Page 72 of What Lies Beyond the Veil

“Caelum.”

“Who am I to you, Estrella?” he asked, his meaning coming into focus as my eyes opened to the dark wells of his staring down at me.

“You are mine,” I whispered, feeling him flood me with heat the moment I spoke the words. He shuddered, his body going still as he shoved deep and planted himself inside me. He held me still, dropping his mouth to trail his lips over my neck and breathe me in as if I could become a part of him.

When he pulled back and smiled down at me, those dark eyes gleamed in the moonlight.

And I knew I would never be the same.

29

Itranslated the page, writing a few lines before I gave my hand a break to stretch away the ache. My fingers throbbed every time I bent and straightened them, after only a few days of abuse.

I stood from my chair, giving my legs a chance to move while I tried to work the blood back into my fingers. I needed to teach someone how to write just to have a person to alternate with. Walking over to the books on the shelf, I perused the spines once again to decide which book I would do next, if I ever finished my current one about the creation of Alfheimr.

The knock at the doorway made me spin to face it. Only Melian and Caelum came to visit me in the library, the others seeming to have little use for the tomes that they couldn’t read.

Jensen stood in the doorway, leaning his shoulder against the arch carved into the stone. His face was twisted into a smile that didn’t seem wholehearted, like it was all part of the ruse he’d created to get what he wanted from the people of the Resistance.

“I see Melian found a use for you after all,” he said, stepping into the room. He ran his hand over the scrolls rolled up and stored in boxes on the floor as he moved toward the table where I worked every day.

“It appears that way,” I said, barely restraining my grimace. I had no doubt he would have rather I accepted his first proposal for my occupation. The unfortunate reality was that Jensen was far from unattractive. He was someone that I might have taken casual comfort in, if it hadn’t been for Caelum. At least, if I’d never seen the less appealing aspect of his personality. I doubted he lacked female companionship somehow, in spite of his toxic, slimy words anytime he opened his mouth.

“Do you know what the ratio of men to women is here now?” Jensen asked, stepping around the edge of the table until he was in my personal space. I remained at the bookshelf, but the way he leaned his ass into the edge of my table meant I wouldn’t be able to get around him or return to my task.

“I don’t,” I said, shaking my head.

“Women make up less than one fourth of our numbers. There is good reason why I wanted you to take other men to your bed. It isn’t healthy for so many men to have to share so few women,” Jensen said, reaching behind him to grip the table where he rested his ass. “A lot of us don’t think it's fair that Caelum gets to have you all to himself. It isn’t as though there are children involved yet, are there?” He gave a glance toward my stomach, making my eyes narrow as I fought to retain my composure.

“That sounds like a personal problem, Jensen. My body is not for public use, regardless of my relationship with Caelum. I would never allow men who feel entitled to my body to use me. I’d be better off with the Fae,” I said, pausing to cross my arms over my chest. “At least they don’t share,” I added, glaring at him and the audacity he’d had to come here, spewing his nonsense and acting like it was my duty to spread my legs for the good of the Resistance.

I snorted at his nerve.

“Monogamy won’t work here any longer, because we don’t have the numbers to sustain it. Think of what will happen if some of the Fae Marked girls see your relationship with Caelum and think they can have that too. One less pussy for the rest of us to fuck, and when men are locked up together with nothing to fuck, we fight. We will kill each other, Estrella. You’re being selfish by not doing your part to keep the peace.”

“Fuck you,” I snarled. “Do you harass all the women here this way? Or am I just lucky?”

He ignored my question, focusing on the vulgarity as he leaned closer. “I would love that, sweetheart. You’re the one playing hard to get. All you have to do is come and sit on my cock. I’ll make it good for you, too,” he murmured, lowering himself into my chair and patting his lap. He dropped his hand to the laces of his trousers, unknotting them slowly as if he actually thought I would behave like a dog and service him. “I don’t even mind that your pussy is probably still filled with his cum from when he made you scream this morning. It feels better that way.”

I resisted the urge to throw up all over him, holding completely still as I thought through my options. I didn’t know Jensen well enough to know if he would go far enough to force himself on me if I said no or tried to slip past him and get out.

What I did know was that the main tunnels and the commons were too far away for anyone else to help me if he did.

“I would sooner walk naked into a blizzard and welcome frostbite than allow your vile cock to touch me,” I growled, watching as all pretense of civility fell from his face.

He stood from the chair slowly, stretching to his full height as he approached me. My back hit the shelves, his hand coming to rest on the one next to my head as he leaned into me. “Don’t be such a prude, Estrella. It will be fun.”

“I said no,” I reiterated, wrapping my hand around the spine of a book. If he pushed the issue, I didn’t care that I would probably destroy the ancient text. All that would matter would be his broken nose.

“Your mouth said no, but should we find out what your body says?” he asked, touching a hand to my waist.

“I believe the word her mouth spoke is the end of it for you,” Caelum said, his deep voice echoing from where he stood in the doorway. He crossed over the threshold, the air in the room seeming to drop in temperature as soon as he was inside with us.

Jensen didn’t move from where he leaned into my space, turning his head to face Caelum but keeping his body close to mine. “Surely you understand the women here need to fulfill a certain purpose. Keeping just you entertained is hardly fair when there are so many of us who have needs too.”

“Why don’t you run and tell Melian that she isn’t serving her purpose because she isn’t fucking you? I’m sure that will go over well,” Caelum said, earning a sharp laugh from me. The older woman would knock Jensen on his ass if he ever proposed that she owed him sex.

“She at least fucks several of the men. At once, I’m told. I’m happy to let Caelum join the two of us if that is what you’d prefer?” Jensen asked stupidly. How he could miss the violence thrumming through Caelum’s body, the barely restrained rage that made him look more weapon than man.

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