Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Gaeton

We manage to distract Isabelle until exhaustion takes hold and she passes out between us in bed. She looks younger and more relaxed in sleep, her chest rising and falling in an even rhythm. Less formidable somehow. We worked her hard today, hard enough that I should be passed out right next to her. I’m tired right down to my bones, but it has barely taken the edge off my need for her. I’ve always liked to fuck, but it’s on a different level with this woman.

With both of them.

I can admit that to myself even if I’d walk through fire before I admit it to Beast. It feels natural to trade dominance back and forth between the two of us. And what happened this morning? It’s still got me twisted up. Having my mouth all over Beast was something I’ve wanted for longer than I’ll ever admit. He’s not for me. He never was.

That’s not what we need to talk about right now, though.

I pull the sheet up more firmly around Isabelle and lean back. “Ursa knows where we are.”

“It would seem so.” He sits against the headboard, his muscles shifting beneath his scarred skin. There’s a wealth of information in those scars, if one knows how to look. Shit he’s survived left people around him six feet under. He doesn’t need to tell me the stories, to put names and faces to the loss, for me to understand. I really don’t want to understand Beast, but that resistance gets weaker and weaker the more time we spend together. There was a point where I would have happily put a bullet between his eyes just to get him the fuck out of my way, but it’s been a long time since I felt that level of anger. It slipped away while I wasn’t paying attention, swept out to sea on a wave of grief and loss.

I push the thoughts away. There’s no time to drown in that grief right now, not the grief of losing Isabelle the first time and sure as fuck not the loss of Orsino Belmonte. “Is she warning us off or is she going to strike at us directly?”

“The latter is what I would do.” Beast isn’t looking at me, his eyes focused on something a thousand miles away. “We’re both damn good generals, but we represent more than that. Cordelia already has a handful of damn good generals who could ensure she didn’t feel our loss too strongly. The Man in Black—” His voice hitches the tiniest amount. “Orsino left a strong and stable territory when he died. Strong enough to survive the changeover to his daughter and give her time to settle in.” He finally looks at me. “Or it would have been if we hadn’t left.”

He’s right. There are other generals, but we’re different. We’re symbols of a sort. Two men with reputations that stretch the distance of the city and give pause to anyone who considers crossing us. If we hadn’t walked out … But we did, and now we have to deal with the consequences.

I drag a hand through my hair. “Did you know how little time he had left?” I knew he was sick. Everyone knew he was sick. But up until three days before he died, he was sitting in a meeting with the two of us just like he had a thousand times before. He’d looked frailer than normal, but he hadn’t breathed a single fucking word to let me know that he was that close to the end.

“No. He didn’t tell me, either.” His voice is perfectly devoid of emotion. Once, I thought that meant Beast didn’t feel a damn thing. Now I know better. He feels just as deeply as I do. He just hides it better.

“I thought we had months left, years even. The last treatment seemed like it was working.” My chest feels like someone dug a hole in it and forgot to toss me into my grave. That man was not perfect, and there were days when I hated him, but he was as close to a father figure as I’ve ever had. “I couldn’t stay there. I just needed some fucking time to work shit out.”

“It felt like the walls were closing in.” He speaks so softly, I can’t tell if the words are meant for me or himself. Beast tilts his head back against the headboard and looks at the ceiling. “It was like losing Cohen all over again; different, but the same, too.”

There was a time not that long ago when I would have ignored this new piece of information. Where I didn’t want to know more about Beast, because it’s easier to hate a near-stranger, even if they’re a brother-in-arms. I’m not there right now. I crave getting inside his head in a way I’m not prepared to examine too closely. “Cohen is from your time before Carver City.”

“Yeah.” He’s still not looking at me, still speaking softly. “He was someone very important to me. He and his six brothers were set to take over their part of Sabine Valley when they were driven out. His enemies were hunting him, and we ended up separated.” He exhales slowly. “He was supposed to meet me here in Carver City, but he never made it.”

I was rising up the ranks when Beast arrived in the city and landed in our territory. He’s cold now, but he could damn near freeze a room back then. He scared the shit out of people, which only led to a whole lot of confusion when Isabelle took up with him. It didn’t make him less scary, but it sure as fuck made people more cautious about dealing with her.

Comfort has never been my thing, but I can’t just leave this new information hanging out there awkwardly. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, me too.” He gives himself a shake and looks down at Isabelle. “She’s not safe here.”

“Safer here than in her sister’s house, at least until we figure our shit out.”

Beast shakes his head. “It’s our fault she’s sniffing around. And pulling the stunt we did in the Underworld won’t have helped. Hades’s people might not gossip, but everyone else does. If they think we’re using Orsino’s death and the resulting imbalance of power to punish Isabelle—”

“Fuck.” I close my eyes. I hadn’t been thinking about any of that when she showed up. I’m an exposed nerve for this woman. The highest pleasure for the last twenty-four hours still comes with a slice of pain because this entire situation is temporary. It’s always been temporary, even if I was too shortsighted to see it before. Isabelle won’t marry me. She was never going to. Even if she somehow chooses me and we end up exclusive, she loves her freedom too much to put my ring on her finger. Not when she sees marriage as a trap ready to close around her leg and keep her in place.

I don’t know if I have the control necessary to hold her with a loose grip. The control required to keep her happy. No matter how many different scenarios I play out, they all end in heartbreak. Maybe in twelve days. Maybe in a few months or even years.

Why the hell did I agree to this?

“Gaeton.”

I open my eyes to find Beast watching me, a strange expression on his face. He doesn’t exactly shut it down when I look at him, but I can’t divine out what the fuck it means. He gives a small smile. “We can buy ourselves some time with a little show.”

No need for him to spell it out. When people in Carver City want to make a statement to the other territories in a way that won’t start a war, they do it at the Underworld. Relationships announced. Peace pacts made. Even the occasional spat. All of it happens under the protection of Hades’s neutral territory.

“If we go in there and tell everyone that we’re hers, there’s no taking it back. We can’t change our minds later.” Not if we want to stay in the city. It doesn’t matter how much power we have individually, or how great out reputations; if we cross someone we promised allegiance to, no territory leader in Carver City will touch us.

Beast snorts. “You’ve made your decision already, same as me.”

“Yeah, I guess I have.” I smooth the sheet over Isabelle, tucking it a bit higher so she’s covered from the neck down. She shifts under my touch, moving closer to me in her sleep. My heart gives a sickening lurch. We’re on an out-of-control train that’s sure to jump the tracks at the next turn, but I can’t bring myself to give a fuck. I don’t want to get off this ride, no matter how devastating the end result.

I look up to find Beast watching me, watching us. It’s not the first time he’s done it today, and I can’t define the expression on his pretty face. All I know is that it’s dangerous as fuck. “Do I want to know what’s going through your head right now?”

“No.” Just that. Nothing more. Nothing to clarify or shed some light.

I give him a long look. “Pretty sure you won the bet we had earlier.”

Beast laughs, a low rasping sound. “Gaeton, you’re sexy as shit, but when I fuck you next, I want it to be when we’re not both exhausted and about to pass out.”

“I want to argue, but you make a good point.” Best not to think too hard about Beast calling me sexy as shit. I shake my head and lie down. Gravity seems to increase the second my head hits the pillow and my eyes close despite my best intentions. “She’s not going to be handle another day like today so soon. I don’t think any of us can.”

“I know.” I can’t quite tell without seeing his face, but Beast sounds amused. Almost indulgent. “I have something else in mind.”

I should demand to know what his plans are, should remind him that we’re equals in this and so I should be involved in any big decisions and plans. I should do a lot of things. “Whatever you want, then.”

Exhaustion weighs me down, but I swear I feel the faintest brush of fingertips against my forehead, smoothing my hair back and his low voice saying, “I want it all.”