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Zoey was an ex-street fighter who used to go by the moniker “Avenging Angel,” and, fuck, I had seen her drop people in seconds. She scared the crap out of me and totally turned me on at the same time.

“I’m not weak or fragile.”

“Babe, I’m sorry, but compared to us, humans are fragile,” Cooper countered.

“Where you go, I go.” She spoke directly to him, the link between them palpable. “Would you let me leave you behind?” We all knew he wouldn’t. “And just think what it would do to me if you didn’t come back.”

“I’m a Dark Dweller, baby. I alwayscomeback.”

She rolled her eyes, her hands going to her hips. “I’m going. If we’re a team, then we’re a team in everything. Don’t put me in a cage and suffocate me becauseyou’rescared. Not. Now.” She stressed the last two words, meaning more than most here understood. “I want to live every moment. With you.”

Cooper’s shoulders lowered, his white flag waving.

“What? No.” I stepped up. “You can’t! If anything happened to you…” Fear tightened my throat. “I can’t let you.”

Annabeth stepped up to me, her blue eyes seeing right through me, seeing the terror Lexie went through all over again.

“You would have never kept her from that battle. No matter what you did. No one could have.” Her hand squeezed mine. “If Lexie taught me anything, it was to go after what I want, not cower away, because in life, fae or human never know how long they have left in this world.”

Tears burned my lids, my teeth clenching.

Shit, I think I just surrendered too.

Sipping my whiskey, I stared at the moon in the sky. I needed to get some sleep, but my mind wouldn’t let me.

It wasn’t about the treacherous journey we were undertaking across this perilous land, the fact Annabeth was coming, or what was ahead…

No, all I could think about was her.

Downstairs, on the other side of the ship, I swear I could hear her heart beating, feel her calling to me, the ache in my cock becoming more distinct.

No matter how much I drank, I could still taste her on my tongue, feel her coming, her body convulsing, orgasming so hard I almost drowned in it.

A low growl hummed in my throat, and I slammed down my empty glass, my feet pacing the floor. The turmoil in my mind kinked up like eroded gears, stuck, repeating the same scene over and over.

She made me lose control. Sex had always been a game for me, one I was excellent at. I could handle my urge and draw out the woman’s pleasure until she went blind and passed out from the intensity. Many times, when seducing someone, I walked away without coming. I made it all about them. They felt special, prized. Wanted.

With Katrina, I had no such constraint. Something had possessed me—the need to soil her, claim her. My cock stiffened again when I saw my seed on her, wanting nothing more than to drag my fingers through it and push it into her pussy.

“RRRRRRRRRRRR.” A noise gurgled in my throat, my hand hitting my bed frame in aggravation.

In all the situations I put myself in during my long life, the terrifying, deadly, and dangerous things I had done, I had always stayed calm. I was the guy that nothing seemed to faze. Threatened, tortured, and almost killed a thousand times? Whatever.

Alone under a bed with a petite cat-shifter? Fucked.

I paced back to my table, leaning over it, trying to regain my sanity.

Think of Rotty.What would he think of your actions?

My attention went to his dagger on my belt. Slowly I pulled it out, laying it on the desk in front of me. I stared at the blade I carried with me. As punishment. As remembrance. As a tribute to the man who loved his daughter more than anything.

The memory of that day replayed freely in my head. Over and over, torturing me. The smells, sights, sounds, and tastes coming back to me like it was yesterday…

The stench of black powder smothered the air, burning my nose and coating my tongue. Clanks of swords, blasts of rifles, and yells of men fighting clashed over the deck.

The glorious Silver Devil flag whipped in the wind above us, still declaring that this was my ship, my crew, and my home. But for the first time in my life, genuine fear iced my heart. My guard had been down, thinking we had an understanding. A truce.

He had three times the men I had and trained them to be barbarians like him. Cruelty was the point, and he loved inflicting pain and terror.