Death Kings

Chapter 31

Natalie

I wish my Kings weren't as broken as I am, maybe more so. I at least had parents who took care of me with love and compassion. Brothers who tried to protect me with their love. To have parents or siblings that abused them so much... I cannot even imagine their trauma.

Their pasts explain the men they have become. Bloodthirsty monsters with moral codes and plenty of hidden talents. BLOOD-SOAKED MONSTROUS ROCKSTARS. That's my Cards Kings in a nutshell, my Kings Of Death. My Death Kings.
"Penny for your thoughts, Angel?" Ryder asks, watching me closely as I stand looking out of the ceiling-floor-length hallway window sipping my coffee. I turn around to face him as he wraps me in his arms, leaning us both against the windowpane.

"The man who raised you was more than mentally abusive and lacking any compassion, wasn't he? He was abusive, just like Jaxson's father and uncles. Just like Dominic's older brother Diego and Etienne's stepdad. Did he do to you what Camille did to Callum? Or drug you then watch like Jaxson's father and uncles?" I ask him, knowing I need all the information I can get on Gerhardt Fuchs to destroy him.

"He was physically abusive until that night Jaxson came to me with bloody feet. That was when we fought back." Ryder's eyes blazed with determination and fury as he spoke in a serious tone about how he and Jaxson trained to become assassins. They did this to take out their fathers someday. My fox's cold flames will devour and burn before you can even get close to him. This is the version of him I'm going to need so that we can cease the old wolf's reign of terror.

Ryder turns me in his arms so that we are both looking out at the ranch. "My mother was killed in front of me when I was six. Before that, he had no problems beating her in front of me. I found out later in life on a job with Jaxson that my father would rent my mother out for a night as a form of business transaction. He didn't do that to me. There was never anything sexually involved until Cal, Jax, and I started fucking Gerhardt's maids for information. They were handy to use to keep tabs on the old man, and I knew he was using them to spy on me as well. That's how he knew I liked boys. I paid more attention to Jaxson than the women," Ryder replies with a wink.

Really, Foxy?! I turn around to face him. "You guys were fucking the maids!" I gasped incredulously. "The same maids who tried to kill you?!"

He smirks at my question. "Your jealousy is showing, Angel," he states in the insouciant way of his. One of my throwing knives whizzes past his head. Frustrating asshole husband, I growl in my thoughts. He is still just standing there with no emotion on his handsome, scarred face.

He reaches out, cupping my face. The word D.E.A.T.H. spelled out on his lean fingers just above his knuckles. I'm careful not to touch the fresh ink when I cover my hand with his. K.I.N.G.S. is written in the same scrolling script on the inside of my wrist. We've been adding a new tattoo to our bodies every few weeks. I have Death Kings scrolled on my wrists while the guys have each letter on their fingers.

"Angel, that was before we made you ours or even made the consideration. That summer after junior year, we stopped having sex with others since you were on all four of our minds. I can't speak for Tee, though you will have to ask him."

"You know what, Foxy?" I sigh when he arches a pale brow at me. "Let's just keep the past the past. I had to do things I'm not proud of surviving the breaks and when I wasn't attending Raider Prep, except for this past year. You Kings changed all that for me. If it weren't for you guys demanding that I be yours, I would be chained to Vaquero Muerte for the rest of my life. If that were my fate, I probably would have eventually committed suicide and never gotten to see my future niece or nephew. I wouldn't see much of my family and Grimm would still be Kings of Clubs, bartering services just to see me for a few minutes. Lucifer would still be under his thumb and probably killed for trying to save me. That's what you saved me and my family from," I say, leaning into his firm body with my head pressed against him.