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“Take a wild guess,” he drawled, as if we didn’t hold thirteen – now twelve lives in our hands.
A slow smile spread across my face as I realized what they were meant to do. “Well, then, I’ll definitely be needing an assistant.”
Ruslan kept his steps light, hiding his approach from the male on the far end, the one I hadn’t carved up quite as much as the others. Shock turned into a muffled scream as Ruslan dragged him to his feet, his empty eye sockets looking toward the endless ceiling above as his head was yanked back. Snapping the clawed instrument open and shut, I descended on the standing male, soaking in the pleasure of knowing the others were on edge, unable to see what was happening around them.
I circled to the male’s ear, standing on my tiptoes so I could whisper in it. “I killed one of your comrades that came after me by cutting off his dick and balls. I wonder how long you’ll last before you bleed out?” I ripped his gag away as I stepped back, wanting the full effect of his scream as I clamped the sharp ridges around his balls and ripped.
The shriek that left his lips remained in this world long after he did, the acoustics of the room giving it life as it bounced from stone to stone and out the mouth of the cave, wrenched awayby the night wind. His listless body crumpled to the ground as Ruslan released his hair, and the eleven living males sobbed, shook, and shouted as we coordinated our next target. The first victim of my back painting was looking paler by the moment as his blood mixed with that of the others on the floor, and I jerked my head in his direction, signaling Ruslan to drag him to his feet.
He barely had the strength or awareness to fight back as I clamped and ripped, and his death was much less satisfying than the previous one. When he crumpled into a lifeless heap at my feet, I saw just how deep the river of ruby had gotten. “I think I’ll need some new shoes after this,” I sighed as if my greatest concern was my fashion choices and these predatory males were nothing more than toys for me.
“I am, in fact, King of the Iron Realm, so I think I can make that happen.” Ruslan smirked, snatching my wrist and yanking me to him. His tunic was soaked in blood, as was mine, and yet I couldn’t help the wave of desire that rose within me. I tipped my head back, exposing my throat to Ruslan, and he growled, diving in for that place on my neck where I loved to be kissed.
The groan that escaped me resounded around the cave, drowning out the whimpering in the background. “Perhaps we should leave our clothes here on our way out.”
His teeth skimmed the sensitive place just below my ear. “I think that is a good plan.”
“Then we’d better get to work,” I breathed, and he nipped my ear.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to take these last kills for myself. After all, what kind of male would I be if I didn’t deliver the utmost pain to someone who dared lay a hand on my mate?”
“Not the kind I would want,” I murmured, yanking his mouth to mine for a biting kiss before pushing him toward the waiting guards. “Now show me how much you love me, Ruslan.”
Those smoky eyes turned animalistic and rapacious as he was granted an opportunity to unleash the darkest parts of himself. The most fucked up parts of him were not so different than my own, and that was what I loved most about him, about us – that we understood one another in a way others could not.
Pain was the way he expressed himself when words failed him. Choice was the way I controlled my life. Fate was what bound us together, with an unbreakable thread that kept me in his orbit despite my immediate hatred of him. Love was born from our understanding of each other’s darkness, what we needed to move through this world in a way that made us feel safe and in control.
Ruslan selected a cleaving knife from the roll of metal instruments, chopping off fingers and ears and toes, sometimes ripping away a gag before a particularly nasty blow, dragging out the deaths of those who hurt me while amping up the psychological torture. All the while, I watched him work, watched his brutality, and I did not flinch. He finished each of them off by ripping away their cocks and balls, just as I had, and cursing them as they died for touching his mate.
The silence was deafening when the last one fell.
But in that silence was a peace I didn't know I could find; the sessions I’d completed with Zuriel could not compare to the heady feeling coursing through my veins. My body hummed from head to toe, buzzing with an electric energy that begged to be freed.
Never again would those males harm me; I had retaken every ounce of power they stripped from me, and I feltfucking amazing.
Ruslan broke the silence when he dropped his tools, the metal hitting stone with a satisfying ring that sang of finality. In three strides, he wrapped me in his arms, blood smearing all around us as we raced to rip our clothes off.
“That was the hottest fucking thing I’ve ever seen you do, sprite, and I need to be inside you. Now,” he growled as he ripped my tunic away with one hard yank.
“Fuck me hard, Ruslan. I want to come all over your cock to thank you for what you did for me.” The words came out breathy, wanton, and I didn’t care how needy I sounded, I just wantedhim.
“Fuck…” he groaned, burying his lips in my neck and grinding his hips into me. Backing us out of the pool of blood, Ruslan steered us until we were among the hundreds of candles he’d placed in the cave prior to my arrival. Using only my feet, I kicked one boot off, then the other, Ruslan mimicking my actions and then stripping us both of our pants. Half the white flames surrounding us changed to black as he laid back on the bare floor, pulling me on top of him, flush with his hardness. “Ride me,” he commanded, and I gripped his dick with one hand and positioned myself over him, sinking down with a delightful hiss as he stretched out my inner walls.
I was so fucking full of his cock, and looking down on him, I felt like a fucking queen. His pupils were nearly black from lust, and his hands gripped my hips and dragged me down deeper, eliciting a moan. The tattoos on his chest blended with the blood still coating us, making his already sinister-looking torso that much wickeder. I ran my hands across the hard planes of his shoulders and arms as I began to ride him, finding a rhythm that dragged me all the way off before dropping down again, and he cursed low as I worked him harder and faster.
Within moments, I was close to coming, my thighs soaked from watching him work and our earlier encounter in the lift. Ruslan would do anything for me – torture, kill, burn. There was nothing I could ask of him that he wouldn’t do or wouldn’t give, and instead of binding me to him through force, he had given methe space I needed to work out my feelings, even though it sent his anxiety over the edge to do so.
And Kazimir could barely go five minutes without insisting I owed him in some way or insinuating that he owned me.
The cacophony of our heavy breathing and slapping skin filled the cave where I had been chained, and as my walls began to flutter, I ground myself deeper onto Ruslan’s cock. “That’s it, sprite, come for me.”
The most intense orgasm of my life speared through me, shattering everything I thought I knew and replacing it with a high that rivaled the peak of Vasvain. “I love you, Ruslan. You are my mate. My one and only. I choose you.”
The roar that Ruslan released shook the cave with its ferocity, sending stones skittering and the firelights flickering. His hips pistoned into mine, and his hot cum filled me as he snarled. “I love you, Izidora. You are my mate. The fire in our souls belongs together, in this life and in all the rest.”
And with those spoken words, we were joined in every way. Pain seared the skin between my shoulder blades, causing my back to arch forward. A strangled cry ripped from me, and then I was coming again, the pleasure of Ruslan throbbing inside me mixing with the sharp sting on my back. I panted through the wave of release, sweat dripping from me and onto my mate as our bond settled into place.
It was unlike anything I’d ever imagined, anything I’d experienced before. I thought I loved Ruslan five minutes before, but compared to what I felt as the bond settled in place, it was infinitesimally small. This feeling was infinite, pure, true, unconditional, and Iradiatedfor the depths of it. No words could accurately paint the picture of this blissful feeling, but I found none were necessary between Ruslan and me – not anymore. Not when his heart beat for me, and mine for him.
