I have so many burning questions, but from the tattoos on his face and body, I know that he cannot betray Mace, can’t plot against him, or lie.
“My father worked so hard to make sure you wouldn’t rise up against him,” I muse, tracing an old sigil for ‘obey’. “He knows you’re more powerful than him.”
Ghoul doesn’t smirk at this. It’s knowledge he’s had for a long time.
“What were you doing with Raquel?” I ask.
“It’s a funny story actually,” he drawls. “I knew they are sworn to Scythe so I stole them away, thinking I could use them for one thing or another. But when I arrived here, the Silver Tail pack recognised them as their Regus so I had to turn Raquel over.”
“The Silver Tails,” I say, frowning down at him. “They’re a nasty, feral lot aren’t they?” I sigh. “So naturally my father is working with them. I hope Raquel has been okay.”
Ghoul’s laser bore into me. “Central mates are born to take charge of their pack.” His thumbs rub circles in my thighs. “It’s a heavy responsibility.”
I can’t deny that. “But that only means the rewards are greater.”
Ghoul does not reply, and it hammers home the realisation: he doesn’t think we can ever resolve this. He doesn’t think he can ever be free.
I’m not so sure of this either.
For the rest of our time together, we sleep in each other’s arms, talking very little, sometimes only looking. Ghoul holds me like he’s waited a lifetime for it. Like he never wants to let me go. Because we both know what comes on the third day: he will likely never hold me again.
I can feel when the lock ends. It’s a loosening. It’s a deep sigh at the edge of all things. Sleeping on Ghoul’s chest, I listen to him as I have this whole time. His heart dances solidly beneath my ear, and I focus on it, forcing it to go slower.
He fights it at first, a sudden hiss erupting from his mouth. But I lift my head to look up at that face, so new to me, yet already so familiar. My vision blurs, and I squeeze my fifth mate’s heart under significant power. His body goes rigid with awareness, his eyes holding mine with the knowledge between us.
That because of his multiple blood oaths, I can’t trust him.
That he has been ordered to kill me.
“Give me one last taste, snakelet,” he whispers. “Your venom.”
His eyes flutter and droop under my hold, but I force my fangs out and angle my mouth over his. Venom drips onto his tongue, and he swallows it gratefully as his heart slows even further.
“Thank you,” I whisper. “For what you did for me when I was alone. The food. Everything.”
His breath heaves. “You need to break my legs,” he pants, his lungs trying to compensate for the lack of oxygen.
“No,” I say softly.
“You need to maim me in a way that will make it impossible for me to follow for a few days.” I don’t want to hurt him in the same place my father’s generals hurt him as a boy. “Do it, Aurelia,” he grunts.
I clench my jaw before I strike, my fangs slicing through his throat and pumping him full of the venom that is unique to me. I dose him more than I did that first time—doubling then tripling it. His slow heart will make for slower processing speed.
“Not enough,”he whispers into my mind.“I’ll heal, snakelet.”
I think fast, my heart racing, the regina in me protesting against my chest. Tears fall down my cheeks as I shift my hand into a claw.“I don’t want to do it.”
“I know,”comes the reply.I will have you wild, with your fangs out or not at all.He’d meant what he’d said.
For the first time in three days, I lift myself off Ghoul, freeing his cock. It’s still hard and wet when I come off him, the hemipenis aspect shrinking to allow me release. But the large, engorged head is still swollen, still beautiful. Despite everything, I miss it immediately.
But there is a time to mourn, and this is not it.
I grab his right foot and slice through his Achilles tendon, then do the same with his left. I grab Ghoul’s paralysed head and summon my telekinetic power. My vision is gone to tears, my heart bled dry. But I know he’s looking up at me as I crack his skull just enough to give us all time.
I leave my bungalow without looking back, because I just know if I do, I won’t be able to walk away. I leave him there on my purple coverlet. Injured. Alone.
“Regina?”I almost cry hearing Scythe’s voice in my mind.
