Chapter Thirty

The moment I set foot in the lounge, I’m pacing.

Back and forth and back and forth. Abdiel comes in after me and doesn’t say a word. He stands off in the corner, shifting his weight from foot to foot. Peering over my shoulder at him, I find my emotions torn.

On the one hand, I love him so much, and I’m so very sorry for what happened last night. But on the other, this is all his fault.

This girl he decided to bring here. This girl he has feelings for…

Even if they’re different from his feelings for Drake and me, they’re still there. And I just don’t understand them. The girl is a nuisance, and she needs to be dealt with.

Drake comes stomping into the room and goes straight for the decanter of scotch on the desk. He pours himself a glass, then pours another, handing it to me fast. I take it, and he clanks his against mine aggressively before tossing it back.

Watching him carefully, I know something is up. There are so many things he isn’t telling me, and somehow this girl seems to know about them.

Lastly, the girl steps into the room. I hear her fright immediately, and it only serves to annoy me further. She sure wasn’t lacking in confidence five minutes ago when she was trying to rally my people against me.

She leaves the door open as she stands there like a small, trembling statue. I catch Jeremy out in the hall and nod for him to close the door, which he does, posting up just outside as I’ve directed him.

I take a small sip of my scotch, all the while observing the girl over the rim of the glass. Her eyes dart briefly to Abdiel, who won’t look away from his shoes, and then to Drake, who is radiating an anger unlike any I’ve felt from him in quite some time.

Sucking in a breath, I’m unable to hide my vexation. “So, what seems to be the problem here?” My question is directed at everyone in the room, though I’m looking primarily to the girl right now. Clearly, she has grievances.

Time to air them.

“I know about everything,” she speaks, keeping her wide eyes on me. And for as much as she is driving me insane, I have to give it to her. She’s a ballsy little thing. “You two, the drugs, the trespassers, your affair with Abdiel’s father… All of it.”

I glare at her. “It wasn’t an affair.” My gaze flings to Abdiel, and he rubs his eyes.

Huffing out a rough exhale, my fingers sift through my hair as I address Abdiel and Drake. How does she know all of these things??

I can hear you, Rhiannon’s thought breaks through, and I turn my eyes back on her. She’s smirking. My blood fucking boils.

But my brother gets there first, stepping forward with his fists clenched. “Lock her up.”

I ignore him, looking to Rhiannon. “How did you get it?”

She doesn’t speak, but I hear her recalling stealing the Empyrean from Drake’s office. My eyes dart to his, and honestly, I’ve rarely seen him this enraged.

“Sticky fingers, tiny stray.” He moves in closer, towering over her, intimidating her with his height. “I should cut them off.”

Abdiel finally speaks. “Don’t threaten her.”

Drake squints at him briefly before falling back. “Lock them both up. As far as I’m concerned, they can both rot.”

Hurt flashes over Abdiel’s face, while fear covers Rhiannon’s. She knows he’s not kidding.

“No one’s locking Abdiel up,” I intervene with a hand held up to my brother.

“What about me?” Rhiannon squeaks.

I shrug. “I don’t care about you.”

“Darian!” Abdiel scolds.

“He’s killed someone!” Rhiannon points an accusatory finger at Drake. “I saw it! Witnessed it with my own eyes!”

“Ease up there, toots. I’ve killed lots of people.” Drake folds his arms over his chest, and I rub my eyes.

Mother, these kids are testing me.

“I mean, someone you know,” Rhiannon says quietly, aiming a defiant scowl at Drake, though she’s speaking to me. “Someone from your past… And he’s been manipulating you for years. Making you think you can’t—”

“Shut her up before I do it myself!” Drake roars, crowding the girl quickly, combatively.

I don’t think he would lay hands on her, but I’d rather not stand around and find out.

Abdiel comes between them, protecting Rhiannon while holding Drake back with a hand on his chest. “Alright, that’s enough,” he growls. “No good can come from attacking each other like this.” He angles his chin to the girl. “You have to stop. Even I can’t protect you from this mess you’ve made.”

Dismay frames Rhiannon’s face. I hear her regretting everything she’s done, but mostly for hurting Abdiel. She cares greatly for him.

“Secrets, secrets everywhere,” I sigh, waltzing up to the three of them. I place my hand on Abdiel’s shoulder until he steps back a bit. Then I move in close to the girl, cornering her while she backs up into the wall. “You come onto my land, steal from my brother, then try to blackmail us into… what? Giving up control? Silly girl, you should know by now that nothing is greater than control.”

She swallows visibly, her pink little lips quivering. “I just thought… I was just… trying…”

“You were trying to rally my people against me,” I growl inches from her face. “You were trying to take what’s mine. People on this land have died for less.”

I know, she thinks, even her thoughts trembling in fear. I saw it.

Every ounce of my fury burns at her through my eyes. “You. Know. Nothing.”

Backing up, I straighten and pull open the door, addressing Jeremy. “Lock her up.”

At those three words, my patrolmen rush into the room and grab the girl, tying her hands behind her back and hauling her away.

She shouts in protest as they drag her out of the house, but I ignore it, eyes stuck on my two men. My lovers, my friends, my family.

All the secrets, the betrayals. It ends now.

We need to get to the bottom of this.

“Darian, is that really necessary?” Abdiel pleads with his despondent gaze, forehead lined in concern for his friend. “Locking her up? Where are they even bringing her?”

“We have cells,” I breathe, exhausted from all this already. “On the mountain, there’s a hunting shack with a trapdoor leading down to a jail of sorts.”

He looks stunned but for only a moment before nodding, accepting the secret I’m sharing with him. “Do you use them often?”

“Depends on your definition of often,” I mumble. He flinches but says nothing. “Sweetheart, I know we still really need to talk.” I grasp his face in my palm, and my heart soars when he lets me, leaning into my touch. “There is much for us to discuss, but first, I must speak with my brother. Alone.” My eyes flit to Drake, and for the first time in a long time, I catch him wavering.

Abdiel nods. “Yes, sir.”

Resting his hands on my chest, he angles his face in close, so that our lips are hovering. There are so many things he wants to say, so many thoughts, questions, worries in his pretty head. But instead of voicing them, he simply presses a velvety soft kiss on my lips, enough to melt me into a puddle on the floor.

“Wait for me upstairs… in my bedroom,” I command, quietly, my tone wrapped in the fuzz of my lust and love for this beautiful boy.

“What if someone should see?” He asks, curious fingers tracing the lines of my torso through my shirt’s fabric.

I place another quick kiss at the corner of his mouth. “That’s the least of my worries right now.”

He nods once more and breathes slowly, backing up and leaving the room, his mind swirling as he does.

And now I’m left with my brother.

My lover, my partner, my Serpent… Holder of all the secrets.

We stare at one another for a while. Eyes locked, thoughts scattered, lips sealed. I’m really not even sure where to start. So I decide to go for a simple request…

“Tell me the truth,” I demand, though the moment the words leave my mouth, I fall to my knees. I kneel before him and rest my head on his legs, trembling at the impending revelation.

Rhiannon said he killed someone we knew… Someone from our past.

There’s only one person it could be.

“Tell me what you did…” My voice quivers with emotion. With the need for this… This truth.

Drake’s fingers comb through my hair, leisurely, treasuring. He strokes me, petting me like a cat while he whispers from above, “I did it for you.”

My face springs upward, chin tipping so I can look at him.

“I killed him because he hurt you,” he confesses, and with his spoken words, I hear the memory of what happened that night.

I can almost visualize it, based on what he’s thinking. That night, before he frantically woke me in the dark, where I was sleeping in his bed, bruised and battered.

He avenged me.

He killed our foster father.

“I bathed in his blood, brother,” Drake growls. “That was the night I took on the evil. I did it for you, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

“I didn’t ask you to do that,” I mumble, stupidly, because I can’t think of any other way to respond. But it’s the truth.

“You didn’t have to.” He drops to his knees in front of me. “Don’t you see, Darian? That’s why I’m here… It’s the balance. The natural order. I’m the dark to your light.”

My head shakes, not liking this one bit. “No. I don’t accept that. You’re here because…” I stop and gulp. “You’re here because I need you.”

He takes my hand in his, holding it up to his chest. “I’ve killed them all for you, Darian. To protect you.”

My eyes are wide as I stare at him, gaping in shock and awe. I can see into his mind. I see him covered in blood, in that clearing on the mountain. Beside the black rock…

I see him bleeding. I see him making others bleed.

Feeding the evil. For me.

In this moment I know, deep down in my conscience, I should object. I should say no to this, because he’s mine and he’s ruining himself… When he doesn’t need to.

But my heart feels too much. I love him too damn much. He’s already fed me until I’m full.

Grabbing his face, I pull his lips to mine.

I kiss my serpent hard, ferociously ravaging, our teeth clashing before our tongues do the same. I suck wildly at his mouth, tasting him, biting him. And he groans into me, fingers wasting no time running down past my waist, stroking me over my pants.

My erection throbs in his palm as it grows, stiffening by the second while we maul one another, panting and gasping, sucking and licking.

Pushing him onto the floor, I straddle his hips and grind into him while we kiss deeper, rougher. I pin his hands above his head, and he whimpers into my mouth, a sound I devour like the most delicious of treats.

His vulnerability, which I get so rarely, is like the first drops of water after a drought. I love it far too much.

“You killed him for me,” I purr, visualizing him vibrating in sexy anger, a rage so strong it caused him to seek revenge. For me.

“I gutted him,” he breathes ragged, lifting his hips to mine. “I took his life as tribute for you, baby.”

I groan onto his mouth, kissing his lips raw. “I accept your offering, my Serpent.”

He grins, lazy with lust as he writhes beneath me. “You should take something else… Take more.”

Gazing down at him, my chest flutters while his eyes sparkle. He wants me to fuck him. I can hear him, practically begging for it in his mind.

“We’ve never done that before.” My lips trail his jaw, my cock so hard it’s about to snap.

“We haven’t…” he whispers. “But I’ve imagined it.”

“Have you?” My heart thumps from my chest into his while I suck his pulse.

He nods. “Sometimes… when I’m all alone…”

Returning my face to his, I suck hard on his lower lip while he tells me in his mind, I stuff my fingers inside myself and wish it was you. My brother…

I whine out loud, hoarse and trembling. This is what he does, and he does it so well. He gets to me. Everything about him…

“You are meant to be mine, brother or no brother.” I thrust my erect cock into his. “We could share blood and I would still want you desperately. I can’t help it. I’ve always been…”

“Lost to you,” he finishes my thought. “I’m sorry, baby.”

“Why do you torture me so much?” I breathe at his throat, sucking and biting to leave him purple. Marking him so everyone knows he’s mine, even though he can’t be. “Why do you tempt me, knowing I can’t have you the way I want?”

Our panting breaths echo off the walls. Drake strains his muscles, lifting himself so he can squirm into me.

“You can, though,” he murmurs. “You could. The girl was right… It’s been my fault.”

My movements slow. “What?”

“I’ve been convincing you we could never be more than secret lust,” he admits softly. “For years, I’ve pulled away, making you think we can’t be together. But it was because I was afraid. Because… you’re too good for me, Darian.”

I back up, a strange foreboding crawling through my insides as I gawk down at him. His cheeks are pink, like his lips, puffy from our kisses, his broad chest moving with unsteady breaths. He’s the most beautiful beast I’ve ever seen…

“You… You’ve been manipulating me.” My forehead lines. Drake blinks. “The girl was right… It’s been you all along. You’re the reason I’ve felt so insecure. You’re the reason I married those girls. To escape my feelings for you.”

Hurt and anger weave together in my heart as I stumble off of him. But he scrambles on top of me, this time pinning me down.

“Darian, please,” he insists, holding me while I struggle against him. “Listen to me. You have to understand where I was coming from…”

“No. I don’t give a fuck,” I hiss. “All I’ve ever wanted was you, and you’ve done nothing but run from me!” My voice raises as I shout up at him, the tension from the last twenty-five years finally erupting like a long dormant volcano. “Pushing me into Lars’s arms, then convincing me I needed to marry, to give the Regnum an heir. It’s been you all along, hasn’t it?? Whispering in their ears!”

I keep fighting against his hold, but he’s using all his weight to keep me beneath him.

For the first time, I’m seeing the truth. His thoughts are on display. No more hiding, no more blurring it out to protect me. To subdue me.

Drake’s brows zip with his guilt, his shame, as he moves his lips up to my ear. “I’m so sorry, baby. I never wanted to hurt you… To make you feel like loving me was wrong.”

“But that’s exactly what you did,” I snarl. “Now, get off me.”

“No.” He stays planted over me while I try to wriggle free.

“Get off me, Drake! Now.”

“No, please. I need you to forgive me.” He kisses my jaw, my neck, my throat.

The feeling sends chills rushing across my body, but I’m so angry with him, I don’t want it. “Drake, stop.”

“You love me, I know you do,” he whispers.

And it triggers something in my mind.

A flashback I’ve tried so desperately to bury.

Him on top of me, my hands zip-tied to the headboard.

His lips drag over my throat while he spreads my legs. “You love it, I know you do…”

Fear clutches me, burns my limbs, smothering me from the inside until I can’t breathe.

“Drake, stop.” I gasp for air. “Please stop. Get off…”

He moves back, likely hearing the shakes in my voice. His eyes widen, and he releases me immediately.

I sit up, clutching my chest while sucking air into my lungs, sputtering to hold on to it before letting it go. My vision swims, and I close my eyes, squeezing them shut hard while I focus on catching my breath.

When I finally reopen them, I see Drake leaning up against the bed, gaze wide with dread and shining regret. He won’t even speak to me, but I hear him thinking…

Hear his guilt.

I reminded you of him… I scared you like him.

I shake my head slowly. “I know you’d never hurt me.”

“But I did,” he grunts, standing up fast.

I turn and watch as he stalks to the door. “Drake, don’t go.”

He stops, shoulders slumping while his head falls forward. He says nothing, but I hear him as he leaves the room…

This is why, baby.

You’re too damn good for me.