Savage Fae (Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac, #2)

by Caroline Peckham

trying to break free of the collar around my neck which bound me to it forever.

If I’d known he was in trouble, if I’d known why he wanted the money… Would I have given it to him? If things had been different, if he’d been honest. If he hadn’t blackmailed me?

Maybe I would have been a selfish prick. Maybe I would have refused to help him anyway.

but I can try to find out who attacked Elise on the night of the party. I can help her with her investigations as best I can. But I fear they’ll all lead her right to me.

I eventually came across the cabin where Elise had been taken. Where the Black Card had gathered and where I’d seen the body of the boy who’d killed himself. Whatever magic had occurred here was dark, I could sense the remains of it tingling through my skin and heightening my senses.

My desire to help Elise was so strong it was able to overcome the powerful magic that held my powers in check. I wondered if that was because she was my Elysian Mate.

It was the voice of a friend, a relative, a stranger and I cursed them for hiding so well.

But one thing I did know, was they were hidden beneath powerful magic. And there were only so many Fae in this school capable of that.

The only magic I’d ever heard of breaking a bind like that was Phoenix fire. And the Phoenix Order had been extinct for a thousand years, so there was no chance of using that.

a vision drove into my skull of Elise in my arms. I fell apart as I drank it in. She was curled in my lap, her fingers trailing along my jaw and her eyes ringed with silver. I leaned in to kiss her and she kissed me back with a moan of pleasure.

She dropped down beside me, dangling her legs over the ledge and biting her lip as if it made her nervous to do so.

“I’d catch you if you fell,” I said quietly. “I know,” she said, her fingers curling around the edge of the bricks. “But I won’t fall.” “Even angels fall,” I pointed out, quoting her tattoo. “Lucky I’m no angel then,” she said stiffly.

We sat in silence while the need to touch her bu...

It was eating me alive. No one in the universe could change it,...

I wasn’t sure how she would react to that but I didn’t expect her to scream. She threw her head back and fucking screamed at the sky like it was falling down on her head.

I grabbed her, clamping a hand over her mouth and pulling her into my chest in alarm. “Not her,” she said through her teeth as I eased my hand away. “Why would he want her?”

“I don’t know, Elise,” I said gently. “Maybe you should ask her.” “Oh I will. I’ll rip her heart out if she broke my brother’s.”

“You really will kill whoever hurt him, won’t you?” “Yes,” she snarled, the fierceness in her eyes driving a hole into my chest.

“Even if it kills me to. I have nothing left anyway.” “Don’t say that,” I breathed, horrified that she was willing to throw her life away for this.

“I swear,” I said through clenched teeth, knowing she needed this. “On everything I am, on every star in the heavens, on every shred of ink in my skin and on every ounce of magic in my veins. I did not kill Gareth Tempa.”

Then she lurched forward, wrapping herself around me and coming apart in my arms.

Tears rolled down my chest and I gasped, holding her tighter.

As far as I knew, she didn’t show weakness to anyone but me and now she was letting me see it once again. Letting me in enou...

I cupped her cheek and she glanced up at me through watery eyes. I hushed her softly, wiping the tears from her cheeks as my heart fell apart for her.

“Tears don’t make you weak, my little angel,” I said and more tears fell as I called her that name like it meant something to her.

“It’s brave to cry over what you’ve lost. It means you feel it, it means it meant something, and it means you don’t shy away from those emotions even when they hurt the most.”

“I don’t know who I am anymore.” “I know who you are,” I breathed, my hands curling around her waist as I drew her against me.

and I groaned, giving in to the darkest temptations inside me. I cupped her face between my hands as my tongue met hers with hungry strokes.

There was nothing but us and a haze of bliss caressing my soul.

and clutched onto me like the world would fall if she didn’t.

I feared how little control I had right then as I gave in to the desires of the mate bond.

It felt like the stars had threaded rope around my arms and were moving me like a puppet. But it was so good to give in to t...

“Tell me,” she begged as she kissed me again. “You’re Elise Callisto,” I breathed....

She was the sun and I was the moon, the two of us forever cycling through night and day as we tried to evade one another, but eternally chasing the other too.

The sun sank the moment she disappeared and I wasn’t sure if the horizon had shaded all the light in the world, or if Elise had taken it with her.

I found myself in his arms again. I was half tempted to go back to him, half tempted to keep walking and never look back.

Maybe he was right about us being Elysian Mates, soul mates, true love…but then why did I feel such a pull to the other Kings of the school too?

Maybe I was more fucked up tha...

“Because I wonder if the relationship you had with her was about more than just sex.” Ryder was screwing a teacher??

“Because the bitch was desperate for my blood and she wanted a man who would punish her while fucking her, so I made her work for both.”

“And you still believe you were the dominant party in your relationship?” Nightshade asked.

I did not like the idea of Ryder screwing anyone else. Which was fucking ridiculous on so many levels.

“And then after doing all of that for me, she came begging for me to fuck her while tying her up and whipping her. In what part of that scenario am I not the dominant party?”

“No,” Ryder interrupted. “No one manipulates me. You think just because she was the one to keep me back after class and suggest we start fucking that somehow I felt I couldn’t say no? I can get plenty of girls, I don’t need to jump at every opportunity I get. I could have just as easily said no.”

I told her she’d have to make it worth my while. Which is why she started sabotaging Inferno.”

“She was a predator,” Miss Nightshade pushed. “And you were her prey. She laid a trap and you fell into it.”

Professor King was my pawn. If anyone was taking advantage of the situation, it was me. I hardly even enjoyed screwing her. It was just a means to an end.”

“When you bend a teacher over a chair and whip them until they beg you for sex you feel pretty dominant,” he deadpanned.

Ryder stepped out, his dark gaze falling on me for a moment before he made to walk away.

His dark green gaze found mine and I held it, silently begging him to snare me into his hypnosis.