Finally we agree on something. Idodeserve to choose whatever happens to me from here moving forward, and I’ll take my chances with what’s outside this castle. Tarek said I was free. I’m not going to give him a chance to take it back. The stars know my odds of surviving outside of these walls are probably better than what could happen to me if I give in to the Scorpions’ overtures. I have no doubt that each and every one of them is laced with poison.
I don’t turn around to see what I expect is the big leader with the snowflake-blue eyes ordering the other two Scorpions back. I offer them no consideration as I walk out the door and into a world I know nothing about. As the latch clicks closed behind me and I take my first steps away from the castle, I yearn for them to feel as wronged and defeated as I felt that horrific night when they abandoned me to fate’s cruel clutches. I curse them to spend as much time as I have suffering for all of it.
ChapterTwenty-Two
CURIO
“What the fuck, Tarek?” I snarl, shoving his hand from my chest as he tries to moor me in place.
All too quickly, Auset disappears beyond the window in the door, and the need to stomp after her and drag her back here is overwhelming. I knew I was drawn to her that first night of the Bidding. I didn’t understand the pull, so I dismissed it, but something solidified in my chest for her the night she almost died. Now she wants to walk out of here, possessing pieces of me she doesn’t even know she has, and I can’t allow it.
I’m not a soft male. I can be impertinent as fuck when I feel like it, but more often than not, I’m happy to fall back and astutely observe. I was born for a hard life. I’ve never shied away from backbreaking work or hesitated to do whatever needed to be done to survive. Auset thinks we’re immune to these hard lessons, but she has no idea what the three of us have traversed to get where we are today. I thought she would listen, that she would want to understand why we brought her here, but she’s more stubborn than I anticipated. I’m hard as fuck because of it, but she can’t leave, we just found her.
I move around Tarek, intent on the door, but he steps in my way again.
“You’re my brother and I don’t want to hurt you, but she’s my mate. If you don’t move, I will fuck you up,” I warn.
“I’ll help,” Riall announces from behind me.
Tarek lets loose an exasperated exhale. “You need to trust me,” he states evenly, like Auset walking out isn’t fucking with him too.
I know it is, he’s just better at hiding it. There’s a tightness around his eyes, a subtle clenching and unclenching of his jaw, and the racing pulse in his neck all give him away.
“I do trust you, but even you aren’t infallible,” I remind him as I frustratedly shove my fingers through my hair and pull at the roots until the small bite of pain serves to calm me. “Letting her go is a mistake. She’s ours! She belongs with us!”
“I know that. We all know that, but we need to be patient whilesherealizes it,” he counters.
Riall scoffs and Tarek scowls at him. Patient is the last thing Riall will ever be.
“Why didn’t you just tell her she was our mate?” he snaps at Tarek.
“Do you really think she wants to hear that right now?” he snips back. “You heard her, theownedpart of all of this is what she objects to. She doesn’t want to be trapped or tethered to anything right now, and can you blame her?” he demands, gesturing out the door as everything we want starts to slip further and further with each step she takes away from us. “She probably has no concept of what a mate is or how that connection works. She’ll see it as nothing more than fetters right now. Yes, she belongswithus, but she doesn’t want to belongtous yet. That’s an important difference to her. If we don’t honor that now, we’ll never have her the way we want, not truly,” Tarek argues.
“So, what, we just sit here and wait? Twiddle our thumbs and watch the door, hoping someday she walks back through it?” I demand, misery already clouding the thought of giving up that easily.
A smile breaks across Tarek’s face, and an all too familiar cunning gleam illuminates his light blue eyes. I should know better than to doubt that he has a plan, but I want to punch it out of him right this minute. Smug prick. He relaxes back against the table and crosses his arms.
“Did you not see the state of her when she left?” he asks.
My brow furrows and I think past the trepidation hammering in my chest and try to follow his meaning. Riall considers his question for a moment too, and then out of nowhere he starts to laugh, patting Tarek hard on the back twice. Clearly, he’s arrived at the answer far faster than me. It’s not surprising. I’m struggling to think past all the lurid graphic thoughts I’ve been grappling with since I walked into the kitchen and saw Auset in my togs. I groan at the images that once again push to the forefront of my thoughts, unsure if I possess them or if they possess me.
The neck of my tunic kept falling off her strong shoulders and flashing her golden skin in the most delicious way. It was as though the fabric knew who its true owner was and was giving me peeks of exactly what I needed. Eacon said she brought Auset some clothes, so I don’t know why she’s wearing mine, but I like it. From the waist down, she was wrapped in the tight rinds we put on under our armor when we hunt. I’ve never been more grateful for the clinging fabric that leaves nothing to the imagination.
Every curve of the muscles in her calves and thighs was on full display, as was her round, firm ass. The seam between her thighs was a cruel taunt, and that was before Riall pinned her against the wall and I watched her struggle with how much she liked it. Everything in me was begging for him to bite her. I wanted him to send her into a haze of need more than I wanted my next breath.
I could see exactly how it would all play out. He would sink his fangs in her shoulder and then bury his cock deep in her dripping pussy. Tarek and I would watch, the carnal images and sounds fueling our own mindless hunger. I’d steal her before Riall could finish. He breached her first, which means he can be the last to mark her with his seed. I’d lay her out on the table. Lick and suckle every inch of her until she was begging me to pound into her deep and hard. I’d bury my face in her cunt for so long there’d be a puddle of desire beneath us by the time I came up for air. Our Moonling would writhe and plead and scream my name as I thrust into her and showed her just what it would mean to be one of us, what it would mean to be our mate. We’d prepare that tight weapon of a body to take the three of us all at the same time, and we’d claim her over and over again until not only she but the kitchen was dripping with all of us. Then we’d mark every inch of this castle exactly the same way.
I run my fingers through my long hair, frustrated and still searching for what Tarek wants me to find. When Auset pushed Riall away, I knew she was close to accepting us but not quite ready. We’d have to take things slow, make our intentions clear, but wait for her to come to us. Just as Tarek has always taken charge, I sense a similar need to control in her. That drive doesn’t fuel her every move like it does his, but when it comes to opening up, ithasto be on her terms. I’m more than happy to wait for her to need me the way I need her, but how will that happen if she’s not even here?
Anxious anger shoves out all rational thought. She walked out of here completely unprepared for the wilderness all around us. She has no supplies, no idea where she is, and I suspect not the slightest clue where to go. She survived the ludere, but can she survive the wilds of the realms? Something could happen to her. Someone could take her and show her that Tilleo is the least of the monsters lurking in the realms. We’re just standing here…
Understanding kicks me in the gut, and my eyes flash to Tarek’s knowing stare.
“She has no supplies. She’s not even wearing boots,” I announce, finally crossing his bridge of thought.
“How far can she truly get?” he agrees, solidifying the picture even more. “We want her, and she wants freedom. So she’ll have it. Our mate is smart, she’s cunning and calculating, and she’ll realize soon enough that she’s not thought this through. That there’s a better way for her to get what she wants.”
His statement sparks an ember of hope. Auset is all of those things, but she’s also headstrong. Her sharp tongue and unwillingness to bend call to me. She knows her mind, and it’s a mind I want to know too. She’s unlike anything I’ve ever come across, and I want to unwrap her secrets and thoughts layer by layer until I’m as deep in her as I can be.
