Queen of Nothing

I pulled her hands back further forcing her to lift her head off the mattress as she arched her back. It didn’t look comfortable, but she didn’t fight back as I pounded against her until I finally found my release inside her. We stayed like that, breathing heavily while we both found our way back to reality again.

I didn’t care for it.

It was filled with the ghosts of our love that guarded the crypt to our past, buried deep in its grave.

She rolled onto her back and leaned back up on her elbows once I’d gotten off her and gotten my pants back up. I threw her the two bottles Emory gave me and she looked at me confused.

“One is an antibiotic, the other is for pain, if you need it. Doesn’t look like you need ’em though,” I smirked at her, but she didn’t return it.

She was too busy staring daggers into me.

“You can stay here until Kane, and I get back tomorrow,” I told her. “I’ll have Ethan take care of bringing you food.”

“You’re leaving too? Where are you going?” she asked, but I shook my head at her.

“None of your business,” I responded.

“I want to stay in Santo’s room,” she told me, crossing her arms and my lip peeled back on instinct as I fought back a growl threatening to rise from deep inside my chest.

“You are mine,” I reminded her again.

“Am I?” she challenged me, and my nostrils flared in response.

“Let me spell it out for you, in case the last two months haven’t made it clear for you.” My hands were holding her tiny little shoulders forcing her to look up into my eyes, “Your body, mine. Your pussy, mine. I’ll keep you safe little flower, don’t worry about that.” I added, “But if you won’t give me the answers I’m looking for, I’m going to find them on my own. Whatever’s following you isn’t going to bring us down. Not my people.” I put her down and she sneered at me before speaking.

“If none of you are going to be home, I’d like to stay in Santo’s room,” she said again, but it was non-negotiable at this point. I’d have Ethan and Fletch guarding the penthouse the entire weekend, but my room had security feed I’d have access to while I was gone. I needed to be able to see her if I wasn’t going to be close to her, it wasn’t just about keeping her safe anymore. After spending years of my life looking for this woman, I couldn’t bear to spend a single moment not being able to find her when I craved her.

“You can stay in my room, or you can go back to the Kennel. Take a pick,” I could see her rage building again from my words in the way her fists clenched, it was a habit she’d had as long as I’d known her. “Count yourself lucky I don’t throw you back in the box until we get back.” I threatened and there was a small shift in her eyes, almost unnoticeable. Almost. But I knew her too well and I could peg it for what it was, fear.

“Looks like we’re going back downstairs then,” she said without blinking as she walked around me, stark naked and opened my bedroom door. Kane was standing there, his height towering over her with arms crossed like he he’d been out there the entire time we were fucking.

She flinched for a split second out of surprise but didn’t make any attempt to cover herself up at all. His eyes were only on hers for a split second before he let them trail down leisurely to the rest of her body, absolutely no goddamn shame in the fact that he was completely eye-fucking her in front of me.

“For fucks sake,” I took my shirt off and threw it at her, but she didn’t rush to put it on like I expected her to.

“What the hell happened to you?” He eyed my bloody nose and my torn lip, and I just smiled and shrugged at him wiping some of the blood away with the back of my hand.

“It’s called rough sex,” I grinned, and he frowned at me in response.

“He’s making me stay in the kennels while you’re gone,” she told him like a child tattling on another. Without moving his head at all his eyes shifted over to mine for a split second before he plastered them back onto her naked body.

“And you want me to fix that for you, Sunshine?” he asked her so softly and gently that I could barely hear the words out of his mouth.

I scoffed and he arched an eyebrow at me.

“Don’t flatter yourself just because she used you to get her wet for me, she asked to stay in Santo’s room.” The look she gave me was one dripping in venom and outrage like she couldn’t believe I had thrown her under like that. But if she thought I was going to let her get her claws in my brothers like she had done me, she was sadly mistaken.

I was fucked, cursed, long gone, completely mad over this sorceress who had me under her spell. My brothers were still free of her poison though, I could still maintain the illusion of control here as long as they weren’t falling apart with every bat of her eyes, or the curve of her hips.

“Hmm,” he rubbed his thumb against her cheek. “Too bad he left already, not even thinking twice about our pet.” He brushed his thumb down against her lip and left it there for a moment.

“Almost like you chose wrong,” he said sharply, turning around and walking back to his room, leaving her mouth agape from a response she was not expecting.

Something happened when she chose Santo the other day, like she had picked at an old wound of Mateo’s and now it was bleeding open again.

I was sure if a shrink were to pick him apart, they’d tell him he had deep-rooted mommy/abandonment issues to scapegoat all of his problems. The thing was, it was so much more than his mother abandoning him. It was his sister dying, it was the lack of a halfway decent father figure growing up, it was never having anyone in his corner until he found us. Mateo Kane just wanted to be wanted, and I could see Cecilia was pushing him further into ruin by slicing at the fragile armor that was barely holding him together.