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Reuban surfaced through a thick fog in his mind to Bellatore talking to somebody, explaining something about not worrying. “I won’t allow them to hurt you more than is absolutely necessary.”

Who was she talking to? Where… the hell was he?

As one part of his mind blindly groped for a thing he needed to remember, his back began to itch along the seal embedded on his skin and soul.

His memory jolted.

The Kings.

His fusion to them.

The itch changed into a hot tingle that quickly turned agonizing. He bit down on his own teeth, seething out groans as the spiritual binding to the Kings overcame him again. Only different. More.

What was happening?

He gasped down lungful’s of air as a vision of a naked Bellatore brought a familiar darkness that coated Reuban’s tongue. He knew this power. And he knew to fear it, judging by the panic rising in him as it snaked along his tastebuds like a sinister lover.

Lust.

Oh fuck.

That lust.

It seeped into his blood next and coated his cells and bones before whispering the soul-changing words… “Quartus Rex.”

Holy fuck.

Fourth King.

Holy, holy fuck, what was happening?

The unknown thing he’d reached for earlier was suddenly in his grip and opening its power to him. A howling wind and fire swirled in his blood along with the most decadent desire that now pounded in his balls and cock.

This power located the once impenetrable wall protecting the Bellatore and cut right through it like butter, forcing her naughty, angelic foot to slam down on the brakes.

He made his way up onto the back seat as his lungs filled with wind and his eyes glowed with fire, locking onto his target now turned in her seat, staring at him in shock.

“Sit,” he ordered when she tried to leave the vehicle.

Her immediate obedience and gasp told him just how strong this power was, now snarling through him. He climbed out the back of the SUV and got into the passenger seat as her treachery came before him, burning his mind.

“You’re a King,” she whispered, confused and shocked.

He finally looked at her, unable to see anything but her sin even while wondering why he kept thinking of it in that way.

“You kissed me,” he said, surprised to hear his voice calm while chaos screamed inside him.

“What is your name?” she demanded.

“Drive 2.6 miles to our intended destination.”

She complied with wordless sounds of consternation. “What is our intended destination?”

“A lovely hotel,” he said, adding a dose of lust to the announcement.

The huge gasp she gave told him she understood one thing. No, two. Make that three. One, the Bellatore had never experienced sexual pleasure. Two, she’d thought herself incapable in her angelic form. And three, she would soon know how very wrong she was.

“What’s happening?” she whispered between hot breaths.

“Since I’ve fused with my three Kings, I have a portion of all their powers as you know,” he reminded. “Rest assured the divine winds and fire won’t let the unholy lust misbehave. More than is necessary,” he added, his cock raging hard with the directive now cooking his blood.

“This isn’t… this isn’t permitted,” she gasped.

“Really,” he said, his cock’s grin reaching his mouth. “My Donec Bellatore can fuck devils and steal power with a most delicious kiss, but she can’t permit a Kollaborator King of the Pecto Tuta Veritas to give you ecstasy until you’re weeping for me to fuck you?”

She pulled into the parking lot, her breaths labored like she fought an army of demons.

“Keep fighting me,” he urged, her earlier sins ever before him like a whipping post. “Right now, your power feels like a hot tongue on my cock.”

“Please,” she gasped, putting the vehicle in park.

He turned and looked at her, his gaze moving over the black robe she now wore. “Your fear has found sympathy, my Donec Bellatore.” He leaned across the space between them. “I will consider mercy for another kiss.”

Her gaze fell to his mouth then shot back up to his eyes, her terror a grip on his entire groin.

He was about to pull away when she leaned in then stopped just before his mouth.

He watched her brows furrow as she pressed her lips against his for a microsecond.

A microsecond that felt like the worst sin of all.

“Just enough to enrage my lust… Larena,” he muttered softly.

****

Seeing there was no escaping this being’s power, Larena moved on to surviving it without incurring permanent scars.

Whatever he intended to do could be survived but its aftermath was what she feared.

This power he wielded was not unheard of, but it was surely new to her.

Not once in her existence had she ever feared a fight, but this one was massively different.

It wasn’t his power that was the threat, it was him.

From the moment she set eyes on him, she knew he was the source of her help while simultaneously being her greatest threat.

She’d tightened her shields hoping to get what she needed from him and be on her way, but he had other plans.

Things she had no time for, nor could she risk enduring.

To open herself to such needs would be a fatal blow to her already low powers.

Why hadn’t she just explained it to him?

Why had she panicked?

Why do you ask such foolish questions while knowing full well the answers?

He was the most beautiful being she’d ever met.

Inside and out. He was spirit candy to her weeping inner-child and holy water for her parched spirit.

She’d panicked with his offer to give her power.

Not knowing what he’d require of her to get it had sent her diving into the flames to take it.

And like a fool, she thought she could take all of it and he’d just be at her mercy.

Now she was a prisoner.

His prisoner.

And he was angry with her. Furious, to be perfectly accurate.

She couldn’t use her powers against him but was able to know such things. And it was a torment to know and even feel the wound she’d inflicted on him. He left it wide open and oozing blood as if to remind her who was responsible for what was coming.

She sat on the hotel bed right where he’d ordered her to, all showered and clean, waiting for her execution.

He’d called her a Donec Bellatore. She tried to be offended, but there was nothing that fell from his perfect mouth that her body and mind found offensive.

And it wasn’t the sexy warrior title that made her quake in her eternal skin, it was the my that preceded it.

He had the power to own her if he chose.

Either way meant certain death. To be owned by him meant the death of her as a Bellatore Matre.

And to not be owned by him meant the death of her as a woman.

Which death she would suffer was entirely up to him.

She was hardly a stranger to suffering and this needed to be seen like any other casualty of war. The only consolation was the carnage would be her own and not one of her earthly mothers.

She would find a way to survive and continue, she always did. Whether he punished her once or punished her for eternity with his delicious glory. She must find a way.

The sound of the shower ceased and brought blood to pound in all those new places she’d never experienced in her entire existence.

Her heart pumped too quickly and her skin prickled.

He’d told her to get naked and she had, marveling over the feeling of such a state of being.

It was the way he’d commanded it. “Get naked.” It meant remove everything.

All her protective walls, every stitch of clothes.

There was no disobeying him and she sat there utterly exposed.

The door opened and she closed her eyes to focus her strength then quickly opened them when visions of her kissing him wrecked her. She turned and her gaze fell on him. A death had never been swifter as she sat there, pierced through by his beauty now standing exactly before her.

“Lie back and open your lovely legs, my little warrior angel.”

The command came with images in her mind of the exact position he wanted her in.

Beholding his massive, perfect cock was a war of the ages as she moved back onto the bed and remained on her elbows with her legs drawn up.

Dropping her knees to the bed would be the equivalent of laying down all weapons before her enemy.

In a final desperate attempt to shield herself from what was coming, she struggled to imagine it as any other sex act performed for the sake of gaining power.

“Digging your grave deeper, my warrior angel,” he warned softly, reminding her she was utterly exposed and naked before him, thoughts and body. “Look at me.”

“I’m sorry,” she gasped, not even sure for what as her gaze landed on his penis now gripped in his hand and aimed at her.

“Do you know the three sins you committed, Bellatore?”

Breathe. Carefully.

Her head shook.

“You’ll love the irony,” he assured. “First, you created a powerful King with your world-shaking, scarring kiss—thank you for that,” he said softly, his hands gently settling on her knees still drawn and glued together.

“Second, you foolishly stole power from that King. And third, you sinned with it.”

His hands glided along her outer thighs and suddenly eternal hell felt like the safest place to escape to.

“And do you know what this bought you, my beautiful warrior?” His fingers were at her knees again. One little nudge and all hope fell through the gap he created. She stared at his beautiful face now aimed between her legs he slowly pushed open. “It bought you a Sinner’s Bond.”

Those words and the sudden nailing of her legs open against the mattress brought a parade of strangled gasps.

A Sinners Bond.

Oh God, oh God, oh God.

That was four death sentences in one. A death to her career as the angel of mothers. A death to all the work she’d done over the millennium. A death to the work that yet remained. And a death to the angel that she was.