My body refuses to defy him, to fight, and I whimper, limp in his grasp. “Because I’m mated to a man.”
His grip on my hair tightens, and he jerks my head to the side, revealing the scar of Sin’s bite. “Disgusting.” He spits, shaking my head in a fit of rage. “You let a man mark you. You couldn’t even do this right. Apologize,” he demands.
“I apologize,” I immediately obey, losing the fight to keep my tears at bay. I’m not sorry. I will never be sorry for who I am, no matter what he makes me do.
“That isn’t the bite of one of our people,” he scoffs. “You’ll never be happy. You’ll never be truly mated. This will end because your new mate will never understand you. Obviously I’m not going to push you out, Phineas.” He releases his grip on my hair, but the smile on his face and the gleam in his eyes is cruel. “I forbid you from leaving the clan. This house is yours, and you will maintain it. Wherever you sleep, this is your home. You will be at every clan event, and from this day forward, you will be the teacher of our history to our children.”
I swallow hard, blinking back tears. I’ll have to quit my job. His order effectively traps me in poverty unless I figure out a way to earn income around my duties to the clan, and I’ll have to somehow figure out how to explain my inability to work to my mates.
He bends in close, whispering the next words. “Everyone will see what misery it is to mate outside of our people when they see you, and no one will ever defy me the way you have ever again.”
The sharp pain of his foot to my stomach catches me completely off guard. I should have known he wouldn’t let me off with just new duties.
Chapter 11
Present Day
Sin
My phone vibrates on the coffee table that I’m sitting at cross-legged on the floor, finishing the last touches on my thesis. Honestly, it’s done, and all I have to do is send it in, but it’s difficult to release it considering how much time, research, and anxiety I’ve put into it. I’m confident that it’s the best effort I can offer, and I’m certain the effort is enough to earn the degree that I’ve spent the last three years pursuing, but nerves stop me from hitting the send button on the draft email that would take it out of my control and put it into the hands of the panel that will decide if I’m worthy of my degree. I am. Probably. And even if I’m not, I have a promising career already started in translation work, and I made it to the top three candidates for the last job I interviewed for.
The table vibrates again, reminding me of the message that came through, immediately vibrating again and three more times in quick succession. I reach for it and a hand falls on myshoulder, startling the shit out of me. Yelping, I turn, and my heart leaps into my throat at the sight of Gael sitting on the arm of the couch behind me. I haven’t heard from him since I called him that first night with Phin.
My voice fails me, and I scramble up, tackling him. I hit his chest, and he rolls with the force of the impact. We bounce to the floor with me over him, clinging to him because I haven’t seen him in a month and as viscerally as I’ve felt his absence, his presence stands in stark contrast to the void he left behind, and I’m filled with an ache of longing so poignant that tears spring to my eyes. I bury my face in his neck, comforted by the strength of his arms as he holds me tight.
A sob breaks out of my chest, and Gael squeezes me tighter. He says nothing as the fear and anguish he left in his absence comes out of me in silent jerks. I don’t know how I didn’t realize how much I missed him, but he lets me weep on him until I’ve released it all onto his shirt. When I finally pull away, he rubs my back, looking up at me with those watery blue eyes. They’re ringed with dark circles and his cheeks have sunken in as if he hasn’t eaten a proper meal in all the time that he was gone. The lips that are always plump and pink, moistened by the tip of his tongue, don’t smile up at me and shouldn’t, because that smile that I live for would crack the dry, chapped skin.
I jerk up, sitting on Gael as I take in the sight of his malnourished, unhealthy body. “What happened?” I demand, jerking his shirt up to find his chest sunken in, and the muscles that have matched mine since we were teens gone as if his body is eating itself. As if he’s starving himself. “What the hell happened to you?” I demand, swinging from the anguish of missing him to anger at how he’s treated himself.
Gael’s ridiculously bony wrist stands out as he grabs my wrist. “I missed you,” he says, and his voice sounds like he’s been eating glass.
“Gael, why are you starving?” I demand, cupping his jaw and running my finger through the hollow of what is supposed to be cherry apple cheeks. “Have you eaten anything since you left?”
He huffs, smiling up at me. “Nothing of nutritional value. Will you feed me?”
“Obviously,” I snort, moving to get up, but Gael tightens his grip on me, stopping me from rolling off him.
He releases my wrist when I pause, wrapping his arms around my neck and pulling me down. “This is what I need,” he laughs as he guides my face down to his. “Kiss me, Sin.”
His order sparks under my skin and a tingle of arousal starts low in my balls and works its way up my back, spreading goosebumps all over me. “Me?” I rasp, shocked but not unwilling.
“Yes. Kiss me,” he repeats, eyes smiling up at me as if I’m the one thing he needs more than anything else.
I would never deny him anything.
Tentatively, I lower my lips to his, pressing our mouths together. It’s a first kiss, slow and hesitant, but even the rough texture of his skin doesn’t detract from the immediate swell of yearning for this kiss as if I should have been doing this since I learned what kissing was, as if I’ve missed out on a decade of a connection I should have had.
A moan slips out between us as Gael opens his lips and I slip my tongue into his mouth, tasting him, insatiable for him. “Oh fuck,” I groan, breaking away for just a moment before diving back in.
Gael rolls us, getting on top of me and kicking my legs apart. He kisses with the vigor of a starving man and presses the hard line of his cock against mine, grinding against me. The pressure and friction feel amazing, and I spread my legs to cradle his body, reaching between us to open his pants. He breaks away long enough to help, and in a few too-long seconds, he wrapsour cocks together in his hand. He thrusts into his hand, sliding against my cock, sending a wave of pure pleasure cascading over me.
He leans back down, capturing my lips again, drawing my tongue back into his mouth. I worm a hand into his pants behind him, getting a grip on his ass and encouraging his thrusts as I grab his hair with my other hand, threading my fingers through those silky strands and tugging. He moans into my mouth, and the rhythm of his thrusts stutters. His hand tightens around us, and the tension of anticipation in my balls suddenly erupts. My orgasm shoots through me, carrying me into a deep abyss of blinding pleasure.
Gael’s outcry pulls me into a space full of joy, reminding me of every orgasm we’ve ever shared, and I pull him back down, kissing the hell out of him. I roll us back over, grinding our spent cocks together until the pleasure becomes too uncomfortable to continue. I kiss him again, pecking softened lips before pulling back and smiling, surprised at how right it is for us to have shared another orgasm without the barrier of a third.
“I love you,” I remind him, studying his reaction in case this wasn’t the right time to say those words to him.
His Christmas morning smile breaks across his lips and he rolls us again, landing on top of me and falling into another kiss. Joy fills me at his reaction. Somehow my cock perks up again, as if I’ve caught Phin’s refractory period like a strange STI, and I push up into Gael, rubbing myself on the bare skin exposed down there until my chubby hardens fully.
