Chapter 25
Jet
Icouldn’t believe I had her in my arms after everything that had happened. She said she didn’t blame me for being taken, but I blamed myself. The first step in fixing the situation was to smear the blood of those son-of-a-bitches all over my skin. Maybe then I could start forgiving myself.
The feel of her pussy pressed directly on my aching cock broke me out of my thoughts. I’d been waiting for this moment ever since I saw her in the office with a pink crown sticker on her forehead.
“You feel so good, Angel.” I raise her to sit on the rock ledge, then lower my head to her warm slit, inhaling deeply.
She smelled like the sweetest desert, and it was all mine… at least for this moment in time.
My angel had the most beautiful pussy that I’d ever seen, and my cock became impossibly harder just looking at it—plump, pink, and glistening with her desire for me. I could gaze at her for hours if she would allow it.
I had to prepare her because I was a larger-than-average man, and that included every part of me. I wanted this first time to be incredible and painless—we could save the pain for when I had more time to spend with her.
“Fuck, I love how swollen and wet you are for me. Now lean back and let me taste you.” I growled the last part, already lowering my head.
She lay back on the stone and spread her legs wide for me. “Such a fucking good girl.”
I threw her legs over my shoulders and sucked her pretty clit into my mouth. Her legs started to shake, and I could feel the goosebumps erupt all over her thighs.
I barely had time to insert my fingers in her sweet pussy before she came all over my face. “My sweet Angel needed me more than I thought.”
She whimpered as I pulled her back into the water and kissed her swollen lips where she’d bitten them in her moment of passion. “I’m going to need you to do that again.”
“What?” she asked, looking dazed.
“Cum.” I plunge two fingers in her tight pussy, stretching her open even more than before, hoping against hope she can take my large cock.
As I plunged my fingers in and out of her, I searched for that magical spot deep inside. I knew when I found it because she let out a moan and started to move, trying to bring my fingers even deeper.
“Fuck Jet, that feels so good. I need you inside me now.” Reverie grabbed my face and pulled my bottom lip into her mouth and bit down, less than gently.
I pressed her clit with my thumb, and she moaned in pleasure, letting go of my lip. Her eyelids fluttered closed as I felt her walls spasm, and she let out a scream that I swallowed, cumming a second time.
I pulled her legs back around my waist and dragged her down onto my swollen cock. Even though I’d prepared her as much as possible, it was still a tight fit, and I groaned at the feeling of her walls squeezing the head of my cock tight.
“Fuck, if you keep doing that, this isn’t going to last long.” I closed my eyes and groaned as she squeezed me again.
I slapped her thigh, and startled, she slid down further on my cock. “I told you not to do that. Be a good girl, or you won’t get to cum again.”
My Angel narrowed her eyes, but quickly closed them again, moaning as I worked my thumb back and forth against her clit, relaxing her even more so I could slide deeper into paradise. We both groaned, and I saw stars, the pleasure almost too much.
I didn’t know where she ended, and I began.
I started to move, using my strength to slide her up and down on my shaft, my movements becoming more frantic as the pleasure intensified. She started rotating her hips and moaned out her approval as we both approached orgasm.
I felt her walls begin to flutter; I knew she was there, and I wasn’t going to be far behind.
Throwing my head back, my vision blacked out, and I came harder than I ever have before.
I squeezed her to my body tighter than I knew was comfortable, but this moment was everything I needed to feel whole again.
I buried my head in her neck and kissed her throat, “I love you more than you could possibly know.”
“I love you too.” The words felt too sacred to speak out loud.
We murmured sweet endearments to each other as we bathed, then Reverie kissed me and stepped out of the water, cheeks flushed, hair dripping down her shoulders, steam curling off her skin. I followed right behind her and raised a hand to brush the droplets from between her breasts—then froze.
Right there, on her skin—where Selene had cut it away—something pulsed beneath the surface. Faint at first, like a memory of color. Then brighter. Stronger.
A crimson shimmer.
My mark.
My shield.
The one Selene tried to erase, ripped off Reverie's body as if the mark was disposable. I felt that loss like my ribs were cracked open.
But now—
It flared.
Deep red, metallic, like molten ruby poured into flesh and bound by blood and love. The shape sharpened, defined—not a wound.
A mark.
My mark.
The mark that showed the world she was mine to protect, even if she didn’t need protection.
The moment it solidified, power burned through my chest. The bond surged so hard that I had to grab the rock beside me just to stay upright.
Reverie followed my stare, fingers brushing the glowing mark. “Jet… is that—”
“Yeah,” I whispered, voice cracking. “It’s back… at least partially.”
She looked at me with something soft and fierce and a little broken. Selene didn’t just fail—she had forged us into something more substantial… stronger than before.
Reverie didn’t get the mark back by luck.
She took it—we took it… together.
Something ancient woke up inside her—and it called my shield home. The crimson glow softened into her skin, pulsing once, twice, like a heartbeat syncing with mine.
I moved before I could think—hand covering the mark, thumb brushing the edges of it. It was warm. Alive. Part of her again.
“Selene could try to remove it a thousand times,” my voice was rough. “But it will always find its way back to you.”
Reverie swallowed, eyes shining in the lowlight. “It never really left.”
I tilted my head in question.
“When the skin healed, I saw my Nexus mark sink into my skin, as if it was being protected until the right time to reveal itself again.”
I leaned down, my forehead touching hers. “I think I know why it never left.”
“Why?” She touched her lips softly to mine.
“Because you are the bond. The mark is always there, whether we can see it or not.”
And for the first time since we’d arrived in Aurathia, I didn’t feel fear.
I felt certainty.
She wasn’t breakable.
She was becoming unstoppable.
And my shield wasn’t just a mark anymore—it was a promise the universe itself had decided to honor, whether Selene liked it or not.
Reverie’s fingertips touched the crimson mark like she was afraid it might disappear if she blinked too hard. I should’ve been focused on her—on the flicker of awe in her eyes, the heat still drying on her skin, the bond that pulsed between us like a living heartbeat.
But something scraped against stone behind us.
A shift of weight.
The feeling of being watched.
I tilted my head just a little—enough to see without appearing like I was looking.
There he was.
Torren.
Half-shadowed against the cave wall, arms crossed loosely, expression unreadable. Assessing. Like the return of my mark wasn’t unexpected—but rather confirmation of something he’d already suspected.
A part of me wanted to lunge at him—demand what he knew, why he was watching her like she belonged to him.
But Reverie leaned closer, brushing her lips along my jaw, soft as a sigh, and I swallowed the instinct to bare my teeth.
He better be glad I’d draped her in my shirt earlier, or I would’ve had to kill the fucker.
She didn’t see him.
And that was the only reason I didn’t move and confront the suspicious bastard.
Torren’s eyes flicked to the crimson shield on her skin. There was something in his stare that felt like calculation… and a hint of fear.
Not of me.
Of her. Maybe of what she was becoming.
He realized I’d spotted him. Instead of stepping back, he held my gaze a second too long—silent warning or silent understanding, I couldn’t tell which—then vanished deeper into the cave, soundless as smoke.
Reverie rested her forehead on my shoulder, and I wrapped my arms around her, tucking her close. She didn’t notice the tension winding through me.
I kissed her temple, keeping my voice even. “Get some sleep,” I murmured. “We have a little time before we have to leave.”
As I held her, heat still rising from the spring and the shield pulsing steadily beneath my palm, a quiet certainty settled in my chest; Torren was waiting for something.
Maybe for her.
Maybe for a moment, she wasn’t surrounded by us.
Maybe for a part of her power to surface that even she didn’t know she had.
I didn’t tell her.
Not yet.
Because whatever Torren was playing at—whatever he knew—Reverie deserved one night where she wasn’t looking over her shoulder.
So I gently kissed her hair and watched the shadows instead, just in case they moved again.
When Reverie finally slept.
It took a while—her breathing was shallow at first, like even unconsciousness couldn’t quite pry her away from the world—but eventually her body gave in. She curled into my side, one hand resting over the crimson shield on her skin.
I waited until her breathing became steady before I carefully slid out from underneath her. Pantar had found us a few minutes earlier and stayed close enough to share his warmth. He lifted his head, watching me with glowing eyes, but said nothing.
Oren stood just beyond the glow of Zane’s small fire, keeping watch with that unnatural stillness only he could manage—his shadows roaming the mouth of the cave.
I stopped beside him.
He didn’t look at me, just kept his gaze fixed on the cave entrance. “Couldn’t sleep?”
“No,” I muttered.
He didn’t comment. Oren was many things, but blind wasn’t one of them.
After a moment, he spoke quietly. “You got something on your mind, or are you here to gloat?”
“I saw Torren watching us,” I growled. “Watching her.”
Oren didn’t flinch. “How long?”
“Long enough to know he wasn’t checking for threats. He was checking on her. Waiting for something.”
Oren exhaled through his nose, slow and irritated. “Of course he was.”
“So you know something’s off?”
His jaw tightened the slightest fraction. “I knew it the moment he followed us.”
I stared at him. “Why didn’t you say something to her?”
His eyes finally cut to mine—cold, sharp, fire beneath ice. “Same reason you didn’t. I won’t trouble her until I know what’s going on with him. She has enough on her mind.”
He read me too easily.
Oren turned back to the entrance. “He’s hiding something. Maybe a lot of somethings. And you’re right—he’s waiting for her to change. To become something else.”
I swallowed, “You think he knows what’s happening?”
“I think he has an idea, but I doubt he knows the whole truth.”
My stomach twisted.
“You trust him to have her best interests in mind?”
Oren snorted. “Fuck no. I barely tolerate him.” He shifted his weight, shadows curling around his hands like smoke. “We watch him. We stay between him and her. And if he tries anything—” Lightning crackled across his knuckles, sharp and silent. “We end him.”
I didn’t smile. But something in my chest loosened.
“Good,” I said. “Because I’m not letting anyone—anyone—take her away again.”
Oren nodded once. “Get some sleep. You look like death.”
“I should look satisfied.”
“That too, you lucky bastard.”
We didn’t laugh, but the tension in the air eased slightly.
We kept watch together—silent, alert, a united wall of teeth and magic and fury.
Torren might be playing a long game, but he better watch out; Reverie didn’t only have one protector.
She had five—more than that with the inclusion of Pantar, Kharox, Chloe, and her men.
And every one of us was willing to burn the world to keep her safe.