Page 38 of A Promise so Bold and Broken (Compelling Fates Saga #2)

Chapter Thirty-Eight

“N o.” She glared back at Raine. “That’s not possible.”

“Why would it not be possible?” Raine asked, his voice shaking from so much held-back anger that Kerym rose from his seat and slipped up beside him, slamming one of his arms into Raine’s chest to keep him from attacking her—or whatever he was planning to do.

“Because males sense their mate from the first moment they meet them!” Lessia bit back, flashing her teeth at Raine when he growled at her. “My father told me you catch their scent, and that’s that. It’s impossible to miss. He found my mother when she passed him on a ship ! You two should know better than anyone!”

She wasn’t prepared for the males’ faces contorting with pain.

Raine’s glass shattered in his hand, and Kerym’s hand fisted so hard where it lay across Raine’s chest that it looked as if it belonged to a wraith.

“I’m so sorry!” she hurried out. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“We’re not hurting for us,” Kerym responded, his hand flexing and eyes so full of agony that the sense traveled right into Lessia’s chest, wrapping around her heart and keeping it captive.

“You truly don’t know,” Raine mumbled, and she backed away from him when tears brimmed in his eyes.

No.

Lessia shook her head.

It couldn’t be true.

Because if it was…

“Rioner was there the first time Merrick was in the same room as you. It was the day he forced you to swear the blood oath to him.” Raine ground his teeth before he continued.

“Merrick tried to hide it, but once that scent reaches your nose… it’s pure instinct… primal. We have no control over it, and he fought for his life to get to you in those cellars… but he was bound by the oath, and Rioner threatened to make him kill you if he didn’t back down.”

Kerym’s blue eyes flooded as she sliced her blurry gaze to his, and his voice trembled far too much to belong to a feared Fae warrior. “At first, Rioner thought it was enough to keep you separated, but then…”

She wanted to cover her ears with her hands as she continued to step backward.

Didn’t want to hear this.

“He thought it was an even better punishment for Merrick to have to be near you. But to never fully lay eyes on you—to have to hurt you, make you scared of him! Did you never wonder why the strongest Fae in the realm was sent to watch over you ? A half-Fae already blood-sworn to him.” Kerym shook his head.

Raine pulled a long drink of wine before adding, “And… imagine Rioner’s joy when you went and fell in love with someone else.”

Her heart shattered.

And not into those cracked pieces that might be put together again.

But into millions of tiny shards, impossible to ever heal.

Raine blew out a deep breath as he tracked her, the torment stark in his gaze. “It would have killed a lesser Fae. But Merrick is strong. Stronger than most. And you hadn’t started sealing the bond then… It’s different now, so I had to tell you.”

Lessia halted her retreat. “Started sealing the bond?”

Kerym’s eyes flitted between her and Raine when a low growl found its way into her voice.

“He didn’t want to, Lessia.” Raine took a step toward her. “He wanted to ‘fight fair.’ Win your heart without using the bond, so you made the decision, not fate. But that’s not how the bond works… you are affected as well—it’s not one-sided! So after you bit him…”

It felt as if her eyes would pop out of their sockets.

That feeling after she bit him back on Raine’s island?

That energy.

That strange sensation of not being able to stand still?

Had that been the mating bond sealing between them?

Kerym’s eyes flew across her face. “You’re not mated yet, but you started to accept him once you tasted his blood.”

Lessia blinked rapidly, trying to process what they were saying.

Her father had told her only that the female needed to formally accept the bond…

She withdrew another step as Raine tried to approach her again.

“Stay back.” Lessia put up a hand, an overwhelming urge to scream overtaking her. “I-I can’t.”

“I know this is a lot, Lessia.” Raine tried to soften his voice, but she could see right through the urgency keeping it sharp. “But if you reject him now, you will weaken him significantly, and for a long, long time. It’ll be too dangerous for him to fight in a war.”

Lessia turned around and ran.

The white walls blurred as she pushed herself to run as fast as her legs would take her, any ounce of fatigue or hunger from the past days forgotten.

She jumped three steps at a time up the stairs, and using the railing, she flew around the corner, running right up to Merrick’s door.

Fighting the urge to kick it down, she twisted the doorknob, and a snarl—louder than she’d meant—ripped from her throat when she found it locked.

Lessia banged on the door until she heard the lock click and a livid Merrick popped his head through the crack.

She didn’t hesitate.

Using both her hands, she pushed him with everything in her so that he stumbled back into the room.

Whirling around, Lessia slammed the door shut again—so hard that the wood creaked—before spinning back toward the Fae who watched her wide eyes.

She took a slow step toward him, her voice slipping into the low, dangerous purr that usually surfaced only when she used her magic. “When were you going to tell me?”

Merrick threw a glance over her shoulder, his face hardening.

She drew one step closer. “No. You’re not going to be angry with them.”

Another step.

“What did they say?” Merrick growled.

Lessia took the final step, aligning their heaving chests and glowering right into Merrick’s eyes. “Oh, you know… They casually informed me that you’re my mate .”

Merrick’s jaw clenched.

“And that you’ve known the entire time. As in the entire time.” Her nostrils flared. “That you’ve been hurting for years because you thought you’d be some kind of unsung hero and let me choose.”

“It didn’t start like that,” Merrick snarled. “I was fucking blood-sworn to the king. He forbade me to tell you! Do you think I enjoyed following you around, reporting on your every move, when all I wanted was to snatch you away and hide you from the rest of the world?”

“No, I don’t think you enjoyed that,” she snarled right back. “But you could have told me weeks ago, Merrick. For weeks I’ve gone around thinking I’ve lost my mind because I can’t stop thinking about you—because my skin fucking vibrates when you touch me! And you let me!”

Merrick’s eyes flared. “This is what I didn’t want! I don’t want you to want me because of fate. You’ve made it very fucking clear what you think of the gods and the fate they bestow on us. Do you think I wanted to force another thing on you?”

“I don’t want you because of the stupid bond!” she screamed. “I want you because you make me feel alive! Because you believe in me when I don’t believe in myself. Because you try to make dumb jokes to make me happy. Because you make me fires to keep the darkness at bay. Because you hide your smile when I’ve made you proud in training. Because when I fucking stab you, you lecture me about missing your heart!” She shoved him back again. “You knew there was something deeper, something even stronger, pulling us together! And you fucking reject me when I kiss you! What is wrong with you!”

Merrick gripped her hands when she went to push him again, pulling her flush against his hard chest, where his heart beat so hard Lessia wondered if she should be worried.

“What is wrong with me?” he hissed. “What is wrong with me?”

Merrick released her, backing up against the wall, his hands dropping by his sides and his gaze dropping to the floor. “What’s wrong with me is that I’m the fucking Death Whisperer, Lessia!”

She followed him, her heart thundering in her chest. “I don’t give a shit!”

In a blink, he was before her again, towering over her as he growled, “Do you know how many I’ve killed? Do you understand what my magic is? I walk the fucking thread that keeps our world separate from the afterlife—and not the one where those gentle souls go. No, my whispers belong to those too evil to pass through fully—the ones who are angry and who only want to drag more souls into the agony that is now their world.”

“I. Don’t. Care,” she hissed between clamped teeth as she placed her hands on his chest.

“I don’t,” she repeated, louder this time.

Merrick panted as he stared down at her, his eyes darker than she’d ever seen them, and shook his head. “What do you want from me?”

What did she want from him?

She nearly reached for one of her daggers to stab some sense into him.

“The fucking truth, Merrick.” She shoved him once more. “I want the truth and not you trying to spare me from fate or whatever else you might think to take upon your own shoulders. I want it all! I want to fucking share it with you.”

“Stop pushing me,” Merrick warned.

She did it again.

In the next second, her back was against the gray stone, Merrick’s hands wrapped around her arms as he crowded her against it, his face an inch from hers as he hissed, “Do you want to hear how I can barely be in the same room as you without losing my mind from your scent invading my every fucking sense?”

One of his hands clasped around her neck, fingers pressing against the pulse that beat wildly there.

Bending his head, Merrick slowly dragged his nose along her neck, inhaling so deeply it sent goose bumps rippling across her exposed skin.

His eyes slammed into hers as he straightened again, a jolt running through her so strong that she jumped—heating every single inch of her body.

“Do you want me to tell you that every time I helped you up from the floor when we trained, I had to physically restrain myself from pushing you down again and having my way with you? From claiming your fucking perfect lips and ripping those damned leathers off, making you scream from something other than frustration?”

Merrick released her arm, moving the hand to rest on the wall beside her head as he stepped even closer, pressing his hard body against hers until her breath caught in her throat.

His eyes flashed as she pushed against him, and when a low whimper fell from her lips at the hardness digging into her thigh, Merrick swore loudly.

“Do you want me to tell you I nearly ripped that fucking dress Loche gave you to shreds and that I was only able to stop myself because you wore something with my scent with it?”

The hand around her neck squeezed softly before moving down, fisting the jacket she wore, and Lessia couldn’t stop a moan when he roughly pulled at it, twisting the fabric until it shrieked.

“Do you want me to tell you I wanted to fuck you senseless on that table tonight—regardless of who was watching—when you walked in wearing my shirt?”

A muffled sound escaped her when Merrick’s grip tightened further.

Heat burned in his eyes as he bored them into hers, and that hunger she’d seen earlier returned, filling the entire darkness.

Only now, it was entirely primal.

Raw, primitive need that she knew reflected in her own eyes.

A rough breath left him before he cursed “Fuck it” and ripped the jacket to shreds.

They both panted as she shrugged off the torn pieces, standing half bare before him, with heat pooling in her core—heat as she’d never felt before—which she was sure he could smell from the way his eyes sparked as they roved over her.

“Fuck, Lessia,” he breathed, and she squirmed until their chests heaved against each other and Merrick’s eyes darkened so much she could barely make out any silver.

“If you don’t tell me to stop, I am going to fuck you until your screams echo so loudly within the castle walls that his damned soldiers might try to tear the door down,” Merrick rasped, his gravelly voice melting her core until a fire burned so bright there, she thought she’d never have to worry about darkness again.

“Please,” she whispered. “Please don’t stop.”

Merrick’s eyes flitted between hers as he swore again.

Then his hands moved to her bare shoulders and slowly—so fucking slowly—down her arms.

When Merrick reached the traitor’s brand, he pulled off his tunic—as if he couldn’t stand seeing hers on its own—and, dropping to his knees, he kissed every single letter, his teeth gently scraping against them, eliciting another moan from her.

Looking up at her, Merrick growled softly, “Do you want me to tell you every instinct inside me is telling me to kill him? Not because he loved you or because you loved him. But because he fucking hurt you?”

His kisses moved from the brand to her stomach as he helped her out of her trousers, and Lessia’s head fell back against the wall, her eyes closing as his tongue traced a path from her navel up across her breasts to her neck, where he lingered, sucking on the sensitive skin, before drawing higher, stopping right at her mouth.

“Do you want me to tell you I’ve loved you since you stood up to Rioner and me on that cliff?”

Merrick’s hot breath hit her mouth, and she opened her eyes to the darkest night ones she’d ever seen.

“Do you want me to tell you I’ve fallen more in love with you every day, watching you fucking fight for your life?”

His hands came up to cup her face, and she didn’t think her heartbeat could quicken any further, but what Merrick said next nearly brought her to her knees.

“Do you want me to tell you no one—mate or not—has loved anyone the way I love you? That I would laugh as the world fell apart as long as you stood by my side? That even if I could only have one fucking night—one night pretending you’re mine—I’d take it?”

His lips brushed hers with the most infuriating featherlight touch.

“Because I would. That’s how fucking bad I want you. How bad I need you.”

Lessia crashed her lips against his, grinning when Merrick growled against her mouth, and the sense of falling she’d had ever since she’d looked into his eyes for the first time shifted into a complete free fall—as if she’d walked right out from a cliff and the sea wasn’t there to catch her.

And she didn’t care.

“I love you,” she breathed back when she came up for air, the heat within her becoming almost unbearable as it rushed through her blood. “And one night is not nearly enough. I told you. I want everything . I want to be your fucking mate, and I don’t know the right words, but I accept our bond—I welcome it—I’m proud of it.”

Merrick blinked at her before he let out a shocked laugh that sent another wave of fire through her. “You…”

His words clipped when she wrapped her palm around his smooth hardness, gliding her hand from his base to the tip.

She had no idea when his clothing had disappeared…

But she wasn’t complaining.

“I need you,” she whispered as her hand traveled the length of him again, her core clenching at his size.

The solidness.

The silky skin.

“No.” Merrick’s arms wrapped around her, and when he lifted her, she hooked her feet around his back, her entire body quivering as he fused them together. “I’m the one who needs you.”

She squeezed his base in response, and the sound that left Merrick was nothing short of feral.

“Fuck.” His forehead fell against her own as he stormed toward the bed, and she cried out in pleasure when he somehow managed to rip her undergarments to threads while doing it.

Merrick didn’t allow a single inch between them as he laid her down, himself on top, and the air thickened with anticipation as he rose on his elbows, his eyes drinking her in as if he was committing every part of her body to memory.

Lessia dragged her thumb over the tip of his cock, savoring the wetness already forming there, and Merrick growled again—a pure guttural growl that made her squirm beneath him.

Gripping the hand encircling him, he dragged it over her head.

Then he grasped her other one.

When both lay above her head, he wrapped his fingers around her wrists and pressed them down into the mattress.

“I don’t think you need t-to teach me how to please you,” Lessia panted as she fought the grip, needing to touch him again—or perhaps herself, as he was slowing this down too much.

Merrick’s eyes closed for a moment. “Gods, Lessia.”

Opening them again as he pressed his hard length against her, he groaned as it slipped against her wetness. “I think you’re right.”

She writhed under him again, rubbing her legs together and pushing up against him, trying to find some—any—relief, and Merrick laughed roughly.

“I am taking my fucking time with you.” He lowered to nip at her lip, still holding on to her hands. “I’ve waited a damned eternity for this. Please don’t deny me.”

As if there were anything she would deny him.

She’d meant it.

She loved him.

Utterly and completely.

Not just because of the mating bond.

Perhaps even despite it, she loved him.

With everything in her.

Lessia stopped squirming, biting her lip as she rasped, “I promise never to deny you anything.”

She got the response she’d hoped for.

“You… fuck, you’re incredible.” Merrick’s mouth fused with hers, his tongue sweeping across her lips until she opened for him, and his weight pressed down on her, his cock finally rubbing against her sensitive bundle, the pleasure so intense she cried out.

“Fuck, Lessia.” He growled as his muscles went taut. “You feel so fucking good.”

“Merrick,” she whimpered, her eyes drowning in his. “Please. I want you.”

He shut his eyes, his face freeing from whatever hardness remained. “Say that again.”

“Look at me,” she whispered, and when Merrick opened those beautiful eyes, she echoed, “I want you.”

He cursed again—some words she knew and some she’d never heard—as he shifted her beneath him, lining himself up exactly where she wanted him.

Lessia lifted her hips, and the first part of him eased into her.

Truly eased, because as Merrick pressed further, stretching her in the most delicious way, it was as if he was made for her.

They held their breaths until he was all the way in, and as his strong hips met hers, they released it together.

You and me.

The words echoed in her ears as Merrick pulled out and drove into her with one single stroke.

It was so simple.

But so true.

So clear that it was him and her.

Merrick and Elessia.

Two broken souls healing into one.

She could hardly take in the love that brightened his eyes to almost all silver as he continued to fuck her—pressing into her in the most perfect rhythm.

It was as if his body moved in sync with her heart, the exquisite hardness of him twitching within her tugging at her every emotion, the hands caressing every bit of skin he could reach, healing every broken part of her.

Merrick’s eyes didn’t leave hers as he increased his speed, the slapping sound of skin meeting skin driving her nearly mad, and jumbled words left her lips as she dragged her nails down his back, trying to force him closer, drive his cock deeper.

And when he whispered “Elessia” and his fingers laced with hers…

She couldn’t hold back anymore, her back arching, allowing him to thrust that final inch into her depths, filling her until silver flecks danced before her eyes.

With his name on her lips, she came undone, and as Merrick followed right after, she held on to him, her hands tangling in his hair, as the Death Whisperer whispered her name again and again.

He said it almost as if in prayer.

As if she was his goddess and he was entirely, utterly devoted to her.

A tear made its way down her cheek when they both gasped for air, and she promised herself never to forget his smile as he licked it off before burrowing his face into her neck.