Chapter 36 Thayla #3
“I rescue babies from the Abandon, bring them here for Ellian to put in the Gods Veil to strip their power, then Annalise adopts them. I go over the barrier whenever I can when I hear a soul cry out for help. I either bring them back to be stripped and healed or I take their souls and ask the Valories to forgive them when I release them.”
My breath hitches and my eyes widen. That is not at all what I was expecting him to say.
Babies…he saves children from the fate he and his brothers faced.
“R-Rowden?”
He nods. “One of my hardest ones to bring back because he didn’t have his powers stripped over in the Abandon.
He was three. His parents tried to hide him, but he’s got a domain under Chaos, and the kid is a natural prankster.
His parents tried to kill him when he got them in trouble.
I showed up, killed them, and took him. I couldn’t starshoot, though, because he had power and he escaped me twice. ”
Oh gods. That poor, sweet, adorable little mischief maker. No wonder he listens to Riven.
“See. You’ve made choices—hard ones—that saved a precious life and ended two cruel ones. And it’s not even always lives. The other week, you killed poison flowing through some Plentifuls.”
My voice softens, and I try to fight back the tears welling in my eyes.
“Even when you have to, Creed, death isn’t always bad.
It’s release. It’s mercy. It’s balance. And yes, sometimes it’s tragedy.
But it doesn’t make you evil just because it’s yours to carry or because your power may crave it.
Remember what you told me? All that matters now is what we decide to do with it. ”
He stares, I swear through my soul, long enough I can’t catch my breath.
The emotions that roll across his eyes are dizzying and I can’t keep up as they flow from realization to intense, overwhelming devotion.
He lowers his forehead until it meets mine.
My restraint snaps and my soul shoves me on.
I seal my lips to his and I don’t let him go.
My hands roam over his arms, his back, around his neck, until my fingers lace their way through his hair.
I can’t touch him enough.
I need to feel the abundance of life I know thrums under his skin.
“Creed.”
“Thayla.”
“Seal our souls.”
“They already are.”
“Well, seal them even more.”
My body falls still as a sound I’ve never heard from him falls from his chest. He doesn’t even attempt to pretend he didn’t just do that.
“Did you just chuckle?”
“I did.”
“Do it again.”
He doesn’t. Instead, he does something far more mouthwatering.
He smirks.
My entire body heats as that dark look traces my face to my heart and all the way back up.
“You’re not going to get what you want by demanding.”
“I’m sure as shit not going to beg you.”
Gods.
Those tilted lips of his turn into a ruinous smile. “Wanna bet, my endling?”
No…fuck no. Not with the low, sexy way he just said that.
“Yes.”
He shakes his head. “You’re going to regret that smart-ass mouth of yours, Thayla.”
Valories, I hope so.
His hand grips the back of my neck as his lips collide with mine. I try, I really do, to take over the kiss, but it’s pointless. His soul bombards mine and I moan into his mouth.
“What was that?” I pant as he pulls away.
He doesn’t answer me. He snatches my shirt over my head and captures my nipple between his teeth. I hiss through the sting of pain until he washes it away with his tongue. He moves on to the next, and I arch my back as his soul does whatever that was again.
“Creed.”
“That was my soul caressing yours exactly as I told it to. You didn’t think the only thing it could do was soothe you, did you?”
Oh shit.
A reckless moan rips free from me as he kisses his way down my stomach while playing with my soul like it’s his personal toy. His fingers hook into my underwear and pull them off in less than a breath.
“Decide, Thayla. I’m going to torture your soul and your pussy for as long as I please without letting you come until you beg. Or you can behave and do as I say, and I’ll make you come countless times.”
As delicious as both options sound, and as much as my mind tells me to argue with him, I don’t think I have it in me right now. I want him.
I want him so bad, the pressure building in my lower stomach almost hurts.
“I’ll behave.”
“Fuck,” he groans. “Good girl. That was going to torture me as much as it was you.”
Asshole.
That thought flees me the second he swipes his tongue up my pussy. The hum that leaves his throat after his first taste vibrates through my clit and sends a twitch down my legs.
I damn near come off the bed when he plunges his tongue inside of me. His fingers dig into my thighs as he pulls me back to his mouth.
“Don’t run from me again,” he growls against me, and my head falls back into the pillow.
He keeps his firm latch on my thighs as he spreads them wide and devours every last inch of me. My head shakes back and forth, mentally fighting off what’s about to happen, all while my body begs for it to come faster.
“Fuck, Creed,” I groan as his soul plows into mine.
My legs lock up and my toes curl against his back as my orgasm tears me to shreds.
The sound of his pants sliding down his hips has my eyes flying open and I push myself up. My mouth waters to do to him what he just did to me, and the sight of his cock in his hand has that desire spreading through me even faster.
“Lie down.”
“But I want to—”
He tsks and shakes his head. “Arguing isn’t behaving at all.
I’d love for that smart-ass mouth to wrap around my cock, but another time.
I’ve been feening for you since the day your soul invaded mine.
I want to bury myself inside of you while your hands and lips roam every inch of me you can reach. Can you do that for me, Thayla?”
I’ll do whatever this man wants me to if he says my name like that again.
I slowly lower myself back, keeping his gaze locked with mine the entire time.
“I can do that.”
He hums as he lines himself up with me. I struggle to draw any air in as not once, or twice, but three times he presses his head inside of me, then pulls back out.
On the fourth, he cuts off my frustrated groan as he buries himself inside of me in one go. Our chests meet as I bow off the bed, and he collapses against me. His hand cradles around my back as he keeps me arched and runs his nose across mine.
“You okay?” I nod and he grunts. “Tell me I didn’t hurt you.”
“You didn’t hurt me. You’d never hurt me.”
He lays his lips to mine as he tenderly pumps his hips back and forth.
“Fuck. You feel like life.”
My mouth falls open at the sincerity in his eyes, but I also see what’s behind that. And what’s in their depths is what I want.
What I need.
I need him to let go of his fear.
“Don’t fuck me like you’re afraid to hurt me. I want you to pound into my body like you’re bringing me back to life. Because that’s what you and your power feel like to me. It makes me feel alive. Don’t hold yourself or your soul from me. Ever.”
He groans deeply, then shifts his hip and thrusts in so hard I see stars.
Fuck. Yes.
I do as he had asked me and my hands and lips roam everywhere I can reach.
His strong hands caress and squeeze my hips and my sides until his arms tuck under me, gripping my shoulders as he brings himself so close, there’s nowhere our skin doesn’t touch.
My legs wrap around him, attempting to pull him even closer. The sensation he sends through his soul to mine has a surprise release rushing out of me. My teeth find their way into the junction of his shoulder and neck, and I bite down, relieving even more pressure bursting out of me.
A scream mixed with a moan comes from my throat when my mouth lets him go and my entire body shivers as he lays kisses to the spot he just bit.
“I told you if you bit me again, I’d bite back.”
I’m going to leave him covered in my marks.
The muscles in his bicep ripple across my lips as my teeth sink in. That seems to slice through the last strand of restraint he had and it’s the last bite he allows me to leave.
He sits up, grabs my hips, and tilts them up. There’s nothing I can do but hold on to his wrist for balance as he fucks me recklessly.
Every move he makes grows more erratic and the pressure his soul is applying to mine builds and builds.
They explode like two shooting stars colliding in the night sky as we come, and he grunts my name.
I’m pretty sure I black out for a solid minute.
I take a deep, gasping breath, and my hand cradles the back of his head as he rests his forehead on my collarbone. He’s breathing as hard as I am, and his heartbeat thuds through my stomach.
He rolls off me but drags me along until I’m draped over his chest like a blanket, and I nuzzle even closer as his soul decides to be sweet now rather than absolutely ravenous.
“Fuck,” he breathes.
“What?”
“I don’t have the words. That was…”
“Soul-shattering.”
“Healing. My soul has never been so at peace.”
A blush creeps along my body, adding to the flush that’s already heating my blood, and I purposefully caress his soul back.
His sigh flutters over me.
“You know, that’s a very unfair advantage you have over me. You can just command your soul to make me come and I do.”
“It’s not unfair.”
“Really? None of the others can do that.” His grunt is as unconvincing as it is telling and I sit myself up, arching a brow. “Or can they?”
“If I told them they could and how.”
“Are you going to?”
A sly smirk stretches across his lips as he pulls me up until I’m straddling him, without a care in the realm about the mess I’m leaving all over his stomach.
“I don’t know. I’ve had to suffer and stew in jealousy over Kyzen and Amick for a while. I think it’s only fair I withhold that information at least long enough to rub it in their faces.”
I snort and shake my head. “That’s awful. None of you should be jealous of each other. I say you all work together to give me endless orgasms.”
He chuckles, tugging me down until my lips meet his. “Greedy-ass goddess.”
“Over my Valtrue? Yeah, a little bit.” My head only lies against his chest for a split second before something occurs to me. “Wait a minute, can I do that to you with my soul?”
His face falls blanker than a piece of parchment while mine becomes a mask of mischief.
I will be learning how my soul can make them come on command.