Page 75 of Wrathful King
“Want to go swimming before we hit land?” Her eyes traveled down my body, and my dick instantly responded. At this rate, I’d have blue balls by the time we docked.
“Reina, my queen, you really have to stop looking at me like that,” I groaned, my cock throbbing.
She was still the most beautiful girl I had ever met. Every smile, as few as there had been lately, sent my heart racing in my chest. She was the best medicine, the only way to ensure my happiness.
I craved her so completely and so selfishly that I ached. I wanted her, yes, but I wouldn’t risk hindering the progress she’d made in the past few days. If I wasn’t careful with her, I knew she’d spook, and there was no way I’d let her revert back to the shell of herself.
So I’d wait.
Her tongue darted out, sweeping over her full bottom lip. “Sorry.”
She didn’t sound sorry at all. In fact, the flickers of the Reina I met and fell in love with stared back at me. But then she tensed, wrapping her arms around herself as if needing a shield, and the move nearly crippled me.
“I like your Moncler swimming shorts,” she murmured, distracted. “They look good on you. I… I feel… dirty. Ugly.” Her eyes lowered, focused on a spot on her pink toes. She brought her finger to her inner thigh, absentmindedly rubbing the fading scars.
“Cinnamon girl, anything and everything looks good onyou,” I hummed. She had to know I wanted her, no matter what she thought of herself. “When we’re gray and shriveled, you’ll still take my breath away. Do you know why?” She lifted her eyes, studying me with a guarded expression before she shook her head. “I love your fierce protectiveness, your loyalty toward the people in your life, your big heart, your soul. That’s what matters to me.”
The light in her eyes dimmed, pulled by the memories that tried to snuff it out. But her light was part of her. It was impossible for anyone or anything to steal it.
She worried her lip again, and ghosts flashed in her blue eyes.
“You’re a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for,” I said. “Trust me on that.”
She let out a sigh. “The scars on my skin… on my belly… they might disgust you.” The dark part of me that thirsted for blood demanded to be let loose, but it wouldn’t erase my wife’s memories. Only she could extinguish those ghosts.
“They won’t,” I told her firmly. “They only prove how strong you are.” She still didn’t seem convinced. “You and I are destined for more,” I rasped, praying she’d hear the conviction in my voice. “We’ll share every lifetime in any form, because you’re my yin and I’m your yang. You’re my yang and I’m your yin.”
Her breath hitched and those blue eyes snapped to me before she offered a shaky smile.
“When did you become such a romantic? Are you sure you haven’t been reading Athena’s novels?” I hadn’t, but if it’d make her smile, I’d read every fucking romance novel out there. “Sometimes I wake up,” she started, her voice raspy, “remembering… things. And I can’t tell what’s real from what isn’t.” I met her stare, the fear in her eyes gutting me. But I remained silent, waiting for her to continue. “The drugs, sometimes they made me hallucinate. I think.”
“Heroin has that effect. It dulls the world around you, but then when you’re off the drugs, the repressed memories surface.”
“It made me savage, then made me mellow.” Her hands curled into fists, her knuckles turning white. “H-he—” A hiccup escaped her. “Perez. He didn’t like me mellow, but I… he… he tried to rape me, but I hurt him.”
My jaw clenched but I kept my mask pulled tight. I was so fucking glad I dragged out his death. “Good. He deserved what came his way.”
That must have spurred her on. “One of his men tried to… to make me…” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I cut his dick off before he had the chance.”
“That’s my girl.” She made me so fucking proud. She was a true queen, a fighter.
Her nails dug deep into her calves. “Th-they didn’t rape me, though they tried. Made me an addict. Obviously. Cut me. Yes. Tortured me. Yes. The guards made other girls pay for not being able to touch me or for killing the ones who tried.” Her voice broke and a single, lonely tear rolled down her cheek. “That’s the part that killed me. H-hearing what they were doing to them. Sometimes they’d bring them to my cell and show me.” She shivered, plagued by the horrors, and wiped at her cheeks with more force than probably necessary. “I should have saved them. Spared them. Somehow.”
I couldn’t keep my distance anymore. I strode to her side, dropped to my haunches, then grabbed her chin and turned her face to mine.
“They would have hurt them either way. It wouldn’t have mattered if you gave them everything, Reina. They would have still hurt them. Killed them.” She bit her bottom lip so hard it drew blood, but she didn’t even notice it.
“H-how did you kill him?”
The vulnerability in her eyes was gutting me alive. “He suffered. His limbs were sliced, his dick cut off—”
“I’m glad.” Fury radiated from every pore in her body. “I wish you could have kept him alive and made him scream in agony for a long time.”
“Me too. The next one I will.” Even if it was my own mother.
She gave me a shaky smile. “Let’s talk about our honeymoon,” she suggested, wanting to change the subject. She’d said more in these last few minutes than she had since I got her back, but she sounded drained, so I didn’t want to push for more.
“Ready to pick our next destination the same way, or did you have somewhere else in mind?” I asked her, referring to our game we started this morning after breakfast. Out of the blue, Reina suggested we play a game of darts against the world map I had hanging in my library. Each location the winner hit would be added to a list, then we’d decide where to visit next. I imagined it was inspired by her beloved bucket list concept.
