Chapter 104: Realising

Draven’s POV

I didn’t know what Rex and his pack of bitches were up to ... what moves they were making, what they were planning. But at least we were safe.

Valdris was a place of crime. I had come to that conclusion quickly. Bloodmoon was swarmed with soldiers and every kind of authority you could imagine, hunting down even the smallest criminal like it was some kind of holy mission.

Here in Valdris, people lived however the hell they wanted. It was chaotic. It was raw.

I was a killer myself, and I had been banished for it. Bloodmoon was the kind of place that tracked down the least criminal like it was their God-given destiny. Valdris suited me better. Maybe I was going to have my revenge on them someday ... I was still turning that thought over in my mind.

Then there was Jade.

A brutal she-wolf who had saved my life more than once, including the last encounter. And still, she sat there plotting, scribbling on a piece of paper like a war general with nothing else in the world to think about.

"Don’t you think you should pause on this for now?" I said to her.

"Why?" she asked without looking up.

"He already knows you’re a threat. He’s not just going to come charging in right now," I said.

"That’s exactly why I need to be prepared, Draven. Okay?" She kept writing.

The Seven were planning a party and here she was mapping out an attack. She wasn’t always serious ... she knew how to play, how to let loose ... but I wanted her to enjoy the moment. We deserved that much. Besides, there were still unanswered questions sitting between us like a wall neither of us had been brave enough to knock down.

I walked over to where she was seated and started rubbing her back.

"Draven, not now," she said, her body reacting to my touch even as she said it.

"Why did you save me that day?" I asked quietly. "Why didn’t you just run and save yourself?"

"Of all the times to ask me this, you choose now?" She tried to pivot, tried to shift the mood.

"I want to know what I mean to you. Did you do it out of pure empathy, or because I actually meant something to you?" I pressed.

"I couldn’t let you die, Draven. Not while I was standing right there. I did it out of... out of..."

"Why are you stuttering? Say it."

"I did it because I didn’t want you to die," she finally said.

I smiled. "And why didn’t you want me to die? Because you...?"

"Because I can’t bury someone. It’s hard to dig the ground."

"Alright. Enough, Jade."

My face changed. She felt it too ... I saw the flicker of surprise cross her expression.

"What answer were you expecting, Draven?" she asked. "I told you before how complicated things are around here."

"There’s nothing complicated about this, Jade." I was crashing out and she just sat there, absorbing every bit of it. "Saying I love you isn’t that hard. I know you feel it. The way it’s so easy for you to have sex with me, to give me everything I need in that moment ... it takes far less effort than saying three words."

I pulled her close and kissed her ... hard, aggressive, all frustration and wanting.

She didn’t kiss me back. She just let it happen. Bore it.

"What are you doing, Draven?" she asked against my mouth.

"Doing what you said gives me pleasure," I replied.

She watched me pull her shirt off without stopping me.

She was down to just her bra. I kissed her again, and this time ... she pushed me back.

"What is wrong with you?" she asked.

I was breathing hard. Worn down by how long she had made me wait for something as simple as the truth.

Then she reached down and pulled off her jeans herself. Threw them on the bed.

"No panties in the way either," she said, removing those too and tossing them aside. Then the bra came off, and there she was ... those full, hooked breasts that still turned me inside out every damn time.

"Do me however you want," she said, and bit her lip.

In that moment I felt everything at once ... desire, anger, love ... all coiled up together and ready to snap. I went to her, turned her over, and started giving her back shots.

She moaned and looked back at me, but I wasn’t meeting her eyes. I wasn’t here to be tender. I wasn’t here to show love. I fucked her like we were competing in something ... hard, deliberate, relentless.

It was a good path to orgasm, but I still wasn’t getting there. She kept shifting. So I reached for my belt, looped it around her wrists, and tied each hand wide to the bedframe.

I thrust into her again, and this time she cried out ... Draven! Draven! ... loud and broken and breathless. I didn’t stop. I kept going, deep and unforgiving.

When I felt it building, I pulled out and finished across her belly ... a warm splash from her chest all the way down to her abdomen.

Still not enough. I wasn’t done.

I positioned her on her back this time, folding her legs all the way up toward her head, opening her wide. I bit down on her nipple ... hard enough to brace her, to remind her body to hold on ... and then I entered her again.

I was looking at her face now. It was flushed red, eyes glassy, completely undone.

I thrust deeper. Faster.

"Ahh ... ohh ... Draven..." She stared straight into my eyes and I stared back, but I wasn’t giving her what she wanted. I was taking what I needed. I went harder. Faster. Our bodies collided again and again, and the sound of it ... the raw, slick, visceral sound of me buried inside her ... was its own kind of satisfaction.

Until I reached my second orgasm. I pulled out and finished on the bed.

Then I unlooped the belt from her wrists.

They were already red. Marked. But that was the colour that came with wanting to give someone everything.

I picked up my clothes and shoes. Dressed fast. Walked to the door.

At the threshold, I turned back and said it plainly:

"That’s our last time. Since this relationship has been contractual from the start, I’m choosing to terminate the contract now. I don’t care who started it."

I left.

The last thing I caught before the door closed was the tears in her eyes.

She didn’t know what she wanted. And I couldn’t keep standing in that place, waiting for her to figure it out. Love was a strange, cruel thing ... I still didn’t know exactly when I had fallen into it, but I knew I was choosing to walk out. And I wasn’t going to apologise for it.

I made my way to the common room where everyone had gathered. We had a welcome party to plan, and I wanted to be useful.

Surviving this many death attempts and ambushes ... we all deserved a proper celebration.

"Welcome, Draven," Lucas said when he saw me.

"Put me to work. Anything," I told him.

He pointed me toward a stack of speakers and equipment piled in the corner. I got to it ... lifting, moving, positioning them exactly where they needed to go.

Jade was still somewhere in that room, unsure of herself and everything around her. And because of that, I had to step back from her ... at least for now. But she was slowly turning me into something I barely recognised. Something she might not recognise either, if she wasn’t careful.

I just hoped she came to her senses before it was too late for both of us.