Page 121 of The Never List
“He’s rarely met a person who isn’t terrified of him,” he explains. “With who his father is and how he behaves, it’s not hard for people to make the stretch that he’s the same cold, heartless fool Baydel is. The Nightmare,” he says, shaking his head. “A Legend who delights in manipulating emotions simply because he can. He could make you feel nothing but desire for him without so much as touching you, or he could make you tremble with fear or turn you against him with the iciest hate in existence.”
When he says it like that, explaining it in that way… Goddess, no wonder Jax is so closed off to everyone aroundhim. I doubt anyone outside his fellow Legends has seen him for who he really is, accepted it, and loved him because of it.
My heart sinks to my stomach. Falling for Kal was as easy as breathing, and I think I loved Axl the moment he playfully called mekitten. But Pierce and Jax are different. Pierce tested me, made me earn his trust, his attention, but now? Now there is nothing left between us except this connection I can’t deny.
And Jax?
I swallow around the emotion clogging my throat.
“Jax treats me like the biggest mistake of his life,” I admit on a whisper. “What are we going to do if he truly does hate me and rejects me?”
He could do it, too. He has the ability to shut this all down. Sure, I’ll have more power at the official Choosing ceremony where I choose them as my lifelong mates, accepting them for who they are down to their cores…but if he wants, he could reject me before all this is done.
Pierce dips down, kissing me again before pulling back. “If that happens,” he says, though he sounds doubtful, “we’ll deal with it then.”
“Right. We have more important things to focus on.” The upcoming Athanry, if we make it that far, and the Faders who have gone quiet in a way that puts us all on edge.
Pierce draws my hand up, planting a kiss over the ring he gave me. “I don’t give this out lightly, darling.Youare the most important thing to me now,” he says. “My mate—if not official, then in my heart.”
My lungs tighten at his words.
I’ve never been loved like this before, from all three of them, and it’s overwhelming to say the least. I’m accustomedto being used and discarded like yesterday’s trash. This… How is it harder to swallow?
There is still a very big part of me that believes they will all laugh in my face at the final Choosing, when I choose them and unlock their powers by undergoing the Athanry, and if I survive, they’ll kick me out of their lives at the very public event, then incarcerate me for being what I am for good measure.
Why is that more believable than the compassion they’ve already shown me these last few months? And will there ever be a time when I stop doubting and start accepting? When I believe I’m a fraction good enough for them?
“Darling,” Pierce chides. “I’m doing my best to stay out of your mind and give you privacy, but I can’t help hearing what you’re basically shouting at me.” He shifts us, maneuvering me to the nearest wall, pinning me against it with his body. “What will it take for you to believe me when I tell you I want every piece of you? Even the ones you’ve kept hidden from us?”
I shiver against him, my heart racing in my chest.
Maybe it isn’t about me needing him to convince me.
Maybe I need to convince myself.
He must read that, either in my eyes or my mind, because he simply sighs and claims my mouth in a breath-stealing kiss that has my toes curling in my shoes.
“I want to stay.” I sigh between his lips as he hooks my leg around his hip and pushes against me.
“I want you to stay, too,” he says, drawing back just enough to look at me with fire in his eyes. “But…” He clears his throat, stepping back just enough for us to both breathe. “I can’t be selfish with you right now. You know that myselfor Axl or Kal would accompany you, should you ask, but…” He takes my hand in his again, rubbing his thumb over the back. “I know my friend,” he says, eyes on my hand, as if looking at me will trigger another wave of need too powerful for either of us to deny. “He won’t open up to you if we’re there to act as buffers. And whatever is ailing him…you’re the only one who can help him.”
“I think you’re seriously off base on this one.”
He finally looks at me, a little smirk on his lips at me openly challenging his assumptions. I doubt that happens to the Mind often, and the fact that I’m one of the few gives me a little flutter of power.
“You trust me, don’t you?” he asks.
How could I not trust him? I opened my mind to him in every way possible, and yet, here I stand, cared for, practically adored. Not in a prison, not gearing up for an execution.
Pierce may have doubted me in the beginning, but now? Now I can feel his intentions through that connection we share, and the fear and panic in my heart have quieted. If he’s planning to betray me in the end, then he’s a master manipulator and the best actor I’ve ever met.
“Yes,” I finally say, opening my mind another fraction, allowing that warmth of his to slide right in. The sensation has me arching against him, my blood thrumming with need. It’s a primal thing, an instinctual thing, and I’d rather submit myself to the throes of it than step one foot outside this house and face the one Legend who may end it all for me.
“Good,” he says. “Then please, do me a favor and help him. He will never ask for it, never admit it, but he needsyou. Probably more than all of us combined.”
I swallow hard, nodding. “I’ll do my best.”
“Then I have no doubts everything will work out,” he says, brushing another kiss along my mouth. He kisses his way across my jawline and up to the shell of my ear. “And just think how all four of us will ravage you once we’re given the chance.”
