Finaan #2
My teeth snap shut, reality sucking away every ounce of pleasure, as I look at him. His arrogant, cruel smirk drenches the few embers still flaring inside me. And I find the strength to rip my wrists from his grasp, falling backwards as I put distance between us.
“Leave me alone,” I whisper, my chest collapsing when I realize what I did.
That I wanted it as much as him.
He knows it too, the bastard. His smirk stays in place as he lifts his fingers and licks them, before sucking them into his mouth with a low hmmm. “Even this water couldn’t cleanse your taste from my touch,” he murmurs as his free hand wraps around his cock, drawing my gaze down to him.
I can’t stop my eyes from flaring wide as I watch him stroke his enormous shaft.
Another shiver ripples through me and I force myself to look up, sneering at him.
“If you ever do something like that again, I’ll kill you,” I snarl as I push myself through the water and away from him. “You won’t even see me coming.”
“Stop lying to yourself,” he growls, one hand still rippling the water’s surface as he works on the orgasm he intends to claim for himself.
“We both know you wanted my fingers to fuck you. That you want my cock deep inside that needy cunt of yours. If I have to force you to admit it to yourself, I will. Because Finaan,” he calls as I turn away, drawing my gaze back toward him, “I’m not a patient elf. Make no mistake.”
“I know exactly who and what you are,” I scoff as I give him my back and stride toward the shore. “That won’t ever happen again. If you try to force me, I’ll do what you did to those wraiths in Helheim—take your cock bit by bit.”
“I knew you wanted my cock,” he responds with a laugh from behind me.
I don’t turn around or respond. Nothing I would say matters.
When I reach the shore, I grab my clothes and stalk further into the cavern, not bothering to get dressed yet. The less time for Wregen to ogle me, the better.
But I forgot about Svend.
“No!” he shrieks from the corner he’s huddling in as I turn into the cavern he chose to wait. Spinning to stare at the rock, he warbles a plea he doesn’t need to ask. I’m already throwing my blouse over my head when I hear his sad voice. “Please get dressed.”
“I am. Don’t worry.” I aim for a placating tone, but my emotions are running high. I probably sound as angry as I should still feel about the little prick.
“You won’t tell Wregen, will you?” he asks in that same pathetic whine. “I don’t want to die.”
“But you want to go back to Helheim?” I demand, embracing the anger that fills me when he says something so ridiculous. “Badly enough to use your power on me, get me trapped in these caves along with you?”
He’s silent as I tug on my pants, so I turn and look at him. Really look.
Svend’s always been odd. He grew to love Helheim and desperately wanted to return. Still, I never would have imagined the things he lets Wregen do to him.
Sighing, I sit down on the rock a man’s-height away. “I’m dressed, Svend,” I say, my words more measured now. “You can turn around.”
It takes him a few seconds to gather his courage, as if he’s quashing some irrational fear that I’m lying to him. Or that Wregen will descend on us to take his life for seeing something that fucker has decided is his. Finally, though, Svend’s chest shudders and he turns around.
“Please don’t tell him,” he whispers, his eyes glistening as he watches me.
“I won’t,” I assure him. “You did what you needed. That was my fault.”
“I should have been further in the cavern,” he mutters. “Or listening for you.”
“Stop it,” I bark, anger filling me again as my emotions seem to whip from one extreme to another. “You’ve always been a weak elf, but you’re pathetic around Wregen. What is wrong with you?”
“He made me his in Helheim. And I’m his forever.” His voice is flat, no regret or shame in it.
“But why? How?” I need to understand. Wregen’s my mate for some fucked-up reason. If I don’t figure him out, find a way to turn the tables and start manipulating him, my life is going to be more miserable than it’s already shaping up to be. And it looks like it’ll be pretty fucking miserable.
“You know his power, right?” A hint of emotion returns to Svend’s voice and I’m reminded that he taught children in our early days, before Nerthus condemned us to Helheim.
“I have no idea what Wregen’s capable of. I think he hid it in Helheim or didn’t have reason to use it.”
“He’s a strong elf,” Svend tells me, “with a terrifying ability. You should know that, though. You can sense powers, predict paths, help people find magic they didn’t know they possessed. Why haven’t you done that with him?”
That’s a very good question, and I despise its answer. I watch the strange elf in front of me for a moment, wondering what I should tell him. But he probably already knows most of it, and he’ll know more before this trip is over—wherever it ends.
“You’ve probably heard him refer to me as his mate,” I start, my voice dropping in case Wregen chooses now to chase us down.
I risk Svend telling Wregen that I’ve acknowledged the mating bond, even if I’ll never accept it.
But I need to build his trust. He needs to become my ally. This seems like a good place to start.
Svend’s eyes actually fill with tears as he nods. “I know what it is to be bound to Wregen, to have no choice in it. The fates have not treated you well, Finaan. You deserved better.”
“Are you bound to Wregen against your will?” He certainly acts like it, putting up with everything that asshole does to him.
“That’s his gift,” Svend tells me, lifting his gaze to stare at the nearby rock.
His hands tremble as he takes a shaky breath.
“It’s why Hel chose him as her second,” he says after a moment, “lent her power and control to him while he served her. He can claim anyone or anything, twisting their minds so thoroughly that they can’t resist his command.
If it lasts long enough—for me, centuries—it becomes permanent.
He doesn’t have to compel me now. Helheim called to me when we were in Vanatia because I need his attention, whatever its form.
I hate it, hate myself. But I can’t deny him anything. ”
Now he looks at me, eyebrows pinching together as the corners of his lips droop. “But why don’t you already know this?”
I shake my head, the answer washing over me as Svend’s response sinks in.
“Fate is fucked,” I respond at last, “but the mating bond comes with some rules. We have to choose each other, can’t rely on our powers to compel a bond that’s not voluntary.
Out of every other being in the worlds, even the dragons, Wregen alone is a mystery to me.
I can’t read him at all. And I suspect he can’t use his power on me, or I’d be on my knees sucking his cock right now.
Maybe the fates protected us from each other because our bond is so fucked, and we’d use our abilities to manipulate it. ”
“Or maybe,” Wregen snarls as he turns the corner, eyes sparking and nostrils flaring when he sees Svend and me sitting together, “the fates know that I’ll need to break you to make you mine.
When I’m done, you will be on your knees, my cock in your mouth, whenever I demand, and not because of magic.
Maybe they took away everything you might use to manipulate me, so you can’t fight what I’m going to do to you.
How thoroughly I’m going to corrupt you. ”
Anger spills into my gut but it’s not alone.
Dread joins it, chilling the blood that should be flowing hot at his audacity.
He’s identified my greatest fear: that he’s right.
If my powers don’t work against him, I may not be strong enough to fight back.
And giving in to Wregen—willingly becoming his fuck-toy—is the most terrifying existence I can imagine.
Because as horrific as that life will be, a sick part of me craves him and the things he’ll do to me.
I don’t think I’d be able to live with the female he’s resolved to dig out of my soul.