Page 46 of Song of Tenebrae

“Listen to me,” I snap into the phone, “they completed the ceremony, she’s branded him.”

It’s quiet until I hear a long exhale, “you were supposed to prevent that.”

“No, I was asked to kill him.”

“Are you calling because you can no longer hold up your end of the bargain?” His heavily accented voice makes me grind my teeth.

“It’ll be harder to separate them now.”

“I’m sure you will figure it out.” The smug bastard replies. “I wouldn’t want to have to send Eugene.”

That name alone sends chills down my spine, he’s the top enforcer and stops at nothing until everyone is dead.

“No,” I swallow thickly, “I can handle it.”

“Two days.” He chuckles, “you have two days, Eugene is close.”

“Why is he close?”

I hear the dial tone in my ear and growl, throwing the phone to my bed. Fuck! This is bad, if Eugene is here, it’s because they anticipated me failing. I don’t have much time and that worries me. Rushing will only lead to mistakes and then I’ll be dead regardless. I need to separate the stripping whore from Raiden and then I’ll kill her, causing a bit of mayhem.

Then once they’re distracted, I’ll take out their leader, and step in as the new one. Sounds easy enough but it won’t be. They were never supposed to complete the binding, how did I not see that coming? They became that close in one night? How? What the fuck did I miss?

I knew he had strong feelings for her when I saw the mark on her stomach a year ago but I thought her hatred was strong enough to resist him. I made a mistake and it’s one I might just be killed for.

The elders will not wait around forever and the second I took them up on their offer, I also became a target. I thought I knew the implications of that; I didn’t know shit.

I’m only useful until I’m not with them and they have never hesitated to take anyone out, so why would they start with me? Why did I assume I was different? Because I was cushioned from the beginning, I didn’t deal directly with them, and now I’m realizing, I never really knew what that entailed.

I’ll be lucky if I live through this week.

Chapter Fourteen

Tempest

I wake up to a quick sting on my thigh and then the feeling intensifies as my blood is drawn out. I crack an eye open to find Raiden’s face between my legs and his tongue swiping over a cut from his blade. I feel a rush of wetness but along with it is a throbbing soreness. My pussy has been beaten and bruised and she’s telling me to fucking cool it.

“It’s crazy how my soul knew yours was its mate, just by tasting your blood.”

“You sound crazy, Raiden,” I scoff as I lean up to watch him. “No sane person drinks another’s blood.”

“That’s why the divorce rate is so high,” he crawls up my body, hooking my leg on his arm, and dragging it up, “if they connected on the very basic level, there’d be no issue.” He has my blood stained around his lips and his extremely hard cock nudges my swollen pussy.

“I can’t,” I whisper as he bucks against me, “I need a break.”

His grin is dark and sinister, “and I told you to get used to it.”

He’s not slow as he works his way in and he’s not gentle at all. The pain intensifies and I squeeze my eyes shut, thanking my pussy for actually being wet. Once he’s in, he bends down to kiss me.

“Will it always be like this?” I ask around his bloodied lips. “Will it ever be gentle? Loving?”

His brows crash together and he looks down into my face. I can’t help the tears that leak out and run down my cheeks. I’m in pain but don’t want to deny the man I love; I don’t want to deny myself either.

His tongue snakes out and runs up my cheek to collect my tears, “I do love you.” He pulls out and pushes back in, gentler. “You want me to make love to you,” he slowly pulls out again and sinks in, inch by inch, “like an old man.” His smile is wide and he looks stunning, truly taking my breath away.

I press my pelvis up to meet his, taking him a bit deeper, and causing us both to moan, “like a man in love.”

He makes love to me like that, soft and sweet, peppering me with kisses, and when I try to deepen the kiss, he pulls back with a tut, “gentle.” He chastises, “like a woman in love.”