EPILOGUE 2
COOPER
I never thought I’d be in this position, but I shouldn’t really be surprised with Ezla as my woman.
On my tiptoes, I only just reach the floor, and my arms are bound securely above my head by a hoop attached to the wall in our Bonded bedroom.
There’s quite a few sex toys that we still haven’t used yet, and I’ve admittedly had a thorough look through all the drawers in here to see if I’m interested to try any with HC.
And yet somehow I missed the metal hoops on extra-strong sticky pads that can be glued to the taalk in here and are able to hold a fully grown man’s weight without budging an inch.
Butt-ass naked, I glance at my eldest brother on my left. “I can’t believe we’re letting her do this,” I mutter.
Identical to me in the way he’s been attached to the wall and left with no clothes on his person, Scotty only raises a brow. “Really?”
I tilt my head. “Nah. I’d let her do anything to me.”
He snorts. “Exactly.”
“You have committed many crimes over the time I have known you,” Ezla starts, and our heads both whip her way as she returns from the bathroom where she’d already started the bloody punishment by ensuring we couldn’t see her undress, staying out of sight on the other side of the wall.
“Most were minor ones,” I can’t help but point out, tone low as my eyes trail over her naked body, taking their time with each and every inch of her.
She shrugs. “Some were not. Besides, I will enjoy punishing you.”
Wetting my lips, I ask, voice coming out far rougher than intended, “So what’s this one for?”
Her eyes darken in an instant. “The other women.”
“There’s no other women, Love. Only you—”
“But there were in the past,” Vengeance snaps, cutting Scotty off. “I am very jealous. I do not like it.” Neither me nor Scotty comment on those words or her next as she tells us, “It is already on my agenda to be rid of them, but this will do as a starting point.”
Being so drunk out of my mind at the time, I can’t even remember the girls I was with before, and I believe Scotty doesn’t really either.
And I don’t want innocent lives taken, but I also can’t and don’t want to stop Vengeance from being who she is.
She’s the woman I fell in love with, every part of her, and I wouldn’t ever want to change her in the slightest. Fuck knows what that means for my own morals, but it’s the truth.
And so no, I don’t comment on her bloodthirsty words, my lust as unwavering as my gaze on her.
Moving over to the bedside table on the right side of the bed, Ezla crouches down. I can’t see all of the drawers from here, and I narrow my eyes as I hear her rummaging around.
When she rises, they narrow further on her closed fists. “What’ve you got there, Vengeance?”
A slow smirk lifts the corner of her mouth on the side of her scar—the scar containing me.
I don’t know if it’s right to feel pleasure at that, the immense satisfaction and possessiveness that comes over me every time I see the glowing dark green energy, when there’s still such a traumatising story behind it, but I’m pretty sure Ezla loves it just as much as I do, so I don’t feel too much guilt about it.
What’s more, after her birthday a couple days ago, she’s been fully in her new role as empress, and I’m happy to say everything’s going extremely smoothly:
Joseph’s phone has been smashed to smithereens by an eager, bloodthirsty Tate after we made sure everything was deleted that needed to be, and after double-checking multiple times, we collectively decided there were no hidden plans set in motion.
Ezla’s plans for the schools and serums have all been put into motion too, and the Avri labs are already working on everything needed for the future Games.
And then there’s the fact that the energy’s already starting to be ordered into different colours as well as the terms Evot, Exot, and Neutral now no longer holding any legal meaning—though we’ll need to wait a while for them to die down along with the animosity that the Showmaster is still alive to be able to help calm using his overdramatic speeches before we can open the doors in the Divides.
Not even in future Bonding Games will the terms be brought up; the two opposing sides for the event will be named something different, though that’s not been decided yet.
And the reason I mention all of that is because of the colour points: People will still be able to wear Avri, as Techta has it in excess and I don’t know a single person who doesn’t like the look of it, and there’s also the fact that there will still be Bonded as a result of the event who’ll end up will their own permanent Avri clusters that have all the same functions as us.
Furthermore, Avri will be used pretty much in the same way it’s always been for the rest of the population since it’s become such an integral part of our society, with multiple jobs requiring its usage, so it will still be an extremely big thing here.
And yet something that will stand out starkly is the lack of designated colour each owner’s cluster will have.
Individuals will have the freedom to wear whatever colours they want, and the famously opposing two won’t have the same meaning as before.
Even for those who play the Games, whatever two colours we choose—because I think they’ll be two different ones, maybe even changing each year to distance things further from the past—don’t have to be permanent for them, and they’ll have complete freedom to change the colours of their Avri after the event, a capability Ezla’s said she will ensure isn’t only stuck to citizen tablets along with the trillion other things she has to do which I bloody well am helping her with, no matter how independent she insists on being.
But I think for those who played the original Games, green and red will always have that deeper meaning.
So the significance of Ezla having green in her face after her upbringing, the way I know she’s always viewed Evots as inferior, how she demanded it be my Avri when she had the option to use her own . . . The significance is huge.
All my focus is drawn back to the present as HC’s hands open to reveal two cock rings.
Shit.
Swallowing thickly, her name comes out as a warning, but I’m not too sure why because my dick’s betraying me by leaking and throbbing incessantly. “Vengeance . . .”
Smirk growing, her hips sway as she advances on us.
I hear Scotty’s own throat work beside me.
“This punishment can also be for what happened that morning.”
I turn to stone.
There’s no need for clarification on which morning she means.
Before I can apologise or let the horror of those events after our first night together drag me into its murky depths, Ezla orders, voice even but stern, “Do not think of it. What you said was the right thing to say. Everything went in the only way it could have. I would just like to get it out of the way, and not just because I cannot help but despise the way you spoke to me despite its necessity, but additionally because I can feel your lingering remorse.” When her tone becomes that attractively cruel one in a snap, my body tingles all over.
“We will purge all of that negativity tonight.”
“With cock rings?” Scotty asks, arousal coating each syllable. “What are you going to do to us, Love?”
“Not much,” she replies vaguely. “But it will be sure to leave you both a weeping mess nevertheless.”
Eyeing the rings as she moves closer at that steady prowl of hers, I tell her, “I’ve never used one of those.”
“Me neither,” Scotty murmurs.
HC’s eyes sparkle with something wickedly delighted. “I am well aware. I will take every first you have left to give.”
Heart starting to pound, my nostrils flare as she stops before me.
“Me first?” My voice comes out far deeper than usual.
A simple hum is what I receive in answer, and then she’s stretching the black hoop, not waiting to see if I’m ready before she slides it onto my already-rock-hard cock, not putting it fully on me yet as she keeps it pulled wide with her fingers.
She’s clearly somehow lubed the ring up already without me noticing, I can feel as she carefully sets it in place at the base of me, and I hiss at the foreign sensation.
“Fuck, that’s— Jesus Christ!” My yell echoes through the room when the bloody thing starts to vibrate.
Vengeance’s entire being lights with nefarious glee. “How does that feel, Cooper?”
How does that feel? My cock’s bloody throbbing with my heartbeat and more sensitive than a motherfucking fresh wound.
Looking down at the sex toy, I say hoarsely, knowing she can feel all of that through the bond, “I didn’t realise it was one of the”—my neck extends, another drop of pre-cum sliding down the head of my cock as the fucking ring clenches around me—“vibrating ones,” I finish on a wheezed breath. “Did you just turn this on?”
“Of course.” Ezla almost looks fascinated by my reaction. “There is a small button currently on the underside.”
“Brilliant,” I choke out.
Scotty fails to keep his laugh in before I hear the soft sound of it under his breath.
Jaw grinding, I slide a glare his way. “Don’t know why you’re laughing. You’re about to get one of your own.”
Rolling his lips in, he says, “Fair point.” But he looks no less amused than before.
I’d curse him if the next noise to leave me in response to this torture device wasn’t a bloody whimper. Face now being assaulted by scorching-hot heat, mortification flowing through me, I can only groan as I drown in my newfound misery and pleasure, head hanging.
A couple minutes later and Scotty’s letting out a hiss of his own. “Fuck, that’s tight.”
“Comfortable?” Ezla asks, hardly containing her joy at seeing us this way.
“No,” I grit out for the both of us as a faint buzzing starts up on my left in sync with Scotty’s grunt.