Do You Want to Go

Oh.

She was mad.

So very, very mad.

And Ren would not receive any of which that he had been offered earlier.

What a shame it was that despite his self-anointed king hood, Sakura refused to kneel to his royal decree.

After all he had done for her, she was still so very, very stubborn.

So cruel.

He didn’t deserve any of it.

Once the man had properly shooed away the vermin that had attempted to infest his home and well-being, he returned to the cottage and strutted through— so confident and sure of himself as a king should be— and tossed the woman onto the bed, ready to claim the prize that was his. But what he ended up claiming was a boot to the face, a bloodied nose, and the woman’s unleashed fury. The sounds of her screams and the feel of her fists were nothing new to him, but the onslaught of flying projectiles sure was. It only took narrowly avoiding half of the kitchen wares for him to make the tactical decision to retreat back into the yard, wait for the storm to pass, and he’d check back in later for damage control.

Maybe.

If the shrieking, crashing, and shattering ever stopped.

Until then, he’d give her some time to herself.

She deserved it.

But now that night had fallen and he had returned, she was still being unreasonable. It was an improvement though. She was no longer trying to claim his life or destroy what was left of the inside of the house. Instead, she was lying in bed, moping, acting as if he were already dead.

This would not be an easy fix.

He was going to have to grovel.

“Hey.” The angel lay behind the fox, tugging at her ear. “Look at me. Come on. Please. I’m sorry. I don’t really know what for, but I am. Don’t be like this. We were having such a nice time earlier. Remember? Let’s do that again.”

Not even so much as a twitch.

Ren wrapped his arm around the woman’s waist and pulled her against him, burrowing his face into her hair.

He would wait.

And sooner or later, she would speak.

Because she hated the silence.

“Why would you agree to go back there?” He could barely hear her. “Why are you leaving me again?”

Now he knew where he went wrong. He had incorrectly assumed that the wild woman would be salivating at the first mention of there being a parasite anywhere up for grabs to exterminate. It really was a once in a lifetime opportunity that she would more than likely never get the chance at again. But the blood thirsty demon hadn’t been concerned about the parasite and her unyielding desire to kill whatever met her fancy.

She had been concerned only for him, and the thought of him leaving her again had sent her into a tailspin.

He may have missed out on one of the things that he had wanted, but the woman was clearly stepping closer and closer to his ultimate trap, and soon she would fall in. And once she did, she would never get out.

He couldn’t wait for that day.

“I’m not going back. We are.”

Sakura’s body stiffened before rolling over, bewildered emeralds looking up at him. “What do you mean ‘we’?”

A smile crept across his lips. “What? You thought I was going alone? Hell no. I’m not going up to that shithole without you. You’re coming with me.”

“But I’m not an angel. You can’t take me up there.”

He snorted, disagreeing with the ridiculous statement. “I don’t give a fuck. I’m king of The Kingdom. I’ll do as I damn well please.”

The demon rolled her eyes with a sigh, unsure of why she was the one having to explain the hierarchy of the heavens to someone who should at least have a vague idea of how it worked. “You’re not a king. You’ve never been a king, and you’ll never be one. Raz wasn’t even a king, he was a Grand Duke, but it doesn’t matter because you can’t inherit his title. You have no claim to any titles because you’re an illegitimate bastard.” She didn’t even know why she was arguing with him. He had already made up his mind, and there would be no changing it.

The man ignored her logic. “Yeah, that’s what it was called, Grand Duke, that’s me.” He gazed at her seductively, lovingly taking her chin in his fingers. “And you’re my Grand Duke lady.”

“Duchess,” the fox corrected coldly. “And no, I’m not, because you’re a bastard Fallen One and not a Grand Duke.”

“Hush, woman, don’t patronize me,” Ren dismissed her, tired of the semantics as those gentle fingers clasped over her quarrelsome mouth. “It’s all bullshit words that mean nothing. It doesn’t matter. You are my queen, my most beautiful bastard bride, and I am the king and savior of the angels. They can’t tell me no because I am all mighty and all powerful. King of the heavens and alpha of the land. The last remaining hope for all.”

She pulled his hand down and stared at him with wide-eyed exhaustion. This was just getting excessively stupid, even for him. “Do you even listen to yourself when you talk?”

“I come in and out sometimes.” At least he was honest. A hand settled on her waist and avidly shook her back and forth. “Come on, go with me. It’ll be fun. I only agreed so that you can kill the parasite.”

Sakura’s eyes were those of a child in a toy shop, naive and awestricken. “I can kill it?” She was so eager for the opportunity until she remembered the reality of the situation and her excitement waned. “But I can’t wield your sword. That asshole said that only your bloodline can, so you couldn’t even pass it onto me temporarily. I won’t be able to kill it.”

“Nonsense. Don’t listen to Cassiel, he’s an idiot. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Do you want to kill it?”

“You know I do.” She really, really did.

Ren smiled, just as thrilled at the prospect as she was. “Then we’ll figure it out and make it happen. Come with me. Say yes.”

The woman met his smile with one of her own. “Okay. But what about Ivy and Zero?”

“I don’t care. They can do whatever they want. They can stay here, or they can come with. It’ll be an adventure, just like old times.”

The smile slowly faded while Sakura considered the ramifications of taking a devil and fae to The Kingdom. “And how do you expect Zero to go up there? Those angels will take one look at his eyes…” Her own eyes bulged as her indignation returned, and she sat up and began smacking and hollering at the man. “Why would you say he’s inbred! What the fuck wrong with you?! How long have you been telling people this?” More pieces clicked together, her slaps raining down faster with each one. “That’s what Kindra was talking about! The mountains and the clan that she was all weird about! It was all your bullshit! How many people think that about him?”

All Ren could do was protect his head and try to reason with her. “Stop it! It works! Just ask Zero! He’ll tell you!”

She paused her blows and glowered menacingly, her temper simmering dangerously. “Why would you say that? How could you do that to him? It’s disgusting.”

“Exactly! That’s why it works each and every time. No one has ever questioned it. They just accept it and leave him alone.”

“How many people have you told this to?”

“Every single one.” The angel wasn’t even the slightest bit ashamed to admit it. “Except Okag and Torg, I told them the truth. I figured if they could put up with me knowing what I was then they could put up with him. That’s it though. I tried the story with Maggie, but she didn’t believe me. Told me she knew the clan, and that he wasn’t one of them, and that she knows a devil’s eyes when she sees them. Everyone else who knows about him only knows because of yours and Ivy’s big mouths. Neither of you can keep a secret after all I’ve done to protect him.”

“You are such an asshole.” The woman was seething, but although she’d never admit it, it was a clever explanation. You couldn’t just tell most people that Zero was a devil. But by saying he was inbred, it created a highly uncomfortable situation that no one really wanted to deal with. And it wasn’t hard to believe since the boy was always so quiet and apt to keep his eyes diverted away from those around him rather than causing mayhem in the way that people knew devils normally did.

It was probably the best plan of action.

But it was still so incredibly fucked up.

The man came out of hiding, grabbing the woman’s arm, and cautiously pulled her back down, which she did so grudgingly. “It’s fine. It’s not a big deal. Zero doesn’t care.”

“Does he even know what it means?”

He shrugged, not quite sure. “Yeah. Probably.”

Sakura closed her eyes tightly, disenchanted with where she had gone in her life. This man was her One, her mate, and she had chosen him. He was the person that she loved above all else. The only person she could imagine giving herself to which she had almost done just a few short hours earlier. She even planned on mothering his children.

What the fuck was wrong with her?

She sighed and opened her eyes to Ren as he smiled brightly down at her, completely taken by the woman before him, gazing at her as if there were no one else.

As if she were everything.

Well, that was one of the things that was wrong with her.

She couldn’t resist that look.

The woman scooched up the bed and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling his face against her chest and running her fingers through his hair.

“Oh, this again!” the angel chirped, burrowing deeper and circling himself around her. “How considerate.”

“Are you going to be okay? There’s no reason for us to go up there. Parasite or not, it’s not our problem. We can just stay here,” the woman offered. As much as she’d love to kill a parasite, it was in the worst place possible, even worse than the den. The den just thought she was cursed and wanted her gone. And although they were fine with her slowly starving to death, they never actively tried to have her killed. The same certainly couldn’t be said about The Kingdom.

The man reveled in his current location. “No. I want to go. It pleases me to see them scurrying around like scared, little mice, begging for me to save their shitty little home because they’re too inept to do it themselves. Besides, if that parasite consumes The Kingdom then all those angels will be on the land, and I don’t want that.” He narrowed his eyes and grumbled, “It’s a shame they have wings to escape instead of meeting their most deserved demise. I can only imagine how painful and prolonged death by parasite would be for them. I wish I could see it.”

Sakura smiled with a deep sense of adoration. “You really are evil, aren’t you?”

Ren tilted his head up slightly to glance at her, the ocean with a storm in the distance. “I’ll be anything you want me to be. Just give the word.”

“I think you’re pretty okay now.”

“You’re damn right I’m pretty okay now.” He snuggled back down, tightening his hold. “Maybe it’s better this way. I can finally get what I want from them.”

She was quiet, trying to figure out what the man would want from the heavens but coming up empty. “And what’s that?”

“I want access to some records: lineage, things about the fae, what have you.”

The woman hadn’t been expecting that. For months, he had tried to get her to give up on finding out about Ivy’s past, and now he wanted information about the fae and was willing to deal with The Kingdom to do so. What had changed? “For what? Ivy doesn’t care about any of that.”

“I know she doesn’t.” Ren closed his eyes, feeling so warm and comfortable. Safe. “It isn’t for her. It’s for Zero.”