The Dominion soldiers all around us pulled away, giving us a wide berth. We—the formidable demigods—had failed to protect our only woman, and now we were like wounded beasts, ready to slaughter anyone and anything in our wrath if they got in our way.
I thought of destroying the world I’d once defended.
Héctor remained still, his eyes empty and dead, his wings limp behind him. A second later, a spark of dark fire warmed his gaze.
How could he? The son of a bitch! We’d just lost our mate forever.
Or had he gone mad?
Her demise should have undone him. He’d bonded with her first and deeply. He’d never touched a woman until her, his destined mate.
She was the only one he could ever have. She’d given him his world back, only to take it away after their brief union.
All three of us—Paxton, Axel, and I—had resented the death demigod for stealing Marigold from us, until she’d also accepted and loved us.
“It’s my fault,” Paxton whispered, his scratchy voice breaking the heavy silence and grief. “If I’d told you about her half-demon heritage, we’d have prevented this. She wouldn’t have taken her own life. She would still have hope .... I just wanted to keep her for myself. I wanted to have a special bond with her by protecting her and her secrets from all of you....”
Axel and I rammed our fists into the fucker’s face.
This piece of shit had cost us our mate! He should have died instead of her.
We punched him repetitively and brutally, wanting him to rot and burn. Paxton didn’t fight back. He just knelt there as if he enjoyed our vicious beating, wanting the pain to soothe his blackened, broken soul.
Blood streamed down his face, but we found no satisfaction or comfort in hurting him.
Héctor trained his eyes on us, seeming like he wanted to join us in beating the crap out of Paxton. But instead, he shoved Axel and me off of our cousin and stood between us as if all of a sudden he was the sea demigod’s shield.
Bring it on, fuckers,my thunders roared in my head, pain blaring through my skull.Let’s battle. Let’s tear each other apart!
“I’ve known about our mate’s demon origin as long as he has,” Héctor said. “I wanted her to trust me enough to come forward and confide in me. I wanted to give her time to trust us all. I was a fucking moron. We’re all morons. We don’t deserve her. We let her feel so alone and unsafe that she had to ask for an outsider’s assistance.”
My cold, empty gaze swept to where the ancient tree—the portal to the hidden realm—had been.
A glimmering pulse caught my attention, and I sucked in a breath. It was the elemental, or what was left of it, still tethered to this world.
It was what my Rosebud had come for.
My cousins’ violent arguments brushed past my ears until I heard the death demigod whisper calmly. “We haven’t lost her entirely. I’m cursed with death’s touch, but I’m also blessed with gifting one life, just once in my existence.”
Paxton’s and Axel’s attention snagged on Héctor, a light of desperate hope swirling back to life in their bloodshot eyes. Power visibly coursed through them once again.
A spiderweb of lightning shot out of me, striking the twilit sky.
The image of my woman writhing beneath me flashed before me.
She moaned breathlessly as I drove into her depth. I wanted to be gentle with her, but she turned me into a rage of lust. She loved a fierce fuck. She loved me fucking her brutally.
I pounded into her, watching her face radiate in ecstasy, inhaling her scent of sweet rose.
Her lovely pussy, tight and hot, gloved my cock perfectly. After three thrusts, I already needed to cum and pump my demigod seed into her warm womb. Only she could do that to me—make me lose control.
I’d give everything to have my Rosebud back, to fuck her raw and hard, over and over, and love her.
I strode toward the dying elemental—a being that’d helped end my mate’s life. I’d interrogate it, punish it, and finally destroy it.
Then the spark flared and exploded again. It tore into four parts and shot toward us. Each beam hit one of us and blasted into our bloodstreams, alien energy flowing into our veins.
A voice rang in our heads.