Chapter 35 #2
A groan tears from his chest as he comes as well.
I yank his mouth down to mine, stealing that deep groan from his lips while his cock pulses inside me. He kisses me back furiously, biting my lip and dominating my mouth with his tongue. Pleasure crackles through my every vein.
The mate bond pulses inside us like a glowing tether, connecting his soul to mine. Forever.
When the intensity of the orgasm has faded out, Draven rests his forehead against mine again. Still buried deep inside me, he remains like that for a few seconds. His chest heaves. So does mine.
Then he gently pulls out and lies down on the soft grass next to me. Wrapping his arms around me, he pulls me tightly against him. The desperate longing in the way he holds me makes my fragile heart crack all over again.
I press my body harder against his. “I missed you so much.”
“I missed you too.” With his arms still tightly around me, he kisses my forehead and draws in a deep breath as if breathing me in. “I missed us.”
A sob rips from my lips, and before I know it, the floodgates crash open and tears flow down my cheeks. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I was trying to save you, but instead, I ruined everything.”
“No. You did save me. I would have died back in that pocket reality if you hadn’t done what you did.
” He kisses my forehead again. Insistently.
Urgently. And he tightens his arms around me, as if he wants to physically press his words into my body.
“You never ruin anything. And you could never ruin us.”
Another broken sob escapes my lips.
He edges back slightly and moves one hand up to my jaw, tilting my chin up so that I meet his eyes. They’re overflowing with love, which just makes more tears stream down my cheeks.
“I told you that I would destroy the barriers of the afterlife and battle both of our gods to find you.” A soft smile tugs at his lips. “Did you really think that I would let something as trivial as a little magic keep me from you?”
Something halfway between a laugh and a sob rips from my lungs.
“You’re mine.” He strokes his thumb over my cheek, wiping the tears away. “You have always been mine. You will always be mine. Now and forever. And God help anyone who tries to take you from me.”
I smile. The sight of it makes his eyes brighten, and he brushes a soft kiss against my lips. A contented sigh escapes from deep within my chest.
Relief and love and pain and longing thrash inside my ribcage, making my chest ache with the intensity of it all. Wrapping my arms around Draven again, I press my cheek against his chest and nestle closer to him. He holds me tightly.
For a while, we just remain like that.
With my cheek pressed to his firm chest, I listen to the steady beat of his heart.
The wild passion through the mate bond has simmered down to a steady flow of love. It fills me like a warm sparkling sea.
But to my surprise, that dark rage and hatred inside me doesn’t disappear. They remain there inside my soul, thrashing about like the merciless waves of an endless, storm-plagued ocean.
Even though Draven is back, I still can’t return to who I was before I stood there on the plains outside the Unseelie Court and threw open the massive gates to all the rage and hatred inside me.
I suppose it makes sense, though. Because it wasn’t just about losing Draven.
It was decades, centuries, of being treated like crap.
A hundred and sixty-seven years of hunger and pain and humiliation at the hands of dragon shifters and fae alike.
An entire life of being distrusted, punished for crimes I haven’t committed, and blamed for all the wrongs of this world even though I am not responsible for them.
Losing Draven wasn’t the cause. It was the final drop in a massive dam that has been ready to burst for decades.
The final drop that at long last shattered the walls.
And now, the walls are broken. The flood is already out, crashing over the world and sweeping away everything in its path.
It’s too late to put it back behind the walls again.
The sound of my dad’s final gasp echoes through my head and the sight of my mom lying in a pool of her own blood that has turned half of her silver hair red flashes before my eyes.
That black rage and hatred inside me roars like a crashing thunderstorm.
No, there is no stopping the flood now. I am no longer the person I used to be. The Selena Hale who left the Seelie Court last year, ignorant like a child and so full of hope, is dead and gone.
Panic and dread suddenly stab through my chest.
The Selena Hale that Draven fell in love with is gone.
Pulling him tighter against me, I drag in an unsteady breath while my heart starts thundering in my chest.
“What’s wrong?” Draven asks.
My heart almost breaks all over again. He could feel the moment I tensed up. Of course he could. He sees me, all of me, in a way that no one ever has before.
“I, uhm…” I begin hesitantly. “I’m not… the same.
As I was before.” Clearing my throat, I try to compose myself enough to speak in complete sentences.
“What I said in Orion’s dining room before we left…
I meant it. I don’t want justice anymore.
I want revenge. I don’t care who I hurt.
I just want revenge.” Anger creeps into my voice, making it hard and sharp like a blade.
“I want my fucking revenge!” My chest heaves, and I drag in an unsteady breath as that flicker of dread hits me again.
I swallow. “So I’m not the person you fell in love with anymore. ”
He slides his hand up to my jaw again and cups my cheek. Edging back slightly so that he can see me, he tilts my head back until I meet his gaze again. His eyes are dead serious as he locks them on me.
“You want to destroy the world? I’ll help you burn it down. You want to kill everyone? I’ll help you slit their throats. There is nothing you can do that would make me stop loving you. I love you, little rebel. All of you.”
My heart stutters, and I drag in another unsteady breath as I gaze up into his serious eyes. “Even the really fucked up parts?”
“Especially the really fucked up parts.” He gives me a knowing look. “Because I have them too.”
A short laugh full of relief and gratitude escapes my lips. With his hand still on my jaw, keeping my head tilted back, he leans down and steals that laugh from my mouth with a possessive kiss.
When he draws back and meets my gaze again, his eyes burn like golden flames. He flashes me a devilish smile.
“You wanna be villains? Let’s go be fucking villains.”