“Love…” He scanned my face. “You don’t love me, Fee…”
“I think I could if I allowed myself to. I know it. You deserve it. I’m so fucking sorry for not seeing that sooner.”
Hunter
No. It’s a lie.
She wants to love me.
No.
She thinks I deserve it.
The voice is silent and for the first time in a long time there is silence in my head. Something inside me breaks and melts, and a surge of emotion washes through me.
The voice that has plagued me on and off for the longest time is suddenly, utterly silent, and all that matters is the woman in my arms.
Pliant, willing, and mine.
She’s mine.
“I wanted to show you how it could be between us,” she says tentatively.
Oh god, she doesn’t get it. The fire, the violent coupling, the heat, that is us. It’s our dynamic, and I feel it stirring in my loins now—a swirling heat that only she can assuage.
I claim her pouty mouth in a crushing kiss that elicits a ragged moan. “This is us,” I kiss her again, tongue deep. “This is how it should be.” I pull back and position myself at her entrance. “This is me making love to you.” I bury myself deep inside her and revel in the sound of her cry of satisfaction. My mouth hovers over hers as I remain locked in place, unmoving.
“Hunter, please…”
I lick the seam of her mouth and roll my hips against hers, pushing deeper.
“Fuck…” Her eyelids flutter closed.
“Look at me.”
She obeys, and my heart swells at what I see in her eyes. Not need, or desire, but want. She wants me. Not her Loup. Her.
I begin to move.
She sheaths me in tight, wet perfection as I thrust deep, over and over, mouth hovering over hers, stealing kiss after kiss as we join. I swallow her cries and her gasps and then she jerks against me, her eyes fluttering closed. Her scent is in my head, the taste of her skin, the texture, I want it all. I need it all. I’m ravenous, desperate. She meets my thrusts with her own, thighs tightening, ass flexing beneath my hands. Fuck. I can’t hold back for much longer. She comes with a drawn-out groan milking my release, so it melds with her own and we come together in a tongue tangling kiss.
Fee
We lay together on the bed, clothed but still sort of damp from the shower. The single towel hadn’t gone very far.
Hunter tucked my hair behind my ear. “Thank you.”
“What for?”
“For accepting me.”
“I shouldn’t have been so hard on you from the start. I listened to what others said, not what my Loup told me. I should have trusted her.”
“I should have been gentler.”
“Oh no, I like it when you’re a little rough.”
He chuckled. “I mean in our courtship.”
My cheeks heated. “Oh, yeah. Well, I was pretty prickly.”
“You had reason to believe I was a bad person. I should have done more to show you I wasn’t.”
I stroked his cheek. “We have a ton of catching up to do, don’t we?”
“There’ll be time.”
My heart sank because what if there wasn’t? So many things could go wrong. Mammon had taken the Keep and if we failed to get it back the human world would be next in line for conquest and there was Cain to worry about too. He was coming here to kill Samael, and if he succeeded then this world would be destroyed.
“Don’t,” Hunter said. “We will get through this. Together.”
I snuggled closer, revelling in the feel of his body against mine and how familiar and right it felt, as if we’d been doing this forever.
“Get some rest,” Hunter said. “I’ll wake you in an hour or two. I’ve agreed to help Azazel with a weapons check.” He looked sheepish. “He’s probably waiting for me.”
Oops. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be.” He brushed his lips against my cheek. “Rest.”
He slipped from the bed and with a final glance, left the bunker.
Long minutes ticked by as I tried to relax, but I was too wired to sleep. Fuck it. I slipped out of the bunker and headed out into the cavern. There were wounded to be administered to, I could help with that.
It didn’t take long to realize that Keon and Uri had the wounded issue covered. Several fire pits had been lit, and demons huddled around them, eating strips of dried meat and drinking water from metal cups. There was a soft buzz of conversation in the air and the atmosphere was less chaotic.
Samael and Lilith were nowhere to be seen, but Conah was chatting to a group of daemons by the waterfall. There was no sign of Azazel, Mal, or Hunter, but I caught sight of Grayson, Cora, and Uri sitting around a fire pit to my far left. I was about to head over when a flash of blue caught my eye.
Keon sat alone at an unlit firepit, arms braced on his thighs, head down. His shoulders were slumped, his posture one of dejection. I altered my path and headed over to join him.
“Hey,” I dropped down beside him and nudged him with my shoulder. “Penny for your thoughts.”
He turned his head to spear me with a confused look. “A penny? Why would I sell my thoughts for such a paltry amount?”
I bit back a smile. “It’s just a turn of phrase. It’s just me asking you what’s on your mind.”
“Lilith.”
There was a tangle of emotions in that word. She was his queen, his puppet master, and his mother.
“Has she said something to you?”
“Nothing,” he bit out the word. “It’s as if nothing happened.”
As if she hadn’t revealed to him that he was her son. “I’m sorry, Keon.” The injustice of it burned in my chest. “Once we’ve smacked Mammon down, I’ll speak to her. She can’t treat you like this. She has to let you go.”
“Don’t.” his eyes widened in horror. “Don’t threaten her. Don’t make her target you, because if you do, I’ll be the weapon she uses.”
It hit me then that he didn’t care about himself. He didn’t care that she hadn’t acknowledged him or that she was now free to pull his strings. He cared that he might be forced to hurt me.
He cared about me.
“Keon…” I laid my palm against his cheek.
He closed his cat eyes, allowing himself to lean into my touch for a moment before pulling away.
“You can’t be close to me,” he said. “She can’t see that you care for me, or that I…that I care for you.”
Or she’d use it against me. Bitch. “She won’t hurt me. Samael won’t allow it.”
Keon’s beautiful lips twisted in a wry smile. “She wasn’t supposed to have me, but she did, and Samael has never suspected. If Lilith wants something, she gets it. Please, just…stay away.”
Lilith chose that moment to enter the chamber and like a homing beacon, her gaze zeroed in on Keon and me. Keon snapped and growled at me before making a show of stalking off.
But her gaze remained speculative, and my pulse picked up.
Yes, Keon was right. I’d have to tread carefully…for now.