Chapter Sixteen
Trey
A ngelica hadn’t spoken to me, aside from a few short sentences while planning our arrival in Egypt. That was four hours ago.
I was trying to give her space, to let her process all of this, but I was starting to lose patience. We were nearing our landing, just outside of Siwa in a few hours, and I didn’t want this hanging between us. I spent the time alone going over the Draconian words I was supposed to say to get into the between realm, as well as the spell to destroy the artifact.
It was very old Draconian, like the writing on the walls of the temple, but I thought I was getting the hang of it. Max had loaded some language software onto my phone that was helping with pronunciation, and I couldn’t help but think about what would happen if he and the Archive’s resident tech genius, Sprite, ever had the chance to work together. The things they could create would truly be a marvel. I wasn’t sure how Max had been able to program the language software with ancient Draconian, but I was starting to think there wasn’t much Angelica’s kids couldn’t do once they put their minds to it.
Just like their mother.
I glanced at the bedroom at the back of the jet; she’d closed the door when we reached cruising altitude, and she hadn’t made a sound since. No crying, no talking. Nothing.
Processing…that’s what she’s doing. She’s definitely not shutting me out.
I looked at the door again and then at my watch.
Four and half hours.
I rubbed my forehead with my fingers and tried to let it go but I couldn’t. She was definitely shutting me out.
I understood at some level. It was dangerous, I could die. The more I went through the ritual, the more I had to admit that there was a very good chance this thing would drain me dry. But it wasn’t for certain. There was a chance…
Just not a very good one.
I passed another hour like this when my patience finally wore out.
I knocked softly at first, and when there was no answer, I tried the door. It opened, and I found her sitting on the bed staring out the window at the sky as we flew.
“Yes?” she asked, her voice distant as she continued to face the window.
I had plenty of time to think about how to approach this, what to say. And all of it flew right out of my head with that one word. She was definitely shutting me out. All the progress we’d made, the closeness that had made me feel like I breathed for the first time in my life, Angelica was shoving it aside and trying to rebuild those walls I’d painstakingly demolished one brick at a time.
Anger shot through me like good scotch, scorching away all the cool, calm words I’d planned.
“We need to talk.”
“About what?”
“Damn it, Angelica! You know exactly what we need to talk about.”
Her back straightened but she made no move to get up and face me. That just pissed me off more.
“Will you look at me? Stop shutting me out!”
“I’m not doing this with you.”
The room was small, so it didn’t take much to move to the other side of the bed and stand in front of her. Angelica focused on something over my shoulder instead of looking at me, her eyes red rimmed, jaw tight.
“Not doing what?” I asked. “Not having an adult conversation with me? You’re acting like a fucking child!”
She reared back like I’d slapped her and then narrowed her eyes, finally looking at me.
“You’ve made your decision. I couldn’t convince you to stand down at Derek’s house, what good would it do to sit here and argue?”
“Because I want to hear what’s going through your head. I want you to yell and scream at me if that’s what you’re feeling. But I’m not going to let you sit here and ignore me.”
Her eyes lit up with fury, lips pressed into a tight, thin line as she sprang to her feet. A thrill lifted my heart up and the heat in my blood became less about anger. This was the Angelica I was used to. The one that would stand toe-to-toe with me, who would tell me exactly what she thought, not hide away and just lay down to wait for the pain.
“Well?” I goaded. “I know you hate this plan. I know you’re angry at me.”
“Of course I’m fucking angry!”
“Then fucking say it!”
“You promised to be with me! You said you would protect me, that you loved me, but here you are! Ready to go off and die and leave me, just like David!”
The last word was almost screamed on a breathy sob, and her mouth snapped shut.
“He always put his mission ahead of us,” her voice trembled. “Whenever it came to finding a way, not to just get rid of Specter but of the power he had, there was always a reason he couldn’t. Who would protect the city, he’d say. Who would protect our family? What about the world if something truly dark was unleashed, who would be able to defeat it? David always had an excuse!”
“I’m not David.”
“Yes, you are! In this moment, doing this, leaving me without so much as an attempt to find another way, that’s exactly him! And I won’t do it again. I won’t let myself fall for another man who puts power and the whole world above me! I won’t! I…I can’t.”
It was irrational, pure emotion and pain from her past driving her thinking. I’d never seen her like this, with her broken heart on full display at my feet. She trusted me, even in the midst of all this anger and hurt, Angelica trusted me, and loved me enough to show me these shattered pieces of herself. It was the most incredible gift anyone had ever given me, and it was slicing me up inside.
“You want to know why I dated boring men?” she asked, scrubbing tears off her cheeks. “It’s because those boring men don’t have powers or a calling. They climb mountains for fun, not for artifacts. They never get called away from dinner because the city is getting attacked by demons. And they never have to open up their veins and bleed to save the world.”
“I can’t speak to what David did or didn’t do, but I’m not him, Angelica, and I will spend the rest of my life proving it to you, but you have to trust me.”
“How? When you’re so damn eager to run off and die!”
“I’m not! I’m terrified of losing you, of not spending the rest of my life with you and showing you all the love you deserve. I hate this! I don’t want to do this, and if there was any other way, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I don’t need to be the hero. All I need is you.”
I could see her anger cracking with each word but she was still hanging on to the shield of her anger. And I finally understood why. But if we were going to make it, I had to get her to put it down.
My warm hands seized her cold, small ones and I bent down, forcing her to catch my eye.
“You are everything to me. You are mine and I am yours for all time. I will burn this planet to coal and crush it into a diamond for you, if you so wish. But I won’t stand by and let you get hurt, let your children get hurt, if I can stop it, so don’t ask me to.”
Her lips trembled and hot breaths of fury and pain shot out of her mouth.
“And,” I added, putting steel into my voice, “I will never, ever let you just walk away and shut me out because you’re scared of what might happen if you let yourself love me. So don’t even fucking think about it, Angelica.”
Her face crumpled and I caught her as she pitched forward. In a swift motion, I was sitting on the edge of the bed with her on my lap, rubbing her back as she soaked my shirt front.
“Why am I always crying in front of you?” she fumed through tears.
“I have that effect on women.”
She laughed and then sobbed again.
“You’re such a fucking asshole,” she mumbled.
“And you’re a stubborn pain in my ass. I guess we’re perfect for each other.”
Her fingers curled around handfuls of my shirt and she let out a watery chuckle.
“Yeah…I think we might be.”
Those words carried a weight that hadn’t been there before, and I couldn’t help the fire that coursed through my body as hope took hold of my heart. I seized her hot mouth with my own and tangled with her tongue, just as we had tangled with words. I’d meant everything I’d said to her; this woman was mine and I was going to make that perfectly clear to her. She would never be able to forget or deny it when I was done with her.
I was about to throw her to the bed, when Angelica shifted on my lap, straddling me. Her cunt was wet, I could smell it, and when she pressed herself down on my quickly extruding cock, we both let out a deep moan that we devoured from one another. I needed to sheath myself completely inside of her and fill her with my cum, my scent.
Her hands went to the hem of her shirt and we both stripped it off her at the same time. I didn’t even wait for her to unclasp her bra before I had the cup tugged aside and the pert bud of her breast was in my mouth.
Angelica let loose a choked gasp, flinging her head back as she clung to my shoulders. Her body was grinding on mine, and I thrust up, dry humping against her in a desperation for release that I had never felt before.
It would’ve been better to set her on her feet and draw her pants down, to dive between her thighs, but the drive to claim was too much. Instead I dug my hands into the front of her linen pants and tugged, ripping them down the center.
She stared down at what I’d done and grinned up at me, her lips red from mine, skin dotted and streaked with scratches.
“You’re going to owe me a wardrobe when this is done.”
“You won’t need it,” I declared, lifting up my hips enough to get my cock out of my pants, “I’m going to tie you to my bed for a month after this. I want my fill of your gorgeous body.”
She was going to say something when my tail slithered around between us and began to play with her clit. Her eyes rolled back and she pulsed her hips against me, searching for more. I wanted to tease her, to make her whimper and plead, but I needed her too much. With a vicious thrust as I brought her hips down, I impaled myself into her fully.
A bellowing groan erupted from my lips; she was so tight, so warm and perfect.
“I could fuck you all day,” my tail worked her clit more, “and it would never be enough.”
Her mouth opened on a silent scream and her body tensed as her cunt tightened around me and she came.
“So beautiful,” I bit and sucked her throat, “give me another.”
I knew she would, not just because my tail hadn’t left her clit alone even as she rode out her release, but because my cock had been soaked with aphrodisiac. She was getting so much of it that her body was starting to shake as she rode me harder.
“Make me come again,” she begged.
“Who would burn down the world for you?” I demanded, thrusting up to meet her body.
“Y-you.”
“And who do you want to fuck you right now? Who makes you feel better than anyone, ever?”
She whimpered through clenched teeth as I stilled inside of her, my tail paused.
“No, no, no, don’t stop!”
I threaded my fingers in her silken hair and pulled her head back to look in my eyes.
“Who are you begging for this? Who is it that makes you feel good, Angelica?”
She knew exactly what I was demanding, I could see it in her eyes.
“You,” she breathed, “my mate.”
“Fuck,” I snarled, slamming my lips to hers.
After that it was hard to tell if she was riding me or I was fucking up into her or both. We were unhinged, promises dripping from our lips like honey that we caught in bruising kisses as I milked another orgasm from her. Angelica didn’t stopped shaking as I pulled her off me and set her on all fours on the bed. I gave her no chance to adjust before I plunged into her up to my knot. I couldn’t stop, and she was begging me to fill her, to make her feel good.
And I wanted that, to blend her scent with mine. Everything in me was focused to a single, primal thought: to claim.
I had to claim my mate, to fuck her and fill her and bite her.
I folded myself over her, but stopped just short of latching my mouth onto her shoulder. I loved her too much, even in this haze of savage need, to force this on her.
“Please, Trey,” she looked over her shoulder at me, hair tossed and tangled, lips so red, eyes watery. “Please…”
“You’re everything to me, I’ll give you anything,” I pressed my mouth to ear as I fucked her hard and deep. “All of me is yours, I’m your slave.”
She was crying out, toes curling, and body convulsing as another release tore through her. This time I couldn’t hold on, it was too much, the way her tight channel was milking me. I spilled with a roaring yell as my knot slipped inside of her. I pulsed over and over, the sensation rolling unending through me.
“Mine…mine…” I kept saying, my hands all over her hips and breasts. “Mine…please be mine…never run from me again.”
“Never,” she swore, reaching up and behind to hold me to her. “Never…I’m yours Trey…I’m yours.”
It was the drunken aftermath of the rut, I knew that, and yet I wanted to believe it. To trust that she was telling me the truth and not just something that was pulled from her in the moment.
“I love you,” I whispered, kissing and nibbling her back. “You don’t have to say it back…but I do…I love you, Angelica.”
“Trey…”
It was then I realized she was crying and I went still, dread coiling in my gut.
“Did I hurt you? Oh Fates, Angelica, I’m sorry!”
“No, you didn’t hurt me.”
I curled us onto our sides, and held her to me with my knot still inside of her.
“What is it? Was it just too much?”
“No, it was…I’ve never been fucked like this before…no, not fucked, loved. I’ve never been loved like this before.”
I waited. Every muscle in my body that had been loose and liquid a moment ago was now tense as I waited to hear what I’d done to make her cry.
“I’ve never felt this way before,” her broken whisper was hesitant. “As if…as if I really do belong to someone, and not in an ownership way. But…in a belonging way. I can’t explain it but…it’s like finding my home in another person. And it terrifies me because I could lose you.”
Now she was sobbing in earnest and I held her tighter, relief spinning through me but also the desperate need to comfort her.
“You won’t. I finally have you, do you really think I’d do anything to jeopardize that? I’ve waited for you for so long and now we’re together, I want a lifetime with you. And I aim to take it.”
“Promise me,” she asked. “Swear it on something sacred.”
I turned her chin so she could look over her shoulder at me, my gaze soldered to hers.
“I swear on the love I have for you, we will never be apart from this day forward. Whether we live or die, it will be together.”
I kissed away her tears, drinking down her worries until she drew back and looked me in the eyes.
“I love you, Trey.”
Was it possible for one’s heart to actually stop and yet still be alive? For it to then beat hard and full, and not burst? Because that was what was happening to me.
I had no words to answer her with, so I told her what was in my heart with my body instead.