Twisted Veil of Devotion

Part 12

Zane POV:

The sharp sting hit my left shoulder before I even saw it coming. Pain, hot and raw, spread through my arm. I stumbled back, momentarily disoriented, but not from the pain.......it wasn't the bullet that shocked me. 

It was her.

I turned my head slowly, my vision narrowing as I locked onto the figure holding the gun. 

My Stella. 

Her hands shook, but the determination in her eyes was unmistakable. 

She had shot me. My sweet, innocent Stella had dared to pull the trigger.

I ducked just in time as another shot rang out, the bullet whizzing past my head. My men shouted in panic, but their voices faded into the background. My focus was entirely on her, standing there, defiant, armed, and dangerous. 

She wasn't the trembling girl I'd watched for so long, the one I swore to protect. No, this was something different. Something more.

My little Stella could shoot a gun. 

My mind reeled with the realization. 

She had been hiding this fire, this fight, all along, and now she was showing it to me. A slow, wicked smile spread across my face as I crouched behind a low stone wall. Blood trickled from my wound, soaking into my shirt, but I barely felt it. The pain was nothing compared to the surge of adrenaline, the rush of pure desire that ripped through me.

My heart thundered in my chest, not from fear, but from excitement. My blood pounded in my ears, matching the rhythm of the rapid pulse beneath my skin. Stella was fighting back, and God, it made me want her even more. 

The thrill of it, the rawness of her defiance, it was intoxicating.

I could feel my body responding to her challenge, a hunger building inside me that I had never felt so strongly. My dick strained against my pants, the pressure mounting with every second I watched her stand there, gun in hand, ready to kill me if she had to.

A groan escaped my lips, low and guttural. She had no idea what she was doing to me. Every time she showed that fire, that strength, it only made me more certain of one thing, Stella was mine. 

And this version of her, this fierce, dangerous creature, was everything I had ever wanted.

I raised my hand to the wound in my shoulder, pressing it lightly as blood seeped through my fingers. It was a reminder, a mark of her resistance. My little Stella, trying to fight me off. But this wasn't over. 

Not by a long shot.

I leaned around the stone wall, keeping my movements slow, careful. My eyes never left hers, drinking in every detail of her fierce determination. She was scared, I could see it in the way her hands trembled just slightly, but that fear only added to her beauty. 

She was magnificent. 

A warrior in her own right.

"Stella!" I called out, my voice low and dripping with something dark and possessive. "You think you can stop me with that gun?"

She didn't respond, just raised the weapon higher, her aim locked on me. But I could see the conflict in her eyes. She was battling herself as much as she was battling me.

My smile widened. "You won't pull that trigger again, love. Not because you're scared... but because deep down, you want me."

Her face twisted in disgust, but I could see through it. I knew her. Knew the way her pulse quickened when she saw me. She could deny it all she wanted, but I had watched her for long enough to know that beneath all that fear, she felt something.