Chapter 30

Aurora

With Jaxson laying behind me, his legs pulled to my sides, I hold myself to his chest and breath soft kisses across his neck. His head tips back, giving me access to his throat, and I allow my kisses to spread across his collarbone and up behind his ears. He releases a soft, pleased moan, while I can feel his excitement under the surface of the water, hitting my inner thigh.

I feel my body twitch, freezing, the image of Xander standing over me flashing through my mind. I cringe when he grabs at my upper thigh, taunting me, pushing my leg aside while I laid on the floor helpless, as though to give him access to— I can only imagine.

Jaxson’s hands slide up my arms, taking me back to this moment, seeing his brow furrow while I blink back the fear Xander instilled in my body. I thought for sure he would do something I wouldn’t be able to ever live down. Instead, my mate wipes my cheeks gently, minding the marks, the fear of my memory overwhelming me in the present.

I didn’t even realize I had been crying. “Sorry,” I hum, looking aside.

Jaxson holds my arms to my side, running soft, gentle trails up and down my skin. He speaks soft, gentler than I’ve ever heard his voice sound before. “You don’t need to apologize, sweetheart. Everything is okay.”

I swallow the pain in my throat, the pressure now building in my chest. I want to speak but the words are piling up in my mind, overwhelming me, and instead I melt back into Jaxson’s chest, trying to hold myself together with loose sutures; waiting to fall apart at any moment.

He kisses my temple, his lips grazing my skin hardly at all. “Whenever you are ready to talk to me about it, I want you to know I am here. Okay, sweetheart?”

I only nod, far too embarrassed to ever speak about the atrocity of Xander.

He leans in to kiss me once, then again on the cheek. I press my chest to his, wanting his lips to travel all over me, to mend the pain of the bruises. He doesn’t disappoint. He starts slow, innocent, before I feel him make out with my upper body and cause chills to circle my throat. I shiver. He laughs.

I arrange my heat over his erection, feeling his body tense when I do so.

“You don’t have to do this,” he hums, in between kisses on my neck.

“I want to feel good again,” I admit. “I want to feel loved.”

He nods, his hands slipping down under the surface of the water, grasping for my backside and holding them in both his hands. It makes me gasp, sitting up straight, his lips finding my cold, hard nipple. He makes out with one, then the other, my body slowly lowering until I feel the tip of his excitement slide into my core.

It’s enough to make me blush, to make the pain dissipate, and I allow myself to slowly lower my body over his, his shaft filling me so completely, so fully, that I let off a soft moan of pure enjoyment.

He cracks a smile, allowing my hands to rest lazily on my hips while I move my body slowly, precisely, both of us careful not to splash the water out of the tub’s edge. Jaxson watches my body move in slow waves, his smile so intoxicating, so gentle in nature, that it aches my heart.

I push myself to his chest, writhing up and down his erection, my stomach finally loose with heat and not tangled in tension. I force myself down his length, down the girth that makes me want to scream, and shift my hips to the side, knocking right into the most pleasures point of my hot sex.

Jaxson notices, his hands gripping my ass a little tighter, knocking me to hit that spot once more, then again, forcing me to give into the sexual heat that comes through my body all at once. He smiles wide now, his chest taut, forcing me into the spot over and over again until I can’t take it.

He has to hold me upright to keep me from falling over, finally releasing the strain that has been overtaking my body for days. I relax, breathless, the warmth of his own pleasure spreading deep inside of my body. My pulsing orgasm makes me shiver, makes me smile, and although it agitates the bruises on my cheeks, I ignore the pain and take in the feeling of his sweet output in my body now.

He holds me to his chest, my head fitting perfectly against his neck.

“My beautiful, mate,” he hums into my ear, planting a row of soft kisses against my jaw. “I hope you feel better now. You will always be loved by me.”

I shut my eyes, hearing Xander disparage my lineage, call me everything from a whore to a useless peasant, and those words echo louder than Jaxson’s praise. I try to block them out but the more I try, the louder they ring.

Useless slut, I hear in my head, Xander screaming it at me constantly. Filthy peasant. Mistress. Worthless commoner—

“Hey now, stop that,” Jaxson sighs, his wet hands pressing to my cheek, trying to pull me back to this moment, holding me, protecting me. “Is that what he said to you?”

I only nod, my body warm in the bath but my face burning hot in embarrassment.

“You know none of that is true, sweetheart. He will pay for those things he said, and all that he did, and he will pay with his life.”

I don’t even think I can explain what Xander had threatened do to me is just a taste of what every other commoner experiences here in the place. Everyday.

“Let’s get out and get you dry,” he says, moving to stand.

My body tenses.

“Sweetheart, it’s okay,” he says, moving slower, helping me stand as he lets the water out of the tub. “I’d never hurt you,” he mumbles, as if upset he has to remind me.

I stay shivering for a second, letting him take the towel nearby and wrap it around my body. He brushes aside my wet hair, trying to smile at the sight of my face, but it isn’t as natural as it normally is.

“Come here,” he adds, helping me out of the tub, my feet slipping on the tile, but Jaxson catches me instantly. He hugs my body to his chest, humming a light chuckle while I force myself to stand up straight. “There we go. Much better. Let’s go lay down.”

I struggle to walk, to stay present, every moment of my mind chaotic in the memory of Xander. I replay the feeling of him beating me, holding me down, and threatening to ravish me.

Curling up on bed, I surround myself in Jaxson’s scent, letting him slip one of his shirts over my top, watching it hang loose around my body, before he pulls the covers over my legs and waist. His eyes gray over for a moment, somewhere in the mind link, and by the time he reaches the bedroom door he opens it wide.

I spot a white little ball of fluff being passed into his hands. He grins, bringing snowflake over to the bedside and letting her hop into my arms. I hug her little body, curling into her while I feel my body finally relax.

“I’ll have some food and tea brought up,” he says, pacing to the door.

I only shake my head, not interested in anything but sleep.

“You have to eat, please, sweetheart,” he says.

I shut my eyes, holding snowflake, his voice soothing but nothing like the brash tone of his half-brother. I can remember the pain of hunger overwhelming me. He ate in front of me several times, sometimes taking me out of the closet so I would lay at his feet like a hungry stray, forced to watch him engulf food left and right, laughing as I begged.

I sniffle back an exhale, trying to keep from crying.

I’m so sick of crying.

If I had been a real warrior, I could have fought him, fought the wolf that attacked me that night, and none of that vulnerability would’ve been exploited by Xander. With him most likely still alive, I can only image that he would try this attack again. I don’t want to lose that fight again. I may not live through it.

If it were my parents, or any of my friends, they would have fought.

“Here,” Jaxson says, his light eyes nearby when I force myself awake, seeing a tray of pastries and biscuits set in front of me. He also has a set of roses in a small vase with the silver tray, a familiar necklace mended on the clasp, wrapped around the gorgeous white roses. “I had the royal jeweler fix the necklace. Thought you may like to have it back.” He pulls it from the flowers and helps me string it back around my neck.

A smile forms on both of our faces. We ignore the impression of the bruises from the collar around my throat. We have to.

“Thank you,” I say.

He tips his head, brushing my hair back. “Anything for you.”

“Anything?”

“Of course, Aurora. Anything you desire.”

Swallowing hard, I make sure to strengthen my voice, trying to sound confident. “I want you to train me like the warriors,” I say. His brow cocks. “I want to be able to protect myself if Xander comes back.”

“I don’t know, sweetheart. I don’t like the idea of you fighting.”

“It’s either I fight, or I take the beating.”

His blue eyes shift black, and I know his answer.