33. Pontius
I cannot kill him. I will not kill him. Piper would not like it if I killed him.
Beneath me Colin screams. His wrists are wrapped in my dark claws while his legs dangle, helpless and hilarious, in the empty air above Piper’s building.
“Let me go! Let me go!” Colin yells. He has been screaming so loudly that I decide to take us a little higher, so we won’t bother any of her neighbors.
“If I drop you from this height, you will die.” I’m not sure if Colin can hear me, but when his mouth snaps closed, I assume he understood enough. “Piper wouldn’t want me to kill anyone.”
I’m fairly certain she wouldn’t, at least. It’s not the only thing that stops me from dropping him, but it’s the main thing. I squint into the distance. The sun is starting to creep over the horizon, the brightness will sting my eyes in about an hour. I’m not sure what to do with Colin now.
It was stupid to grab him. I couldn’t let him stand there, berating and frightening my mate. Even remembering it now has my blood boiling. I should’ve had a plan when I pulled him through her bedroom window. Now, I’m left holding him with no clue what to do.
My phone buzzes. I’m a bit surprised that it is working this high in the air. I transfer all of Colin’s weight to one arm, and drop one of his wrists.
He screams, using both hands to cling to my arm. I use my newly freed hand to pull my phone from my pocket.
I’m not surprised to see Piper’s name on my screen. I punch the green answer button.
“Hello, my flame.”
“Ant! Where are you? Are you alright? What is happening?”
“I am perfectly fine. I’m about eighty feet above your apartment. I just wanted to talk to Colin alone, to give him a chance to cool off. I promise that I will not kill him.”
There’s a short pause on the other end of the line before she laughs. “Ant, please don’t kill him.”
“I won’t!” I protest with a grin. “I promise you right now, that I won’t. Killing him is the furthest thing from my mind.”
She laughs again. “It’s just that the more you protest, the more it feels like you might kill him.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about. I said I’m not going to kill him. Even though it would be very easy for me to just drop him right now and let gravity do all the work,” I tease. I glance down at the man, who is now attempting to cling to my arm with both hands. “Why would I say I wasn’t going to kill him, if I was just planning on killing him?”
“An alibi?” she jokes.
“Hmmm, not a terrible idea.”
“What is he doing?”
I look down at Colin, whose eyes are squeezed shut. His lips are moving silently. “I think he might be praying?” I offer.
She laughs again. I love it. “What are you going to do with him?”
“I’d love to drop him in a lake.”
“Oh dear. That would absolutely ruin his hair,” she teases. “You know there’s that duck pond in the park near your place.”
It will be our place soon enough. After this morning, I am never going to let Piper out of my sight again. “Colin seems like the kind of guy who loves ducks.”
“I don’t want to begin this relationship by ordering you around. But, if you wanted to cool him off?—”
“Ducks are super cool,” I say, already flying in that direction. Colin screams and begins flailing again. “I had better go, my flame, before I drop my cargo.”
My intelligent lovely mate is so full of great ideas. I am going to marry her one day. It’s something I hadn’t really considered possible before but after attending Sacha’s wedding, I know I need it to happen. White dress. Ceremony. Food and drinks. All the people we love coming together. Ours will be at night, and the music will be quieter. Maybe even a silent disco.
By the time I have come to this conclusion, I’m hovering over the duck pond.
As I get lower to the water, Colin’s tirade changes, from pleading for his life, to a long string of curses and insults.
He definitely isn’t looking forward to a dip in the water.
“I’ll sue you! I’ll tell the news about this! I’ll have it all over the internet. Reporters will be knocking at your door! I’ll ruin you!” He’s ranting, but it’s pointless.
About a foot above the pond, I drop him.
The park is empty right now, so no one notices the very loud splash noise. Or his flailing. He disappears below the surface for a very brief period of time, then his head pops back up, and after some fumbling, he stands. The water comes up to his chest.
“You can swim, right?” I ask, hovering a couple feet above the water. “I definitely should have asked before.”
“You idiot!” He’s yelling, which means he’s not drowning. So I’m pretty sure he’ll be fine. “I’m calling the cops!” He pulls a waterlogged phone from his pocket, and his face falls.
“And tell them what? That you got drunk and fell into a lake?”
He scowls. “You can’t drop people into ponds and get away with it.”
“You can’t break into someone’s apartment and get away with it.”
His face blanches. “I didn’t—I?—”
“The apartment of your ex-girlfriend, whom you’ve filed a lawsuit against, and very publicly threatened.”
“You attacked me!”
“What would you expect from a monster?” I hunch toward him, spreading my wings as wide as possible to make a large imposing figure. For once, I’m very glad to be perceived as a monster.
“You—you—tried to murder me!”
“We both know if I wanted to murder you, that you’d already be dead.” I grin, trying to make it wide and weird—the kind of smile Tiffany always said was unsettling, the one that’s terrified so many people.
“Are you threatening me?” Colin looks like he’s trying not to piss himself. Too bad he’s in the lake, and I will never know if he did.
“Step foot in Piper’s apartment again and find out.” I chuckle. “I will gladly use every resource at my disposal to be sure she never has to see you again. And I am a rich moth, with many resources.”
“You wouldn’t bankrupt yourself,” he scoffs.
“I’d spend time in prison for her.” I laugh, because it’s true.
Colin’s eyes widen. It’s not quite a threat.
My phone buzzes in my pocket.
“Settle your lawsuit with Cryptech, and you will walk away from this, or wade away from it, through about twelve feet of duck shit.” I gesture to the pond. “But you will never see Piper, or speak to her, ever again.”
I pull my phone back out. It’s Piper’s face again on my screen. My heart swells when I see her picture.
“Is everything alright, my flame?” I ask as I answer the call.
“Mercutio and I just pulled up outside your place,” she says. “But I don’t have a key?—”
“We will rectify that immediately.” I’m en route as the words leave my mouth. Leaving Colin, standing in the middle of the pond, surrounded by various water fowl. Although the water is plenty foul with just him in it.
Piper is waiting for me outside my apartment—cat carrier in one hand and a duffle bag in the other.
Her face lights up when she sees me. “Are you alright?” she calls, when I am still quite far away from her. When I land in the parking spot in front of my building, her eyes search me like I may have an invisible injury.
“I’m fine, my flame.”
As soon as the words are out of my mouth, she rushes me, throwing her arms around my middle. “I can’t believe you did that.” Her voice muffled by my chest.
“You won’t see him again.”
“Did you—?” she asks quietly.
“Kill him?” I joke.
“Leave him in the duck pond?” She laughs.
“He is probably wading through two feet of duck poop right now.”
She giggles and pulls back to look me in the eyes as she says it. “You didn’t have to do that for me.”
“I didn’t do it just for you,” I murmur, helping her collect her things from her car. “I did it for me. I am tired of being called a monster. I may as well act like one.”
“You aren’t a monster.” She follows me inside, finding a quiet corner to set Mercutio's carrier down.
She grins, before opening the door of the carrier. She makes a few encouraging noises and eventually the cat’s large ginger head emerges.
We watch together as Mercutio sniffs the air and then slinks carefully to a dark corner.
“Is he comfortable?” I ask as the cat curls into a fluffy ball.
“He’ll be fine,” Piper says. “He’s a cat. He just needs a little while to get situated before he’ll feel safe.”
“He can have as much time to get acclimated as he needs,” I say. “You both can.”
“You really don’t mind us staying here?” She laughs, but I hear the nerves in her voice.
“Of course not.” I step behind her to wrap a comforting arm around her waist and pull her against me. “You are mine now, my flame. My mate. Mine.”
“Yours?” she scoffs quietly.
“You’re denying it?” I snicker.
“What if I am?” she taunts.
“You are testing me,” I growl. “You know, I think I enjoyed being a bit of a monster today.”
“I think I liked it too.” She giggles and leans back into my chest.
“Maybe we can find another way to indulge those baser instincts, my flame?” I chuckle, swiping her hair slowly away from her neck to tease my fingers along her nape.
“I don’t belong to you.” She makes a soft noise and presses her ass back against me.
“You are mine . Admit it.” I kiss along her neck until she gasps and squirms, but taking no real attempt to get away from me.
“Make me,” she teases.
“You are mine. You have always been mine.” With a growl, I press her front against the wall as I slip my hands up her thighs until her dress is lifted above her waist. But I don’t touch her pussy, not yet. She makes a quiet noise that might be my name. I purr for her, grinding my hips into her ass, taking that easy control that she allows me. I love the way she opens up for me, letting me do anything to her, for her. My aedeagus strains at my seam, ready to show her who she belongs to. As soon as she admits it. I shove my pants down to my ankles and urge her legs open so the smell of her pussy, wet and ready, is free to permeate the air. I lift her into exactly the right position, she gasps against the wall as her feet leave the ground. I grab her with my claspers, holding that plump, freckled ass against my groin.
Now she’s exactly the right height for my aedeagus to protrude and finally stroke her underwear, pushing it aside so I can reach her wet cunt.
“Ant!” she yelps at the sudden feeling.
“Are you telling me who you belong to?” I chuckle in her ear.
She laughs, but I quiet it with another swipe of my cock.
“Who does this cunt belong to?”
“You,” she whispers, clearly still reticent to admit it.
I snicker as my dick moves along her, swiping up and down her lips, coating myself in her juices. Moving my hand to her face, I cup her chin, run my thumb along her lips, then plunge it between her teeth and into her mouth. She wraps her tongue around me and sucks with a soft moan.
“Whose mouth is this?” I pull my wet thumb away, teasing her neck with my breath when I ask.
“Yours,” she admits.
“And this?” I ask, dipping a hand into her dress to find her nipple with two saliva covered fingers.
“My boob?” she asks with a laugh. “Yours. They can both be yours.”
“The heart, under the boobs.” I purr, massaging her nipple. She giggles. So cute, so sweet, so kind.
“Yours, it’s all yours,” she says with a little gasp as I finally sink my cock into her hot cunt.
“Good girl,” I growl and fuck her slow and hard against the wall until I get to finish inside her tight heat.
We collapse on the couch together, sweaty and satisfied. She’s mine now. Finally. Safe in my arms. My sweet beautiful mate.