Chapter 16
Chapter sixteen
WHO DID THIS TO YOU?
Amira
Everything had happened so damned fast. One moment I’d been shamelessly drooling over the exhibition of male perfection before me.
Practically panting over the heat that was building between them.
I devoured every detail Riordan shared from the feel of Orion pinning him down to the knowledge that Orion was worried he would get hard and embarrass himself…
The next moment, Orion seemed completely catatonic. He froze like a deer in fucking headlights the second his forearm guards were pulled off during their grappling.
And then Riordan reached for him.
“Do not touch them!” Orion had shouted suddenly and jerked away like Riordan was trying to burn him.
My mate was, understandably, startled and terrified he had done something wrong. Ares and Helena also jolted toward them in concern, but I instantly stepped in front of them to block Orion from their sight.
“You need to leave,” I ordered firmly, trying to control my harsh tone. But the urge to protect Orion from any potential judgment was uncompromisingly vicious.
“But what—” Ares began to object.
“Now!” I insisted, looking at Helena for support since she was the only other person who knew Orion’s secret as far as I was aware. And I was relieved that she seemed to understand my intentions as she turned to the others.
“Come along,” she told Ares and Sofia, grabbing them both by an arm to drag them with her from the room.
I did not wait for them to go before I rushed to Orion, although I did note the door clicking closed as I reached the men on the mat. Orion was pushing himself away from Riordan clumsily, as if in a daze, and Riordan knelt watching him with an anguished expression.
I wanted to give Orion the space he probably needed, but the all-consuming need coursing through me to go to him was unquestionable. So I dropped to my knees on the mat behind him so he pressed himself into me.
“It’s alright, I have you,” I whispered right away in the hopes that my instincts were right in driving me to him. And I knew instantly that they were because that strange, faraway glaze in his eyes cleared like he had just come back into his body.
He caught sight of Riordan and turned into me as if he could not face his skiá. I wrapped my arms around him, trying to make sure he could feel the ferocity inside of me with which I would defend him.
“It will be alright,” I whispered as he started to shake and placed a lingering kiss on his forehead.
I do not understand, Riordan admitted down our bond. Even his internal voice wavered with emotion.
You did nothing wrong, I insisted as I raised my eyes to his tormented gaze.
Is this what is holding him back from me?
Riordan looked down at the forearm guards left lying on the ground between us, and it was obvious he was still unsure exactly what had happened.
He had seen the scars and the brands, but he did not understand the meaning.
This was not the kind of vile reality that ever touched the griffins who were born in the Mountain City.
I merely gave him a mental nod, knowing that the full sordid truth needed to come from Orion.
The confirmation that whatever had held his skiá back from him was now in the open between them seemed to give Riordan determination.
He shifted toward us slowly, and I felt Orion tense in my arms as his breathing grew quicker once more.
I squeezed him and kissed his head again, which seemed to calm him, and he did not object any further to our king approaching our position.
Riordan knelt next to me, his hands clenching on his knees as if he wanted to reach for Orion but was forcing himself to refrain from it.
“I am sorry. I did not intend to cause pain or distress,” Riordan began softly.
I stroked a hand over Orion’s hair as he drew in a slow, deep breath and then nodded.
Riordan hesitated, his eyes lowering to his skiá’s arms, which Orion clenched against his chest. I knew my king wanted to ask about the scars, but he was worried about how the query would impact Orion. I watched his resolve solidifying on his face until he nodded to himself.
“I want to understand, Orion.”
I looked down at the Ktínos who seemed to draw his knees closer in reluctance before unleashing a shaky sigh.
Then his body eased again, but it slackened in a way I did not like at all.
It was as if he felt defeated and was giving in to something he thought that he had no control over.
And the knowledge of why his body would have taught itself to react that way to stress made me fucking ill.
“Only if you want to, Orion. But I truly think you will feel better once this is off your chest,” I assured him.
Riordan stiffened suddenly, and at first I thought that it was in response to my words before I saw the way he was looking in disbelief down at Orion.
He thinks that I will find him reprehensible after this, Riordan explained.
He shifted closer to us more confidently so he could lean over Orion.
I watched with my heart in my throat as he kissed his skiá right over where my lips had touched.
Riordan trailed kisses down to Orion’s temple and then reached up to brush his hand through Orion’s hair with a breathtaking tenderness.
The touch made his skiá go slack in my arms again but not like a helpless animal in a trap.
More like a person who finally felt safe.
After another moment of gentle coaxing from Riordan, Orion finally unfurled his arms. He rested his elbows on my knees to expose his brands and scars.
Riordan stared at the marks for a long moment before reaching for them. He hesitated when Orion tensed but then pushed forward in determination to brush his thumb over the rough skin as if touching it could explain it.
“Who did this to you?” Riordan growled.
“I did,” Orion spoke aloud for the first time since his frantic outburst, and his voice was hoarse.
“Why?” Riordan asked him.
“I was trying to get the brands off my flesh.”
“The tattoos?” Riordan verified, as his thumb shifted from the scars to the brands. Orion flinched, his face hard as he watched Riordan touching the part of him that he seemed to find the most disgusting.
“They are brands,” Orion reiterated, voice brittle with his self-loathing. “I do not belong to myself.”
“What do you mean?” asked Riordan. He managed to keep his voice steady, but I sensed his rising alarm.
“I am a slave,” Orion stated dully. He stared straight through Riordan’s chest with eyes so distant that it broke my heart all over for him.
Riordan inhaled sharply and then seemed to quell his immediate fury as quickly as it threatened to spill over. His mind was a vault, all I could sense now was a rumble of his growing rage behind his shields.
“You are no such thing,” he said once he’d composed himself well enough to speak without shouting.
“I am—”
“You belong to yourself, Orion. You always belonged to yourself, and no brand could ever change it. Now who the fuck did this to you?” Riordan demanded more curtly, his composure beginning to slip again.
Orion began to tremble, not from fear this time but with the pure emotion wreaking havoc on him.
“It doesn’t matter any—”
“It matters. It matters because I am going to string them up by their entrails for all to see what happens to anyone who hurts my mates,” Riordan insisted.
“We can discuss that later when we decide what to do about the brands,” I suggested. I could tell Riordan was beginning to have trouble regulating his emotions.
“Why did you not—”
Don’t you dare make this about you, I intercepted him through our bond.
Riordan balked at first and was ready to argue with me before he seemed to see my point. He took a moment to recompose himself before he spoke again.
“Amira is right, we can… deal with that later. All you need to know right now is that this changes nothing about how I feel for you. I love you, Orion, and I will continue to love you with my final breaths,” Riordan swore.
“You do not understand,” Orion insisted breathlessly. “My enslavement did not entail working as a labourer or a field hand, Riordan. I am a—was—a whore.”
Easy, I warned Riordan mentally when I could feel his temper spiking again. I could practically hear the medley of questions whirling in his mind.
“I was sold as a child to my mother’s matron, just as my brother was before me. These brands mean that I owe her a life debt. I was supposed to pay it off with my body, but then I escaped to Ergastiri, and the interest has been accumulating all this time. It will be a small fortune.”
“It is not for you to worry about the cost. That will be up to the woman who branded you to pay with her life,” Riordan assured him. “This changes nothing for me.”
Orion raised his eyes to look at his skiá for the first time as if to see if Riordan meant it. His eyes began to well with tears as he shook his head in confusion.
“It should,” he whispered.
“It does not,” Riordan insisted, and Orion suddenly glowered at him in frustration.
“You might not be able to see it or even understand it, but I am filthy!” Orion shouted, and I nearly lost the battle not to cry for him.
“I am disgusting! Like a discarded canvas painted with the vices of a thousand trespassers. Someone like me shouldn’t even be in the same fucking room as either of you.
I should never have bonded to you, but I could not bear you choosing anyone—”
I was surprised when Riordan moved right next to me and pulled Orion abruptly into his arms as if he could not bear to hold back any longer from touching him.
“I love you. I love you,” Riordan repeated with utterly unquestionable fervour as he kissed Orion’s ear and jaw. “I am going to love you so hard there will be no room for these ugly thoughts and feelings about yourself.”
“You cannot. They never go away,” Orion whispered what was probably his worst fear.