Chapter 30 The Eldest Heir
THE ELDEST HEIR
AUGUSTUS
Poco was wrapped around my head, purring soothingly, and I leaned into his touch. I’d missed him so much that it hurt to think about our time apart.
Wall sconces burned low, and shadows crawled across the ancient coliseum stone.
We’d been locked in the room for hours, all of us lying in the one bed.
Alexis lay stiffly pressed against my back, her breathing shallow and harsh—buttons clicked as a faint green light illuminated the screen—she pressed her calculator while muttering about statistically unlikely events.
Kharon grumbled and shifted.
We were on either side of her, half hanging off the much too small mattress.
It should have been heavenly—it was tortuous.
The urge to wrap my arms around her and pull her close was driving me mad.
I wanted to touch, kiss, caress her.
But I also wanted to respect her—she thought what we had was just physical; I needed to prove to her that it wasn’t. She could have severed the bond between us with her blood, she could have chosen to stay in the room with Patro and Achilles—but she’d chosen us each time.
I couldn’t ruin the trust that was growing between us by being too sexually aggressive.
I had to keep my more physical nature under wraps.
For now.
Kharon swore under his breath as he punched at his pillow, and Alexis poked faster at her calculator.
She had to survive three rounds and twelve fucking labors; it was Kharon all over again, but somehow worse.
None of us could sleep.
Fluffy Jr. made a pained sound and kicked the bed in his sleep—my head jerked—the steel bed frame slammed against the stone wall. He’d been doing it for hours.
Alexis tensed, focusing on her calculator.
Something was seriously wrong with her protector, but at this point there was nothing we could do to help him. At least he was resting.
Poco chittered as he gnawed on my hair.
On top of the imminent danger that my wife was facing, she’d also been exposed against her will in front of the entirety of Sparta. I hadn’t missed the way the Olympian leaders had stared at her flesh hungrily, and they hadn’t been the only ones.
Catcalls and whistles had echoed around the stadium.
I’d memorized the face of a male siren who’d shouted, “Ride my face, Angelus Romae,” from the front row of the stadium.
He would die by my hand. Soon. Gruesomely.
To calm myself, I made a mental hit list.
Ajax was number one.
He’d dared to touch my wife in front of me.
If Kharon hadn’t snapped his neck, I would have done much worse.
I took a deep breath.
We had to play the federation’s game.
The Great War had ended because of a “peace agreement,” but everyone knew it hadn’t really ceased. Olympians and Chthonics were still battling, as we had been since the dawn of Sparta.
The power struggle never ended.
All we had to do was outlast the Olympians. Sparta was a giant game of combat chess—you had to strategize and play the long game, while being shot at.
Poco’s whiskers tickled my cheek.
Alexis cleared her throat. “I did something …” she trailed off in the quiet.
Kharon stopped swearing under his breath.
My heart skipped a beat at how pained she sounded.
I wanted to turn to see her, to hold her, but there was no room on the stupid bed.
It didn’t help that the soft tenor of her voice made blood rush to other parts of my body. Images of her obeying, kneeling, bowing before me, made it hard to breathe. She was so beautifully submissive.
Every second in her presence was torment.
Fluffy Jr. whimpered and the bed once again slammed against the wall.
“A while ago …” Alexis shifted between us. “I made a choice—a dangerous one … You’re both going to be … angry with me.”
There was a long pause.
She audibly gulped.
“I forgive you,” Kharon and I said at the same time.
“No—you don’t understand,” Alexis said with agitation. “It’s bad … really bad. It has larger consequences for all of Sparta and—”
“No, princess,” Kharon cut her off. “You don’t understand. We don’t care if you went on a murderous rampage—you’re forgiven … you’re our wife.”
“We’re always on your side,” I said.
Alexis pressed against my back as she shifted. “Don’t lie—please … you’re both going to loathe me,” she said.
“Never,” I said with vehemence.
“Carissima,” Kharon chuckled harshly. “We’re fucking obsessed with you. In fact, it’s taking every ounce of control I have to not ravage you right now. Stop talking nonsense and go to sleep. You need your rest.”
Alexis sputtered. “You really want to ravage me … now? Aren’t you stressed? We need to be on top of our game for the SGC and—”
“Oh—I’m always on top,” Kharon said.
There was a long pause.
“You’re ridiculous.” Alexis hit him with her calculator.
“For you, I’m many things. You can call it whatever you want, carissima.”
“Can we please concentrate on the fighting to the death that we have to do?” Alexis asked.
Kharon and I both froze.
“Don’t …” I warned softly, unable to verbalize the devastation.
“No one is dying,” Kharon snarled. “Do you understand me, Alexis? We will wage a war on Olympians before we let them kill you.”
Alexis made a sound like she didn’t believe us. “Oh please.”
“We’re not joking,” I said.
The three of us breathed heavily in the dark, no one speaking.
“There is nothing more important than your life,” Kharon said, breaking the growing tension. “That’s all we give a fuck about. So, STOP talking about other issues … Your safety is the only fucking issue that we care about.”
“Exactly,” I said.
Alexis gasped like she was suffocating.
This was our exact problem—we didn’t know how to love softly. While Alexis was spiraling, I couldn’t stop creating a mental hit list, imagining all the painful ways Ajax would die.
“Stop worrying,” Kharon said. “You need to rest and stay focused. The competition starts tomorrow. If you murdered an entire village, we would take your side. Every. Single. Time.”
“You’re actually mad,” she whispered.
Kharon clicked his tongue. “You’re just realizing that now?”
“Personally … I’ve never liked villagers,” I said.
Alexis relaxed back into the bed, and shifted around, fidgeting with her pillow.
“Go to sleep,” Kharon ordered.
“You sleep.”
“I can’t,” Kharon said through gritted teeth. “I have insomnia.”
“Well, Karen, I can’t sleep either,” Alexis taunted him. “I guess we’re both fucked.”
The narrow bed bounced as Kharon shifted. “I’ve noticed this new swearing trend. I like it, but … why?” His tone changed to contemplative.
Alexis went still. “I’m trying new things … conquering old demons.”
“Wait—” Kharon tensed. “Didn’t you also used to stutter? When did that also stop?”
“Wow,” Alexis said. “Way to be sensitive about it.”
“When did it end?” Kharon pressed. I leaned closer, interested in the answer.
“When I stopped viewing you two as a threat.”
“And … when was that?” I asked softly.
“When you drank my blood to break the bond … when Kharon cut off his ear and gave it to me.”
There was a long, silent pause.
“Oh, princess,” Kharon purred wickedly. “That’s not the only thing I can give you.”
Thud.
There was a loud yelp.
“Creep.” Alexis huffed.
I turned over on the bed as there was suddenly a bunch of empty space. Kharon groaned from the floor.
Alexis had shoved him off.
She looked at me, her lips pulled up in a small smile.
My breath caught—she was fierce, intelligent, glorious.
Two-colored eyes searched my face. “You know, you really don’t need to make a hit list,” she said quietly. “Ajax was already punished.”
I scoffed. “No—he wasn’t.”
She shook her head like I was a lost cause.
Kharon grumbled from the floor as he got up and repositioned himself at her back.
She shifted to let him in, and the faded edge of the too-small pajama shirt that the Olympians had left in the room bunched up, revealing her ribs.
A perfectly circular white ridge was raised across her bronze skin.
It took me a second to process what I was seeing. When it clicked, a rushing sound filled my ears and everything narrowed, until all I could see was the circular mark—the cigarette burn—on my wife’s body.
There was no way that it was accidental. Feeling like I was underwater, I reached for her.
“Alexis.” I traced my thumb across the cicatrix, wishing I could make the history behind it disappear. “What … happened to you?”
Kharon sat up and looked down at where I was touching.
His gaze hardened as he came to the same realization I had. He gently brushed her curls off her forehead, his fingers trembling.
From the way Alexis stiffened, she understood exactly what I was asking.
With careful slowness, she pulled down the shirt, covering her midsection and the heinous scar, but she didn’t pull away from either of us.
Long seconds passed, and finally, she whispered, “I can’t talk about it—not yet.”
The angst in her voice made my heart ache.
Suddenly, I was glad I hadn’t yet killed the fucker who raised her—the one currently rotting in our villa’s dungeon. If he was responsible for this, he would know a torment the likes of which man had never faced before.
Unable to speak, without demanding she tell me exactly what happened and when, I forced myself to nod at her calmly. Instead of shouting at the top of my lungs, I opened my arms.
Alexis moved into my embrace, and I tucked her under my chin.
She sighed heavily and I squeezed her three times in a row, communicating with my body the words I wasn’t quite yet ready to admit out loud.
Kharon remained sitting against the headboard, his face frozen in a scowl. Blue veins stood out across his neck as he ground his teeth together, all while his hand tenderly stroked locks of Alexis’s hair, gentle so she wouldn’t know he was losing it next to her.
His eyes flashed down to mine—our gazes locked.
I nodded at him as Alexis sighed again, shifting to get comfortable as she snuggled deeper into my embrace.
Kharon and I were on the same page.
Blood would be shed and the wrongs perpetrated against our wife would be avenged, eventually. For now, just holding her was enough.
When I finally calmed down enough to sleep, darkness pulled me under swiftly. As my eyes closed, a single stray thought lingered—How did she know I was creating a mental hit list?