Chapter 22
22
The guilty look on Bella's face as Alex came in the door told him all he needed to know. She was watching the broadcast, even though she'd said she would wait for him. He sighed, but he wasn't truly angry. Somehow he'd known. But there was something else in her expression too, the kind of excitement that she usually showed just before she remembered something new.
"Come here," she said, the guilt washing away quickly as she pointed at the screen. "Look at that, on the banner behind him... do you feel anything?"
Anger, as he looked at the Wolf, but nothing specific enough to spark a single memory. Probably there were too many tied up with the man. But he did recognize him, immediately, and knew that he was the real deal. Alex barely glanced at Ken and Lisa, although his attention lingered on the redhead for a moment. Looking at her made his balls ache, and not in the good way that he associated with being around Bella.
Then he looked at the banners that Bella was so excited about. His chest tightened, and it took him a moment before he realized he felt rising excitement too. Excitement and... triumph?
The dark hole in the back of his mind opened up, except that it wasn't dark, there was light in it, like a tunnel...
"A tunnel, yes," Bella said, her head jerking back around to stare at the television. The same hope and excitement that he felt in his chest was glowing on her face.
He hadn't even realized he'd spoken out loud. Her hand reached out as if to touch the sigil.
"The way out... Alex, we knew the way out!"
Fuck.
He groaned as he went to his knees, gripping his head in his hands. It wasn't just that one memory that had become unblocked, it was like they were all coming tumbling through the tunnel, one after other, assaulting him from every side.
"Alex? Alex are you okay?"
The panic in Bella's voice made him want to leap up and take down whatever was scaring her, but how could he protect her from himself? He hadn't been able to at the Wolf's compound. Hadn't been able to when they'd been returned the Moon, forcibly separated after landing, and then given the memory drugs. Not that the doctors had realized what they were blocking the memories for. Alex was pretty sure that they truly believed they were helping, that Alex and Bella had been traumatized by their time with the Wolf and needed protection.
Those fucking Moon officials...
"Bella... I remember everything." His voice cracked. With his eyes closed, so that he couldn't look at her face, all he could see was the memories rushing by, filling that empty, gaping hole. "The things I did to you..."
"Alex, you wouldn't, you always took care of me, I know that," Bella said, rubbing her hand over his shoulders trying to soothe him. "I don't remember everything, but I know that."
The faith in her voice, the trust, made him feel like he was splintering apart inside. He could remember how much he'd enjoyed fucking her. Dominating her. The sick part of him that had become aroused whenever the Wolf had fucked her too. Down there it hadn't seemed quite as bad; now, having been back, no longer in the situation, all he could do was pick apart every single thing he'd done.
He was a monster, and she didn't even see it.
Growling, he grabbed her wrist, pulling her down onto the ground as she shrieked, and rolling atop her, pressing her lower body into the ground with his as she stared up at him. Despite that, once the surprise receded, she didn't look scared.
"I hurt you, Bella," he said, rocking against her, feeling his cock starting to grow as it rubbed against her softness. "I hurt you because he told me to."
"You protected me," she countered, shocking him as she wrapped her legs around him, arching beneath him. There was no way he could misinterpret the hot arousal filling her eyes as she tilted her chin challengingly. "I chose you. I remember choosing you, Alex. I remember you trying to fight him."
"Dammit, Bella, I'm a monster!" he yelled, trying to pull away from her.
She kept her legs wrapped tightly around him. Making a frustrated noise under her breath, Bella reached up and grabbed his head, pulling him down as her lips came up to meet his.
Idiot man. Then again, she wasn't entirely surprised at Alex's attempt to take the entire burden of guilt onto himself. Her memories were coming back. Not as quickly as Alex's had—that had looked painful as hell—but they were sliding back in one at a time. Most of them to do with Alex, many of them surrounded around her admiration for him, her appreciation of him, her love for him.
She remembered him hurting her. She also remembered him holding her as he told her why. She remembered them fucking, and she also remembered them making love. Alex's arms around her at night, creating a safe haven in the midst of uncertainty. Her fear for him as he tried to fight to keep her safe. The way he'd constantly put his own body between her and perceived danger.
Bella kissed him. Hard. Passionately.
Maybe the idiot didn't remember everything, maybe he was only remembering the bad, because right now she was remembering a lot of the good. His mouth tasted of mint and chocolate, his cock rocked against her pussy and she flooded with anticipation. Memories slid through her, both good and bad, many of them arousing her even though it made her feel a little ashamed to be turned on by them... but then again, she'd been turned on when they'd been happening to her.
"Bella..." Alex sounded tortured as he pulled his mouth away from hers, although he was no longer trying to detangle their bodies completely.
"Shut up," she said fiercely, glaring up at him. "I remember choosing you, Alex. I remember how guilty you felt when I did it, but I didn't feel any guilt until the Wolf took you instead. I always liked you, even when Ken and I were together. And while we were down there... I think... I know... I couldn't have made it through without you. You were everything to me. You still are."
His gaze softened, his fingers brushing over her cheek as she blinked back tears.
"I remember us touching. You holding me. I remember how much I liked it," she murmured, rubbing her hand over his chest, now that he seemed to be softening. Listening to her. The intense look in his eyes didn't go away though, it just shifted, changed... heated. "I think... I might have fallen in love with you down there, Alex."
Something flashed through his eyes. Hot. Possessive. Relieved. This time his lips came down on hers by choice, demanding and hard. Bella moaned into his kiss, thankful that he'd finally stopped being so gentle with her.
She tore at his shirt, and suddenly they were both in a frenzy to get each other's clothes off. To be skin to skin, the way they'd been so accustomed to. Neither of them even noticed the Wolf's voice droning on in the background—or if they did, it was subconsciously and it didn't distract either of them. With their memories fully returned, they were used to his presence.
Alex squeezed her breasts, his mouth coming down on one nipple and she writhed as his teeth scraped against the little bud.
"Harder," she pleaded, arching and thrusting her breasts up into his face, her fingers weaving through the dark locks of his hair. "Please, Alex."
He sucked harder, biting down as his fingers pinched her other nipple tightly and Bella shuddered as the sensation went straight to her pussy. She rocked, trying to rub herself against him, and was only able to reach his stomach. The hard length of his erection was pressing against her thigh, but not anywhere near enough to her pussy to satisfy her.
The rough manipulation of her sensitive nipples was making her wild, and she begged and pleaded for him as he toyed with her. It was hedonistic. Painful pleasure. All the things she'd reluctantly liked about their time with the Wolf, except without the humiliation, without the fear, without the shame. And it was with Alex. Just Alex.
When he moved up her body, taking her lips as his cock thrust into her pussy, Bella nearly orgasmed as their bodies aligned. She clung to him, moaning wildly as he began to slowly move back and forth, his large cock spearing her open and stretching her. After a steady diet of sexual contact with the Wolf, and then nothing for the past few weeks, she felt needier than ever... but she was also tight and needed the time to adjust to his size again.
One hand slid down her back and under her buttocks. Her juices were trickling down the crease of her bottom, and she felt his finger slide through them, rubbing over her anus. She tightened around him, her body stiffening as his finger rimmed the little hole, pressing gently on it. Part of her wanted to tell him no, while the rest of her screamed yes.
The sensitive bundle of nerves seemed to spark as the tip of his finger slid in, pumping gently as he continued to rise and fall over her, his tongue invading her mouth, so that it was like he was taking her in all three holes at once. Bella felt herself giving over to the sensations, giving in... submitting to Alex's protective dominance.
Ecstasy swirled through her, and she began to buck and writhe beneath him, her orgasm swelling higher.
It was sick, so sick, but he liked the stiffness of Bella's body as his finger first pierced her anus. He loved the surge of power that came when she didn't protest, when her slick pussy tightened around him and she gave herself over to pleasure instead, accepting him, all of him. The Wolf had shown him that there were some ways in which they were similar, but if she'd told him no, he would have honored that barrier.
That was how they were different.
And Alex clung to that.
But he couldn't deny the effect it had on him when she didn't tell him no.
His finger went deeper into that hot, tight channel, his thrusts becoming harder as she arched beneath him, crying out. The tremors of her pussy became spasms as her inner muscles clenched, trying to milk his cock. Alex groaned, crying out her name as his balls tightened and he swelled inside of her clasping heat. Fulling impaling her on both his cock and his finger, he groaned as he felt the pulses of his own dick against the digit in her ass, filling her pussy with cum.
Head bowed, he pulled his finger out, his cock jerking slightly at her soft whimper.
Still half-hard, still pressed inside of her, he kissed her lips, her nose, her eyes, enjoying the way she squirmed beneath him, her fingers stroking her skin. It was like rediscovering her now that their memories were back.
A long while later, still entangled on the floor, although now he was on his back and she was on her side, curled up against him with her head resting on his shoulder, they listened to the news anchors debating whether or not the Wolf meant to go to war with the Moon. They scoffed at the very idea, jeering his claim that the Moon couldn't last very long without the support of the earth. One of them laughed and said, "Didn't anyone tell him we're self-sufficient?"
But Bella and Alex knew differently. They remembered.
"What are we going to do?" she asked, softly, her fingers sliding through the hair on his chest, almost petting him. Alex found her gentle touch soothing, if a bit ticklish.
He'd been thinking the exact same thing. "We're going to tell them. Tell everyone. Okay?"
There was only the barest moment of hesitation before she nodded her head. "Okay."