13. Silas
THIRTEEN
SILAS
PRESENT
He bound her to himself with a pair of metal cuffs.
He fucking trapped her in that house, in his clothes with no help, and no way to run. Natty had no idea what it looked like when I walked into that kitchen. How feral her features had turned when she was clawing at Alec, yanking and pulling to be freed.
I’d never seen her like that before. It took me back to when she’d been traded out of the Death Raiders club, and Simon Stone had taken her. I remember how angry I was, how out of control I felt…and even that didn’t seem to compare with the image I walked in on, or what it did to my insides.
Pure shrapnel sat in my chest after seeing her chained to my brother. Her wrist was red and irritated, as if she’d been trying to get free for some time. Her face was pale, her hair frizzed and wild. Her eyes were red and watery, as if she’d been crying and couldn’t hold back the emotions.
She was a shell, a husk of what she once was…and that fucking killed me.
Jameson’s truck slowed in front of me as we approached the Stone Riders clubhouse. I followed suit as did Killian and Wes. We eased in through their new gates that had been set up after the attack. Once we were inside, we went at a snail’s pace down the long drive until we were all parking in front of the newly-restored entrance.
Several members were milling about, their cuts all on, and I noticed quite a few had shotguns in hand. Patrols were set up, and it seemed there wasn’t a single person who wasn’t on edge.
I parked my bike, indecision warring in me as I saw the back door open to the truck and Penelope climbed out.
I should leave.
Let Natty get back to her life and disappear. This had become her home, and I was just a visitor here. A trespasser that would never be welcome.
“What the fuck, Silas?” Killian yelled, briskly walking up on my left.
I parked my bike, and stood so we were nose to nose. “We waited for you…just like we agreed, you were supposed to call us, not walk in there by yourself.”
“Didn’t need you endangering your people.” I explained, flicking a quick gaze to Jameson’s truck. That was half true, the other half was simply that I refused to wait for them to get their shit together. Killian narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth about to say something, but I saw Natty’s door open, and she was about to climb down on her own.
I moved, leaving Kilian standing there while I walked toward her. Familiar green eyes met mine, red-rimmed and cautious. The fact that she looked at me like she wasn’t sure she could trust me was like a knife in the chest.
“You’re not getting down on your own, Caelum.” I held my hand out, and she accepted, sliding into my arms from the door. I held her to me as I set her down and let her walk. I’d carry her but her shirt would ride up and her ass would likely be on display. I was already on edge; I didn’t need these fuckers seeing her exposed right now.
She kept her head down while we walked, and I found that I was desperate for my bright, shining ray of sunshine to come back to me. I wanted her to reach for me, try to touch me. Do something that reminded me we were husband and wife. That we weren’t so far down this road of separation that we couldn’t find our way back.
She’d welcomed my touch before the explosion…she’d answered my ph one call, had run into my arms when I had called for her that night in Wes Ryan’s house. So why was she acting so cold toward me?
“Oh my gosh!” someone called from the side, and I knew it was Callie.
Sure enough, she walked briskly over to us, holding her pregnant belly. Tears gathered in her eyes as she took us in, and Natty opened her arms for a hug. Laura came next, baby Connor in her arms as she walked over to us.
The girls all hugged, and Natty reached for Connor only to stop when the metal cuff came into view. The empty one still had blood smeared all over it. The women all went silent at the sight of it.
“We need to get that off you,” I murmured from behind her, gently pushing at the small of her back to get her moving again. It used to be that her hand would find mine when she needed to feel grounded, but she wasn’t reaching for me. My stomach twisted with tiny pricks of fear as I reached for her and pulled her hand into mine.
She faltered for only a second when we connected but she recovered quickly, smiling as we passed more Stone Riders.
There were people muttering hellos and gasps as Natty walked back into the club. Laura, Penelope and Callie all trailed closely behind her, giving her all the support I ever hoped she’d have. Emotion swelled in my chest as I saw how the people in the club responded to her. She’d finally found a family here. People who cared for her.
The woman who maintained the kitchen, and as far as I knew was considered the club mother, came forward. They all called her Red from what I remembered.
She had white hair pulled up high, her lips painted red, her lashes long and exaggerated. Her chin wobbled as she saw Natty, then her arms opened wide as she pulled her in for a tight hug. I caught sight of Natty’s legs and a spike of irritation went through me again. She needed to find some fucking clothes.
“My gosh, Natty, look at this.” Red picked up the cuff, inspecting it then turning toward the crowd. “Anyone have a key?”
I stood behind Natty as Red addressed the club, holding my wife’s wrist. “Usually a universal key will work. She needs to get out of these cuffs. ”
Someone pushed forward holding up a paperclip. “I can try picking it. I’ve done it quite a few times. I’m pretty good at it.”
The man was in his early twenties or so; he gave Natty a shy smile before gently cradling her wrist in his hand. I gripped her hips, leaning over her shoulder to watch him work. I relaxed when she leaned into me.
“Thank you, Rune.” Natty smiled at him as the metal cuff unconnected and her wrist was freed.
He gave her one last smile before looking up and catching my gaze. I remembered his name, Killian and Wes used it when they were trying to fuck with me over her being handed over to a club member. I glared and he stumbled once on his way back into the crowd.
I heard Wes laugh distantly behind us.
Taking her hand in mine once more, I turned us toward the stairs and ignored everyone else who wanted to say hello to her. We needed to be alone for one fucking second. I hadn’t had her all to myself where I could touch her in over two years.
“Wait.” She stopped, pulling on my hand.
I turned with her, worry feathering my brow when she looked behind her at the group.
“I need to talk to Killian; his mother was the woman who ran out of the kitchen. She needs help and we have to?—”
Pushing closer, I pressed my thumb against her bottom lip to stop her from spiraling. She needed to focus on herself, not some woman who got herself tangled up in Fable’s bullshit.
“I’ll tell him, I promise. Just let me get you settled and I promise you I’ll tell him.”
She hesitated for one more second before giving in, then she followed me up to her room. I produced the key and unlocked her door.
“You have a key to my room?” She asked, sounding surprised.
I looked over my shoulder and smirked. “You think all this time you were in this club I wouldn’t have a way in?”
She pushed past me, walking toward her closet.
“Yet, you never used it a single time.”
I smiled, securing her door with the lock.
“How do you know I never used it?”
Her eyes rolled, her blonde hair curled in waves down her back. The sun slid into her room through her windows, lighting up the white carpet, the green vines along the ceiling and the different sketches along the walls.
“So you what, snuck in and watched me like Edward watched Bella?”
She moved to the bathroom where she turned on the shower, letting the room fill with steam. My chest felt tight as I watched her hesitate in the middle of her floor, her hands curled into fists. She didn’t want to touch the shirt she was in…or maybe she didn’t want to see what was under it. Or did she not want me to see her naked?
Fuck that. She wasn’t pushing me out, I wouldn’t stand for it.
I moved, slipping out of my boots and my cut, so I was just in front of her with my t-shirt and jeans.
The steam curled around us as I stared down at her disconnected expression and then I tugged on the hem of the shirt she was hesitating with and slowly pulled it over her head.
She gave a tiny hitch of breath as unbidden tears began trailing down her face. I checked her stomach, her breasts, all of it seemed unscathed, but entirely more perfect than I remembered. Relief swelled for only a second before she grabbed a clean rag from her shelf, stuck it under the hot spray of water, then began scrubbing at her stomach with so much force I worried she’d tear her skin.
She just kept scrubbing as she sobbed.
It ruined me seeing her like this, so I stepped closer, gently reaching for the rag from between her fingers and let it fall to the floor. She continued to cry as I pulled her into my arms and stepped into the shower.
She curled into my chest, her arms going around my neck as I tried to soothe her.
“Tell me what happened, Caelum. Give it to me, like you used to take all my darkness, let me have yours.”
I tried to ignore how it felt to have her pressed into me, naked and wet. She’d always been like this for me.
Perfection.
Heaven.
I pressed a kiss to the side of her head as she began to calm.
“Let me take it, Natty. Give me your demons, baby. ”
Her chin pressed into my bicep as she clung to me while I helped wash her hair. We stood there until she was clean then I reached around her and turned off the water. I watched her slowly step out of the shower as the steam began to dissipate. Her hair frizzed, the ends curling as they touched the top of her ass.
Now that she was done crying, I had a chance to really look at her. Bright green eyes, her narrow nose, and high cheeks, those bow-shaped lips. My heart thundered behind my soaked t-shirt and sopping wet jeans.
It had been too damn long since I’d held her in my arms like this.
“Salve Caelum.” Hello, Heaven .
I smiled, tucking her hair behind her ears.
She smiled back at me, her voice a light rasp.
“Tenebris.” Darkness .
Her fingers gently slid under my wet shirt and pushed it up until it was over my head and dropping to the floor. She traced my chest and stroked down along my stomach muscles, one by one until she was trailing the copper button on my jeans.
“He asked me how long it’s been since I’ve been fucked.”
Her head tipped back as she tugged the button free and pushed the material down. I continued to stare, feeling desperate and in awe that this was really happening.
“Do you know how long it’s been, Silas?”
My throat felt thick as I rasped in reply, “Two years and twenty-three days.”
Her gaze snapped up to mine, her eyes tapering.
“And how long has it been since you’ve been fucked, husband ?”
Shit, I couldn’t think when she called me that.
Her delicate fingers dipped into my boxers, pushing those down next. I inhaled a sharp breath as she slowly slid down my frame until she was on her knees in front of me.
“Answer me.”
I shuddered as she lightly gripped my cock in her hand. “Two years, and twenty-three days.”
She smiled up at me. “So you were faithful to me? ”
“Where else would I go, Caelum? You’re my home, my heart…my entire fucking soul.”
She let me go with a grin, her hands on my thighs.
“Then lets?—”
“We’re not doing this right now. You were just kept hostage; you need a second to process that.”
I pulled her up but she pushed at my chest and began walking back into the room.
“You’ve been gone for two years, Silas. I’d assumed you'd be eager to have me.”
Grabbing her by the wrist, I pulled her back into me.
“I am eager, but we’re not going to start with you on your knees, on a cold bathroom floor while you suck my cock. That’s not how this will go. If I have you, it’s on my terms.”
She tipped her chin back, and her eyes were so full of hurt that it nearly robbed me of breath. I’d hurt her by letting her stay with the Stone Riders, when all I wanted was to keep her safe, I managed to hurt her.
Gently gripping her hips, I pulled her closer and pressed my mouth to hers. Our kiss was like those stories I grew up reading, a memory pressed into pages with ink, old and tattered, nearly forgotten. I moved us to her bed, laying her down, relishing the way her lips tipped up as I hovered over her.
“I remember this,” she whispered, stroking a finger down my heart where a tattoo of her name was. I looked down, seeing her new ink of a tree, hating that I had to witness her getting it done through a pane of glass, seething as she chatted with the artist like it was the easiest thing in the world to have our story mark her in such a dark way.
Her dark forest. Her untamable patch of earth, never to be inhabited.
Instead of remarking on it, I pressed a kiss there. “It’s what’s under the ink, that’s ours, Caelum. The blood in our veins, the way our souls curl into each other, finding solace. You’re my home.”
She held my palm to her mouth, where she pressed a kiss to the tattoo under my ring finger.
“If I’m your home then you’ve been gone for a very long time, my love. ”
I stared down at her, lightly brushing a rogue curl from her breast. She’d never stopped being mine, but I knew the two years I was gone would be something we had to work through.
Instead of giving her honesty, I parted her thighs and settled my hips between them.
Her knees came up, until her ankles locked behind my back, my hand slid under her back, pulling her up.
“My beautiful, stunning wife.” I smiled into her mouth. “Still so perfect after all this time.”
I prodded her slick entrance with the tip of my cock and slowly eased myself inside her.
Imprints of her nails marked my back as she adjusted to my size, her breathing became shallow and her moans became sharper.
“Silas.” Her hips rotated, and I rested my hand on her waist, pulling her into me as I pushed mine forward.
Our breaths mingled, fighting for air and words as our mouths parted on silent screams.
Fucking her was a sweet song, a memory buried in every touch of her skin, every kiss and moan she surrendered to me. This was the peace I used to find when the darkness would try and consume me. I’d find myself buried in her, losing myself to the caress of her touch, the way her thighs slid against mine, her eagerness to have me. Fuck it used to be everything to me.
How had I gone this long without her?
I bent my head and sucked one of her nipples into my mouth as I slowed my hips, my cock sliding in and out of her. I teased her with gentle pushes and light laps of my tongue. Her fingers twisted into my hair, pulling as she hissed for me to go harder.
I smiled and indulged her, thrusting hard and firm and making her gasp.
Rising up, I pushed on her stomach as I repeated the movement, pulling out, only to drive inside, harder each time. Her head rolled to the side, her mouth gaped and then she was screaming my name.
Closing my eyes, I tried to hold onto exactly how she looked with my name falling from her lips, my name branding that tongue, that heart soaring with me, dripping from every part of her. I came so hard, I nearly cried. Falling forward, I groaned deeply, spilling inside her.
Our breaths were fast-paced, our chests rising. Her fingers returned to my hair as she stroked and soothed the wet pieces. When I finally pulled out, I sat back and watched as my release coated her puffy pussy lips. She had a thin trail of hair down the top of her mound, but her slit was bare, revealing how she’d stretched for me, and would be sore.
It had my mind barreling back to the shower, to her scrubbing.
I gently stroked her slit, the mess smearing it while I asked, “Did he…”
She shook her head. “No…he made me shower with him and he watched me…”
Her lip began to tremble as she started and stopped. I watched her carefully and decided to lie next to her, pulling her into my chest. Fuck the mess. We’d deal with it later.
“He stroked himself, while talking about how much better he’d be for me than you. How pathetic I was for waiting for you…he told me he was going to finish on me. When he did…he told me I couldn’t clean myself, unless I... He wanted me to…”
She stopped again, her voice hitching. I soothed her hair, kissing the back of her head. All while my heart rioted in my chest. Taking his hand wasn’t enough.
He was going to die.
“Why didn’t you return to me, Silas?” Her voice was feeble and broken.
My eyes watered at how defeated she sounded. How scared she must have been. If it weren’t for me, she never would have been in that house, or in his bed. She never would have been taken by my father.
Clearing my throat, I finally replied, “I did, baby. It was a little late, but I came.”
She turned in my arms, those green eyes locked on mine in a tangle of pain and hurt.
“I mean before this…why have you waited this long to come for me? Alec said you would have never claimed me if they hadn’t taken me, and part of me feels like you still haven’t. Like you’re death itself, here to st eal the rest of my life and run off to hell with it, leaving me abandoned and alone.”
Because you were better off here, without me.
Because all I do is bring death.
Because you deserve to be happy.
Because I love you.
I need you.
I’d die if anything happened to you.
Instead of telling her all of that, I leaned in and kissed her.
She tried to say something else, but I kissed her again and then we were falling back into the sheets, and my hands found her thighs, my cock found her slit, and for the second time in twenty-four hours, I fucked my wife.