He shook his head. “I know that, and I know it may take you a lifetime to forgive me.” He dipped his head, his yellow eyes shadowed but glossy. “You may never forgive me, and that, my precious one, will break my heart, but I understand it.” He shook his head. “I know this is no excuse, but I was so fucking terrified of losing you, Rox. You and your sisters, you are everything to me. You were mine. My perfect creations. You were never meant to leave me. It should have been impossible, but I could feel you slipping away. Fate was taking you away from me, and I knew your sisters would follow, one by one. I felt it and I acted out of fear. I know I can’t take back what I did, but if you will allow me, I’d like to do one small thing toward making this right.”
“There’s nothing you can do,” I growled.
“Roxy’s mark,” Lucifer said. “I can take it away?—”
“The fuck? Don’t you fucking touch her?” I snarled. Roxy pressed her hand to my stomach when I took a step forward.
“You misunderstand me, brother,” Lucifer said. “I want to give you a clean slate, as it were. You will still be very much mated, but when you both look at the mark she’ll carry for eternity, it won’t be one made in fear and horror.”
Roxy looked up at me, her eyes wide. She wanted to do it, I could see she did. Her mark, our first mating was my greatest shame. But it was a shame I’d carry for the rest of eternity. I’d always see it, no matter what we did now. The females with mated marks wore them with pride, showing them off proudly. When a female had a mark like Roxy’s, one that showed how rough her male had been with her, others whispered under their breath, or outwardly showed their disgust. I deserved that, and I’d carry it, if she chose not to do this, but the decision had to be hers. “Whatever you want to do, kitten, it’s up to you.”
She chewed her lower lip. “I want to do it.” She lifted her hand, resting it over the mark she carried now. “This isn’t you, it isn’t us.”
My throat went dry, and somehow, when I thought it was impossible, Roxy made me fall even more in love with her than I already was. I turned to Lucifer. “If this is some kind of trick?—”
“No trick. On the lives of all those I love most, I promise you this is done in good faith, and hopefully a step forward, toward healing for all of us.”
Lucifer was sincere. He’d never make a promise like that otherwise. He’d also never usually allow me to disrespect him, question his motives and show full-on aggression. He loved Roxy, that was the truth, and I didn’t think he’d risk doing anything that would push her farther away than she already was. “Do it.”
He closed the space between us, and with a tender look in his eyes, he placed his hand over Roxy’s mark. A wave of power flowed from him like a gentle wave, then he lifted his hand.
“It’s done.” He took a step back, watching her carefully. “When you’re ready to see me again, I’ll be waiting,” he said, then he opened a gateway and was gone.
When Roxy turned back to me, there were tears in her eyes.
I swiped them away. “If it hurts too much to be parted from him...”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about him.” She squeezed my hand and led me to the door of my den. “Make me yours again, Lothar, please.”
I trembled as I led her into my den, but everything inside me eased as soon as I closed the door behind us. The beast rumbled with contentment in my chest as I backed her toward the bed. I slid my hand over the worn leather of the jacket she wore. It was far too big, but I’d recognized it as soon as I saw her in it. “You kept it,” I said. “After all this time?”
She slid it off and placed it on the chair beside us. “It was all I had left of you.”
I groaned, my heart unable to take it, what we’d missed out on. So much fucking lost time. I needed her right then in a way that was impossible to articulate. I knew what I needed, what she needed in that moment. “I want you on your hands and knees, Roxy. Will you do that for me?”
Her lips curled up and she nodded.
“That’s how it should be done,” I said roughly. “When I mark you this time, I want to do it covering your body with mine. I want to feel your back arch against my chest and stomach, and your ass cushioning my hips as your pussy clamps down on my knot.”
A soft whimper fell from her lips, then she ran at me, leaping up and wrapping her strong, little body around me. Her soft, perfect mouth came down on mine. Groaning, I gripped her ass with one hand and the back of her head with the other, kissing her, tasting, licking, devouring her.
Striding to the bed, I lowered her to the mattress, coming down on top of her.
Utterly without finesse, I clutched her to me, unable to get her close enough. This mating was centuries in the making. Finally, I would claim my mate the way we were meant to so fucking long ago.
We tore at each other’s clothes until we were both naked, our hot flesh pressed against each other. I couldn’t get enough of her—the texture of her silky skin, of the satin of her thick, black hair. I kissed her jaw, her throat, sliding my hand over her smooth flesh, squeezing her waist and ass, her supple thigh.
I ached for her so fucking badly. “I need you, kitten,” I groaned. “Please, tell me you want this, tell me how much you want me.” I needed to hear it. I’d hurt her, more than once, in the worst ways, and I couldn’t fucking bear it. It was selfish of me, asking her to put my heart and mind at ease when she was the one who had suffered, but I needed that from her so badly.
She held my face in her hands. “I have never wanted anything more in my life, Lothar,” she rasped. “You’re all I want, all I’ll ever need.” She swiped her thumb over my cheek, smoothing her hand over my beard. “We have to put the past behind us, okay? No more looking back. We hurt each other, Loth. It went both ways. We have to start here, now. Today. Promise me, you’ll try to do that?”
I nodded, even though I wasn’t sure how I would get past the shit I’d done, but I would try, for her. For her, I’d do anything.
She smiled up at me, and it was soft and sweet and sexy as fuck. “Now, make me yours. Mark me.”
I lifted a little, giving her room, and she flipped to her stomach. My cock was hot iron, fucking throbbing as she lifted to her hands and knees. I slid my palm down her smooth back, over her perfect ass, and back up to grip her shoulder, where my beast’s mark had once been. She arched, lifting her ass higher and giving me a prefect view of her pussy, pink and smooth, and wet as fuck.
“You look so fucking beautiful like this, Rox.” She made a needy little sound, and I gripped myself and, shaking like hell, pressed the head of my cock to her pussy. I groaned just from the heat of her, then I tilted my hips and eased the head inside her. My fucking thighs trembled harder. Roxy undid me. She owned me, in every way, and finally making her mine like this was almost too much.
