“The wolves are eating—big surprise, right?”
A true smile overtook his face. “Don’t think my enforcers aren’t doing the same.”
A shiver crept down my spine. “What about you? Don’t you need to feed?”
Silence.
“Eventually.” He did nothing to hide the mischievous look in his dark eyes. “Tell me, Piper, how was Knox when you left him?”
“Good. Really good, actually. Like nothing happened…” When Merc said nothing in response, tension built in my chest. “That’s a good thing, right?”
“Most likely, yes, but we cannot be certain. He is in a precarious position, Piper. I will not lie to you about that. But I think if anyone can hold on and overcome, it is him.”
“I hope so.”
“As do I.”
More silence.
“Listen, Merc…I wanted to thank you for what you did for Knox. How you helped him.”
Merc’s intense gaze pulled away and he stepped deeper into the room, his back to me.
“I didn't do it for you, Piper. I did it because I know what it is like to be him…to not be in control of your mind or body.” He paused near the foot of his bed, still unwilling to face me. “And I did it because he is part of my family now—my pack—and you never abandon your family. Ever.”
“I’m assuming we’re not including your father or my mother in that, right?” I said, doing what I could to cover my emotion-thick voice with humor. “Because he was a total dick, and I’m pretty over Larken at this point.”
He turned to look at me, his eyes full of the intensity I’d come to associate with the vampire king.
“She is not, and never was, your family.”
There was something terrifying and yet exciting about the way he looked at me. The way his anger was so tempered, yet raw and writhing just below the surface. For a fleeting moment, I wondered what he would do to her if he were the one to deliver the killing blow that ended the queen of Faerie—wondered if I would see his notorious madness in the aftermath. If maybe he was right—that he and Knox were not so different.
But I didn’t wonder if I cared.
I already knew I didn’t.
“So what do we do now?” I asked as I walked over to lean my cheek against his chest.
“We wait.”
“And when the wait is over?”
“Then we will do what we must.” I pulled away just enough to look up into his endless dark eyes. “Whatever is necessary to bring down the royals and secure Faerie. There will be no rest until we do.”
“And by ‘secure Faerie’, you mean have me rule, don’t you?”
His silence would have been answer enough, but he responded anyway. “I’m sure we can find another way in the long term, Piper, but yes, you will likely have to rule until we can find a more suitable option. One that I’m certain exists.”
How he could be certain of such a thing, I didn’t know, but I chose to believe the potential lie because the thought of ruling a realm I wanted no part of was more than my mind could handle with all the other clusterfucks crowding it. That fate was a long way away; we had many hurdles to overcome before then.
“And Grizz?” I asked. “What about him?”
He pulled me back against him. “We will do whatever is necessary to secure him, as well. We all have a stake in his return, Knox and me included.”
I laughed nervously. “Well, I’m glad you have this all figured out.”
“I have much figured out,” he said, fingertips trailing up my sides, “including how you joke when you’re upset—or anxious.”
“Or awkward, or embarrassed, or—”
“Exactly.” His chest rumbled with laughter, and I couldn’t think of a sweeter sound. “The real question you need to ask yourself at the moment is, what can we do with what precious little time we have before we return to Faerie and the chips fall where they may?”
“Eat our feelings?” I replied. The hungry look in his eyes at my phrasing sent a shiver through my body.
“That depends on what’s on the menu.” My eyes went wide as his fingers slid under the waistband of my pants and wiggled past my underwear. I gasped when they brushed against bare skin, and my knees buckled. Merc pressed me flush against him and trailed the tip of his nose down the side of my face to the corner of my jaw, then, finally, my neck. I tipped my head back to grant him access, and he growled his approval. Soft lips brushed against that vulnerable flesh, stopping to kiss where my carotid artery pulsed wildly.
Then he shifted just beyond that spot and bit.
Sharp fangs pierced my skin in an act that should have been painful but was anything but. My core spasmed and I jolted against his hand, but once again, he held me steady, slowly drawing the very thing that gave me life into him. My head lolled back as his mouth sucked and his fingers teased, and a pressure too great to contain built inside.
“Merc...”
Those fingers slipped inside me in response, and I nearly exploded.
“Just let it go,” he murmured against my neck. “There’s no point in fighting the inevitable…”
How right he was.
I closed my eyes, my breathing erratic, and focused all my energy on the feel of him inside me—the sensation of him coursing through me with every thrust of his hand and every draw of my blood. My body went rigid and my hands clamped down on his shoulders just as the wave of pleasure crashed down on me with brutal force. My body bucked and rocked and shook, but Merc never let me go, just as I knew he wouldn’t. He supported me in every way as an orgasm like nothing I’d ever experienced before took over and rode me hard. I couldn’t think. Couldn’t talk. All I could do was feel that delicious sensation and Merc’s body against mine.
Once he deemed it safe, he set me down on my feet. With sleepy eyes, I looked up to find him smiling down at me. Then he slipped a finger in his mouth and sucked it clean.
“I should eat my feelings more often,” he said with a wicked smile that made my body tense again.
“I think you should do something else instead,” I countered as I unfastened his belt and popped the button on his pants. “And I think you should do it now…”
Not needing to be told twice, Merc lifted me up and hauled me over to the bed. I soon found myself bent over the edge, my pants around my ankles, with a wall of vampire hovering behind me. The wait was agony, and I mewled into the comforter and craned my neck to look back at him. He stood there in all his naked glory, eyeing me like a meal he wanted to devour and savor simultaneously.
His palms pressed against my hips and his fingers slowly wrapped around the front to dig in around the bone. Instinctively, I shifted backward, wanting to close the distance between us—wanting him inside of me—until I felt the length of him settle against my core. I moaned at the contact.
“I want you to know something before we leave, Piper.” He pulled away an inch, and I wriggled against his hold in pursuit. “I have existed for centuries, but never, in all that time, have I felt truly alive like I do when I am with you.” Once again, I felt him press against me, teasing me. “And it’s because of this that I will fight with all that I am and all that I have, until I am and have no more.” With that sentiment, he thrust himself inside of me so hard and deep that I cried out, the sensation toeing the line between ecstasy and pain. “Because I would sooner die than watch the life fade from your eyes.”