Apex shifted his thumb over the spot several times, like he was pinpointing exactly where the implant was. Measuring exactly where to stick his blade. I took a deep breath as he moved his thumb away and braced myself for the pain—
But instead, I felt something soft and pleasantly warm. A kiss.
“You are very brave, Atlanta,” he purred against my skin. “The bravest person I have ever known.”
“That’s ridiculous. After everything you’ve been through—all the soldiers and warriors you’ve gone into battle with… Gallix, and Ronan, and—”
“No. We were trained for this life. You were not.”
“That doesn’t matter, though, does it?” It was sweet, what he was saying, but it hardly sounded true. Whatever words I might use to describe myself, brave wasn’t one of them.
If anything, right now I was mostly just terrified.
“It does.”
“Whatever you say.” I sighed. “Just, warn me before you—Aaah!”
The knife pierced my skin so fast, I cried out more from surprise than pain. That came after, once Apex had dipped the point of the blade under my implant and flicked it out, like he was cutting a worm from an apple. The sensation was hot and deep. For a second, it made my vision blur and sent the room spinning.
I felt myself drifting backwards for only a moment before Apex dropped the dagger and took me into his arms. He lowered me to the bed gently, the same way I imagined he might lay a baby in its cradle.
“There. It is done.” He stared down at me, all three of him. “Are you all right?”
Crap. I’d imagined myself taking the pain a little better than this, but apparently, that wasn’t something I had control over. Story of my life, I guessed.
“I’m…yeah. I’m okay. Just a little dizzy, I think.” I swallowed hard and reached up to touch his face. Slowly, the three Apexes hovering over me became one again. “It’s out of me, though? You’re sure?”
“I am sure.” Apex reached over and held up a little bead, bloody and white. It was no bigger than the pearl on my mother’s engagement ring. “What do you want me to do with it? Is it…something you would like to keep?”
“Swallow it, for all I care.” I laughed and clasped my hand over my arm. There was blood, enough that it had stained the sheets where it touched. But that, like so many other things, didn’t seem to matter now.
It wasn’t the first time I’d stained them with my blood since Apex and I had started fucking. At least this time, it would hopefully be the last.
“I do not think this would be a good thing to swallow.” Apex tossed the implant across the room instead. It bounced several times, then rolled beneath the armchair in the corner. “Wait there. I will get something to dress your wound, and then—”
“No.” I pulled his face down towards me, until his forehead was resting against mine. “We do this now. Before I change my mind.”
“Do you wish to change your mind? There is surely some other way…”
“This is the only way.” I ran my fingers through his hair. It was so dark and so fine, but thick, too. The white streak blended in with the blackness of his waves, like seafoam in the ocean on a moonless night. “Do you? Want to change your mind?”
“Of course not.” Apex let out a ragged breath over my lips. “I…do not wish to make light of the deal you have struck here, Atlanta, but this is something that I want very much. Something I have wanted for a very long time.”
If he was still lying, he was the best liar I’d ever met.
“How long?” I whispered.
“Since I first saw you, I think.” Apex smirked. “The night you tried to kill Lieja. I thought to myself then… Moons, if there is a mate for me, it is her. I have never wanted someone so badly in all my life.”
“You can’t really mean that.” Unless he’s been telling you the truth, that little voice in my head called out. Not my inner floozy this time, I was pretty sure. I was pretty sure my inner floozy was just me at this point—at least, where Apex was concerned.
“You were fierce. Fearless. Stupid, too—but very brave.” He kissed me then, his lips so hot that they almost took my mind over the panging pain in my arm. “As you are now.”
“You’re the brave one,” I pointed out. “If you’re double-crossing me, you’re really committing to it, you know.”
“There is no double-crossing you, Atlanta.” He pulled back to look down at me. His smile was the most genuine one I’d ever seen on his lips. “Everything I have done here—everything I will do—it is all for you.”
“For me?” I echoed. It was such a perfect thing to say, it was hard to believe it was actually real.
“For you. And if I must get you pregnant to do that…” His smile broadened as he moved his hands to my thighs. He pushed them apart and slipped between them. Even though he was so much larger than me, somehow, his hips fit in the valley between my thighs perfectly. Like we were made for this. Maybe we were. “Then so be it.”
“This might not work, you know.” I reached up to unbutton his shirt. My every moment was slow and focused. There was something holy about the way the buttons slipped from their holes. Ritualistic, almost. Like I was some kind of ancient priestess, and Apex was my god, come to bestow me with his heavenly gifts. “I don’t know how the implant works, exactly. And it doesn’t always happen on the first try, anyway.”
“Then we will have to try again.” He shrugged the shirt away from his shoulders and slipped down off the bed into a kneeling position. More religion. More ritual. He spread my thighs wider, then dipped his head down to my pussy like he was about to
