A Cruel Kindness

Chapter 28

Bellamy

God, I was fucking exhausted.

The ride back to camp had been filled with Esme’s low mutterings about how annoying Elijah was, particularly finding issue with his continued assertions that he was smarter than everyone when clearly that title belonged to her.

Freya was uncommonly quiet, and when I asked her what was wrong, all she’d said was that Starlight was giving her problems. Her steed, whiter than the snow capping the mountains surrounding us was restless, but I didn’t quite believe her.

That was a conversation for a day where I could offer her the support she needed.

I could barely think straight.

Especially not when I was hanging awkwardly by the bathroom while Soren set up his cot. After this morning, I was scared he was going to try and sleep in the living room and then we’d both be caught in an unfortunate situation.

Of course, I’d follow him.

There was no other option for me.

I kept my arms crossed, brushing my hand over my skin to self soothe as I tried to control myself. Everything felt so out of control now, with my potential betrothal in the hands of Elijah and the Prince.

I wanted to sneak off and take Clover on a hunt to go find it and shred that acceptance to bits.

“You’re thinking too loud,” Soren commented passively, reminding me of how much I missed him reading my mind like that. He understood me. It was the only thing I ever craved, save his body on mine.

“I can’t help it,” I said, my voice breaking halfway through. Soren turned from his crouch, his head tilting while his eyes turned pained.

I made myself drop my gaze to the floor. “Was everything fine with the soldiers you rescued?” Even if we were talking business, it still meant I was talking to him.

Soren nodded. Not that I saw him do it with my eyes still on the floor, but I knew him that well. “Peter wanted every detail from them and us, which was probably the scariest part of the whole ordeal for them.”

I laughed quietly at that and Soren went silent for several seconds.

When he restarted, his voice was hoarse. “They didn’t say anything except that the camp cleared out within days. The only thing I could think is that they were expecting a wildfire—they’re in season and that camp is pretty far up the mountain.”

“We would know first, wouldn’t we?” We were lower down the slope, which meant we’d be hit first.

“Precisely my point. The only reason they would leave would be for a strategic advantage.”

It was too late to talk strategy, so I just said, “They seemed okay.”

Soren hummed and the sound traveled right through my chest and pooled at my core. “They were pretty beat up, but they were fed. They had their Matches with them, so they couldn’t complain in that regard.”

“I feel the same.” The words jumped out before I could stop the horrible truth in them from materializing. We both knew what I meant. This impossible situation I was trapped in was made a little more bearable by Soren’s simple presence, no matter how distant.

“Bell,” he warned, but it did nothing to stop the rapid beat of my heart. I could tell my cheeks were heating along with it.

Soren sighed heavily, standing. “Maybe it’s a good idea for me to sleep in the living room tonight.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, unable to see him leave. “Okay.”

My eyes stayed shut as Soren’s scent trailed slowly up to me, pausing in front of me for a second, then moving to the side.

When it started to fade, a pained whimper left my throat.

And when the door shut, I had to slap a hand over my mouth to trap in a sob.

A second later, a hand brushed my hair over my shoulder and I collapsed back into his chest right as his lips came down on my neck.

Soren’s hands came around my waist and my own followed, two points of contact holding me to him as his mouth warmed my neck.

“Please don’t leave me,” I begged, one of my hands trailing up to grab his head and keep him secured to me.

“I tried to stay away, baby. It didn’t work.” Mumbled words pressed against the heated skin of my throat.

The Bond interrupted my relief with a whooping shout of joy, before settling back down and pouring that familiar warmth through my limbs.

It suddenly dawned on me that Soren might come to his senses any second and I couldn’t have that before I felt him.

Twisting in his hold, I kissed him, immediately swiping my tongue across the seam of his lips to beg for entrance.

His hands tangled in my hair, gripping roughly as his lips attacked mine right back. “I am so mad at you,” he said, nipping at my bottom lip. “But I’m also proud of you.”

He moved to my jaw, dropping kisses and compliments in succession. Telling me how beautiful I was, how much he wanted me.

“Soren, you are all I ever want,” I said, the words holding a powerful, painful meaning. No matter what happened, no matter who the Prince was, Soren would be the only person I could ever want.

He was my Soul Mate. There was no one else for me.

That only spurred him on, taking my mouth again in rougher, deeper pulls until I could barely catch my breath. Fine by me. I wanted to drown in him.

I was in the air a second later, lifted by his strong hold. My legs wrapped around his hips, and I could feel our Mark burning into the part of my lower leg it touched.

“Please don’t leave,” I said again, urgency pumping through me so harshly I felt seconds away from coming already.

The Bond’s contented humming was doubly powerful, fueled by energy contained for too long, even if but a day.

A low growl loosed from Soren’s throat as he laid me back on the bed. He pinned my hands over my head, that move telling me everything I needed to know about what he meant.

I was the one that would be leaving him.

That fact was why I let him secure me as he attacked my neck again in deep pulls, surely intending to leave me covered in marks created by his mouth.

He was marking me in his own way, even though the evidence of our bond was inked into my back, into my very soul.

I didn’t care if the Prince would think that we were laughing in his face by doing this. I pulled Soren more firmly to me, feeling like I wouldn’t be satisfied until our skin fused together.

There was so much I wanted to say to him, but couldn’t. Instead, I let my hands do it for me, brushing over his shoulders and down his back in comforting strokes.

As Soren started trailing his lips down over my chest, heading further and further down my body, I wanted to tell him to stop, to say that I was the one who should be comforting him.

I was scared to do anything that would make him stop, so I held my breath as his hands drifted under my shirt, pushing it over my chest.

I moved it the rest of the way, ripping it off. My chest was exposed to the air, my already taut nipples pinching even harder.

“Yours too,” I whispered. He knew what I was asking. I wanted to see his Mark, even the little I could on his upper back and shoulders.

Soren complied, ripping off his shirt before diving back down. Both of us were naked within seconds, clothes dropping to the floor in between heated kisses on my mouth, my chest, my stomach.

And when his head dipped between my legs and I felt his tongue against me, two twin tears slipped out of my eyes. I had to clamp my hand over my mouth to trap in a pleasured sob, especially since we weren’t alone in this cabin.

I was at Soren’s mercy as he worked me over and over and over with his tongue and his fingers until I finished on a sharp cry. I didn’t know how I was ever supposed to give this up.

That thought was cemented as he rose over me, looking at me with an emotion I couldn’t quite name, but felt deep in my chest.

The world and our worries collapsed around us as Soren notched himself inside of me and slid forward with a slow thrust, his lips meeting mine right as a low groan sounded from his throat.

With each roll of his hips my chest pulled tighter and tighter, almost unable to breathe from the force of it. The idea that this might be one of the last times, if not the last time, we were able to do this made me want to draw it out.

I settled my hands on his hips, pausing him. He look horrified for a second, assuming I was stopping this. He started to pull away, respecting my wishes, but I brought another hand to the back of his neck and sought out his lips.

We kissed, slowly, mindlessly, for a while before our bodies started to take over again. My hips tilted up as Soren’s pressed forward, seeking the pleasure that was just out of reach.

Still feeling the need to cement this as the closest I would be to anyone, I turned over to my stomach on the next time his hips pulled away.

I knew exactly what I was doing.

Soren paused with a heavy breath, smoothing his hand down my back reverently. If I wasn’t mistaken, his hand was shaking.

I turned around to face him, waiting for him to look at me so I could hold his eyes while I spoke. “It’s yours. I’m yours. You’re branded on me.”

That was the only true promise I would make. Whatever vow I was forced into in the future would be a lie. I was already committed. Anything after that would be fraud.

Soren knew what I meant and it snapped his control. I hadn't even realized he was in control until he lost it.

His hands tucked under my hips, yanking them up as he positioned himself and slammed home so hard I felt heat shoot all the way from my core to my throat. A garbled moan was lost against the pillow, strangled out by the near painful force of bliss.

Soren wasn’t speaking and I was sure he was restraining several possessive statements in kind. I didn’t need words from his mouth when his body was telling me exactly how he felt.

I was his. He was mine. We were meant for each other.

Nothing was this good, felt this right, if it wasn’t your very souls that were compatible.

As Soren’s relentless thrusts sent me over the edge, my mouth fell open in a silent scream as the waves of pleasure just kept coming, far past what they should have been able to wring from my body, until I slumped against the mattress.

Even though my body was exhausted, I would only rest enough to catch my breath.

I was treating the night as one, continuous moment, taking my chance to steal all the little pieces of Soren I could before someone got between us.

When Soren fell onto his back next to me, I allowed him two deep breaths before I climbed on top of him again, burying my nose in his throat. It took him less than a minute to harden against my inner thigh, but I was content to nuzzle his neck and shower kisses on his face and shoulder for the rest of the night if that was all I could get.

Eventually, though, our bodies started moving together until I was sinking down on him, chasing pleasure that only he could pull from me into the early hours of dawn.