Hopeless Realm: A Reverse Harem Series (The Hopeless Series Book 3), page 5
Ice is held in the leader’s gaze as he stares down at the fae in shackles. His features display nothing but disgust. Everyone’s attention is on the fae in the iron cuffs who kneels in the dirt.
Is he a prisoner?
A woman with long, dark hair kneels on the ground a few feet from him, her shoulders shaking as quiet cries leave her slim body. She looks to the prisoner with fear and sorrow in her glossy eyes.
Sharp angles make up the judgmental face of the man who they called Concord, the leader. He’s thin and wiry, but he seems to hold the power in this situation.
It feels … unwelcoming here. Like I should take a step back and never return.
“Confess your sins to the Blood Moon tonight. Atone for what you’ve done, and may the gods grant peace upon your soul,” Concord finally says to the prisoner, a sneer pulling at his thin lips.
May the gods grant peace upon your soul?
The sobs of the young woman at the front grow louder, filling my chest with heavy dread. Her cries are all that can be heard within the silence.
“Who is that man? What does that mean?” I whisper.
A stiffness is held in Ryder’s spine before he leans into me, his apprehensive breath fanning across my cheek.
“Concord owns the Iron Bar. It’s safe here. He grants their safety, therefore, he makes the rules. ‘May the gods grant peace on your soul’ is what they say to someone who will be visiting the gods soon. Anyone caught outside during the Blood Moon is a dead man. They just gave him a death sentence.”
Total terror sinks into me and I step cautiously into Ryder’s shadow. I’m a thief by trade, after all.
Just like that, the cruel world of crime and punishment becomes even more dangerous here in the Hopeless realm.
Six
Best Fucking Friends
That night I think about the feeling of simplicity that’s pushing into our lives. It’s so normal it makes me anxious. For two days now, Ryder and I have passed the time away. All I think about is Darrio and Dax out there alone. Ryder keeps me busy; keeps my mind off of it. But at night, during the pressing silence, the worry crawls back into my thoughts.
The taps of rain hitting metal tick like seconds on a clock. A screeching cry hums through the building, the sound of the nix echoing through the night. The sound of it turns my worry to fear.
They’re okay.
I have to believe they’re okay.
I shift a little closer to Ryder’s warmth. Total darkness secludes us and my thoughts are running wild with so many questions.
“Can we start looking for them tomorrow?”
Please say yes. Please.
I don’t want to sneak out on Ryder, but I will. I will if I have to.
It’s been two days. They should have contacted him by now to say they’d made it to their family’s house, shouldn’t they?
“Yeah, I don’t know where to start but we’ll do a sweep of the area between here and the mortal realm. It’s dangerous. If we go, you have to keep by my side.”
I nod against my soft pillow. I don’t know what other dangers are out there, but I’ll agree to anything if he’ll help me find them.
His reassurance does nothing for my worry, though.
More and more thoughts tangle through my muddled mind.
“Did you know I was the Eminence when you first saw me in the tower?” It’s the safest one. Of all the unanswered questions I have, this one seems the safest.
The mattress dips and I feel his warmth brushing against my skin.
“My step mother told us a woman would come to save us. She swore that she’d save us all.” His quiet words fan against my cheek as his index finger lightly trails against the back of my hand. A thrilling and overwhelming feeling shivers across my skin from his small contact. “I knew the Eminence was a fae. When she said a woman would come, I assumed she would be fae. But, no. I didn’t believe you were the Eminence. Daxdyn harped on about it for days on our journey, but Darrio and I just rolled our eyes at his suggestions that you could be the one.”
The one.
I’m the one alright. The one big fuck up.
“Why didn’t you tell me your plans when we got to Juvar? Why didn’t you just tell me the Hopeless well was so close to the kingdom?” My chest still stings thinking about how excluded they kept me.
“Would you have went?” His tone is serious and shakes through me. “Dax knew you were the Eminence, but you didn’t want to go to the kingdom at all.”
He’s right. I would have tried to ditch them to save myself.
“I knew if you could just see the well, the magic of it would wake you up in inside. It’d convince you of who you really are.” His adamant words push tension into me. “You’re capable of so much. I’m sorry we kept it from you,” a soft, sincere sound is in his voice, “but I’m not sorry we led you here.”
The tension builds into a crushing feeling.
“What if I don’t save them, Ryder?” My whisper’s so low I’m not sure he heard me. His step mother’s empty eyes flash through my mind. “What if my power gets the best of me and I cause more damage than I do good?”
Closer he scoots until his body is wrapped around mine. His arms hold me to his chest once more.
“I won’t let that happen. Darrio and Dax would never let that happen to you.”
To me. Not the mortals. He’s worried about me.
His promising tone does something to me. It sinks right into my core, making me shift against his body.
My fingers trace up the cut lines of his hard chest. The smooth muscles tense beneath my light touch.
If I tipped my head up right now, would he kiss me?
My tongue rolls across my lower lip as my thighs rub together beneath the cool sheets.
I close my eyes slowly before lowering my head into his shoulder, very deliberately away from his full lips.
“Goodnight, Ryder,” I whisper against his neck.
The rumbling sound of his throat clearing tingles through me.
“Goodnight, beautiful.”
It’s hard to tell when the sun rises. The darkness in the room is just as dense as it always is. Two things tell me it’s time to get up. The neighbors in the room above ours sound like they’re running laps around the room with shoes made of cement blocks. And the other thing …
Ryder’s dick grinds against the curve of my ass. My lips part with a heavy breath and for a second, I just lie completely still. Okay, that’s a lie. My hips shift against him, his fingertips digging into my hip as he holds me tighter. Heat pools between my legs as I think about what he’d feel like there. Thick and hard.
My eyes fling open and I crawl quietly from the bed. With a groan he rolls over, taking up all of the space but not noticing my absence.
I pull on my jeans without waking him, stumbling through the dark a few times before slipping out into the hallway.
I need some air. I need space away from him and his sweet demeanor. His comforting arms.
Space. Yes, space is good.
Nodding to myself, I jog down the metal hall. It’s open and rickety. The thin metal sways beneath my steps and if it snapped in half I’d go falling three stories down to the crowded bar below. That thought doesn’t slow my pace.
The rusted stairs bang loudly beneath my boots as I storm down to the smell of hot food.
Gods above, is that bacon?
Mmm, bacon sounds fantastic right now.
And coffee. Lots of coffee.
When I step up to the long, glossy bar, Mesa isn’t there like she normally is.
What time is it?
A man with a shaved head and the mark of the Hopeless inked down the side of his skull greets me with an annoyed look. More black tattoos intricately weave down his forearm and for a second, I’m reminded of Darrio’s tattoos. My stomach sinks just thinking about him.
“What do you want?” he asks, drawing my attention back to him.
Mesa smiles at me from across the room as she speaks intensely with a familiar looking fae. Concord. Concord looks around his bar as he seems to lecture Mesa on something of great importance.
I pull my gaze away from the man who holds the power to banish me from this safe haven.
“Can I get two servings—four servings of bacon and a coffee?”
Four should be enough.
My stomach growls in agreement.
The bartender’s dark eyes narrow on me.
“What the hell’s coffee?”
My arms fold across my chest as a few people look my way, their eyes scanning up and down my body. There’s not a lot of space. Too many arms are pushing into me. A buzz of conversations circles the metal room, magnifying the sound into an insufferable noise.
“Can I just get that bacon please? And something to drink.”
His depthless eyes appraise me, drifting down to my cleavage before coming back up to my lips. If there was more space I’d flash my wings out to their fullest and demand the fucking bacon. But now is not the time to pull the angel card.
“You want some Dusting?” He leans in to me, pressing himself against the bar to close the distance. I step back. My brows lowering in confusion.
“Dusting?”
A knowing half smile tilts his lips, and it makes me take another safe step away from him. “Faerie Dust. You put it in drinks to … get you through your day.” His eyes are shining with anticipation.
That doesn’t sound like coffee. Okay it kind of does. It sounds very appealing actually.
“I—”
“Get her some food and water and not a damn speck of Dusting,” Mesa rants, slapping the back of his head as she storms by.
He scowls at her. Dark eyes flash a glare at me before he stalks through the kitchen door. Mesa passes me a small smirk as she takes an order from the man next to me.
Moments later, a white plate piled with bacon clatters onto the bar top and the scowling fae stares me down. I pick a piece of the greasy goodness up and munch on it as I hold his gaze.
“What?” I finally ask with a mouthful of bacon.
Gods above, are all fae men total assholes?
“That’ll be three callions.”
“Call—what?” Is he wanting money? Fae money? Three callions? I don’t even have three dollars, my friend.
I hurriedly shove another bit of bacon into my mouth as he starts to pull the plate away from me. Is bacon theft something Concord would gather his lynch mob for?
“She’s with Ryder. Ryder’s paying for her,” Mesa tells him as she passes, her long braids sway with every step she takes.
Ryder’s paying for me?
Of course he is. In every realm a hotel room costs money.
How did I not think about this?
How is he paying for all this?
I leave the rest of the bacon and push my way through the mass of people.
When the prince wakes up we’re going to have a talk. I mentally prepare my lecture, his replies, and my sarcastic comebacks as I climb the teetering stairs.
The bantering thoughts keep my mind busy. A yawn pushes through me just as my wrist twists the knob to our room. The door is hardly even open before he’s yelling my name.
“What the fuck, Kara?”
My spine tenses from the unfamiliar sound of his anger. When I lock eyes with the noble born man who was once in succession to rule over my mortal world, I can only laugh. A bubbling, awkward sound of amusement.
His right palm is gripping the hard length of his shaft, his pants pushed low on his cut, lean hips. The lady-like part of me is screaming for me to look away and feign shyness, but the dominant cock-lover in me is simply cheering on the eager attention I’m giving every solid inch of him.
I shouldn’t laugh. The worst thing you can do is laugh at a man’s … manhood. But a nervousness is filling my body the longer I stand here and it’s pushing out of me in the form of anxious laughter.
“Fucking knock next time.” He shoves his length harshly beneath the thin material of his boxers and my eyes finally clench closed like a child.
Out of sight out of mind, right?
No, no that doesn’t seem to apply here.
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware you were entertaining yourself during the five seconds I left you alone. Gods above, do you have no self-control?”
I should shut my mouth, this is already awkward.
“Are you serious right now?” he says, his arms falling to his sides as he pins me with a hard glare. His bare chest rises and falls in time with the tic of his jaw. Shit. Knew I shouldn’t have opened my big mouth. “Us being shoved together is making me crazy. It’s fucking with my head. So, yeah, I’m jerking off. Either get the hell out or shut the damn door.”
My mouth parts, trying to process a shitty response to his irrational anger.
Nothing. I got nothing.
So, I do the one thing I really want to do right now.
My back presses against the door as I slowly push it closed, my eyes held on his as I lean there across the room from him. It clicks closed with a quiet sound. The simple sound sets my nerves into a panicked firing that has absolutely everything to do with the hungry look in Ryder’s wide gaze.
The air sparks between us, crackling into something fueled and charged with a growing tension that’s pressing into me.
His tongue sneaks from between his lips, wetting his mouth as if he’s the thirstiest man alive. And still I stand here, planted firmly against the door as we simply stare at one another.
Waiting.
Waiting.
Waiting.
Until he makes the first, decided move. His palm skims against the smooth panes of his lower stomach, his long fingers slipping beneath the gray band of his boxer briefs. His attention never leaves my face and for a moment I can’t look away from the crystal-like color of his hooded eyes.
My gaze falls slowly just as he pulls the hard length of his dick out, his big hand wrapping loosely around it. My throat goes dry and my legs shake, making me lean against the solid metal door even more.
The way he watches me as his hand strokes up and then slowly down sets a fire blazing through my core. Every muscle in his perfect body is strung taut, tensing with the fluid movements of his palm. Faster he strokes, his jaw clenching as he studies me.
The defined muscles of his arms are shadowed by the dim lighting, casting his perfect body into dark angles and beautiful lines.
My thighs shift, a wetness soaking through my panties as I keep myself planted safely against the door.
Behind my back, my fingers curl into my palm as I try to imagine the smooth feel of his hardness against my skin. Again, my thighs shift as I imagine the soft feel of his length teasing my clit.
“Fuck,” he groans and with another jerking pull of his impressive cock, his body tenses entirely. His eyes finally close as white come begins to slip across the back of his knuckles.
A humming noise sighs through me as my head leans back against the door. When his eyes open, landing hard on me, I realize how fast I’m breathing. The feel of his gaze drifting across my skin tingles all through me.
Once more my boots move slightly, making the metal creek beneath my nervous movements. Finally, I clear my throat and look away.
“I—” I pause as he picks up a hand towel and rubs it across the head of his dick. Fuck, my train of thought is not faring well during this moment. “I think we should probably talk about our friendship.”
Friendship. I’ve said that word more times than I can count over the last few days.
“What’s wrong with our friendship?” he asks with a crooked smile as he continues to wipe his palms, his throbbing erection glaring me in the eye as I attempt to ignore it.
“Well,” I bite my lower lip hard, trying to find something to say that doesn’t sound ridiculous. “Is our friendship similar to what you have with Darrio and Daxdyn?”
Again, he simply smiles at me as he makes slow work of tucking his junk back into his boxers. I let my eyes drift to the shining ceiling, feigning shyness suddenly.
“I don’t recall a particular instance where Dax watched me beat off, if that’s what you mean.”
“Har har. You’re real fucking witty.” My arms cross over my chest, and I force myself not to give one last longing look at his bulge before he zips up his dark jeans.
There’s a predatory sway in his steps as he begins to cross the room, closing the minimal distance that’s between he and I.
His palms splay above my head, caging me in as he looks down at me. Warm breath kisses my lips as he studies me. “Stop worrying about our friendship, beautiful. Our friendship is fine. Great. Best fucking friends.” There’s shining humor in his hooded eyes but I can’t find it in me to smile. My breasts push against his smooth chest with every heavy breath I take. A war is breaking out within my soul and mind.
If I leaned in less than half an inch, his soft lips would be on mine.
My tongue rolls across my lips and he watches that movement closely.
“Okay.” I nod continuously, attempting to convince myself as well as him. “I’ll stop worrying.” It hurts when I swallow dryly. “Thanks for being my friend, Ryder.” The words are spoken pointedly. A message hidden within them.
I asked him to be my friend. We continue to push and pull at our boundaries but I really, truly do need a friend. I need someone I can count on in this insane realm, in my insane life.
And Ryder needs me more than he needs to get laid—I think.
His head dips just minimally, his lips almost skimming mine.
“You’re welcome,” he says on a gravelly whisper.
My eyes flutter closed from the spark of contact that’s tingling through my lips.
But then he’s gone, storming back across the room to pull on his boots without another word.
Seven
Shuddering Annoyance
A slouching tan backpack is slung over Ryder’s shoulder as he opens the iron gate with a terrible screech. The sun burns across the lush green grass as my boots grind into the earth. It’s early. The warm colors of dawn are just beginning to bloom across the sky. We need to give ourselves as much time as possible before the heavens bleed red.
