Page 126 of Claimed By a King

Then I tell him what happened right after Gunner shot Chris. I don’t spare any details, the word picture I paint is as gruesome as it was to live through it.

“That was the first time he raped me,” I sob into my hands, letting myself feel the despair, fear, shock, loneliness, and helplessness I felt when it happened. “He had done other stuff, but never done that.”

He doesn’t say anything, but I don’t need to see him to know I have his full attention.

“H-he threw me down on the floor and fucking raped me right there. With Chris’ body on my left, and the picture of me and Leslie on the right.”

I pause and shakily take a deep breath.

“Before that he’d… he’d… fuck. I thought I was dreaming about you, Gray. But it wasn’t a dream, and it wasn’t you.” I scream the last part as I’m hit with the betrayal I felt when Gunner brought it up like he’d done me a favor by making a mockery of mine and Gray’s intimate moments. “He said he’d done it for my benefit. To get me ready and b-because h-he wanted me to—”

Gray picks up the now empty coffee pot and hurls it at the wall. The cups Alana and I used are quick to follow, and every item breaks into a million pieces.

The rage marring his features and the feral growls falling steadily from his mouth should scare me, but they don’t. Instead, they awaken a feeling I’d almost forgotten I was capable of feeling. Pure, unadulterated, all-consuming love for this man.

I’ve told him I loved him, and I meant it. I’ve felt it in my core. But this… as he loses his shit because of what happened to me, the feeling intensifies, morphing into liquid fire that thrums through my veins.

“Gray,” Igasp.

At hearing his name, he snaps his head to me, his eyes seeing only me through what I imagine being a red haze of anger.

“I love you,” I croak.

His eyes turn to slits as he stalks closer to me, and it doesn’t once occur that I should recoil or feel scared. The monster in front of me is my monster, and I know he’s paying close attention to my body language and words.

I cup his face when he’s in front of me, and without looking away I press my lips to his. It’s only a peck, yet it’s enough to make the air around us spark.

“And I love you,” he growls, staying true to his word. “My princess. Zo. Zoe. You’re every-fucking-thing to me.”

The words cause a tension I wasn’t even aware of to unfurl inside me. It’s silly, really. I knew he loved me. It was tangible between us in every touch and look we’ve shared. Yet there’s no denying how great it feels to hear it.

“We’ll make him pay, Princess. I swear it.”

“We?” I question, not sure I heard him right.

With how protective Gray is, I never thought he’d include me in a plan for revenge as it means I have to get close to Gunner. And if I’m honest, despite what I’ve said to Cara, I wasn’t sure I would really be able to do it.

But as I look at Gray, I know I can with him at my side.

“Yes,” he rasps. “Together. That’s the only way. I can never give you back what he took from you, but I can give you revenge.”

Apparently threats of violence against my abuser is my kind of love language, because my heart jumps in joy.

Grayson

Titch stands at the end of the room, his cheeks red and his lips pulled into a smile as I stand from my chair in church.

“This is a long time coming,” I rasp, approaching him holding our Cruz Kings’ skull head patch. “Take your cut off.”

Thumps on the table sound through the room as my club brothers’ fists pound the table, and my eyes dart to Zoe to check that she is doing alright.

It goes against all typical club rules to have her in church with us, but I’mtheKing now, and I’ll be fucked if I don’t have my princess by my side. My brothers don’t seem concerned with having Zoe here, thank fuck, and although she still seems a little unsure of what she’s meant to be doing, she sits tall with her chin raised showing the same poise she used to carry before any MC got their claws into her.

“Rory Titchwell, do you swear your alleg—”

“Yes.” He cuts me off, his green eyes wide with excitement. “I swear my allegiance to our President, Grayson Black, and the Cruz Kings MC and its members, both patch, and pussy. I swear to uphold the club values with honor and protect each member with my life.”

I chuckle. “You had that memorized?”

---