Blessed sun god.
My senses were overwhelmed.
The sounds of a thunderstorm—the patter of rain, the crash of thunder, and crack of lightning—echoed around the room, unnaturally loud.
If I hadn’t known better, I’d have thought we were standing in the middle of the storm.
I tipped my face back, and my eyes widened.
Across the ceiling and walls, there wasn’t a single window in the room, dark clouds creating the illusion of torrential rain slamming down.
The only sources of light were glowing neon raindrops and a massive black marble hearth that blazed with soft, red flames.
That wasn’t even the best part.
The ceiling was low, and the biggest bed I’d ever seen was built into a platform on the floor. It was covered in fluffy white blankets and pillows.
It was plush.
The massive hearth blazed so large it almost took up an entire wall.
I was dumbstruck by the sheer coziness of the room. I didn’t know what I had expected, but it wasn’t this.
Xerxes towered next to me, covered in muscles, bruises, and dried blood. He handled knives with deadly precision and was a cold soldier most of the time. For sun god’s sake, the man had worked for the evil fae queen.
Yet he blushed as he showed me his fluffy bed?
There was a long pause as he stared at me and I stared at the illusion of rain streaking down the walls.
Finally, I realized he was waiting for me to speak. “Could you make it snow?”
I didn’t know why it mattered; I liked the rain just fine. Before I could take back my impulsive statement, Xerxes said loudly, “Enchantment, snow.”
Suddenly, the illusion on the walls transformed from rain into big, fluffy snowflakes.
They piled into banks, and the familiar crunch of boots across fresh powder echoed. My hair blew on a cool phantom breeze as the wind howled and branches clattered.
For the first time in months, my shoulders relaxed.
I sighed heavily and closed my eyes, losing myself in time and space until I was perched atop an evergreen.
There was something freeing about being above the world. Something that felt like home.
The wood creatures chittered. The cold bit into my bones, and the snow drifted around me.
Nothing was more peaceful than a snowy forest; it was violent and comforting.
It was the sheer exhilaration of being alive.
Serenity wasn’t the absence of conflict; it was the stillness within chaos.
A warm, callused hand touched my arm, and it jolted me back to the present. It was too tempting to get lost in the past. To forget all the awfulness of life and sink into daydreams of a cold forest.
Dick had stalked me through those same trees. Yet somehow, they’d become my mental solace.
“Do you like it?” Xerxes asked quietly. There was a slight edge of desperation in his honeyed accent, like my answer had the potential to break him.
I smiled up at him, snow falling around us as the wind howled. “I love it.”
Xerxes’s expressionless face shattered, and an intensity lit his gaze that had me taking a tentative step back.
He stalked forward. “Let’s get you clean.”
Next thing I knew, I was standing in the bathroom. A single candle flickered against the wall. It was dark and cozy like the rest of the space, black marble flecked with gold covering everything.
It was also confusing as hell.
I stood on the cold stone and shivered at the shiny wall. Xerxes had said it was a shower, but it wasn’t like anything I’d ever seen before.
A marble door swung shut and enclosed me in the narrow space, and eucalyptus trailed down the walls, but there was no showerhead or bath nozzle.
It was just smooth marble closing me in.
If I were claustrophobic, I would have been gasping in terror. The sheer quiet of it all overwhelmed my senses. There was nothing to see or feel, other than cold stone and darkness.
“Um, I don’t see any button to start the shower!” I yelled out to Xerxes.
“It’s on the side of the wall, around shoulder height. Just push it with your palm.”I ran my hands along the marble and shivered as nothing happened.
It was chilly in the mansion, and my naked, blood-crusted flesh was desperate for warm water.
My fingers shook, and I gnawed on my bottom lip as I frantically searched for some type of button.
Nothing happened.
I was ten seconds from falling to my knees and breaking down, all because I couldn’t get the hot water to work.
A part of my brain recognized that I was emotionally and physically exhausted.
That was how you knew you were at your wits’ end, when the smallest inconvenience became disastrous.
I tried to calm myself, but it didn’t matter.
Panic shook through me, and I yelled, “I can’t find it!”
Xerxes must have heard the desperation in my voice, because suddenly the solid marble door opened, and his wide shoulders crowded the narrow space.
I covered my nudity with my hands. “Um, what are you doing?” My broken voice was a squeaky rasp.
Xerxes ran his hands along the wall and mumbled absently, “Helping you.” He didn’t look any lower than my face, and his purple eyes glowed softly in the dark.
Abruptly, his palm pressed into the marble high above my head, and a low hum started.
“Sorry, I forgot you were so short.” He didn’t move.
Xerxes stood unnaturally still, and his muscles expanded like he was ready to fight as he towered above me. The scent of sugary cinnamon spiked and overpowered the fresh scent of eucalyptus.
I gasped as my vision refocused.
Abruptly, the shower whistled softly, and a thick cloud of steam swirled around us.
Xerxes was still wearing his bloody clothes.
I was still naked.
Neither of us moved.
Neither of us breathed.
A small glow of candlelight illuminated the stunning planes of Xerxes’s face. Warmth curled my toes, and I slowly lowered my hands to my side.
Cinnamon spiked, spicy.
My throat burned and my lips tingled with sweetness as an ache throbbed in my core.
The steam burned hotter.
Warm water sprayed us from every direction.
I didn’t see any nozzles, but somehow, the water was spraying from the ceiling and the walls in all directions until every inch of my skin tingled with delight.
Xerxes spoke, and his voice was rougher than usual, his smooth accent a guttural growl. “Shower rainstorm.”
Instantly, the silence of the black marble shower transformed into an onslaught of sensations.
Thunder cracked.
Lightning flashed.
The warm water pounded against us harder, and it pulsed in punishing sheets, like wind blowing against rain.
Purple eyes glowed brightly as they stared down at me.
Neither of us moved.
Warmth turned my aching muscles to mush, and my knees almost gave out as I leaned against the wall and breathed raggedly.
Every cell in my body quivered with tiredness and need.
Bloody water pooled at our feet.
I closed my eyes and lost myself to the sounds of the storm raging around me as I ignored the fresh memories of torture.
After an eternity of peaceful silence, it startled me when fingers scraped against the back of my skull.
A low, broken moan dragged from my throat.
It seemed Xerxes was following in Ascher’s footsteps.
My exhaustion went bone deep, so I didn’t fight it when he soaped my hair and washed it intently.
Just leaned back into his fingers and enjoyed it.
The loud purr that rattled through my chest mixed with the rumbling thunder.
When Xerxes finished rinsing my hair, I growled with disappointment but shifted forward.
I was clean now, and it was time to pull myself together and face reality.
My brain sluggishly ran through everything I needed to find out about the Mafia. I also had to get the girls enrolled in some type of schooling program, and—
“Stop,” Xerxes growled and cut off my thoughts.
I blinked open my tired eyes at the imposing soldier that glared down at me. “What?”
Lightning cracked.
“Stop thinking. You need to relax. Your body is at its breaking point.”
I arched my eyebrow like Aran and drawled, “I’ll do whatever I want to do. But thanks for your input, sweet cheeks.”
Satisfaction coursed through me as his glowing purple eyes flashed with rage.
Maybe that was why Ascher and Cobra called me ridiculous names. It was exhilarating to piss Xerxes off.
Yes, I was aware I was unwell. No, I didn’t care.
Suddenly, Xerxes’s elegant fingers wrapped around my neck and pushed me flush against the hard marble.
I gasped with surprise.
Mr. Soft Omega was gone. The evil queen’s assassin glared down at me.
Xerxes’s callused thumb slowly traced down my neck, while his other hand roughly palmed my small breast.
My hips bucked as he pinched my nipples, and I moaned. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
Perfect white teeth flashed in the darkness as Xerxes smirked down at me.
Thunder boomed as the sounds of pouring rain intensified.
“Taking what’s mine.”
Lightning flashed.
I bucked against him, hyperaware of my core grazing across his pant-covered leg. He pressed against me harder.
“I don’t give a fuck if you’re an alpha. I’m in charge.” Xerxes’s voice was a deep rasp, and his breath tickled my ears.
The small space closed in around us; there was nowhere to go.
His long blond hair was plastered against both of us.
The water pounded relentlessly.
“What are you talking about?” I asked breathlessly, as Xerxes tilted my chin back with his hand.
His lush lips trailed down my neck.
Then teeth scraped across the same path as he murmured against my flesh, “I showed you my nest.”
Xerxes bit down gently. Hard enough to claim, but not hard enough to break the skin.
His hands trailed across my nipples, down my sensitive stomach, and to rest against my core.
“So?” I whispered.
Were we living in alternate realities because it felt like I was missing something?
Also, why was I so turned on by this?
Xerxes’s hands splayed across my waist, and he lifted me higher against the wall so his teeth could trace across my nipples.
My tongue ached with the need to lick his olive skin and see if he tasted as sweet as he smelled.
Every cell in my body craved cinnamon.
Xerxes stilled.
I was hyperaware of his callused fingers that were now dragging slowly through my heat, and the warm mouth pressed against me. A dull ache pulsed between my legs as he deftly rubbed against my clit.
Suddenly, his teeth scraped along my tender nipple, and one of his hands slapped my pussy.
He squeezed my core. “You’re my alpha. I fucking claim you.”
Thunder boomed.
My chest rattled harder with a deep purr.
Pleasure blurred my vision. If I were standing, my knees would have given out. Xerxes’s hands tightened around my core and neck.
The two points of contact were the only things holding me up against the cold wall.
Confusion, satisfaction, and desire boomeranged through me.
I licked my lips and tried to sort through my jumbled thoughts. “Aren’t you an omega?”
Xerxes hunched over, took my nipple in his mouth, and hummed with agreement.
“And I’m an alpha,” I gasped as pleasure streaked. “So, shouldn’t I be the one dominating you?”
Abruptly, burned cinnamon filled the space.
Xerxes released me.
My feet slipped across the floor shakily, and my gut cramped at the sudden shift in the air.
Glowing purple eyes were unfocused, pupils blown.
He stared down at me.
I had no idea what was happening, something must have triggered him.
Did I say or do something wrong?
What. The. Fuck.
The power dynamic inverted as Xerxes took another step closer, crowding me against the wall.
Omega threatened alpha.
My breath left my chest in a harsh rattle.
Suddenly, Xerxes bellowed and slammed his fist into the marble beside my head. A loud crack echoed, and my head jolted from the vibrations of marble breaking behind me.
Something had definitely triggered him.
Xerxes was losing his shit.
Fury crackled between us, louder than the lightning and thunder that shook the dark space.
Adrenaline sharpened my vision.
I was no stranger to violence, but it didn’t mean I liked it. Didn’t mean it was okay.
On pure instinct, I jackknifed my heel against the side of his knee.
There was a loud crack as his legs gave out beneath him.
The water poured over his clothed form, and Xerxes didn’t move, just stared unsteadily at the wall.
His scent was sharp, burned cinnamon, eyes unfocused.
He was no longer present with me.
My heart hurt, and my alpha instincts screamed at me to comfort him. Xerxes was an omega, and he was hurting. I wanted to wrap my arms around him in his fluffy bed and run my hands over his back until he calmed.
“I didn’t mean it,” I whispered, my voice an uncomfortably harsh rasp. I’d meant it as playful banter.
A joke.
Xerxes’s head hung forward, shoulders rounded like he was cowering into himself. He didn’t acknowledge that he’d heard me.
Slowly, I reached my shaking hand out to reassure him.
I stopped.
He’d thrown his fist inches from my face.
It wasn’t my job to fix someone.
I was barely holding on to sanity myself.
With the last of my strength, I jumped up and pushed the button above my head. The shower turned off.
I grabbed two plush towels and gently placed one around Xerxes’s shoulders. He didn’t move, just knelt on the cold floor with his head hanging forward.
Thunder boomed.
Flashes of yellow highlighted unfocused purple eyes and a clenched jaw.
Xerxes was far away.
“It will be okay,” I mumbled awkwardly as I wrapped myself in a towel.
Then, with one last backward glance, I sluggishly stumbled out of his nest, back to my room.
My legs trembled as the sound of marble cracking played on repeat in my head.
It was too intense.
I stumbled down the hall in a daze, and when I finally got to my room, Aran startled awake in the bed.
“Everything okay?” she asked with narrowed eyes.
Okay. There was that fucking word again. It will be okay was the most frequent lie ever told.
I leaned against the wall and sighed. “No.”
Aran itched aggressively at her back. “It never is. We just gotta stop being surprised.”
I nodded in agreement and barely mustered enough energy to grab clothes from the closet.
My stomach hurt for whoever had harmed Xerxes, but my chest burned with unadulterated rage.
For a split second, when his hand had slammed against the wall beside me, Dick’s belt had slashed across my skin.
Warm blood had splattered across the floor.
The worst part wasn’t the during; it was the after. Adrenaline got you through the moment, and when it left, nothing tempered the agony.
The shock wore off into a tsunami of unfathomable hurt.
I collapsed into bed, exhausted.
The nightmares came quickly.
