Chapter four
From the moment the black bag was ripped from her head, Levi knew he was in trouble.
Her rounded heart-shaped face and high cheekbones were covered with deep mahogany melanin.
Her eyes were large, almond-shaped and dark.
From the thick lashes down to her full, pouty lips, everything about her was a work of art.
Levi had seen beauties, but none had ever captivated him the way she did.
A demon knew his days were numbered when a woman could look them straight in the eyes.
The dark beauty before him didn’t lower her gaze.
No, she lifted her chin, the anger on her face daring him to break her.
Despite the dried tears on her cheeks, she didn’t cower, and that intrigued him more than anything he’d ever encountered.
She was exquisite.
He had to have her.
Levi was a lot of things, depending on who was asked. A demon, evil, benefactor, savior, king… He’d been them all in one form or another. For her…he was willing to be more. It was interesting.
He turned to the male who was in direct contrast. The pussy had his head lowered, his body trembling.
The male had twice the muscle of the beauty, yet he cowered under Levi’s infuriated gaze.
Even the sickly woman that he had secured in one of the bedrooms upstairs had been quiet as she awaited their fate.
He leaned back in the throne that he’d unironically come to love.
When he and his Bayi had taken over this particular compound, he’d found the whole thing hilarious.
It was where the moniker of ‘king’ had come from.
Ten years later and it was stuck, along with the gaudy décor that decorated the mansion.
His fingers drummed along the golden arms as he stared at the two before him. Once he tired of the male’s whimpers, he spoke.
“You stole from me.”
A simple sentence, and yet both flinched. Interesting.
The male lifted his head but kept his eyes down. “It was a mistake. My niece can attest to that.”
The woman shot him a deathly glare that would’ve amused Levi under any other circumstance. In this, however, he was not amused.
“And can you, beauty? Attest to the truth of that statement?” Levi knew the male was lying, but he’d already lost interest in him.
His attention was wholly on the female.
Her gaze swung back to him and he could admit to being mesmerized.
Her magic crackled around her, the chaos that ran through all their power concentrated in her curvy, voluptuous body.
The creator didn’t play fair when he shaped this beauty, from the thick thighs encased in jeans to the ample breasts she had hidden underneath the hoodie she wore.
Hunger rumbled his chest.
From the moment he’d set eyes on her in the small but neat home they’d occupied, the night had stilled around him.
The chaos of his mind had softened into manageable waves.
He’d thought it a fluke, but here she was before him, the darker impulses of the stone curbed.
A focus Levi hadn’t experienced in months was honed in on this beauty.
Defiance was carved into the stiffness of her body.
It contrasted with her sweet baby doll like face.
He liked the dichotomy. Dark, dangerous thoughts flitted through his mind, for once not the result of the Akachi.
“Leave. All but her,” he told the room.
‘Levi?’ His best friend and captain of his guard questioned him gently.
‘I’m under control,’ he reassured Bas, though that may or may not have been the truth.
He didn’t know what the feelings rioting through his chest meant. From the first moment he’d touched the Akachi piece, his thoughts and emotions had been out of his control. Now, in front of this beautiful woman, he was able to breathe…to think. What did that mean?
His men moved to do as he ordered, dragging the male off with them until there was just him and the beauty.
“Your name, baby doll,” he demanded.
She didn’t speak. It pulled a smile from him.
He left his throne and stepped down until he was close to her.
The pulse at her neck thundered, but the female wasn’t scared.
Interesting indeed. He pulled her scent into his lungs, deciphering the layers of her recent surroundings from just the smells that covered her lovely body.
He took it all in, from the smell of her shampoo, the scent of the dark night she’d moved through, even down to the odor of cedar and old books that told him she spent a lot of time in a library. Likely the Archive.
Did that mean she was a librarian or a simple student who studied there?
Her face gave nothing away of her age, so either statement could be true.
The cool scent of her magic confirmed her as Chawi, but even without that, the press of her power against his skin marked her as such.
What kind of magic did she hold? It was something he could discern later in the time he’d spend with her.
He decided in that moment that he would be spending a lot of time with her to find out.
“Do you have nothing to say of your situation?” he said softly, his breath brushing against her ear.
Her body shuddered. “Just do what you need to do.”
Levi closed his eyes as the hoarse timbre of her voice dug deep within him and awoke the beast he spent most of his time suppressing. It was never a good idea to catch the attention of the bloodthirsty creature that inhabited his body.
Especially lately.
Ever since he’d been brought a piece of the Akachi stone, that monster had roamed wild within him, uncontrollable and damn near insatiable. In the months since he’d had it, his baser instincts had been trying to take over, and only by sheer grace had he been able to control himself.
Levi circled her, slightly irritated that she was in the company of some piece of shit who would easily throw her to the wolves. She should be protected…cherished. He’d had every intention on killing the thief, but she…
Leaning over her shoulder, he inhaled her scent at her neck. He wanted her for himself. His gums ached, the desire to taste her throbbing through his body.
“He doesn’t deserve your help, beauty.”
She scoffed. “I’m well aware of that.”
He reached his hand out and trailed it down her arm. She shivered, and the scent that drifted from her was most decidedly not fear.
“Why, then, would you not fight to clear your name in this?”
“Would it matter?” she whispered, and the sadness that wafted from her made his decision for him. She sighed. “It’s done. You or the Buru, the outcome would’ve been the same. Uncle Paul was always gonna be the one who got our family into some shit.”
He hummed and rubbed his cheek against the back of her hair.
He didn’t like being compared to the Buru, but he would let it go for now.
She had no way of knowing him outside of his reputation and he took great care to make sure his brutality was well-documented and known.
The city knew not to fuck with him, and he was on his way to making sure all of the South knew the same.
“It matters to me.”
For her at least. For others, nothing would’ve been able to sway him from killing them. Stealing from him was a crime that he never forgave. This one would be the first exception to that rule.
“What would you do to save the lives of your family, baby doll? Would you give your life to me?”
Her curious gaze rose to meet his as he circled to the front of her body. Anger flashed in her eyes and her magic thrummed against his skin. Fucking delicious. He licked his lips, the need to taste her sending his senses reeling.
“A strong woman like you shouldn’t even be mixed up with a bitch ass like him.”
“Do you plan to taunt me? Just do whatever it is you need to do.”
He smiled at her bravado. “Answer the question, baby doll. Would you give yourself to me to save your family?”
Her breath hitched and the heat of her magic filled the space between them. Tense silence had him on edge as he awaited her answer. A few moments later, her shoulders slumped and her head lowered for the first time since he’d had the bag removed.
“Yes.”
He wanted to shout out in victory, but he restrained himself.
Bas would be pissed, but there was no help for it.
He would take her any way that he could have her.
For a moment, sanity tried to take over and tell him that this was not the way to get what he wanted, but the insatiable beast in him wanted her and that part of him didn’t care that she would have to be coerced to be on board.
He smiled. “Let’s have witnesses to that statement, then, shall we?” he said, stepping back and walking over to his throne.
He used his connection to call back Sebastian. The doors opened and his team entered, dragging her uncle behind them. He waited patiently as Bas kicked Paul in the back of the knees, sending him down to the ground.
“You got your family in some shit, Paul. How does that make you feel?” Levi asked out of curiosity.
“King Levi, if you’ll allow me—”
“I’ve allowed you to live a lot longer than I should’ve. You have your niece to thank for that.” Levi cut him off, irritated that the bitch was finna start begging.
Red was starting to creep back along the edges of his mind, blotting out whatever peace the beauty had brought to him. That infuriated him, feeding that crimson haze.
“You have your stone back. We can call it even and I’ll never bother you again. Please, your Highness,” Paul begged, lowering his body. “Surely there’s something we can work out.”
Levi snorted and his niece let out a disgusted sound.
“You triflin’ than a muthafucka, but luckily for you, I got something even rarer than the Akachi out of this.”
Paul and the beauty next to him looked up at him in curiosity.
“Your niece has exchanged her life for yours,” he informed the jackass.
Paul gasped. “Amaya, no.”
Amaya. Her name at last.