Defy Me: A Paranormal Romance (Legends of the Ashwood Institute Book 4) Read online

  DEFY ME

  DEFY ME

  By

  Jayla Kane

  Defy Me by Jayla Kane Published by Amazon Digital Services, LLC

  © 2019 Jayla Kane

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permissions contact the author.

  Note from the author: the following work is a product of fantasy. It is not meant to mimic real-life situations or people and should not be regarded as anything more than entertainment. All acts depicted in this work feature consenting adults and are fictional and should be treated as such; the viewer is responsible for the legal ramifications of engaging with the text in the place where they live. No laws were broken in the country of its origin (US).

  Author’s Note

  WARNING: This is a dark paranormal romance with mature sexual scenarios that include challenging power dynamics and behavior that only belong in the pages of a romance novel of its kind. Please do not read it if you find the idea of these things immediately unromantic—you will not enjoy it. There are many fantastic books available to you, and I sincerely hope you put this one down and find another.

  Important for new readers: this book is part of a series; the first book is called DARE ME. This book is NOT a stand-alone; it will not make nearly as much sense without being read in order from the beginning. And to once again reiterate: the series is meant for adults, not younger audiences.

  Take care, reader—

  JK

  Chapter One

  Raven

  I was holding my breath.

  The world hadn’t ended. The house was still standing. Nothing was over—not yet. Even if it felt, for the longest few minutes in my life, that it must have—that everything I held dear had suddenly vanished in an epic battle of fire and pain.

  But it hadn’t. I was still here. We were still here.

  Tristan started to take a step towards Jake, then halted, and for just a second I could see how badly he wanted… Something. Anything—it was just a brief blast of lightning in that hellscape he called a brain, but--

  Tristan was the loneliest person I have ever met. Ever. He was utterly alone.

  Completely, totally alone. Even in memory. Even in his own mind.

  The darkness fell again as he sighed and took yet another step away from us. “That’s why I couldn’t come back,” he murmured. “I didn’t want to… To hurt you. Or anybody else.” He turned and began to walk down the hallway before speaking one more time over his shoulder, Leo standing up to follow him, brushing the soot off of his pants and huffing out a sigh. “I’m sorry.”

  Jake and I stood there for a long moment, and then he let me go. I had a second’s warning before the entire hallway descended into a howling inferno once more, a blast of power so strong it ripped the doors off the library. Leo jumped behind Tristan, who stood solidly in the blast like a man avoiding a hard wind, Jake’s power splitting around him like a rough stream around a stone. Tristan whirled towards him and they stared at each other until Jake hissed out a breath and the air went still once more. I shivered when I heard the words in his mind, echoing down through my bones in a wave of bitterness. “And just where the fuck do you think you’re going, brother?” Jake grinned at the two men tensed at the other end of the hall, and not even my embrace, my fingers gentling soothing him beneath his shirt, ebbed the wall of rage inside of him.

  “Jake, please—”

  He gave me a quick kiss on the forehead, then opened his arms in a morbid pantomime of an offered embrace. “Welcome home, Tris.” His expression grew grim. “Welcome home.”

  “Master Jacob?” The voice split through the madness with a quiet intensity; everything grew still, then, the eye of the hurricane growing wider as Jake turned and stared at Sarah, her sudden appearance stilling his rage for just a second. I clutched at him, hoping to make him slow down, calm down, but I could tell he barely registered my touch. I slipped my fingers against his skin, the taut muscle beneath, and forced the love in my touch into his body. He blinked, briefly glancing down at me, and then Sarah flickered and appeared closer, only a few feet away. There was an urgency on her face I never knew could be possible. “Master Jacob, if you please—I cannot hold the house much longer.”

  “What do you mean?” He frowned, blinking again; Leo and Tristan were perfectly still, as if they understood that all hell was on the brink of being loosed.

  “Your magic, sir. I cannot keep the house from falling in much longer.” I understood what she was saying perfectly—it didn’t make any sense that the place was still standing at all. Only the magic bestowed by centuries of Warfields could have kept it upright under the onslaught of Jacob’s wrathful vengeance. Fire pockmarked the hall; wind drifted through holes in the walls. Jake smeared some of the soot back from his eyes and stared at her.

  “The house?”

  “Yes, sir. If you destroy it… I suppose, as the new master, that is your will. But it seems a bit of a waste, sir.” She heaved a sigh, diplomacy honed for god-knows-how-long stretched to the absolute end of its tether. “I cannot keep it up if you… If you choose to continue. The roof will fall, and the enchantments will snap; the house will collapse. The—”

  “I get it, I get it,” he murmured, nodding, his eyes roaming over my face, then back to Sarah. He wouldn’t risk me; I saw it in him, and loved him harder. A massive sigh wracked his body and then he nodded again. “It’s done.”

  Tristan began to turn, but Sara flickered again and then reappeared directly in front of him—if I hadn’t been watching I would’ve missed him stumbling back from her sudden appearance, and it was the most human thing I’d seen him do yet. “Master Tristan, your bedroom is ready. I did my best to preserve it. Will your guest be staying?” She peered at Leo, who was staring at her open-mouthed.

  “We’re not staying—” Tristan only got three words out before Jake started moving towards him again, snarling as he went.

  “The fuck you’re not—you stay right there, you—”

  “We’ll stay!” Leo got between them, hands open, palms out in surrender towards Jake. “For god’s sake, my house is trashed anyway, we’ll stay.” He turned and glared at Tristan, who was still watching Sarah closely. “We’ll stay.”

  “Lunch in an hour,” she said, returning immediately to her custom demeanor. She was about to vanish again, I could tell by the quiet dip of her head, when she paused and met Jake’s eyes. “Someone should check on Lady Mina.” I didn’t like the solemn undercurrent in her voice. Sarah wasn’t being passive-aggressive; she didn’t flat-out command us to give her the details of what might be bothering us, either, the way that Anna did. But something about the way she said it…

  “I’ll go,” Tristan said, his voice dark, but Leo laid a hand on his arm, startling us both; Leo and Tristan seemed dead-set on preventing Tristan from touching anyone, ever.

  “We’ll go,” he said, giving Tristan a meaningful look, which he ignored. Warfield boys, man. Temper, temper.

  Justified, Jake’s voice sniffed, and I ran my fingers over his belly, tightening my grip.

  If you say so. I tried to sound cheerful; the brief reprieve hadn’t entirely eclipsed the absolute panic of a minute ago, and I was still having a hard time letting go of him. He turned and gazed down at me, his eyes clearing for the first time.

  “We’ll do that now,” Leo said, breaking the silence; Sarah was already gone, and Tristan was watching us with that quiet reserve from before, his dark eyes
glinting as they raked across Jacob’s face from beneath his lashes. “Looks like you two are—”

  “Shut up,” Tristan muttered, to my endless surprise, and abruptly turned to walk down the hall. Leo shot us one more mirthful glance before hurrying to follow him.

  Jacob and I didn’t say another word. We went back to his room immediately, padding down the carpeted hallway through the remaining ash that blew past us, the house still and silent once more.

  Chapter Two

  Jake

  I couldn’t believe I’d almost lost her.

  That was all I could think about now, now that the house was quiet—now that Lucas was dead. Now that my brother had killed him… Or whatever the hell that was. Lucas was gone, a pile of ashes slowly drifting away on the wind in the hallway, and I’d almost burned the goddamn house down trying to kill him.

  Finally.

  After all my excitement about my powers, when it came down to it… The only person in the entire world I was sure deserved to die—gruesomely, brutally, and definitely by my hand—he’d fought me off. We were too evenly matched; in the end, Tristan was right. He would’ve turned and used Raven against me in any other set of circumstances, and I would’ve died immediately, distracted and trying to defend her. As it was… I almost brought the house down on top of her.

  My beautiful girl. My soul.

  “Baby—” I stopped short as I turned to her in the room, my own thoughts unable to find words—words to tell her how scared I’d been, how nothing in the world could’ve stopped me but her… I wasn’t even sure she gave a shit. I knew she loved me; I could feel it in her touch, in the bond between us, the depth of it. But I also knew too much besides that. I stood there, watching her slowly walk towards me, and didn’t even know where to begin.

  I love you so much—the next time I tell you to run, please run.

  I could already hear her reply: fuck off, Jake. Don’t tell me what to do.

  I love you more than anything—I will die if you die.

  Then don’t put me in these positions—and maybe we should get you into therapy besides.

  “I love you.” It was all I could do, all that was worth saying, in the end. I knew she already knew—I knew she believed it, owned it. But I had to tell her.

  She came closer, her big dark eyes looking into mine, her white hands slowly reaching for me. I saw her lips part and before I could stop myself I was kissing her.

  And then I was inside of her.

  It happened that fast. One minute, we were in the middle of the room, fully clothed, standing there, getting ready to have a rational discussion—or irrational, I guess, since in my limited experience love was anything but rational, and I did not give one goddamn about that in the moment—and in the next, my pants were locked around my thighs, hers were gone, her legs were around me and her ass was planted on that desk, I didn’t even hear the books fall off of it when I leaned over her, my mouth on hers, my tongue touching hers, my body in hers—

  Fever. Mania.

  I almost lost her. I was in a situation where the best I could do might’ve killed her—the one and only thing I had ever loved, the only thing I could ever imagine feeling like this. My home. Never Warfield Plantation, never Ashwood—Raven. Raven was my home.

  Being inside of her felt like digging myself back out of the grave, like breathing fresh air—like seeing the sky, after a long dark deadly time alone.

  Everywhere she touched me felt like fire—the warmth we shared, that comfort and compassion that spread through our skin with the merest touch--was electric with need and soared across my skin, igniting me. I reared back and looked down at her face, scorched with brutal ecstasy; I went faster, harder, deeper, holding on to her legs as I watched her cum, her body clenching mine with an urgency that reminded me I was alive—she was alive. We were alive, together—no matter the terror, the fear—we were alive.

  I almost lost her, but I hadn’t.

  She was here, right now, her body open to me, and in the power of her burning touch I realized that for the first time her heart was open to me as well.

  I reached for it.

  Not with my body, not physically—but I couldn’t help the way my soul responded, the sheer relief I felt as she welcomed me in. I felt the room around me begin to tremble as I went further inside of her, fucking her so hard that the desk was sliding across the floor, that the sounds we made were nothing more than unfettered desire, lust unbound, arching across the ceiling in waves of growls and moans, quick gasps as I thrust harder still, as she inched her way across the desk and I followed, one leg up so I would be deeper, so we would never be apart, so I could stay inside.

  There was nothing artful about it. When we came together, slamming the desk into the wall, my hand cradling Raven’s skull so she wouldn’t get the same treatment, the room rang with desperation—with need.

  Mine, mostly. But I still felt that glow inside of her, the little open door she left for me.

  “I love you,” I said again, breathless as I murmured it into her hair; I felt her aftershocks and couldn’t leave her yet, my own body still embedded in hers, my lips tracing the delicate features of her face. Her eyes were closed, now, and her breath fast; I whispered it again and felt her arms around my neck.

  It should’ve been awkward. I was collapsed on top of her on the old desk, half undressed, both of us drenched in adrenaline soaked sweat from the events of the last hour—fighting, fucking, almost dying… Almost losing her. My Raven.

  I love you. I knew she heard me.

  Chapter Three

  Raven

  He told me he loved me so many times I really started to feel like it was true.

  I guess, logically… I knew it was. I believed him last night, and the night before; I believed what I felt when I touched him, when he touched me. But this… There was something so hungry underneath the words, and I understood it better. There was always a hunger between us—a desperation, I guess, the way we both were constantly full of this terrible mix of regret, anxiety, and rage… But so much of that was behind us now, sorted, as much as it could be, and now, in it’s place…

  Jake loved me.

  He really did. He loved me enough to be terrified when he thought I might die—he didn’t seem to be thinking about himself at all, and as his emotions washed over me that didn’t even strike me as odd. Someone who wasn’t addicted to his touch might have been able to keep her head when his mouth was dragging across her throat, kisses a fever so hot it scorched my skin—but I was. No point in denying it now, I guess. And it wasn’t only that I loved this kind of sex, no… I loved Jake. A lot.

  And this was the kind of sex we had.

  Jake had no barriers up while he was inside me, and I felt every second of his panic, his relief, his terror and rage. His love for me, the depth of it so dark and distant it had no real end. If that’s not going to make a girl cum, then, I guess there’s something wrong with me. But having the hottest man in the world be completely in love with you while steadily pushing you over the edge towards orgasm was enough for me. Maybe I’m easy—hell, I can’t even tell any more.

  I was easy for him, I think.

  When it was over I was sore—I was sore already, from Leo’s well intentioned knock to the floor and the fire and smoke that drenched my lungs. I had bruises and the places on my back where the belt buckle landed days ago still made me winge when I sat up. But Jacob picked me up, no change in the emotions that swept through him into me at all, and carried me to the bed. He sat me on the edge and found my jeans on the floor, gently tugging them over my feet and then helping me pull them up, buttoning them as diligently as a mother with a toddler. I reached up to touch his face; his eyes darted to mine, his teeth kneading his full bottom lip. Too close, he said. Much too fucking close.

  “We’re fine,” I said softly; I chose to speak aloud, wanting to give him enough space in his head to retract and protect his thoughts with a wall if he wanted to.

  He didn’
t. “We’re not,” he whispered, and then, once we were both fully dressed, he pulled me tightly against his chest, his breath ruffling my hair. I felt my eyes close as I absorbed his affection, his sweetness; the heat from his love swept into me, completely unabated in spite of the lack of actual intercourse. I leaned back after a second to look into his eyes.

  “We will be—won’t we? Don’t you think so?” I swallowed and then tried to gently stroke his mind with one of my tendrils, soothing him even as I said the words I knew he would recoil from. “It’s time to make things right with Tristan, Jake. I know—”

  He didn’t move away from me. He held me tighter than ever, but his wall instantly began to rebuild, stone by stone, deliberate and fierce. “You don’t. How could you?”

  “Of everybody in the world, I fucking know, Jacob Knight Warfield,” I said, letting my own love for him show in both my voice and my touch. He inhaled sharply. “I forgive him. You can’t see it—you can’t see what his mind is now. It’s like a goddamn desert at night—a moonscape, where some kind of war happened a thousand years ago and everybody died. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “You’ve only been a super psychic for a couple days,” he said, twisting his mouth as his eyes sparked. But he still held me tightly, unwilling to part from me.

  “This is… This is devastation. I’m serious. Like his entire interior life was consumed by wildfire.” I made him look at me. “You heard him—can you imagine having a power like his?”

  “Yes,” Jake said, and I rolled my eyes.

  “Jacob, imagine you weren’t a psychopath for one minute—imagine you were a bookish sweetheart who lived with intense pathological abuse and had your parents die and—”

  “I’m not a psychopath,” he said quietly, and I inhaled, realizing I’d hurt his feelings. And that hurt me. Things between us had already changed again; I couldn’t do that to him when he was so vulnerable.