Chapter 15

Chapter

Fifteen

"I've been dreaming of having you after dozens of victims fell at our feet." I sucked on Fane's bottom lip as my talons dragged over his throat where blood dappled his skin. "You are the only thing that makes me think of something other than mayhem and destruction."

Fane gripped the collar of my jumpsuit and ripped it all the way to my navel, the buttons flying and bouncing on the grimy tiles of the bathroom beside the fighting pit. "Tate? Are you in there?"

I unleashed a malicious grin. "I am Tate—at least the version of her that allows the demon amulet to roam free."

His eyebrow cocked. "Is that so?"

My claws tore holes in his jumpsuit. "If I was only that dark power, I'd be out there feasting on all the fears clogging that room." I licked my lips. "So delicious. It's throbbing against the door, calling out to me, but I'm staying here with you."

The demon shifter's contrasting eyes lanced through me, seeing past my exterior and into my soul. Electric tingles crackled over the swirling tattoo on my neck, shooting a bolt of pleasure to my core. Was he searching for me under this guise of wickedness?

Fane's head dipped forward, his tongue gliding over the tattoo. A ragged moan slipped out of me, and my knees almost buckled from the sharp hit of desire his touch caused. I gripped his shoulders, my breasts pressing into his chest as flames licked between my legs.

"Fane," I cried out, some of the tendrils of malice receding into the amulet. "Don't stop." He hadn't physically touched me like this since we first gave into our desires in the woods in Mohan Wilds. I shook against him with an overwhelming need that stole the air from my lungs.

He pulled back, slamming his forehead against mine. "It's been too fucking long."

Our ragged breaths and the pounding of my heart filled the silence of the bathroom. And then the dam holding Fane's hunger back burst like a bomb.

His mouth slammed on mine, lips, teeth, and tongues clashing in a battle of dominance. He ripped my bloodstained jumpsuit off, and his fingers shoved my underwear aside, sinking into me without warning.

I cried out at the first intimate touch from him in months. Being together in our phantom forms was no substitute for this raw, visceral contact. My legs trembled as he kissed me while his fingers toyed with me.

"Teague, I hope you're prepared for this because I won't be able to soften a damn thing or hold back." His mouth dragged down my neck, sucking and nibbling. "I'm barely holding it in now."

Like a wicked promise, his words poured lava through my bloodstream, and a little more of myself pushed through the amulet's influence. Lust spiraled around me as my heart battered my ribs. "I don't expect anything else from you. I want your worst, Fane." I used my talons to tear the top of his jumpsuit, and I sank my teeth into his chest, the metallic tang of blood coating my mouth.

Fane roared and unleashed the pent-up sexual fury within him, setting my body ablaze. His fingers slipped out of me, and he whipped me around so fast my head spun. Like a scalding piece of marble, his hard, hot form pressed me into the cold tiles. "You're mine, Teague. No one, not even the warden, can pry me from you."

He shredded my tank top and underwear, leaving my clothes in tatters on the ground. My gasp rang through the bathroom as his finger slid through my entrance, stars speckling the edges of my vision.

"This won't be nice or even playful, fiera mika." His mouth sucked my neck hard enough to leave a bruise. "I'm going to tear you apart."

"Please." He pinned me to the wall, my peaked nipples sensitive against the icy surface. I didn't care if every guard and prisoner in that room barged in as Fane savagely took me. Nothing was stopping this. "Do anything you want. I need it."

The splitting of fabric sounded as Fane tore the rest of his clothes off, leaving us in nothing but our boots. As I tried to turn toward him, his fingers tangled in my hair to yank my head back. His throbbing length seared into my backside, promising pain and pleasure. "I love it when you scream." His tongue flicked my lip, his pupils thinning.

So were mine.

"Then stop talking about it and make me scream." This time, my voice and actions were my own, but desire and lust soaked everything. My hips rocked against his fingers still toying with me.

A warning growl crawled up his throat, and he added another digit. "It's going to hurt."

"Good."

Fane's feral grin filled me with a lethal, addictive blend of excitement and fear. He released my hair and pinned my wrists above my head with one hand. My breath shuddered to a stop as he pulled his fingers out of my heat, clutched my hip to position me to his liking, and slammed into me from behind.

I screamed as his cock buried to the hilt, immobilizing me. Hell, I couldn't even breathe. He didn't waste another second before he pulled out and thrust back in, filling me. "Fane. Please."

My talons dug gouges into the wall above my head as he continued his brutal assault, my pants and moans erupting through the bathroom. I would have fallen to my knees if he wasn't holding me up.

Fane would have followed me to the ground and taken me on my hands and knees.

"Is this what you've been dreaming of, fiera mika?" His rough voice in my ear, each word punctuated by another hard thrust, sent bolts of desire to my core. "Me owning you and mercilessly taking you like a beast."

"Yes," I cried out, tears welling in my eyes. "All of it."

His rumble of approval vibrated my back. "Such a good girl for me, aren't you? You want me without any chains holding me back."

"Yes, Fane." I wanted all of Fane Maverick—the man, the wolf, the demon, and the beast. Every part of him called to me, and I crumbled at his relentless touch. He owned me in every sense of the word as he ravaged my body.

I was his to destroy.

And he was mine to please.

No matter what happened in our future, Fane would have a part of me no one else could touch. My walls vanished around him, and he barged in, dominant and demanding.

But always protective.

He didn't make me feel ashamed for what I wanted, no matter how dark it was. Even though I still struggled with the fact that his own brother murdered Jayla and my friends, his touch burned away that guilt.

It returned of course, but not for a while.

Fane made everything—better.

His fingers bruised my hip and my wrists as he crushed me into the wall, my release inching closer with every relentless thrust. Fane's mouth fell on my neck, his rough, wet tongue dragging over my tattoo.

My head arched back, and my limbs trembled in anticipation. I knew what was coming. I could feel the need in both of us.

"You are mine ." Fane's teeth sank into the mystical tattoo from his bite, hitting me with a dose of pleasure so intense I screamed, and my orgasm hit like a freight train. Tremors raced through me as tears streamed down my face. But he wasn't close to being finished.

When my legs buckled, he spun me, picked me up, and shoved me onto his throbbing length. My head jerked into the wall from the force of his movements as he continued his ruthless thrusts.

"Fane." My fingers dug into his shoulders, drawing blood. "I don't know how much more I can take." My body wanted this, but it had also endured months of torture and malnutrition. I'd lose consciousness soon.

Passing out while the demon shifter ravaged me wasn't so terrible.

His lips pulled into a snarl that sent my heart racing and blood boiling. "You'll take it until I'm done." He bit my bottom lip and sucked on it. "And don't think for a second you won't be begging for more soon."

Of course he was right.

Moments later, my legs squeezed his waist as I pleaded for him to go harder, faster.

And Fane gave me exactly what I wanted.

Another orgasm hit me, and his yell shook the bathroom as he came at the same time. Veins popped in his neck, and his teeth flashed, longing to bite me. So I arched my neck, begging him.

"Do it. Fane, please."

His mouth fell forward, and he marked me again, claiming me. The pleasure that spun inside had my vision blurring. This man—this beast—knew exactly how to make me fall under his spell.

He was right that day in the woods when he said sex with him would ruin me. It had. No one would ever be able to bring me to this point and fill me with so much bliss that I forgot everything except for this feeling.

After the room stopped spinning and the waves of desire lessened, Fane pulled out and slid me down, resting his forehead on mine. Our ragged pants were thunderous in the suddenly quiet bathroom.

"I can't go that fucking long without having you, fiera mika." He nibbled on my bottom lip and then soothed it with his tongue. "It's the worst torture imaginable."

I would have to agree. "Are you ever going to tell me what that nickname means?"

Fane pulled back, his eyes still glowing and pupils in thin diamonds. His large, calloused hand brushed over the sun tattoo on my sternum. "The Infernal Sol is quiet again?"

A sigh drifted out as I sagged against the wall. "For now." I was in control while the amulet slumbered.

"The guards obviously didn't know how to handle you." He turned the knobs on the closest shower and dragged me under the spray. I shivered from the cold water, but he pulled me into him to keep me warm.

Having this time with him in Heldrok had given me a dose of energy and determination. We could get through this.

And then my thoughts turned to Maddie, and some of that adrenaline bled out into the drain below. "I should have known better than to be friendly to anyone, especially a raven."

"Her death is not on your hands, Teague." When I averted my gaze, he grabbed my chin and forced me to look at him. "Venna arranged this."

The warden had said as much from his spot on the balcony, but that didn't make it any less terrible.

"She wanted you to kill Maddie to play on your guilt. Since you refused, they killed her anyway."

"Maddie never would have been brought into the pit if not for me." I'd doomed her the day I sat at her table.

His lips pressed into thin lines. "Don't let them win. Don't let them destroy your will." He ran his hands over my back to soothe me.

When the door opened, Gershan and another dux demon guard with massive shoulders riddled with horns appeared. Fane angled us so that he blocked me from their view.

"We're busy," he said as if we weren't inmates in a nightmarish Underworld prison.

Gershan stomped in our direction, his orange braid swinging behind him. "I think you two have had long enough together. It's time to go."

A deadly growl vibrated Fane's throat. "Touch her, and you'll find out why so many nightworlders fear me." His lips curled back to reveal his teeth. "I've been compliant, but after bringing her into the pit and letting Sorin suck her soul—which he obviously had help doing—I'm done being calm and nice. You'll meet the real monster beneath this facade."

Chills raked over my spine at his threat even though it wasn't directed at me.

The other guard gripped Gershan's shoulder to stop him. "We have to take you back to your respective cells, Fane. We can't allow you to stay here."

"We need some clothes, Inrik," Fane said, still talking to them over his shoulder while he rubbed my back. "Ours are bloody and torn."

Gershan and Inrik found the scraps of our jumpsuits on the ground.

"You can't let us go out there naked." Fane shrugged. "Not unless you want to cause another scene and then lose a bunch of guards and prisoners after I rip their throats out for staring at Teague. I am a shifter. It's in my nature to protect my mate."

The word mate sent a sharp thrill through my bloodstream.

Inrik sighed and dragged his fingers through his hair. "There are some clean uniforms around the corner." He jerked his chin at Gershan.

"Teague will be in black from now on," Fane demanded.

Gershan spun toward him. "But she's a shifter."

"As you can tell from what happened out there, she clearly has demon traits." Shadows crawled through his eyes as they pierced the two guards with a dire warning. "Black suits are for anomalies, and I turned her, so she gets a black suit. And I'd like everyone in this place to be reminded of our connection when they see her."

"All right, Fane." Inrik shook his head when Gershan opened his mouth to argue. "She'll get a black one."

"But that's not how it works," Gershan hissed.

The other dux demon held his hand up. "The warden expected this. And I've known Fane for a long time. He'll cause more trouble if we don't give him this."

As Gershan vanished around the corner and Inrik guarded the door, I rested my head on Fane's chest, inhaling him and savoring our last few moments together.

"This won't be our last, Teague. They can't keep us apart like they have been. I won't allow it."