Zero to Love (23 page)

The fear she’d known before her transformation fled. She slid into the passenger seat and threw on her clothes. Arafa was approaching, and she had to get her workers to safety. She needed every one of those amazing human minds waiting to feed her—she couldn’t lose any.

“He can’t be my father.”

“He is,” Monroe said. “Your mother was with him while married to Giovanni.”

Clearly, she saw this bubble of information. She turned her mind aside, hating it. The pain it had caused the man who’d claimed her as a daughter was enough reason to feel anger for her mother.

Yet Magda knew the pull a Mindchanger could have on a human. She’d fallen irrevocably for Monroe. Perhaps her mother had known this same lure.

“And Elijah?” She sought her brother and found his mind, still and calm. Amy was with him, and they were guarded by two heavily armed Mindchangers. The Free Wills were losing heart now that many of their army had fallen, but some were still battling Mindchangers.

“He’s your bipaternal twin. Two fathers, same mother, carried in the womb at the same time.”

She righted her top and flashed a look at Monroe. “You knew.”

He nodded. “I suspected. I got the information from your uncle. It’s why your family has tried to protect you all your life, Magda. They didn’t want your powerful father to return and claim you. But it was in—”

“—evitable.” She pursed her lips and stared past the sea of women’s faces, toward the man striding her direction.

Monroe saw her intentions a moment before she acted. “No!”

She threw her mind with a cerebral boom that froze half of Helgedom. A split second before she did, she coated Monroe’s mind with a thick, protective honey. Keeping him immobile yet safe from her attack. She spread a layer through the minds of her people—her workers and the Mindchangers who would fight for the good of the city.

When she climbed from the SUV, the Free Wills were no more than crumpled heaps of evil thought. She brushed by them as she strode toward Arafa.

His form might have been chiseled from stone. Only the flutter of his white-gold hair in the breeze indicated he’d once been alive.

He still was.

She circled him. One long arm was outstretched and one leg halted midstep. His mouth was open and his eyes wild. The dark backdrop of the compound was stark against his pale coloring—her own coloring.

“You wanted to use me as a weapon. You shut off my mind when I was a child. You sent the Free Wills to attack me. You wanted them to bring me back to you, to use against the Mindchangers who are
my people
.”

His power was nearly equal to hers, but with the amount of food roaring in her system, she was unequaled. She might have frozen him, but he still heard her.

She drew her shoulders back and stared into his eyes. “You will not take me from my people. You will not take from humans unnecessarily to the point of harm.” The thought she shoved into his mind filled him.

Circling him again, she touched his cheek, structured so much like hers. “I will rule my people with kindness and understanding. But know that any army you try to build will meet with ours. And our power will exceed yours. In the name of my mother, I vow this.”

Resolve settled in her being, she left Arafa standing there amid his dead minions. As she passed Mindchangers, she freed them. They turned and followed her, except one who went back into the compound for Nick’s body. Sadness sifted into her.

When she reached her workers, she touched them gently and mentally guided them to the Mindchangers. They would see the workers safely to Monroe’s apartment, where the women would be at her service.

She would soon need them.

She climbed into the SUV and flicked Monroe’s mind. Groaning, he closed his eyes. “You didn’t just freeze me.”

With a grin she mentally started the SUV’s engine.

As he backed up to leave the pit, he said, “We’re going to have to set some rules between us.”

She saw his ideas as bright colors in his mind, but she let him speak.

He glared at her. “First, don’t ever freeze me like that again. I can withstand any cerebral booms you dish out.”

Her lips curled into a smile. “Fine.”

“Don’t think to protect me.”

“Okay.”

He hummed with irritation. “You might be my queen, but you’re my lover first. I won’t answer to you.” He tossed a look at her. “I’m still in charge.”

She ran a hand over his arm, soothing him. “If that’s what you want,” she cajoled, letting him have his way for now. In the future, who knew what troubles they’d face? At some point, it might become necessary for her to protect him, which she’d always do first.

But in the meantime, she acquiesced to his wishes, loving that he would go to any length to protect her.

* * * *

By the time Monroe got Magda back to his house, she was weakening. The boom she’d thrown had drained her.

He climbed from the SUV and went around the vehicle to pull her into his arms. She came to him easily, as vulnerable in hunger as she was strong when well fed.
Exactly the reason why I’ll guard her every minute of her life.

Now that she was fully a queen, she was the most important supernatural on the planet. In Helgedom, many Mindchangers rode the border between becoming a Free Will and being true to the good of their race. Some might turn and come after her, and she’d become a target of many all over the world.

He hitched her against his chest and walked to his front door. A snap of his mind opened the lock. Over his shoulder he said to Keefe, who was trailing as guard, “Bring her workers. She’s hungry.”

In minutes, he had her comfortable on the sofa, surrounded by her women. She drank from each, not taking too much from anyone. Then she looked at Monroe. “Drink from Elise if you must.”

He locked his teeth. “
No, I won’t.”

He’d hurt Magda and wouldn’t do it again. He’d starve first.

Chloe lay across Magda, and she gently put the blonde aside in order to rise. She crossed to where Monroe stood with his back against the wall and his arms folded. Her eyes were bright with love as she trailed a finger over his jaw.

“I had no right to be angry. You only drank from Elise because you wanted to be strong to protect me.”

He didn’t move.

“As your queen, I command—”

“Oh, fuck no,” he growled. Plucking her off her feet, he spun toward the bedroom with her. He slammed the door with a hard kick, enclosing them. He shoved her against the wall and pinned her with his body from shoulders to knees.

Staring into her eyes, he said evenly, “In this room, I command you.”

She shuddered.

He ran a hand down the curve of her waist to the hollow of her hip. He squeezed, and she writhed. The scent of her arousal hit him as hard as a subway barreling out of the darkness.

Grasping the hem of her shirt, he ripped it over her head. Her bare breasts sprang free. He filled his hands with them, loving the way the nipples hardened before he even stroked them.

She cooed, slumping against him. He strummed one bud, then the other, watching pleasure play over her features. Being able to taste her thoughts ratcheted up his need a notch.

She was practically begging him to suck her nipples.

A grin spread over his face as he dipped his mouth to one turgid peak. He snaked his tongue out and flicked the sensitive skin. She trembled and tugged on his hair to pull him down. But he took his time, teasing her nipple around the outer edge until she drew onto her tiptoes for more.

“Monroe…” She gasped when he moved to the other breast and bit into the plump, juicy bud. He scraped his teeth over this one, then sucked it into his mouth. Pulling on it for long minutes, he dived into her beautiful mind.

The barriers were gone, shattered the moment of her transformation. Arafa himself had placed walls to conceal her true memories. As a child he’d taken Magda off the street and lured her to his shop with the pretty thought catcher like the one she had in her bedroom. When he’d dumped her off on the street again for her frantic brother to find, she’d been a shell of herself.

Not anymore.

“You make me whole.”
She fed this into Monroe.

He swelled with power as his cock stretched to an impossible length. He ground against her pussy, wanting to thrust into her tight heat.

Releasing her gaze, he tugged the button of her jeans open. Gliding one hand inside, he used his other hand to ease down her zipper. The grating of the teeth sent fresh tremors of desire through her limbs.

He braced a knee between her thighs and rubbed it along her pussy. She squirmed on him, seeking more. When he brushed her nubbin with his fingertip, she cried out.

“More. Please.”

He nipped her lower lip, and her mind whirled with lust. Smiling at the things he could do to her, he continued his torment. He circled her clit, watching need burst in her mind. He pressed her pearl, ripping shudders from her.

In a few violent jerks, he stripped her. Their encounter in the SUV had been a mere warm-up compared to what he had planned for her.

When her golden body shivered nude between him and the wall, he grasped her waist and spun her away from him. She dropped her forehead to the plaster and squeezed her eyes shut at the erotic things she saw in his mind.

“That’s right, baby,” he rumbled against the base of her skull, against the mind’s center where her soul lived. “Take a long look at what I plan for you.”

She quivered and mewled.

Shaking with laughter and the need to control himself, he dropped to his knees behind her. Her round ass loomed in front of him. He clutched the creamy globes and parted them slightly. Leaning close, he pressed the flat of his tongue against her exposed pucker.

“Oh my… Monroe!” She pounded the wall with one fist as he lapped the untouched place. He ran his tongue over her nerve endings until she stretched and rocked back against him.

When he eased his tongue into her tightness, her body clenched around him. He thrust two fingers deep into her pussy. Juices soaked his fingers and ran down his hand. He fucked her relentlessly while licking her ass.

He slipped his tongue around the pleated rim. “Come for me this way, baby.” He curled his fingers and found her G-spot. More moisture slipped over his knuckles.

After removing his hand from her body, he splayed his fingers and slithered one into her pussy and one into her ass.

She came in a violent rush. Her mind blanked as sensation ripped through her. He devoured her emotion and continued to pound deep into her body, drawing out every ounce of her release.

When her legs sagged, he stood, fingers still buried inside her. He pushed aside her red waves and sucked the skin on her nape until he raised a mark.

She reached behind her, tugging on his hip. “I need you. Please.”

“When I’m ready.” He let his thoughts multiply—
“Going to lick your pussy until you scream, then wet my cock in your heat and make you come. Then I’ll bury myself so deep in your ass, you won’t know where I begin and you end.”

Shivers racked her, and her ass tightened around his finger.

Smiling against her skin, he withdrew his fingers. He spun her to face him, hooked her thighs around his hips, and took her to bed. When he stretched her underneath him, she captured his lips.

Mindless kisses made him forget his own name. She fed on his emotion—his passion and love. As she tried to unbutton his shirt, he caught her wrists and pinned them over her head.

He stared into her eyes, which were fogged with need. “Stay like that. Don’t move.”

Watching that she obeyed, he stood beside the bed and shed his clothes. Her gaze dipped to his chest and lower, to his hard cock bobbing against his abs.

Pleasure that was almost pain tore through him. This woman was his—this Mindchanger, a queen. From the start he’d known she was the rarest of humans. He’d do anything in his power to keep her safe and out of the hands of anyone else who might harm her.

“Come to me,” she whispered.

He crawled up the bed to her. Splaying her legs, he dipped his mouth to her honey. The sweetness of her ecstasy lingered on her inner thighs. He spent some time licking the juices off before sliding his tongue along her slit.

She bucked against his mouth, fucking his tongue in a rhythm he let her set. Her muscles jumped as her orgasm raced over her. He held her hips tight as she pounded his mouth.

As promised, before she came down he poised his throbbing cock at her pussy and drove balls-deep in one thrust.

She gasped. He pinched his eyes shut against the insane warmth surrounding him. Cum threatened to erupt, and he bit back his release, determined to see his plans through.

He hitched her legs higher to get a better angle. Thrust in. Withdrew. Watching her eyes the whole time.

“Mon…roe.” She dug her nails into his ass, trying to drag him back in. When he twisted her nipples hard, she stopped breathing.

One plunge…two…

She came apart in his arms. Shattering around his cock, she continued to pulsate until he thought he’d go mad with the need to pour his cum into her.

Her blue eyes sparkled with lust. “Drink from me, then take your release.”

He dived into her mind. Minutes or hours later—he didn’t know which—he surfaced. Every hair on his body stood up with the need to come.

He withdrew from her slick channel and then gripped his cock at the root and guided it to her pucker. He slid it over her rosette a few times before zeroing in. He applied pressure and watched her face as he slipped past her tight outer rim.

She blew out a breath as he stretched her in a brand-new way.

“I’m claiming you—every part of you. Your body, your mind. All mine.” He pushed gently, and her body accepted him. When he was buried halfway, he let out a groan, hardly able to keep from pounding into her like a feral beast.

She guided her ankle up to rest on his shoulder. Her action caused him to slip completely inside.

Her eyes flared, and pleasure sparked in her mind. He held still for a minute, allowing her to adjust to his invasion. When the tension around her eyes vanished, he attempted a slow movement.