Page 157 of The Aurora Marelup Complete Saga Omnibus

By this time, Marco and Edgar have returned, and both are going to the cage to pull out two new males as well. The next three submit rather quickly and fully without hesitation. Part of me, I’m almost slightly disappointed that I didn’t get to dismember anybody else. Still, I guess it could be a good thing. Dominik remains at my side as I test each of the males that were left. Only one more gives me a hard time, and we saved him for last.

Dominik goes in and has a scuffle with this young male. Part of me wants to send an ice spike up this male’s ass and have it come out the top of his skull. The other part of me wants to look at the fear in his eyes as I rip his heart out and drip his blood across my scales. Maybe I can do both at the same time? Nah, I might accidentally harm Dominik, and I really don’t want to do that to him. He finally gets the young male out of the cage and pins him to the wall. The young male just starts to shift, and I lock eyes with him.

“You will not shift!” I say with my beast’s growl filling my voice.

The unearthly tone I hit makes my three dragon guards cringe. They know I’m on edge; they know I can instantly lose my sense of control and decimate this male. I’m trying not to be that ruler; I’m trying not to be the monster I’ve been made into. But fuck it, it’s one of those days. In the back of my mind, Limp Bizkit’s song “Break Stuff” is playing loud and clear.

Dominik releases the male, and he immediately charges me. Without hesitation, I use one of the tricks that Gallus taught me. I use his gift of intimidation, pressing that and my alpha power upon this male. I was almost starting to get concerned when he didn’t immediately buckle. Then again, my sick side was kind of loving it, looking forward to a fight. I finally break his resistance, and he falls to his knees, cradling his head. Fur randomly ripples across his body as he tries to fight for control.

Eventually, I lessen the pressure upon him. Some might have called that a mistake; I call it an opportunity for a kill. He lunges straight up at me, his claws extend ready to sink into me. It all seems to happen in slow motion, at least to me. When he is halfway to me, I shift both of my arms quickly, bringing my talons out and sinking them into his chest and throat at the same time. My right hand grips his trachea and the muscle surrounding it. My left hand wraps around his heart, feeling it beat against my palm. Every beat of his heart sends blood streaming down in between my scales. The crimson stands out so beautifully against my iridescent white and silver scales. The look of fear in his eyes is delicious. He’s not able to hold his shift anymore; his claws have retracted, and he’s just a mere man.

“I sentence you to death for attacking your ruler. I do give you credit, though,” I say as I tilt my head to the side. “Most don’t make it this close to me before I kill them.” I shake my head back and forth.

“I wish you had chosen a different path. You are young and strong and could have lived a long time.” Suddenly I pulled both my arms back, taking with them his heart and a section of his trachea.

He sputters and gasps for several seconds and then falls to the floor like a ton of bricks. I watch the blood slowly drain out of his body and coat the stone floor. Two lives were wasted today, all because Vladimir had poisoned their minds. On the bright side, I managed to save fifteen young males.

Through the bond I learned from Klaus, three young males know where additional females are being held. Klaus, Alaric, and Dimitri leave immediately with the three young males and four other dragons to retrieve them. I want to go with them; I want to help bring these females back. Dominik slides up behind me and rests his hand on my lower stomach, reminding me of my possible precious cargo. Mother fucker, at least the females will be safe, and having Klaus with the rescue party should help put their minds at ease.

“My love, we need to get you cleaned up. You wouldn’t want to meet the new females looking like you stepped out of a horror movie.” He smiles at me, then motions to the fact that my dress is now covered in blood. I’m still holding the man’s heart in my hand and part of his throat. I shrug my shoulders because to me, it’s no big deal. I offer the body parts to Edgar and watch him cringe. I start to laugh as I do something completely out of character for me. Quickly bouncing up, I kiss him on his cheek, leaving a bloody outline of my lips on his porcelain skin. I can’t help but laugh as I walk swiftly down the hallway back towards the staircase.

These stairs leading to the dungeon absolutely freaking suck. What were they built by, smurfs? They’re too damn short and too close together. I don’t take long going upstairs and gettingchanged and cleaned up. I have way too much I want to accomplish today to get lost in a hot shower.

When I finally step outside ofmy bathroom, I find Jayce sitting on my bed waiting for me. My sweet, beloved Omega, he's absolutely my heart and the pride and joy of my family. Without a second thought, I run over to him and nuzzle his cheeks. I'm always excited to see him. Jayce brings out the best possible me that I can be. He makes me want to be a better person and to be more even-tempered and kinder. What I used to accomplish through fear, he's able to achieve faster through kindness. Perhaps I can learn a few things from him and start doing things more his way than mine. Without his knowledge, I've made him the diplomat in the family. I mean, why not? The guys already use him to propose ideas that they already know I'm not going to be happy with. Why can't I do the same? Have Jayce propose the ideas that the others may fight me on?

“How are you feeling, beautiful?” Jayce asks as he kisses both of my cheeks softly and then nuzzles my jaw.

“Doing okay so far today. No real complaints other than I wrecked another dress, and I had to kill two of the males.” I shrug my shoulders lightly.

“All things considered, it's really not that bad when you put it into perspective,” Jayce says, pondering the numbers that he had in his head from before. “Two out of seventeen, I'll take those odds.” He starts tapping his chin looking at me. “Let me guess, the guy with the white-blonde hair and the one whose hair was almost black.”

Immediately, I start laughing because Jayce hit the nail on the head. “Correct as always, my love. You know me way too well,” I say as I laugh.

“It's not a question of knowing you too well, it's that I know how much bullshit you'll tolerate.” He says as he lightly strokes my chin, then trails his fingers down my neck to my shoulders.

“Very true. I won't let anybody question mine or any of your authority in this pack.” I rest my head on his shoulder and wrap my arms around his waist, just needing to be held for a moment. The last thing I need is for some young upstart to join the pack and poison it from the inside.

“We completely understand, my love,” Jayce says as he rests his head on top of mine and wraps his thick arms around me. “You're only doing what's best for everyone involved, not just in the short term but for the long haul.”

“Some days, I feel like an absolute monster, something that Mary Shelley would have written in one of her books.” I shrug my shoulders lightly and nuzzle Jayce's chest as I close my eyes, listening to his heartbeat.

“We wouldn't let you become that kind of a monster, my love.” His fingers run through my hair, removing any knots from my shower. “It's not like you don't give people a fair chance to prove that they're worthy of your leniency.”

“Yeah, I guess you're right. It still sucks having to play judge, jury, and executioner.” I sigh softly and squeeze him a little tighter. “It's not a weight or a burden that my conscience would allow me to place on someone else.” I pull back to look up into his eyes to make sure he understands what I'm trying to tell him.

“We all have our demons that we hide, my love. You shouldn't be the only one haunted when there's six of us able to share the burden.” Jayce keeps running his fingers through my hair, trying to soothe me.

“I know, baby, I'm trying. It's just so hard to let go.” I try to smile even though I feel a little guilty for not opening up more. I raise a single brow looking at Jayce. “I wonder what demons Arnulf is hiding?” I wiggle my eyebrows at him.

“The man can talk to the dead. I’m pretty sure he has lunch with whatever demons he has,” Jayce says matter of factly. I can’t help myself, and I start laughing hard.

“Aurora, remember we all love you. I love you.” Jayce presses his lips to my forehead and stays like that for a while. Eventually, he pulls away and starts to lead me out of my room. “Let's go see how everyone is making out.”

Laughing softly, I follow behind him. He knows exactly what to say and do to make most of my concerns melt away. Jayce always manages to put my heart and mind at ease with simply his presence. He mentions heading outside to enjoy the beautiful day and the nice breeze that's blowing across the courtyard. We wind our way through the castle and out into the fresh air.

CHAPTER 125

Jayce

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