Page 29 of Broken Souls

And then I’m suddenly allowed to breathe.

I gasp in air as he slams into me balls deep, hitting the back of my cervix, bruising it, claiming it, marking it as his. He grabs both my arms and pins them back over my head. He leans and bites all the flesh he can reach, from my wrists to my elbows. He wraps his fingers back around my throat.

I jerk beneath him, each bite making me hotter. I love it when he marks me, when he tells the entire fucking world that I’m taken. His.

Varius fucking Shadow’s.

As his teeth dig into my arm hard enough to make it bleed, I cry out. He sits up and hauls me onto his lap. He guides one of my hands down to my pussy.

“Burn the hair off,” he growls as his hips pump into me.

I freeze, the demand shocking me. He’s always loved my curls, has even punished me for shaving before. The worry from earlier comes back, that there’s real danger in the air tonight.

A desperation.

A darkness.

A madness.

Whatever happened at Aleric’s meeting, I don’t think it’s caused this.

He almost seems mad at me? Like he’s punishingme.

My heart plummeting, my spine shivering, I look into his eyes.

A monster glares back at me.

It’s dangerous to fall in love with a dangerous man.

The hand he has on my throat suddenly feels too hot.

He squeezes me.

I panic.

He loosens his grip, allowing me to breathe.

But that panic doesn’t get washed away by the flooding of air into my lungs. It’s gripping its claws in me tight.

“I love you,” I say as I burn the hair off my pussy, hoping I can appease him with my submission. With my love. That whatever has caused this darkness inside him can be fixed with a simple reminder that I’mhis.His to take care of, to protect, just like I will him.

The sulfuric smell of burning hair reaches my nostrils. My magic warms my pelvis. His cock jerks, and so I rock my hips, taking him in deep with every thrust. I keep my fingers flat on his shoulders, unthreatening as I ride him in slow, deep penetrations.

My eyes dip to his lips, wanting him to kiss me, to show me that everything between us is fine. But his eyes are on my pussy. On the words emblazoned there.

Property of Varius Shadow

“I’m yours,” I whisper, my hands seeking his. I entwine our fingers, giving him control of my magic, making myself vulnerable despite knowing he is on the crumbling edge of a dark crevice.

But he needs this. I can see it in his eyes, in his harsh breathing. He has always been so alone, betrayed so many times, he’s learned not to create connections. Not to give them a way to hurt him. He’s learned to be wary even of the people he loves. Never able to trust them fully because no one has ever stayed in his corner through thick and thin.

But I will.

“I’m here,” I murmur as I lean forward to kiss his lips. Gentle. Tenderly. Lovingly. “I’m not going anywhere.”

He tenses beneath me for half a second, his muscles rigid beneath my body.

Then he’s fucking me like I’m a sex doll, as if he just needs tomove. Burying his teeth into my neck, he bites me hard. His cock slams into me. He releases my fingers to grab my hips and move me. Up and down. Up and down. Up and fucking down.