Fated Throne (Zodiac Academy, #6)

by Caroline Peckham

When you witnessed my death, I’m afraid it was an illusion meant for your mother to find. When I later discovered that you had seen it, I was heartbroken. But I could not reveal myself to you. For my real death has been planned for years, my boy, and it will have come to pass long before this letter reaches you. My true body will play an important part in your fate, so please forgive me for the pain I caused you.

But don’t pity me, Lance. You and Clara were the true loves of my life, and I regret nothing.

P.S. Give Lionel Acrux hell for what he has taken from you and what he is yet to take.

I might have been a washed-up bastard of a professor, but I was still a wily one.

“Would you like me to call you a carriage, Prince Acrux?” one of them asked and I stumbled a step at that title, wondering what insane parallel universe I’d just fallen into as I shook my head and growled a no at him.

“If any one of you takes a photograph of my naked ass without my permission, then you’ll find yourselves out of a job and knee deep in a legal case before you even get home tonight,” I snarled, glancing over my shoulder and a flurry of apologies came from them as they all diligently turned away again.

“He’s got the entire Pegasus herd in a flurry, and I don’t think he’s even noticed. All the mares are trotting about trying to catch his attention while the Dom looks about ready to bust a blood vessel every time he lays his eyes on him. He’ll be leading the herd in no time.”

“Don’t mind me,” she breathed, waving a hand to dismiss my concerns. “I’m just so relieved that he’s finally free to be himself.”

Though my heart sank as I considered the girl who had given him that chance. Roxy had forced my father to accept Xavier’s Order and had effectively broken the shackles that would no doubt have still been binding him to a life locked up and out of sight if she hadn’t. And now she was the one chained

“Our kind have been denied our rightful magic for too long. We swore allegiance to you because you promised that our needs would be met. That we would no longer have to suffer on the edges of society but would have the opportunity to flourish and prosper. And now we are dealing with some rogue Nymph hunters too who are destroying friends of mine whenever they get the opportunity.” “As I have said, Drusilla,”

The scent of cinnamon filled my nose, and I almost swung a punch at the asshole on top of me before his deep laughter had a grin tearing across my face instead and I started laughing too as I wrapped Lance in my arms. “Holy shit. How?” I demanded, squeezing him tightly as the dull ache in my chest loosened at the feeling of his body against mine. Fuck, I’d missed him.

Seems he’s got a Seer who knows I’m the key to finding it,” he said into my neck, and I dragged him further up the bed so that we could lay with our heads on the pillows to talk.

“The stars are against us as always,” I agreed on a sigh, but the smile stayed glued to my face as I reached out and brushed my fingers through his dark hair. “Didn’t you cut this while you were in there?” I teased and he rolled his eyes. “I was too caught up pining for you, big boy,” he joked in return, his fingers tracing the pattern of the tattoos on my left bicep.

Orion dropped his head back against the pillow, his gaze roaming over my features like he was trying to memorise them, and I noticed the movement as he ran his tongue over his teeth. “Are you thirsty?” I asked and he groaned, nodding slowly. “But I’m also having trouble keeping my hands off of you right now and I’m concerned that if I bite you, we might end up fucking,”

“It’s probably inevitable after all this time anyway, right?” I carved a hand through my dark hair as he eyed my neck hungrily. “If only you didn’t have that big Dragon dick between your thighs, we could have been perfect,”

“Oh please, we both know you’d be the girl in ou...

He held out for all of two seconds before pouncing, grabbing my wrists and slamming them down on the pillows either side of my head as his weight crushed me to the mattress and his fangs slid into my neck. I growled, caught between my natural desire to assert my dominance and my desire to see him happy.

Lance finally drew back, smirking down at me with my blood on his lips as he kept me pinned beneath him. I growled and lunged forward, flipping him off of me and making him into my little spoon as I rolled onto my side.

Then you have to tell me about the assholes who hurt you in that place so that I can go in and kill them with my bare hands,”

“You’re so protective of me, sweetheart,” he joked. “Always, baby,” I agreed with a laugh, and I held him tighter as I began filling him in on everything I’d had to hold back on when I came to visit him.

I stood in the shower, washing my hair and definitely not thinking about Orion. I wasn’t thinking about his dark eyes, or him in that prison jumpsuit and the way his muscles filled it out, the way he’d drank me in like he was a dying animal thirsting for water. Yeah, I definitely wasn’t thinking about any of those things as I lathered the soap over my breasts then ran it down my stomach, dipping it between my thighs.

“So you broke into my room and strolled into my bathroom while the shower was running?” I narrowed my eyes at him, and he nodded a little guiltily with a whine. “Yeah but, it’s not like I saw anything. Apart from your ass, and your tits, and that soap you dropped. But I didn’t see what you were doing with it.” “I wasn’t doing anything with it,” I balked,

“Sure.” He smirked. “On a completely unrelated note, when was the last time you got laid?”

“I fucked Caleb,” he said, and I spun around with a gasp, all of my anger tumbling away. “What? Seriously?” “Well, no,” he backtracked. “But I did fuck a girl with him and there was a lot of eye-fucking between us. Like a lot.”

But it was crazy because while she was sucking my cock, I was just looking at Cal, you know?”

“And he bit me, babe. Fucking bit me. He was giving me the hungry eyes. It was like Dirty Dancing only instead of Baby in the corner, it was Cal sucking on my neck and fingering my butthole in the corner.”

And then when he was fucking Rosalie and she was screaming like a banshee between us, he looked at me when he came, not her. That has to mean something, right?”

And no, we didn’t talk about it. But he stayed with me in my bed after Rosalie left. And when I woke up in the morning, he didn’t even complain about my morning glory digging into his ass or that I licked his face to wake him up. I really considered going down on him to just rip the Band-Aid off and show him how I feel. Do you think I should have?” “Um no, that’s a bit full on,”

“I mentioned how good it had been seeing his dick driving in and out of Rosalie and I was about to say how much I’d wanted to put his dick in my mouth too, but-” “You could just try saying, ‘hey Caleb, I think you’re hot, maybe we could go on a date sometime,’”

“Is it just about sex or is it more than that?” I asked him and he paused, tipping his head back and howling.

“No, fuck no,” he growled. “It’s like…when I was on the moon and I could see the earth, I thought about how sad it was that they’d never be together. The moon just watches the earth in all its gorgeous green and blue glory, but it can never, ever touch it. And it made me think of him.” He dropped his eyes. “Everything makes me think of him.”

“As Heirs, we’re not even really supposed to get with anyone outside of our Orders long term. Plus, like, what would we do about producing Heirs ourselves? I guess we could use a surrogate and then our kids could be brothers and Heirs to both of our seats and that would actually work out just fine, so maybe that’s all cool... But regardless of that, if he doesn’t feel the same way it could break us. He’s my best friend, Darcy. I can’t lose him over this.”

“I’ve seen it all now, babe. Lucky I’ve got a new crush. But if he turns me down maybe we can pity fuck each other back to normality?”

Orion was lying in a huge bed at the far end of the space and Darius was spooning him, the two of them looking freaking serene as they slept.

The damn Guardian bond tying them together had been driving Darius insane these past months. He didn’t feel everything the way Orion did as I understood it, but he always pined for him. As I gazed at the two of them, I had the sudden urge to crawl in there and curl up with them. Yeah, because that would be a totally sane thing to do.

Gabriel dissolved the silencing bubble, opening his mouth to wake them, but Seth sprinted across the room, diving on top of them before he could. Darius roared almost as loud as if he was in his Order form and Orion threw Seth away with the strength of his Order, sending him flying onto the floor with a hard thud. My lips popped open as Seth leapt to his feet again, wheezing as he healed himself then jumping on Darius and starting to lick him.

Orion shot out of bed and his eyes suddenly fell on me, his naked chest heaving. His abs were taut and gleaming, and his shoulders were even more built than they’d been before. Holy shit. I forced my eyes up to his face, taking in his beard and unruly hair, not entirely hating the wolverine look, but I did miss his dimple.

He darted towards me and Gabriel in a blur and I gasped as he grabbed my hand, tugging me into the arc of his body with his eyes blazing like he was gonna hug me or something crazy. I sent fire magic bursting through my veins, and he hissed as I burned his fingers, making him let go of me before I quickly backed up. His brows knitted together, and he mumbled something about instincts before he lunged at Gabriel instead, the two of them embracing hard.

“That’s enough,” Darius snapped, and my eyes flicked over to where he’d pinned Seth to the bed by the throat, Seth’s tongue lolling out his mouth as he panted. “No more licks.”

“What good does that do?” I asked, feeling Orion’s gaze on me again which I refused to meet. I felt like he was trying to examine my very soul, and it was making the hairs on my arms raise. I didn’t like him looking at me like that, but a part of me didn’t want him to stop either.

“Sorry brother, I left my Atlas back at the academy. And Father let me stay with Orion so I…” He cleared his throat as the two of them shared an awkward look. “We haven’t been able to really fulfil the needs of the Guardian bond in a long time.” “Oh, I see. Say no more.” Seth winked, strolling casually over to me and slinging his arm around my shoulders. He turned his head, whispering in my ear. “Butt sex.” “Seth,” I snorted a moment before a freight train collided with us as Orion shoved Seth away from me with a snarl, putting himself between us. “Woah, what the hell?” I gasped as Orion went full fucking animal, his fangs on show as he glared at Seth in a clear warning to stay away.

Orion’s pupils were fully dilated, his eyes moving from me to Seth as his jaw worked furiously. “He’s explained plenty, but I’m not so quick to forgive,” he hissed, and my heart galloped faster.

“Oh, and if you ever shove my sister like that again I’ll rip one of your arms off.” He said it so calmly, but the darkness in his eyes said he’d absolutely do it. Aw, I love my psycho big brother.

“No, you just bowled into me like a stampeding rhino,” I said lightly, and I swear Orion smirked before he flattened his lips and turned away again. That small, tiny, infinitesimal sliver of light between us made my stomach flutter and I internally started stamping on every bastard of a butterfly who dared show up for him.

I batted him off absentmindedly, working to focus on the diary and nothing else as my eyes kept skipping over to Orion and the taut muscles of his stomach. I mean seriously, could someone just put a shirt on that man?

“I don’t know,” he said, levelling me with a hopeless look. My heart clenched. I had the urge to smooth the frown on his brow and tell him we’d find a way to fix this, but it wasn’t my place anymore. And he wasn’t owed shit from me anyway.

“My father’s so cocky, he’d never even consider the possibility that you might work around his vow.” “Well, that’s because he thinks I give a shit about what he’ll do to me if he finds out,” Orion said dryly, and my gut yanked.

I shook my head at him with a half-smile and turned to find Orion standing right behind me, looming over me like a damn tower.

“Did you have to come all the way over here to say that?” I muttered, side stepping him and feeling him follow a hair’s breadth behind me as I walked over to Darius. Goosebumps rose along the back of my neck, and I was glad of my long hair to hide them from the intimidating shadow currently following me. What was with the stalking??

“Come on, let’s get on with it,” Darius said, turning me to face him again and Orion stood beside us, watching closely. Yep, him just standing there like a big hot Vampire ex-boyfriend is really helping me focus.