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She’d touched her. Every time distractions faded away and left him alone the thought that his sister’s hands, even metaphorically, had been on Destiny had left him pacing – his office, the apartment, his work room, even the town. Like a caged wolf, the comparison not lost on him as he’d snarled internally. He hadn’t been able to when Destiny had been there in the apartment, in his arms, the marks still on her throat. The two of them had yelled but Grey had held himself back. Gentled his touch, tried to gentle his tongue even when he’d wanted to rage. Things at hand to fling across the room. He could’ve done it with the power that had only intensified in his veins since he’d driven that branch right through Leah.

Stalking across the square, hands in pockets to avoid picturing Leah’s blood on his knuckles Grey let out a hissing sigh. There should’ve been a million miles between him and Destiny, room for Leah to slip between the two of them without touching her but opening himself up to teaching Destiny had reeled her in until he couldn’t tell where the lines were drawn now.

He’d stood in his apartment tonight, no ding of the elevator to announce Destiny’s arrival, no ring of his phone to lure him over. All that pixie dust that had sparkled off of her when she’d gotten close, dulled, all because of the sister his father had helped the Alpha’s wife to whelp. Poor judgment and pressure induced insanity damning him yet again. Leaving that dark cloud lowering over his head in a town that wouldn’t spit out its secrets or suddenly beam with a light that would pick them out. The ones that had caused it in the first place.

Standing at those floor to ceiling windows that had given him a view over all of the town, he’d dragged his hand down his face. Blue eyes skittering over the square, the bright lights flickering from the Grill bathing those working their way towards the place in lurid tones. A neon will’o’the’wisp luring them all in.

Him included.

An hour later he was crossing that last stretch of blacktop. Hands fisted in his pockets, one pulled reluctantly free as he’d gone to push the door open and some kid who looked younger and more innocent than he’d ever been had brandished three wristbands. Brows furrowing Grey stared at them, his mouth twisting slightly until the kid had yelled over the blare of music. ”So people know … green for go, orange for a maybe – y’know complicated or kinda interested, red for not a chance, if you get what I mean.” A wink at that. No help at all. Grey hissed his teeth out, fingers snapping at the green while his gaze was settled on the orange. He was still free, the alternative meant Leah’s fist closing around Destiny’s throat again, a pawn dragged to the other side of the board, not taken but turned against him in a way that would have shock leaving her staring at him like she didn’t know him, again. The guy went to snap the green on his wrist before Grey’s jaw tightened. ”The orange, gimme the orange … thanks.” Gratitude ground between his teeth.

Shuffling away from the guy, Grey shook the band on his wrist out, staring down at it. Dark brows bunching above blue eyes. Complicated was the word for it, what had seemed so simple when Destiny had found him in the street growing in layers, like an onion, that one Leah had pulled back pungent enough to leave his eyes watering and tears streaming from Desitny’s.

What the hell was he doing here tonight?

Looking. An easy enough explanation to lie to himself with. He’d looked at the club, had almost gone toe to toe with another wolf for his efforts. Trying to prove something to him or Destiny, trying to act like nothing had changed.

Just glanced around now he knew it had. Music was thudding in the air, the lights picking out bodies already writhing to it. Bodies painted with something that glowed under those lights, a kaleidoscope that could blind if you looked too long. Some woman called out to him, tucked at a table covered in pots of those paints, lit up under the lights as she brandished a brush. Grey shifted uneasily, shoulders pressing against the leather he wore. All black, almost a cliché in a place like this. A raise of his hand to wave her off, a shove into the crowd to try and pick his way towards the bar.

Crowds shifted in his path, people wrapped around one another, entwined under their paint jobs looked like ropes binding them together. A shove of that mass, some guy dripping in bright blue geometric shapes stepping back into him. Grey’s hands went up, grabbed the guy’s shoulders before he made a sound low in his throat – that paint still wet, wiping off on him. He went to push the guy back in. ”Watch out man.” Whatever the guy said in response lost as a flash of colour caught his eye. A magpie’s instinct fixing on that familiar tiny Tinkerbell figure in the ground. Big blue eyes swivelling away from him after he was sure they met. Another set of hands on her, fingers spanning the slender waist, settled on the sway of her back, sending that burst of something dark into his mind.

Trying to swallow it back Grey pushed forward, thoughts of booze pushed aside. They weren’t together, not that way. Teacher-pupil. The word stuck fast for a moment. Friends, with benefits, sure, but friends was hard enough to slap on it as a label. Wasn’t like he’d ever had any to know what that was meant to be like, was it? The crowd pushed at him but Grey was slipping up behind Destiny, eyes going cold as he fixed on the guy in front of Destiny, the one still holding onto her. ”Mind if I cut in?” he asked, his voice gravely as he called out over the music. ”You mind?” A hint of something tighter in his throat as he dropped his head, his lips a half inch from Destiny’s ear, hands not yet snapping fingers as he peeled this guy’s off of her.

Tagged: DESTINY BACCARI * Word Count: 1059

If he slipped his fingers beneath the angle of her chin and lifted gently, tilting her face towards him, would he have still seen the prints of his sister’s fingers on her skin? Vanity pushed him to hide his own scars and those marks the sacrifices with some real bite to them put on him, a life hidden with a little effort, but other than the scars, Destiny had never hidden a part of herself from him, not for long at least. Grey was tempted to do just that as the guy eyed him over Destiny’s head, a silent dog fight going on for the woman tucked between them. Stamping his own ownership on her with a touch far more gentle. Chances were he’d forfeited that right with the rage that had flowed through him at the sight of her touch – screw that, he’d forfeited it the moment he hadn’t cracked that door in the first place.

It didn’t stop that feeling bubbling up in his chest at the sight of another set of hands on her though. He could’ve peeled the guy’s hands off, one finger at a time, those small bones snapping like dry twigs. Drive him to his knees, wring the truth about his intentions out of him like water from a sponge. Grey held back, remembering the look in Destiny’s eyes as he’d raged around her. Everything she thought and felt shining in those pools, not a mirror to her soul but a weapon to turn against his own, slicing neatly through his gut until there had been nothing but that rage left for a time.

Blood had shone gem like on his knuckles a half hour after she’d left his apartment, the same ones Destiny swept her thumbs over now. Scarlet beads trickling down to his wrists, glass glittering in the cuts, sparkling like snow in the carpet. Anger and control shattered by Leah without the bitch taking one step into his apartment. A gentleness in that touch now, tempered. One finger at a time stripped away until the only hands on her were his. Grey’s lips curled into a faintly feral smile as he looked up at the guy from under dark lashes. His hands slid to her stomach, flattening against those curves to draw her back against him.

Possessive. Protective. Not that same screaming control that had left her a rag doll in the hands of a monster who was still allowed to breathe in his cell on the other side of the country.

Destiny could’ve pushed him away. That fire he knew could rage where his hands lay now bubbling up, out at him as she shoved away and let him pull her in. No, that was a ease into him instead, shoulders to his chest, arm, solid, as delicate feeling as the china doll he’d once thought she was but capable of so much more.

He’d tried to drum that into his head as he’d pushed her about Leah. She could’ve torn his sister, whatever Leah was now because a werewolf couldn’t have put hands on her in the way she’d described, to pieces, but she hadn’t because she wasn’t him, despite all that had happened. Grey hummed lightly, turning his head to block the bloke out as Destiny tilted her face up towards his. A smile on those cupid’s bow lips, so close to his cheek, close enough that his own were only millimetres from hers as he tilted his own. ”But you don’t,” he said huskily. Blue eyes dropped, his hand twisting slightly against her, lifting enough for him to see her wrist bare. What the hell did that mean? ”You’re lookin’ a little bare. He didn’t wanna put a label on this?” Not the way he had. A snap decision, a tether around something inside of him he’d never planned on.

Like a fool he reached for her. That snap of a voice drawing Grey upright like a marionette whose strings had been pulled – not that far from the truth. Grey snorted, flashed teeth at him in a feral look, a dangerous look. ”I’ve got one, thanks. I’d suggest maybe you take some of your own medicine, yeah? I’m with her, that means those hands come off now. You touch her again and you’ll be fumbling around on the floor for some important bit of you.” He didn’t want to let that slap of violence out, not here. The last time he’d seen Destiny practically cower from it before she’d drawn herself up the way he had done now.

His arm curled around her more, against that pressure of the guy’s hands, up towards her chest, a shield against this guy. Brows furrowing in a way that had that deep line springing up between them in concern. ”Did you come with him?” The ‘did he touch you’ filling that space at the end of his question. Someone had already gotten their hands on her because he hadn’t been there, Grey hadn’t known Leah was coming but it was the last time, the only time someone was gonna get the opportunity to.

Tagged: DESTINY BACCARI * Word Count: 853

Would he have been that different if he’d come here with Destiny instead of chancing upon her with that spiffed up asshole’s hands on her? Feeling like a fish far enough out of water to balk at what he supposed were the rites of passage at something like this? Seeing Destiny nod towards the paint the guy had refused, Grey glanced towards it, muscles in his jaw bunching. No, cause for her he’d done more, just to see that light come into her eyes.

The excitement wasn’t sparking from her like fairy dust now though, hadn’t done since before she’d strode into his apartment that last time, bruised and hurt and only looking to protect him. Until.

His own temper had bled by now, at least far enough that he hadn’t barged in hollering, using his power to pin her date to the wall like the Vitruvian man. Maybe if her had put one of those red bands on Destiny’s wrist or fingerpainted her skin in a fresh claim that would wash away the remnants of what had been his before he’d torn it all down in the middle of his apartment. ”Asshole.” The word slipped out of Grey’s mouth, a low sound the guy could probably hear anyway. He dragged his own fingers lightly over the tender skin of Destiny’s wrist like those electric blue or shocking pink streaks would appear. A technicolour echo of the soot that had streaked their skin that first time. Before.

Just the thought of his sister putting a sharper edge on his temper as the guy made a grab Destiny. Sheer will alone stopped him from throwing the guy back, letting all of that long sealed out poison spew out again, sated only by the crack of bone, the coppery stink of blood blooming in the air. It twisted at his stomach but something else held firm on the image. He hadn’t got his hands on the one who’d put their fingers on her in violence yet, everything else could wait until after that.

”Nu uh,” he warned hoarsely. Something went cold in his eyes as he met the guy’s. Hands sliding possessively, he’d drawn Destiny back into him, like he’d somehow protect her from something this time when he’d failed to that first time. All it would’ve taken then was a few words of warning, torn out of that part of his heart where the truth had lain like thorns, pricked deep, letting that poison seep into him for years.

It boiled again briefly at the scoff in Destiny’s voice. A hard swallow, that fist closing at his throat the way it must’ve done when Leah had grabbed her. His fault. For her good he’d driven her from his apartment, had had hoped that Leah would see her broken and hurt – heart sick – and would presume that he hadn’t given a shit. A warning delivered from someone who hadn’t mattered, who he’d toss aside whenever he felt like it. Not someone he’d laid a fresh claim on now. ”I’m with her,” he repeated, not sure if he was drumming it into the other man’s head or Destiny’s. That jealous part of him starting to undo what he’d done that night.

Asshole. Grey wasn’t sure if he was thinking about this guy or himself. Something clenched in his chest that he tried to push away with a mental growl. He dipped his head an inch, eyes still sharp as they focused on him. ”You’re workin’ fast, aren’t you?” Or Destiny was. Was this her proving to herself or to him that she was stronger than he’d given her credit for that night? If it was the point had been hammered home, the proof right there that he’d pushed her away like he’d meant to.

She’d moved on fast either way, to a guy who’d probably spilled his entire life on that first date. The two of them out in town, smiling at each other in candle light, not hidden away behind closed curtains. Had he slept in Destiny’s bed? Letting her pull away from him to sleep on the other side of the bed instead of pulling her close when she would’ve denied herself.

The boiling roil of temper was there again, his hand ready to whip out and snap the haughty bridge of the guy’s nose as he shoved at him. Grey took a half step back, his hold on Destiny drawing her with him, into him, even as she curled her hands around him. Ready to protect him just like she had been before. There was that snap of words as he rearranged his grip on her, something glittering and dangerous in his eyes as he growled at the guy. ”Touch either one of us again and they’ll be dragging you out of here on a stretcher.” If there was enough left of him for that. He didn’t know if Destiny’s snapped order had been at him or at the guy, either way it didn’t matter. She was trying to diffuse this, building a middle ground between the two of them. Just like her to be the peacemaker.

Oh. The word rolled through him, a knowing edge to the thought as he saw the look filter over the other man’s face. Don’t touch him. He felt the sigh that rolled through Destiny as much as saw it on her face. ”You’re still gonna see him?” he asked, faintly surprised before he could the mutter of boyfriend. Grey pressed his lips together, ducking his head closer to the crook of Destiny’s neck as he saw him disappear into the crowd. Was he satisfied? Maybe not half as much as he was relieved. For a moment at least.

They were alone, but it wasn’t the end of the tussle. With the third party gone Destiny was turning it on him.

Grey straightened up slightly, his hold on her shifting slightly. Still anchoring her there, his thumb strumming over the curve of her stomach in that dress, but his shoulders were squared, stiff now. ”He was an asshole, you said it yourself,” he muttered. ”Hey.” There was a pained sound to the argument, dark brows drawing together over it. ”I never said I didn’t want you around. You’re the one who didn’t come back. I … Did you want to see him? Was that it? I didn’t tell you what you wanted to know and so that was it? You’re done.” There was more pain over it than he’d thought. The fist squeezed tight again, leaving him swallowing against it, that veil he kept up at all times shifting just enough for the ache to shine through for a moment.

You can’t have it both ways son. Either it means something or it doesn’t… It was the Alpha’s voice mocking him as he’d dangled the emissary spot over his head. Was that honestly the last time something had meant much? Had anything ever meant as much as this?

Tagged: DESTINY BACCARI * Word Count: 1164

Mirror images of one another – the scars carved in on the surface, hidden beneath that layer of tarnished pride, the ones etched deeper that made you fight to get past. Pasts that clung greasy and dark, rank enough that he’d tried to hold Destiny far enough from him that she wouldn’t see just how stained he was with it all. Justifiably, Leah had proved that when she’d gotten her hands – or whatever the hell she’d used – on her, even if it wasn’t for the same reasons now.

Daily he’d tried to leave all that behind. Head up, shoulders back, confidence in every line of him, the Grey Maddox who oozed charm and promised discretion when he glad-handing his residents over the counter hiding the terrified teenager who’d shoved at his sister with every ounce of power in himself and had survived. It took cunning, sure, but strength too, even when his knees had quaked every bang and yell outside that first shitty motel room here. You had to hold onto it, fall back to it every time your knees wanted to quake again and in his apartment, with Destiny shaking and crying, Grey hadn’t seen that she’d done that. Snapped words had tried to prove him wrong, the full bore blast of her hurt and disappointment caught him with some of that surprisingly tough core. Instead of crumpling she’d fought. Now he was getting it again.

Subtler, the puff of indignation rolling out enough to have him pressed his lips together harder. His head low to hide it, the scent of her skin impossible to escape even with the masse of humanity crammed into the bar filling the air with less pleasant smells. He’d pushed Destiny to go for what she wanted, the bright shiny brass ring of The Daily and the big desk. She was capable, he’d told her that, had even greased the wheels where he’d needed to. Maybe he should’ve been fine with her doing what she had to within that made the thought of her walking into another meeting with that dickhead had that sour rush starting up his throat. ”You don’t have to,” he rasped. ”Partners are easy enough to come by, set one aside if he causes too big a stink.” It wasn’t dethroning in his mind as he watched with heavy lidded eyes to see if he could spot Aaron disappearing out the door in the mirror. A sacrifice, the asshole’s hands bound, fingers broken so badly they wouldn’t be able to touch anything again. Brutal and proof that maybe he was the monster he’d given the impression of that night.

Grey’s hand smoothed over her skirt, trying to soothe in a way he hadn’t the last time, maybe himself too with the silk of her dress and the warm press of the skin beneath against his palm. He’d been fighting every inch his sister had forced his shields open that night, raging to disguise that broken, huddled form inside, the one Leah could’ve torn apart in an instant. He made a low sound, blue eyes narrowing faintly as he raked over every word Destiny had ground out since he’d walked in and found those shields taking more knocks as he’d seen him. ”After that you’re sayin’ he’s not one?” he question. Shoulders rising and falling as those lines sprung up between his brows with an oncoming frown. It had been close enough. The guy had put hands on her, not yet violent but with most it was just a matter of time.

Especially when their target was as soft as Destiny, soft and vulnerable over that steel core. That reflection of himself, in reverse this time. The soft core to his steel exterior warming, going marshmallow like as those tears started to glimmer in her eyes. Shit. Not the conversation he’d aimed for here but honestly, what had he thought was going to happen when he started trying to slap band aids over what might’ve been mortal wounds for whatever this had become.

The what the fuck deepened that frown and did nothing to clear the confusion. Another of those shrugs, a slightly firmer press of his hand as it slid around to settle on her opposite hip. A band holding her in place, preventing either one of them from running this time. Grey’s mouth pursed, closing over the ache that wanted to shine through one of those chinks. A chunk missing from his armour because of her absence. ”You backed away first.” Flinching away from the lashes of his temper at her, the bitch he’d tried to protect what mattered from. ”I didn’t say I didn’t want you there. I didn’t say I didn’t want you.” But he had pushed the blame into her hands now, like a hot potato no one wanted to deal with.

An explosive breath out. Spill it all now, here, and erase all that had stretched out mile wide between them, or hold it back, clinging to that losing strategy of keeping her safe. Grey’s head was shaking, chin dropping until he wasn’t looking her in the eye, not wanting to see what damage he’d done to what they’d had by trying to do the opposite. ”I never said that,” he growled. He trusted her, more than he had anybody since his life had been torn apart. Those blue eyes ticked back up to hers, the muscle jumping in his jaw as he gritted his teeth. ”I got mad for you. You don’t think I would have done anything to keep her hands off of you, to keep all of that out of your life.” After she’d already gone through so much, with that bastard’s hands tearing her life apart.

”Being what Destiny?” Maybe that was a question he shouldn’t have pushed for an answer to you. Something shook as he sucked in a breath. His hand sliding up her side, over her shoulder, her throat – lingering where each of those marks had remained impressed on his memory – cupping her jaw with his fingers in the tumble of Destiny’s hair. ”I was looking out for you. I was pissed. Her hands were on you and that was my fault. You think don’t think that bit at me?” The glass that had littered the floor of his apartment like raindrops after was a testament to how badly it had torn at him.

He could’ve scoffed, maybe should’ve done but she was serious and each chiding blow landed with a skill he’d taught her. Pride burned in the pit of his stomach but stopped tight in a throat that felt squeezed like his sister had another grip on them. ”I did do it, I’m not gonna regret it or getting rid of him.” No denial that he was scared of losing her. He nearly had and it had almost squeezed the life out of him.

She was turning into him then, finally. No awkward space between them anymore, just those big blue eyes looking up at him as he shook his head. His thumb sweeping her cheekbone as Grey locked his eyes on hers. ”I’m not done, I was never done. If it wasn’t … why did you?” He knew why she’d left, he’d pushed and instead of her pushing back Destiny had done exactly what he’d aimed to make her do – she’d left and none of it had felt right after. ”I want you to come back, I don’t wanna push you away for her. If she comes again we deal with it head on. Together.” Eventually Leah would poke her nose out from under her rock again and he’d get her. No quick death this time, she was gonna give him what he hadn’t taken then. Power, strength, freedom.

Tagged: DESTINY BACCARI * Word Count: 1293

Two sides to the same story, each version a mirror image of the other but coloured differently. A tint that each saw as they looked at one another. Destiny had only seen the slap of anger, him pushing her away as he’d pushed for her to stand on her own two feet, as he’d wanted to nip this in the bud before Leah saw that everything she’d tried to do by branding Destiny’s skin the way she had worked. It had worked better than the evil bitch had likely imagined, something inside of him tearing open to let that hurt and poison spill out until Destiny had almost been washed away on the toxic edge of that tide.

He wanted to drag his hand over his face now, those muscles that wanted to snap tight again, but Grey kept them on her. The soft curve pressing into his palm a reassurance that she was still here. His temper had been a wedge between them that night. ”None of that was aimed at you,” he managed tightly, the fist around his own throat loosening now. ”I was pissed at her and everything I did had you flinching and pulling back.” And it had all felt like that was for her own good. Lies hanging heavy in the air leaving him looking no better than him because the truth would change it all. Or he’d believed it would.

The fact that it hadn’t took some of the sting out of the wound now, letting all that whisper out in the breath he expelled. There was enough left that his jaw did go tight then but the worst of the burn of his temper was long gone taking the belief that shoving her away was the best thing for everybody involved with it. His throat worked as the truth dawned and Destiny’s expression softened. ”I made her think it wasn’t…” he managed. That it was nothing more than he’d done dozens of times before. Taking what he wanted, what he needed and walking away without a second thought because there was nothing more there than a bumping together of lives, a careening away, not this Velcro like stick.

Had his sister really believed? Blue eyes wanted to tick around the space, looking for that fall of blonde hair and the award winning case of resting bitch face in those splashes of colour and light. Grey didn’t though, he kept them on Destiny, holding back the spill of more of that behind the dam he’d tried to poke some sort of a hole in. He’d tried to open it up more now, seizing on just a single word in that bite of them as she tried to educate him on what they were meant to be because they were … Grey dipped his head slightly at the silence that followed. Leah had obviously watched, had seen something neither one of them had put a voice to and now to patch up what his sister had done was he meant to define it?

Yes, no. God he had no bloody idea other than her being gone had left a hollow greater than any he’d ever had carved into him, even after his sister claws made a half decent attempt at disembowelling him. Destiny clarified it then and that bite of a question melted away. He paused, his face going still before he nodded briefly. ”That’s what we’re meant to be?” Woulda been his first, that he’d admitted to at least. Cat was an employee, nothing more in name at least. This had been … was … more.

He’d never have gotten his hand on Destiny’s throat that way if it hadn’t been. Trust, fragile as a baby bird held between them, waiting for the moment he’d squeeze too hard and screw the whole thing up, crushing that light out of her in a way his sister hadn’t been able to. Grey kept his fingers there, feeling her pulse thud hard against his fingertips for a moment before he slid those fingers over her skin, into that dark tumble of hair.

Promises on lips that rarely found them, caught together without Leah’s claws a shredding, destroying presence between the two of them. Just as they’d been the night she’d led him into the shower and again as he’d curled hands around her bare legs, staring up into those big blue eyes as she admitted to what had left its marks on her before. Destiny’s nod a reassurance now as his shields fell. His thumb ran along her cheekbone as she met his eye. ”Not at you,” he promised again. ”It was all at her for doing that to you, for doing what he did. You started to pull back the minute I lost it. It was never … I just wanted to know you’d protected yourself because I couldn’t…” Handle the thought of Leah’s hands, her claws taking the one good thing he had. It had driven his father deeper into his madness, it would’ve done the same to him, left nothing but that angry, vengeful shell behind.

That was all Destiny had seen anyway and it had seared her in the heat of all of that. Jaw tight, he shook his head, thumb gliding beneath the tip of her chin to lift it. Because he cared. Done. As if it was that simple. Maybe it was. Keep that stopper out, let some of that brackish water of his past flow out so she knew. He kicked to stay afloat in that float now, holding on to her like Destiny was the thing keeping his head above water. The two of them both clinging onto that life raft now, his grip easier with the smile that brightened at his suggestion. ”No more of this tonight,” he rasped as their deal was sealed. Leah wasn’t gonna know what hit her but until she played the chicken shit version of whac-a-mole he was shoving it aside.

Both hands cradling her face he sank into that kiss. The world spun around them, lights picking out others bobbing in it, swaddling the two of them in darkness without the flash of colour on their skin … yet. Full of the taste of her, gladly drowning in it, Grey drew back just far enough to look into those limpid pools of blue. His lips curved faintly, eyes narrowing shrewdly. ”We’re not leaving but …” He needed to sink back, just a little, another band aid slapped on to keep this afloat.

Hand stroking down from her throat, over her bare shoulder, fingertips trailing the line of her arm before they found hers and curled tight. The crowd around them was already thick, the air full of the smell of paint and something more potent almost pushed aside as he found his way to the back with her. The bit they’d never had a problem with, where they could communicate without the words that always stuck tight. Grey pushed open the door, shot a glance around to make sure before he flipped the lock, keeping the world and its circling darkness out there and all that twinkling fairy light in here where he could steep himself in it.

Tagged: DESTINY BACCARI * Word Count: 1206