Their Wife - Chapter 34: Chapter 34

Axel
"Dammit!"
The faint sound of cracking stone made me release the vanity from my hands. I didn't need Lester on my ass about damages above everything else. I was surprised Cassius still kept the stiff man around after all these years.
Water dripped off the tip of my nose as I ran my hand roughly through my hair. I had thought splashing my face with ice water would have calmed my inner beast, but it did nothing. T
I could still feel Nea's essence burn through my veins. It sparked underneath my skin, making my hair stand on its ends. Instead of appeasing the need to feed, it only fueled my beast into wanting more.
"Axel!"
I met my crazed eyes in the mirror as Zev ponder his fist on the washroom door. The swirling of silver had been growing wilder, increasing along with my heart rate and hunger. I could feel each pound of Zev's fist against the wooden surface on the inside of my skull.
He had been hounding me since yesterday to visit the brothel to feed. I wanted to, but it was pointless. If only he understood that all my beast wanted was Nea. Every since I had caught a whiff of her decadent scent, all my inner beast wanted was her. I wanted to feed on one of Zev's boys to state my hunger, I had even tried already, but their scents were repulsive compared to Nea. My inner incubus no longer wanted them.
Zev pounder against the door harder.
"What?" I snapped as I jerked it open.
Everything was already grating on my easily aggravated nerves lately, I need Zev to add to the list.
"I'm telling Timothy to get the car ready."
I scowled at him as he stood in front of me with his arms crossed and a frown on his face. Who did this infant this he was speaking to? Surely it couldn't have been me. He had been increasingly acting like he was more mature because he had adopted a cold and silent persona.
My irritation at his disrespect was short-lived as my inner beast processed Zev's words. I could feel him begin to rebel against Zev's suggestion. It wanted to feed, but only from Nea.
And tasting her had made that conviction stronger.
Sighing, I brushed past Zev. The fae was cold like always. It was a wonder how he was once a favoured whore. I couldn't imagine him seductively seducing anyone. I'd only ever seen him frighten away anything with a pulse with a quick glance ever since he readjusted to life as a free man. There was no point in travelling to the city if my inner beast would just throw a fit like a child.
"Don't bother-"
"What did you do to her?"
I stopped in my track, my shoulders stiff. His tone was steely, giving away his concern to those who knew where to look.
I hadn't had a moment to truly reflect on the moments spent in that room with the little mouse yet. I was too occupied with controlling myself during lunch from lunging for her to go over the events prior. I was sure Lady Crane would have had her fill with that spectacle if I was a little weaker in my resistance.
It hadn't been too long since lunch had ended and she had scurried away like the frightening little mouse she was in search of Ezra. That boy better have been prepared to share. And clean up the mess afterwards. His success where I failed was rubbing my inner incubus wrongly. He wasn't going to be done with Nea for a while once he got his hands on her.
"I could smell her on you throughout lunch." I heard him step closer. "She looked dishevelled and uncomfortable."
My fists tightened and my nails dug into my skin.
"What did you do to her, Axel?"
Her frightened eyes flashed through my mind.
My teeth clenched.
She shouldn't have been spying on our conversation. She shouldn't have been there.
But then again, it wasn't supposed to be so hard. I had gone longer in the past without feeding. Day, weeks, months, with no problem. So why was I struggling so much now?
"She didn't let me go too far," I answered as I pulled my phone from my pocket. I sent off a quick message consisting of two words before I could change my mind.
I'm coming.
Zev's not so subtle jab had worked. I wasn't going to allow my beast's stubborn behaviour to lead me to act out.
Incubi and other creatures who lived lives that revolved around sex typically tended to toe along the line of what was wrong and what was right more closely. For most of my kind, no didn't mean no. Not when a simple glance could turn it into a yes.
Morals didn't exist during hazy days that passed filled with nameless faces streaked with tears but stretched wide with smiles hiding fears. Cries that were melodies singing songs of frightening ecstasy.
I wasn't going to turn out like others of my kind. I wasn't going to become the very thing they warned me they had to leash me to stop me from becoming. I had already attacked Nea twice, once after reassuring her it wouldn't happen again. I wasn't going to allow there to be a third time.
Zev's silence mostly went unnoticed until I had grabbed my coat and tucked my phone into the back pocket of my jeans without waiting for a reply to my message. Turning, I found him standing there with his arms crossed firmly. Thin splinters of ice could be seen spreading from where his fingers tightly gripped his arms.
He was mad.
"How far did you go?"
The seemingly normal question would not typically raise one's awareness, but that was if it wasn't spoken from the mouth that it was.
Zev didn't care about others. His concern only extended between the five of us. I was positive none of us would have warranted the concern from him that his question conveyed for Nea.
The little mouse was more dangerous than I had thought she would have been.
She was sneaking her way in, in ways that I hadn't even suspected.
I looked into Zev's hard lavender eyes.
Especially through those least expected.
How far did you go?
I thought about his question for a moment while my beast lay dormant in my mind. It was still agitated, but without Nea and her taunting scent around, it was easier to focus on my mind on other matters.
Which gave me the chance to understand how badly I fucked things up.
I was too ashamed to look at Zev, him especially out of everyone.
"Did you ra-"
"No!" It was disgusting to think that one of my closest friends would need to ask me that question. But it was worse that I had done something to warrant it. "But I was close."
I hung my head in shame.
I felt him come to a stop near me. "You stopped."
"But I didn't."
She had fought me. If she hadn't caught me by surprise, things would have been so much worse.
But...
They already were worse than I had thought they were.
Because her fighting against me made me want her even more. It made my beast want to overpower and claim her.
It would have been fine if it was just a secret fantasy. But it wasn't that simple. My hunger-dazed state made me unpredictable and put her at a real risk of being attacked.
I wonder what my dear friend would think of me if he knew that, that her fight had excited me.
It was surprising that Zev was the only one out of the five of us who had faced real sexual abuse. I was sure that many would include some of the things that I or the others had been through as sexual abuse as well, but as an incubus, my limits were slightly different.
And a little mouse named Nea was daring me to push those limits with her taunting scent.
I shook my head. "There's just something about her..." I trailed off, unable to think of a word that could encapsulate what her scent did to me.
"I know."
My head snapped towards him in surprise. He wasn't looking at me. He was looking off towards the side in contemplation. His eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion.
My own narrowed on him. He had been tamer than I had thought he would have been. The worst he had done since she had arrived was the incident during tea that seemed so long ago. Thinking about it, he hadn't done much of anything to her lately.
It was odd. She was even driving Jaxon's dragon to act out. I could see it in the darkening of his eyes during lunch. Maybe it was also the reason why Ezra was so attached to her.
She was making our inner beings react.
The question was, how?
Why?
The chime of Zev's phone drew us each from our musings. His eyes were slightly more guarded than earlier as he viewed his screen.
"The car's out front, let's go."
I shook my head as I began to put my arm through the sleeve of my jacket. "I can go on my own." I didn't need him to babysit me. I was near twice his age.
He levelled me with his signature icy glare. "Let's go."
Sighing, I finished putting the jacket on while I followed behind him. He led the way to the front door where Timothy stood beside an idling car. I was fairly positive that this was one of the boys that had befriended the little mouse. When his eyes landed on us, he bowed his head in respect before rushing to open our doors.
It wasn't long before we were on our way towards the bustling marketplace. Zev's brothel was in the heart of the city. The Duchess of Greenbay was smart to try to go into business with Zev. He would be stupid to accept.
A tense silence stretched within the car. I could see Timothy sneaking peeks at us in the rearview mirror, thinking that we couldn't see him. I did not doubt that the little mouse would be hearing about this little trip. I wondered what would go through her mind when she learned the purpose.
I brushed the thought off. We weren't real husband and wife. I was an incubus that had needs.
We pulled up in front of the brothel as one of the high-class regulars walked out. Lady Amaral. She was typically here neglecting her husbands and spending her monthly income on the new whores, always trying to lure away with promises of marriage and luxuries she couldn't provide. Only one had ever fallen for it. He now waited for her at home with her other husband's hoping for scraps of her affection.
"Stay by my side. I don't need you attacking anyone else while we head to Fern's room."
I narrowed my eyes on the back of his white-haired head. He was grating against frayed nerves. "I'd be careful to mind who I was speaking to, boy."
Maybe I should tell have let it slip who he was really indebted to like he believed. That would have stopped the disrespect he thought he could throw my way.
He was under the impression that Cassius had saved him from that whore house he was trapped in with that beautiful yet cruel collar he was forced to wear. He didn't pay it much mind that Cassius never frequented those establishments. He wouldn't have been there to save him in the first place.
But an incubus with a habit of getting bored and wandering? He may have taken pity on a pretty match stick of a boy.
We walked in, with our head high as the lords were known and feared as. There wasn't a hint of a shake visible in my hands. I had already fucked up enough by allowing my slipping hunger to be noticed at lunch. In a world like ours, showing weakness meant defeat. There was always someone lurking in the shadows, waiting to snatch our position.
With a strained smile, I made my way across the foyer towards the marble staircase. There were a few whores and customers loitering around. I didn't have to worry about any of them delaying my approach. My face was set in an expression that made people think twice before addressing me.
"How are you going to spin the tale that it's what our dear wife wanted when she's nowhere to be seen?"
Zev glanced at me from the corner of his eye. It was a legitimate concern. We couldn't claim I smelled like another for our wife's entertainment if she wasn't around to experience it.
"I've messaged Ezra and told him to keep her out of sight. We'll say she snuck out, feeling it was not proper to indulge while entertaining guests. Ezra will make sure she's absent at dinner as well so you can take your time."
Of course. It was my mistake to doubt that Zev would have left such a vulnerable opening in his plan.
My legs started shaking just as we reached the third-floor landing. The floor housed the private quarters of higher-class whores. Holding back my beast the past few days had weakened me more than I could have predicted.
I clenched my fist. It was a blow to the ego that Ezra, my most socially inept of my friends was able to get the girl and I couldn't.
Reaching the door I was headed towards, I placed my hand on the doorknob before turning to face Zev when he spoke.
"I'm going to be at the bar. Come find me once you've taken care of business."
Nodding, I started pushing open the door. I was growing anxious now that the ability to feed my itch, even slightly, was within reach. Without waiting to see if Zev had left, I closed the door behind me as I entered the heavily perfumed room.
"Axel!" Sang a sultry voice almost immediately. "You haven't visited me in so long I was beginning to think you grew bored!"
My eyes darted toward the man the voice belonged to and landed on the smooth expanse of his dark skin that was decorated in streaks of gold paint. He lay draped over the pile of cushions he had in the center of his room that he called a bed with another man. Fern ran his long, dark fingers through the baby blue hair of the man whose head he held in his lap.
Seeing my attention on his friend, Fern's dark lips spread in a grin. "You took so long that I decided to invite a friend. I didn't think you'd mind."
I shrugged my jacket off as I approached the bed they laid sprawled out on in a state of undress. Fern's dark skin contrasted sharply against the other man's milky skin.
He was right. I didn't mind.
The scene of the bodies entwined with silks and pillows would have typically sent my inner incubus wild. This time though, it didn't have him so much as lifting his head in interest.
I clenched my teeth at the disappointment as I removed my shirt over my head and tossed it to the side. I didn't need my beast to be enthusiastic to feed the hunger.
It didn't take long for me to find myself lying back against the head of the bed while Fern and Sky, the man with the baby blue hair, stood on their knees with their lips locked together above me. They didn't pay me much attention, too focused on one another. I didn't mind. I had no interest in them, their combined essence felt like bland calories that barely fed my need. They didn't state the hunger I felt.
Ferns fingers trailed down my chest and along my length as Sky trailed his lips down his neck. He firmly wrapped his hand around me and pumped. Although the size of his hold didn't match, all I could think of was Nea's small, soft fingers on me. While Fern's fingers were strong and confident, she had held me hesitantly, like she was afraid of grabbing me too tight. It was amusing.
I groaned when felt Sky's lips on my chest.
My beast stirred as Sky started to kiss his way down the narrow trail of hair that led under the waist of my pants.
Fuck.
Tasting Nea's skin had been a mistake.
Letting her hold my beast by the member had been a worse mistake.
He had mistaken it to mean that he and Nea belonged to one another. Which was why when another moved to take me into his mouth, my beast lashed out.
One moment Fern was holding my length in place for Sky to take into his mouth, the next their bodies were feeling the wall on the other side of the room.
My chest heaved. My beast was slightly more stated than when I had walked in, but it only had one thing on its mind.
Nea.
Fuck.