Underneath a Dark Moon (Twisted Dark #3)

Epilogue: Rules For Forever

I didn't know why I found the moment perfect. Lacey held close to me, our mouths pressed together, the sound of screams, and the scent of burning flesh, it came together to create this perfect moment. My female was with me, I was holding her close, and she was currently safe. The Betrayer's line was to be decimated, sentenced to death by my female in such a way that soothed the beast and my instinct with its breathless brutality and with her being the Queen of the Covens I was slightly soothed by the fact her now royal position would keep the witches from burning her as Mercutio had wished.

I pulled away from her, looking at how the firelight danced across her alabaster skin and caught her eyes. Her irises lightened to an almost burned honey colour as she looked at me, a flush travelling across her cheeks. I grabbed the hand that rested on my chest and pressed it into me tighter as the burning male's screams grew into a frenzied crescendo and the other males started to take up the sounds, murmuring demands that we end his suffering, that we end the torment.

Their gazes would not fall on Lacey. I knew they wouldn't. My uncle had orchestrated their torment to the very small detail that they would never once look upon the face of their High Queen and if they did their end would be violent and drawn out and I would preside over it. I wasn't known for being nice or merciful. I was not a benevolent male by any means and when it would come to the protection of my female I would be down right nasty and I would relish in every tormented scream and every second I drew out their death longer.

I wanted her away from this all. I knew I had one portal left and I  brushed the backs of my fingers down the satin of her cheek, the movement activating the spell. "My quarters." I wouldn't have my female among the screams of torment and the scent of burning flesh. There was much I wished to do with her now that she was back in my arms and I wouldn't do any of it in an ancient dungeon that had once been the agony of the pieces of our souls.

She turned her head to look at the glowing portal and my heart thumped in my chest unpleasantly. I had read the order, I knew what it was she had been lead to believe. I wouldn't have forgiven someone for ordering such a brutality on a child but all I had were my words and she could leave as easily as she had before. She could manipulate space and time with her magick just to stay separate from me and it was a thought that pained me deep in my core.

She turned and headed for the portal, her hand slipping off my chest but not pulling from my own as she stepped through. I allowed her to tug on my hand, allowed her to pull me through into my world. The portal snapped closed behind me and I looked at her in that dark blue dress next to the earthy tones in my private room. She looked like a sapphire among stone and moss and it was brilliant in it's beauty.

I felt like a sap, like a whipped male that was chasing after a female like a puppy. It seemed as though Cherri had been right in that. I didn't know how to feel but it was grating. "You are turning me into a mooning male." I shook my head and she tilted hers as she looked at me.

"Singing sonnets to get into bed with women should be something you are used to." She looked away, looking around the stone room. It had been built by the first werewolves, this compound was the first and it had always housed the High King of High Kings, it was the seat of power for my people.

"I've never felt the urge to before you." The words were truthful. I had never looked at a female before and wished to speak of her beauty, wished that I could paint her with all the vibrancy of the colours and still end up with a portrait that paled in comparison to the reality. "Do you believe me?" I needed to know where she stood, where everything fell. I had hunted her before, tracked her down. Used everything in my arsenal to make sure I found her and I would do it again and again.