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TYPHOS

C amillia’s expression exuded a mixture of confusion and concern, two emotions I didn’t really want to see in her features right now.

“Just relax,” I told her. “Let me take care of you.”

She’d been thoroughly taken by her mates, something that had been an absolute pleasure to observe. But that level of intensity came with a certain level of needed aftercare, something I’d volunteered to provide.

Well, I hadn’t really volunteered. I’d more so seized the opportunity while Melek, Ajax, and Azazel basked in the afterglow of their power explosions.

By the time they realized I was stealing their mate, it’d been too late. “She deserves a reward,” I’d informed them. “And I’m going to deliver it.”

Camillia hadn’t heard my declaration, too blissed out from the energy roaring through her body and soul.

But her mates had understood.

And they hadn’t tried to stop me. Not even Ajax.

“I don’t understand you,” Camillia mumbled, drawing my gaze to her swollen lips. “One minute, you hate me. The next, you…” She trailed off on a wince, suggesting she hadn’t meant to voice any of that out loud.

“I’ve never hated you, Camillia,” I murmured back, a bit perplexed by that pronouncement. I’d felt threatened by her, yes. But hatred? “I don’t think such an emotion is possible where you’re concerned.”

“But you…” She trailed off again.

“But I what?” I asked as I turned on the water.

She curled into me like she feared the cold spray, but it was instantly warm. A perk of being in the Hell Fae Kingdom, I supposed.

Camillia didn’t immediately move, but once she realized the shower was already up to temperature, she started to relax once more.

“You’re naked,” she whispered, causing one of my eyebrows to wing upward. Because I highly doubted that’d been the sentence she hadn’t finished before. But I didn’t remark on it, choosing to focus on what she’d just said rather than press her on the other item.

“I’m not completely naked,” I informed her softly. “Just stripped out of most of my clothes. The shower would be uncomfortable otherwise.”

And the whole point of this was to help her recover.

“Oh.” She closed her eyes and leaned against my chest like she was considering a nap.

It was kind of endearing to see her like this. It was almost like she trusted me.

But the second I sat down on the shower bench, she stiffened. I tried angling her to receive more water, thinking that maybe she was cold. However, she remained frozen in my lap.

“Talk to me, Camillia,” I requested, doing my best to maintain a calm tone. “I can’t read your mind.” Which wasn’t exactly true. I could try to push into her thoughts via her bonds with Azazel and Melek, but I refused to violate her or them in that manner.

When she still said nothing, I sighed.

“I can’t help you recover if you don’t talk to me, little queen.”

She shivered in response. “Why?”

“Because your commentary helps me learn your needs,” I explained.

“No, I… I mean… why are you being nice to me?”

I frowned. “Why wouldn’t I be nice to you?”

“Because you don’t like me.”

I huffed a laugh and maneuvered her onto the bench with her back against the wall and her legs over my thighs. Her gaze instantly tracked over my shirtless state to my black boxer briefs, where she remained glued to the erection concealed by the tight fabric.

A note of fear entered her gaze, killing my humor.

“I’m not going to fuck you, Camillia.”

Not today, anyway , I added to myself as a thought.

But that fear didn’t leave her gaze. It darkened her entire expression and threatened to destroy my giving mood.

“Why do you think I dislike you?” I finally asked, needing to regain control of my sanity before I did something we’d both regret—like kiss her until that fearful look left her pretty gray eyes.

It was a bad idea, one that probably wouldn’t work. But her expression was making me feel desperate. And I was already ramped up from watching her take three cocks at once.

Sex seemed like an excellent solution to the stress created by her expression.

Except it directly conflicted with the promise I’d just made regarding not fucking her.

“You wanted to kill me,” she muttered. “Which… which I get. But you also didn’t seem all that impressed by me either.”

My brow furrowed. “You think I’m not impressed by you?”

She made a sound that resembled a scoff. “Is this the best she can do?” Her voice deepened to an almost comical level as she attempted to impersonate me.

I smirked. “You think that was me being unimpressed?”

Her stormy eyes finally met mine, the fear replaced by an emotion that was much more arousing—anger. “Yes.”

I didn’t hide my resulting smile. “Look at my dick, Camillia. It might be covered by my boxers, but I’m certain you can see how impressed I am.”

“Attraction is different from being… being, well, impressed ,” she said. “I’m naked, so of course you’re reacting to me. But that’s not the same as finding me good enough or worthy enough or whatever it is I need to be for you.”

Okay, I was frowning again. “Camillia, I am constantly in awe of you. Which makes me want to test you.”

A desire that had come out in force while watching her play with her mates.

It had taken physical effort to feign boredom and keep my hands to myself. But I’d been enthralled by her movements, her moans, her fucking arousal.

“All I wanted was to seize control and force you to take my cock,” I confided out loud, aware that my admission didn’t fully make sense with my previous statement.

But this female threatened my sanity. “I said those things to placate my urges. The words weren’t meant to belittle your worth or suggest I dislike you, Camillia. ”

She stared at me, her forehead crinkling a little.

“I enjoy challenging you,” I added. “I want to push your limits and see how much you can take.”

Although, as I observed her now, I realized how much I’d held back these last few months. And how restraining myself had impacted my needs in the bedroom.

“I’ve been soft with you,” I acknowledged in a low voice, one that barely registered over the pouring water.

Primarily because the confession was more for me than for her.

“Not exactly soft, but… but not straightforward either. In truth, you’ve been exceptionally difficult to master.

” Something that both intrigued me and scared me.

I ran my hand up and down her leg, very aware of her nude state beside me. And equally aware of how close her calves were to my aching cock.

But I was too focused on this conversation to be distracted by her sexy limbs. However, I massaged her tense muscles, my need to exude some sort of self-care controlling my actions.

Meanwhile, reason controlled my mouth.

“I need to be harder on you,” I told her. “Vivaxia isn’t going to give me time to properly train you. I knew that, and yet, I went easy on you. Tried to start at the beginning and explain things. But that’s not how we work, Camillia. I push . And you push back.”

It’d been that way since the moment she first arrived. Hell, it’d started before that when she’d challenged my Hellhounds and forced Ajax to hunt her down.

Then she’d captured Melek’s intrigue, ended up in my Warden’s dungeon, and met every fucking challenge along the way.

I reiterated all that now, continuing into what came next.

Her falling into my book, my Commander and my Warden tracking her down, how she ensnared them in her web, the inevitable punishment…

“That was me pushing you and everyone else,” I confided.

“I wanted to test your mettle while observing Ajax’s, Azazel’s, and Melek’s reactions.

And I’ll admit, that dress was meant to punish me, too.

To make me admire what I could never have.

” I lifted my hand to brush my thumb along her jaw. “My forbidden fruit.”

She hadn’t said a word since commenting on her worth, giving me freedom to elaborate on my response. To explain to her how worthy I found her to be while also going into my faults and missteps.

It was a lot, our history riddled with life-altering moments and misunderstandings.

But all of it was necessary.

Just as our next steps were paramount. “Vivaxia will attack again, and soon. She’s using her link through you to weave ancient spells through my realm. Which makes it imperative that I teach you how to stop her. And not by redirecting your power to my Source.”

That’d been Camillia’s solution in the paradigm—to shove all the energy back into my realm after dismantling Vivaxia’s spell.

“I suspect Vivaxia wanted you to lose control, similar to how you did in the Netherworld. And I think she’s playing on your emotions, too.

She saw how you reacted to Azazel’s injuries, and attempted to replicate the act with Ajax.

However, you felt something today, something that had you redirecting your influx of power.

And you managed to siphon only her spell, not the Nightmare Fae essence. ”

Which was really fucking impressive. But equally frustrating since she’d acted as a damn martyr.

“What you should have done was use that energy to form a weapon that you could send back through your link to Vivaxia, something to harm her. However, we’ll work on that.” Because now that I knew Camillia could sense the connection, she could use it.

“You know she’s using me,” Camillia whispered. “I… I didn’t even… I just sensed it and reacted.”

“I know.”

“But how do you know?” she asked, blinking at me. “How did you…?”

“I felt it,” I told her. “And I felt the connection the moment you returned to my realm. She’d activated something inside you, something to do with your siphoning ability, and I realized what it was the moment you started redirecting your power to me and my realm.”

“I just knew I had to push it away from her.”

“So you latched onto the only other outlet you could find—your connection to my Source,” I told her. “Which would have been fine had you not shoved your own fucking soul into it.”

She flinched. “All I was thinking about was countering Vivaxia. And I had no idea how to hold on to the power, so I just… shoved it away to the nearest trusted outlet.”

“My Source,” I murmured, my hand sliding up her thigh to her hip.

“Your Source,” she echoed, causing my lips to curl a bit.

“Yes. But as for holding on to the power, you can and you did.” I tilted my head as I held her gaze.

“Azazel unleashed a catastrophic amount of energy into you, and you not only accepted it, but you kept it. So it is possible, Camillia. You just need practice, something I’m going to give you.

Because, unfortunately, Vivaxia knows what you can do now, and she’ll be ready to thwart your redirection during her next attack. ”

“Which will be soon,” she muttered warily.

I nodded. “You likely weakened her by absorbing her spells and feeding them into the Hell Fae Realm, but she’ll regenerate quickly.”

“So we need to figure out her next move before she makes it,” Camillia replied.

“And ensure you’re ready for it,” I told her. “Which leads me back to my role in all this—I have to be hard on you. It’s the only way to prepare you for Vivaxia’s true power.”

Camillia frowned at me, her storm-like irises swirling with thoughts.

I waited, aware that I’d thrown a lot of information at her in her already exhausted state.

Yet her pinkened cheeks and alert gaze told me she didn’t mind. She was considering everything I’d said, and perhaps even more.

“Why bother with all these smaller attacks?” she asked slowly. “What’s her true goal here? If she’s powerful enough to face you head-on, why bother with everything else?”

“Because she’s not powerful enough to face me,” I told her. “You’re her conduit. She’s working through you—trying to provoke you —to do what she couldn’t.”

“Mate you?”

My lips twitched. “No. She wants you to steal my light and feed it back to her. But you’re proving to be a bit of a rebel, Miss De la Croix. And I’m certain it’s royally infuriating your dear grandmother.”

Camillia growled, the sound going straight to my cock. “Do not call her that.”

I smiled. “Not a fan of the family connection?” I lifted my hand to her neck, my palm fitting perfectly around her slender throat. “While it’s unfortunate, it’s also fortuitous.”

She narrowed her eyes, wariness filling her features. “Why is it fortuitous?”

“Because your familial line is what will make you the perfect Hell Fae Queen.”

Her wariness vanished behind a look of astonishment. “What?”

“You heard me just fine, Camillia,” I murmured, my gaze falling to her lips. “But in case you didn’t understand them, allow me to demonstrate what those words mean—by worshipping you as your Hell Fae King.”