Chapter 44
MY SHADOW
VEXAR
AMARA SLAPPED ME.
For a moment, I think she is going to apologize, but then she says, “Let go.”
Those words…
She repeats herself. “Let go.”
Let go, the dark voice whispers.
“Vexar,” she says, her voice stern and unwavering, “listen to what I’m telling you. You’re not going to hurt me. I need you. I want you.”
She needs you.
Her fingers tangle in my hair, trying to pull me back to her mouth. Her legs tighten around my waist. “I want all of you, not just the parts you think are acceptable. So take my pleasure. Claim me,” she nearly growls.
Take her pleasure. Claim her. Let go.
My subconscious makes the connection faster than the rest of me, and by the time my conscious mind catches up, I’m staring at her in complete awe.
How? How is this possible?
I slide my hand up the column of her neck, running the tips of my claws over her smooth skin, watching her with utter fascination.
She is my shadow—at least some part of her is.
This entire time, I thought that darkness was mine, but …
it is hers. It was her voice in my head. Her voice I have been fighting.
“You,” I whisper, lost in a sea of revelation.
In the arena, it was her I gave myself to.
It was her rage that pushed me, that gave me power when I had none.
Her mind that allowed me to think faster—a blend of strategy, emotion, and brute force.
My tact and her rage. My calm and her action.
The strongest parts of us both, working together, as one.
“Vexar?” she asks.
Unmoving, I stare at my Queen. My shadow. The woman who has saved my life twice.
“You won’t hurt me,” she says.
Gods, she is fearless. Fearless and beautiful. My perfect shadow. “Amara,” I whisper, claws still pressed to the side of her neck, “gentleness does not come easy to me.” She feels like glass in my hands. And even now that I know what my shadow is and what it wants, it is difficult to trust.
Her hands slide to my wrist, and she strokes my skin with her thumbs. “Trust me. Please.” Her heartbeat thuds beneath my grasp.
Trust her.
I lean down to her ear, feeling the darkness in me rise. Her darkness. “Are you certain?” I ask, letting my nose drag along the side of her face.
“Fuck me,” she dares.
Holding her, I give in to her request and I fully let go.