Page 19 of The Powerless Witch
“Why bother? You wouldn’t have believed anything I said,” she mumbled, throwing the towel on the bed. I looked away the moment she broke eye contact, listening to her slip under the covers.
“I…” I started, but then realized she was right. So I said the only thing I could. “I’m sorry.” Shivers ran down my spine when I felt her attention settle on me. Taking a deep breath, I leaned back on the sofa, staring up at the ceiling. “For the longest time, all I could feel was hate and rage. All my life has been one loss after another and at the center of all that pain was always a witch. You were just the only one that got away.”
“I was cut into pieces because I tried to save what was left of your people,” she scoffed, but her voice was lacking her previous sharpness. I winced as the memory flashed in my mind, the haunting horror and satisfaction I felt while I watched the hunters tear her apart.
“I know. What I’m trying to say is that…I was blinded by…by my grief and pain. I never bothered to ask the hard questions. It was easier to hate.” She made a short, noncommittal sound that could have been an agreement just as well as mockery. “You killed my father. I watched it with my own eyes.” She kept silent this time, but her scent changed—fear slithered in, or rather, regret. “Knowing the truth now, I cannot even blame you for it. After learning what the hunters did to Alice when my parents all but sold her for their own safety, I’m not sure if I would have spared any of them if given the chance.”
She remained quiet and so did I. I didn’t know how to say the things I wanted to say. I didn’t know how to feel them after all this time. She was by no means an innocent soul—I had seen her kill without batting an eye—but she was also not the irredeemable monster I had believed her to be. She had helped my sister when she had nothing to gain from it. She had died for a promise, defending people who hated her. Then she had almost done it all over again, with my new pack. With no agenda, and no power to back her up.
Just a person doing what they felt was right. A woman who was now tied to me with a bond that only death could sever. A broken witch hiding the feelings of regret and sadness, of longing and hope. I wasn’t sure if she knew I could sense all of that, but the connection strengthened the longer we sat in silence.
Just as the thought crossed my mind, the morose sensation disappeared, replaced by a lust so strong that it made me gasp. I was pretty sure it didn’t comefrom me, but the way it made my dick jerk under the towel made that irrelevant. I tried to ignore it, wondering what she would say if she knew I could feel her deepest, most private emotions. I doubted she’d like the idea any more than the news that we were tied to each other for the rest of our lives.
Holding my breath, I listened while she adjusted herself in the bed with a soft sigh. If it wasn’t for the emotions passing through the bond, I would have thought she was asleep, but I didn’t think a person could exude so much desire while unconscious.
My cock jerked again, and I gritted my teeth, trying to think about anything that might turn me off. I wasn’t in a position to want her, not after everything, and I doubted she’d want that from me. But I failed. I failed so badly that I would have laughed if I had the breath.
The memory of that night in the club pushed into my mind uninvited, of the sensation of her against my body, of the fucking bliss I felt with her tight pussy wrapped around me. I had hated it back then, hated that my people’s murderer used me in that way, made me feel helpless all over again. But now that I knew the truth, the memory looked different.
The way her face lit up with pleasure, the way she panted as she rode my dick, the way she gripped my shoulders as if she couldn’t get enough of me…
A groan escaped my lips before I could stop it. I gritted my teeth, praying she hadn’t heard it, and grabbed my cock, squeezing it painfully. I wasn’t going to do this. I wasn’t going to imagine fucking her when she was lying in the bed behind me. I…
“Do you still hate me, puppy?” she asked, and I looked over my shoulder in surprise. She was half-lying, half sitting into two of the pillows, the covers drawn to her collarbones but showing she was naked beneath them. Her face was closed, but her eyes burned with the same fire as that night, the fire that had almost been my undoing.
“I don’t…know,” I replied honestly, watching for her reaction. She tilted her head to the side, biting the inside of her lip in thought. It was such a simple gesture, but with the desire coursing between us like a living thing, it made my body burn in a way I didn’t think possible.
Fuck, I was going to lose it. I needed to get out of there.
I was just getting up from the sofa when she spoke again. “But you want to fuck me?”
I froze, trying to ignore how my dick tightened in response, begging me to get into that bed and tear those sheets off her. Pressing the damn thing to my thigh, I made sure to keep my back to her while I headed to where I left my clothes on the chair by the window.
“No, I don’t,” I lied. She let out a low, humming sound and the bond between us went taut, burning me to my core as if she had poured molten lava between us.
“Did you know, puppy, that there are ways for witches to speak telepathically? Once you’ve done it, it’s really easy to tell when someone is in your head. I don’t even need magic for that.” I swallowed, turning to look at her. The familiar smirk was back on her face, the look in her eyes beckoning me to the bed. Was she influenced by the lust or did she really desire me? It made no sense for her to want me, not after the way I had treated her. “So let me ask you again, and this time, try to answer truthfully. Nobody likes a liar.” She sat up straighter, letting the sheet fall so low, it barely covered her pebbled nipples. “Do you want to fuck me, wolf?”
“Yes,” I said breathlessly, holding her gaze. “But I won’t because neither of us really wants this.” I grabbed my clothes and headed toward the door, not caring who saw me naked. I needed to get away from her, away from this temptation, before I did something else she’d hate me for.
I was wrapping my fingers around the handle when an even sweeter smell filled the air, accompanied by a soft, inviting moan. Closing my eyes, I yanked the door open and stepped out. I leaned my back against the wood, trying to calm my breathing.
This was hell. This was truly hell.
Just before I found the will to walk away, my vision blurred. I froze, wondering what was happening when my mind flooded with pictures and sensations that were not mine. It felt like sharing memories and thoughts within the mindlink, but this one came from…her.
I gasped as I watched her smile sweetly, without the sharp edges of anger, while she threw her head back to expose her long neck. A man—not just a man, but fucking Roman—entered my vision, leaving kiss after kiss on her bristling skin before dragging his fangs over it. Celeste moaned as she ran her fingers through his hair before pulling him for a kiss.
The memory changed, and I blinked as I watched her sprawled on a big bed with Roman between her thighs, eating her pussy until she was begging him to fuck her. Then more and more of him kissing her, biting her, fucking her on every surface and inevery hole while she moaned and writhed in his arms, her expression one of complete bliss.
The sight appalled and infuriated me at the same time.
I didn’t remember barging back into the room, but when I blinked again, I was already on top of the bed, hovering over Celeste. She had let the covers fall, her hand dipped between her legs. Or was, before I grabbed her wrist, pulling it away from her dripping pussy. Her heart was racing and her eyes were glazed, as if she had been close to orgasm, when I stopped her.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I snarled, squeezing her hand when she tried to free it. “I don’t want to see him fucking you! I don’t want to think of any other man touching you! I want…” I caught myself, gritting my teeth as she watched me with that taunting smile that made my dick harden even more. “Is this payback for marking you? Torturing me with what I can’t have? What I would fucking kill for?”
She didn’t even flinch when I drew closer, even though I was sure my eyes had shifted into bright gold. I could feel my wolf coming to the surface, the strong emotions grappling to steal my control.
“I know it was wrong to claim you without consent, but this is not helping!” I snapped, hoping at least a bit of what I was saying was getting through to her because I was not sure I had it in me to make the argument a second time. Just feeling the heat of her body, smelling her desire…it called to parts of me that were making me weak. “You don’t want—”