We rode hard and fast through the dark fey lands until the sun was just beginning to set on the horizon. The bright orange flags marking the end of Dark Fey Territory and the beginning of Light Fey City stood out on the horizon. Not just flags, but there was a high stone wall and a few signs. Dozens of signs every three of four feet: “Dark Fey keep out,” “Light Fey Only,” “Turn back or lose your head.”
Yikes.
Walsh pulled on the reins, slowing the wagon; the horse came to a full stop.
‘Sawyer? Are you okay? We just made it to Light Fey City. Gonna grab a car and I should be at the Witch Lands in a couple hours.’
Nothing. Not even a feeling. He’d gone completely dark.
Crap.
Walsh “parked” the horse and carriage at the edge of the dark fey lands and dismounted. My gaze flicked to the girl wrapped around my leg. Astra. She was like a stage five clinger and I wasn’t sure I was ready to just send her to find her way home on her own. Even in her human form she just held on to me or leaned into me and watched our surroundings with unease.
Walsh must have been thinking the same thing. He looked up at her from his place on the ground and extended his hand. “Come on. We’ll see you home. You can pass through the Light Fey City with us into the Witch Lands, and then make it home through Wolf City.”
She swallowed hard, looking at his outstretched hand with fear. Something dark slithered across my mind. What had men done to her to make her so fearful of them?
She looked up at me and I nodded. “You can trust him.”
Without hesitation she stood and took Walsh’s outstretched hand as he helped her to descend the carriage. I was next, and finally Sage. We stood, the four of us, bruised, bloody, but not broken. What a shitshow these entire last few days had been, but we were almost there.
“We cross the fence and I’ll find us a car,” Walsh stated.
I nodded curtly, my stomach in knots over the fact that Sawyer had gone completely quiet.
We approached the fence slowly, looking left and right. I half expected a sniper to shoot us down the second we crossed over, but after swinging my legs over the brick wall and hitting the rocks, I was relieved to see my head still attached to my body.
I looked around and took in Light Fey City.
Whoa.
In direct contrast to Dark Fey Territory, black asphalt roads and shiny modern buildings with solar paneled rooftops dotted the distance. Astra huddled close to me like a little loyal chihuahua, and shaking like one too. Sage caught my gaze and frowned at her, obviously worried about what had the girl so scared.
What had those motherfuckers done to her back there? Did they know she could heal people? Probably not or they’d have never let her go. I shook off my anger and we walked down the asphalt road, stopping in a thick outcrop of trees as we reached a neighborhood of track homes. Walsh glanced at a black BMW and looked over at us.
“I’ll be right back. If anyone comes, kill them. We can’t afford to sound the alarm that we are in enemy territory. Not here. They have modern technology and a huge army. There will be a contingent of guards on us in seconds.”
Astra squeaked in fear and I nodded to Walsh. “Will do.”
Considering we’d left in such a rush, and sadly I left behind the fey blade and shotgun, I didn’t really have any weapons to kill anyone.
After he jogged away, I turned to poor Astra. She lowered her chin even further as my eyes looked her over, really taking her in. She had a smattering of freckles across her face, but there were fine scars all over her body. Her neck, cheeks, chest. Little lacelike webbing of previous injuries. Previous injuries she had healed?
“Look at me,” I commanded, because it was the only way she seemed to be able to respond. I felt a small measure of power leave my body and wash over her and it terrified me. Was that… alpha power? Like what Sawyer did? And his father?
Her chin jutted up to look at me with those swimming blue eyes.
“You saved Walsh. That makes you my friend and I don’t let anything happen to my friends. Understand?”
She swallowed hard and nodded.
Sage tipped her head. “Me neither. Anyone fucks with you again, they lose their head right before I shove it up their ass.” She raised a fist for good measure.
Astra’s eyes bugged and I shot Sage a look that said to tone down the descriptive killing. This girl seemed very sheltered, like she’d been plucked right out of a nunnery. But our assurances and threats had worked to calm her. She stopped shaking and looked in wonder at the black sleek car that pulled out toward us, Walsh at the wheel.
Had she never seen a car?
We rushed forward, Sage taking the front and Astra and I popping into the back. I closed the door and slipped on my seatbelt as Astra looked around, wide-eyed. Her gaze tracked the ceiling, the console with all its lights, and the seatbelt at my waist.
Walsh gunned it, making the tires screech a little and I knew he was probably going to drive like a bat out of hell. Reaching over, I clipped Astra in, tucking the belt over Sage’s deer fur that she wore, and the sweatpants.
“It keeps you in the car if there is an accident and we bonk into something.” I was treating her like a child and I felt bad for that, but she was so naive and innocent. I just wanted to protect her.
She nodded.
‘Sawyer, I’m coming. Where are you?’ I growled in my head, getting more and more frustrated that he wasn’t responding. If Meredith or her mother had done anything to him again, I was going to kill them both.
I didn’t have time to really enjoy Light Fey City. Walsh drove fast but not fast enough to draw attention to us, just enough to get us through the territory quickly. It looked like a mini–New York City: high-rise building and clusters of nice houses, all with modern touches; fancy cars blasted past us as we raced to the edge of the city. My parents and Raven, Sawyer said, were all waiting for me just a few miles away. I could finally put this nightmare behind me. But mostly I just wanted to be in Sawyer’s arms. It had been too long without him. I missed his touch, his smell, his kisses.
“Almost there.” Walsh gunned the gas as the wrought iron gates that marked the Witch Lands rose in the distance. There were two guards at either end of the open gates. Both wore long black cloaks.
Warlocks.
‘Sawyer!’ I shouted, wondering if I was louder, if that would help.
“Sawyer still isn’t responding. What could have happened?” I asked Sage, the need to talk to someone about this was too strong.
Sage frowned, looking back at me from her spot in the front seat. “He could have been arrested and taken to Magic City Jail. Kidnapped by vampires or light fey in retaliation for killing Locke. His—”
“OhmyGod, stop.” I covered my ears, rushing the words together. “I didn’t actually want to know all the bad things that could have happened.”
Sage winced. “Sorry.” She reached back and clasped my hand. “Hey, I’m worried too, but my cousin has been training with Eugene for decades. No one is going to get the drop on him.”
But they did. They had to have, unless this was another magic spell thing put over our bond so that we couldn’t communicate.
My eyes widened. “Stop the car!” I yelled to Walsh, and the tires skidded to a halt, a black plume of smoke coming up behind us. We were twenty feet from the gate, and the two warlocks’ hooded heads turned our way.
It’s a trap…
It had to be. Only a witch would be able to keep Sawyer and I from speaking, like the magic in Troll Village.
Had the witches turned against us too?
“Go right, drive away from the gate. Now,” I told Walsh as the two warlocks raised a gnarled wooden staff, each with a crystal ball on top.
Walsh did as I asked, and when we were a few blocks away, I released a shaky breath.
“What’s up?” Walsh’s gaze flicked to mine in the mirror.
“I… think maybe the witches are against us too. Or some of them at least. My bond with Sawyer is being blocked.”
Probably in part because I’d torn it to pieces after he chose Meredith. Oops.
Walsh frowned. “You think everyone is against us now?”
Now I felt stupid and paranoid. “I don’t know… can we cut through the Wild Lands now? We’re so close.”
The Witch Lands and Werewolf City touched, so if we drove to the edge of the Wild Lands it would be a short trek through to the very edge of Wolf City.
“I dunno, Sage and I had a lot of Ithaki gunning for us—”
“Yes. I will get you safely across,” Astra spoke from the back seat.
Walsh and Sage shared a look. “The Ithaki—”
“I’ll get you safely across,” she pressed, and it was the sternest I’d ever heard her.
“If she says she can, she can,” I told them.
Astra and I were connected, and I could feel her genuineness. She wouldn’t lead us astray. Walsh took a side road that ran the length of the wrought iron gate and headed for the Wild Lands. We passed a few openings with warlocks positioned at the entrance about every mile or so. It was the most guarded territory of them all; they really didn’t want anyone going in… or out. After an hour and nearly running out of gas, we reached the back fence of Light Fey City, and there was only one sign.
Wild Lands. Enter at your own risk.
Walsh slowed the car to a crawl before pulling over and putting it into park. We all unclipped our belts and stepped out of the car, slinging backpacks over our shoulders and preparing for the final stretch back to Wolf City.
Walsh stepped toward a gap in the Wild Lands gate, but Astra clicked her tongue. “That’s Ithaki land. This way.” She walked along the rough, piled stone, vines creeping over the top.
Walsh frowned. “How can you tell?”
She gave him a timid look. “How can you tell where the kitchen is in your house?”
“Touché,” he said.
This was her land, her home, and I had no doubt she knew every inch of it. There was a gap in the wall ahead and she headed toward it, slipping inside and disappearing behind the high stone.
Sage and Walsh looked at me as if asking one more time if I trusted her. She’d saved Walsh’s life at the risk of her own. Were they crazy?
I stepped ahead of them and slipped in behind her, walking into a thick forest.
Astra stood quietly, waiting for us. Her entire demeanor had changed. She was relaxed, a little more confident in her own land, leaning casually against the base of a giant apple tree. Apples hung from the branches and she plucked one off, taking a bite. “Last batch of the season. They’ll all be rotten or frozen in a month.”
She started to skip her way down a path, and I shared a look with Sage and Walsh. My, my, how being on her own turf had changed her.
‘Demi! Dammit, woman—’
Sawyer screamed inside my head and I stopped, sagging in relief at his voice. ‘I’m here!’
‘Don’t go into the Witch Lands! It’s a trap,’ he rushed out.
Everyone else stopped and looked at me. I tapped my head once and Sage relayed to them what that meant. ‘I didn’t. I figured it out when you didn’t respond.’
‘Where are you? I’m going crazy. Are you okay?’ Concern threaded through his voice.
Relief washed through me now that our bond had been restored. Must have been because we were in the Wild Lands, a place the witches couldn’t blanket with spell power?
‘Walsh nearly died, a healer Paladin saved his life and is now walking us from Light Fey City through Paladin Wild Lands to Werewolf City.’
He was silent a moment. ‘A Paladin helped Walsh? Are you sure you can trust them? They could be leading you into a trap.’
‘I’m sure, Sawyer…’ I growled a little, annoyed that everyone thought the Paladins were bad when all I’d ever seen was goodness from them. ‘She nearly died trying to heal him, and she’s as timid as a mouse. She’s barely sixteen years old!’
‘Okay. I’m sorry, I just… I haven’t slept well in days. I need you home, I need you in my bed.’ His voice was gruff, and my heart swelled.
‘I miss you too, you big idiot. Who puts on a necklace from their jealous ex-girlfriend?’
I expected him to laugh, that maybe we were at that stage, but he didn’t. ‘I’ll never stop trying to make that up to you, and for the record, I don’t remember putting it on. Those five minutes are all black.’
Probably a spell. Fuckers.
‘Where exactly are you?’ Sawyer asked. ‘I’m coming. I’m bringing an army with me. This will never happen again, you will never be taken from me.’ His voice held deadly promise, and I knew without a doubt if anyone tried again they would meet their death.
‘Can you go to the southeast-most corner of Wolf City? We should come out somewhere around there,’ I guessed based on where we were walking and the map Marmal had given me.
I longed to get word to my troll friend that I had made it home safely.
‘I’ll be there! We were able to magic the ankle monitor to allow me to go around Wolf City before the witches turned on us, but I cannot cross the border. I’ll see you soon. Be safe,’ Sawyer said, and then I felt him retreat into my thoughts.
“Let’s go. Sawyer will be waiting at the Wolf City flag line,” I told everyone.
With every step deeper into Paladin land that I took, I felt something inside of me stirring. My wolf? My soul? Something felt right here, at home here. I shook it off and ran faster to catch up with Astra’s skipping.
We’d been briskly walking for a good thirty minutes when I heard the snap of a twig. We all froze and turned to the sound. I felt my wolf stir just under my skin as one of the male Ithaki who had helped kidnap me from the base of Waterfall Mountain stepped out of the woods with a handful of others.
He grinned. “Hello, little demon.”
I balled my hands to fists and Astra ran to my side. “You can’t kill them unless they step foot on our land. And they can’t kill us unless we go on theirs. It’s in the peace treaty,” she whispered.
I looked to the ground, trying to see if there was an indication of land markings that I may have missed. Is that what had happened when I’d fallen? I’d fallen into Ithaki land and that sweet man, my grandfather, had crossed over the line to help me?
Guilt gnawed at my chest as I realized that he’d been killed because of me. One hundred percent, I saw it then. Small blue crushed stones made a line in the damp earth, demarcating a path.
“Run along before I drag you over this line and smash your brains out,” I growled to the man who had once plotted to skin me alive with that vampire-fey Eugene thankfully had shot dead.
He sneered, stepping closer to the line so that his toe was barely touching it. “You will be mine, little demon. Especially now that there is a bounty.”
I swallowed hard at the word bounty. I’d totally forgotten about the two-million vampire bounty. I should kill him and his men right here. Who would care? I didn’t give a shit about some little crushed rock line. I wanted him in pieces for what he’d done to me.
‘Alpha,’ Astra whispered, and it took me a moment to realize she had spoken in my head… like Sawyer did. Like Sage did in wolf form. Like pack.
I looked at her, blinking back shock.
“We cannot break the treaty. We can’t handle a war right now,” she muttered aloud this time.
I relaxed my fists, my wolf calming inside of me, taking her advice. It wouldn’t be right to leave trouble on her doorstep and then go back to Wolf City. With a final glare, I began to walk forward, to an opening in the distance. All the while I felt my wolf rustle inside of me, wanting to break free and rip that Ithaki man’s head off.
“Just up ahead!” Astra broke into a run, seemingly unperturbed about the Ithaki watching us leave. The treaty must be a well-respected thing. That, or she didn’t want to mess with Sage and Walsh and I together. We were covered in blood and must look slightly badass. Astra skipped and twirled like a little carefree girl who was just meandering through her backyard.
The second I saw the line of orange flags, I also heard him.
Sawyer.
“Demi!” he roared into the trees.
My heart swelled in my chest as I pumped my legs, blasting past Sage and Walsh and then Astra.
“Sawyer!” Tears filled my eyes.
He chose me, he did, before we were both tricked into some horrible public break-up that wasn’t even real. It felt real. Well, it was real, but it was magic, we were both tricked. A large part of me still hurt from what he’d said, but I had to remember he was under a spell.
You’re just like your mother.
That wasn’t magically put in his mind, was it? I just wanted to push it all under the rug and be in his arms. It’s all I cared about right now. Remembering that he was wearing an ankle bracelet and couldn’t come to me without getting electrocuted, I leapt as fast as possible through the final stretch of woods.
“Demi!” he shouted again, voice hoarse and frantic. I cleared the row of orange flags and broke out into a flat green grassy area. Sawyer was to the right, looking into the woods, and over fifty armed men sprawled out into the green park behind him.
“I’m here!” I yelled, and he spun.
When my eyes fell on him, my heart sank. Dark circles hung under his eyes; he hadn’t shaved in days, and a black, bulky leg cuff marred his ankle. When he saw me, he sagged with relief and staggered backward. His hungry gaze ran the length of my body as if looking for wounds, or marks, or some sign of what I’d been through. And he found many. His gaze stopped over each bruise, each patch of blood until his eyes narrowed to slits.
I ran and his arms opened as I leapt into them, feeling them tighten around me. His earthy musky scent enveloped me and I whimpered.
“Thank fuck,” he rasped against my neck, breathing me in. “I nearly burned the whole world down looking for you.”
He held me as silent tears slipped down my face. I’d never loved someone this much, loved them so much that it physically hurt. I was back in his arms, and yet I couldn’t get the painful sting of his voice out of my head.
I choose Meredith Pepper to be my wife.
I wondered then about what Raven had told me, about love potions only being able to amplify already existing feelings. I pulled back from him and gave him a tight smile as he reached out and brushed a tear away from my cheek.
“Happy tears or sad ones?” He frowned, his muscles tightening as if anticipating a hit.
I swallowed hard. “Both.”
His frown deepened, making his chin butt pucker, and I reached out and stroked it. “You chose Meredith. In front of everyone…” My voice cracked.
He whimpered like a dog that had just been run over by a car; it was pained and loud. “No!” He fell to his knees, hugging my waist and nuzzling his face into my stomach. “Fuck no. That was magic. I choose you. Always. Forever. Please…” His voice broke. “Forgive me.”
I looked down at him, and he looked up at me and I grinned. “You on your knees is kind of a nice look.”
A slow smirk played across his face. “Oh baby, I can do a lot on my knees.” He flicked his eyes to between my legs and my entire body warmed.
It wasn’t lost on me that the future alpha of all of Werewolf City was on his knees in the dirt and grass hugging my waist and begging for forgiveness in front of his entire alpha army, who snuck side glances at the spectacle.
“I won’t get up until you forgive me. No matter how emasculating it is.” He stayed on his knees, looking up at me like a lost puppy.
I grinned. “Maybe just one more minute.”
He growled, playfully, and grabbed me by the legs in excitement as he shot up to his feet. I squealed as he carried me over his shoulder in a fireman pose before sliding me down his chest, rubbing my breasts all the way down his body and causing his eyes to turn the color of molten lava.
“Future Mrs. Hudson,” he breathed in the sexiest voice I’d ever heard, “will you please forgive me for getting spelled with an evil necklace and being mind-controlled by my psycho ex-girlfriend?”
When he put it that way, it wasn’t really his fault, was it?
“Future Mrs. Calloway-Hudson actually. I’m hyphenating and you haven’t technically asked me to marry you yet.”
His eyes glittered. “No. I haven’t yet.”
He slipped his hand into mine and then turned to face Walsh and Sage and Astra, who stepped out of the woods.
All fifty guards raised their guns at the sight of Astra and I thrust my hands out. “No! She’s with us!” I ripped my hand from Sawyer’s and ran over to her side. She was shaking like a leaf again, eyes on the ground. Sawyer’s men lowered their guns and looked to him.
“You’re okay. They won’t hurt you,” I told her, placing a protective hand on her shoulder.
She looked back at the woods. “Need to get home.”
I nodded, about to ask if she needed help getting back, when Sawyer stepped up behind me, extending his hand to her. “I heard about what you did for my best friend, and I just wanted to thank you for healing him.”
This was big. Super big. To have the future Werewolf City alpha offering to shake hands with a Paladin wolf. She must have known it too, because she looked at me and I gave her a curt nod. Then she stuck out her hand and shook his.
“Is there anything I can offer you in form of payment? Gold or—?”
She hissed, “Blasphemy.”
Sawyer looked at me and I shrugged, as if to say I had no idea what she was rattling on about. She seemed super religious or spiritual or whatever.
“Alright, well. Thanks again.” Sawyer let go of her hand and slipped an arm around my shoulders. Astra looked between us and then at the woods.
“Alpha?” Astra said timidly, and I flinched.
Sawyer seemed to think she was talking to him. “My father is actually, but I’m next in line.”
Lord help me…
This was not a conversation I wanted to have with him right now.
The entire idea that I could be a Paladin alpha… the last Paladin alpha by my count, drove my thoughts insane. I looked over at her and her eyes were glistening with tears. “Aren’t you coming home? With me?” she asked me.
Home. What a funny word. I’d never felt like I had a home, growing up banished in the human world with the rest of the magical rejects.
Sawyer stiffened against me and I swallowed hard.
“This is my home.” The lie flew from my mouth with ease, tasting like ashes on my tongue. “Wherever Sawyer is… is my home.” That rang true and felt better in my mouth. Wolf City was still a stranger’s land to me, but Sawyer was where I wanted to be.
She frowned. ‘But our people—’
“Goodbye, Astra. I’m glad you’re safe now,” I told her. I needed her to go before I lost my shit. I felt the strongest urge to rip my clothes from my body, shift into my wolf and run across the flag line and into the Paladin lands howling at the moon as I went. My wolf and I felt more like one being on those lands, and that scared me.
She looked unsure. Scared. Sick. Her wide eyes registered me with shock.
‘You’re staying here?’ Her voice in my head was full of hurt, and I swallowed hard and nodded.
“Do you need to be escorted back to your village?” Sawyer asked kindly, misinterpreting the fear in her eyes.
She shook her head, wiping away a lone tear. “No.” She started to walk away, but when she reached the flag line, she looked back at me, and I was such a coward I couldn’t meet her gaze.
My heart fluttered against my ribcage as she stared at me.
‘Paladin people are blessed. Without an alpha to anchor us, our magic withers and dies. You must come home. Soon.’ Her words in my head sent shivers down my spine.
Home.
Home.
Home.
“That was weird,” Sawyer commented, snapping me out of my stupor.
I reached for him, and he for me.
“Tell me everything,” he said, brushing a piece of hair from my cheek.
I nodded. “Are my parents safe? Raven?”
“Yes. I got them out of the Witch Lands before things got scary there.”
I didn’t even want to know what “got scary there” meant.
Marmal flew into my mind and I squeezed his arm. “I need to get a message to someone first, then we can talk.”
After handwriting a lengthy note and inquiring as to the wellbeing of Ginny, I gave the note to one of Sawyer’s guards and he agreed to get it to Marmal of Rosedale.
Walsh and Sage both agreed to catch up with us later. Sawyer and I went to his apartment, where he ordered tons of food and I told him everything about my trip. Almost everything. I left out Arrow and the alpha stuff. I hadn’t even really processed that information myself, and I didn’t think it was going to do any good right now with Sawyer having his own problems to worry about.
“Now your turn,” I told him.
He scrubbed his face before popping a strawberry into his mouth and looking at me across the dinner table next to his kitchen. “I need you to know that I wasn’t myself when I found you kissing that fake motherfucker who I will most certainly find and kill.”
I swallowed hard but didn’t say anything as he continued. “It was like I was possessed. Possessed with rage and hatred for you, and drunk on fake love and adoration for Meredith. But also confused because I still loved you. It’s like they couldn’t take that from me.”
Pain sliced through my chest, making my entire body ache as I remembered the moment he cast me out of my own engagement party and declared Meredith his future wife.
“Raven told me once that you can’t make a love spell work on someone you don’t have feelings for…”
There, I said it.
He nodded as he ran his fingers through his hair. “Look, Meredith and I were together for two years. I did love her at the time, but she changed. Became colder and calculating, more controlling. I do not love her anymore, but I still cared about what happened to her. It’s why I pulled her aside to tell her I was going to pick you. I cared that she wasn’t hurt publicly, and I think that care for her wellbeing was what fueled the spell.”
I snorted. “Ironic considering you publicly humiliated me.”
Pain and shame crossed his features, making his face contort into a grimace. “I’m a complete fucking asshole for that. Magic aside. I remember everything I said and did. It was like watching a train wreck and I couldn’t stop it.” He stood, walked over to my chair, and bent down in front of me. “I’ve messed up a lot with you, haven’t I?”
My mind went to the time he forcibly cuffed me, and then with Meredith, and I nodded. But I knew everything he did was because he thought he was protecting me. Or he was magically drugged by his psycho ex.
“Allow me one more chance.” He reached out and grabbed my hips, pulling me onto his lap. “One more chance and I’ll get it right. I promise I won’t fuck up this time.”
His blue eyes searched mine desperately, and I couldn’t help the warmth that thawed my heart. People made mistakes, but a man that could admit them, apologize, and try to do better, was worth his weight in gold.
“There is a way you could make it up to me.” My voice dropped into deep sexy bedroom talk and his eyes went half lidded.
“Oh, Miss Calloway, please do tell.”
I grinned, pulling at the edges of my shirt and tugging it over my head, careful to still baby my shoulder. “I need a shower.”
His breath came out in a rush as he wet his lips with his tongue. Then his gaze fell on my shoulder and his arms stiffened around me. “You’re hurt. Who did that?” he growled.
I knew that if I hadn’t already killed the troll, that Sawyer would go on another murder spree in my honor.
“A dead man. Focus. Shower?”
With a growl, he stood, clutching me to his chest as his warm breath washed over my face.
“You placed smiles, like flowers on the altar of my heart.” He peppered my neck with kisses as I threaded my fingers through his hair.
“Who?” I panted, wanting to know the poet and forgetting about Sawyer’s penchant for reciting sweet nothings to me.
“John O’Donohue.” He kissed me tenderly as we stepped into the bathroom. He set my feet down on the floor and I slowly stripped, peeling off my dirty travel clothes. I backed up against the wall so he could pass by me and turn on the hot water. When he spun back around to face me, he looked at my body and his jaw clenched so tightly that I thought his teeth might snap. I looked down, unsure what upset him, and saw that I was riddled with bruises and small cuts.
He reached up and cupped my face. “Not being there, not being able to find you myself…” He leaned his forehead against mine. “…it killed me.” He rubbed at the stubble on his face and I couldn’t help but remark at how lucky I was to be loved by him. Reaching for his shirt, he pulled it off in one quick move and I noticed that he too had his own fading bruises. A fading bruise on a werewolf meant it had to be a really bad wound or broken bone. Probably from his fight with Locke. My eyes fell to the ankle monitor at his leg and I shook my head, stepping closer to him.
“You shouldn’t have done that. With Vicon Drake. Now you’re on trial for murder and—”
“And it was worth it. Every fucking second of his murder was worth it no matter the consequence, you understand me?” His voice was like sandpaper and I gulped, nodding. Sawyer stepped into the shower and then reached a hand out for me, pulling me inside with him.
The warm water that hit my skin was heaven, trailing down my back and washing all the dirt and blood off of me. Sawyer watched me, pumping some liquid soap onto his hands, making suds before running them over my arms, and then my breasts. He lathered my body with suds, trailing his fingers over my nipples, which tightened to points, leaving a searing trail of heat in their wake. I panted, grabbing some soap and doing the same to him. When his lips fell onto mine, I parted them eagerly, meeting his tongue in the middle.
My fingers ran over his chest, raking down his abs. I’d forgotten how tight his muscles were. Massaging him was like trying to massage a rock. His slick and soapy hand trailed down my navel and my thighs clenched with need. When one of his fingers slipped inside of me, I let out a deep satisfying groan. Our bond opened then, and all of the fragmented bits started to mend together again. I could feel his possessive and all-consuming love for me, his shame and regret over the incident with Meredith, and his pure hatred for her now. He massaged between my legs as I panted and reached for him, my tongue sliding against his. Wrapping my hands around his hardness, I began to stroke him as he huffed against my mouth. Water rolled down our faces as we pleasured each other and I felt our imprint spark stronger with each throaty kiss.
“Confession,” Sawyer huffed, deep and husky in my ear.
“What?” I gasped, barely able to concentrate as he wound his fingers rapidly on the most sensitive part of me.
He pulled back and his fiery blue gaze held mine. “I’m terrified you’ll be my undoing. Because I’ll never deny you anything. I’m at your mercy, Demi Calloway. Be aware of the power you hold over me.”
I shattered into a million pieces then, a climax racking my body as his words sank into my heart and seeped throughout my soul.
