Alter Arlo

by Nordika Night

I wanted to live in his delusion and forge new realities where it was perfectly normal to have a three-way relationship with a nightmare, a ghost, and a dead man walking. Who fucking said I couldn’t? This was my world now, and like Keiran asked, I was ready to chase that life.

Zan looked at me like he loved me. Keiran looked at me like he possessed me. Zan sank into pleasure with me. Keiran drove us beyond pleasure until it hurt. Zan uttered words of praise and love. Keiran howled his feelings at the moon. Zan moaned and gasped beautifully. Keiran laughed and groaned maniacally. “Do you see, Cadoc Dire?” Keiran asked, his hands gripping my forearms as my pace slowed to listen to his lesson. “Do you see that we are not the same? That life can move in different lanes and still get to the same place? That baggage can be heavy, but it strengthens us to carry it? That light and dark are but shades of grey. You, Cadoc, are our shade of grey.” Holy fuck. My body buckled forward and my lips landed on Keiran’s. “Say it again,” I demanded, rocking the whole dock as I fucked him. Keiran’s legs wrapped around my hips and his hands came up to wrap around my neck. “I’ll paint your nails.” Forever. It was a bond.

Before I could finish that thought, Finn, being a bold asshole today, pulled the bandana down, latched his gloved hands onto the front of my shirt and pulled me past the doorframe, his mouth on mine, and something more intense than relief filled me. It was right here, in this exact moment, that I realized my focus in life had switched. No longer was anger all I had; I had Finnegan Ravish, too.

“You smell like sweat and bleach,” his voice vibrated my lips and brought my cock to life. “I love that smell.”

Maybe it was delusional to think I deserved something like this, but for the first time in a very, very long time, I wanted something because it made me feel more than angry. It made me feel.

“I’m thinking that you are the gift, not this room. I’m thinking that I’ve never felt anything like this, and that I trust what you said about wanting whatever I’ll give you. I’m thinking that the relief I felt after knowing that has switched to…something like anger, because I want you to want all of me, not just the little bits I willingly give you.”

“Trust me, Finnegan. I want every fucking last bit of you. Your weird habits, the way you blush, the cleaning, and the goddamn stick up your ass. I want it all. I want…I want you to pick me like I pick you. I…” Never one for words but also not one to stutter, my throat closed up with a monumental truth that was afraid to come out. “I want you to be mine, and I want to be yours.” I wrapped my hand around his and the bottle of lube. “In here.” I tapped his head. “In here.” I tapped his heart. “And in here.” I ran my hand over his stiff dick. “All of you.”

“Someone is intruding on this moment. I don’t want to listen to them. I don’t want this to end. The lights are flashing.” I gripped the back of his neck, keeping his forehead against mine. “We’ll get so many more moments, Finn. I’m not letting you go.”

“Don’t let me go,” he begged gently. His voice caught and his breathing stuttered. “Don’t let me go.” “Look at me,” I demanded, staring him straight in the eyes. “You’re mine, okay? And even though you have to go somewhere right now, you’re still mine. Wherever you go, I’ll find you. I pick you, Finnegan. I pick you.”

“I pick you, Zaden. Now and every day. Just you.”

Shit, she was falling for the devil just like I was falling for his nerdy tutor and Cadoc was falling for his nightmare come to life. We were in this thing deeper than I thought we were, and I needed to figure out where Dante actually stood on the matter.

Hope was a dangerous thing, especially in this world, but it was there, and it was burning.

“To haunt the darkness of the night with you. To no longer be enslaved to freedom but freed by my slaver. To scare you nightly by threatening death, but to kill you slowly by providing you cigarettes. To carry your baggage, but to never actually do it because you need it to build strength. To be an actor but never act with you. To chase endlessness with the greatest riddle of my life.”

“I don’t want to chase pain and chaos anymore, Keiran.” “I know.” “I want to chase life.” “Yesss.” “With you.” “Your slave.” “My equal.”

And there it was. The old spirit that contained real magic and a wise mind; the spirit that Keiran claimed was a wolf met my eyes and accepted me as its mate. I didn’t believe in magic or fate, but I believed in Keiran and the pretty lies he lived by. “There,” he said, smiling hauntingly. “You found me.”

“I’ll wait,” he said. Because I needed to fill him spiritually. Emotionally. For minutes, the clouds passed, and the orange moon played hide and seek while I put everything I had into Keiran. I stared into his eyes and gave him my grief, my anger, and my hopelessness. Then I showed him my newly sparked hope and gave him that, too. I gave him my sick desires, access to my dreams, permission to invade my mind, and acceptance that he was growing like cancer in my heart. My eyes told him I’d rather die from him than from cancer, and his eyes told me he could make that happen. “Do you feel me?” “Savagely.” “Is it enough?” “It’s everything.”

“Ah, life!” Keiran moaned, a wild edge to his tone. “It feels so good!”

dreamed you up,” Keiran said. “Made you in my dreamscape.” “And brought me to life?” I rocked my hips, hitting him deep inside and gripping the scars that circled his wrists. “Not on purpose,” he said. “You escaped my nightmare and now I get to live in the dream with you.” “I haunted you too then.” I pulled on his wrists, bringing him upright.

The moon, witness to it all.

“Havoc is your specialty?” I nodded. “Create it.” Dark delight joined my anger.

“Can I ask you something?” Arlo stared at her as permission. “I want to put him in my own cage,” she said, making my eyes widen. “A cage of my own,” she corrected when Arlo growled. “And I want you to teach me what to do with him. How to punish him. All of them.” She included her father in that. “Can you teach me, Arlo?”

Arlo collapsed with one uttered warning, “Punishment.” I stepped forward. Cadoc stepped forward. Lowell stepped forward. Dante stepped forward. Rosie goddamn Wilson came out of nowhere and stepped forward. We all waited to see whose eyes would open for punishment.

“Rewrite me. Build my character. Get me through my crescendo of turmoil so we can chase the arc of our romance.” I smiled but scoffed. “Romance? You think what we do is romantic?” “In my love language, yes.” He tripped a few times, but I held him up. His bloody hands covered mine, holding them tighter to his eyes so he wouldn’t have to look. “You telling me you love me, Kei?” My heart pattered out of control. “I’m telling you I’ll hunt you forever and howl at you for eternity.” So, love then. I smiled, happier than I’d been in…years. “You make the trip to insanity fun.” “I know, but you steer us there.”

“You want to bite me?” “Yes, but I want to respect you because you’re my home. I want to bite anyone who comes near you.”

“Ew!” Rosie shrieked. “There’s people on my boots!” Just another night in the grey area.

“Us and that body,” he repeated, smirking. “And all the alter Arlos inside it.”