Page 125

One Whole Soul

I find the person I need after asking around.

I shouldn’t be surprised The Ring has one.

After all, I got my Berserker slave brand here.

I explain what I want and we head to The Summit room where he sets up and I sit backwards on a chair, resting my head on the wood and losing myself in the comforting pain and buzz of the needle in my skin.

With each stroke, I relax further, the feeling of rightness settling in my chest, and I know this was the correct decision.

It takes at least two hours, and by the time we are done my back is sore, feeling heavy with ink, but I am smiling.

I thank the man who introduced himself as Hill and leave him to clean his equipment.

My shirt sits heavy on the new tattoos, but I don’t mind as I head out in search of Dray.

I find my men have already set up camp, and they are working through the booze and girls here at The Ring.

I nod at them as I pass, letting them know it’s okay to relax tonight.

There is no point riding out until the morning anyway.

I catch a Seeker as he is strolling past, buckling his pants as he goes.

“Have you seen Dray?” I ask.

He looks over, his mouth flapping open and closed as he looks at me, and I arch my eyebrow at him, waiting. “Have you?” I ask again.

“Eer, yeah—I saw him going into the training pit about ten minutes ago. He was with that Nan chick before then.” He nods.

“Thanks,” I call and rush away as I head over to the pit, wanting to show him what I had done .

Ignoring the slave entrance to the training sands, I hop over the fence and land on the packed earth below.

Stepping onto the sand, I see him sprawled out on his back with his arms under his head, staring at the stars. I get hit with déjà vu for a moment, remembering when we were like this last time, but we fought then, pushing at each other as I ignored what was right in front of me—him.

Not this time. I head straight for him, and instead of lying next to him like last time, I kneel over him, pressing my knees to the sand on either side. I sit on his lap and look down at his grinning face.

He grabs my hips, keeping me there, pressed to the hard bulge growing in his pants as his eyes pull from the sky and settle on me. “Miss me, soulmate?” he teases.

“Maybe, what trouble did you get up to?” I grin down at him, rocking slightly just to tantalise him. His eyes flash as his hands tighten on my hips, stilling the movement.

He sits up suddenly, quickly kissing me before whispering against my lips, “I’ll show you.”

I slide off his lap and kneel in the sand facing him.

He gets to both knees in front of me, his face blank and his eyes almost laughing.

That alone makes mine narrow, knowing whatever he has done it’s probably crazy.

He pulls something from his pocket, keeping it locked in the palm of his hand as he smirks at me.

“Hold out your hand, soulmate,” he orders.

I do as I am told, palm up, but he reaches out and turns it the other way so my palm is facing the sand. He holds his hand over mine, as he slowly curls open his palm to show me something glittering. I don’t look away as he picks it up and shows it to me, my mouth drops open.

“Where did you find that?” I inquire softly, staring at the ring held between his fingers, dwarfing it.

It’s not too big, consisting of a black band with a skull in the middle, and then what looks like diamonds and rubies on either side. I love it and I can’t seem to look away.

“I’ve had it for a while, found it just before I found you.

It’s yours, has been for a long time. Here.

” He holds it out and I show him my hand.

I expect him to slip it on my finger so I don’t pay attention until I feel him staring as I admire it sparkling on my hand.

I look up to see him smiling at me smugly.

“What?” I ask, confused.

“Looks good on you, wife.”

I blink, staring at him with my mouth open as my eyes slowly drop to the ring—which is on my ring finger. “What the fuck are you talking about?” I snap, going to pull it off and put it on another finger, but he covers my hand, stilling the movement .

“Taking it off won’t make a difference, soulmate,” he declares.

“What the fuck are you talking about, Dray? Tell me!” I snarl, as a bad feeling starts building in my stomach.

“Shh, behave, wife,” he teases, and I glare at him as he laughs. “I married us.” He shrugs.

I stare at him for a moment, my mind stuck on that. “How the fuck did you marry us?” I yell and throw my hands in the air. “Don’t I have to be there for something like that?”

“I don’t know, but I married us, you accepted the ring.” He shrugs and I sputter at him.

I yell, tackling him to the sand and holding a knife to his throat. “Tell me,” I grit out, almost snarling at him.

He just smirks up at me, cupping my arse in his hands. “So demanding, my wife.”

“Dray,” I warn, deadly serious. Again, not that he cares.

“Me and Nan worked out our issues, I asked her to marry us, and she did. You’re wearing the ring, we are husband and wife,” he says, like it is that simple.

“You. Married. Us?” I ask slowly, making sure I heard him right.

“Yes, soulmate.” He grins up at me. “Isn’t it great?”

Fury wells up in me at him taking my choice away, the need to make him hurt rising with it, and he must see it in my eyes, because his darkens and he grips my ass harder.

Throwing the knife to the side before I kill the crazy bastard, I do the only thing I can think of to hurt him—I lean down and bite his neck, hard.

He thrusts up against me even as he yells, and I am ripped away, sent tumbling over the sands.

I roll with it and land in a crouch, glaring at him as he gets to his feet and prowls towards me, blood running down his neck from my bite, surrounded by clear teeth imprints.

I move back, circling each other. “That’s not a very nice way to treat your husband,” he teases and I scream as I jump at him.

He catches me mid-air as I smack into his chest and then he throws me to the ground, following me down and pinning me.

He yanks open my thighs and presses between them, letting me feel his hard cock as he rubs it across my pussy.

“That’s better,” he whispers, leaning down to kiss me.

I let him, relaxing like he’s won, and when he slips his tongue between my lips I bite down.

I can taste his blood as he groans into mouth, deepening the kiss, forcing me to taste him and the copper tang of his blood.

Jerking my mouth away, I turn my head to the side.

“Dray!” I shout, pissed.

He grabs my breast through my shirt, making me gasp as my anger melts with my lust until I need to move, I need to get it out of me.

I thrash, thrusting at him to get him off me as I wiggle away.

Flipping to my front, I crawl away, dragging myself until I can jump to my feet and turn to face him.

He watches me with a smirk, crouched on the ground, but gets to his feet again.

“Fine, get it all out, then I’ll fuck the rest out, but you are mine, soulmate. Always have been, always will be. This changes nothing except I wanted everyone to see, everyone to know.” He shrugs then, holding his arms open. “Give it your best shot, Champion.”

I hold up my hand and go to take the ring off but he snarls, his eyes flashing in warning.

“Take that ring off and I will tie you to a bed in this place and fuck you senseless. I don’t give a shit about your plan or needing to get your other men.

Try me, soulmate, I dare you,” he growls, his voice deadly, so I drop my hands and instead grab my whip.

Uncoiling the whip, I launch it through the air, and it wraps around his wrist. He laughs so I tighten it, and it cuts into his skin, but he just smirks.

Winding it tighter around his wrist, he uses it to reel me in until I stumble into his chest and have to let go of the whip as I pummel my fists into his chest.

“It’s my fucking choice! You don’t ever get to take my choice away!” I scream.

He growls then, grabbing my chin hard. “I would never take your choice away, I’m not one of those bastards who hurt you.

But you were never getting away from me, soulmate.

This? This marriage was for me, because I love you more than anything in this world.

I wanted you to know that I always have your back, and even now when you have lost your family, I will be it,” he snaps, forcing my eyes to his.

“Don’t you ever compare me to those bastards,” he growls, and I can tell he’s pissed as hell now.

He sweeps his leg out, knocking me to the sand, and pinning me with his body again.

I don’t even know why I’m fighting anymore, I’m not even pissed, I just needed to tell him he couldn’t take my choices from me.

Now? Now I want the fight that comes with an angry Dray, I want to take it out on his skin, so I keep fighting even when I shouldn’t. Because I never know when to stop.

He restrains me there, while I kick and buck as he kisses down my neck. “We were two fractured souls, just waiting and searching for each other, but now we are whole like we were meant to be.”

I still then, panting into the sand. He thinks I have stopped fighting, so he relaxes, his grip loosening, but he should know by now I never stop fighting.

I flip us and I am on him in a second. The fighting turns to lust as I bite at his lips, smashing his hands to the sand on either side of his head.

He throws me off him, growling as he jumps after me.

He grabs my arms and spins me into his chest, pinning my arms behind my back, and I stop fighting, looking into his eyes as he keeps me there, on the edge of pain as he hoists my arms up farther, forcing a gasp from my lips.

“Are you really that bothered or do you just like fighting me?” He smirks.