Chapter Twenty-Seven
Max
Ember sleeps all night. My hunch was right; getting her to bed might be as easy as giving her a couple orgasms, which is a nightly ritual I am happy to engage in for the rest of my life.
She turns into a different person when I’m working her over—all her walls come down.
There’s no snark, no bullshit, only a young woman who’s discovering her sexuality.
I sleep all night beside her, but I’m up early the next morning.
She’s still sleeping, so I let her be while I hit the gym for a quick jog to wake myself up.
The bedroom door’s locked, there are no weapons, and I have a live video feed showing me a steady stream of Ember, who’s still sleeping.
Looks like she needs to catch up on about five years of sleep deprivation.
I can’t wait to watch her discover herself safely away from Dagon.
Everything about her has been put on pause for the last five years while she risked her life and gave her livelihood to protect her sister—she never had a chance to grow into herself, and it’s a pleasure to give that opportunity back to her.
As soon as I’m done in the gym, I unfortunately get a message from Cain, demanding that I meet him in his office. I have very little desire to see him right now—I want to spend all my time with Ember, but I also know better than to refuse orders.
I meet him in his office, where he’s drinking a cup of coffee behind his desk. His eyes rake over me, and he gestures to the chair across from him.
“Tobias brought to my attention what Dagon had on Ember,” he says without preamble. “I’m disappointed that I didn’t hear this from you first.”
Shit. I did tell Ember that I explicitly would keep this from Cain… but she’ll still be upset. Navigating that fallout won’t be fun.
“Sorry,” I say, not feeling apologetic whatsoever. In fact, I’m feeling pretty fucking concerned. Cain is not to be trusted with information of this caliber; there’s every chance he’ll use this against Ember the same way Dagon did.
“No, you’re not, and don’t waste my time with bullshit.” Cain leans forward. “I’ll sanction putting extensive protection on the girl. Tobias seems to have a special interest in her, so I’ll put him in charge of overseeing her.”
Fuck. “But?” I know there’s always a but with Cain.
He’s an unapologetic sociopath; he doesn’t care about me, or Ember, or anyone but himself.
Well, it seems like he has some sort of twisted affection for his Chosen, but that could in fact be sheer possession and need to dominate.
I’m not unfamiliar with the feeling; I just have some humanity to hold me in check.
“I’d like something in return.”
Here we go. “And that something would be?”
“A guarantee that, when I decide it’s time for us to take down Dagon, you let me use Ember.”
“No.” My answer is immediate and irrevocable.
I wouldn’t trust Cain with a pet I wanted to get rid of, let alone my Ember.
For all I know, he’ll sacrifice her for the sake of the op and move on without flinching.
I just found Ember, and I’m only beginning to see a path to bond with her; I will not allow him to take that away from me.
“I’m sorry, was that phrased as a question?
” Cain arches an eyebrow. “No, it’s quid pro quo.
You don’t get to say no.” He pauses. “Well, I suppose you do, but you will not like what I do in response, Maximus. It won’t be fun for you.
More, it won’t be fun for your chosen. If you refuse, I’ll see no usefulness in protecting Viper’s sister. ”
Fuck, fuck, fuck. There’s no way out. Either I agree to Cain’s demand, or I doom Ember, and myself in the process. “I want some guarantees.”
Cain looks vaguely bored. “Such as?”
“Such as guarantees that you’ll do everything—and I mean everything—in your and the Nighthawk’s power to keep Ember safe if you force her to do this.”
“I won’t have to force her.” Cain releases a soft, sardonic chuckle. “Haven’t you heard the way Viper speaks about Dagon? She despises him. She’ll jump on the opportunity to destroy him without any prompting necessary.”
“That may be the case, but it changes jack shit,” I respond silkily.
“If she gets hurt, I want the option to retaliate against you.” That’s the only way I’ll be sure that Cain will hold to his word—if he gives me permission to hurt him on account of Ember being hurt.
He’s a bastard that will go to extreme lengths for self-preservation.
Cain glares at me for several moments, which quickly trickle into minutes.
He’s waiting for me to bend under the weight of his stare and acquiesce, but if he thinks that’s happening, he has another thing coming.
I’m willing to play ball with him most of the time and carry out orders even when I disagree with them, but not this time.
Either we have a deal, or we don’t, and I’ll have to go behind his back to find a way to keep Alina safe.
“Fine,” he says quietly, realizing I won’t let off this point. “If any harm is done to Viper, she’ll have the option to revisit that exact same amount of harm to me. We’ll observe an eye for an eye.”
I nearly fall out of my chair in surprise. I expected this to be much harder; either Cain wants Ember’s help that much… or he’s throwing me a bone and actually trying to be something approximating decent for once in his life.
“I want that in writing,” I say.
“You don’t trust my word?”
“Not particularly, no.”
Cain releases a rueful chuckle. He types something on his computer, clicks print, and out comes a contract illustrating precisely what we just discussed. He signs his name; I sign my name, and then it’s done.
I’ve bargained away Ember’s services, but it’s a fair deal.
“Get out,” Cain says dismissively. “Toby will confer with you regarding next steps.”
Outside his office, I check the livestream of my room on my phone.
Ember’s not in bed anymore; she’s in the shower, washing herself thoroughly with soap.
Her hand snakes between her milky thighs, and…
oh fuck, is she masturbating? The footage is a bit grainy thanks to the water, but her hand remains between her thighs, and I think I see her knees buckle.
Dear fucking God, she’s masturbating. She said she’s never gotten herself off before—
“Max.” Toby’s voice makes my head snap up. I pocket my phone and face him head-on.
“What are you doing here?” My voice is a bit too gravelly, but Toby doesn’t seem to catch onto it.
It only takes a beat for the blood to flow away from my cock and back to my brain, and that’s when I recall that Toby fucking ratted me out to Cain.
Disliking Ember is one thing, and he’s entitled to his opinion; fucking Ember and me over by telling Cain something I explicitly specified should be kept from him is another thing entirely.
And preventing me from watching Ember get herself off to the thought of me—possibly for the first time ever—is straight-up bullshit. Who the hell does he think he is?
“I wanted to explain—”
“That you ratted me out to Cain?” I stare at him, unblinking.
“Yeah, that might be something worthy of explaining, except I don’t give a fuck.
You went over my head for an assignment I gave you, simply because you don’t like Ember.
Because she killed your cousin while enslaved to Dagon and didn’t apologize for it.
Now, Cain is threatening Alina’s life.” I get into his personal space. “Please, explain.”
Toby’s lips thin. “Look, it wasn’t like that—”
“Wasn’t it?” I snap.
“No! I didn’t tell Cain because I wanted to get back at Ember. I might not like her, but I’m not going to actively try to hurt her.”
“Good, because if you do, I’ll kill you.” I lean forward. “And you may have seen enough of Ember’s work to be afraid, but let me assure you, I’m meaner. Especially when motivated by someone threatening my woman.”
“Got it.” Toby has the good sense to look afraid. “I didn’t tell him because of Ember. I told him because of Alina.”
My brows slam down. “What the fuck does Alina have to do with you ratting?”
“You can’t let Ember kill me if I tell you.”
Okay, it must be really bad. “What the fuck does Alina have to do with anything?” Is he unable to save her? Have we been ordered to kill her? What’s the goddamn problem?
Toby doesn’t respond. He actually looks nervous.
“Toby,” I prompt. “You have ten seconds before I start breaking bones.”
“Alina is my chosen,” he mumbles.
I nearly fall backwards. “The fuck you just say?”
“Alina is my chosen!” he says, louder. “There, happy?”
“No, I’m not happy that this is how you choose to spite Ember—”
“Not everything is fucking about Ember!” Toby explodes. “Alina and I knew each other when we were in foster care together, asshole. We became really close. Then, shit happened that necessitated a split, and…”
“And?”
“I kept tabs on her over the years. It’s…” he shakes his head. “We had a run in a while back. That’s when I knew she’s the one, but she fucking despises me, and I have a bone to pick with her, too. That doesn’t change the fact that she belongs to me.”
This complicates things a whole fuckload. The Claiming tradition is newly reinstated; I’m not sure if veto power exists, and even if it does, whether I have it. I’m not sure about anything besides the fact that I really don’t know what the fuck I’m supposed to do right now.
My plan was to find Ember while she was in the shower, and assist her in getting her orgasm.
Then, tell her that the only person who’s allowed to make her come is me, unless I give her explicit permission otherwise.
Now, I get to stand here with an absolute clusterfuck in my hands and no semblance of how to handle it.
Fuck.
“Find someone else,” I growl.