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Forty-Three

ALEC

Darkness isn’t choosy. We all have it, and it’s a fact I learned early on during my mortal life. But until becoming an immortal, I didn’t understand the true meaning of evil.

Evil is a spectrum, and we’re either tipped toward being bad or full-on depraved. One’s decisions determine the level.

Harlow’s concerns over becoming evil aren't possible. She has too much potential in her to go completely Dark, even if I’ll accept her regardless of which end of the scale she ends up on.

She has to embrace herself, no matter her chosen path.

I force her head back and tear at her clothes, ready to prove why being evil isn’t such a bad thing. Why when the coven tosses her out, I’ll make her my queen.

Once I have her bare, her clothes a torn mess on the forest floor, I lift her in my arms, winding her legs around my hips.

“Alec, what are you?—”

Before she’s able to think, to wonder, to be swept away in her own doubts, I shut her up with my mouth, my fangs nipping at her bottom lip. Her blood elevates the kiss to heights only meant for Heaven, a place far away from us both. My tongue sweeps over her lip, gathering the blood to push into her mouth, forcing her to taste how fucking delectable she is.

Using the tree to keep her suspended, I undo my pants and stroke my cock before lining myself up with her heat. I spread her with two fingers, my thumb stroking her to life, and thrust inside her in one hard move.

She moans, head thrown back into the tree. So natural, so beautiful. It bares her neck, and I don’t deny myself from tasting her. She’s getting swept away by the sensations while I’m lost in her taste, the feeling of her, and the bond growing stronger.

“Do you feel it?” I murmur, unhooking from her neck.

She turns her head, trying to catch my gaze. “Feel…what?” Her normally vibrant purple eyes are unfocused.

“Me inside you. A creature of Darkness inside his witch, a creature of Light.”

“Mhm.”

“If you allow me inside you, why can’t you accept your own Darkness?”

“It’s not the sa?—”

I thrust harder, my fingers bruising her hips as I push her down, effectively ceasing her disagreement.

“Until you give me the answer I want, you’re not leaving this spot. You’re not coming. As long as it takes, Hellion.”

“Alec, I won’t be able to stop.” And just as her core follows her own words, her orgasm nearly about to yank her into the abyss, I slide from her, leaving her empty and wanting. She gapes, whining. “That’s not fair.”

“It’s perfectly fair. You don’t get to come until you accept yourself. Until you realize how fucking magnificent you are— precisely as you are. Darkness and all.”

“Then we’ll be both celibate.”

Bet you we won’t be. I push back inside her, slowly this time, watching as I hit the deepest parts that cause her eyes to roll back. That’s it. You were saying, Hellion?

“Fuck off.” But it’s lost so much of her normal venom. A fight from a woman who’s lost hers.

Light or Dark, you’re perfect.

She moans, her nails digging into my shoulder. Even undressed, she’ll never be able to penetrate my skin, and for the first time since learning she’s my Bride, I wish she were a vampire so she could truly unleash the full depth of her anger.

Not that trying won’t also hold its intrigue.

I release her hips to shrug out of my shirt. “You’re angry, Harlow. You need someone to hurt. Something to take your rage out on. I want to be that for you. Give me your rage, however you wish to deliver it.”

Her hand flattens over the place my heart once beat. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“That right there, that you don’t want to, is the very reason you won’t.”

Grasping her hips, I spin us away from the tree and drag us to the ground, settling beneath her, her pussy clenching as she comes down on top of me. It’s a position I’ve never been in for any other woman because it’d mean giving up my control. But Harlow can have every bit of it, and I roll my hips into her, urging her to claim it for herself.

“Not now, but after this, what if the black magick fucks with my fire? You heard what happened; they were binding my magick. I’m stronger now than in the past, and with the Darkness…” A slashing emotion—pain—slices down the bond, and it’s the only reason I let her remain still atop me. And then it’s her whisper—a sign of that caring nature of hers I’ve come to love. “What if my magic explodes again? It’s fire, Alec. It’ll kill you.”

“Then you’ll be free. If you die, I die, but since the bond is one-sided and incomplete, you’ll get everything you want.”

Anguish stares down at me in the form of masked feelings and potential heartache. “What if that’s not what I want?”

“Then you won’t kill me. Hellion, you’re talking like you’ll have no control.”

“I won’t! You and I both have no idea what’ll happen.”

“Yes.” Seized with irritation, I sit up, my arm clenching around her waist to keep her still, my cock buried deep inside. “You’re right. Neither of us know what’ll happen, but you’re pissing me off. You’re giving up before you even try. Where’s the Sinclair I kidnapped, the one who ran for her life? The one who sat in that cell and never once gave up? You sharpened a rock, for fuck’s sake, to defeat me. You , Harlow Sinclair, my Bride , you don’t give up. Ever. Don’t worry about me, because no matter what happens, death won’t keep us apart. Death would give you a chance to move on, and I’ve decided I’m too obsessed with you to allow that. Now…” I fist her hair, yanking her head back until her back arches and her perfect, budded nipples consume my view. Before I lose myself to them, I demand, “You’re angry, Hellion. You’re confused. You’re hurt. You’re scared. And don’t lie, because I feel every single one of your emotions. Before we return to the coven, you need to work this out, and I want you to do so on me. Magickally or otherwise, unleash yourself.” I dip my head, tracing a nipple with my fang and whispering, “Please, Harlow. For me. For yourself. Let it out. Let yourself go.”

My tongue swipes over her nipple while my fangs dig into the flesh, but just like every other bite, I do not go gentle. I devour her like I would prey I didn’t care for. I drink in heavy gulps, urging her to fight me.

A moment later, she does. Heat comes through where her palms are on my shoulders, and it’s with a genuine flinch I pull away, yanking my teeth from her skin to meet her smirk seconds before she grasps my neck and angles my face up to hers.

“How do you know what I need?” she whispers against my lips.

Because I can feel you better than you feel yourself.

“Thank you.”

And then she takes over, and it’s a beautiful thing, letting go to her. Seeing as she comes up on her knees until only the tip of my cock is inside her and then sinks back down, burying me as deep inside her as she can. She does it twice, taking her time, her body twisting with pleasure.

Do it, Hellion. You know you want to. Just feel .

She moves harder, faster, and I thrust from below, helping her towards the finish—helping her let go.

Her back arches with her cry, birds and bats fluttering far away as she disrupts the sliver of peace around us. My little nature disruptor. My piece of Darkness, all for me.

Fucking beautiful.

And that’s when it happens. When her eyes flash with something dangerous and alluring, when the purple of her eyes flicker to a midnight black, the same colour as mine, and her nails dig into my skin. She won’t break it, but she tries, riding me into a near-oblivion.

“Feel it. Let it out. Let yourself be who you are.”

Her eyes flash to mine, purple again but tinged with fear. “I don’t know who I am.”

“Then we’ll figure it out together.”

I wish my skin wasn’t so impenetrable that I’d bleed for her. To see her hard work pay off the way it should and—a sharp sting disrupts my own thoughts, and like my plea was answered, small beads of blood drip from her nails and down my abs.

She throws me a wicked grin and comes down harder on me. “Magick.”

Fuck, this witch is perfect. It’s a thought meant for myself, but I let it go to her too so she understands where I stand.

I push myself into a sitting position and grip her hair, arching her into me as I force her down, her legs tightening around me. Her nails glide from my chest to my shoulders where she digs in again, breaking the skin. Blood paints my skin, not nearly as lovely as the artwork I created on her chest.

She looks down on me, her hair creating a wall between us. “Feels good.”

“It’s meant to. You can’t break me, Harlow. If you want to control the Darkness, let me be your outlet. When those shadows’ voices are becoming too much, this is how you release them.”

Her mouth opens to reply, but it’s cut off by her silent scream, her gasp, as she stiffens in my arms, her core clamping tight. Her nails sink even harder, and I swear she’s taking my skin with her this time.

But I don’t care. Skin or blood, she can have every part of me.

“They’re here,” she whispers, her breathing still uneven.

I lift my head from the veil created by her hair, disturbed I was so wrapped up in her I didn’t hear anyone approach. My arm tightens around her hip, ready to shield my Bride’s naked body from the intruders, except no one’s here.

No one…but then I understand what she meant. From behind her, the air is thicker, darker, more obscure. The trees disappear in a blur of grey, melding with the shadows emitting from her.

The shadows she’s always spoken about. A physical manifestation of her Darkness, dancing in the air behind her, likely called by my bleeding.

She’s mine, I tell them. I’ve already claimed her soul long before you.

Can they hear me? I don’t fucking know.

But by the time Harlow unhooks her nails from my shoulders, they fade away, leaving us alone.

She looks at me with a mixture of apprehension and bewilderment, like she’s unsure what to feel. Her attention slides to my chest and shoulders, where the blood remains, but the cuts have already resealed themselves. Before she does something stupid like try to apologize, I kiss her.

I kiss her until her heartbeat calms and when I know for a fucking fact the shadows understand my claim on her.

I kiss her until the tear sliding down her cheek dries up.

I kiss her until I understand the sensation ravaging my insides.

I kiss her until she pulls away with a small blush and a bite of that bottom lip. I pull it free, admonishing her with a shake of my head. “Bite too hard and you’ll make yourself bleed. I won’t be able to focus.”

She slides her hand up the side of my neck, tracing my hairline. “Maybe that’s the point.”

“Except tonight’s about you. You okay?” Asking another’s feelings is unusual, and frankly, wrong , but nothing ever feels wrong with Harlow.

“Honestly…no. But you’re making me better.”

“That’s what I’m here for.” I flip her over, rising above her as I inch down her body, intending to continue making her feel better . Better only comes when she can no longer remember her name.

My thumb circles her clit, swollen and red from our fucking. She releases a low whimper, biting that lip again as her hands fist the ground on either side of her.

“I’m a creature of Darkness, which means my touch is too, yet you accept me so easily.”

She hums, her eyes shut to the earth. “It’s not the same.”

“Tell me how it isn’t.” I wait until she starts speaking the first syllable of whatever pointless argument she’s about to present before flicking my tongue against her clit.

“Not fair.”

“Very fair.” I lick her again, my hands clenching her thighs to keep her spread open and needy. She tries to buck into my mouth, but I keep her down, sliding my tongue as deep as I can to fuck her with it.

She’s on the verge of coming, the sweet scent of her cum returning tenfold, her heart skipping a beat, but she suddenly stops her rocking attempts, lowering her hips to the ground.

“Bite me.”

The bond prickles with desire, no fear, so I slide my tongue from her, dragging my lips over her core and towards the inside flesh of her thigh. She trembles under my hold but doesn’t fight as I pull the skin taut and sink my teeth in.

“Holy fuck.” She bucks, but my free hand keeps her immobile, wrapping around her thigh until she’s hugging my head.

Her blood is thinner here and ignites on my tongue. Combined with her cum, it’s a taste I could very well bottle and live off of forever.

And I intend to. Live off it forever, that is.

My thumb massages teasing circles along her clit as I drink deeper, harder, her blood making my cock hard all over. God, she tastes so fucking sweet. I’ll never be able to stop, not until she kicks me away, even though I know I’ll never be able to hurt her either.

My Bride tastes perfect.

“Alec.”

It’s with my name on her lips and her blood in my mouth that she comes again, her hands fisting my hair as she forces me down. I don’t let her, not completely, ensuring my teeth don’t dig too hard into her. I let her believe she has control, and when her arms drop limp to the ground beside her, I slide from between her thighs and crawl up her naked body, smudged with blood and dirt, to place another kiss on her lips.

“Everything I’ll ever hunger for is between your lovely thighs. I’ll spend eternity down there.”

She throws me a playful smirk. “I never agreed to be with you forever. I still don’t even know if I like you.”

“Oh, you like me, Hellion. From that first night, you desired me. You forget.” I tap my nose, indicating my enhanced sense of smell she’ll never be able to escape.

“Lust doesn’t equate to deeper feelings.”

“No,” I agree, “but it’s a start.”

Giggling, she pushes into a sitting position and scans her body. “I’m a mess.”

“You’re a vampire’s Bride. You’ve never looked more the part.”

She laughs again and looks towards the forest in front of us. I see the moment it all returns, seconds before she curses. “Shit, the coven…”

“The coven can burn for all I care. I know you think you’re home, but if they look at you like that again, I’ll have no qualms about ripping out every single one of their hearts. You come first. They failed you once by allowing those people into their coven, so I’ll be making sure they don’t fail you again.”

The only sound of her reply is her rapidly beating heart.