Page 29 of Urban Gladiator

“Depends on what you have in mind.”

I flexed my inner muscles and squeezed his cock when I was fully impaled. His eyes widened, and he groaned. So I did it again and again, riding him like it was my salvation.

And I wanted to test him, see how far I could push the alpha before he took over and fucked my brains out. I squeezed my inner walls a few more times. Each one drew a ragged groan out of him.

But then I was flipped onto my back. The move happened so fast I barely had time to comprehend it. Rowan dialed things up to an eleven, and I clung to him, just along for the ride.

He fucked me like he owned me. He fucked me like he was trying to work me out of his system. And I took that opportunity to slide inside his mind. I gasped at the truth I found.

No. It couldn’t be. I couldn’t be. It wasn’t possible, was it?

His mate.

It ran through his mind like it was on a recorded loop. His wolf ached to mark me, claim me, and make me his for eternity. But the man was in conflict over the path forward. Trying to do what was right for his people.

I almost felt sorry for him.

Almost.

Because after what I heard today, he still planned to sacrifice me for the greater good of Avalon. And that I couldn’t forgive. I wouldn’t. No matter how amazing the sex was, it wasn’t worth my life.

He pistoned inside me, driving so deep I felt him in the back of my throat. Our mating turned primal. In my fury, I gripped him tight, scoring his back with my nails. I bit his earlobe and moaned because he was hitting that one spot inside me. It made me see pleasure-filled stars as they burst behind my eyelids.

And I knew he was ruining me. Years from now, I would remember this slice of time with him. Until his name became a curse and I wanted to erase him. But even a memory-wiping spell wouldn’t take care of it. Because he had emblazoned himself upon my soul.

I could feel the mating bond.

And there was a part of me that ached just as much as he for the connection. Because my soul recognized him. He was gruff and unemotional until we were in bed, and then he let down his walls and let me see him.

He didn’t hold back or treat me like I couldn’t handle him. He treated me as an equal.

My climax reached up. Grabbed me by the throat. And I dissolved at the ecstasy flooding my body. There was no other word for it as I came. My orgasm pushed Rowan over the edge. He strained, pumping his shaft as he filled me with his seed.

And a vision struck me. A little boy with a dark mop of hair and an infant with tufts of red. And they both looked at me. I knew they were our children. But it was a potential future that would never manifest into being.

Not when their father planned on sacrificing me and I planned to destroy parts of the city. There would be no going back. But I was resolved. It was something I needed to do. They had to stop killing witches.

My kind didn’t deserve to be treated as less than amongst the other monsters of Avalon.

Rowan released me, shifting off me and onto his back beside me. I rolled onto my side, away from him. I couldn’t let him see what I planned to do. But the vision rattled me enough that my emotions weren’t in check.

“Did I hurt you?” He ran a gentle hand down my back.

I squeezed my eyes shut. “Like you care if you did or not. I’m just a convenient fuck for you as your prize.”

“Ember—”

I shot him a scowl over my shoulder. “We both know I’m only here for you to exact revenge against my people. It’s the same thing your kind has been doing for two hundred years to my people.”

“You lost the war,” he replied with a shrug, as if it were no big deal.

Shifting until I faced him, I placed a hand against my chest. “I did nothing of the sort. I didn’t even exist two hundred years ago. But I’m being made to suffer and endure for crimes I didn’t commit. So don’t come at me with I lost the war. The only thing I lost was being born a witch. And that’s something I had zero control over. Just like I have no control over the fact that I’m your prisoner.”

Rowan clenched his jaw so tight it was shocking he didn’t snap a few canines. His eyes narrowed. “What do you want to be?”

He stared at me expectantly. Did he really think I would bend this easily? When he couldn’t even admit the truth—he had every intention of upholding tradition and letting me die in an archaic bloodletting ritual. I wanted to shout at him that it was what dark witches do. That’s the kind of spellcasting a witch would be expelled from the Raven Coven for. And once a witch went dark, there was no coming back. They sacrificed parts of their soul for power. And that power corrupted them absolutely.

There was a glimmer of hope in his eyes. This was a chance to create a bridge between our worlds.

---