I paced back and forth in front of the room Molly lay in. Lex and Daphne, along with other women, were inside the room, caring for Molly as best as they could. Lex had looked at me, her eyes wet and wide with worry.
My chest felt heavy and my throat thick with emotions I truly wanted to forget. A baby. Another innocent child could be lost.
If Molly lost the baby, Tensley…
I ran a hand down my face and shook my head, growling. My brother would lose it. My brother would collapse and cave, just like me. He had it all, as I once had, and I knew first-hand how everything could vanish in a heartbeat.
I hadn’t felt the baby stirring in her stomach when I touched her. I had felt the warmth of her blood, the stillness, and Molly’s warring heart.
She couldn’t die. They couldn’t die.
I thought of Valentina’s wide smile with one crooked tooth and her round, small belly. And then her lifeless face, no smile existing on her full mouth, her lips pale and relaxed.
I gripped the wall, my breathing intensifying. I needed to stay here, in the present, but I kept thinking back to my past. To what I had lost.
And then to Alexandra.
Of how bloody and bruised she looked when I had entered the room. I thought I had lost her when I turned around after killing a few Ares soldiers and she wasn’t there. My beast had taken control and roared in pain at her disappearance.
My beast had attached itself to her so strongly. When she wasn’t there, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t think.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
I couldn’t lose her. I couldn’t risk letting her slip through my fingers. I had to keep her safe. I had to protect her.
And then I heard my brother’s sharp voice. I looked up to see him standing at the end of the hallway, holding a soldier’s sleeve, glaring at him. “Where’s my wife?”
The heartless king had arrived at last.
Straightening, taking a deep breath, I marched toward him.
“Tensley,” I called to him and his vicious eyes swung to me. He scanned me and I knew what he saw. The bruises running up my cheekbone and the nasty black eye, tangled hair.
“Take me to her,” Tensley demanded, walking toward me.
I glared at him, but I wasn’t going to argue now. I knew how anxious and scared he was at this very moment. Unsure of how his wife and their unborn child was.
Son.
She had said it was a ‘he.’
We both moved together down the hallway and each soldier stepped back, bowing their heads in respect.
I stopped at a bedroom door and glanced back at him, watching him take a deep breath. “Mother was harmed in the attack,” I said, my voice low, but still holding an edge of anger. The bastards who harmed my family were long dead now, but their deaths hadn’t been satisfying. They should’ve suffered longer than they did. “They managed to heal her, but she’s still recovering. She refused to leave Molly’s side.”
Tensley swallowed. Both his mother and his wife and his child had been attacked and he hadn’t been there to protect them.
To protect Scorpios.
I had filled that role while he was away and I couldn’t let it go. I wanted to protect my family. Protect his wife and his unborn child. Protect Alexandra.
To make up for my sins. To allow my brother the chance at happiness. To never experience loss as horrible as mine.
Tensley opened the door and stepped into the room, darkened by the heavy curtains, pulled tight so no light would shine through.
It looked like a fucking dungeon in there.
I watched as he went straight to the bed, watching Molly’s legs moving frantically and her breathing heavy and irregular.
Just as I went to shut the door, I caught Lex standing on the other side, her eyes focused on me.
Her eyes held mine, in them a longing, a thank you. At the sight of her, so torn and tired, I wanted to cradle her. I wanted to take her far away from all of this.
I had shoved it aside for the last month, but after tonight, my beast wanted to claim her. He wanted to mark her as mine and to protect her with everything I had.
Everything I could give her in the most basic, animalistic ways of our race.
I shut the door and leaned against the wall, rubbing my chest, where my heart burned at the thought of what I almost lost tonight.
When the door opened again, my mother and brother both reappeared. I straightened and watched them.
“She killed him,” his mother spoke after a stretched moment.
I folded my arms and shook my head, still angered by how close that bastard had been to killing my mother, my brother’s wife and unborn child, and my Alexandra. “He could have killed you both. He could have killed Lex.”
My mother looked at both of us, taking her time scanning our features. “Your father would be proud of you.” Her eyes found mine again, shiny with tears. “Both of you.”
I stiffened, biting the inside of my cheek and stared back at her. I could see it clearly, the way they stared at me. My mother, my brother, all of Scorpios, Alexandra. They stared at me like they were searching for the man and the beast within me. If I had returned finally from years of horror and terror.
“I should have been here,” Tensley said, shaking his head.
“You’re the king now,” his mother said, touching his shoulder. “You have other duties.”
Tensley glared at the floor. “My duty is to her. To protect my family. To protect Scorpios. A crown means nothing.”
My throat grew tight at his words. Nothing mattered. Nothing else other than the people who we cared about.
Alexandra.
“She’s my crown, my court, my queen. Nothing matters without her,” Tensley spoke firmly.
He would be willing to give everything up…for her. Shock washed over me. Even after losing his heart, he had gained it back. He hadn’t given up hope, he hadn’t given up on her or his child.
Our mother stared up at Tensley, her eyes wide with shock.
“She truly did curse you,” I muttered, regarding him closely. I could remember him before Molly. How he seemed just as father desired. How he acted as if he learned from my mistakes. But here he was. Willing to throw everything away to have her.
Tensley clenched his jaw and turned away. “I need to speak to my soldiers.”
He continued to walk down the stairs and I followed, tracing his every movement.
The soldiers gathered in the meeting room, faces drawn in exhaustion and anger, their stances stiffening as soon as he walked into the room.
Each man bowed, dropping low and he stood, watching them.
“Rise,” Tensley commanded, his voice like whiplash.
The men rose, silence spreading through the crowd. I folded my arms.
He stood in front of them, studying each man slowly.
“I stand before you,” he began, his voice clear and even. “Not as your king, but as your Dux.”
At that, the men straightened farther.
Tensley fisted his hands. “Ares has been defeated. By the hands of my wife and Scorpios.” He paused, collecting his anger in a breath. “Scorpios has survived this hell and will prosper. We are made from ashes and acid and thorns. We do not beg. We do not give up. We fight, we conquer, we destroy. We are savages that cannot be tamed and will not be tamed. Scorpios—will forever stay in our society. They will speak of this dark time as a time of rebirth. A time of beasts conquering. I will bleed for each and every one of you until I have nothing more inside of me.”
Rebirth.
I fisted my hands.
I wanted to be reborn. I wanted to forget the past.
“She’s in labor, I won’t leave her side,” Tensley told me and he walked away, going back to her bedroom.
I spent the rest of the night outside of the bedroom, pacing, waiting to see if Molly would survive. If the baby would survive.
I bit into my knuckles and shut my eyes.
And then I heard the door open.
Alexandra stood there, dark bags under her baby blue eyes and a soft smile warming her mouth.
“Alive and well. Both of them,” she whispered, taking a deep breath. “He’s so precious. Tensley won’t leave their side.” She laughed at that and moved closer.
The baby and Molly were fine. They were alive.
My hands itched at my side to grab Lex.
She paused, staring up at me. “What’s wrong?”
I reached out for her, gripping her hand and slowly, pulled her into my chest, holding her hips.
Her eyes fluttered up at me, her head tilted in question.
“Beau,” Lex said, pressing into me, rubbing up and down my bulging arms. “Calm down.” Her breasts pressed against me, her soft voice was my undoing. Her touch alone could calm the beast.
I grabbed her wrist, moving down the hallway and entered a spare bedroom. I slammed the door and turned to face Lex.
Her chest heaved visibly in her t-shirt, torn and bloody, her ample breasts catching my attention.
“What’s wrong?” she asked again, furrowing her brows in concern.
“I could have lost you tonight,” I whispered, my voice too thick, too raw with too many emotions spilling into me at once.
Her eyes softened at that. “I’m fine, Beau.”
I shook my head and moved closer. “I turned around and you weren’t there. I lost it. I thought if you were gone…if anyone hurt you, I would be destroyed.”
The silence stretched between us, my words hanging in the air.
Lex bit her bottom lip nervously. “Beau…”
“I kept thinking of Valentina and my child, if Molly…and how Tensley would be destroyed,” I hissed, staring at my shaking hands. I fisted them, but that didn’t stop the trembling of anger and fear inside of me. “Tonight, I realized deep inside of me, deep in my blood and bones, I can’t lose you. I want to protect you. The way I can.”
My eyes finally found hers. I let my words sink in and she blinked slowly, her mouth dropping open.
I took slow, cautious steps toward her, like approaching a tiger and stood directly in front of her. She breathed out shakily. Carefully, I leaned down, taking her mouth in a soft kiss.
A kiss of promise.
A kiss so tender she would forget I was a beast.
She kissed me back, attempting to give me that hunger, that urgency, but it was still weak.
“Beau,” she whispered between my hot kisses and tugged me closer, walking backward until she hit the bed and sat on the edge.
I growled deep in my throat and slid her panties to the side. “I want to protect you,” I repeated.
“You always protect me,” she said. Her eyes were shining, staring deep into mine. She was so bright and innocent and full of trust.
She trusted me, I realized. She trusted the beast inside of me.
“I want to mark you,” I specified, lowly, gripping her neck and bending it, letting my teeth graze across the tendons flexing on her throat.
She brought her shoulders up in a weak shrug. “But I’m a lower class. There’s no reason to…”
A beast’s need to claim was mostly for high-class demons who wanted to show their women as property. I would bite the juncture of her throat and shoulder during climax and a poison would be released into her, overpowering her body and she would be mine.
“There’s a reason for me,” I hissed.
But my need to claim Lex was primal. I wanted men to know she was mine. I wanted to protect her, and my beast knew the best way to do so was by biting her neck. It would form a collar only seen by high-class demons and we would both be able to feel the cool necklace wrapped around her throat. It would bond us. It would keep her safe.
“There is?” Her voice grew breathless and wild.
“Yes,” I said and pulled my pants off along with my briefs. My angry length pointed right at her and I lowered to my elbows, pushing her legs over my shoulders. “But first, I’m craving a taste of what’s mine.” I slid her panties down her legs with two fingers and let my hot breath fan over her swollen opening. She squirmed, but I pressed a hand to her stomach, keeping her in place and let my mouth taste her most sensitive flesh.
Her noises were my favorite melody. It was music to my ears and I wanted to earn each little sigh of pleasure.
“Oh God,” she gasped, her fingers digging into my scalp.
Just as she neared her climax, I sat back up, pulled out a condom and put it on, settling over her, thrusting inside her warmth. I grunted at the sensation of her hugging me so tightly.
I worked her body hard and kissed her, letting her feed off of me. My dark soul was hers. All hers.
When I felt the tightness in my pelvis, I gripped her neck and kissed her in the spot where her neck and shoulder met.
“I’m gonna mark you now,” I hissed as the high of our orgasm washed over us and I dug my teeth in deep.
She cried out, shaking beneath me, her nails digging into my arms.
I could taste her blood on my teeth as I sat up. Lex blinked up at me, her fingers skimming where the collar was now forming.
“It feels…” she said, pausing as I watched her. “Too good.”
I leaned low and stole her mouth in another kiss. A warmth settled over us, deep in my own chest.
Lex was marked. She was mine.