My inner independent woman knows that I should be disgusted by what he’s done. However, my heart is a stupid bitch that wants to understand why he went to such extremes to ensure I became his because she may like it. “What the fuck Sebastian?”
He runs his fingers through his hair. “I’m sorry, okay. You don’t understand what’s at stake here.” Sebastian bites his lip in frustration. “Damn it Arabella, you’ve got to listen to me! Ethan means to kill you and your entire family. Yes, that means the whole damn line of you. He wants your power and the only way he can do that is by killing every last one of you.”
I push him away from me, so that he backs up enough for me to be able to walk into my bedroom. I’m not understanding his reasoning. Why does he care? “So, you mean to tell me that you did this out of the goodness of your heart? Something’s NOT adding up Sebastian!”
He stomps towards me furious, his jaw set in a hard line. “No, I’m not that noble, Arabella. I’ve never done anything out of the goodness of my heart, not even before I became this monster you see before you. Our path together was written long before either of us was born. I’m a selfish creature by nature, and I couldn’t let Ethan have you. I saved him from killing you, not because it’s the right thing to do for our people, but because my darkness can’t survive without the light that is you. I’ll never regret what I did, even if that means you’ll hate me for the rest of our life. You’d better be damn rest assured I’ll never let you go. You. Are. Mine.”
Sebastian’s anguished expression kills me, he’s so at war with how he feels. My heart slams in my chest and falls all the way down to my toes. My lips move to speak, but I’m not even sure of what to say. I don’t understand all of what he’s just said. How does he know we were written? Why does Ethan want to kill me? I can’t deny how my body reacts to him, because it’s not just sexual. It’s as if my very happiness depends on if he’s nearby. The unformed words stop as one of his ten shadows caress my cheek. “Arabella, Bells, even before I became the shadowed abomination before you, I was not a good person. However, the first time my eyes sought you out I knew that you were the light to my darkness. We were the Yin and Yang to each other's soul. Your inner goodness calls to me, makes me want to be a better being. I know it’s a shitty deal for you. I bring nothing to the table, but please don’t hate me. Ethan couldn’t be allowed to harm you. I couldn’t let him turn you into something dark and evil. Your goodness and light are like sunflowers in the midst of my dark stormy night.”
My forefinger traces the scar over his eye that stretches across the bridge of his nose stopping just above his other eye. My dark Prince shivers under my touch. I want to scream andmake him tell me who did this to him so that I can end their lives. Sebastian’s story must be one full of pain. “You’re not a monster or an abomination, Bash.”He kisses the palm of my hand while leading me toward the bed. Undressing, he pulls me into his arms, as the demons of his past make a plethora of gut-wrenching emotions run across his beautifully scarred face. “What happened?”
He’s quiet for so long, I’m not sure he’s going to answer. “No one but Ethan knows how I wound up in the Valley of the Decayed, because he’s the one that sent me there. We've always hated each other but I never suspected he would succeed in handing me over to Duvessa.”
Fevered rage burns through me, that’s the second time I’ve heard that name today. “Who is she, Sebastian?”
“Duvessa Raven is The Queen of Death, The Grim Reaper of the Fae world. She makes bargains for souls, and reins over her kingdom with an iron fist. Only a handful of us have ever made it out of the Valley of the Decayed alive. We aren’t without suffering for the crimes we committed to scratch our way back up to the surface. There’s a reason I have ten shadows connected to me, Arabella.” Sebastian lays my head on his chiseled chest then begins rubbing me in soft rhythmic strokes.?
Ice chills in my veins at the thought of this otherworldly creature, as well as the things she's put him through. My silence encourages him to continue. “A few years ago, there’d been a change in Ethan. Where he was once kind to others, he’d turned monstrous, vile even. It was enough to make me take a second look. We'd both been knights then, frenemies, both equally trying to prove to my father that we should be The Head Knight.” A shiver runs down his body as he remembers. I massage his chest and stomach gently to let him know I’m here in whatever capacity he needs. His pain runs deep, he’s seen things I’ve neverhad to, yet still he stands. Sebastian is strong, even though I don’t fully know the story yet, hatred burrows its way down into my heart towards Ethan. Fuck him, for whatever he’s done to my Dark Prince!
Sebastian kisses my forehead, then slightly chuckles after reading my thoughts on the matter. “We’d been on a security detail for a high-level councilman, an Alpha from the Blue Ridge pack, it’s there I was attacked from behind.” He takes my fingertips and guides them along a wide gash down the entirety of his right side. “The hearing is the last to leave you when you’re dying. Had it not been for that, I may not have gotten my revenge on all but one. Now that you’ve arrived, his time is coming. I was given a paralytic agent much like your parents and my mother. They couldn’t have gotten to me otherwise. As I laid there, I listened as they damn near tried to gut me. Ethan didn’t do the dirty work. He was there as the other two took turns taking their knife to my side and face. The last thing Ethan said to me was, ‘Mors vincit omnia,’death conquers all.”
Understanding runs through me, almost shattering my last bit of control! “Ethan made a deal with Duvessa, for your soul?” The answer is clear, making bile rise and gurgle up from my stomach.
His hands still, as his breathing hitches. “Yes.” He answers even though he doesn’t need to.How awful! I don’t push down the sadness from coming. How long my tears have fallen, I’ll never know, but stopping them is not an option. We hold on to each other for dear life, the things he must have suffered at her hand, at their hand. I make a solemn vow to not only myself, but also to Sebastian. Ethan will die at one of our hands!
Chapter 22
Being Bound
He’s my person for eternity.
-Arabella
We lay snuggled in my bed for what seems like hours. For the first time in a couple of days, I relish in not having to play my part as The Chosen. With Sebastian, I’m still me, the girl from Savannah. He’s lost in his thoughts, but he doesn’t have to tell me that he’s not ready to talk about what happened in the Valley, it’s apparent from the grim expression on his face. When that time comes, for him to confide in me, we’ll hold each other like tonight. I’ll never judge him for his past.
It’s not fair what he’s endured. If only I could help him see that they're the monsters, not him. “Sebastian, what does being Bound truly mean?”
He turns to me for the first time since we began our talk, genuinely smiling as he laces our fingers together while we turn on our sides. “Only true mates can be Bound. Or, as my forefathers called it,infinitus. Simply put, it means we are one in mind, body, and spirit. We will be together, always, in this life and into the next.”
Confusion furrows my brows. “I know that sometimes humans can be mates with one of the others, but it’s rare. How did you realize I was meant to be yours?”
“Several months ago, I learned that there was another prophecy by combing through Ethan’s mind. We three were to be in a love triangle, which is the only reason he’s still alive. No one, except Ethan and I, know that he was my persecutor. I've held the secret all these years, waiting to exact my revenge. Now I know why it never felt right. That’s why he had me killed in the first place, so he wouldn’t have to fight for your hand against me. Even more rare than for a human to have a supernatural mate, is for that human to have more than one. I didn’t fully believe it until I touched you for the first time, when you literally brought light back into my shadowed touch.” Sebastian says the last part as he kisses the spot in reference where he left his mark on my body that night.
Understanding dawns, before getting to know Ethan's true nature, there was an attraction and an initial spark between us as well. Sebastian growls as he reads my thoughts. Serves him right, always an invasive possessive asshole. I place my forefinger on his lips, making him bite back his curt remark. “Your spark was bigger.” I laugh.?
He gives me a coy smirk. “Everything about me is bigger.”
I make a big show about trying to get out of bed. “I’ve never seen his. Let me —!”
Sebastian pins me to the bed. “Watch it, Bells! You mess with me; I’ll fuck you in front of everybody so there’s no doubts that we are truly Bound.”
Taking him by surprise, I flip us over. “Is that someone’s secret kink?”
Sebastian gives me a smug grin, “I have several, but voyeurism isn’t one of them.”
Straddling him like this, makes my knee rake across his injured side, stilling me. A solitary tear slips past my defenses, as my Dark Prince catches it with his lips. “I’m so sorry, Bash. For all the shit you’ve been dealt. I can't change it, but I promise you that I’ll do my damnedest, to make you happy for the rest of our days.”Sebastian traces my bottom lip with his thumb and chuckles when I try to bite his finger. We haven’t known each other for long, but being with him in this way is easy. So, in turn, I’m honest with him. “Even though you should have gone about it in a different way, I’m glad you won.”
His hungry mouth crashes down on mine, while we fight for dominance. He brings out my competitive side. In the end, Sebastian allows me to win, if only for a moment. Feeling bold, I reach below to grab his thick cock with my hand. His lime green eyes glisten with dark desire as he moans my name on his full lips. Kissing down his body, I greedily lick the precum off the top of his shaft. His hips buck in rapacious satisfaction. “Be a good girl and show me that you can take it all, Bells.”He wraps us in shadow, so that my family won’t hear us having sex. I need him like the air I breathe. My eyes water as he fucks my mouth. One of his hands holds my hair back out of my face so that he can see me take every inch of him.
