AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"X," I gasped, locking my arms around his neck and digging my fingernails into my own palms so I didn't worsen his injuries. "Don't you dare stop."
"Never," he promised, panting faster, his frantic breaths in time with my own. "I can taste you on my tongue, little morsel. So, so close."
My hips jerked again; my mouth fell open on a moan.
"Please," he breathed against my lips. "Come for me."
My body responded to his desperate plea before I could reply, pleasure making my eyes cross and my hips slam off the shower floor. Every muscle in my pussy and ass clenched, every delicious nerve stroked by his needy fingers—both flesh and magic.
"God," I choked out.
X's magic wrapped around my clit like a sucking mouth, demanding every last bit of pleasure from me. His real lips grazed down my jaw to my neck, and I groaned as another bolt of pleasure made me shudder violently. It was so fucking good that I was barely aware of my mates in the shower with me.
"Thank you," he murmured against my throat, covering me in kisses. "I can breathe now."
Well, that made one of us. I panted for breath, still a little dazed. Multiple orgasms in under two hours will do that to a girl.
"You've still got blood on your back," Taj pointed out to X. "Stay there; I'll get the shower head. But don't expect me to scrub your back for you."
X snorted. The sound reached into my chest and stabbed my heart. I thought I'd never hear his voice again, let alone hear him laugh.
Arkan stroked his thumb over my pulse, and I opened my eyes with a sigh.
"I'm fine," I murmured, seeing the worry darkening his blue gaze. "Are you?"
He nodded, his eyes drifting to X, who now knelt so Taj could wash the blood off his brutalised back.
God.My stomach heaved; I turned to Arkan and leaned into him, needing a hug, needing to banish the sight of X's back from my mind.
It was cut all over, words carved upon words until I couldn't make out a single one of them. Eidolon had done this, had torturedmy mate.All because I loved him, and Eidolon wanted power.
"Ha," Taj barked abruptly. "I knew my dick was bigger than yours."
I rolled my eyes. I was pretty sure that was his way of sayingI missed you, X.
Leaning against Arkan, I unfolded the hand I'd curled into a fist and stared at the black spiral of the binding mark. I'd agreed to find Eidolon and kill him, all those weeks ago in Orchid Vale. And listening to Taj tease X and X snap weakly back, broken and bleeding butdefiant,I swore I'd fulfil my promise.
Eidolon had made a mistake by releasing X; he'd wanted to break me, to throw me off balance, and sure, he had. But my anger was big enough to swallow my pain, and if it would kill the bastard, I'd let that anger consume me wholly.
First, we needed X fully healed, but then Eidolon was dead. No more trying to hunt to sceptre, or stop his climb to power. Fuck all that. I was going straight to the monster and cutting off its head.
23
It took us forever to all fall asleep that night. It took hours alone to get X cleaned up, covered in salves, and bandaged. Restlessness, rage, and bone-deep fear filled both the mate bond and the circle for the rest of the night, bouncing between us all, amplifying as we planned where to find Eidolon. Everyone was unsurprisingly on board with Mission: Kill Eidolon.
X passed out first, tucked into my arms and held protectively close. He was strangely calm in the bonds; the fear and stress came from the rest of us. I couldn't stop thinking about his hoarse voice, couldn't stop seeing the torture on his body, the haunted look in his dark blue eyes.
I eventually fell asleep in the early hours of the night, Joseph wrapped protectively around my back, his clingy arms and cool temperature a soothing relief I'd needed the last few nights.
I didn't know when Taj and Arkan fell asleep, but I knew they all jerked awake at five a.m. when I lurched upright. I clawed at my neck as I tried to breathe, the shadows of a nightmare clinging to me. My abuser had been there, taunting me with the knife he'd used to slash my mate apart, laughing as he threatened the rest of my mates. I'd tried to run, too afraid to even fight, and Christian Lachesi's face had morphed into the monstrous, green lizard form, his claws punching into my stomach.
"Do you honestly think that pathetic excuse for a devil will wake up? Do you think I won't kill all your other mates?"
I was too frightened to reply.
"Sweetness," Joseph murmured, sitting up with me, his hands on my face, unusually warm because they'd rested against my belly. "Look at me. Eyes on me, my sweet."
I swallowed, dragging my eyes to his face and holding his stare, fighting to get my breathing under control.
