Chapter 46 #5
He saw Zayn, saw moments from their time together that hadn’t been revealed in his dreams, and he felt the shame Gabriel initially harbored for loving him more than he loved his first blood-bonded mate.
He felt the lust Gabriel had kept leashed since the day they met. Saw the passion in his eyes every time he came by his own hand to thoughts of Nicholas. And he felt his bone-deep terror when he and Marcus couldn’t get inside the church tonight.
Nicholas poured his own heart into the blood that flowed from him to Gabriel, unsure if he had any control over what filtered out, but trying to project the most important parts of himself anyway.
He thought back to his childhood, to sitting alone while the other kids played, to the panic attacks that came every time he considered joining them.
Gabriel pulled from the vein at his neck, a plea for more.
Nicholas showed him the pain of giving his body away to strangers, and not because he wanted his guilt, but so he could appreciate the joy Nicholas now felt in this moment. So he could understand the difference.
Gabriel owned him. His heart, his mind, his body… Nicholas no longer saw suffering when he looked back on his past. He saw it as preparation for the love they now had.
He flashed back to his nights alone in his apartment, desperate for Gabriel’s touch. To the endless times he’d almost called him to share good news, and the mornings he woke up wrapped in his clothing.
He shared all the tears shed and all the cum spilled while thinking of him. Nicholas let him see it all.
They broke apart, breathing heavily, their lovemaking now unhurried, but just as fierce.
“I never got over you,” he breathed. “Not even a little bit.”
Nicholas shrieked, pain lancing his side.
Gabriel threw his head back with a growl, sinking to the floor.
They watched through gritted teeth, sweat-slicked bodies still joined, as a brand slowly materialized along their skin.
It burned like Satan’s wrath, sizzling before healing as it neared completion.
“A crescent moon,” Nicholas whispered, tracing Gabriel’s blood-bonded brand. Zayn had worn the same symbol.
He peered down at himself, frowning when Gabriel laughed boisterously at the five-point star carved onto his ribcage.
“What’s so funny?”
Gabriel sobered, eyes alight with humor and the magic of love.
“You are Al Sayyid.”
Al Sayyid?
It sounded familiar, so obviously he’d heard it before, but when thinking back on their many discussions regarding Gabriel’s culture, nothing came to mind.
He’d once overheard Marcus refer to Gabriel as Sayyidi, which he’d later learned from Hamza was a rough translation of my Lord or my master.
The possessive form. So what did the title Al Sayyid mean?
Nicholas sucked in a breath, rolling a chuckling Gabriel onto his back.
“I’m the master! The master of the relationship!”
“Yes, Habibi,” Gabriel said fondly. “You are my master.”
Nicholas’s ego ran wild. “See! I told you I was going to keep you safe. So I get to make the rules.”
Gabriel frowned. “That isn’t what being Al Sayyid means.”
Nicholas’s smile widened. “But it kind of does mean that, doesn’t it?”
“No.”
“Not even a little?”
He sighed. “Alright, maybe a little.”
“Aha!”
They rolled across the floor, playfully fighting for the upper hand. Regardless of Nicholas’s new title, Gabriel had age on his side, which gave him greater strength—at least while Nicholas was in this form.
“Isn’t humility one of your God’s requirements?”
He pinned Nicholas’s hands above his head, thrusting the head of his cock inside him as though he didn’t need permission to. He didn’t.
“Haven’t you heard? I’m a sinner, Gabriel.”
Gabriel sank all the way in, circling his hips. They moaned in unison.
“Did you know I would be Al Sayyid? Were there signs?”
“There were a few. I suspected. Marcus as well.” He started up a leisurely thrust that bordered on cruel. Nicholas whimpered.
“So what does that make you? Officially?”
“Al Khadeh. Although I suspect I won’t fully live up to the title of submissive.”
“Balance,” Nicholas said. “Give and take.”
That was where the talking concluded, and endless rounds of feeding and fucking began.
Gabriel did all the things he’d threatened he would do, and all the things his master commanded of him. They were sated on both blood and sex by the time the sun rose, and there wasn’t a corner of either of their minds that hadn’t been traveled by the other.
They slid under the sheets, Gabriel hauling Nicholas onto his chest.
Nicholas kissed him, struggling to stay awake.
“Sleep, my love. My body will be here when you wake.”
Nicholas began to drift under his touch, beneath the strong hands that stroked along his body.
“One last question,” he breathed, eyelids fluttering open. “Who are you beneath the stars?”
He’d been dying to ask. Dying to hear about the lesson Gabriel had learned.
Gabriel’s slow smile was blinding, magnificent, as though he’d been waiting infinite lifetimes to get the answer right.
“That’s easy, Nicholas Armahn. Beneath the stars, I am yours.”