“When the fae queen started seeing Randall, she thought no one knew. Nico and I started following her to the Earth realm and learned of her affair with the vampire king. We knew she was going to flee Farrarie, so I was tasked to follow her and guard her by Nico—she was his intended bride, after all. Neither of them wanted the marriage, for they never loved each other; they were only to wed for the purpose of merging both the kingdoms together. I followed the queen to your realm and guarded her until I was ambushed by a group of vampires one night and nearly killed. I didn’t know at the time that the queen had begged Randall to save me, as she and I had become close friends in the time we were in the Earth realm. Randall did as she asked, thinking I would not survive the change, but to his utter dismay, I did. The reason I can walk in the daylight is that I was turned with fae blood in my system, and after Randall learned this, he would feed on the queen and
“Well, that explains why they were super uptight about the whole thing,” Alex said with a chuckle. Jax and Kai shot him a death glare.“Shut up, Alex. Why did you both come here, then, if you knew we were bound to see Nico?” I asked.“Because I would follow you through the fires of hell, mi amor. I wanted to protect you. I thought Nico would punish you to hurt me,” he said with a sigh and looked at the floor.I knelt down in front of him and placed my hands on either side of his face and lifted it so he could look me in the eyes. I didn’t miss the growl that came from Jackson, or the snickers coming from the other four males in the room, but I chose to ignore them and focus on the broken man in front of me.“Thank you for wanting to protect me, even if it meant fighting your brothers. I now understand why you did what you did when I was younger. You
“It all makes sense now; Kai couldn’t come back after the queen died. He stayed with Randall so he could try and protect your sister. You sent your best friend into the lion’s den to try to infiltrate Randall’s enforcers, which he did. What you didn’t expect was how far said bestie would go to protect the queen and then your sister. You have not retaliated to Cane’s threats for fear of him hurting your sister. Kai followed us here with an agenda of his own, didn’t you, Kai—you needed the king to think you came to Farrarie for me and not to tell Nico what you had learned,” I said breathlessly.I knew I was right; I could feel it in my bones. Dom started clapping beside me, and I turned to see the biggest smile on his face.“They seriously do not deserve you. I swear you are smarter than what anyone gives you credit for.” Dom had such awe in his voice as he spoke. Wait&mda
“Tell her, Dom,” Nico ordered with a sigh.“You may be king, brother, but you are not my king, so watch the way you speak to me! If your sister does not surrender, Ryan, we will have to take out the threat by any means necessary.” Dom cast his eyes downward, clearly anticipating my unhappiness.My blood started to boil, and my hands started to glow blue. Alex and Chase jumped back, and before I knew what I was doing, I raised my hands at the four men in front of me and blasted the whole lot of them across the room. Nico crashed into the far wall, and Dom smacked into the door and then crashed to the ground with a groan. Jackson was blasted through the nearest window, and Melakai hit the book shelf and collapsed the shelves, sending books cascading down on his slumped body.“Holy fuck, Ry! You just smashed the shit out of them without even trying,” Chase said with
“All of you can kiss my ass! I don’t need a babysitter in my room, and do not ever talk about me like I can’t make my own choices. I am a grown-ass woman, and no one will ever take away my freedom to choose what I want again! Do I make myself crystal fucking clear?” I was seething, and I know I went over the top, but I couldn’t hold back. Control was my trigger button.“Oh, Ry, I’m sorry. I never meant to upset you, I promise.” I could see Alex meant every word he said when he looked at me; he was never a good liar—his eyes always gave him away.“The only reason we want to have someone in the room with you tonight is that we’re worried about your safety. Your sister or Randall could ambush you, and it would just give us peace of mind if someone was here to watch out for you. Please consider it.” I never thought about it like that, and deep down, I
“Oh and let’s not forget about the whole marriage thing.”“Wait, what marriage thing?” I asked.“Well, Stevie wanted to rule overall, so she thought that if she could get your dad to pass the crown onto her after he took out Jackson and Randall, she could then approach the fae king and offer an alliance through marriage.” I was boiling now, and I could feel my magic rising. How dare she think that she could go and marry my Nico!“What the fuck do you mean, my Nico?” barked Chase. Oops. With a sigh, I began to explain how I knew Nico.“You know how Melakai came to me in my dreams?” They both gave me a nod, so I continued.“Well Nico use to come to me in my dreams, as well; that’s why I knew who he was when we went to Farrarie.”“Wai
“Ahhhh, Jessica but he isn’t alone love. He has me and two warlocks, as well as the strongest, being alive on his side.” God bless Dom and his power to just appear anywhere; he was standing right beside Kai.I straightened and stood on Kai’s other side with my head held high, looking her dead in the eyes, daring her to make a move against us. If she had the power to kill someone just by looking at them, I would be dead. Chase stepped up beside me and Alex stood beside his brother, the five of us against all of them. I didn’t like our odds, but I knew we would all go down swinging.“Don’t make me laugh, half-breed! Do you think that bitch standing there is the most powerful thing in the world? Give me five minutes with her! I bet my life I would kill her in the first thirty seconds.” A few people started laughing with her, and I felt my magic rise with my anger.
I sat down on the grassy bank, buried my face in my hands, and cried. I was crying for the shit mother I’d had, and my crappy childhood; for my dad dying before I ever got a chance to get to know him. For the sister I just got back and then lost again. It seemed like there was always someone who wanted to hurt me, from my mom, to my sister, then Randall, and now the wolves.I just couldn’t understand how I could be so disposable to everyone. I was sobbing so loud I didn’t realize people had arrived until one of them put a hand on my shoulder. I didn’t know who it was, and I didn’t care. Let them kill me and allow me to be done with all this. I just kept my head buried in my hands and continued sobbing.Strong arms came around me and lifted me up. I moved my hands away from my face and saw that it was Jackson that had come for me. He didn’t say anything, he just sat down and held me in his lap while I cried. His big, war
I appreciated Jax so much at this moment for turning the attention away from me that I walked right up to Jax and gave him a hug. I felt him tense for a second then relax, and he circled his arms around my waist and buried his head in the crook of my neck.I could hear Dom mumbling about Jax being a suck-up, but that’s not what stopped our hug—it was Kai. Kai pulled Jax away from the back of his shirt with enough force to throw him on the ground. I was shocked by his display of anger. I could feel the jealousy rolling off him in waves.“Unless you want me to put his fucking head through a tree, I would restrain from touching him again.” Jax was on his feet and furious.“You ever fucking touch me like that again, you blood-sucking leech, and I will tear your fucking heart out. Well, what’s left of it, anyway,” Jax sneered. Kai spun around and stepped toward Jax, and I couldn’t suppr