Chapter 10 #5
“She is blinded by anger,” Gabriel deadpans.
Sully burrows deeper into me, face pressed against my neck.
“But what does she really want?” Sariel asks.
“The ripple effect,” Raphael states in his cold tone. “She wants us to suffer.”
There are too many fucking people in my fucking house. My hands are turning itchy.
“Bird Turd!” Lori snarls, making a disgusted face.
Sully remains silent. I notice he’s quieter when around the family.
“Ezra, do you have something strong we can drink?” Uriel addresses me.
“In that cupboard, I have three bottles of whiskey.” I point my finger behind his back.
“Do you want a sip?” I ask Sully, tucking a wavy lock behind his ear, which as always, doesn’t stay put.
“He’s a minor,” Oliver interjects.
Sully jumps up on my lap. “Like I never drank before, even with you,” he finally speaks. My hand moves down his back, fingers brushing his ass.
“Nothing that strong,” his brother insists.
“Eighteen is the legal age in most countries,” Sariel comes to Sully’s help.
“Back off,” I warn Oliver.
“Back off? You made a promise and broke it! You were supposed to wait until he was twenty-one,” he snaps at me.
“That fucking changed the moment he wasn’t safe anymore.” I shrug.
“He wasn’t safe because of you! If you had left him alone like I told you to, Nine wouldn’t…”
“What?” Sully’s high-pitched voice interrupts Oliver’s yapping. “You asked him to stay away from me until my birthday? Why?”
“I had to. Nine is out there, and Ezra is too fucking… ruthless for you.” Oliver is flaring up. “I wanted you to enjoy the campus life and maybe find someone your age.”
“You are the reason he stayed away,” Sully whispers accusingly at his brother before turning to me with his brow furrowed. “Is that why you waited?”
I nod. “For you to make space in your life for me.”
“Space? You barely gave him a few feet.” Ramiel’s joke ends abruptly with Hunter’s hand over his mouth.
“He’s been fucking stalking you! Even put a camera in your room and cloned your phone!” Raguel holds Oliver against him as he loses his temper. “And nobody here had the decency to tell me. They supposedly even helped him.”
“Well, there’s a fine line between stalking and romance, and Ezra walked that bitch hard, Ol.” If looks could kill, Lori would be six feet under by now.
“Like you didn’t do that shit with Rague.
Or Rami with Hunter when he showed up at his place unannounced.
Raph forced Michael to live with him, Uri scared away all the guys who had even a vague interest in Sari, and Lori has a stalking kit in his car!
What point are you trying to make, Ollie?
” Sully finishes the list panting, his back stiff, hands squeezing my knees.
“My stalking kit is in everyone’s cars…actually,” Lori corrects him.
“I followed Rague one time and by chance,” Oliver still tries with Sully.
“Not me. I followed the shit out of Gabe, still do sometimes,” Lori interjects again.
“I like it,” Bezaliel agrees, earning a wink from his fiancé.
“Still spy my Bearman through my cameras,” Ramiel admits.
“Ditto.” Hunter smiles back at him.
Stalking has deep roots in this fucking family.
“Everyone has the desire to spy on others. It’s human nature,” Sariel states.
“It’s like wanting to stab the person bumping into you or to open a present,” Raphael adds.
“The way you think is boringly disturbing,” Ramiel tells him.
“Yours is just boring,” Raph clips back.
“Watching my target is part of my job,” I say.
“Like a possum in the wall kind of thing?” Lori asks me dumbly.
“Target? He’s an assassin who enjoys killing people,” Oliver mutters, not giving up. I approve of his perseverance, but he’s going to lose. I’ll never let go of Sully.
“Your husband and the rest of the brotherhood have the same hobby,” my little chick reminds him. He sounds upset now. I don’t like it.
“You need normal, Sully. Your life has gone down a spiral once already, and the last thing you need is a psycho who can only fixate on you.”
“You can’t decide that, Ollie,” Lori slides down Gabriel’s body to face him.
“Butt out, Lor.”
“If I could, I would. But I can’t, so I shan’t.”
“This is serious,” Oliver rebuts with exasperation as Lori grabs his hand.
“The way you are meddling in your arse-grown brother’s affairs is seriously wrong. What are you going to do next? Fire up the old penis flattener while I go fill the acid pit?”
“That sounds like too much work,” Uriel grumbles, sipping his glass of whiskey.
“Crikey, Ollie. Take your head out of your pants and look at them.” Lori waves at us sitting on the armchair. “It’s done.”
“I don’t want normal,” Sully suddenly states. “I want Ezra.” He grabs my hand and moves it on his lap, fingers tangled with mine.
His last statement echoes in my head, and a feeling of profound satisfaction engulfs me. I already knew he wanted me—of course he did—but coming out of his lips feels fucking good.
“You want me, Little Chick.” The smugness in my voice is clear as day. I turn his face on the side and brush my thumb over his lower lip.
His eyes soften. “I don’t think I have ever felt more alive than when you are with me,” he admits with a watery smile. I kiss him, just a peck—with a little tongue, to fuck with Oliver.
“You deserve more, Sul. I want more for you.” His brother’s voice breaks.
I sigh, fucking pissed now. Oliver doesn’t get it.
I lack the depth required for genuine emotional connection, I can form superficial bonds, but true affection remains elusive due to my limited emotional reactivity.
Obsession, though, that I can do. And I’ve turned into a possessive beast when Sully is concerned.
I look straight into Oliver’s eyes as I declare, “It’s an insatiable hunger.
I don’t just want Sully. I need him to satisfy the hole he created inside me.
Touching him, smelling him, watching him till my eyes start burning, my fingers turn numb, my nose can’t scent anything but his honey-peach skin.
That’s not how deep my fixation goes. No.
There’s more, a lot fucking more. I’ll gut whoever tries to hurt him or take him away from me.
I’m a psychopath and an assassin, aren’t I?
” My gaze turns as cold as ice. “And I won’t let you or anybody else dictate what I can and can’t do with what’s mine. ”
Silence falls over the room. I don’t know nor care what they are all thinking. The only person I give a damn about is in my lap. I look down at Sully, and his eyes are twinkling. Not afraid in the least by my consuming need for him. Fucking. Perfect.
He pulls my head down and whispers low in my ear, “You walked into my life like you’ve always been there. You take my breath away. I want you to be obsessed with me even more.” A little giggle leaves his mouth, and fuck, how much I want to silence it with my cock down his throat.
“There it is, they are crazy and crazier for each other,” Ramiel says. “They remind me of someone, but who?…oh wait, you and Rague.”
Oliver sniffs in disagreement.
“He waited months.” Raphael decides to say his bit. “I wouldn’t have. I would have probably killed you to get to Michael.”
Raguel growls at him warningly.
“It pains me to say it, but Raph is right.” Uriel begrudgingly agrees. “You can’t get in the middle of a psychopath and his fixation.”
“Amen.” I grab a glass from the coffee table and take a long sip of whiskey after letting Sully wet his lips with it.
“Especially when his obsession is reciprocated,” Raguel finishes, hammering the final nail into Oliver’s resolve. His green eyes–the color so similar to Sully’s left one–are shadowed. He cusses.
“You told me imperfection is where love thrives. This?” Sully gestures at him and me. “Works. We work.”
The two brothers look at each other for a moment, and suddenly all the battle leaves Oliver’s body. He looks at me. “If you hurt him in any way, I’ll kill you and bury your body in the woods where insects will feast on your flesh until you are nothing but a forgotten, useless pile of bones.”
I scoff. None of that will ever happen. But Sully’s elbow poking my ribs makes me nod at his delusional brother.
“Now let’s talk about our plans with Nine.”
SULLY
The sun has only just begun to move over the edge of the planet. The bedroom is still filled with shadows.
Something gentle touches my mouth, persistently rubbing my lips, then brushing my cheek.
It flips my hair back and traces a path down my neck onto my bare shoulder.
It lingers over the bite mark, then it moves to my spine and back up my nape.
I moan in bliss. I am literally sprawled on top of my boyfriend, and everything is… good.
Almost everything.
“I’m sorry Ollie forced you to stay away from me,” I whisper.
“Nobody can force me to do or not do anything.” His coarse, rumbling voice invades my chest and reverberates in my head until it takes control of my entire body. “I just took my time to better savor you.”
I don’t know what he means but I’m thankful. Because I needed that time, to heal and find myself again.
“Claiming you was always the plan,” he so easily admits.
My heart races, and my stomach flutters with nerves.
“Why me?” The words stumble out of my mouth before I can stop them.
“Do I need a reason, Little Chick?”
I think I do. I bite down so hard on my lower lip that I nearly break the skin.
“I’m pretty boring and messed up.”
He rasps instantly, “Never boring.” His nose digs into my hair. “You reek of innocence and lust, it’s fucking intoxicating.”
I really hope he doesn’t notice how sweaty my hand has grown on his chest.
“So beautiful.” Is it awe I hear in his voice?
I feel so happy. I kiss his pec and purr like a cat when he starts massaging my scalp. His other hand is drawing figures over my ass cheek.
But the same annoying thought is jarring me out of the moment, distracting me. I frown into the dim room.
“I still can’t believe Ollie. I feel so betrayed. I understand he was trying to protect me, but he overstepped the line, big time.” I snuggle up to him.
Never thought my older brother could be capable of lying to me…for months, while making me doubt myself.
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple,” he states flatly.
I sigh. I feel so upset, partly because of Oliver…and Rague—since he knew about my brother’s meddling and didn’t do shit—but also about Pet Manor.
“I hope Ren is okay. The pet shelter was his baby. He looked troubled at the hospital.”
“Stop talking about other people when we are in bed.” Ezra suddenly fists my hair and pulls my head back. “If it were up to me, I’d get rid of all the fuckers around you. But I know you won’t like it. You bonded with them.” He huffs. “It doesn’t make much sense to me. Do you really like them?”
“They are…mine, just like Uriel is yours.” I try to put it in a way he’d understand.
“All of them?” He sounds annoyed by the discovery.
Even if his grip is shy of pain, I hear myself chuckling. “You are…ahh I love you.” I can’t keep the words inside anymore, even though I know what he thinks about love.
He huffs again, but lets go of my locks to cup my face with both hands. “I like it better this way. Only me and you. I can hear your voice without anyone else distracting me.”
No one has ever said anything like that to me in my entire life.
No one has ever wanted all of me so completely.
In the back of my mind, I keep thinking that he’ll come to his senses at some point and realize that someone like him could do way better than a clumsy and awkward student.
But that’s not the case, is it? I was broken long before I met him, and every time I got hurt in the past, it left a mark on my body and my mind, a horrible memento that fed my fears. It’s stopped since Ezra made me his.
I nuzzle his hand, pushing my cheek against his palm. “You make me feel safe, like nothing bad in this world can touch me.”
“I’ll burn it all for you,” he promises me. It’s not romantic, but it’s what I need to hear.
I feel suddenly flustered, moving my hand over my eyes. “No need.”
“Don’t cover your face,” he scolds me before sinking his teeth into my cheek. Wild as a wolf, playful as a dog.
“Why did you bite me?” I smile, feeling light. Lighter than I’ve ever been. That’s what Ezra does to me, makes me forget about everything else.
“I told you not to cover your face. It’s mine. I want to look at it.”
Ahh, this man.
“And are you mine?” I ask boldly.
“I am,” he immediately rasps, making my chest burn with excitement.
“You’re an assassin,” I say it more to remind myself.
“Yeah.”
“So, you killed many people.”
“I restrain myself from killing on average ten people a day, so you can say I’ve saved more lives than I’ve killed.” Is he teasing me?
“So, you want to save lives, too?” That can’t be right.
“If it’s yours, yes.”
I now know I can accept the darkest parts of him because there’s light between the cracks. I can see it shine brightly.
“I have a past, too. Pickpocketing.” My father forced me to when I was a kid. I hated it. “I haven’t done it in years, though.”
“I know.”
“Know what?” Did he do a background check on me? What else does he know?
He whispers, “That you are mine, past and all.” I love this assertive part of him, it shuts down my petty insecurities.
“Just-just like that?”
“Yeah. I didn’t feel an electrical shock through my whole body the first time I saw you.
No arrow from Cupid speared my heart or some other stupid shit people say.
I simply acknowledged that you were mine.
” Ezra’s eyes seem hypnotized by his thumb brushing over my lower lip.
“You feed my hunger and fill me up. I feel satisfied when I have you with me. You’ll remain by my side. ”
My forehead falls on his—a little too strongly because my elbow slipped, but he doesn’t complain. Our noses touch. My words land on his lips.
“I choose to stay by your side no matter what. Whatever I’m doing, wherever I am.”
His silence turns a bit unnerving. He pulls my head back, aiming all that dominant lust at me.
“Fuck love. That sounds a million times superior.”
Before I can say anything else, he flips me on the bed—which we thoroughly used all night—so that I’m lying under his strong body now.
The light is coming from the window, bathing him in its brightness. The time between the dog and the wolf is here again.
Which one is he?
I don’t have to choose when it’s Ezra. Because he’s one and the other. The dog that will stay by my side and keep me safe, and the wolf that will mutilate anyone who tries to hurt me.