Chapter 18
JULIA
MALAKAI
"Such fire," I observe, leaning closer until my lips brush her ear. "Did Asher understand what burns beneath that carefully constructed facade? Or did he only know the parts you allowed him to see?"
"Don't speak his name," she warns, struggling against my shadows. Her scent spikes with old grief and rage.
I grasp her throat—not squeezing, just asserting complete Alpha control.
My fangs hover near her unmarked scent gland.
"I'll speak whatever fucking name I please.
Asher. Does it hurt to hear it? To remember how he died choking on his own blood while I watched the light fade from his eyes?
How he whispered your name with his last breath? "
Her response is instant—she spits directly in my face. "I will kill you for that. I will make you suffer as he suffered. I will make you beg."
I wipe the spittle away with deliberate slowness, then smile. "There she is. The real Seraphina Thorne. Not the diplomat's daughter. Not the reluctant bride. The assassin who dreams of my blood on her hands." I lean until our noses nearly touch. "You're exquisite when you stop pretending."
Confusion flickers across her face, warring with fury. "What are you—"
I silence her with a kiss so brutal it draws blood from us both. She bites down hard on my lower lip, and I laugh against her mouth, the coppery taste mixing between us. My Alpha revels in her violence.
"Still fighting," I approve, pressing my body against hers. "Even now.
My shadows force her to her knees. She glares up, defiance blazing despite her submission. But I can scent the sweet musk of arousal mixing with her anger.
"Is this what you want?" she demands. "To force me to submit? To prove your power over me?"
"What I want," I say, untying my trousers while holding her gaze, "is truth. The third truth, specifically. Why did you save my life when letting me die would have solved all your problems?"
Through our connection, I feel her genuine confusion. "The fated mate bond. If you died violently, I would suffer the same fate."
"A convenient explanation." I free my cock from my clothing. Her eyes fix on it despite herself, pupils dilating. "But not the complete truth. We both know the bond wouldn't have killed you, only caused pain. Try again."
Her breathing quickens, tongue darting out to wet her lips. "I don't know. I just...reacted. I didn't think."
"Interesting. So the trained assassin who plans everything just happened to save her enemy's life without thinking?" I tilt her chin up. "I need more than that, Omega."
"I can't…" Frustration cracks her voice. "I need time. The third truth is complicated."
"Very well. You have until tomorrow for that one. But in exchange, you'll give me something else right now."
"What?" Her eyes remain fixed on my cock with a mixture of hatred and hunger.
"I want you to show me what you feel when I touch you. Stop pretending your Omega doesn't respond to your Alpha even as your mind rejects everything I represent."
"I hate you."
"I know. But hatred and desire aren't mutually exclusive, are they?" I press the head of my cock against her lips. "Open your mouth for me, Seraphina . Not because I force you, but because we both know your Omega wants to taste your Alpha."
She remains frozen, fury and desire battling across her features. I can feel the hunger radiating from her.
My shadows release her completely. "You can leave. Walk out that door right now. I won't stop you. But we both know you won't."
For a long moment, she simply kneels there—proud, deadly Seraphina caught between need and resistance. I feel the exact moment something breaks inside her.
"Why are you doing this to me?" she whispers, anguish in her voice.
"Because I want all of you. Not just your body, but your acknowledgment of what lies between us. The truth you won't admit—that your Omega recognizes your Alpha, bond or no bond."
With deliberate slowness, she parts her lips and takes me into her mouth, golden eyes never leaving mine—defiant even in submission.
The sensation is exquisite. I groan, fingers tightening in her hair as she takes me deeper. "Where did you learn this particular talent?" I ask as she swirls her tongue around the head. "Who taught you to use that clever mouth for more than lies and threats?"
I break off as she hollows her cheeks, sucking hard. "Actually, don't answer that. I'd hate to have to resurrect someone just so I could kill them more slowly."
Her eyes flash, but instead of stopping, she doubles her efforts, taking me deeper until I feel the back of her throat. My shadows pulse and writhe around us, responding to overwhelming pleasure.
"Fuck," I hiss as she grazes her teeth lightly along my length—a dangerous reminder that she could hurt me if she chose. The threat only heightens my arousal.
I watch as her lips stretch around me, her cheeks hollowing with each suck. One hand grips the base of my shaft while the other cups my balls, squeezing just enough to border between pleasure and pain.
The bond pulses with her unwilling arousal—she's getting wet from this. My shadows respond, slipping beneath her dress to find dampened undergarments soaked through. She moans around my cock as shadowy tendrils stroke her through the fabric.
"Look at you," I growl, thrusting gently into her mouth. "So wet for me while you take my cock down your throat. What would your precious Order think? What would Asher think, seeing you on your knees, servicing the Alpha who killed him?"
Without warning, I pull out completely and haul her to her feet. I spin her around and bend her over my desk, shoving up her dress to expose her ass, barely covered by silk underwear soaked through—so much it's coating her thighs.
"Is this how he took you?" I demand, tearing the fabric aside. "From behind like an Omega in heat?" I press the head of my cock against her entrance without penetrating. "Did he knot you? Did your Omega scream for his bite while he claimed you?"
"Fuck you," she gasps, but her hips push back desperately.
My shadow tendrils spread her thighs wider as I press just the tip inside. One tendril wraps around her throat—not choking, but covering her scent gland, protecting it from my fangs because I don't trust myself not to bite. "Tell me you want this. Tell me you want me inside you."
"No," she refuses, though her body shakes with need.
I withdraw completely, replacing my cock with shadowy fingers that stroke her clit while she writhes. "Admit it, Seraphina . Your Omega knows what your mind refuses to accept. You were made for this. For me."
She bites back a moan as my shadows work her sensitive flesh, dipping just inside before retreating. "I—I hate you."
"That wasn't the question." I position myself again, my cock parting her folds without entering. "Say the words or I walk away right now, leaving you empty and aching."
Her body trembles. The bond pulses with her internal struggle.
"Say it," I insist, one hand gripping her hip hard enough to bruise while the other tangles in her hair, pulling her head back. "Tell me what your Omega needs."
"I want you," she finally whispers.
"Louder." I push just the tip inside. "Let me hear you admit it."
"I want you!" she cries. "I want you inside me, damn you! I want my Alpha!"
The last words slip out involuntarily—pure Omega instinct.
I slam into her with one powerful thrust, burying myself to the hilt. We both cry out—she feels like silk and fire, her body clenching around me like she was made for me.
"This is mine," I growl, setting a punishing pace as I grip her hips hard enough to leave marks. The slap of flesh against flesh fills the room, punctuated by her moans and my harsh breathing. "Your Omega cunt was made for your Alpha's cock."
She gasps and moans beneath me, her body responding with pure submission even as her mind still fights.
My fangs press against the shadow tendril protecting her throat. Every thrust makes me want to bite, to claim, to mark her as mine forever. The urge is overwhelming.
I'm so close to biting.
And that's when it happens.
Her heat-scent floods my senses, her body arching beneath me in desperate invitation. Her scent gland pulses against my lips, swollen and ready, begging for the bite that would trigger her full heat and complete our bond. Every instinct screams at me to sink my fangs in, to claim her, to—
But something else surfaces. A memory. A different scent. A different Omega beneath me, two hundred years ago, begging for my bite with the same desperate need.
My fangs are at Seraphnia’s throat, the shadow tendril dissolved in my distraction, ready to claim—
"Julia," I whisper, the forbidden name torn from my lips before I can stop it, pulled from some wounded place I thought had died long ago with memories that should have stayed buried.
Seraphina freezes beneath me instantly. My mind clears like ice water thrown over a flame, horror washing through me as I realize what I've done—what name I've spoken for the first time in two centuries while buried inside the wrong woman.
I pull out abruptly, my shadows lashing violently around the room. Vases shatter. Papers scatter. The temperature drops until frost forms on the windows.
"Get out," I command, refusing to meet her eyes because I know what I'll see there—questions I can never answer.
She turns slowly, confusion and hurt evident. "Malakai—"
"I SAID GET OUT!" I roar, shadows exploding outward with enough force to crack the stone floor.
She doesn't need to be told a third time. Without another word, she flees, the door slamming behind her.
I sink to my knees amid the destruction, my shadows writhing violently as I struggle to regain control. My fangs still ache with the need to bite a mate I can never have again.
Two hundred years of carefully maintained barriers, shattered by a single moment of weakness with a woman who was never supposed to matter this much. A woman who makes me feel things I swore died with Julia.
And now Seraphina knows a name she was never meant to hear—a name I haven't spoken aloud since the day I buried my heart alongside the only Omega I ever loved.
But the bond with Seraphina pulls at me even now, incomplete and aching, feeling dangerously similar to what I had with Julia.
The third truth can wait. Right now, I have my own ghosts to contend with—ghosts I thought I'd successfully buried beneath centuries of calculated cruelty.
But some wounds never truly heal. Some loves never truly die.
Julia.
The name echoes in my empty chambers, a ghost that refuses to stay buried.
And somewhere in the palace, Seraphina runs, carrying the weight of a dead woman's name and questions I'll never be able to answer.