“Gray, please—”
He reached up, wiping a terrified tear from my face and ignoring the way I fought against him.
“I’ve known exactly what you are for quite some time, Witchling.”
31
WILLOW
I couldn’t breathe. Even though his grip wasn’t tight on my throat, there was no air in my lungs. I stretched out with my magic in a panic, reaching for the trees outside the windows.
“No,” Gray said, the simple command rocking through me as he forced me to hold his gaze. The compulsion slithered inside me, shutting down the flow of magic where it began.
“Just kill me and get it over with then,” I wheezed, sinking my nails into his skin. His blood welled beneath them, staining my fingertips. He tipped his head to the side as he bared his teeth at me, but there was no force behind the gesture.
If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought he liked it when I bled him.
“If I wanted you dead, I’d have killed you already,” he said, leaning forward to rub his nose against the length of mine. The affection of that moment while he held me pinned to the door was too much, shoving past that horrible numbness that had spread at the realization that I’d been doomed before I ever even began.
I would never stand a chance at finding the bones now.
I raised my leg, stomping my heel down onto his bare foot in my rage.
“That hurt,” he growled, glaring down at me as he readjusted his stance. Meeting that glare with one of my own, I spit in his face.
The splash of moisture struck him in the cheek, and his gaze shuttered as everything in him stilled. He reached up with his free hand, gathering the shirt I’d thrown on in my haste to escape, and used it to wipe his cheek clean.
One moment, I was pressed against the door.
The next, I lay on my back.
The mattress was firm against my spine. Nausea swirled in my stomach at the sheer speed that Gray had moved us. There had been nothing but a blur—his hand at my throat, lifting my weight from the floor before he threw me to the bed.
“That was rude,” he growled, shoving my legs apart as I kicked at him. Maneuvering his hips between my thighs, I thanked everything that was holy for the fabric of his towel separating us.
“If you aren’t going to kill me, then get the fuck off me,” I snapped, struggling beneath him. “You lied to me!”
“I don’t think you’re in any place to make judgments about my dishonesty. What exactly did you have planned for me after you found the bones, love?” he asked, his fingers squeezing my throat as if he needed the help to get my attention.
I let my eyes drift closed, my brow twisting with the pain of having to admit what I never wanted to think about. “I didn’t want to do it,” I said, my voice sounding far more hollow than I cared for.
“Do what exactly, Witchling? What was your plan for me?” he asked, shaking me by that grip on my throat.
I opened my eyes just enough to peer up at his blazing eyes of steel, at the storm that raged within him.
“I was going to Unmake you. All of you,” I admitted, my bottom lip trembling.
Gray released my throat, rising to his knees as he straddled my waist. Something in his face reminded me of devastation, and if he’d been capable of feeling such a thing, I might have believed it.
“But you didn’t want to,” he said, his voice a quiet murmur.
I couldn’t decide if his rage still existed, if it lingered beneath the surface, or if he’d entered that place of disbelief where even rage couldn’t touch us.
“I wouldn’t have hesitated with any of the others,” I admitted, shrugging my shoulders. Getting rid of them was a means to an end, a way to free the Coven from the deal it had made and the Vessels that trapped us within it. “But you…”
“You expect me to believe that?” he scoffed, staring down at me as if he saw me for the first time. “You’ve been after my cock since you got here. Did you think I was hiding the bones there?”
I pushed up onto my elbows, staring up at him and shaking my head. “That’s not—it might have started that way, but it wasn’t. Fuck.” I groaned, dragging my hands over my face.
“You can’t even say it, can you?” he asked, placing his hand on the bed beside my head. He leaned over me, curling his fingers into the neckline of the t-shirt I wore. “You’re in love with me, Willow Hecate. Say it.”
The name I’d never been allowed to use struck a chord within me, the rightness of it simmering in my blood.
“I hate you,” I snarled instead of giving him the answer he wanted. His blood made him more able to feel my feelings, but he was wrong.
He had to be wrong.
His resounding growl thrummed through me, bringing my body to life as his mouth crashed down onto mine. It was a clash of lips and tongue, of teeth and violence, as he devoured my mouth as if it were the blood he needed to survive. My lip cut on his fangs, providing him with that very sustenance a moment later.
“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” he muttered against my mouth. “I’ll help you find the bones, but I expect something in return.”
His other hand went to the collar of the shirt, and he tore it down the center as cold air kissed my flesh. I gasped when he pressed his nude form and all his skin against mine, reaching between us to unknot the towel wrapped around his waist and shove it out of the way.
I groaned the moment his cock touched me, sliding against me and dragging a moan from him too.
“Fuck, you’re already wet. At least your greedy little cunt is ready to admit it wants me.”
He drew back slowly, the glide of him over my flesh making everything inside of me tense.
“Gray,” I said. I couldn’t find the words to make him stop without embarrassing myself.
The head of him notched against my entrance, and he shoved forward in a harsh, swift drive that tore me in two. I curled forward, touching my forehead to his as my hips tried to recoil. White hot pain spread through me, drawing a strangled whimper from me as Gray froze.
He pulled his head away from mine, staring down into my pained face as his realization dawned. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.
Because that would have been a fun conversation. My father thought I’d have a better chance of seducing you if I was a virgin.
Okay.
“It’s fine,” I said through a strangled breath, lowering myself back to the bed and trying to ignore the way my body clenched around him—trying to shove him out. “Just give me a minute to—”
He pulled out. The sudden emptiness of my body came as a shock. He grasped a thigh in each hand, his fingers pressing into the soft flesh as he spread them wide and stared down at the space between my legs. I studied him, the reverence on his face as he watched me.
“You’re bleeding,” he said, sliding himself down the bed until his face was centered just above my pussy. He sprawled on his stomach, his beautiful face staring up at me as he touched his tongue to my center and dragged it through my flesh.