Page 102 of How Does It Feel?

“Then so are you,” I stated without feeling a thing. All my feelings were held underneath the smoke of my wings by a tiny human form.

“She is a human! You don’t even know her. You have brought a war to your people killing Prince Langmore,” the queen seethed. “One fuck, and you’ll be tired of her if you don’t kill her in the process,” the queen snarled. “You will not marry her, so help me.”

Callie’s body tensed against me with the queen’s words. It sent a rage through me that I couldn’t explain. I shifted my wings, making sure the smoke thickly shielded my love, and placed her protectively behind me. Her small hands bunched the fabric of my shirt as the smoke pulled her tighter against me.

“Still your tongue before I do it for you,” I rumbled, barely controlled. Mother’s eyes repositioned, seeing my seriousness. She took a step back, knowing I held no bluffs in my arsenal. “The next time you speak about my future wife in that tone, it will be your last. Mother or not.”

The queen’s eyes darkened. “She dies in the trial tomorrow. I will not stand by and watch you muddy our blood with a human. The same humans that ruined your father! The plan was to bond to her so that you could ascend the throne and kill her. Stop thinking with your dick and end her. You think she will stay with you? She will betray you the second she gets the opportunity. It’s what humans do!” she snarled. “Callie, my deal still holds. If you complete the trial, I will return you to the human realm unharmed. You can die with your friends there once we take over.” She smiled at the look on Callie’s startled face.

I shadowed in front of the queen before she had a chance to blink. Power pulsed from me like a fucking storm.

She was my mother, which is exactly why it was so foolish for her to push me. She knew that I would end her—just as I did my father—should she get in my way.

She may be smart enough to be frightened of me, but she was still the Unseelie queen and smart enough to know that my darkness had bled from her.

A wicked smile tugged at her cruel lips.

“The entire realm will watch tomorrow as your human either dies in front of you at the gridiron or turns her back to you and runs away into her world.” Her smile deepened. “Then you will finish the plan and descend upon the human realm. You will kill the rest of her disgusting kind, and the Unseelie Fae will take their rightful place, owning both sides of the veil. The Seelie don’t stand a chance.” The pale woman beamed. Her dark hair glinted off the hall lights like a pool of black poison.

I thrust my hand out to grab her throat and crush it.

She shadowed away before I had the chance to collapse her windpipe. I could have easily followed her, but the thought of killing my mother and leaving my hellhound alone was unappetizing, to say the least.

I shadowed behind Callie and grabbed her hand, pulling her toward our room.

“Come, you need to rest before tomorrow. Bathe and pick which side of our bed your body prefers. I will explain what the gridiron of fates is.”

After drawing her a hot bath and making certain she was safe and healed, I pushed a little magic into the bond to speed her healing as much as possible. I laid my softest tunic on the bed for her to sleep in and pulled the best men I had to guard Callie’s room while I went in search of the information that I needed.

I hadn’t even left the room before I wished I was with her.

Chapter 28

Succumb

Callie

I sank my body deeper into the now tepid bath and waged an internal debate between letting myself relax or sinking below the surface and drowning. For a few seconds, the latter seemed like my best option and the only thing that would bring me relief from the pits of hell I seemed destined to constantly put myself in.

The water splashed up the porcelain tub and onto the dark marble floor with a slosh as I scrubbed my pink-tinged body for the third time.

I should be so disgusted by what happened in the hallway. The way his hands skimmed my skin and commanded every single need and desire into the goose bumps of my flesh before he made them erupt with tingles. The thought of his large palms skimming my body as if I were a map with a hidden treasure mark made me clench my thighs together.

I shivered and began to scrub my tender skin harder. The spicy, sensual scent of the soap only reminded me of him.

I scraped and scrubbed to the point of panic.

Not because I was upset that I had let him touch my body or clawed for him like a feral animal.

But because he had stopped and my mind would not allow me to think of anything other than how hard his length had felt nestled against me. How close I was to having that ache sated. How I had caused that. Only a thin piece of fabric had separated us from joining.

I hissed. My skin felt as if it were being scrubbed from the bone.

The way his pale blue eyes looked when I had been unable to stifle back a moan.

He was crazy. An evil, psychopathic villain.

But when he kissed me, it was like the entire world melted away—like everything was right for just once. Like when you step into your home after you’ve been gone a long time. The second the smell of home and comfort hits you, the tension in your body withers away. The feel of belonging and comfort cloak you like a warm blanket.