41 #2
My mouth pops open at the revelation, though I’d suspected it—my more-ruthless-than-anything future wife wouldn’t care about decreasing the violence she loves so much if she didn’t care so much about us and our safety.
“I love you so much, Ezzy,” I whisper as I gain enough energy to move onto my knees.
Head tilting back, she fixes all her attention on me.
“You are mine,” she replies simply, and my heart jumps.
Then she roams her gaze over everyone else.
“You are all mine. I love you.” When she says that, it’s a little stiff, still abnormal on her tongue, but nevertheless, my heart upgrades from jumping up high to catapulting through the stratosphere just like it did the previous two times she shared her love for the five of us.
Yes. I absolutely am counting.
“We all love you too, Ezla. More than anything,” Scotty whispers, and I’m pretty sure there are tears in his eyes.
Cooper, Tate, and Alby each follow with their agreement in different formats, and Ezla shifts almost awkwardly, clearing her throat.
She’s so cute—
I wheeze as her hand wraps around my throat in a merciless grasp. “Careful, Tiger.”
“Oh . . .” I breathe, every cell singing, my cock twitching back to life for her.
But it only takes me a moment to reconsider my response as her eyes narrow dangerously.
Uh-oh. This is my very scary, I’m-going-to-traumatise-you-with-a-picture-of-your-cock-no-longer-attatched-to-your-body Ezla.
Her claw-like nails dig into my skin. “I am always terrifying.”
“Well, of course!” I squeeze out, because damn her grip is secure.
“Then why are you still looking at me like I am telling you that you are the best thing that ever happened to me rather than screaming in horror like you should be?”
My insides go all gooey, and I can feel the stars twinkling in my eyes. “I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to you?”
Huffing, Wifey pulls her hand away, and I pout, already missing her sexy, strangling hold. But I can also feel the amusement in her, so another part of me flutters and lights up at the knowledge I’ve made her feel that way.
Settling back into place, Cooper’s head finding her chest again after being jostled and having to move away with her turning towards me, Ezla returns to the previous topic: “I will do this for you, but as I have already said, I will need to kill. I do not only enjoy it—though that is reason enough for you to throw people at my feet for me to play with—but it is cathartic.” Tilting her head, she muses, “However, maybe I will not feel the need to release now that . . . now that Joseph is gone.” She says that like some part of her still can’t believe it, and I think the rest of us are right there with her.
“I simply . . . It was a method to release all that . . . that noise within me, but it is never so loud with you anyway.” Her words grow quieter towards the end, and I feel faint wisps of embarrassment from her at all the vulnerability.
Feeling this too, no doubt, Scotty leans in to press a tender kiss to her cheek, brushing some dark strands of hair from her forehead. “That’s so fucking good to hear, Love. You have no idea how happy it makes me, it makes all of us, to hear that.”
“Actually, I am very aware,” she replies with a brush of her velvet-and-sin smoke in the bond.
His lips twitch up. “And I’m so glad that you are.”
Humming, she reaches up, mirroring his actions as she brushes some of the sandy-blond hair from his forehead, and his throat works.
When she goes to bring her hand back down, Scotty catches her wrist in a gentle hold, and, keeping his eyes on her now-slitted ones, he turns her hand around to press his lips to her palm.
“I’m so grateful to have you, Ezla. You’re so loved. ”
Lips parting the tiniest amount, Ezla’s expression smooths out, and there’s too many emotions in her to try to figure out as she allows Scotty to keep a hold of her wrist while she watches him with that unreadable mask of hers.
When she speaks, it’s not in response to his words, but that’s more than okay.
We all know how she feels. “I will get rid of all the corrupt members of The Council. That will be a treat.” Her eyes are sparkling with something wicked in an instant.
“And I will appoint new ones, of course.” Thinking some more, she tells us, “I will also end the social classifications.”
My eyes blow wide along with everyone else’s.
“You will?” Alby gasps, and Ez hums. “So . . . so . . .”
With him lost for words, Ezla reaches for him next, and his natural flush expands to the tips of his ears as he leans in to meet her hand.
Cupping his cheek as she gazes steadily up at his face above her, she answers his unspoken question: “Yes. You will no longer be an Evot. I will . . .” Her brows dip, and I can tell she’s not sure how she feels about her following words. “I will no longer be an Exot.”
“And no more Neutrals,” Cooper murmurs, chin resting on her breast.
Arm dropping, her hand lands on Tate’s broad shoulder as he asks in that deep and beastly voice of his, “Then what will there be?”
“Freedom. Colour.”
“Colour?!” I mentally jump to my feet and start boogieing around our bed. I would move, but I’m sexed out and exhausted from the rest of the day’s events.
“Yes,” Ezla says with amusement colouring her tone.
See what I did there? COLOUR! WOOHOOO!
I fling my hands up in the air in celebration and hold the position for emphasis.
Cooper snorts.
Ezzy rolls her eyes, but I know she loves my display really.
“I do not see a reason to change our region’s design completely, but we can add new buildings and redesign them as well as bringing in new clothing, plants, decorations, and such.
I do not think it is possible to bring down The Wall and the Divides—I am quite certain it is not possible to take down any taalk once it has been shaped; it is not like any other material in that regard—but I will open the doors in them.
The Border I will think more on, but of course, the citizens of Techta will have free rein to come and go as they wish.
We will be travelling outside of the region ourselves, after all. ”
“We will?!” Grinning so widely it hurts, I can’t contain myself, and I lean down to smack a kiss to Deadly Nightshade’s forehead with a, “Mwah!”
She looks unimpressed when I pull back. Or she would if her sneaky little lips weren’t trying to twitch into a smile. “Of course,” she replies smoothly, as if this is nothing. “You would like to visit Mexico, would you not? And America?”
“Oh, yes!” I explode, clapping my hands together to prop my chin on them. Then I bat my lashes down at her. “You’ve been in my head.” A dreamy sigh leaves me.
“I am always in your head,” she tells me, deadpan.
Both hands move to fan myself. “Wow-wee. Thank you, Wifey.” Then I think of the most amazing pick-up line ever, and I tell her while tossing my beloved lion’s mane around, “Even when you’re not in my head, you’re in my head.
” I bite my lip seductively, planting my hands on my hips.
Then, just in case no one understood, I waggle my brows and say, “Get it? ‘Cos I’m thinking about you all the time? 24/7? Every hour of every day?”
She lets out a scoffing laugh.
Oooooh, look, another new one!
“Moving on,” Ez says, and I sit back on my heels like the good boy I am to listen avidly. “We will obviously need a place to live, and I cannot, will not, go back to that penthouse.”
Growling at just the thought, Tate rumbles, “Of course not. If it weren’t made of taalk, I’d destroy it all for you, my Havoc.”
“Agreed,” Cooper says darkly, rubbing a hand over DN’s side. “You’re not setting a foot back in there, Vengeance. Never again.”
“Hm.”
His eyes narrow. “Ezla—”
“Okaaaay!” I interrupt before this beautiful moment has the chance to get ruined by a verbal sparring match. “House planning time!”
Both of their gazes slowly flick over to me.
Not about to be intimidated, I stand strong with a firm expression.
“You look like you’re about to shit yourself,” Tate mutters as he nuzzles into Ezla’s arm like a cat, with his eyes closed, might I add.
My lips purse, and I squint at him. “You can’t even see me.”
“I spared a glance.”
Cooper snickers, and I slap a hand to my chest. “Since when were you ever on Tater Tot’s side, Coops?!”
“Right. House planning?” Scotty prompts with a raised brow, getting us back on track before he can answer me. Linking his fingers through Ezla’s, he asks, “Have you got anything in mind, Love?”
“Of course.”
Cooper’s eyebrow is the next to rise. “And?”
“I will have a castle built for us.”