BONUS NOVELETTE #3
His body is covered in numerous tattoos, some of which he may have gotten in prison, perhaps tied to his past in the gang.
He has a lean, sinewy body with light olive-toned skin, strong but lithe at the same time, and my eyes travel over him hungrily.
I want to take him into my arms, kiss him, hold him close… but that choice belongs to him.
Rocco would never ask, never beg. He would simply take.
But Rocco was created by Tito, who brought that little boy to them, and they showed him how to take without asking, to ignore pleas, cries, and begging.
But I am who Rocco would have been if he hadn’t been broken, shattered into pieces by the cruelty of those men.
For me, Roberto’s consent means everything. It is his invitation for me to enter this world, to create me anew, to accept me… through an act of his kindness rather than violence.
This gesture belongs to him, and he makes it.
A moment later, his bare arms are wrapped around me, and I sink into them.
Our lips find each other, my hands sliding over his smooth skin, tracing the lines of his tattoos. Soon I’m shedding my clothes too, and the magic that draws True Mates together heats our blood as we kiss and touch.
"Do it. I know your time is running out…" Roberto whispers, a little breathlessly, but I just can’t hurry, I can’t just push inside, so I do everything I can to make sure he’s ready, but the pressure of time is like Fate’s breathing on my back.
I sense the stretching of the seconds that separate me from annihilation…
I glance down at my hand, intertwined with Roberto’s, and see it… I’m becoming transparent!
My veins, my bones, showing through my skin. I’m turning into a true shadow, fading away…
"Take me, do it!" he urges me, seeing a flash of panic in my eyes, and I settle between his willingly spread thighs, pressing into his opening.
With the next thrust, I enter his yielding body, and…
Yes!
…the air between us explodes into a million fiery colors as we shiver in the epic First Orgasm that can only occur between fated mates. Sizzling, electrical light, red and orange, swirls around us, lighting the room as if fireworks have exploded around us.
The energy coil between our souls closes, and it happens with only a second to spare.
Suddenly…
My body goes taut like a bow.
Then the vision hits.
Rocco is about to hurt another innocent omega, but that omega’s partner refuses to let it happen. I see the man’s angry face as he enters the room, and Rocco’s fate is sealed.
He turns into dust while trying to commit another act of evil, stubbornly remaining on that dark path, and the universe finally erases him. A powerful tremble tears through my body when our bond is severed.
But I am already immersed in Roberto’s body, and the energy thread connecting us, the closed energy coil between our souls, keeps me firmly anchored to this plane of existence.
I can feel it in me, my reality strengthening. I check my hands again, and their transparency fades away, my newly created Bond with Roberto causes my body to materialize, to become complete, to gain its own individuality.
Finally, I take shape.
I become human. I become a new path, a new road for the man who lost his own.
In an instant, a kaleidoscope of everything that laid the foundation for Rocco’s downfall flashes before my eyes: the unimaginable violence he endured, the years long rapes he suffered at the hands of people he was given to as a child so he could help the mafia make better connections, the things he was forced to witness; the assaults Tito committed in front of him, sometimes day after day, the pain he was forced to bear, the beatings, the torment, the knife wounds…
every fragment of his soul crushed and sifted through the merciless machinery of the upbringing our degenerate father forced him into.
And then it all flies away.
It disappears along with Rocco’s shadow.
Now I become human in his place, while he crumbles into nothingness like ashes from a dying fire.
Everything he was, everything he became no longer exists, and I… forget him. His wounds, his yoke, his choices.
I am made new through my True Mate, cleansed at last.
When I open my eyes, I remember nothing anymore. I’m a blank, unwritten page, like a computer system reset to factory settings, its registry wiped clean and only the basic software remaining.
For a moment my eyes settle on the colorful picture hanging on the wall, showing snapdragons. Wow, what lovely flowers they are. I smile at them, feeling sentimental.
"What is your real name?" my fated mate asks me, lying beneath me, his lips red from my kisses as he breathes quickly and deeply. I lean down and gently kiss his temple, just because I want to, because I want to show him how much I appreciate him. Somehow, I know, though I don’t know exactly how, that he has done something wonderful for me, given me the most precious gift.
"Me?" I reply thoughtfully. "I… I don’t have a name. Please, give me one. Make it matter, to you."
Roberto smiles softly, and his hand touches my face.
"Vito," he says, "because it means life."