11. Huck

Chapter 11

Mabel's taste lingers on my tongue. My eyes track every inch of her nakedness while she follows Phineas down the hall, and my body hums with the urge to do more than cover her with my cum. I need to fill her. Claim her. Keep her with us always.

Except… I'm not sure I can.

Trailing Mabel and my friends to the main bathroom, I chew on my lip, at a loss for what to do. It's my fault, really. I started this, touching her, tasting her like that. The way I feel around her is like gravity, inescapable, and my need for her is as well. As long as I could control what I did while around her, it was okay. But I should've known better.

I should've known what that would lead to.

My heart pounds, and my skin burns, every nerve on fire with remembered pain, taunting me. On autopilot, my mind repeats the soothing mantras the sprites taught me when I was little and the rich man would come.

But the rich man is the point. He's the problem.

So the mantras don't help much at all.

Phineas opens the door, and the smell of lavender and spice joins the scent of Mabel's arousal on the air. Puck wants to drink it in. To make her come and come until she passes out from the pleasure.

But we can't. He knows it. There's a reason we didn't get naked with the others at dinner.

There's a reason we probably never will.

I stop in the hallway, watching through the door as Phineas turns on the hot water and then brings Mabel to him. The spray rushes over her and sends clouds of steam rising from the shower floor. She doesn't pay attention to any of it, instead focusing on sliding her hands up Phineas's dark chest like she loves every inch of what she's touching.

Puck buries himself deep in my mind, hiding from the pain of how no one will ever touch us like that by wrapping himself in the safe, cozy darkness. And I look away. I want to retreat too, except I'm the one in charge of our body right now, and moving might draw her attention.

"Hey." Zeb's voice is soft.

I glance up. He's at the doorway, and he slips out of the bathroom while Phineas starts kissing Mabel.

My lip hurts. I'm chewing on it too hard.

"You don't have to do this," Zeb murmurs, drawing me away from the door.

Anguish gnaws at me as I nod. Zeb understands. I know he does.

It just doesn't make the truth hurt any less.

"But…" he continues, glancing back at the bathroom briefly. "If she's going to be ours, we need to give her the chance to love all of us, right?"

My eyes dart away, skipping around the hall like Puck has control of them.

Zeb's familiar touch on my cheek draws me back around. "Trust that pull inside yourself. The one that says she's our mate."

I nod because I know he wants me to, but that doesn't mean I can believe him. Or, really, believe myself. I want her. I know that. But I want good things for her too, and that…

Maybe that's not me.

A breath leaves Zeb like he sees where my thoughts have gone anyway, and pain stirs in me for him. I'm being selfish, keeping the focus on myself. He's got his own reasons to be nervous about being with her.

I mean, yeah, I'd been mad at him for how he used Ghastly's powers on that girl at the bar. But I'd been mad because that isn't him. He doesn't manipulate people, even though he could. He doesn't hurt people, even though the gods know he has the power to wreak havoc.

He's scared he'll hurt Mabel.

I know he never would.

"You too," I say. "You… you trust that pull too. And trust you." I squeeze his hand. "I do."

He chuckles softly, gratitude in his eyes.

"Are you two coming?" Phineas calls. "Or do I get our sexy girl all to myself?"

Zeb grins at me. "Come on." He kisses me, a teasing brush of his lips, and he gives me that focused, confident look he does so well. The one that says he believes in me. The one that says I'm not broken at all.

I smile like it's working, just enough that he goes on ahead, and it isn't until he disappears into the bathroom that I let the expression crack into pain. But then hungry sounds come from beyond the door, and kissing too, and Mabel giggles at whatever he's doing.

It makes my heart ache.

But it pulls me back to the doorway all the same.

It's just like gravity.

The erotic scene before me is beautiful, like a picture. Mabel's legs are wrapped around Phineas, and he's gripping her ass while he drives into her. Zeb is behind her, his cock buried in her rear entrance. One of his hands has her breast, pinching and rolling her nipple, while his other has stolen around her front to massage her clit. Her head is thrown back, her pink-streaked hair falling over Zeb's shoulder, and her eyes closed, ecstasy painted across her face. Gasping pleas escape her, begging them for more, more, just like that.

Before I even realize I've moved, I'm gripping my cock, stroking it hard. It's that or rush over there, and gods forbid she wants me to join in.

But maybe she'll be too sated. Maybe they'll exhaust her. Maybe?—

Her cries when she comes steal my breath. I drink in the sight of her release while Zeb and Phineas grunt and thrust harder, overcome by their own pleasure.

Gods, if she could make those sounds for me. If I could just…

Mabel's eyes find mine. Sweat clings to her skin, making it glisten. Her lips are parted, her chest rising and falling fast from the exertion. She smiles breathlessly and reaches out a hand to me.

I freeze. I've fucked up. I shouldn't have?—

Her brow furrows. "Huck, are you okay?"

I scramble for words. "Y-you're tired. You should rest."

It's a plea more than anything, and she seems to hear that.

Her eyes narrow. Carefully, she eases away from Zeb and Phineas, and panic grips me when she comes closer, deliciously naked and freshly fucked yet still looking ready for me.

I retreat.

She stops. "What is it?" At my silence, uncertainty flashes over her face, and she pulls a towel from the rack, wrapping it around herself without ever really taking her concerned gaze from me. "Is something wrong?"

I'm ruining everything. I know that. I'm watching everything tumble downhill like an avalanche and it's all my fault.

Past Mabel's bare shoulder, Zeb and Phineas are watching me. Zeb's brow rises, silently urging me to speak, but I can't. I don't want to see her pull away. To watch her recoil and then try to hide the reaction.

Because she would. She's nice. Kind too. I've only known her a short while, and already I've learned that much about her.

She'd try not to hurt my feelings.

But that wouldn't change the truth.

"We don't have to do anything," she offers, tucking the towel up higher around her gorgeous breasts. "Not if you don't want to."

My head shakes. I can't help it. She's protecting herself from me in that gesture, and it makes my insides twist like there's a knife in my stomach. "It… it's not that."

She hesitates. "Okay."

The silence grows.

"Tell her, Huck," Zeb murmurs gently. "Trust, remember?"

My eyes squeeze shut. "I just… I don't want you to… to be disgusted by me."

More silence follows, and it's awful. I force myself to open my eyes.

She's staring at me, utterly baffled. "Why would I ever be disgusted by you?"

I find Zeb and Phineas again. They don't speak this time.

They're leaving it up to me, what I say. How much I tell her.

I swallow hard. Brace myself. And I yank my shirt over my head.

I can hear the moment she sees it all. The way her breath hitches in a tiny gasp. The small exhalation of shock that follows.

Maybe the floor could open up and swallow me. Maybe the power could go out, letting darkness take us long enough for me to run.

Neither happens, but that doesn't stop shame from rising like a tidal wave eager to make me drown. I scramble to pull my shirt back on. "I-I'll go. I'm sorry. I?—"

Her hand catches my arm. I freeze all over again, my eyes darting to hers on instinct.

The fierceness in her gaze stops my world.

"Did…" Her voice is a growl, and she shudders like she's holding her Hyde back. "Did he do this?"

My head twitches in a tiny nod.

Her hand shakes, her fingers tightening on my arm. But a pained look starts to creep into her eyes as the seconds tick by. "Did you think I wouldn't want to be with you because of it?"

Shame grows. I can't hold her gaze.

I shrug.

She's silent for a moment. "May I touch you?"

My eyes snap to her in shock. "You… you want to…?"

"Only if it's okay with you."

I manage to twitch my head again, and I can't breathe while her hand comes toward me.

But she's going to change her mind. I know it. She has to. At any moment, she's going to?—

Shivers course through my body when her palm gently rests on my abdomen. I watch as her fingers trace across my skin, mapping the pits, the valleys. The old burns and the twisted scars. Slowly, she walks around me, her hands ghosting across the puckered bullet wounds on my shoulder. The acid and cigarette burns on my ribs. The places where he carved into me, just because he could.

Her breath catches at the slashes that crisscross my back. "He whipped you too?" she whispers.

"H-his friends, mostly. Before… other things."

Air rushes from her, but her fingers stay on me, drifting along until she pauses directly behind my back.

I tremble, wondering if it's too much. If she's been suppressing her revulsion until she was beyond my line of sight, and now she?—

Her lips touch the place where my neck meets my shoulders. The marks are bad there. I've seen them in the mirror. He tried to hang me that day.

I can't breathe now either.

"Is he dead?" she asks. "Are all of them?"

I nod and try to find my voice. "After Phineas healed me, we tracked them. We found his friends near Boston. Found him three months later outside Cincinnati. He… he was trying to start another collection." A shiver runs through my body. "I made sure none of them could hurt anyone ever again."

Mabel circles me, her hand lingering on my skin until she's in front of me once more. Her eyes meet mine. "Good."

She says it with such unwavering conviction, nothing in her voice could give me room for any doubt. There's a bloodthirsty light in her eyes too, a gleam from her Hyde that says if I hadn't killed them, Creepy would have hunted each of them down, because there's no question in her mind that they needed to die.

Something inside me quivers.

Mabel steps closer. That bloodthirsty light fades, turning to a quiet insistence that rivets me in place. "None of this changes how attracted I am to you, Huck. Not one single bit. And I swear to you on my life, I'm not disgusted by you."

I can't look away from her. In my chest, something breaks, painful and yet warm. It spreads like fire through my veins, pulling on me like gravity, urging me to fall.

And I let go.

I rip my pants away, ignoring how the fabric tears. I grab her, driving her back toward the shower while Phineas and Zeb clear out of my path. Mabel gasps, but there's no fear in the sound. Water splashes us, but I couldn't care less. Distantly, I feel Zeb shove a condom into my hand, and I roll it on purely by autopilot, scarcely letting my lips leave hers long enough to breathe.

Because I just want to keep kissing her. Touching her. I lift her up, pressing her back into the tile wall as her legs wrap my hips, and then…

A groan escapes me as I sink into her pussy. She's perfect. Everything I never knew I needed and more. I rock my hips forward over and over, drowning in the feel of her, claiming her with everything I have.

Because she's mine. Ours. Puck surges up to ride just beneath my skin, relishing the scent and taste and feel of her, eager for when he can claim her too.

"My belle," I gasp with every thrust. "My belle."

Once upon a time, the snow leopard shifter told me belle meant beauty, and that there'd been a woman with that name who loved a monster no matter what he looked like.

I never dreamed that story could really be true for me.

Gasping with pleasure, I clutch Mabel to me as she comes on my cock, her pussy fluttering like she wants everything I have to give. There's no one in this world who'll ever be as beautiful to me as her. No one I'll ever love more. She's my belle. My everything.

And whatever happens, I'll be hers until the end of time.