Chapter 171

"Two hours. Have you told them yet?"

"This is war." She shrugged. "Also, Valerick can you pull George out of The Process?"

A frown quickly spread through his face.

"Only for a little while, he has been through a lot with Mira's discovery."

Zezi had been shocked with Mira's discovery to be George's child but that had been it, also that she was a vampire.

That had been it.

She didn't hate her for being what she was, neither did she hate George for anything.

She was just surprised.

Mira would always be her little pup no matter what.

Her sweet baby.

She would do anything to protect her.

When she saw that Valerick's frown remained, her hand slipped to his neck, gliding over her mark that was imprinted on it. His body trembled slightly at the contact, as he fought the consequences of it that spread through his veins.

He should take her right now, but there were so many things to be done.

Although they were slowly losing a place on his priority list.

"Please."

By the Blood, not the begging.

"A day." He gritted. "Only for a day, and the little vampire stays. I have been generous."

"Thank you."

That went straight to his head.

"What more do you want? Ask me."

"Their safe return."

"That will be done."

She pulled her hand away and he fought a war, to act unaffected.

"You are ripping a father and his newfound daughter apart."

"You would have done it so you can have your army."

"Yes, but you are the one doing it now. What is going on?"

"I am trying to do what I can do for my people. I have to try."

He took her hand in his and trailed the lines on her palms. She felt so warm, so right.

"I am sorry for putting you into this difficult situation, my understanding of it might not be full, but the pain in our bond explains it to me. I love you, Zezi." Then he held her gaze. "My Heartbeat." He paused, and pressed his forehead against hers. "My soul. Forgive me, that I cannot shield you from this pain. I tried, I really did. I am sorry."

Her lips trembled with unshed tears. She could feel the sincerity of his words, which just made everything worse.

Why did it have to be like this?

At that moment, there was a knock on the door.

"Go away," Valerick ordered.

"Your Majesty?"

"Your King is begging for forgiveness at the moment, go away."

"But your Majesty, you ordered for the news to reach you first no matter what. It is about the child. We might have found out who her mother is."

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Delice was Mira's mother?

That made no sense!

There was no way George would have had sex with a vampire except she was his soulmate, which was impossible because George's soulmate happened to be her stepsister, who was dead.

How did this even happen?

It must be a joke.

This couldn't be real.

But it was.

Delice was crying in one corner of Nicholas' office and when her gaze met Zezi's, the sorrow and conflict in her eyes said it all.

She was broken from within. Shattered into pieces.

"My Medallion--" her lips trembled, as she rose to her feet unsteadily. "She is my child and they won't let me see her."

Zezi moved over to her quickly, using her wolf's speed because it didn't seem like Delice was going to last on her feet.

"My Medallion is alive." She was trembling beneath Zezi's hold.

It was strange.

Zezi had never seen her so disoriented but she understood.

Laura.

That bitch!

That fucking blood-sucking bitch!

"It's okay." She murmured to her, running her hand over Delice's hair gently as she kept on crying and whispering the words, "They won't let me see her."

Zezi turned straight to Nicholas, who seemed to be having a serious conversation with Valerick.

Well, she didn't care about that.

"Why won't you let her see Mira?"

"She is unfit to be put into that situation yet," Nicholas replied with a bit of harshness to his tone like he was warning her not to interrupt him again.

"Let her see her child, doctor." Zezi fired back, and Nicholas' head gave into an involuntary bow at her tone.

Zezi could feel the heat of Valerick's gaze on her at that moment, but she didn't turn back to look at him.

He must be surprised that she could now make use of his tone of command, or maybe that wasn't what surpri----

'Do that again when we are alone.' Valerick's voice in her mind promised everything sinful, along with the tempting feelings that poured in her veins, that certainly weren't hers.

This really wasn't the time.

"He will let her see the child, Zezi, but she must be fit first." His voice was gentle, like he hadn't just been wreaking havoc in her head just now, and Nicholas stopped in his turn to the door.

Zezi nodded, as she helped Delice into a chair.

This was all so strange.

Calling Mira someone's child felt so strange, it was a huge pill to swallow but at that moment, all she could think about was how Delice had always been with Mira since the very beginning.

From the time in the Alpha's office when she had been carrying her, to the moment she had laid down her life to save her.

Her motherly instincts were definitely working overtime.

Something weighed heavy in Zezi's chest as she wondered if she had just lost her daughter to someone else who was her real mother.

Not the time.

She reminded herself.

How would George take this new information?

What about Mira?

How would they tell her all this?

Later. She would worry about all that later.

'Breathe.' Valerick's voice was in her head again but this time, with a relaxing effect. She took in a deep breath and let the tension in her shoulders dissipate.

"What shall I fetch you to ease your nerves, Delice?"

"My child. My Medallion." Her eyes were close to being blank, the longing in them overshadowing anything else. "Please."

"You will see her soon but---"

The doors to the office pushed open immediately, anger clouded the room.

"I did not lay with a Bloodsucker!" George stormed in, anger almost bursting through the buttons of his fitted brown shirt.

Zezi had expected Aunt Alice behind him but he was alone. She must be with Mira, protecting her from all this madness as George would term it. That was a good thing, she needed to be kept away from this for a while.

"I did not fucking sleep with that thing! You are all lying! My love," his eyes were on her now, and Zezi stood her ground under his gaze. "I am so tired of all this, Zezi." His voice was gentle now until it wasn't. "This fucking place drives me mad! Don't you see what they are trying to do?! To us?! They are forcing their way into our lives, trying to ruin us with lies. Fuck these Bloodsuckers! I hate them so much, I would never fuck one!"

"George---" she started to say, but a painful growl from him stopped her, as he held his head in his hands, gritting his teeth.

He went down.

"George!"

She had gotten to him before he got to the floor, but that had done nothing but mitigate his slow descent to the floor.

"We are losing him."

"I have missed you, come with me. They--- ahhh --- it hurts!"

He was bleeding and his eyelids were fluttering close. She was screaming for him to wake up, just as Nicholas was trying to stabilize Delice to do the same.

Some nurses snatched him away from her, and she watched with teary eyes, her breathing ragged with desperate pleading for him to wake up, because even if they were no longer what they used to be, this was still George.

172 - Answers In Bathtub

"You were crying all over him."

Valerick had been silent since they had left Nicholas' office, he had been quiet in the hallway on their way up here, quiet when he had locked the door to their room, quiet when she had stepped into the bathroom to wash her face, and he followed her.

He had been so quiet, it was terrifying.

She knew he wouldn't hurt her though but that didn't stop the uneasiness his silence made settle in her veins.

Only after he had shut the bathroom door did he speak, and Zezi finally understood why their bond felt strained in her mind.

"Crying all over him like he meant something to you."

She swiped her hand neatly across her cheek, wiping her tears away.

"George is family."

"I will never understand that you love him. Still. I try, I really do but I can't understand." His voice was cold and bitter, smiting the tiled walls of the bathroom, clashing with the sound of water trickling in the tub.

There were rose petals on the surface of the water.

Zezi could only suspect Gwen for this.

"I don't love him." Her gaze finally snapped up at him, her voice stern. "I care. I am worried. No matter what, he is family. The father of my child." Those words slipped, just like how Valerick's glance had swept over her stomach buried under his shirt that she had finally rushed into before leaving the room earlier.

"You don't love him. You love me."

She sighed. They had just Nicholas' office and none of the "new-found parents" had regained consciousness yet. She was worried for both of them.

What did this new information mean for all of them, including her Mira?

She had that to worry about too.

She wished she could talk to Gwen, but she had been really busy and Gwen had been spending more time with her daughter instead.

She appreciated that though.

"Valerick, this is not the time."

He was leaning by the wall, and she was here by the tap, a couple of steps away from him, but it felt like the walls were closing in and bringing them together, along with this suffocating tension in the air.

They had so many things going on, this just couldn't be the right moment for this.

"To say you love me?"

She had never told him she did. She knew. It was a battle she struggled with every day.

She turned away from him quickly, there was something about his darkening eyes that was about to force the truth out of her. Her hands slipped to the tap and she turned it on, finally washing her face.

"I love my people." She said when she was done. Her heart was racing so fast, she knew he could hear it.

It was pointless to hide it.

"Get into the bath, Zezi." It was a gruff command. Her hands tightened around the edge of the bathtub.

"Let us not do this today."

She had barely completed that statement when she felt the heat of his presence behind her, towering over her. Her skin sizzled with electricity beneath and she fought to stand on her feet instead of leaning back into the peace that was him, and called to her.

His rain scent seeped into her lungs and she feared what more would happen if she were to turn and breathe him in even more.

She would lose it.

She knew.

"Take off your dress and get into the bath or I will rip it off you."

Alright that would definitely make her lose it, lose everything!

Not now.

Not this.

She had to stay focused and start thinking of her situation with Mira, her plan for her family to leave this place, the effect of this new information about Delice being Mira's mother, and how best she could incorporate it into her plan so that---

A rough shudder crossed through her and her legs buckled, making her fall back into his chest suddenly. His hand on his mark that decorated her neck rendered her no mercy with the liquified lava of pleasure that ran down her veins.

Great, he was doing the same thing she did to him.

So unfair.

His hand slipped around her waist, his whisper filled with the fight of restraint, as his hand went around her neck, forcing a gasp past her lips.

"I want to be gentle." His words had an edge of anger to them.

She yanked herself away from him, took off her dress, and slipped into the bath as quickly as she could.

A groan rumbled in his chest and he muttered rough words under his breath, before getting rid of his clothes and joining her in the bath.

Zezi didn't watch, but she didn't have to. His presence couldn't be ignored and like a metal drawn to its magnet, she looked, getting lost in his eyes and the madness that rested in that abyss, then to his body.

She gulped.

His hands found her, turning her so she had her back to him.

"I want his scent off you." His voice ghosted over her shoulder and she shivered, the bond merciless with the hyper-sensitivity it delivered. "You should only smell of me."

A moan vibrated in her throat, as she fell back to his chest, her hand slipping through his hair, water trickling as she moved.

"I'm not sleeping with you, I need to think."

"No sex."

"What?" Her eyelids snapped open and she turned sharply to him. "You won't sleep with me?"

He chuckled into her shoulder, while his hands worked on making her clear of that wolf's smell.

"You just said you won't sleep with me and I am not offended."

"I don't mean it like that, I certainly want you."

"I love you." He slipped in, like it was nothing. His hand that held the sponge moved over her other shoulder, and further down until she arched into his touch.

"Valerick," her voice was quick shaky, wrong time for this. Why was everything today happening at the wrong time? "I think I should see my daughter. I-- what does this mean for us? Is she still my daughter? Is---

"She will always be your daughter."

She frowned, turning to him instinctively, observing him like she had never seen him before.

He paused, looking back at her for that moment. If she had expected that from anyone, she would never have expected it from him.

Her fingers trailed his face, and she observed through scrutinizing eyes.

"Say that again."

"You will always be her mother."

That was even better.

She kissed him, because even though she hadn't known it, that was what she needed to hear, someone to tell her that the relationship between her and Mira remained unchanged.

She didn't even know she needed to hear it, but he had said it and said it perfectly.

173 - Don't Be Gentle

His teeth caught her lower lip, drawing blood and her claws dug into his chest to reciprocate. Then his tongue tasted hers, and forced it into submission.

She tried to turn, to position herself better so that more could happen, but he stopped her; Shortened their kiss, and put her into the position she was in before.

Then he continued washing her while she protested that she now wanted to sleep with him.

His fingers skimmed over her nipples as he hummed, she shuddered, her hand going behind his neck to draw small circles around it.

He continued his washing; Washed her hair, every part of her body.

She was clean now, this bath should be over but it wasn't. The constant touching had caused more things than would just be ended in a minute.

Her breathing was ragged, and she turned to look at him, her gaze holding his heavy ones. "Fuck me."

His fingers drew circles around her stomach and she stilled, her gaze still holding his stormy ones.

Then his fingers went lower, through her wet folds and delivering a feathery stroke over her clit that sent a strangled moan through her. She pushed against his hard chest with a plead for him not to stop and to be faster instead, rougher too, but he remained gentle.

"Valerick, please."

Those black webby lines were taking over his neck, and she could feel his length growing harder against her back. The bond between them vibrated with growing desire, so much that it felt absolutely consuming.

She wanted to be ravished, not this.

Sparks sizzled everywhere they touched and another pleading was on the tip of her tongue, but his fingers slid into her in a quick successive thrusts that displaced her thinking.

Her eyes rolled back with the quick movement, when his free hand cupped a breast she moaned. Then it slipped down to her belly to hold her in place.

His fingers hit a spot but before she could trash around, his movement grew languishing and his thumb stroke her clit lazily. Frustration tightened in her chest.

"What--? Faster, for the Moon's sake, Valerick!"

"It is going to be rough." He gritted.

It had always been rough with them, he had never said anything about that before, what was different now?

"I like it. I want it. Give it to me." The dark look in his eyes said he wanted it too.

What was going on?

What was stopping him?

He broke their gaze, burying his nose in her neck instead, his fingers in her still continuing their languishing movement; That did nothing but add even more to her sexual frustration.

He was so hard, she could feel it.

"I don't want to hurt you."

"Wh--at?" A moan displaced her words. "If you don't give this to me, I'm going to step out of this bath and fuck myself better."

If looks could kill, the one Valerick was giving right now would have sent her 6 feet under.

He didn't say anything but the rubbing of his thumb on her clit became ferocious, his fingers in her jamming rough, quick, and deep thrusts that made her lose her breath. Her eyes rolled back and her head fell back against his chest, her body arched with pleasure, her claws digging into his chest as she tried to speak but her body was failing her in that regard.

His tongue glided over his mark on her and that was when the trashing began; her undoing.

The sound of the disturbed water filled the air.

"Say something now, Zezi." He pressed the words against the pores of her neck in a dare, as her body arched away and fell back to his chest once again.

Pleasure dotted her sight, she could barely see. She writhed over him, while his hand caged her neck in a chokehold, the other still rendering its pleasurable assault.

"Oh, my beautiful, beautiful Zezi."

Her lips parted for her to say something but the moan in her throat was too big for any other thing to pass.

She couldn't think.

What even was that?!

"Look at me." That command went straight to her core, his voice felt absolutely luring to her.

That was when she realized that she had kept her eyes shut for a while now.

She tried to force them open but she just couldn't.

Then his rhythm slowed down and she whined, "n--o."

"Look at me."

She did, and a feral groan resonated in his chest when he saw the look in her eyes.

His fingers continued their thrusts, his lips capturing hers so that her moans bubbled down his throat while his did the same.

Then an orgasm ripped through her, threw her to ecstasy that she pulled away and screamed his name.

There was barely anything she could hear in this state, but she heard one thing.

"I love you."

___

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Valerick carried her to the bed, and she trailed her fingers along his abs lazily. When he laid next to her, her hands slipped further down but he held her hand and turned her to the other side so that she had her back against him.

Her body tensed with anticipation when she felt his presence ghosted over her neck.

When nothing happened, she protested. Although, she was already tired from their moment in the bathroom, her body would always want more of Valerick. She wasn't even complaining, she liked it.

He felt perfect.

"You can feed from me." It was a different kind of pleasure whenever he did. That was something she wanted to feel too.

"I know."

She made an attempt to touch his dick yet again but he stopped her.

This made no sense!

She didn't hesitate to tell him about how strangely he was acting but he didn't budge. Instead, he told her that she needed rest, and with her wrists caged in his hand so they stayed locked with the surface of the bed and did not send their tempting attacks towards him, he forced her to rest.

"It makes no sense that you deny me, you know. We are joined." She was angry and she wasn't hiding it.

He smiled, his gaze fixed on her.

"Stay in love with me, Zezi. Stay in love with me forever."

"I never said I loved you." Her voice was low and loaded with sleep.

Her body was weak and tired, yet she was angry that he denied her.

"You don't have to. I know. I feel it."

Moments passed and he spoke again.

"What do you think about the idea of a family? You being pregnant with my child. Will it please you? My soul? Zezi?"

There was no response, she was asleep but a frown was still etched into her face.

He smiled, and held her closer while his hand caressed her belly.

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My tests are upcoming. Updates schedule - one day on, one day off. I still owe two bonus