Chapter 20: Terms of Surrender

Xavier lingered a few feet behind, watching with the patience of someone who had already won. Our bond pulsed like a second heartbeat.

Get out. Now. He’s poison.

My hand slipped from the handle, and Xavier watched with a small, dark smile.

“Don’t you want to hear the revised terms first?” he repeated, quieter this time.

I let go of the handle. The soft click of it resetting sounded too loud in the study.

“I’ll hear them,” I said. “But you’re going to listen first.”

I closed the gap in three steps, fisting his open shirt and yanking him down. He didn’t resist. I kissed him the way I’d wanted since the rooftop, biting his lower lip hard enough to make him hiss, then soothing it with my tongue before biting again.

Xavier made a low sound in his chest that was almost a growl. His hands landed on my waist, fingers digging in, but he didn’t take over. He let me push him backward until the backs of his thighs hit the desk.

I broke the kiss just long enough to speak against his mouth.

“You want to own the ruined Omega? Fine. Then say it.”

His violet eyes were nearly black. “Ravenna—”

“Say it.” I bit his lip again, sharper. “Tell me what I am.”

Something dangerous flickered across his face. Then he gave me exactly what I asked for.

“You’re the discarded one,” he rasped. “The Holloway they threw away, the Omega dancing for cash.” He pulled me hard against him, making his readiness clear. “The girl rejected by the entire Council who still crawled to my couch the next day, begging for a lycan’s knot.”

Heat punched through me so fast my knees went weak.

Ciel’s snarl tore through me, yet I only pressed closer.

“Again,” I whispered.

Xavier flashed a grin that didn’t reach his eyes. “You’re my ruined little Omega.

The one I left to rot for six years just to get the bond to shut up.” He tightened his grip around my throat, his thumb pressing hard against my pulse. “Sign the contract, and you’re mine to do whatever I want with. You know you belong on your knees for the man who broke you.”

I kissed him to shut him up—or maybe because I wanted him to keep talking.

I ripped his shirt open, and he just let it happen, not even breaking the kiss. When I bit his lip for the third time, he growled, spun me around, and hoisted me up onto the desk.

Papers flew everywhere. The contract ended up on the floor.

Xavier stepped between my legs, his hands already under my shirt, skin hot against mine. I arched into him and pulled his mouth back to mine.

“Keep going,” I ordered against his lips. “Don’t stop talking.”

He let out a short, ragged laugh and yanked my shirt over my head, following it quickly with my bra.

The cool air of the study hit my skin for a heartbeat, but it was gone the second he leaned in. He caught my nipple in his mouth, sucking hard enough to make me gasp, his teeth grazing me just enough to sting.

“Look at you,” he whispered against my skin. “Half-naked on my desk, soaking for the man you hate. Still that same filthy Omega from the night your sister caught us.” He popped my button and tugged the zipper open. “You’re going to take every inch of this, and you’re going to thank me for it.”

I arched my hips, helping him yank my jeans and underwear down in one motion.

The second they were off, I wrapped my legs around his waist and pulled him in. He was hard against me, thick and insistent through the fabric of his trousers.

“Then stop teasing and give it to me,” I said.

Xavier’s eyes flashed. He freed himself with one hand, the other braced beside my head on the desk. The head of his cock dragged through my wetness once, twice, coating himself in how ready I already was.

“Last chance to walk out,” he said, voice nearly gone.

I dug my nails into his shoulders. “I already told you. I’m negotiating.”

He thrust in to the hilt in one hard stroke.

The stretch burned deliciously. A broken sound escaped me as the bond roared open, flooding my nerves with heat and the certainty that this was the same body that had claimed me six years ago. Ciel’s rage shifted into a frantic, unwilling surrender.

Xavier didn’t give me time to adjust. He set a punishing pace from the first thrust, desk creaking under us, one hand locked around my throat just tight enough to remind me who was driving. Every snap of his hips forced another gasp out of me.

“That’s it,” he gritted. “Take it like the ruined little Omega you are. This is what you came here for. Not the money. Not the protection. This.”

I dragged his head down and bit his lip again until I tasted blood. “Harder.”

He gave it to me harder.

The desk scraped the floor as my nails left red lines down his back. He spoke in precise, filthy tones, weaponizing my past while I rode the edge of humiliation and raw need until the only thing left was the scream of the bond and the force of him driving into me.

I came with his name gritted between my teeth and his hand tight around my throat.

Xavier followed shortly after, burying himself deep with a guttural sound that vibrated against my neck. He lingered, pulsing and hard, forehead pressed to mine as we fought for breath.

The study fell silent, save for our breathing and the distant city beyond the glass.

He pulled back, his mouth swollen and his lip smeared with a thin line of blood.

"You still want to haggle?" he asked, sounding exhausted.

I was shaking, but for the first time in years, I actually felt alive. I looked him in the eye and gave a sharp little smile.

“Yeah,” I said. “Now we negotiate.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Now we negotiate.”