Order of Scorpions

by Ivy Asher

The only thing I ever want to be to anyone is the last thing they see before they die.

“My issue with trouble is that it can bring a man to his knees in the best kind of way or it can have him on his knees so it’s easier to remove his head from his shoulders. Every instinct I have tells me it’s one or the other with that fae.

“You’re my brother and I don’t want to hurt you, but she’s my mate. If you don’t move, I will fuck you up,” I warn.

I don’t want to get a taste of this life and love it, only to find out that it’s poison.

“What doesn’t kill us fortifies us,” I offer gently, my strokes through her hair slowing as we stare at one another. I feel as though a part of her is reaching out to me, and something in me takes a hold of it and vows to never let it go. “We can take those things…” I continue, my voice growing deeper as purpose and regard settle like a tether between us. “Melt them down, mold them, and reshape them until they work for us instead of against us. Then, when we have weapons instead of wounds, we make the fuckers pay for what they did to us.”

it’s time to get back to the truth I do know about this world. I am the only one I can really count on, and I need to figure out who the fuck I am and what the fuck I want,

you deserve to be loved. You deserve to find others who make you happy. Build a life around that, Auset. I vow to you that you can never go wrong if that’s what’s at the center of your purpose.”

They should really consider a name change from Order of Scorpions to Order of Confounding Cunt Teasers.

For males who’ve been posturing about me being theirs and what they plan to do to my body when I’m ready, they sure are lacking on the fucking follow-through. I’m not impressed.

“You can bathe in the blood and tears of anyone who’s ever hurt you, including us, all you have to do is say the word and it’s done,”

“You are not defenseless. You are not at their mercy. You are the dangerous one now. You are their reckoning.”

I know the demons of my past won’t disappear forever. No matter how much I wish they’d been shoved over the cliff, never to return, they’ll crawl back. They’ll once again settle silently inside me until another day like today wakes them up and forces me to fight for what they try to claim. I will. I’ll never let them win no matter how bloody they leave me after our battles.

It may take me time to decide things, to move in one direction or another until I’ve worked through all the possibilities and consequences of my actions, but once I’ve decided on something, I go for it with a single-minded focus that helps make me the best at what I do. I don’t doubt. I don’t question. I take.

They’re mine, and we’ll possess and protect each other long past our last breaths, because even death will know it has no claim here.

“If I die today, it will be the freest and happiest I’ve ever been in my life. What you and your brothers have given me is so much more than I ever dared to dream. I will take my last breath with no regrets in my heart, needing nothing more than what the three of you have already given me.”

“I don’t know if I like it more when these lips are professing adoration, screaming my name, or threatening me with bodily harm for pissing you off,”

Who needs romantic overtures and jewels when you can have fights to the death and the torturing of your enemies?

“I’m going to write my story in your fucking skin,” I growl. “Let’s see if you can survive what I endured. Ready?”

Maybe all any of us can do is offer justice when we can. We can attempt to right the wrongs that fall into our path. Nothing more, nothing less.