Dawn of Chaos and Fury by Melissa K. Roehrich - 59

56

“ W here’s Mads?” Axel asked, looking up from the book he was reading when Kat entered their bedroom.

“With Dey,” she answered, closing the door behind her and leaning against it. “She’s keeping him with her for the next few hours.”

Axel’s brow furrowed.

With Tessa the only real option for an Achaz Lady right now, they’d moved into the Arius Manor outside the Acropolis and given Arius House to him and Kat. It had been weird for a while, and he’d had the private wing his father had occupied for decades deep cleaned. Then he’d asked Cienna to cleanse it with all her Witchy ways. They’d had the main bedroom completely gutted and hired some earth Fae to remodel it. He was doing the same thing to every fucking room in this house, but at least the rooms he shared with his family were being done first.

Rooms that were once dark and foreboding were being brought back to life. Curtains thrown wide. New flooring and brighter walls. With soft grey walls, the space felt lighter, while the red and orange accents made it feel warm and familiar.

His sister had come to stay at Arius House as well after all was said and done. She was helping with the restructured academies, particularly with those Legacy who were coming into their power. She’d had to learn to control her shadows all on her own, and she’d seemed to have found a niche in helping others hone their own power. Axel was enjoying having her close, and she spent a lot of time with Maddox; however, her rooms were also in another wing of the house.

“And why is Maddox with Dey?” he asked, setting the book aside and watching her. She dropped his gaze, her eyes looking anywhere but at him, and it had him sitting up straighter. “Kat, what is it? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” she said quickly. “I just…”

“Katya…”

“I cancelled your next delivery of blood,” she blurted.

Axel’s brows shot up, and it took him a few minutes to find words. “Okay,” he said slowly. “Is there a particular reason you cancelled the delivery of my sustenance?”

“Because Maddox was born. It’s been a few months now,” she answered, still not looking at him, but her cheeks were flushing.

A smirk pulled at the corner of his lips, realizing what she was trying to convey, but she was going to have to ask for it.

“Maddox’s birth doesn’t negate my need for blood, kitten,” Axel said, his voice dropping low as he pushed to his feet.

“I know, but you’d said—” She gasped when he was suddenly in front of her, and she shoved at his bare chest. “Stop doing that,” she snapped.

He caught her wrists, bringing them above her head and pinning them to the door with one hand. With the other, he used one finger to tip her chin up.

Leaning in, he brushed his cheek along her jaw. “I love it when you get jealous of little glass bottles.”

“I’m not—” she cried in outrage, his mouth on hers before she could finish whatever she was going to say.

His hands dropped to her hips, and that outrage turned to a whimper as she pressed herself against him. He could feel her nipples through the thin silk fabric of her top, and he pulled back to drag it over her head before plastering his lips back to hers. His breath fanned across her face, and her arms were looped around his neck, keeping him close. Frantic. Desperate.

Sliding his hands around, he cupped her ass, and she immediately hopped up, her legs coming around his waist as he thrust his hips into her, pushing her back against the door once more.

“There are conditions, kitten,” he murmured into her mouth, one of his hands coming back to grip her delicate neck and hold her still.

Her amber eyes were bright with exhilaration and lust. She’d been wanting this for a long time. She’d never liked him getting something he needed from someone or something else.

“This is always your choice,” he murmured, sliding his lips along her jaw. “Always. If you ever don’t want⁠—”

“I will,” she panted, pulling him somehow closer with her legs.

“But if you do,” he insisted. “You are not a blood source. You are my wife. Understood?”

She nodded, her chest rising and falling with each stuttered breath she took.

“And you will use your magic against me if I can’t… If I lose control,” he said, holding her stare. “Swear it, Katya.”

The need dissipated for a moment, and she cupped his cheek. “I trust you,” she said softly. “You need to trust me too. This is logical. I’m right here, and⁠—”

He broke into a dark laugh because she was going back to logic with this. “You’re nervous,” he teased, his thumb sweeping over her pulse point. She always reverted to logic when she was nervous.

“A little,” she admitted. “I think this will be different from when you drank from my wrist at the House of Four.”

“Undoubtedly,” he nearly growled. “There will be fucking involved this time, kitten.”

She sucked in a sharp breath, and he smiled darkly.

They stared at each other for a long moment, and then he swallowed thickly, his control about gone. Because she was right here, and he’d been shoving down this desire since the day he’d become a Night Child. Knowing he was seconds away from having the blood he never stopped craving?

Desperation was about to win out.

“Are you sure?” he asked, the words gravel.

“Yes, Axel,” she whispered, her fingers winding into his hair. “I still choose you.”

He inhaled a shuddering breath, running his lips along her jaw once more. His hand dropped back to her hips, holding her to him as his mouth skated down her throat. Then he scraped his fangs gently along her flesh before pausing.

Her breathing was erratic, and her other hand was squeezing his biceps.

“Relax, kitten,” he murmured. “It should only sting for a second.”

“I—”

But she gasped as he sank his fangs into her throat, the first rush of coppery fire dancing across his taste buds.

“Fuck,” she gasped, the fingers in his hair tightening and keeping him at her neck.

He took a deep pull, and she moaned, her head falling back and thudding softly against the door.

She was everything. Jasmine and citrus. Smoke and heat. He was groaning into her neck when he took another long pull. Her life force feeding him, as if she wasn’t the reason he was alive the way it was.

He took another pull before forcing himself to pull back, studying the two puncture marks and the blood dripping from them now. Down her neck, her chest, to her breasts.

“You good, kitten?” he asked, slowly letting her slide down the length of his body until her feet were back on the floor.

“Yes, but did you take enough?” she asked breathily. “That didn’t seem like enough.”

“It’s not even close,” he murmured, pitching forward to drag his tongue between the valley of her breasts, tracing the blood trail. She gasped again, shifting beneath him, and he smiled. “Just checking in.”

He lowered down, pulling her silk sleep shorts down with him. She stepped out of them, and he tossed them aside as he settled on his knees before her. Fingers skating up a calf, he lifted behind her knee, draping her leg over his shoulder. With his other hand, he brushed his thumb along her center, learning just how good she was as he started massaging her clit.

“Axel,” she breathed, her head falling back once more. Then she whimpered when he pressed a kiss to her inner thigh, moving higher and doing it again, his tongue flicking out with each kiss until he paused, looking up at her. Embers flickered in her eyes as she watched him sink his fangs into her thigh and drink again.

Longer.

Deeper.

He pushed a finger into her wet core, still rubbing her clit. For several minutes, this was them. Him taking and her giving. Her fingers were tight in his hair, tugging at his scalp, but she never moved to stop him. There for him in every possible way. His, not because of a lost bond, but because they chose to be everything for each other.

After one last suck, he pulled back and slid his mouth up, feeling the blood smear along her flesh. He brushed his nose along her cunt, inhaling all of her with the taste of her blood lingering on his tongue.

Now he wanted to taste something else.

Slowly pressing forward, he parted her with his tongue, flicking her clit.

Her hands slammed onto his shoulders, nails digging in as she inhaled sharply. Lifting her other leg, he hoisted that one over his other shoulder, leaving her at his mercy as she pressed against the door. His mouth closed around her, sucking and licking and swirling his tongue, this taste far sweeter than her blood had been.

“More, Axel,” she choked out, her hips rocking against his mouth now.

Not one to deny her a godsdamn thing, he sucked harder at her throbbing clit beneath his tongue while sinking two fingers into her dripping core. Her cry only spurred him on as he felt all of her trembling, right on the precipice.

She wanted to be the only one to give him blood? He would forever be the only one to give her this.

He didn’t stop, didn’t let up, until she was clamping her thighs around his ears and pulling at his hair. His mouth was fused to her center as she rode out her high, and he drank it all down just as he’d drank from her throat and thigh.

Not until she slumped against the door did he pull back, dragging his tongue along the smear of blood on her thigh. She was working to get her breathing under control as he scooped her up and carried her to their bed, gently laying her among the blankets and pillows.

And later that night, after Dey had brought them Maddox and Kat had fed him, he was walking around their dark room with his son in the crook of his arm. Kat had already fallen back to sleep, exhausted from him taking blood from her.

Who would have thought he’d end up here?

Night Child and a leader of the Underground, working to bring them all out of the dark.

Things he’d resisted and feared, fought against at every turn.

No longer a spare heir, but a husband and father, rebuilding a world from ash so their son would know how to dream.