I’d give it back to them tit for fucking tat. The only problem I could foresee? Aria Primrose Hecate—but she was only a problem if I let her become one.
Every time Aria smiled at me, it made me feel shit. Her sweet smile made me want her on a deeper level than just fucking. I hated it. I hated her for marring the memories of my wife and mate. Wanting her shouldn’t happen. I hadn’t wanted another woman for anything other than rutting since the first moment I’d met Liliana, until Aria, and that was a fucking problem. She was a problem.
I’d been mated, truly mated, and in love, which our kind only got once in a lifetime. Yet, I had never felt the raw need to fuck with Liliana. I’d never felt her kiss me as Aria had, nor the need to continue kissing her regardless of the air we needed to breathe to sustain life. Aria had made my heartbeat thump for the first time in five hundred years. It had raced with her lips against mine, both fucking sets. Her pussy had made it erratic, but her lips? Her lips had brought it back from the grave where it had remained since I’d buried my wife. It made the need to hurt her deeper, to punish her for making me feel anything and betraying the love of my life.
I’d died that day my mate had gone to her grave, and yet Aria was bringing me back, but with Aria, I couldn’t remember what Liliana had looked like, or the sound of her voice when she spoke. I forgot the woman I had loved since my youth, wiping her image away as Aria fucking Hecate erased it from my mind. She dulled the fucking pain that fueled me with a simple smirk, and that was a big fucking problem.
When I closed my eyes at night, I no longer saw my wife’s face or heard my son’s laughter as he discovered something new. Instead, I saw beautiful turquoise eyes that smiled when they lit up and curves that I wanted to know on the deepest level a man could know a woman. It made me crave the need to murder her to get the memories back. I couldn’t forget them now, not when everything I’d done had been for them.
Aria was a fire within me that needed to be extinguished and smothered. I would fuck her and end this obsession quickly. She wasn’t mine, and yet I’d placed my name right beside her pussy so I would know if anyone touched it or tried to hurt her. I’d done that because I’d wanted to.
I wanted her to survive, but I also wanted to hurt her. Aria was one of them. She was one of the enemies who had taken my family from me, and I would stop at nothing to get revenge against them. Not even chaining her to my wall and keeping her there to play with could prevent what I’d set into motion. She’d hate me when she learned the truth and even more the moment I started murdering witches. Neither fucking mattered to me since she was my enemy.
Chapter 28
Aria
I silently drummed my fingers on the table that held the feast of all feasts on it. I watched my sisters shoveling food on their plates, while the men joined them eagerly. The only sound in the room was the silverware scraping the expensive china they’d pulled out. Today everyone was leaving me, going into the Nine Realms to get the items we needed to bless the house and fix the spell which would activate it.
Pushing food over my plate, I watched Brander from beneath my lashes as he sat silently brooding. At the same time, he consumed enough meat to feed a village on an undiscovered coastline, or maybe the entire coastline of Fiji. It reminded me of how Knox ate; consuming mainly meat, while gulping down milk by the gallon.
He was pleasant enough to look at and used a napkin to dab his mouth, which was more than some men were doing. Still, I didn’t feel a connection to him. I felt lust, and that was easy enough to achieve, but there wasn’t the sizzle I felt with Knox. Every once in a while, he’d move his stare to me and hold mine, but the moment Aine spoke, it would go right back to her with intrigue.
He seemed safe enough, but it made me wonder why Knox would say to pick him. From what I’d seen since coming here, he had a different woman in his room every day. I wasn’t worried about STDs since it was one perk of being immortal. Even if he was a slut, I didn’t have to worry about getting the last woman’s residue on me.
“Aria,” Kinvara whispered, interrupting my thoughts and placing her hand on my shoulder as she spoke.
“Yeah?”
I turned to look at her, and she smiled. “Are you going to devour poor Brander?” She looked between us and tilted her head, and my stare slid to Brander, who smiled before covering his mouth as heat banked in his pretty blue eyes.
“No,” I said in a high-pitched tone. “No, I was just lost in thought.”
“You look as if you’re trying to decide to either fuck him or fight him. I’m not sure which thought is winning.” She dropped a large piece of meat back onto her plate and then wiggled her brows at me. “I’m stuffed, but I bet Brander would stuff you in an entirely different way.” The men chuckled at her words, and I groaned, hating that my cheeks heated with color.
“Knox has been kind enough to prepare packs for us to take and sent word to the Witchery that we’re coming,” Sabine informed the room, causing me to slouch at the thought of being left behind. “Aria will remain here, protected and safeguarded by his men. We can’t chance her entering the Nine Realms and anything catching her scent. I have tasked Brander with protecting her during the time Knox is gone.”
“Yay me,” I muttered as I sat back in my chair, folding my hands in my lap to keep them from fidgeting.
“Aria, you know if we weren’t counting on you being our virgin sacrifice, we’d take you with us. Knox is right, his mark only works here or wherever he is, if he is telling the truth. We cannot take the chance of you losing your virginity before we gather the other materials we need. I have sent word to Aunt Aurora that we could use her and the others. She’s been keeping up to date with the situation here and is selling off the house to move here.”
At the last part of her words, the chatter started up. Aurora was selling our home to come to Haven Falls, which meant we wouldn’t be leaving here again. I frowned and listened to what everyone’s chattering was about. Normally, I’d be doing the same thing with my twin, but she wasn’t here.
“That means your communication to the friends you made, the men you fucked, ends now. Do whatever you need to do, call, or email them, whatever. Just break any connection to that world off because they’re not able to come here or discover this place for any reason. You can do it once you return from your trip.” I frowned as they groaned at my words.
I was the sister in charge of ex-communication and communication. I served as the representative of the family since I’d studied communication and diplomatic relationships. We each had taken a major to increase our place here or in the Nine Realms once the time came to play our part.
“But they’re our friends,” Aine said as she shook her head.
“No, Aine. They were, but once the house is sold, we are again residents of Haven Falls, and by being so, we can’t have outside relationships. There are over twenty-thousand people here in this town. You will make friends here.”
“My friends were witches,” Luna interjected into the conversation.
I smiled sadly while she frowned. “Outside witches are not witches of the Nine Realms, nor can you tell them anything other than what I have stated. Cut all ties, end all communication. Be glad you have your twin, Luna. Some of us do not even get that.” I pushed away from the table to leave the room, offering her a tight smile as I went.