Fated Throne (Zodiac Academy, #6)

by Caroline Peckham

While she watched the rain pouring down from the heavens, I watched her. I drank in the way her ripped black jeans hugged her figure and the bare skin of her waist which I ached to curl my hands around. Her skin was paler than it had been, her frame thinner, but Roxanya Vega had been cast by the stars to make me hunger for her no matter what shape her body was in.

“The second you walked into The Orb on your first day after you were Awakened, I knew you weren’t what I’d been expecting. My heart fucking leapt when I looked at you. My palms grew slick, my mouth got dry.” “Me and Darcy you mean?”

“No. Just you. I didn’t even see her at first. I swear, I didn’t even think you were who you are. For a few, endless seconds I just saw you and I wanted you. And when I did see Darcy and I realised who you were I was just so fucking angry. Because I knew I couldn’t have you.”

I knew we were seriously pushing our luck with the stars now, but I couldn’t bear to walk away from her. Because that sound, that dismissive scoff and the way her posture had tightened the smallest amount was her. Not the fucked-up version my father had tried to twist her into. That was my girl, calling me on my bullshit the moment I tried to give her it and I couldn’t help but smile just a little as I saw that glimpse of herself.

“Maybe you could let me hunt you some time and find out what all the fuss is about for yourself?” Caleb teased which drew a growl from Seth. “As if his lizard blood could taste as good as mine,” Seth scoffed, shooting me a glare which quite clearly told me to back the fuck off as if I’d been the one suggesting it.

“Fat chance of that, asshole,” she muttered, and my smile widened tenfold. It really shouldn’t have gotten me so turned on to have a girl insulting me, but I’d take Roxy Vega calling me every name under the sun over having a million compliments from anyone else. “Come on - you said I’d have to ask if I wanted you to be mine. So, I’m asking. Let me take you out.”

A waiter stepped out in front of me but I just shoved him back, making him drop his tray of food and not even looking at him as I stepped over his legs and finally made it to the dead man with his hand on my girl. A few of his friends saw me coming and straightened in their chairs, pointing me out so that the asshole swung around to look at me a moment before my hands landed flat on the table in front of him. I leaned down to glare at him, certain the Dragon in me was clear for him to see. “Take your fucking hand off of her,”

“Apologise to my girl for laying your hand on her,” I snarled as several people around us started sidling away like they could tell I was about to beat his smarmy face in.

I reached out and grabbed hold of him by the collar, half lifting him out of his seat and twisting him to look at Roxy. “Say it to her.”

“You told him I was yours,”

“You are,” I replied simply, and she held my gaze as she thought on that. “I never said that.” “No, you didn’t. But you were mine from the first moment I laid eyes on you. You’re just too damn stubborn to say it out loud.”

She smiled at that suggestion and my heart leapt as I looked at her. She was so beautiful. Why hadn’t I just let myself see that before? I’d been so caught up on the idea of it just being lust and wanting to hate fuck her that I’d refused to see that her beauty went so much deeper than her appearance. She was everything I wasn’t and everything I wanted. A princess, born to live her life in a specific way just like I had been and yet she refused to blindly follow any path. At least until my father had forced her onto one.

Rain poured from the sky in a sudden torrent, and I tipped my head back, catching sight of the Leo and Gemini star signs illuminated in the sky above us before the clouds swept over to conceal them again. We weren’t free of our curse. Not even here. But Roxy didn’t seem inclined to stop and move away from me either.

“The stars are trying to part us,” I called over the roar of the engine and she nodded, pushing back into the cage of my arms as she kept going. Her ass was practically riding my dick as we pressed closer to each other and I couldn’t help but turn my head and press my mouth to that soft spot of skin beneath her ear. A shiver ran right through her body, and she leaned back into me a little more as she sped through the streets of New York City so fast that the cops had no chance of catching up to us.

“Admit it, I ride better than you,”

“I already knew how well you could ride from the time you climbed into my lap on the throne,”

Roxy bit her lip, her gaze moving over my chest where my white t-shirt was clinging to every curve of my muscles. “Show me your new tattoo,” she demanded, and I smirked at her, loving the fact that she’d been thinking about that. “No. You’ll have to come see it for yourself,”

Soft fingertips landed on my waistband, and I sucked in a breath as I looked down at Roxy as she unbuckled my belt with a taunting smirk on her face that said I should have known better than to challenge her. Not that I had any complaints about her taking my pants off.

I watched as she tugged my jeans down just low enough to show her the tattoo which curved over my left hip and sank down close enough to my cock to make it harden for her instantly. Not that it took much for it to do that for her, but having her hand beneath my waistband was a sure-fire way to achieve it.

“There is only her.” She continued to paint the marks that made up the Gemini and Leo constellations followed by the lines of the geometric design that charted the pattern of the moon and stars the night she’d said no to me. It was pretty complex, an interlinking design of triangles and interlocking lines that mapped out the alignment of the heavens on the night that had changed everything. Gabriel was the one who’d told me to get it, showing up at my room and telling me he’d seen it.

“Are you still afraid of me, Roxy?”

“Yes,” she breathed, raising her eyes up to meet mine and making my gut twist with a hurt so sharp it stole my breath away. “But it’s a good kind of fear.”

Having Orion’s new number was a treat in itself. I sent him daily photographs of me and Darcy together with captions like #sheaintblueoveryounomore and #teamDeth. He’d blocked my number after threatening to rip my intestines out and strangle me with them – among other murderous threats - but then I got a magical app which sent my texts from anonymous numbers so he couldn’t keep me away. It was hilarious. And very intentional. Because I was officially kickstarting Mission: Get Darion Back Together.

It wasn’t a complex or layered plan; it was based on one simple little emotion that made Fae fucking crazy. Jealousy. Orion had shown his cards as clear as day when I’d visited him with Darcy and Gabriel.

Just yesterday, I’d made a girl cry when I overheard her planning to sneak into Caleb’s room dressed in nothing with glitter covering her naked body to ask him if he was horny for the horn. Firstly, Cal was not into that shit as far as I was aware (but I’d be the first to paint my body in glitter and strap a dildo horn to my head if he was). And secondly, no bitch...

Since I’d shared Rosalie with Cal, I was more hung up on him than ever. Even though the one I really should have been hung up on was the powerful Alpha Wolf who was hot as hell and could have fulfilled everything that was expected of me.

Rosalie was a pretty perfect pick for that role, but the idea of tying myself to her or anyone other than Cal just made me feel all kinds of anxious.

Denial was my best friend who liked to braid my hair and call me pretty. So yep, Cal could definitely be mine inside my head in an alternate reality I liked to call Calaria.

I was going to get her back together with the love of her life and make Lance Orion my bestie in the process. Like, not at first. Man, he was going to fucking hate me. But long term, he was a bestie to be. Either that or I really was going to end up strangled by my own intestines.

A Wolf’s grin pulled at my mouth as a masculine and tempting scent reached me in the air. Caleb.

His fangs snapped out and he grinned as he leaned down to steal his prize, pulling his hand away and driving his teeth into my neck. I groaned audibly then bit my tongue as his muscles pressed to mine and I got rock hard for him. Oh shit.

I was definitely not the submissive type, but if Caleb wanted to force me down in the mud and have his way with me, I was game. Of course, the way he wanted me was to take my blood, nothing else. I thought about what Darcy had said, wondering if I should talk to him, but surely my dick was having a whole conversation with his right now because it wasn’t being subtle.

He looked down at my solid cock and no matter how many people had seen it before, nothing beat him looking at it right now, exposing me for how much I wanted him. My eyes slipped to his crotch the same time his did and the bulge waiting for me there made my heart pound out of rhythm. Caleb glanced at me in confusion, an awkward silence washing between us.

I shifted back into a Wolf, howling after him in a plea to come back. But he didn’t and I had the horrible feeling I’d just fucked up everything.

I’d known him my whole life and I’d realised he was attractive sometime around my twelfth birthday. It wasn’t news to me that he was hot. But somehow, I’d always managed to compartmentalise that from my friendship with him before. Now it was all just melding into one so all I could see was how fucking amazing he was and how much I wanted him and how it had been staring me in the face all these years. No matter how much I hungered for him though, it clearly wasn’t meant to be. I just wasn’t sure how to make my heart get the message on that.

We sure made the perfect fucking team. And maybe I needed to accept that we were always just going to be friends, because I’d never survive losing him. But to keep things as they were, my heart was going to have to pay the price. And I was pretty sure I could already feel it breaking.

“Give it up, bella. Gabby told me your secret. So do you trust me with it?” My lips fell open as I tried to figure out what he was saying, not to mention who the hell Gabby was. I didn’t know a Gabby. “Don’t tell me, he makes you call him Gabriel,” Dante groaned dramatically. “He’s such a stronzo sometimes.” The penny finally dropped, and I snorted a laugh. “You call him Gabby?” “Yeah. He loves it. Don’t let him tell you different. So, can you help me with my little Dragon bitch issue, principessa? Because if this Coercion makes me fuck her, my wife will cut my balls off and I happen to be pretty damn fond of them.”

Dante smirked at me as the song ended and he turned me around, bringing me face to face with Darius who was glaring over my shoulder at the Storm Dragon like he had half a mind to shift and lay into him. “Ah here’s our new prince,” Dante mocked. “You two seem cosy,” Darius said in a flat tone, his gaze taking in Dante’s hand in mine as the hint of a snarl escaped him.

I was only dancing with your beautiful mate. But now I have to run, and she finds herself in need of a new dance partner.” Dante gave me a little push and I stumbled forward a step so that Darius caught me. The feeling of his hands on my waist lit a fire beneath my skin and I drew in a breath as he looked down at me.

“Are you enjoying this?” he murmured. “Yes,” I breathed, unable to deny the way my heart was hammering against my ribcage and my skin was burning up everywhere that we were pressed together. “So, it feels good to let me take charge?” he pushed, and I narrowed my eyes at him. “Don’t go thinking you’ll make a habit of it.”

“You’d love being dominated by me, Roxy,” he promised. “I’d pin you down and make you scream so good you’d forget all about trying to stop me as I marked you as mine so thoroughly that you’d never doubt that it was true ever again.”

I was aching for his touch on my flesh, my cheeks flushed, and my panties wet as he held me almost tight enough to bruise.

I’ll be in bed with Darius, no doubt listening to him talking about you incessantly while he makes me his little spoon.” “I would have pegged you for a big spoon kind of guy,” I teased, not sure what to think of Darius talking about me like that. “Yeah, well I would be if I had my girl in my bed, but the bond makes me want to please my Ward and seeing as Darius suffers from the superiority complex of a lifetime, let’s just say the domineering asshole always wants to be the big one.”

“You said your girl,” I pointed out, giving him a sidelong look as his brow furrowed and he sighed, casting a hopeless kind of look my way. “Shit, you really look like her sometimes, you know?” Orion breathed, swiping a hand over his face and looking so freaking tired and broken that I kinda wanted to hug him despite all the witnesses. “I look like my identical twin? Really? No fucking way,” I teased, and he shook his head. “Yeah, well, when you smiled you just reminded me of her more than usual. Or at least of the way she used to look before I...”

My chest tightened as I watched Mildred’s vomit-yellow dress sweeping out behind her, Darius’s hand resting on the small of her hairy back. His eyes met mine through the crowd and I could see that same ache there, that longing for a different life which I could see no path to. Because even if we did manage to take the throne back from his father, it wouldn’t change this curse I’d put on us. We’d still be Star Crossed, destined to be alone, pining for each other forever.

“He really does love you,”

“I’m not an easy person to love,” I muttered. “Neither is he. That’s probably what makes you so perfect for each other.”

“Darius may have forgone the butt plug, but the stick is most likely still pretty firmly up there. But the stars won’t let me get him naked to check.” “I’ll be sure to tell him you want to get him naked when he crawls into my bed tonight,” Orion said.

“She was trying to tell me,” he said roughly, his fingers digging in. “Tell you what?” I asked in confusion. “Whenever she came pawing at me or flirting with me, she always used to say the same things over and over. Always the same words in the same order and I was so caught up in being horrified that my friend’s mother was trying it on with me that I never really thought about what she was really saying.”

“Handsome, enamouring, lovely, powerful. And sometimes she’d add unbelievable and sexy too.” “So...” “The first letter of each of those words spells out the message she was trying to give me. ‘Help us.’”