Priest and his Anarchist

Chapter 30

Chapter Thirty

priest

I ’m not ready to walk in and hear the opinions of any of them right now. Right now, silence. Silence needs to be heard because for the next step, silence isn’t what I’ll be hearing.

Pain. Sadness. Anger.

“What’s going on in your head, son?” Dad’s voice drifts over my shoulder after Eli and Lilith pull away. “Try not to give up. If you can help her recover, it’ll work in our favor.” He’s wrong, because she’ll never recover.

She’ll never return.

Because for whatever reason, she’s made it obvious since coming back that the version of Luna that people came to love is gone for good.

The version I’d chased all along is right in front of my face. This is what I wanted.

So why does it feel like shit.

Feelings and emotions do nothing but cloud your judgment.

“Take Mother home before her and Aunty Tillie fuck around and end up in town.”

Dad laughs, his head tilting back. “Yeah, I will.” Before he can slide into the car, he pauses, looking at me over his shoulder. “You never finished your comment about Perdita.”

I shake my head. “Not right now.”

His finger taps against the car. It’s obvious how hard Dad is finding it being away from the gavel, and I don’t want to make his life harder, since he’s the one person alive that I know has always had my back.

And Mom.

I guess and Halen. War. Stella, Vaden. Luna. River so long as I don’t fuck with Luna.

Fuck. Me wanting that version of her is making me weak.

My teeth clench.

“Son.” A simple word. “Remember that everything is as it seems for a reason. She was on Perdita for a reason.”

“I know.” But he doesn’t know exactly how much.

As soon as he’s disappearing down the road, I flick my cigarette onto the pavement. Bringing in Lilith, Eli, and Kyrin was my last resort.

“Why do I get the feeling you’re about to unleash chaos?” Halen muses, filling Dad’s spot.

“Oh, because I am.” I keep my focus on the window, where shadows dance against each other to music. No doubt Vaden prancing her around like a trophy.

“Do I need to warn anyone?” Even as a child, Halen felt like she always needed to protect me. She didn’t need to, but that was the nature of her. She’d do that shit without ever realizing. Without hesitation. To the point of annoyance, but more so, she never did it for me.

She did it for the safety of everyone around me.

“No. Better to keep it as a surprise.” I stomp up the steps and push open the front door, ignoring Halen’s unease as she breezes past me and back into the lounge.

My intention when I built this house was to have a quiet place. Dark. A replica of my mind and everything that doesn’t go on inside of it.

I lean against the frame, crossing my arms in front of myself as Vaden falls onto the sofa beside a giggling… her . She snuggles into his neck, and I feel…

Nothing.

The feelings I once had for this girl no longer exist. I don’t know when it happened or how it did, but I look at her, and I see…nothing.

I feel nothing.

But when he fucked Luna, I felt everything.

The Kings wanted to use her as the ultimate Rebellis. The distracter. Dad was right all those years ago when he told Lilith that she would be the best that ever came from this line. Even better than Eli, and Eli was mischief and chaos. The perfect rebel.

“You’ve all wanted to know what happens during a Hunt—” I look between all of the girls, purposely ignoring the one beside Vaden.

“A long time…” Stella rolls her eyes, flicking beneath her nails as if bored. “So what is it? Do spill.”

I see her leg moving in the corner of my eye, but it’s the easiest ignore in the history of me ever ignoring her.

“Meet at Halen’s bend.”

War pauses in passing after everyone spills out to their cars. “I didn’t like it the first night it started, and I still don’t, especially now that you’ve decided to involve your sister.” He looks between me and the front door. “What are you going to do, Priest? How is she going to proceed?”

“Shouldn’t I be asking you the same question? Only, what is your plan with Halen? Is she going to continue playing house on an island that’s the fairy-tale side of the nightmare that is Perdita, or is she going to sit beside you as your wife and do as she’s told? Because you and I both know that you cannot have both.”

His mouth closes and then opens again. He blows out a breath, turning toward the direction that the girls went through the front door. “I don’t know. She’s not going to sit beside me as a quiet woman. You know your sister. She has more her father than mother.”

“Wrong answer.”

I hold his stare. He looks at me like I should know all the answers. He always has. When he started fucking around with Halen—even more publicly than they thought I didn’t know—he needed more guidance than ever. We all knew it. The man was in fucking love. He wasn’t making the right choices, and if anything, I swore our time wouldn’t be clouded by something so fragile like love. This is a castle made of steel, not glass.

“Yeah. I know. She’ll be seated beside me.”

I hold in my laugh. “Good luck.”

We both turn to Vaden when he clears his throat. “You sure this is a good idea?”

Swiping my keys off the table, I grin at him. “Have you no trust?”

Vaden, War, and Deacon all answer together. “No.”

Without the guidance of streetlights, the trip to Halen’s bend is dangerous even for the most experienced drivers, but less than five minutes of winded bends, the headlights of a dozen cars light up the cliff.

My tail end swings around when I tear up the brake, coming to a stop.

How many times had I wished for this moment, with her sitting beside me like this. I’d fought for years to have her back, and now that I do, the thought of her touching me has my skin crawling. I had Luna holed up in my house for three years, hoping to get this out of her. Begging for her to switch. To drop. To fall and snap.

The Hunt was created for her. Every step I took was for the girl sitting beside me in this moment, but all I can find myself wanting now that she is here, is to never see her again.

My finger traces my upper lip, lost in my thoughts.

Halen laughs with War, snuggling beneath his arm. She peers up at him with a look I’ve only ever seen once before. Maybe she will sit and play wife. Maybe that’s the dumb shit love does to you.

Maybe that’s something I’ll never know. Or maybe that’s something I’m going to make sure I never know.

“Do they know that she’s gone forever? Or are they still hoping she resides deep within me?”

The grip I have on my steering wheel tightens. “They know what I want them to know.”

“And what is that?” Her hand lands on my upper thigh. Sliding her way up, her fingertips graze the outline of my dick. “They do know that you love me, right? That you never felt anything for Luna and that you only showed her the gentle side of you, let her fuck you, to bring me back.”

The steps I take from here on need to be carefully placed. “They know what I want them to know.”

“And now what?” she asks, repeating my tone.

Hiding behind the curtain of straightened hair, her makeup and eyeliner is darker than usual. With plump red lips to match her fingernails. It didn’t take her long at all to transform into the monster that she is. “This was the plan. You wanted me here, so what are you going to do?”

When I don’t answer her right away, she finally pulls her eyes away from the people outside and comes back to me.

I smirk. “Hunt.”

Her head rests against the back of the chair. “You know you don’t have to. I’m here for good.” Her fingers flex around my thigh. “I promise you she’s not coming back.” She turns my face to hers with the grip around my chin. “Have I ever lied to you?” Her thumb grazes the rim of my bottom lip. “Have I ever kept secrets?”

“Are you suggesting I have?” My brow curves upward.

Laughter bubbles from her chest when she forces me away, flipping the mirror down from the top and fixing her makeup. “Of course not. But I still don’t understand why we have to do this—” She gestures out to the cars in front. Halen, Stella, River—who has been awfully quiet—War, Vaden, Deacon.

Not a single King is missed tonight.

“Because the girls want to see a Hunt.” I reach forward and push her door open. “Get out.”