I leave my house and the forest god there as I mount my motorcycle and pull from my drive, heading down a familiar road to the place I hate most on this Earth. I have tried so hard to gain my freedom, even though I’m their fucking pet, to have my own space and life...yet here I am, willingly riding back into their masses. To become their assassin, their servant, to do with whatever they want.
For her, always for her.
I can feel the madness clawing at the edge of my mind, brought by my need for her, my mate, and my lingering fear of going back. I haven’t stayed willingly in their presence since the night I lost everything, since I was forced to watch...no, I can’t go there. Not now, otherwise I’ll give into that madness and just go in there, kill all those fucking bastards, and rip Dawn away, which isn’t a bad plan apart from the fact we will be hunted for the rest of our lives.
No, I can’t do that to her.
She had a shitty enough human life with that piece of shit she killed and buried in the woods. She deserves a better second chance. I almost snort at that. A better second chance...with me? We both know I’m the craziest motherfucker out there, so close to losing it and giving into that blackness inside me like a poison, which seems to be out of control without her here to push it back and revel in it. She deserves better than me, I know that, but I’m not letting her go.
If they have touched her, hurt her...my mind flashes black for a moment and I look down at my hands on the handlebars to see them leaking black mist. No, I push it away. I can’t afford to lose it, not here, not with her so close. I will have to play their game, the perfect little servant, and get close to her. Find her, protect her.
She trusted me, gave her life to me...told me I would never be alone again.
It’s time I prove neither will she. I’ll always come for her. She’s the reason I keep going instead of giving in, she is the reason I’m walking into the viper’s nest, willing to take any pain, any punishment or humiliation they deem worthy. She was right, we need each other.
I need her.
She keeps me sane—well, as sane as can be—and makes me want to fight. To keep living, to feel her with me. To feel her soul wrapped around me, her body entwined with mine. I ache with the need to touch her, the pull stronger than ever before. To hold her, fuck her, claim her, and make her mine.
I didn’t have nearly enough time with her to prove I can be more than a sour, angry brute, but someone she could care about...I daren’t say love. I don’t deserve it, nor do I have it to give. My heart is blackened and cold, but she helped it beat again and now I will never go back.
What a fool I was, thinking I could resist her. She shook up my world and I miss the madness she brought. Her smiling face flashes through my mind as she squared up to me, toe to toe, unafraid even in my bitterness and hate. My mate is something, that’s for sure, and unlike the others I know she can survive whatever they throw at her, but what will she evolve into to survive it?
I became this bitter, winged monster flying above the world but never touching it, held apart...my mate, Dawn...Vasculo, will she embrace the pain and let it fuel her or will she withdraw?
I don’t want to find out, so I gun it, speeding up as I wind down the road through the forest that leads to the council and to her. My Harley purrs between my legs. It’s as close to flying as I can get without spreading my wings and taking to the sky, but they don’t appreciate it when I turn up like that. It usually ends with a lecture or a punishment, saying I’m flaunting the gifts I was given from my angel father and the horrible twistedness of my nature—not that they care when they use them for their own gain, but that’s something else altogether.
I can feel Nos in the forest, there is a link between us now, connected from Dawn. It