Chapter Twenty-Three Dylan #2
My back hit the mat in a sweeping move, Silas’s weight on top of me.
There was a moment of panic from me at first, my fight or flight returning since it had only been moments since Silas was trying to kill me.
Silas hesitated when he felt me go rigid.
His touch softened to show me he meant no harm.
When I relaxed against his touch, I felt his hands go up my body, sending waves of relief and heat through me.
He broke the kiss and looked down at me. The red in his eyes was shimmering under the moon’s light, and the concern he held there was evident.
“I will never hurt you. Never again. You were mine, and I was put here to protect you. And I will spend every moment of our days together showing you I will never hurt you again.”
His lips met mine again, and this time he took his time like he was getting to know me again, savoring every moment and every touch between us. The bond urged us to complete it, but I could feel Silas restraining himself. I was so relieved by his carefulness; it was a weight off my shoulders.
With each kiss, the need from him grew. He took the time to kiss my body, removing clothes as necessary, noting where blood had been from the cuts his fists had left behind, and he took extra time to show special attention wherever he found it.
I heard him whispering “I’m sorry” with those kisses, like he had to make up for what he had done under somebody else’s influence.
Through the bond, I let him know I didn’t blame him for what he had done.
That wasn’t him, and I knew it wasn’t. My mate was the one taking his time to love me before, waiting for me to heal and never forcing me into something I wasn’t ready for, even claiming me in the last way of the ritual only because he knew I was finally ready.
When he reached my mouth again, he slowly sheathed his hard cock inside me.
The sigh of contentment escaped us both. He lingered, as if picking up his pace would hurt me. The tenderness he showed wasn’t like the last time we were together.
It meant more.
He continuously poured the love he felt for me through the bond as he loved my body in every way that he could.
The coiling pressure built inside me. Silas used his patient hunter tactics to push me to the edge until I growled at him to give me the release I needed.
He grabbed the back of my knee, pushing my leg high against his hip to drive himself deeper, sending me over that edge screaming his name.
There was a moment that passed between us as he stared into my eyes.
Through the bond, I could feel his happiness.
This was finally happening, and he wished this was how we could stay for the rest of the night.
He wanted this moment to be different, but I didn’t care.
This was perfect for me. I grabbed onto the back of his neck and slammed his lips against mine, pushing my hips to urge him to go faster. He didn’t need to feel this way.
Silas took my response and ran with it. He picked up his pace, driving himself hard and deep inside of me with my leg still raised.
He grabbed the other leg and lifted me slightly off the ground, somehow getting him impossibly deep and moving at a punishing pace.
The orgasm crashed through me, and my eyes rolled to the back of my head.
I wrapped my legs around him, and his lips were on mine as he released the hold on my legs.
As he kissed along my jaw, his pace continued until he found his mark, just above where Jackson put his.
He sunk his teeth back into my neck, claiming me for a second time, and the pleasure ripped through me where I screamed louder than I ever had before.
His release followed mine, and as he went slack against me, he retracted his canines from my neck.
We were out of breath and entangled with each other as we stared into each other’s eyes.
There was a time when I thought this would never be real, but now I couldn’t see it any other way.
The Great Moon did more than a good job.
This felt perfect. The three mates she had created for me were everything I could ever need.
“What’s going through that pretty head of yours?”
I let out a laugh because I knew he wasn’t used to the bond being there to check himself. It took me a while to know I could easily pull the information I needed from my mates through the bonds. He needed some reassurance, so I sent it through the bond before putting my hand on his face.
“How stupid we were to throw this all away. But also how I wish I could freeze time right now to savor this.”
He leaned his forehead on mine, and I could feel he felt the same. “Yeah. Too much time wasted on wanting the other to feel the pain we went through.”
There were footsteps approaching, and the presence of my other mates washed over me before they came into view.
Jackson was on top of the hill first, coming from the dorm, and I could see his face contorted with a bit of rage before his eyes landed on me.
In the bond, his confusion hit me like he didn’t expect for Silas to be there, even though I could feel all three bonds thrumming in my chest. I held my breath as I waited for Hunter to come into view.
The bond was there, so he couldn’t be dead, and I could feel him nearby.
The problem was that I wasn’t that far from the academy, so I could tell whether he was in the infirmary or not.
Then he came into view.
Even though I felt bad, I pushed Silas off me and got to my feet. I ran to Hunter, bypassing Jackson, and threw myself into Hunter’s arms. He wrapped them around me and sighed as he pressed his nose to my neck and breathed in my scent.
“You scared the shit out of me,” I sobbed into his neck, breathing in that citrus and woodsy scent.
“I could say the same to you.”
He pushed me back enough to look into my eyes. I dropped my gaze to his chest and raised his shirt to see where the dagger had been pushed. There was no mark. He had healed, but I needed to see it for myself.
“It’s fine. I’m good, love.” He kissed my forehead as he put both of his hands on my face and forced me to look at him. “Never chase off an enemy again and leave me. Do you understand?”
“He would have kept going if I didn’t distract him, Hunter!”
Jackson growled, and I turned to see him with his hands over Silas’s throat and Silas in the air.
Hunter dropped his hands from my face and pushed past me to stalk toward my other mates.
I chased after them and jumped onto Hunter’s back to stop him.
It was like jumping onto a damn tree. Hunter pressed on like he didn’t even feel me on his back.
“STOP!” I pushed the command through the bonds.
Jackson dropped Silas and turned toward me. I didn’t know that would even work, but I was happy it did. Both of them were staring at me with Silas coughing on the ground. Somehow, they couldn’t feel the bond completed between us, or they didn’t care. They wanted to hurt Silas for what he had done.
Could I blame them? No. Kind of hard to. But they needed to know we were past that.
“Silas was under Lupe’s control. He had been since she took him, and getting him out of that chair was a set up, but I fixed it. He is ours now.”
Jackson sniffed in Silas’s direction, which I found kind of funny in the moment since Silas was naked on the ground. When he looked back at me, I nodded.
“You finished the bond with him?”
“Yes.”
There were a few growls from all of them, but I ignored them. They were all on edge, and there was no blame. I knew this situation was fucked from the start, and I couldn’t imagine how they felt. I still wanted to punch Silas for stabbing Hunter.
Silas got to his feet just in time for Hunter to close the distance and land a hard punch to his jaw, which made him fall back to the ground.
“What the fuck, man?”
“That’s for stabbing me. If I can’t stab you,” which he pulled his own dagger from a sheath in his pants, “then a punch will have to do.”
Silas sighed and nodded. Hunter sheathed the dagger again and held out a hand for Silas to help him get up.
“We need to get back to the dorm. Something is going down. None of the guards are here,” Jackson said, taking off his shirt and handing it to me.
Hunter took off his pants and threw them at Silas to put on. Once we had enough clothes on, we headed toward the dorm.
“What do you mean, there aren’t any guards?”
“They left. Lupe is gone, too.”
Fuuuuck.