Fated Throne (Zodiac Academy, #6)

by Caroline Peckham

“Looking good, Xavier,” she purred, and I tried not to get hard, but shit I was a sucker for this

“I shall see you soon, boys, I’m off for a romp on the dancefloor.” Geraldine headed away, soon joining Max Rigel and swishing her hips to knock aside a girl who was dancing close to him.

“I’m gonna go say hi to Sofia,” I said, turning to Hadley, finding his gaze locked on someone and his brow drawn low. I recognised Athena sitting on one of the stools around the nearest tree, wearing a black dress that split up one thigh. Hadley’s friend Trent sat beside her without a mask on, his hand on her knee and Grayson was beyond them,

“You good?” I nudged Hadley and he grunted. “See you in a bit,” he muttered then shot off ahead of me, dropping into the seat beside Athena, his shoulders squared at Trent. If I wasn’t being totally crazy, it kinda looked like he was jealous.

“Tyler’s not a part of the club?” I asked, resting my hand on her hip and she moved into the arc of my body immediately. Fuck yes.

If Tyler got pissed I was making a move on his girl again, he was going to have to fight me. Because my instincts were burning, and I wasn’t going to ignore the way they drove me toward her. As a prospective Dom, she had to take my interest seriously; it was the way of the mares. But I technically hadn’t officially challenged Tyler yet. I’d wanted to settle into the herd first and make sure I wasn’t kidding myself. But I didn’t think there was any point waiting on it now. I’d do anything to claim her. And more than that, I wanted to lead the herd. It was in my blood.

“You are the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen,” I growled, and she reached out to fist her hand in my shirt. “And you gave me something to look forward to when I thought I had nothing in my future. I dreamed about meeting you every night, Sofia. And it didn’t come close to the reality. You’re my sunshine in the dark.”

Caleb and Tory’s sub-consciousnesses had clearly connected to mine to create a weird ass jumble of thoughts. I snorted a laugh at the sight of Mildred Canopus getting her ass kicked by Tory while a shirtless Seth whooped and cheered in between doing a strip tease to Milkshake by Kelis. Caleb and I danced on the back of a golden Dragon while Gerry’s voice intermittently called out types of fish in a seductive voice.

“Right. Yeah, so, I’m fucking with him to send him into a jealous rage that will force him to tell her how he feels and therefore make her listen and forgive him and then they can be endgame, happily ever after and all that shit. I expect to be best man - sorry dude but Lancey is gonna love me the most when I’m through here and you’ll be relegated to groomsman, or maybe page boy. You could get a cute little bowtie and shit though.”

“Alright. Shit, man, I owe you for this,” Max said. “No, you don’t. We’re brothers and this is what we do for family. No question. No debts. We’re just here for each other when we need to be.”

A prickle of apprehension ran down my spine and a low growl built in the base of my throat as an idea formed in my mind which I just couldn’t get rid of. She hadn’t been at Ignis House last night and I knew she’d been sleeping here a lot. And if Caleb was missing from his room, then what if... I swear it felt like the stars were nudging me towards that door, stoking the flames of jealousy and anger in me even though I had no right to feel anything like that yet. Or at all, really. She wasn’t mine. But she was. And if he’d fucking touched her again, I’d rip his cock off and set it alight.

The world stopped spinning as my gaze fell on the bed where the two of them lay, her head on his chest and his arm around her. There was a dull, echoing thump taking place somewhere in the depths of my mind and a ringing in my ears that wouldn’t quit. I couldn’t even move for the longest moment, my body tensing with a rage so potent and powerful that I was afraid I’d burn up in it the moment I unleashed it from my body.

The shadows rose up within me and I dropped the silencing bubble as a roar of fury escaped me and I lunged towards the bed, intending to drag Caleb out of it and beat his pretty face in until he stopped moving. A shriek of fear escaped Roxy as she lurched awake, and I crashed into an air shield before I could get my hands on the motherfucker who had touched what was mine.

“You’re in her fucking bed!” I roared, aiming all of my rage at Caleb because I couldn’t bear to point it at her. “The two of you are half naked!” “It looks pretty fucking suspicious, dude,” Seth added bitterly, folding his arms over his chest while his jaw worked furiously like he was holding back on saying more. “Well, it’s not,” Caleb snapped, giving Seth a pained look, which pissed me off because his focus should have been on me.

fact. My gaze snapped back to Caleb, and I bared my teeth as potent rage flooded my body and my eyes shifted to Dragon slits. I was going to fucking kill him if he’d touched her again. If he seriously thought that he could lay his fucking hands on my girl and keep them attached to his body then-

“Get it through your dumb head, asshole - nothing happened. It’s not like that with me and him. Not anymore,” she shouted. “Then why the fuck are you all snuggled up in bed together?” I demanded, smoke spilling between my lips as the urge to shift overwhelmed me and I turned my furious gaze on Caleb once more. “It’s you, dumbass,” Roxy snapped, shoving me again and making me growl even louder. Why the fuck did she think it was a good idea to bait the beast in me when I was ready to- “It’s only you. Even though it can’t be, it fucking is.” “What?” I asked, my brow pinching but her mouth was on mine before I could further form that thought.

All the heat of the sun flared between us as she wrapped her arms around my neck and leapt up onto me, her legs tightening around my waist as a groan of pure fucking need escaped me and she pushed her tongue between my lips. I growled hungrily, kissing her harder and gripping her ass as I held her up against me. I tasted every slice of jealousy that I’d ever felt over her in that kiss, every inch of pain I’d suffered in wanting her and knowing I could never have her.

I’d forgotten all about them and whatever fucking insane jealousy the stars had so clearly wanted me to feel when they drove me into this room because it was her. And there was only her, just like she’d told me there was only me. So, fuck the stars for always wanting to part us. Fuck them for thinking they could stop this, stop us. There was no stopping us. She was it for me and even if I could never truly have her, I wasn’t ever going to stop wanting her. I wasn’t ever going to stop belonging to her.

She was mine. Destined to be mine by the stars. The girl who should have been my Elysian Mate and was so much more besides. I needed this. I needed her. I’d been like the moon without the light of the sun without her all this time. Cold and pale and void of life. But she lit me up and made me burn. And I never wanted to stop burning with her.

“I can’t be without you anymore, Roxy. It’s killing me. It’s going to kill me,” I groaned against her mouth, and she whimpered with need, pulling me closer so that the head of my dick was pressed to her slick centre.

I threw one last, lingering look at the beautiful girl who owned my heart, wishing more than anything in the world that I didn’t have to walk out on her then tearing my own soul in two as I did exactly that. The other Heirs all tried to reassure me as I made it back to the front room, but I couldn’t listen to it, dropping my sweatpants as I threw the window open and diving out into the storm instead. My Dragon form burst from my flesh, and I flew hard and fast towards the gap in the fence with flames tearing from my lips, consumed by the loss of everything I should have had with my girl.

My mind was filled with images of a beautiful girl with eyes full of fire and lips that tasted like sin and the twist of fate which was always going to keep her from me.

“Don’t you run away from me, Darius Acrux,” Roxy snarled, striding right up to me in that tank top which I just now realised was actually mine.

“Because, from the moment I arrived here I swore I wouldn’t let anyone decide my fate for me. So, despite the fact that you’re literally the rudest, most pig-headed, infuriating asshole I have ever met, I still want you. So, fuck the stars. Fuck the moon and the meteors and the fucking clouds. Let the sky watch me as I tell it to get fucked. Nothing up there or down here gets to tell me what to do. You told me I was yours and I think that you’re mine too.”

“You think?” I asked. “I told you I love you. I tattooed it on my flesh, Roxy, I feel like I’ve made my feelings pretty clear. You’re all I want for myself. The only choice I wish I could make and the only one I can’t. So, you don’t think anything. You know I’m yours, every damn piece of me. But you’ve never told me what you want out of owning me or if I own you too.”

“I’m the girl no one ever loved, Darius,” she said. “No one but Darcy, my whole life. And though I never let it show, I used to dream of finding someone who would love me like a prince in a fairy tale so I could be their princess. But I don’t love you like a princess. There isn’t anything soft or sweet or easy about us. It’s wild and unpredictable. It hurts more than any pain I’ve ever felt and consumes me more completely than anything I ever could have predicted. You make my heart race with all the best kinds of fear and my gut clench with the angriest butterflies I’ve ever known. I have hated you more than I even knew I could hate a man and I think if I love you with as much fury then I’ll burn up in it.”

A lump formed in my throat as my gaze tracked the lines of ink on her flesh. I knew the design because it mirrored the one Gabriel had told me to place on my own skin. The lines which dictated the position of the heavens on the night she’d told me no. The night when everything could have been so different if I’d only followed what my heart wanted sooner. The words which ran down her thigh to the left of the design in delicate script were a mirror of those on my own skin. There is only him.

I stepped forward and caught her face between my hands, kissing her in a hard and demanding plea for that to be the truth. Because if I had her then I knew I had it all. And I didn’t care if we really would have to tear the stars out of the sky to force them to give us our tomorrow. I’d do it. I’d pay any price they asked of me just to make this feeling last. Just to truly have her.

Give me her and I will pay any price you ask.

The moment she melted into my kiss, I drew my hips back and thrust in again hard, keeping her hands pinned above her head and dominating her body as I fucked her with the desperate need to make her mine irrefutably. Dragons were hardwired to find the most priceless treasure they could and make it theirs and she was the most prized possession I could ever hope to own. She was beauty and strength and bravery and hope and if I spent every day for the rest of forever making her mine then I’d gladly do it. I was going to fuck my name into every inch of her skin, brand her with my kisses and mark her with my love until not a Fae in the world could deny it and even the stars would be forced to allow it.

“I’m yours, Darius,” she breathed, her voice barely audible over the storm. “And you’re mine. No matter what.”

“What did she lure you into the trees with?” I asked him, knowing his instincts wouldn’t have made him follow treasure the way I had. “Oh, erm.” Xavier blushed a little and I was enough of a dick not to let him off the hook, waiting for the silence to stretch out before he admitted the truth. “Carrots.” I snorted a laugh, and he did too, pulling a juicy orange carrot from his pocket and grinning as he took a large bite from it.

Geraldine lay in the mud beside me with both of her legs stretched over her head with no freaking bother. “Come on then you wet willy, help me stretch out my quads,” she demanded, lifting her head up to shout at Max between her thighs. He smirked and dropped his weight onto her, gripping her ankles and driving them into the mud above her head as his crotch ground against hers. Jesus.

We’d been over every detail since the graveyard incident, of how Caleb had saved his life then leaned in, gazed at Seth’s mouth and almost seemed like he was gonna kiss him. Seth had acted it out moment by moment so I had a pretty good visual, though the Wolf had a tendency to dramatize things which meant I couldn’t be entirely sure how accurate his account was. But there must have been some truth to it.

“Max, take a picture of us.” Seth wrangled his Atlas out of his pocket, tossing it to his friend who was now rocking his hips back and forth while Geraldine held onto his head and shouted wild encouragements to him. He looked like he was having the time of his life.

The earth quaked beneath my feet as I prepared to bury him, but Caleb suddenly shot between us, and Washer started blowing his whistle. “What’s going on?” Caleb demanded of me, like it was my damn fault Seth didn’t have any boundaries. But I had to admit, maybe Caleb did look kind of jealous.

“I’m gonna get you fired if you don’t back down, you old creep,” Darius barked, walking over with Max at his back, water streaming from their hair and making their uniforms cling to their muscular bodies. I’d noticed he’d point blank refused to take part in the stretching shit and I knew that was because of Tory. He didn’t let any of the fangirls even get close to him these days and there was something stupid cute about that.

“They’re my real pack. The ones I count on over anyone else. The ones I’m there for before anyone among my Wolves. I know it’s fucked up, and I do love my pack. But they’re not family. The Heirs are. And so are you now. Your sister is too…though I don’t think she likes me that much.”

“Fine, I want you two to get back together. Is that a crime?” I wheeled on him, surprised that he was echoing what my sister had said. “You what?”

“You’re fucking made for each other, and come on, it’s been months since he was gone and you’re not over him. Not even one percent over him,”

“Even if I wasn’t over him, which I am, I could never be with him after what he did,”

“You mean when he sacrificed himself for you so you might have a chance to take down Lionel? So that you wouldn’t lose everything including your place at the one academy capable of training up a Fae of your power level and giving you a real chance for the throne? By the stars, what an asshole,”

“No, you’re right, Darcy. I won’t stand for it. How dare he throw himself into the most dangerous place in Solaria and face months of hell in Darkmore because of how much he loves you? How fucking dare he.”

Max: No can do, little Vega, Gerry’s sneaking over to my place tonight. Darcy: How did you pull that off?? Max: I stole all the bagels from the school supply and stashed them in my room. If she wants breakfast tomorrow, she has to come. Literally.

Seth: Can’t come tonight. Cal’s hunting me. Caleb: I am? Seth: Yup. *crossing swords emoji* Seth: Shit that was meant to be a battle axe emoji. Caleb: …

One time, Max had found me sobbing in my room at the palace in a heap of Orion’s clothes which I’d made Darius give me. His scent had finally left them, and I knew that was it. The last time I’d ever smell him.

“If he or that psychopath ever lay a hand on you again then I’ll rip them apart with my fucking teeth,” Darius growled, catching my wrist and squeezing hard enough to bruise.

“Your carriage awaits, ma’am.” I beckoned her forward and she stepped through the gap. “Are you my carriage?” she asked. “Yeah, I forgot my saddle, but you can ride me bareback, right?” the joke slipped out as easily as if we were still a couple and I immediately regretted it. She punched my arm, but a smile played around her lips and my regrets instantly went away. “So that’s a yes?” I taunted and she rolled her eyes.

“Hey,” I said to Gabriel, jerking my chin in greeting while my eyes stuck to my girl. She looked intoxicating in that gold dress, and I’d been caught up in fantasies about dragging her off to the throne room ever since I’d first laid eyes on her.

“This way,” Roxy said, taking his arm and tugging him down a corridor to our left. I eyed the casual contact with a hint of jealousy. I was jealous of anyone who could be close to my girl without repercussions. Which meant I was basically a hot mess of envy at all times which was threatening to burn into rage at the slightest provocation.