Page 16 of Out of the Darkness

It had taken him longer than he would have liked to move the body of Madelyn’s attacker into the trunk of his car, clean up the blood, and destroy all traces of them from the structure. It was almost midnight by the time he had finished, and he had debated on just going right to her place without cleaning himself off because he needed to see her that badly. Eventually, though, he decided against it as he didn’t want to risk making things worse for her by showing up still covered in blood. The relationship between them was tentative as it was.

This was not how he had expected the night to go at all. He had planned on making sure Madelyn got home okay after work and then playing with her a bit more. It had become a game, a routine, one that he had grown rather fond of and knew she had too, even if she still wouldn’t admit it. He wanted to feed off that, wanted to cultivate and grow it until the bond between them was unshakable and she wouldn’t be able to deny it anymore. Instead, the night had taken a dark and fatal turn, and he may have shattered every bit of progress they had made by giving her a glimpse of the monster he struggled with daily. He just hadn’t been able to help it.

When he had seen that man’s hands on her and realized that he was planning on killing her, his already fragile restraint had snapped in an instant. His only thought was to save her, to protect his mate, and he ended up killing the man in a fit of blind rage. He had torn the guy’s throat out with his teeth, right in front of her. Then, instead of reporting it like she had wanted to, he made her leave and cleaned up the mess himself, essentially making her an accessory to murder. That hadn’t been his intention, but it had been drilled into him to avoid the police as much as possible.

Ultimately, he was not doing a very good job when it came to convincing her that they belonged together, which was why he needed to check on her now. Not only did he need to make sure she was okay, but he needed the chance to explain.

Xavier had made it to Madelyn’s place in record time and, thankfully, without incident. It was a good thing, too, because the body in the trunk wouldn’t look very good if he had been pulled over. The plan was to get rid of it after checking on Madelyn because he knew where his priorities were. He wasn’t worried about blood or the smell because he had wrapped it in plastic sheeting, which he still conveniently had in his trunk.

Climbing out of the car, he let himself into her house with the key he had recently acquired. He then punched in the code to the alarm to disarm it and took a moment to listen to the sounds of the house. The washer was going in the laundry room, and Madelyn seemed to be upstairs in her bedroom. After everything that happened, and due to how late it was, he had expected her to be asleep by now. Instead, it sounded as though she were pacing and muttering to herself. It was a good thing he was there because he knew how to calm her down.

Taking the stairs two at a time, he headed in the direction of her bedroom. Because he had been there more than a few times over the last few weeks, he knew the place like the back of his hand. He spotted her the moment he stepped into the room and felt some of the tension leave his body like a physical weight had been lifted. Her hair was wet from the shower she had taken, and her skin was pink as if she had rubbed it raw, trying to rid herself of all the blood. The bloody clothes she had been wearing were gone now too and had been replaced by a baggy sweatshirt and sweats.

He always did prefer her like this; dressed comfortably and with no makeup. It showed who she really was, the face behind the mask, so to speak. However, the sight of the bruises beginning to form on her face and neck, along with the deep and jagged cut on her forehead, was like being doused in a bucket of ice water.

His jaw clenched as he took a moment to try to reign in his residual anger. It wasn’t her fault she was attacked, but if she hadn’t been so hell-bent on pushing him away, he could have prevented all of this.

“Madelyn,” he said softly. She spun on him, her eyes wide, but he continued to move toward her. “You okay?”

“No,” Madelyn laughed, though the sound was devoid of any humor at all. “I… I watched you kill a man, Xavier. You ripped his throat out with your fucking teeth! And your eyes…”

“I’m not going to apologize for what I did if that’s what you’re after,” he replied by way of response. “Because, as I told you, I would do it all over again.”

Madelyn scoffed. “Do you even care that you took a life?”

“No,” he stated with no hesitation. “He hurt you. And I’ve killed people for a lot less than that.”

The answer didn’t require much thought on his part because, in his mind, there had been no other decision to make. It wasn’t the first life he had taken, not by a long shot, and he doubted it would be his last. When it came down to a choice between her and anyone else, she was the one he was always going to choose. He would burn the whole fucking world down if it would keep her safe.

“Goddamn it, Xavier! I don’t belong to you!”

Her words reignited his fury and angered the beast inside of him. He still hadn’t regained complete control of his monster after letting him free earlier, and he growled as he suddenly snatched a handful of her hair. Not hard enough to hurt her, just enough to pull her to him and lift her gaze to his own.

“You can say that as many times as you want if it will make you feel better,” he told her, his voice low and strained as she struggled against him. “But that doesn’t make it true. You are mine, little dove. I have already proven that I will kill to protect you, and you’d best believe that I would die to protect you too. I knew it from the moment I laid eyes on you. I know I don’t deserve you. I’m not a good man by any means. I’ve killed more people than I can count and tortured even more than that. My soul, and my heart, are black, and I am so far beyond broken that it makes what I did tonight look like child’s play. And yet, Fate still brought me you. You may not believe me right now, but you will eventually. I’m not going anywhere, Madelyn, so get fucking used to it.”

For several moments, the two of them stood in the middle of Madelyn’s room, just glaring at each other. His shoulders heaved with every breath, and the muscles in his jaw ticked as he ground his teeth together. He was fighting like hell to regain some sense of himself again after his admission. This was the turning point in the relationship between the two of them, and arguing was not going to solve anything, nor was it going to help the situation. Madelyn wasn’t in her right mind at the moment, and she needed him to be her rock, even if she refused to say so.

All of a sudden, her palm collided with the side of his face, the slap echoing through the room as the sting blossomed across his cheek. But then, before he could register what had happened, her lips crashed against his, and her hands gripped the front of his shirt, holding him to her.

For the first time in a very long time, Xavier had been taken by surprise. With as often and as hard as she fought the bond between them, he hadn’t expected her to be the one to make the first move. He figured it was probably her conflicting emotions, along with the shock and adrenaline, that was screwing with her rational thinking. It was preventing her from being able to fight the bond between them, and the only thing her mind was telling her to do was to give in to it. And he was inclined to let her.

If he were a good man, he would stop this, if only to keep her from regretting it later. But he had already stated that he wasn’t a good man, and his wolf was tired of being denied. Once they did this, there was no going back, and that was exactly what he wanted.

A smirk spread across his lips at the thought as his fingers tightened in the strands of her hair. His cock throbbed painfully and hardened beneath the constricting material of his jeans as he pulled her flush against his body.

He teased the seam of her lips with his tongue until she opened for him, and then his tongue dove into her mouth as if of its own accord. Out of all the women he’d been with before, none of them had felt as heavenly as this. It was better than anything he could have ever possibly imagined, and he had only kissed her.

The kiss deepened, becoming more frantic and demanding. Though, whether it was on her part or his, he didn’t know. Nor did he care.

Nipping at her bottom lip with his sharp teeth, eliciting a gasp from Madelyn, he released her hair and then literally tore the sweatshirt from her body, hating how many layers stood between them. He hadn’t realized that she wasn’t wearing a shirt underneath it though, which meant that she was now bare to him from the waist up. Whatever control he thought he had regained was gone just as quickly. There was no way this was going to be anything but hard and rough, but it was clear that was what they both needed.

Without giving her a chance to react, he dipped his head and took one dusky pink nipple into his mouth while pinching and rolling the other between his fingers. Madelyn moaned, her back arching, as her fingers dove into his hair. When he flicked his tongue against the tight peak, her nails scraped against his scalp. The fact that she was so receptive to him only further solidified that they were meant to be.

While this was far more than he had expected to happen when he came to check on her, he needed more. He needed to be closer to her, to feel her. All of her. He needed to bury himself so deep inside of her that she forgot every horrid thing that happened tonight.

Gripping her ass in the palms of his hands, he lifted her off the floor. Her legs wrapped around his hips as he carried her to the bed and laid her on it. As he righted himself, he hooked his fingers into the waistband of her sweats and yanked them off before pulling his own shirt over his head. He tossed them both to the ground somewhere over by the closet.

Madelyn took in the sight that was his chest and abs before he settled himself in between her legs, using his broad shoulders to push her thighs apart. His gaze never left hers as he licked along her pussy, the taste of her exploding on his tongue and making him groan. She was already drenched for him, and he had just gotten started. Her eyes fluttered as her head flopped back onto the pillows, and he smirked before doing it again.

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