Which was ironic.
She'd dreamed about what it would be like for so long. To be taken by him. To leave her virginal state behind and know what it was to have a male inside.
Whenever she'd imagined them together, her body had always warmed, her skin had tingled. But the reality had been overwhelming. She'd been totally unprepared, and she wished it had lasted longer and been a little less intense. She had a feeling she would have liked it if he'd gone more slowly.
But then, he hadn't been thinking of her.
Marissa recurled her hand, making that fist again.
She didn't want him back. What she wanted was for him to have a taste of the pain she'd been through.
Wrath put his arms around Beth and drew her close, looking at Rhage over the top of her head. Watching her ease the male's suffering had broken down all sorts of barriers.
Care for his brothers, care for him, he thought. It was the oldest code in the warrior class.
"Come to my bed," he whispered in her ear.
She let him take her hand and lead her to his room. Once inside, he shut and locked the door and extinguished all the candles but one. Then he pulled the sash of the robe she wore free and stripped the satin from her shoulders. Her naked skin gleamed in the light of the single wick that burned.
He took his leather pants off. And then they were lying together.
He didn't want sex from her. Not now. He just wanted to share some comfort. He wanted her warm skin against his, her breath brushing lightly over his chest, her heart beating mere inches from his own. And he wanted to give her the same kind of peace back.
He stroked her long, silky hair and breathed deeply.
"Wrath?" Her voice was lovely in the dim quiet, and he liked the vibration of her throat against his pecs.
"Yeah." He kissed the top of her head.
"Who did you lose?" She shifted, putting her chin on his chest.
"Lose?"
"Who did the lessers take from you?"
The question seemed out of the blue. And then it didn't. She'd seen the aftereffects of a fight. Somehow knew that he fought not only for his race, but for himself.
It was a long time before he could answer. "My parents."
He felt her emotions shift from curiosity to sorrow. "I'm sorry."
There was a long silence.
"What happened?"
Now that was an interesting question, he thought. Because there were two versions. In vampire lore, that bloody night had taken on all sorts of heroic implications, being heralded as the birth of a great warrior. The fiction wasn't his doing. His people needed to believe in him, so they created that which sustained their misplaced faith.
He alone knew the truth.
"Wrath?"
His eyes went to the hazy beauty of her face. It was difficult to deny the gentle tone she used. She wanted to offer him compassion, and for some godforsaken reason, he wanted it from her.
"It was before my transition," he murmured. "A long time ago."
His hand paused on her hair, the memories coming back gruesome and vivid.
"We thought as the First Family we were safe from the lessers. Our homes were well defended, well hidden in the forests, and we moved all the time."
He found that if he continued to smooth her hair, he could keep talking.
"It was winter. A cold night in February. One of our servants betrayed our location. The lessers came in a pack of fifteen or twenty and slaughtered their way through our estate before breaching our stone battlements. I'll never forget the sound when they pounded on the door to our private quarters. My father shouted for his weapons while forcing me into a crawl space. He locked me inside just before they broke through the door with a battering ram. He was good with a sword, but there were so many of them."
Beth's hands came to his face. He dimly heard soft words falling from her lips.
Wrath closed his eyes, seeing the ghastly images that still had the power to rip him from sleep. "They massacred the servants before killing my parents. I saw it all through a knothole in the wood. As I said, my eyes were better back then."
"Wrath - "
"While it was happening, they made so much noise, no one heard me screaming." He shuddered. "And I fought to get free. I pushed against the latch, but it was solid and I was weak. I tore at the wood, scratched at it until my fingernails splintered and bled. I kicked with my feet..." His body responded to the remembered horror of being confined, his breath growing ragged, his skin breaking out in a cold sweat. "After they left, my father tried to drag himself over to me. They had stabbed him in the heart, and he was... He gave out two feet from the crawl space, reaching for me. I kept calling his name over and over again until I lost my voice. I begged for him to live even as I watched the light in his eyes dim and then go out. I was trapped there for hours with their bodies, watching the pools of blood get bigger. Some civilian vampires came the following night and let me out."
He felt a soothing stroke down his shoulder, and he brought Beth's hand to his mouth, kissing the skin of her palm.
"Before the lessers left, they pulled back all the tapestries from the windows. The moment the sun rose and came into the room, all the bodies burned up. I had nothing to bury."
He felt something hit his face. A tear. Beth's.
He reached out and stroked her cheek. "No crying."
Though he cherished her for her sympathy.
"Why not?"
"It changes nothing. I cried while I watched, and still they all died." He turned on his side and gathered her close. "If only I could have... I still have dreams about that night. I was such a coward. I should have been out there with my father, fighting."
"But you would have been killed."
"As a male should. Protecting his own. That's honorable. Instead I was sniveling in a crawl space." He hissed with disgust.
"How old were you?"
"Twenty-two."
She frowned, as if she'd assumed he'd been much younger. "You said it was before your transition?"
"Yeah."
"So what were you like then?" She smoothed his hair back. "It's hard to imagine you fitting in a crawl space, the size you are now."
"I was different."
"You said you were weak."
"I was."
"So maybe you needed to be protected."
"No." His temper flared. "A male protects. Never the other way around."
Abruptly, she backed off.
As the silence stretched between them, he knew she was thinking through his actions. Shame made him remove his hands from her body. He rolled away, onto his back.
He never should have said a thing.
He could just imagine what she thought of him now. After all, how could she not be revolted by his failure? By the reality that he'd been weak when his family had needed him most?
With a shrinking feeling, he wondered if she'd still want him. If she'd still welcome him into her slick heat. Or would that be gone for her? Now that she knew?
He waited for her to put her clothes on and leave.
She stayed in the bed.
But of course she did, he thought. She understood that her transition was coming no matter what, and she needed his blood. It was a matter of necessity.
He heard her sigh in the darkness. As if she were giving up on something up.
He wasn't sure how long they lay together, side by side but not touching. It must have been hours. He fell asleep briefly, only to wake up when Beth shifted against him, her bare leg moving over his.
A jolt of lust went through him, but he beat it back savagely.
Her hand brushed over his chest. Drifted down his stomach and across his hip. He held his breath as he got hard in a rush, his erection achingly close to where she was touching him.
Her body moved nearer to his, her br**sts caressing his ribs, her core rubbing on his thigh.
Maybe she was still asleep.
And then she took him into her hand.
Wrath moaned, arching his back.
Her fingers were steady as she stroked him.
He went for her instinctively, craving what she seemed to be offering, but she stopped him. Rising to her knees, she pressed him down to the mattress with her palms on his shoulders.
"This time is for you," she whispered, kissing him softly.
He could barely speak. "You still want... me?"
Confusion spiked her brows. "Why wouldn't I?"
With a pathetic groan of relief and gratitude, Wrath lurched for her again. Except she didn't let him get anywhere near her body. She pushed him back down and gripped his wrists, bringing his arms over his head.