Where We Ended

by Ashley Munoz

“Tell me what happened, Caelum. Give it to me, like you used to take all my darkness, let me have yours.”

“Let me take it, Natty. Give me your demons, baby.”

“Salve Caelum.” Hello, Heaven.

“Tenebris.” Darkness.

“He asked me how long it’s been since I’ve been fucked.”

“Do you know how long it’s been, Silas?”

My throat felt thick as I rasped in reply, “Two years and twenty-three days.”

“And how long has it been since you’ve been fucked, husband?”

“Where else would I go, Caelum? You’re my home, my heart…my entire fucking soul.”

“It’s what’s under the ink, that’s ours, Caelum. The blood in our veins, the way our souls curl into each other, finding solace. You’re my home.”

“If I’m your home then you’ve been gone for a very long time, my love.”

Whispering in my ear, he said. “Dolemus, sed praecepta tua mihi irrumabo significant cum uxor mea hic adest, hoc modo vultus.” Sorry, but rules mean fuck to me when my wife is in here, looking like this.

“Please don’t go,” I managed to whisper with my voice cracking.

His hand moved to the side of my face, tilting it back, and right as I opened my mouth to continue pleading, his lips were on mine. He moved savagely, kissing me like he used to when he’d leave me after we’d turned eighteen. I tried to pull away, but he held me firm.

“I’m not leaving you. I’m here.” His hand moved to my chest, over my heaving breas...

“Silas.” A sob finally broke free from my chest. “Don’t go.”

“How ironic that one of you locked me away, desperate to keep me and the other doesn’t seem to want me at all.”

“Don’t fucking say that. You know it’s not like that. I’ll go and come back to you.”

“Are you listening, did you hear what I said, Natty?”

His jaw clenched, “Did you hear what I said? I’ll be back, Garrison and Lance will be watching you. You’ll be safe. I need to keep you safe.”

“Right. Just like you had to let me stay safe after I was traded to this club.”

Silas glared, as though I were now one of his enemies. He’d never looked at me like that before. “I couldn’t simply walk back in here and take you back…it would have started a war.”

“If you walk out that door, we’re over.” I whispered loud enough for him to hear me, painfully aware that I was about to break my own heart. Silas didn’t bend to anyone’s will, including mine.

“Tu meus es sol, luna mea. Vitam meam. Revertar ad te.” You are my sun, my moon. My life. I will come back for you.

He started for me, but I revved the throttle and put my boot down to steady the frame as I turned to the right and sped away. My husband could chase me if he wanted to scold me about staying put and being watched by his Raiders.

Silas tugged under my ass, pulling my legs over his hips, and then his nose was in my neck where he was inhaling. I felt like his drug of choice. While he’d never seemed to dabble in anything but nicotine, his lips traveled over my jaw as if every cell of mine was laced in heroin.

“Did you forget yourself, Wife?” he rumbled close to my ear.

I smiled, stroking his neck as I whispered back, “Not at all, Husband. I’ve si...

His chuckle was short-lived because his mouth had attached to my throat, sucking and kissing while his hands slid under my jacket, gripping my ribs. “You still ...

He was going to punish me for that, but hopefully he’d wait until I could properly enjoy it. “Are you still under the assumption that I need to be kept...

“Me wanting to keep you safe shouldn’t mean we end.”

“It shouldn’t mean we press pause either, Silas. Which is exactly what we did all those years while you left me for Fable.”

“So it’s one or the other?”

His head lifted, revealing a devilish smirk. “You bought yourself a bike.”

“You seem proud of this method of freedom. Escaping the detail I set for you, not having anyone watch over you while Fable is out hunting you. It’s cute, Caelum. But now you’re going to take my cock while I bend you over the back of this little bike you seem to be so proud of.”

“My bike will fall over…I’m not⁠—”

His hand came over my mouth, his lips at my ear. “You should know me better than that, Caelum. I’d never let anything happen to you,...

“You may be free to do what you want, Caelum, but you’re still mine. Which means...” He tilted his hips and thrust into me, making me gasp. “If you go to a rival club, I will follow. And if I can’t tear them apart for taking you in, then I’ll fuck you so hard, you’ll never forget.”

“I’m a stain on your soul, Caelum. There is no removing me.”

“I don’t want to remove you, Silas. I want to exist with you…and the only way to do that is to hunt the same monsters you are.”

“I’ve seen the dark side of Fable, Natty. I know what depraved things he has done. I will not risk you being with me when I find him.”

“Then we’re at a stalemate, Husband. I won’t stop.”

“If anything happens to you, I’ll burn it down.”

I tilted my head. “Burn what down?”

His unsettling light eyes arrested me, holding the very air in my lungs hostage as he said with all seriousness that I knew was within him. “Every last thing that makes up this world. The clubs, the people. The towns. I don’t care. I’ll take it. There’s a dragon somewhere curled in this heart of mine, and it...

“Good girl.”

“And be sure to wear your property patch, so everyone knows exactly who you belong to.”

She never tired of cracking a joke about that. I sat Rook in his car seat and let my wife think she got away with it then once he was secure, I gripped Natty by the throat and pulled her closer to me. “You’ll pay for that comment tonight.”

She let out a breathy moan....

I chuckled and kissed her, hard. “I fuck...