from me, Caleb? Do you want me to beg your forgiveness for saving your asses? To swear I would never do it again?"

"That would be a start," he snapped.

Riddick slapped a hand over his face. "Caleb, shut up."

"No, it's fine. I get it. You're mad at me. You're mad that I risked myself to save you. Well, guess what, Your Highness, I'll never apologize for that. And I would do it all again in a heartbeat. So, until you pull your head out of your ass, I don't want to see you."

"One more portal, Ember. You only had to make one more portal." His chest was heaving and his teeth were bared as he spoke.

"I almost killed myself making the ones I did!" I yelled.

"And yet you still won't admit you shouldn't have done it!" he shouted back.

"You would have done the same if you were in my shoes," I countered. "If you could have saved all of us and left yourself there to fight, you would have."

He opened his mouth and closed it.

Ha!

"You said you wouldn't shut me out or torment me like you did the last time you got mad at me," I reminded him. "Yet, neither of you has even tried to hug me or expressed your happiness that I'm alive and well after what we went through." After what I said … though I wouldn't voice that part.

"We are happy you're well," Riddick said. "We're just also?—"

"Assholes," I finished for him. Staring into Caleb's eyes, I put my hand over his mark on my wrist, and said, "I revoke your mark." A slight burn followed the words and his mark disappeared.

Caleb stumbled back, eyes wide in horror. "Em?—"

Grabbing my phone, I waved it at him. "I'll be back in a few hours. See, advanced warning this time."

His eyes widened and Riddick reached for me as they both realized what I meant.

Unfortunately for them, I was fully recharged, so I teleported myself to my apartment. Once there, I went up to the roof, set my phone on the table, ignoring that it was already ringing, shifted into my rabbit form, and climbed into the planter box full of fluffy, leafy plants that hid me from the sun and made me feel safe.

The building shook and my eyes shot open. Was someone attacking the building again? How did they know I was here?

Hands reached into the leaves and grabbed me. I bit down, drawing blood.

"Ouch!" Caleb hissed as he finished pulling me out of my napping spot.

I'd started to feel bad for biting, but not when I realized it was him.

When I tried to wiggle my way out of his hands, he gently set me on the cushion of the loveseat and sat on the other cushion. "I don't blame you for biting me."

Hopping off the seat, I headed towards the door to go to my apartment.

"I'm sorry!" he shouted. "Can you please come back?"

Shifting forms, I shook my head at him. "No, you're not ready for me."

"I was never ready for you." He laughed softly. "You fell into my life and set it on fire."

I flinched and pressed a hand to my chest at the sudden pain. "Fuck you, Caleb."

He stepped in front of me, blocking my exit. "I didn't mean that in a bad way, Ember."

I stumbled back, remembering the curse mark. "Don't touch me. Not that you want to, anyway."

His eyes dropped to my wrist and he swallowed hard. "You teleported us, sent us away while you were left with hundreds of people determined to kill you. You said you didn't want to split the group and then forced us to leave. You teleported us so far away there was no hope of making it back to you. I sat there, waiting to feel your death, and when it didn't come, I didn't know what to do. Then Kieran flew to us and I saw you – alive, but barely, and all I could think about was how I had failed you. How I had almost let the woman I was courting die because I'm too weak and inexperienced. Because I let my concern for a stranger surpass my concern for you."

"You didn't fail anyone," I countered. "We're all alive and?—"

He reached to grab my arms and I stumbled back and fell on my butt.

"You can't touch me! The curse mark?—"

"Fuck the curse," he growled, pulled me up and kissed me deeply, his tongue stroking along mine and I moaned into his mouth. The warmth of him hugging me warmed up the void in my heart. He rested his forehead against mine and in a voice cracking with emotion whispered, "I love you, too, Ember. I love you more than anything in this world. I don't deserve you and that's why I was so mad. I am so sorry that I failed you."

Shaking my head slightly, I said, "You only failed me when you shut yourself away from me."

"Can you forgive me? Can you please give me a second chance to prove myself to you?"

"I love you, Caleb, but I'm still upset with you."

He nodded. "That's fair. I need to prove myself to you again."

"And now you're likely cursed just like I am," I whispered and choked on a sob. "What if we're both dying now?"

He wrapped his arms tighter around me. "Then we die together."

Leaning my head back, I captured his lips with mine and slid my hands along his waistband to push up beneath his shirt, and squeeze his back.

His kisses moved down my jaw, down my neck. He pulled me inside of the building, to his apartment, and laid me down on the couch. Leaning back, he yanked his shirt off and quickly unbuttoned and pulled his pants off.

I worked my shirt off and he removed my pants, immediately dropping down to suck and lick at my clit.

My hips arched up and I moaned, sliding my hands into his hair, I gripped him and ground myself against his mouth.

When my orgasm shattered me apart, my eyes unseeing as stars covered them, he pulled back only long enough to reposition himself and thrust into me.

"Ember," he gasped as he buried himself fully into me. "I don't want to be separated from you ever again." He arched back and thrust into me again, eyes fluttering closed. "The void in my soul hurts so much right now."

Wait …

"You feel the hollowness, too?" I asked.

He stopped moving and opened his eyes. "Yes."

"But … I can still feel our connection." I touched a hand to my chest.

He nodded. "Yes."

"So, what is that emptiness?"

Scowling, he thought about it a moment and said, "I don't know."

"Is it the mark being gone?" I asked and held up my wrist.

He flinched and said, "That could be it."

"But I felt it even before I revoked the mark," I whispered.

"You had already decided to do it, so I think it weakened the magic of it," he said softly.

"What do you mean I had already decided to do it?" I asked.

"At Leona's, I saw it in your eyes then, that you were debating it. You kept rubbing at your wrist. It was another reason I got so upset. And handled my emotions like a giant toddler."

"Will it go away if you mark me again?" I asked.

"I think so."

"Do you even want to mark me again?" Although we were in the process of making up, that didn't mean he wanted to go back to how things were. My voice was soft and I couldn't look into his eyes.

He tilted my chin up and stroked his finger across it. "I need to prove myself to you again. That's why you removed it, because you realized I wasn't capable of protecting you, of being the alpha you deserve."

His eyes darted to Branson's mark and widened. "You removed Branson's, too."

I didn't remember removing Branson's, but perhaps I had done it at the same time. "You all are a package deal, aren't you?"

"Let me prove myself to you," he begged. "Give me another chance?"

I looked down at our still joined bodies and said, "Pretty sure that's what's going on right now."

He smirked, leaned down to kiss me, and thrust back into me so hard and fast that he hit my cervix and that combination of pleasure and tiny bit of pain continued for the next few minutes until I orgasmed, and he orgasmed with me.