Page 25

Chapter 25

Wren

I mean it .

I’d told him in the graveyard, but it made sense that he didn’t understand then.

So many things made sense now that he’d opened up to me. Even though his voice had been hollow, broken, completely devoid of anything while he spoke.

Even though his body had been a fine, tremoring line that betrayed that tone.

I understood now—I understood, and I realized it just made him all the more beautiful to me because he was still here, he was so strong .

Every broken part of him made him perfect, not less . More.

More… mine . He’d always been mine.

I’d never felt so sure of something in my life, but I knew, as much as I knew the feel of my bow in my hand or the wings on my back, that Theo was something I was meant to keep. It didn’t matter how it happened, or what brought us together. I didn’t give a shit if the emotions running through me were made with some artificial concoction that Aiden liked to hold over our heads.

None of that mattered. The why didn’t matter .

The only thing that mattered was Theo.

Theo, who was looking at me with wide, hurt eyes and a split lip.

I’d felt every blow, every kick, every punch. I’d felt his terror spike and fade into a calm acceptance.

I understood that he’d given himself over to what was happening to him so he wouldn’t give in to what he was becoming… and I knew he didn’t understand how strong that truly was. I’d never seen a human resist becoming an Enmity the way he had, the way he continued to do. He thought he was something horrible, some man always destined to become a monster, but he wasn’t.

He was good . He was strong.

He was strong enough to tell me about his past, even while he was trembling… and he was strong enough that he stood under the hot spray of the shower even though I could see the raw, naked fear in his eyes.

I brought the washrag back to his skin and started to clean him again. For a while, he didn’t say anything—he just watched me with that careful gaze, like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop, like he was waiting for me to change my mind and tell him I didn’t want to be near him because of who he was and where he’d come from.

He spoke when I wrapped my arms around him to wash the sweep of his back. The brush of my fingers against the top of his ass made him shiver, and his body rocked against me almost of its own accord.

It just made me pull him closer, and his head dropped to my shoulder automatically.

“You don’t have to touch me like that, Wren. I understand if it’s too…”

He trailed off, and I could still hear it in his voice.

Pain.

Doubt.

Fear.

It made something ugly swirl in my chest for just a second—a spark of fury that nearly stole my breath away and told me to find the asshole who had done this and make him pay.

Instead, my eyes flicked up to Theo’s dark gaze, and I fell to my knees in front of him.

He was afraid that I thought he was sullied, something spoiled. Something not worth touching.

He was afraid I wouldn’t want him anymore.

I couldn’t kill those men, but I could show him how wrong he was.

“Wren, you don’t have to do that.”

I ran my fingers slowly up the length of his thighs and watched his cock twitch in front of me. When my eyes rolled up to meet his, I could see the twist of emotions playing like a kaleidoscope in his stare.

I saw the passion, the want, the desire, the deep-seated need to know that what he saw—what I said—was true.

And I saw the fear, the shame.

I wanted to erase that from every fiber of his being, every inch of his soul.

“Theo?” I murmured his name, and leaned forward to press a soft kiss against his stomach. When he shivered, I did it again, then whispered my question into the line of his hip like it was a place made to hold all my secrets. “Can I take care of you?”

This wasn’t about the thread between us, or Theo losing control. It wasn’t about something I had to do… It was about something I wanted to give him, something he needed to know. Something that felt almost inevitable as I looked up at him again and saw the tears in his eyes a second before his lids fluttered shut and he nodded.

“Okay.” It came out as a whisper, and I let my tongue flick out to lick the water from his skin to see how he’d react.

He didn’t move away—he didn’t try to push me back.

He just let a low groan tear from his throat and pressed his palms flat to the shower wall. It was so strange, because I knew he wanted this—I could feel how much he needed it beating across my skin, could see it in a shimmer of trembling color along the thread connecting us.

I’d never felt so connected to another person. I’d never been so sure of anyone.

I was sure of Theo.

I was sure of this… of us…

My fingers gently pressed against his hips and he turned his body like he knew what I wanted—he was already healing, the bruises on his ribs fading almost in front of my eyes. It wasn’t the physical damage that I’d been concerned about.

It was the pain I’d seen written across his face when he spoke, the hollowness I could feel echoing inside him.

I wanted to fill it up—I had to show him that none of it mattered to me.

That he was still… everything.

He stood still while I brushed kisses along the base of his spine, the dimples on his lower back. And he let out a low sound when I trailed my tongue gently along the swell of his ass.

“Wren, you don’t have to do this.” Every time he said it, his voice was more breathy, desperate.

My head bowed, cheek pressed against his hip. “Do you want me to, Theo?”

That was the question—the real question. I wasn’t going to do a damn thing he didn’t want, but I could feel the desire rolling through him as much as I could feel my need to show him that I wanted him. That it felt like I’d always wanted him.

That all the anger and resentment I felt every time I shot an arrow was because I hadn’t found him yet.

I’d painted the world in crimson threads waiting for him, but I’d found my soulmate.

And I wanted him to be happy.

My fingers massaged his thighs gently while I let him think, waiting patiently for the words that seemed to be trapped just behind his tongue.

Finally, he let out a small sound, the softest of whispers.

“Of course I do.”

“Then trust me.”

Fuck, that was really an ask, wasn’t it? He’d trusted me enough to tell me his story, and now I needed him to trust me enough to know that I wouldn’t break him with the knowledge.

That I wouldn’t hurt him.

That we were done hurting each other.

I felt the sting of him biting his lip like a faint echo of his nervousness, but he still nodded. Soft. Sweet.

“I do.”

I do .

I understood how much those words meant to him, and I intended to make sure that he didn’t regret saying them.

I took a few seconds to trail my fingers up and down the length of his thighs again, and when I slid forward and my knees pressed against his legs, he made space for me between them without me having to ask.

I was soft when I trailed my tongue over the swell of his ass, gentle when I used my fingers to pull his cheeks apart.

Theo was a shivering mess above me, and I wondered if he’d ever had anyone do this for him? Had he ever had anyone take care of him? Ever had anyone touch him with no ulterior motive, any want other than just knowing he felt good?

It tingled along the length of my spine, how sweet and foreign this was to him. I shivered when he did as I swiped my tongue in a slow line up the length of his ass and teased at his hole with the tip.

“Oh, fuck. Wren, I haven’t… unnf.” He cut off when I stiffened my tongue and circled his rim in a slow motion. I was pretty sure it was only my hands on his thighs, wrapped around him, that kept him standing. His knees felt weak, and his body swayed above me with every stroke of my tongue against his ass.

It was so good though. He tasted clean and warm, and he seemed so willing to give himself over to me, to trust me.

This wasn’t about pleasure as much as it was about showing him that his pleasure was more important than mine.

But I could still feel every spark of desire that ripped through him, every nerve ending that lit up the more I licked and lapped at his hole until he was soaked with my saliva and his body was rocking back against my tongue in a silent plea for more.

I wanted to give him more.

I wanted to give him everything .

This time, when I stiffened my tongue, it dipped past his rim and delved inside him. Theo’s breath punched from his chest at the same moment my cock jerked between my legs.

Fuck, the tingles shooting through his body were so good. I’d been getting better at ignoring every little sensation that rippled through him, each pain and pleasure… but I was leaving myself open to it now, vulnerable to everything I did.

I wanted to be here with him.

I wanted him to know that I could feel him, all of him, and every bit of it was something I wanted.

My hands circled around, grabbing his hips and pulling him back against my face in encouragement. It took him a second to catch on to what I was trying to do, but he started to ride back against me after a few encouraging flicks from my tongue. Soon, he caught a rhythm that I let him take control of, and one hand slid across his stomach to take hold of his cock.

The squeeze of my palm against his thick shaft almost undid me—sparks of pleasure licked along my spine and made me moan against him. My free hand gently slapped his hip, encouraging him to move faster, to take whatever he needed.

To use me, because I wanted him to feel good. I wanted him to feel in control of himself.

This was all for him.

And I think he knew that too, because his hips started to rock faster, his body catching a frantic pace that made my jaw ache in the most delicious way. I pumped his dick in time with that motion and got lost in the sound of his breath catching, his moans that poured loud and free from his chest.

Theo wasn’t holding back. He was completely giving himself over to this, to taking what he wanted, to being the master of his own pleasure and desire… and it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

Just glancing up along the length of his spine, where his shoulders arched and his head was thrown back—the water catching in hair that he had tangled in his fingers—was art. Beautiful and perfect in all its flaws.

He shivered and glanced over his shoulder, and all I could do was drown in the sea of his eyes.

So dark.

So endless.

And I wondered if he saw a lilac sky kissing against the waves of that vastness when he looked back at me.

Fuck, I hoped so.

My hand on his hip tightened, and Theo thrust back against me hard enough that my tongue slid completely inside him, licking and working at his hole in a near fevered desperation.

I needed to feel him clench around me.

I needed to drown myself in the depths of his release.

I needed—

Theo came on a shout that was more beautiful than any sound I’d ever heard, hands slapping against the shower wall so I could feel the sting of it in my palms.

I came untouched, riding on the high of his pleasure and the waves of it as it crashed through my body. Theo’s ass clenched around my tongue, his cock pulsing in my hand, and I was lost.

Lost in the taste and feel of him. Lost in the way he completely leaned into me, body writhing and ass rocking against my face as he rode out his orgasm. My own stole my breath, made me dizzy. It made me moan against his skin, and the vibration made him writhe even more.

We fed off each other’s pleasure until Theo’s knees actually gave out, and he slid down the shower wall and collapsed back against me.

His head lolled onto my shoulder, and when he looked back at me, his eyes were a near solid black of blown pupils, but not because of the darkness inside him trying to claw its way out. He was drunk on me.

Drunk on pleasure.

Drunk on finally understanding that I wanted him so much I’d get on my knees and worship him like this every night if it made him realize there was nothing about him that could make me change my mind.

That could make me think for even a second that he was less than everything I’d been waiting for my whole life.

He leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss against the curve of my jawline, closing his eyes as he did so.

“Thank you.” I could barely hear the whispered words over the cooling shower water and the sound of my thundering heart.

“Always.” Maybe he couldn’t hear me either, but when I picked us both up and dragged us to the bed, Theo wrapped his body around mine without question, and laid his head on my chest so he could hear the promise over and over again with each beat of my heart.

It burned. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it ripped from somewhere in the middle of my chest with angry fingers that tried to tear me apart.

I wondered if this was the fire that Theo talked about—the burn so violent and vociferous it felt like it was going to completely take me over, leave me as ash to scatter to the winds.

If this was that fire, I had no idea how he’d survived it.

If this was that fire, I don’t know how he’d kept his eyes open long enough to see me to begin with.

And if this was that fire, I was ready to use it to burn the world down.

I didn’t want to leave Theo, but the longer I lay there beside him, the more I couldn’t breathe. I told myself I was just going out to get a bit of air—that I wouldn’t leave the doorway, that I wouldn’t leave his line of sight.

But once the door was open, I couldn’t stop myself. I took one step, then another. It was dangerous, being away from him… but I half thought it was more dangerous to be close to him when I felt this way. The heat jumping and burning beneath my skin was the very thing that threatened to drive him to complete darkness, that threatened to make the black eat away at his chest and take him away from me.

Take him away from me .

That thought made the fire burn brighter, because I knew it wasn’t the heat that had tried that first.

It wasn’t the burning, or the Enmity.

It was the man I’d seen on the street, running when he heard me coming.

The man who had looked at Theo like he was so much meat, like he was something he could break, something he could hurt.

Something he’d already broken.

And I thought about the fear in Theo’s voice, the pain, the way he’d given up on anyone ever being safe.

The way he was so afraid to let someone touch him.

And the way there were cracks and fissures in his chest that had let the Enmity in to begin with that weren’t his fault.

Nevermind that it was what had brought us together, and nevermind that I never would have had him if it weren’t for all of this.

It didn’t matter.

All that mattered was the burning in my chest and the knowledge that the man I’d seen…

That man had hurt Theo.

He’d hurt him in more ways than I could ever imagine, in so many places that I could put back together, that I could touch and hold and soothe… but the scars would still be there.

The only way to truly make them fade was to make sure that the man who had caused them was punished.

Punished .

How many times had I wanted to kill a human? How many times had I slaughtered them while they still had that spark of humanity in their eyes, before they’d changed into monsters? How many times had they said please before the roar escaped them?

This was different, though.

It was different, and I knew it.

This man wasn’t an Enmity, but he was a fucking monster.

It started to rain, but the coolness did nothing for the fire burning in my chest. Somewhere along the end of the line connecting us, I felt Theo—sleeping, still safe—and I realized he would be as long as I felt like this. The darkness in his chest, the violence that threatened to overtake him, threatened to change him?

It was mine now.

I glanced down, and I could see it—little trickles of black, swirling through the white and red in the center of my chest.

I should have been afraid.

I should have been horrified, running back to Gethin or even Aiden… because a cupid couldn’t turn into an Enmity.

A cupid couldn’t take on their darkness.

This was impossible. It was every reason they’d kill Theo and rip my wings out if they ever found out about our connection.

It was dangerous, and forbidden.

I didn’t care .

I would take it—all of it—if it meant I could do this for Theo.

I would break myself along every line fractured in his body if it meant I could do this for him.

If I could come back and promise him he’d never have to see the fucker again, that he’d never have to hurt looking at him.

That no one would ever hurt him again.

By the time I made it to the door of the shitty house, I could barely see past the darkness eating away at the corner of my vision. There was something almost… liberating about it. All the anger, the bitterness I’d ever felt… it coalesced now. It manifested.

It had physical form.

And when I drew an arrow before I kicked open the door, it was different.

New.

It bled black and spiked violently at the end—it wasn’t made for a clean shot.

It was made to rend.

To tear.

To cause pain.

Good.

At the stirring of someone on the couch, I loosed the arrow and heard a man scream. It rippled through the darkness, sliding across my skin, making the heat I felt spread—his pain tore a groan of satisfaction from my chest, then a growl when the man stood up, trying to yank the arrow from his stomach with a cry.

My eyes flared in delight when the barbed tip ripped him open and something thicker than blood fell to the ground as he dropped the arrow.

He followed shortly after, his knees hitting first, the loud crash an alarm to let everyone else know that something was here.

Something was coming for them.

Something was going to make sure they finally paid for the sins they’d committed in their past.

I opened my mouth and felt it—a roar tearing from my chest as I gave myself over to the fury scalding inside me.

For Theo, I was ready to burn.