“I promise I’ll stay away… for now. Once all this unfolds and it becomes clear we’re at war with Ivan, that promise won’t hold. The first chance I get to kill him, I’ll take it.”
“Okay, but remember, youpromisedme that.”
A vein in his temple throbbed to life as a muscle in his jaw twitched. If anyone else saw him like this, they’d probably piss themselves before fleeing into the night.
I’d rather take on a pack of black dogs than one vengeful Ryker, but his anger wouldn’t touch me. He wouldn’t, for one second, question my love for him.
“What else, Ellery?”
Like everything that came before, it was best to get it out. “He kissed me. I didn’t want him to and didn’t know it was coming. He grabbed me and kissed me, and it wasgrossand… and I… Ididn’twant it.”
My words hung heavily in the air as my shoulders sagged and tears burned my eyes at the memory. Yes, I could have killed Gaius, and I was stronger than him, but I hadn’t seen it coming, and he’d taken something from me that wasn’t his to have.
Iloathedhim for it, and Ryker wasn’t the only one who would make him pay for it.
Across from me, Ryker remained unmoving, but I sensed the fury rising inside him like lava in a volcano about to blow. His lightning intensified until we stood within a white glow in the center of the black forest.
Lightning fired through his eyes as bolts shot around him to fire into the night. I’d never seen anything like the lightning shooting from every part of him.
Normally, we directed our bolts with our hands, but these fissures fractured from the white glow and seemed beyond his control, yet none came at me. Instead, they smashed into the trees, tore off their tops, and sent them crashing to the earth.
The ground beneath my feet trembled, and the fire crackled in the fractured trees. Drawing on my rain ability, I pulled moisture from the air to douse the flames before they got too out of control.
The rain sizzled and popped as it hit the electricity surrounding Ryker. While it helped douse the flames, it did nothing to stop the lightning.
“Ryker—”
My words faded as the chains around his wrists shattered, and he stalked toward me. He’d kill himself before he ever harmed me, but the wrath emanating from him rattled my bones.
I didn’t back away as he stopped before me with his shoulders heaving. Before I could tell him again that I never wanted Gaius’s kiss, he wrapped his arms around me and claimed my mouth.
And it was a claiming as he implemented the touch and feel of him onto the very essence ofme.Lightning crackled across my lips and seeped into me.
Aroused by the power he emanated, mine rose to meet him as his tongue found mine. Whereas Gaius’s kiss left me feeling repulsed andwrongon every level, Ryker’s lit up my soul as he illuminated every part of me with his lightning and love.
When I slid my arms around his neck, he lifted me off the ground and pulled me flush against him. I lost myself to the wonder of his kiss as it buried the memory of Gaius.
I would have him. Nothing would stop that from happening.
As his kiss deepened, I wrapped my legs around his waist and rubbed against his hard cock. That was forme.
Allof him was for me, and while he sought to brand me as his, I did the same with him.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
Ryker
He’d touched her.He’dkissedher. He’d tried to take what wasmine, and I wouldn’t tolerate it.
Ellery was my heart. She was my soul. She was the piece I’d never known was missing until she fit perfectly against me.
And no one wouldevertake her from me.
My hand entangled in her hair, and I pulled her head back to expose her throat. When I kissed her, I tasted the saltiness of her skin and felt her blood pulsing through her veins.
When her hips made a circling motion as she rubbed my erection, she gasped. Her fingers dug into my shoulders, and she arched against me.
Grasping her thighs, I fell to my knees and lowered her to the ground. Rain soaked my clothes, but it didn’t sizzle and pop as it hit the fire anymore. The rain must have extinguished the flames already, but I was too far gone in her to care if the whole forest burned around us.
