Revealing the Monster by Amelia Hutchins

Chapter Three

The mind is the most dangerous of places. Nightmares await us there, driven by fears and encouraged by the subconscious thoughts of the day. I once believed I’d conquered mine, but they merely bided their time, growing stronger. ~Lena

I sat on a huge, four-poster bed surrounded by crimson silk curtains. I ran my hand over the smooth, black blanket and one of the large pillows, soft as fur, covering the top. It felt like heaven against my heated skin. The bed smelled of Lucian, driving my never-ending hunger for him to new heights. Rich, amber, sandalwood, and dark desire filled my senses, lulling me into a relaxed state of bliss while I waited for Lucian to return to our room. 

Luna mewled softly, stretching out before leaping from the bed and padding away to scamper off. Lucian had hidden her here, keeping her safe. Luckily, she’d survived the fallout of Hell colliding with earth. But then he’d claimed her, and she seemed to prefer him to me nowadays.

In the room’s silence, I replayed Lucifer’s words inside my head. Would I take him up on his offer? No. Did I crave to have a child of my own? Yes. Did I think Lucian had done something to secure I would return to him? Absolutely. I feared he’d done something unforgivable and detested that he was keeping it from me.

I had been around him enough to know when he shielded me from something deadly or something he thought would hurt me. He was the proverbial alpha male, assuming he knew what was best for me. Some days I craved it, and other times it drove me nuts. I also hated that since returning from Faery, Spyder refused to be alone with me, or even get near me.

Spyder and the bonding situation presented an entirely new problem for us. He wasn’t the only one fighting the magnetic attraction. Every day since the night that he and Lucian had claimed me to protect me from Lucifer, it became harder to ignore the need I felt for him.

I knew it was the bond demanding that we finish what was expected of us. I wasn’t in love with Spyder, no matter what the magic thrumming through our veins told us. I knew that I only craved Lucian and had fallen in love with him. That much was a given. Had I told him? No.

Did Lucian even know what genuine love was, or what it meant? He’d felt something for Katarina, or so he’d told me after I’d died, ending their twisted game. My stomach somersaulted at the memory, hating that it had been the last thing echoing through my mind as death claimed me.

How did you tell the man you loved he was your world? And what if he didn’t love me as I loved him? Lucian was endless and primordial. He had watched the world form and evolve during his lifetime. Shit, he’d probably helped shape it into what it was today. I was the idiot that had fallen deeply in love with him and couldn’t figure out how to tell him or express it out loud.

Turning onto my side, I screamed at finding him beside me, still dressed in his suit. He smirked, leaning down to brush his lips against mine. Heat enveloped me, and I laughed softly against his kiss at my response to his sudden appearance.

“What were you just thinking about, Little Witch?” The deep, soothing baritone of his voice drifting through me was calming. Peering into his midnight gaze, watching the galaxies swirling within them, I exhaled and nipped at his plump bottom lip.

“Changes, and how you stole my cat, asshole. She’s absolutely spoiled and impossible to please anymore.” I held his fiery stare as his lips jerked up into a smile and he growled deep in his chest, allowing the sound to slip through his parted lips. I struggled to pull my gaze from his, certain he’d let me drown within the beauty of the world’s burning in his eyes. 

“Little liar.” Lucian rolled on top of me, gazing down as he captured my hands, pinning them above my head. “She isn’t spoiled at all. Luna is a good girl, just like her mistress. Do you want to be my good girl, Lena?” he inquired, lust dripping from each word he uttered. “Can I make your pussy purr as loudly as Luna does for me when I pet her?”

“Do you really need to ask?” I lifted my head, claiming his mouth softly, enjoying the flavor of scotch and the hint of citrus that I always tasted when kissing Lucian.

His grip on my hands tightened as he lowered his head and pressed his lips to my neck, kissing against the rapidly pulsing heartbeat at the hollow column of my throat. He rocked his hips, and I wrapped my legs around them, shivering as I felt him growing hard. His other hand pushed into my panties, running his fingers through the arousal his presence created.

Lucian turned his head, cocking it to the side as if listening to something beyond the door. He pulled away from me a moment before a knock sounded, and Hades strolled into the room without waiting for permission to enter.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing, Hades?” Lucian snapped, his question part threat and part pissed-off at being interrupted. “This is our home, and you’re not invited into my bedroom, asshole.” Lucian’s voice was tense, crisp, and clearly held a warning.

Hades’s violet eyes heated as they roamed down my body. I hadn’t changed from the dress Lucifer had placed on me, which allowed Hades a view of the rounded curves of my breasts and the valley between them. “We’ve got problems. Nyx knows her daughter is missing, and she’s on her way here now.”

I snorted at his words. Eris, the Goddess of Discord and Strife, had intervened in Faery, creating a shit-storm of problems for Ryder and Syn. It had looked like it would end with the couple separating, but they had been on to Eris’s presence and had been trying to settle the issue on their own, separately. It was more difficult on them by not working together, and the Golden Apple of Discord that Eris had hidden in the palace didn’t make the situation any easier. Ryder called Lucian and Spyder to handle Eris, who was now in permanent residence at the lowest level of the club.

“Bloody hell,” Lucian muttered, scrubbing his hand over his face. Hades’s gaze lingered on the curve of my breasts, showcased by my dress as a cocky smile flittering onto his mouth. “Get your eyes off my girl, prick. Go keep the bitch busy. We’ll be out momentarily.”

Hades nodded, smirking before vanishing into a cloud of dark smoke that reeked of wicked darkness, smothered in desire. Lucian stood, fixing his jacket and redoing the cuffs. He smiled as I groaned with the need he’d left unsatisfied, burning in my core. I started to sit up, but he pushed me onto the bed with his magic, sending a pulsing sensation between my legs. I gasped loudly, purring as I rocked my body against the powerful feeling of his magic sliding through my lower lips.

“Can’t you just send Nyx away? I need you right now, Blackstone.”

“I will soothe that ache in your tight pussy soon enough,” he growled, letting the darkness of his magic slide into my core. I was soaking wet, the desire to be taken hard and fast, which was becoming a visceral need that drenched my panties.

“I need you to fuck me, Lucian. Now, not later, please. I am soaked by how much I want you to rip off this dress and remind me to whom I belong,” I purred, knowing he craved it. Lucian loved when I begged him to fuck me. In fact, more often than not, he couldn’t refuse me if I begged.

“You think you’re the only one aching to satisfy their hunger? That lust you feel for me? I feel it for you every moment of every day, Lena. Your desires are just new and getting started. Creatures like us; we feel everything more deeply and stronger than mortals. If I had my way, we’d leave this world and go someplace else. Somewhere that we could spend eons just learning one another until there was nothing undiscovered between us,” he admitted huskily, reaching into his pants to adjust his huge erection pressed against them.

I swallowed past the swelling in my throat. The intensity of Lucian’s stare burned into mine, holding me prisoner. “Wouldn’t you get bored with me? I would be afraid that once you knew everything and had learned all my secrets, you wouldn’t want me anymore.” I sat up to fix the dress, then swung my feet over the edge of the bed.

“In all of my time alive, I’ve never craved to be with one woman. I always wanted more than just one female to warm my bed. Not even Katarina, whom I believed I loved, made me satisfied with all aspects of my hunger. Lena, you do, though. You satisfy me more than I ever thought another person could. You sate every hunger, every need, every desire I have, and I am very pleased when I leave your body. You’re under my skin, woman. Your claws are sharper, and so is the mark you’ve placed on me. Will I tire of you? Never, because you are evolving with each new day, and I will never grow weary of watching you flourish beside me.”

“You say the sweetest things when you’re trying to get laid, Blackstone,” I snorted, barely able to stifle the emotion from his words resonating within me. My chest tightened at his reply, and warmth washed through me, hoping he, too, loved me. “Nyx is a problem.” I needed to change the direction of the conversation. Standing, I moved to the mirror that opened up to reveal our wardrobe.

Suits and dresses filled the space, and heels and freshly polished shoes covered the lower shelves.

These were the items Lucian Blackstone had chosen for us to wear in the middle of an honest-to-god’s freaking apocalypse. At least he had impeccable taste. Reaching for a dress, I used my claws, ripping the neckline and down the front of the one Lucifer had placed on me. It pooled on the floor, leaving me in nothing but a skimpy pair of panties. I wouldn’t ever wear it again, not with the brimstone scent that clung to the fabric.

Lucian trailed his fingers over the curve of my hip, tracing our bonding mark, causing a shiver to snake up my spine. He’d been so upset when I’d bonded us together. I hadn’t even known that something like that could happen until I’d claimed him. He reached for the dress I’d chosen, closing the closet to stare into my gaze as he slipped the sheer material over my body, clothing me.

“I knew you’d look stunning in this,” he uttered silkily, adjusting the neckline that tied behind my throat. It had a similar plunging V-line, but it left a lot more to the imagination. The skirt flowed in soft tulle to the ground, while two splits started at my upper thighs, leaving them exposed. It was a deep navy blue that reminded me of Lucian’s pretty eyes.

Lucian let his hunger-filled gaze drop to my bare feet before lifting his hand and trailing his thumb over the scar that adorned my throat. His jaw ticked slowly, and emotion burned in his starry eyes while he stared at my reflection in the mirror.

I could easily heal the scar, but it was a reminder of what I’d lost and sacrificed to save the man I loved more than I had loved myself. I’d loved Lucian enough to protect him from the monsters that had craved his pain. I’d won their game, ending it without either of the players realizing that I was the piece that could finish what they’d started so long ago.

“You’re so beautiful, Lena,” he growled against my ear, pushing my hair away from my neck to trail soft, heated kisses over it.

“You’re not. You’re sex incarnate, dripping lust that I crave to drink up like the dirty little bitch you make me want to be in our bed. Let’s go handle Nyx so I can ride your cock. I feel like a girl who just discovered her clitoris has an actual purpose,” I mused, hiding the words I’d really wanted to say to him.

His eyes sparkled with laughter, and before I realized his intent, he’d pushed me against the mirror, capturing my stare while his hand slipped through the slit of my dress. The hand against my throat tightened, and his heated mouth opened, biting threateningly against my shoulder. I whimpered due to the control he held on me with merely his hands.

A loud moan exploded from my lips as he slid two fingers into my aching pussy. He pumped them slowly, forcing my hips to push back against his hand, riding it with a need he’d created within me.

“Harder,” I demanded, as his eyes sparkled. Yet he didn’t give me what I desired, what I craved. Lucian fucked me with his fingers in a leisurely tempo. He watched as I jerked against him with the desire for him to give me what I needed. “Don’t bitch out on me now.”

“Who is in control, Lena? You or me?” he asked, refusing to release my stare, which held me prisoner. His hand tightened against my throat, closing my airway while he crooked his fingers within me, skimming against the one spot in my body that he fully owned. I shuddered with the intensity of the tension coiling in my belly. “Now, be a good girl for me and fuck my fingers so I can taste that pussy I’m being denied by Nyx showing up. Come on, show me what you got for me, little girl.” His mouth closed against my shoulder, and he bit into my flesh as I rode his fingers desperately.

He growled loudly against the skin between his teeth. I opened my legs further, taking more as he pushed another finger into my body, spreading them wide before he withdrew the third, pumping two back into my aching flesh. I gasped from the delicious pain, moving my hips at a hurried, needy pace as I felt my arousal coating his hand.

“Messy little bitch, aren’t you? I said fucking come for me, so I can taste what belongs to me.” His lips kissed the spot where he’d bitten into my flesh, forcing his fingers deeper into my needy cunt. I mewled, slamming down onto the thick fingers, wishing it was his cock I was about to paint with my arousal.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, yes!” I howled, shuddering violently.

The pain and pleasure collided into one earth-shattering orgasm that made my knees threaten to give out. Yet Lucian didn’t relent, continuing to fucking wreck my pussy. The sound was erotic, my body sucking against the intruding appendages as he watched me coming unabashedly. His hand on my throat was the one thing keeping me upright and not sprawled on the floor in a heap of wanton need and satisfying hunger.

“Keep moving. I didn’t say you could stop riding me yet, did I? Come on, my sweet good girl, keep coming. I love the noises you make when you come for me. Give me more, Lena. I want to taste and lick your sweet essence from my fingers, and I am starving for your cunt.” He thrust his fingers against my G-spot, knowing I was falling over the edge with his dominance and power wafting through me. His magic wrapped around me, and his eyes ignited with blue flames. I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound escaped the hold he had on my throat.

“Lucian,” I whispered through heavy lust, uncaring that I sounded needy as fuck. He enjoyed the way I whimpered his name, begging for him to use his cock, which is what we both really wanted and craved to be inside my body.

My walls clenched against his fingers tightly. He watched me come apart, breaking into shattered pieces as I painted his fingers with my release. Instead of slowing the thrusting, he added another finger into my tightening pussy, stretching me. He chuckled darkly before loosening his hold on my throat. He kissed my shoulder and used the hand to thread his fingers through my hair, tilting my head.

I felt him pull out of me, then watched as he slowly sucked his fingers clean, making noises of contentment. He moaned, smiling as I kept pumping my hips, even though he’d left my body. Aftershocks continued until he’d licked the last finger clean, running his tongue over his lips and grinning wolfishly while I fought to gain control of my body.

“Tonight, I’m going to devour that pussy until it drips down my chin. If you’re a good girl, I will let you ride me before destroying your tight cunt. The next time Lucifer’s lips touch yours, I will bind you to the bed and fuck you until you’re drained and nothing more than a pile of need and desire that can’t fucking move. You’re my girl, Lena. There’s no world where that isn’t true, and I would destroy it for you. Do you understand me?”

“I’m yours, Lucian,” I replied, spinning around to lift on my toes, placing a kiss against his lips. “I was yours from the moment you kissed me outside of my house. I came back, didn’t I? As the keeper of your gates, and the seal that belongs to you, and only you; I am only yours, and you’re very aware of that, asshole. I couldn’t belong to you more, even if I tried or was permanently attached to that perfect cock of yours,” I chuckled, watching him smiling wickedly at that idea. “Lucifer said he could heal my womb, but I want your baby. He said you could do it as well. Can you give us another chance at being parents?”

“I will give you the world, little one, but I cannot heal your womb because only that which houses a soul can create life. If you had a child without a soul, it wouldn’t be something that you’d want. The child wouldn’t love you back. It would be a soulless being that never held emotion or knew what they were. You and the other furies that Nyx created know what you should feel. You can experience emotions because you once knew them with a fire that others without a soul would not understand. The sacrifice you and Joshua made was a selfless act that allowed you to be brought back to serve a greater purpose. What Lucifer is offering you, it can be done. But what you would create would be a monster. One that would destroy this world and any other they could reach.”

Tears burned my eyes and trickled down my cheeks. “I want our son back, Lucian. I want to be a mother to him. My only choice, or decision as his mother, was to free him from this world and what Lucifer and Katarina intended for him. To protect you from what they wanted you to do to our son. I deserve to be a mother.”

“You are a mother, Lena. You are a mother because you did what no one else could do for our son. You allowed him to escape a life of horror and pain. That is something only a mother would choose, knowing you’d be left with the loss and that pain. You will be Makenna’s mother when we get her back. If there were another way for you to have a child, I would find it if that is what you wanted, but not in the way that Lucifer offered. He’d demand you were his, and I’d destroy everything to get you back from him.”

“I don’t want him or his child. I want yours, but I wouldn’t let you destroy this world, Lucian.”

He smirked, letting his entire body to change while I regarded him. Souls pushed against the armor that he now wore, glowing an eerie blue color, and his eyes became a clear portal, allowing me a deeper view of his world. I lifted my hand, cupping his sharp jawline as his solid form blurred, and offered me a rare look at what he was. What he was. He wasn’t human. He wasn’t even a thing. He was everything and nothing at the same time.

“I didn’t say you’d get a choice in me destroying the world, sweet girl. I said I would destroy it, and no one could stop me if I decide to do so. Do you understand that? I am the one the gods fear and cannot control. I am the oldest living thing inside this world, far older than that little boy who offered you what you crave most, knowing your vulnerabilities because he created those weaknesses within you. Remember that because I have no mercy. I don’t care if this world continues turning on its pathetic fucking axis. I only care that you’re mine and with me. If you’re not, then I have no reason to protect this world you love so much from continuing to exist. I would swallow it whole and watch it burn without caring who suffered. You are my world, Magdalena. Without you, everything else ceases to exist.”

I swallowed past the fear and warmth of his words. Still staring up into his iridescent gaze, he lifted his hands, wiping away my tears before lowering his lips, brushing them against my forehead. I whispered his name softly, and his voice echoed through my mind as I heard the distant screams of souls crying out in pain. He would destroy the world for me. I didn’t need to question it because Lucian didn’t make idle threats, ever.

Most men bought women flowers or trinkets.

Not Lucian. No, not him.

He promised to eradicate worlds for me and murder anyone who stood in our way.

He wasn’t a hero or even cared about the archetype that the world labeled him. He didn’t play by the same rules we did. He’d probably been present when the rules were created and laughed when he was told to follow them. He was that old. Lucian was the villain, and I was the woman he wanted at his side, burning down the world if it threatened our goals.

World peace, my ass; I didn’t care about peace or rules.

This world hadn’t given a shit about me, and I wasn’t about to care about it now. Lucian was all that mattered, and as long as I was beside him, nothing else could touch what we had. I smiled, exhaling while he shimmered before me. I brushed my lips against his, pulling him toward the door as he solidified.

“Let’s send Nyx away quickly. I need you to finish soothing the ache you created.”

“Greedy little bitch, aren’t you?”

“So what if I am? You like me being greedy when it benefits you.” I laughed, closing my eyes against the sensation of his touch and the pressure of his hand against mine as he squeezed it.

“Let’s get this over with,” he grumbled, smacking my butt playfully. “My girl needs to be fucked and reminded whom she belongs to.”