Revealing the Monster by Amelia Hutchins

Chapter Twenty-Two

The brightest eyes hold the saddest thoughts. Lena isn’t grasping what I am doing. I am showing the world she’s mine. It’s something I’ve never done for anyone. I’ve never cared what the world thought of me, but I need them to understand she is my choice. Lena is my world, and it would cease turning without her inside of it. ~Lucian

Lights pulsed in rhythm to the music that thumped loudly in the club filled with bodies gyrating against one another as I stood silently, studying the faces in the crowd. When I found Lucian, my gaze didn’t leave his, not even as he descended the stairs as the clubbers parted for him like the Red Sea parting for Moses.

Lucian’s powerful physique demanded respect. Tonight, he wore his usual attire of a midnight-black Italian suit with a crisp, clean white undershirt beneath it. His hair was immaculate, with every strand perfectly in place.

Pausing in front of me, I rolled my eyes back to his face, and he smiled down at me with a predatory gaze. Lucian didn’t care that his presence screamed viper or that everything about him promised pleasure mixed with pain. He was the definition of a predator. I was Red Riding Hood to his wolf, and he’d already dealt with my grandmother.

“You look beautiful, Lena,” he stated, uncaring that I was still angry at him for his actions and behavior. “Are you ready for tonight?” His tone didn’t indicate he cared if I was or wasn’t prepared. He was, and to him, it was all that mattered.

I dipped my chin, and he smirked before looking over my shoulder to where Spyder stood, waiting for further instructions. Lucian stepped beside me, sliding his hand to the small of my back, displaying the possessive gesture of ownership. His touch sent a shiver of need and desire dancing through me. He ran his fingers over my exposed flesh, causing my nipples to harden from the simple, innocent contact.

“Careful, woman,” he growled, turning to meet my eyes as a sinful smile played on his mouth.

“Or what, Lucian?” I asked, emboldened by the lust dripping from his raspy tone.

He chuckled at the huskiness of my voice, carrying the proof of what his touch did to me buried deep within every word I’d spoken. “Careful, or you’ll end up fucked on the stage once we reach it.” He turned to smile at me, slowly bending closer to brush his lips against mine. “I have it on good authority that you enjoy the attentions of an audience while being fucked. Tell me I’m wrong,” he purred.

His long fingers trailed over my spine as we started forward. Once again, the crowd parted to allow us through, moving toward the wall to watch us. I hated the focus, but I was grateful that we didn’t have to push our way past them, too. The women were openly eye-fucking Lucian, sending anger rippling through me as my back itched to free my wings, to cleave them into two halves.

As if he sensed my anger, Lucian chuckled, moving his lips close to my ear. “Behave, woman. They can admire all they want, but I only want you. Look at them, Lena. Do you see the way they stare at you with envy burning in their gazes? The men are curious as to just how good your pussy is to have claimed me, while the women wish they had one as tight and hungry as yours. Let them desire me and take it as a compliment. I do the same when the men lust after your sexy body. They’re shallow. They do not know how brilliant you are or that your heart is what I crave most from you.”

“I hate that you always say the right thing, Lucian,” I muttered beneath my breath, realizing he’d hear it, anyway. His deep, rich chuckle forced my attention to where he looked at me with a knowing, heated gaze.

“You’re the most beautiful woman here. You’re also the most loyal and unwavering for things in which you believe. If I asked any of those women to change their views to be with me, they’d lie and agree with anything I asked of them. You’re not like that, though. You fight for those who are weaker and have been hurt. You hold on to your beliefs no matter that they don’t align with my own, and you challenge me daily. You’re also the most stubborn, hard-headed, obnoxious woman I have ever encountered, and I enjoy that about you, too.”

Tears pricked my eyes as we paused on the landing leading into the lower level. I could hear the bass from the spelled music below and felt my body growing compliant with every beat. My spine arched, and Lucian’s finger’s lowered to the curve of my back, brushing against the base, where he’d tattooed a single rune that allowed me to sense when someone was watching me from behind. It worked on everyone but him and Spyder.

“I will meet you on stage,” he announced, vanishing into thin air before I could argue with him for forcing me to walk to the stage alone.

Spyder moved to my side, and I rolled my eyes as Avenged Sevenfold’s Hail to the King started thumping throughout the club. I adored the band and had fucked Lucian to this very song more times than I could count. It fit him perfectly.

“You ready for this, Kitty?” Spyder grabbed my hand, pulling it to his lips, placing a soft kiss into my palm. “The room is filled with elite clientele and those known for gossiping and spreading rumors. I won’t allow you to suffer because you freed me. Nor be made out as a whore because you let me fuck you to break the spell.”

“I don’t care what they think of me, Spyder. Wolves do not worry over the thoughts of sheep. We simply eat them and rid ourselves of their mindset. I enjoyed fucking you and being shared between you and Lucian. I don’t regret it, and neither should you. It was an experience I won’t ever forget. I’m glad it was with you and not someone else. If this is to spare my reputation, it’s not necessary.”

“This isn’t for you, Magdalena. Tonight is for our guests so that they don’t end up murdered for trying to get to that naked kitten in your panties. They assume Lucian is finished with you, and the events of tonight will signify that he will never be done with you—ever, Kitty. You’re Lucian’s, and he’s claiming you as the queen of his kingdom. Do you understand that?”

“Yes,” I whispered, even though I wasn’t sure why or what it fully meant.

We started down the stairs slowly because I was certain Spyder was aware of my history with heels. I’d learned to live in the damn things lately, since everything Lucian had bought for me seemed to look sexier with high heels. My appearance enhanced his, and he expected me to compliment his attire when I was at his side.

When we entered the second floor of the club, the music changed. Theory of a Deadman’s rendition of Wicked Games started, and I recalled hearing it play before the world had burned to ashes around me.

I closed my eyes as the memories flashed through my mind, fed by the music playing. I swallowed back the tears that threatened to fall as I opened my eyes, holding Lucian’s stare.

I knew without needing to be told that Lucian also remembered the first time we’d made love here and had chosen this song on purpose. The day I’d spilled my guts and told him I loved him, he’d reacted badly, very badly. It had set off a chain reaction, landing me into the trap Lucifer and Katarina had been making.

Spyder and I walked forward, and my heartbeat began thundering against my ribcage. The entire assembly of patrons went silent, and all eyes were on me as I moved toward the stage. Spyder’s hold on my hand tightened, and I could feel his shadows wrapping around me in comfort.

My eyes remained locked on where Lucian sat on a chair that looked more like a throne than anything else. The high back of the chair was silver, etched in runes glowing an eerie blue. The power inside the room was stifling, and no one had to tell me it was Lucian, unsheathed and unleashed as a warning to those present.

We paused at the stairs briefly, and Spyder dropped his hold on my hand. Swallowing past the lump in my throat, I peered at the pillow that sat on the stage at Lucian’s feet. Anger at what I thought was about to happen erupted from me, causing my eyes to water.

He was going to sit me at his feet, which was just another display of ownership. I climbed the stairs silently and waited mere feet away from him while the guests and party-goers observed. Lucian rose from the throne, leisurely eyeing the crowd before he closed the distance between us. He lifted his hand, cupping my cheek with his palm, searching my face. The song ended, but neither of us moved or spoke.

Lucian remained in front of me, our eyes locking before his gaze dropped briefly to my mouth. His thumb trailed over my bottom lip, and he lifted his eyes, holding mine captive. Everyone in the room went silent, uncertain of what was happening between us.

My anxiety rocketed into worry, mingled with uncertainty. What was he doing? Was he changing his mind? My chest rose and fell with labored breathing.

“You are mine, Magdalena Fitzgerald,” Lucian whispered. This level of the club was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. “From this day on, you are mine and only mine.”

Lucian leaned closer, claiming my lips hungrily. One hand wrapped around my neck while the other left my cheek to slide down the open back of my dress. Lucian didn’t make it a practice to kiss me in front of a crowd. I could probably count the times he had on my fingers and toes, but this kiss felt different from all the others.

This kiss was deeper and caused my toes to curl. I moaned hungrily against Lucian’s mouth, allowing him to control the pace and the kiss. He pulled me tightly against his heat and ended the kiss, peering down at me. If I had a soul, he’d be staring into it, but I’d lost it to protect him and our son.

“You’re the queen of my kingdom, Lena. No other will ever sit with me nor hold the position I am giving you here, tonight. You are forevermore, my woman.”

“I have always been yours, Lucian,” I admitted because it was the truth. 

From the moment he’d kissed me outside my ancestral home, he’d placed his name on my ribcage. It went deeper than that, though. This monster had walked into my life like a storm and unleashed something unexplainably right when everything had gone wrong.

Lucian had kept me safe, even when I’d understood he was the bad guy. He had picked up my broken pieces after Todd had attacked me and had known exactly what I’d wanted and needed from him. When the world had turned against me, Lucian protected me, even though he’d thought I’d purposefully slept with him to awaken my magic.

For good or bad, Lucian was my end game. He was the part of my life that I couldn’t live without. No matter what I ended up as or where I sat, whether at his feet or by his side, I was his. It wasn’t only the furies within me that wanted him. I wanted him.

I loved Lucian, and the thing scaring me most right now was not knowing if he needed me as much as I needed him.

Without him, I was lost. I had fallen in love with him, but more than that, I wanted forever with him. Lucian was my soul, and even though I’d lost mine, he kept me grounded.

He was my warmth when I was cold and my security and protection when I did stupid shit.

Lucian’s smile was blinding while he watched me, taking my breath away with the unguarded look burning in his gaze. He slid his eyes over my face, grinning and pulling me in for another kiss as an animalistic sound escaped his throat. His tongue traced my lips, pushing through them to find mine. He subdued me easily, groaning as I melted into the strength of his body.

When the kiss ended, he pulled me with him toward the throne that sat in the middle of the stage. I started to lower myself onto the pillow, but he tugged me back up, slowly shaking his head.

“You do not sit at my feet, Magdalena. You sit with me or beside me, but never beneath me. You are the one I chose to be with me. You’re not my submissive or my pet. You are mine, and that means you’re my equal. You’re the woman I choose to be with forever.”

I swallowed past the lump that formed in my throat with his words. Tears flooded my eyes as he smirked, sitting on the throne, before pulling me down onto his lap. His hand slid to my thigh, exposed from the slit in the material of my dress.

I surveyed the crowd, who continued staring at us silently. The weight of their stares made me fidget, but Lucian’s fingers began working small, circular patterns on my leg, comforting my uneasiness.

Lucifer stood at the back of the room, his violet stare burning a hole where Lucian touched me. His hand slid around my throat, lifting my chin as he placed a gentle kiss against the pulse thundering at the base of my neck.

“He wants what isn’t his to claim. Only you can send him away,” Lucian growled, knowing right where my eyes had landed.

“I am yours, and only yours, Lucian. He knows that because I have told him who I chose and to whom I would always return.” He placed a soft kiss on my throat, and I felt his lips curling into a smile. “I love you now, and until the world crumbles to ashes around us.”

I waited for him to replicate my words or admit how he felt about me. The only answer I got in return was a wicked chuckle that caused my nipples to harden with his heated breath, fanning the exposed skin on my throat and shoulder. He lifted his hand from around my stomach and cupped my breast, running his fingers over the sensitive tip hidden beneath the thin fabric.

“He has tasted your cunt, and desires to drink from you again. Should I spread your succulent body and show him what he can never have?” he asked huskily.

His question sent need pulsing to my core, and there was no hiding the arousal that drenched me. Lucian’s dark laughter confirmed it, yet he made no move to do as he wished—what we both wanted.

“You’re not saying no, Lena,” he mused loudly.

“I’m not saying yes, either,” I returned, moaning as his hand lifted, encircling my throat in a show of possessiveness that made my thighs clench together.

“Look at Lucifer,” he ordered. “He’s imaging being me at this moment. He wishes he was touching your pretty throat to feel your pulse growing faster while your entire body hums with need for him. You want me to fuck you right now, don’t you?” He moved his hand, grasping my chin, his fingers sprawling across the bottom of it.

“I do, but not here. Not in front of Lucifer or your guests,” I whispered huskily, unable to hide the tremble of need in my voice.

He chuckled, kissing my shoulder. I didn’t need to see him to know he was daring Lucifer to make a move for me. His eyes were trained on the Devil, the fucking Devil, and he was challenging him openly.

Lucian lifted my leg, parting my thighs to reveal the lace panties I wore. I was soaked from his endless teasing, and the toy was still seated in my core, lightly buzzing from where he’d left it on, torturing me endlessly.

Lucian’s hand slipped around my throat, and his lips brushed against my ear. He spoke in a foreign language, which made Lucifer’s image shimmer as rage played over his face. Violet eyes turned red, and his boned wings expanded to blot out the sight of Spyder behind him.

I felt something burning on my wrist, as if a branding iron was searing it. Strange words in ancient writing covered my skin in a molten orange glow. I didn’t balk or so much as whimper while I held Lucifer’s enraged gaze.

“It says, Forever in Life and Death,” Lucian uttered softly, slowly kissing the sensitive skin below my ear.

“You branded me?” Like cattle, I didn’t state out loud, knowing every immortal within the club hung on our every whispered word.

“As my Queen, Magdalena,” he corrected, making my stomach tense as my heartstrings frayed. “You are linked to me in a way that not even death can argue. Now everyone in this room has seen the words forming on your flesh and knows you’re mine and only mine. I have never claimed another as I am openly claiming you now.”

Swallowing past the swelling in my throat, I turned his words over in my mind. Tears flooded my eyes, but I blinked them away rapidly. He wasn’t declaring his love. Lucian had declared ownership in front of the guests who watched us. He’d branded my flesh as if claiming a cow that would graze in his fields.