Aurora
I’m in knots.
Literally. Saint tied me to the bed two hours ago and hasn’t stopped feasting on me, with his teeth and tongue.
And I never want him to stop. I’m living in this bliss-hazed bubble that is better than anything I’ve ever experienced.
It’s been a week of nothing but me and Saint—fucking, feeding, and learning each other in ways only mates can do.
Sparks erupt over my body, my orgasm exploding from the crown of my head to the tips of my toes. My back bows off the bed, and Saint takes that opportunity to move from my heat to my thigh, sinking his fangs in the flesh there.
I come again. A hard wave that has me going absolutely limp.
My arms and legs are bound, my wrists hanging slightly suspended above my head.
I couldn’t move if I tried. Warmth floods my body at the thought.
At the knowledge that I’m bound by Saint, trapped in a way that should terrify me, but it doesn’t.
It’s something we discussed before this…
if this particular desire of his would trigger me.
I was worried it would, but I shouldn’t have been.
I’m stronger than that, stronger than the tortures of my past.
And everything with Saint is the furthest thing from torture. Everything with him is a revelation. A strengthening. And I feel safer with him than I’ve ever felt with anyone before. My past is the furthest thing from my mind, causing a heightened sense of clarity to crash over me in the best way.
“I love you,” I whisper the words, exhausted and pleasure spent.
“I love you,” he grumbles against my thigh before licking my wounds closed and kissing his way up my body. He smiles down at me, his lips stained with my blood, before he careful undoes my knots.
As my limbs fall free, I roll into his open arms, and we settle into the bed.
“How many is that now?” he asks.
I laugh softly, turning my head with effort to look up at him. “Are you keeping score?” I ask. “Because I’ve lost count.”
Saint pulls me closer to him. “The only thing I’m tracking is your happiness,” he says, kissing the top of my head. “As long as that’s steady, that’s all I care about.”
My lids are heavy as I lay my hand right over his heart. “You make me very, very happy.”
“You’re going to feed?” I ask, stretching atop the bed with a lazy, content sigh.
Saint grins down at me as he tugs his pants on. God, I love his smile. I’ve never seen anything more beautiful. Since accepting the bond, he’s done it more and more.
“I have to,” he says, pulling his shirt on before leaning down to brush his lips over mine. “You need me at my best to keep you fed.”
I sigh as he kisses me again, shifting to my knees to wrap my arms around him. “Can I come?” I ask.
His smile falters.
“Just to get out,” I hurry to say. “Not to feed.” I slide my hands over his strong chest. “You’ve satisfied that thirst quite well.”
The tension in the lines of his face eases, but only a fraction. I’m still learning what is and isn’t triggering to him so early in our mating stages. I tilt my head. “Wait. What’s more unsettling, that you thought I wanted to feed from someone else or that I want to get out?”
He’s been helping me train between our intimate sessions. Helping me with my hand-to-hand combat skills and he even gave me some power control pointers too. He has to know I’m getting stronger by the minute, right?
His lips find mine, his hands sliding around my body to bring us flush. I open for him, losing all sense of the conversation for a few seconds before I pull back. “Don’t distract me,” I chide him. “Answer the question.”
“Feeding,” he grumbles.
I tip my chin up. “So, you’re fine taking me off property with you?”
I see the hesitation before he opens his mouth. “Aurora—”
I gently disconnect myself from him, climbing off the bed. I cross the room to the wardrobe, slipping on my softest pink robe. By the time I have it tied, I have the courage to speak again.
“I haven’t seen the stars in seven nights,” I say.
He smirks, his lips curling in a delicious, challenging way that sends lightning down my spine. “Are you saying I’ve kept you too busy?” He tsks me. “You’re the one always begging for me.”
I huff a laugh. “Says the male who would literally get on his knees if I told him to drop?”
Saint’s pupils blow out before he spans the distance between us. My back kisses the wall next to my wardrobe as he cages me in. “Say it and I’ll make it happen.”
The bond between us goes taut and hot all at the same time.
“You need to feed,” I argue, even as he drags his nose along the edge of my neck. Even as I arch into his hard, powerful body. “I just want to get out of here.”
“You’re more than free to roam the grounds while I go,” he whispers against my skin, planting kisses that make my breath hitch. “I know Annika misses you. Dagon has been irritatingly loud about it whenever I see him.”
“Whenever you leave to feed together.” I grip the hair on the back of his head and tug. “I know I can roam the grounds.” I wiggle out of his embrace, needing the distance to think straight. “Saint, I can’t stay here forever.” I tilt my head up at him. “You know that, don’t you?”
He visibly swallows. “You understand why I don’t want you leaving the safety of the wards.”
“Yes, I’m aware of the threat on my eternal life.” We’ve been over this a dozen times. “But our lives can’t simply stop because we’re afraid of what he’ll do.”
“You know what he’s capable of.”
“I do.”
“And you’re mine.”
I smile, warmth fluttering beneath my skin at the declaration. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of hearing him admit that.
“I am,” I say, crossing the distance.
He takes a step away from me, retreating like I’m the predator. “Don’t give me that look,” he warns. “It makes me want to give you anything you ask for.”
I bat my eyes at him a little more. His knees hit the back of the bed, and he sinks down atop it. I step between his thighs, and his hands immediately fly to my hips. “So, you’ll take me with you?”
Pain flutters over his features, like the idea of taking me outside the safety of the wards is physically hurting him. “I can’t.”
My shoulders drop. “But you said—”
“I said that look makes me want to give you anything, not that I will.” He tips my chin up, forcing me to meet his eyes. “It’s not safe.”
“When will it ever be safe?” I ask. “As much as I love our home here, our life here…” I stop myself, shaking my head.
“What?” he asks softly.
I sigh. “I won’t be a prisoner again.”
A flinch rattles through him. “Is that what this feels like?”
“No,” I assure him. “But the idea of never leaving the wards again is pushing it to feel that way. Especially after I got a taste of traveling when we went to Italy. It was so freeing. I want to explore the world with you, Saint. Not only the confines of this palace, as nice as it may be.”
Saint blows out a breath. “I know,” he admits. “But it’ll only be until I can stop Samuel.”
Samuel. His twin. My abuser. The axe hanging over our heads. The one he shares a bond with too. One that may kill him.
“We don’t know when he’ll strike next,” Saint continues. “We have to wait. Once he’s dealt with and the Sons of Honor are finished, it will be safer.”
“I hate letting threats dictate our lives. I’ve let fear rule me long enough.”
“I know,” he says, sliding a hand along my cheek.
I lean into the touch, an idea occurring to me. “We should be done waiting.”
“I told you it’s not safe—”
“No,” I cut him off. “We should take the timeline into our own hands.”
“I’m not following.”
“Samuel wants me—”
A low, territorial growl rips from Saint.
I kiss him quickly before stepping out of his embrace. “We should let him have me.”
Saint’s off the bed in seconds, fangs out and feral.
“Not like that!” I hurry to say. “Trap him,” I explain. “Use me as bait.”
“Absolutely fucking not.”
“Saint.”
“Aurora.”
“Think about it,” I urge. “It would be perfect. We’ve never been able to catch him once he doesn’t want to be found. If we lured him out, you all could take him down. Imprison him, so you don’t hurt your twin bond and—”
“No.” His tone is equal parts fear and rage. “I will never use you as a tool to carry out my vengeance. And he’ll never stop. A prison will only slow him down. He has to die. It’s the only way to put an end to the string of evil he’s left in his wake. I must be the one to end him.”
“It’s not, actually,” I argue. “You could let one of the others kill him if it came to that. You don’t have to be the one.”
“He’s my brother,” he counters, emotion filling his eyes. “Mine. My responsibility. My penance. So much of the blood he’s spilled is on my hands.”
I shake my head, my chest tightening. I can feel the shame and remorse and grief swirling down the mating bond. I do my best to soothe it. I’ve tried so many times to tell him none of this is his fault, but he won’t budge.
“We could plan it,” I try again. “Have everyone there. I’d have so much protection it would be almost too easy.”
“Nothing with Samuel is ever easy.” He shakes his head.
“And his obsession with you is beyond dangerous. What he did to you before, that was scratching the surface of what he’s capable of.
Don’t ask me to risk you like that. I can’t…
the idea of something happening to you…” A struggle plays out over his face, and I hurry back into his arms, holding him tightly.
“Okay,” I relent as he locks me in his arms. “Okay. It was just an idea.” The last thing I want is to send Saint into a spiral where he does something rash under the guise of thinking it will keep me safer.
But I feel like a total hypocrite as my plans are exactly that.
He may not like my idea, but I’m not going to let it go.
Not when I know it’s the most viable option we’ve had in months.
Not when I know it’s a chance to spare him the fate that comes with severing the twin-bond, whatever that fate may be.