The Ring Bearer (14 page)

Cori had just enough time to get in one choice high spectrum cuss before she landed.  

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Ethan heard Cori scream as he entered the section. He ran to her rescue, but her attacker was nowhere near her. Leona was lying on the floor stunned by something. Her eyes were beyond maniacal. She stood and dusted off her clothing while she eyed Cori. She seemed leery of approaching Cori and kept her distance.

Leona looked like she might cry, but since she wasn’t a weak willed woman, Ethan knew better than to see her emotional break as anything less than dangerous. He hung back to observe and waited for her to make her next move. 

At the moment that any other woman might have burst into tears, Leona’s face cleared of sentiment, and a smile returned—a warning for the events to follow. Ethan took a few steps forward in case she actually attacked, but as he suspected Leona wasn’t planning a physical attack. Leona wanted to wound Cori a different way.

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Cori was glad that she hadn’t killed Leona, but part of her had hoped that she would be a little more hurt. Leona was up and moving again in less than a minute, which didn’t bode well for Cori since she didn’t know if she could keep up her defense. She barely understood the electricity she randomly threw out, let alone this new fire ball trick.

Leona looked miserable with the realization that she could actually defend herself. She had always viewed Cori as beneath her. Between the colloidal silver incident, Ethan’s loyalty to her, and now this, she must have been having a hard time coddling her ego.

Just when she thought Leona might completely break down, an epiphany seemed to form in her wicked little mind. She smiled, but didn’t advance. She waited outside the door watching her, as if she wanted to memorize the moment. Her head dipped letting her eyes glower at her beneath the ridge of her brow. “I fucked him you know,” Leona purred.

Cori felt her body go numb, and her defensive stance fell beyond abbreviated and into absent. She felt sick to her stomach. “What?”

“Your man, I fucked him every chance I got. He didn’t want to, but he didn’t complain after it was all said and done.”

Cori wanted to puke. She wasn’t sure if it was the hyperventilating or the stinging heat wave taking over her body that was making her lightheaded, but she thought she might pass out soon. “No…he said...”

“He told you what you needed to hear. He gave you your clear conscious so you could go on just as before.”

“That’s enough Leona!” Ethan came into view from the hall. When he turned to face her she crumpled into the corner of her cell and shook her head at him. She couldn’t believe he had lied to her.

22

Ethan could hear Cori’s heavy breathing. She was either about to cry or about to pass out. He was surprised that she was taking the news so hard. He would have thought that her feelings for Vince would have dimmed enough that she wouldn’t have felt anything more than disappointment for a corrupted memory.

When she offered her objection to Leona’s admission, Ethan knew instantly that she was assuming Leona meant him. Since Leona hadn’t specifically said Vince’s name, Cori naturally thought of Ethan. Leona had no idea that she was torturing her with the wrong man.

“That’s enough Leona!” Ethan intervened before it could go any further. Leona didn’t seem surprised by his presence, which meant she had been enjoying letting him see his wife in distress. She glared at him for the interruption, but smiled when she saw the affect it had on him.

He turned to Cori and approached her recoiled cornered body. She shook her head releasing the tears she had been trying to hold onto so she didn’t add to Leona’s triumph. She tried to speak, but a sob choked out her efforts.

“Cori, not me, Vince.” He stayed at the door, to block her view of Leona. She kept her eyes trained on him. The realization of what he was saying was donning, but she didn’t give up her hold on her pain, in case she was misinterpreting him. “Leona slept with Vince after your encounter. She did it just to spite you, and to prove to him that she could win. He kept it from you, to protect you. He knew you would be devastated by his involuntary philandering.”

“Don’t pander to her, it was more than voluntary,” Leona barked over his shoulder.

“Shut up Leona!” He barked right back, barely offering her a glance. “I’m sorry, Cori,” he offered her the sympathy he thought she would need at this disappointing revelation. “I didn’t tell you, because I didn’t think it was something you ever needed to know. I should have known she would use it against you eventually.”

Cori recovered from her near panic attack and stood up wiping her eyes. “You didn’t sleep with her?”

“No, Cori, I was telling you the truth.” Ethan could sense Leona’s approach, but he didn’t react like she wanted him to. She wrapped her arms around his chest and lowered one hand to his crotch. Cori glared at the groping, but she didn’t advance.

“We gave it go though, didn’t we?” Leona said sneering around him Cori.

“Cori,” Ethan drew her eyes back to him. He didn’t bother shaking off Leona, he was happy to prove to her once again how little effect she had on his body. “Before I left to help Leona, I asked Mezula for some help.”

Cori’s face crumpled at the sound of Mezula being involved, but she didn’t interrupt. Her eyes trailed again to the Leona’s hands on him. She was starting to get angry that he wasn’t fending her off, so he sped up his explanation. “She gave me control of my body. Leona can threaten to force herself on me, but unless I want it, she can’t. Isn’t that right Leona?” Ethan looked over at Leona who was starting to playfully bite his arm.

She looked at him with a livid stare. He was ruining her fun. “Getting anything down there?” Ethan nodded down to her fruitless search. She ripped her hand away and shoved him into the door frame. It was enough of a push to make him think twice about reacting to it, but not enough to knock the wind out of him.

Ethan moved to Cori. She was still figuring out how to react to everything. “Leona tried to seduce me. She tried to force me, just like you feared she would, but I had planned ahead for that.” He glanced back at Leona who was starting to lose control of her will not to cry. “This is done Leona. You can’t hurt her anymore. Vince’s deception only proves his devotion to her.” Ethan gripped Cori’s shoulders so she knew she should take that to heart. It felt weird to him defending a man he had resented so much, but he didn’t want Cori’s image of him to be sullied. “She can still keep her memory of a man who was willing to do anything to protect their love.” Cori’s eyes flickered over his. She hadn’t said anything for a while, he hoped that meant that she was coming to terms with everything, and not bottling up her reactions.

“You are both pathetic!” Leona hissed.

Ethan looked back at Leona, but didn’t move from Cori. “What bothers you more, Leona? That you can’t break our love, or that we have love.”

Leona turned and stomped away. Ethan knew she didn’t want them to see that she was crying. He knew she had feelings for Callin that she wouldn’t allow herself to indulge in. Lord knows what he saw in her, but any love separated by political boundaries and taboos was likely to break even the hardest of hearts—even a fem-wolf’s. 

Ethan turned his attention back to Cori. He had expected to console her a little more about the loss of her idealistic image of Vince, but she kissed him hard. Her hands reached under his arms and latched onto his shoulders. She climbed him like a tree wrapping her legs around his waist.

He felt the need to further explain why he decided to defend himself against Leona. He also felt he should apologize for not breaking the news about Vince to her himself, so she could have avoided this attack from Leona, but she seemed to have already forgiven him.

There was a million more things to discuss about her incarceration, but it wasn’t words she needed right now and he was more than happy to satisfy her needs.

Ethan pushed her back into the corner. He considered putting her on the cot, but he was aware of which cell they were in, and he didn’t want to overlap any old memories. It wasn’t a competition. Vince was important to her, but he was part of her memories. She belonged to him now, and he most definitely belonged to her.  

He unfurled her legs from his back, just long enough to slip her out of her jeans. Her urgency didn’t offer him the option of fully disrobing, but since this was an unauthorized conjugal visit, he wasn’t sure they had time for all that.

He wondered what had excited Cori more, his devotion to keep true to her, or the fact that she was now the only woman permissible to wake his desire. Either way he was happy to feel her against him.

Ethan pushed up against her firm and frenzied to give her what she wanted. She buried her teeth in his shoulder to muffle her enthusiasm. The tinge of pain ushered him to the end with her. When she was satiated and her body relaxed, she draped against him, and for a moment he just held her, understanding how much the last 24 hours had taken out of her.

He released her so she could stand but stayed next to her to balance her. He slipped his pants back up and helped her with hers since she was still whirling in the post coital rush. “Please forgive me,” Cori whispered in his ear as he got her free leg back into her jeans. He pulled her pants up and looked at her. She was crying. It wasn’t an unusual sight, but the grief in her eyes reminded him of their last major blowout, save the baby argument. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to screw everything up.” 

Any anger he might have had about her betrayal was dismissed in the heat of passion. Cori was Cori. She was always getting into trouble. She was always making bad choices that amazingly resulted in good outcomes. He loved her for her, and a little thing like
un
-escaped prisoners and an unmentioned key couldn’t change that.  

“When I saw Clark shoot Hirem, it was like he shot you. It was like watching you die.” She sniffled uncontrollably.

Ethan didn’t understand the association, but he understood pain. He pulled her into a hug. “I forgive you, Cori.” He pulled her away, even though she wasn’t ready to release the embrace. Ethan pulled a thread of hair away from her eyes. “Cori, you’re never going to do anything to break my love. You might disappoint me or make me mad or even make me sad, but it’s you and me, all the way. You just got to try a little harder at keeping me updated as things come along, okay.”

She nodded and her eyes widened. “Efrat kissed me again. I didn’t want him too, but I’m pretty sure he won’t do it again.” She threw the words at him as if he might not be able to get mad if they were bandage ripping quick. “I went to see Cleos without telling you yesterday to get a mental block against the fem-wolves, I got scratched up by the vampires by accident.”

Ethan’s eyes widened with concern, but she kept going throwing the facts at him quicker than he could comprehend. “I was afraid to tell you, so I asked Daniel to heal me, and he promised not to tell you because he didn’t want us to have an argument and break up over something so stupid. It doesn’t even matter now, because Cleos hates me. My rings went bat shit crazy on him. And I’m not sure I’m ready to have a baby, but I love you so much and I don’t want you to be mad at me.”

“Okay, okay.” Ethan pulled her into another hug and rubbed her back. “I hear you. I hear you.” He pulled her over to the cot and sat her down so he could look at her. She whimpered and looked away. “No, no, no, look at me.” He pulled her face back.

“I think you’ve been building up for a break down and little Miss Mutt was your last straw. First off, you’ve been working way too hard. When we get you out of here, and we
will
get you out of here, I’m going to have a long discussion with Belus about union approved working hours. Next, thank you for telling me about…everything. You may have to give me the footnotes on those confessions later. Third, don’t worry about the baby thing. I am happy. Nothing needs to change. I just had a picture in my mind, that’s all.

“And finally, I believe you mentioned something about us “breaking up.”” He air quoted the phrase. “Sweetness, this is marriage. We don’t get to break up. The only option is the “D” word, and believe me, that is never happening. I fought long and hard to get you and I am keeping you. So, buckle up for the long haul, because there isn’t a restraining order, fem-wolf, or circumstance that could keep me away from you.”    

Her eyes flickered over his, and he recognized the awe inspired by his devotion to her. He smiled as she unconsciously licked her lips. “You’re going to attack me again aren’t you?”

She didn’t bother responding. She just straddled him and kissed him hard like she had minutes earlier. He laughed at her vigor as he carried her back to the corner. He afforded a glance outside, to make sure the minions were still passed out.

This time he turned her around, so neither of them had to dispatch too much clothing, in case they were interrupted. He knew indulging their appetites during such a precarious situation was inappropriate, but he also knew Cori needed to relieve some stress, and so did he.

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