Chapter 18

Chapter

Eighteen

Frost covered my flesh as I slowly climbed to my feet. The other me clawed at the barrier I quickly shoved her behind.

Stay there. It's my turn.

No! Let me out. He needs me.

Fane's lips hitched up, showing his teeth. "Bring the other Tate out."

I shook my head. "She can't handle this. I'm saving us."

He lunged toward me, and I pivoted to dart across the small room, but chains fell around me, pinning me to a hard, scalding body.

"Nowhere to run." Hot breath ghosted over my neck as his lips brushed my ear. "You're my prisoner now."

Electric fear sent a hit of something else through me. Pleasure. Desire. Hunger.

I was suddenly starving for my beast even though his touch felt perilous. He wanted to kill me.

Did he think the other me would be unleashed if he brought me to the brink of death ?

I elbowed him to loosen his grip and then slipped under his arms. But I didn't get far. How could I? The room was nothing more than an oversized prison cell.

His presence formed behind me as teeth scraped over my neck tattoo, shooting sparks of bliss through my system. My legs buckled, and a moan rocketed out of my mouth.

Tricky beast.

"Even with all that wicked magic, you can't resist me." Fane tossed me onto the bed, and before I could move, he straddled my hips to keep me restrained. "I won't give up until Tate is back in control. I know you're keeping her from me. I can feel it."

The beast wrapped the chains around my throat, cutting off most of my air supply. My eyes widened, but not in fear. Excitement thrummed over me, and I squirmed beneath him, tilting my hips and feeling his hot, pulsing length as it hardened.

A growl rattled through him. "I should have known this would intrigue you." He leaned forward, his tongue flicking my bottom lip. "Is this what you want? To be chained and choked while I fuck you?"

His words boiled my blood, and my hunger for the beast doubled. I couldn't stop the nod from unveiling exactly how I felt.

If I could just get a taste of him, maybe it would satiate this craving, and I could return to living on fears and torment.

That mouth hitched into a leer as he tightened the chain around my throat, shooting another dose of desire to my core. He rubbed his hardness between the apex of my thighs. "Even like this, you make it impossible to deny my craving for you, fiera mika."

Fiera mika.

Little rebel.

He grinned as my words penetrated his mind. "I wondered if you'd understand the language while this power was in control." His mouth crushed against mine, sucking my tongue and making me whimper.

I gripped his shoulders, but instead of pushing him away, I pulled him into me, needing to feel him.

"The ravens made you hide your true nature." The beast, Fane, unwrapped the sleeves of the jumpsuit from around my waist. "You've always been a rebel—a fighter and a renegade—and I never want that to change no matter how much it pisses me off sometimes."

His words lulled me and drew the other Tate forward, his soul taking hers by the hand. I felt myself fading to the background, but as the beast's fingers slinked under my shirt, tasting and feeling my flesh, I didn't mind that much.

I would still be inside, enjoying the seduction and lust he poured into this body. Plus, I wouldn't stay down for long. She'd need me again soon enough.

"You're my fiera mika, and I need you to find your way back to me."

My chest tore open, and a sob burst out. "Fane."

He drew back, searching for me. This me, the one that had gone missing for the last few weeks.

"Tate." He tore the chain off my throat. "It's you."

Tears ran down my cheeks, and I greedily gulped air now that the pressure was gone. "I'm sorry."

I'd tortured him for hours and slept while he was chained. I screamed on the inside every time I cut into him. And I died a little more with every fear he experienced .

But the last one…

I didn't know he felt like that. Of course I wondered but never thought too much of it because I didn't want to be disappointed.

He knew exactly what he'd revealed, and neither of us was ready to face that. So much was against us. If we spoke the truth to each other and something tore us apart, it would only hurt that much more.

But his eyes said what his mouth couldn't. And he saw the same emotions within me. I loved him.

We wouldn't say those words—we couldn't—but we felt them so deeply it fucking hurt.

"Fiera mika." His mouth pressed against mine in a slow, burning kiss that set me ablaze. "I told you I would always bring you back."

Another broken sob slipped out, and I ripped his jumpsuit off before the pain and anguish could overwhelm me. "Can you make it all go away, Fane?" I rubbed against him, focusing on the lust and desire that had already been building between us since he broke through his binds. "I need you. Now ."

Fane didn't hesitate to give me what I wanted. He shredded my clothes off in seconds, spread my legs, and slammed into me so violently my shriek could have blown the walls down.

The physical pain shoved the emotional distress away and brought pleasure as our bodies collided. We'd been separated too much lately, and our bond was more determined to keep yanking us together.

Was it angry we'd been apart?

"I will never stop bringing you back, Teague." Fane dragged his mouth over my jaw and then down my neck, sucking and biting a fiery trail. "And even if you can't take control, I won't leave you."

The malevolent me purred inside.

He will stay with us both.

"I promise. Always" Fane punctuated each word with a thrust.

The urge to shatter beneath him overwhelmed me, but I tightened my grip, needing him to know how much his promise meant. He would never abandon me like so many others had. No matter how dark I became, he would stay and fight for me.

"I'll never turn away from you, Fane." He'd been abused and abandoned by the people who should have loved him too. "You are my beast. Mine ."

A shudder rippled through him as that word—mine—crossed my lips. That word had power among shifters, and I'd felt it when it hit the air. I hadn't consciously meant to do it, but I wouldn't take it back.

I would never take back any claim I laid on Fane Maverick. He was mine. And sooner or later, I might have to fight every villain in this realm and the others to keep it that way.

"You two need to get up now."

I turned and blinked at the tall figure leaning over the bed, trying to grasp what was happening. It took several moments to realize Warden Demarcus was the one skulking in the room.

Fane bolted up and shoved Demarcus into the wall. "I'm going to murder you for allowing Venna to torture Tate like this. "

My own anger for the warden seeped into my veins, and I scrambled out of the bed, wrapping a sheet around my naked form. "Fane, stop." I shoved between the two powerful creatures, forcing the demon shifter back so I wasn't pressed against Demarcus.

The warden straightened his black button-down shirt. "Thank you, Ms. Teague. I?—"

I slammed my fist into his face, and his head thudded against the wall. "That's for Maddie."

"I should have seen that coming," Demarcus licked black blood off his lip. "You're angry. I understand that, but I honestly had no choice in the matter. Venna wanted to do much worse, and your friend would have ended up dead anyway. The raven's death was quick and painless, and?—"

My knee lifted, ramming into his crotch. "That's for letting Venna create this torture nest for us."

Demarcus hunched over, his cheeks reddening as he held onto his manhood. "I definitely should have seen that one coming," he wheezed.

Fane's husky chuckle tickled the back of my neck as he pulled me away from the warden, his arm wrapping around my shoulders to stop me from attacking. "What do you want, Demarcus? If you're here to separate us, you'll end up with your head separated from your neck."

Blackness seeped into the warden's eyes as he stood, giving a threatening growl. "I'm trying to help." He jerked his chin to the two black CO uniforms on the table in the corner. "You're getting out of here tonight."