Wrath of an Exile: An Enemies to Lovers Romance (The River Styx Heathens Book 1)

Jude

August 12

From Ponderosa Springs to West Trinity Falls, Seraphina Van Doren is folklore.

Hair red as crimson, tongue sharp as knives, and a heart made of ice.

Ponderosa Springs’s infamous Queen of Disaster.

I smirk as little miss five foot nothing with a seven-foot attitude somehow manages to look down her nose at me, jaw flexing at my words, probably ’cause she knows they’re true.

The myths of her reputation move through these pines like the roaring wind. It’s buried in the soil this town is built on, cautionary tales of an academic savant turned vicious man-eater who had a taste for anarchy.

It’s all bullshit.

No matter how much fanfare she gets, it would never change that, to me, she is just the spoiled brat who royally screwed my life.

The water tower sways beneath my feet, warm palms curled around the chilly metal railing keeping her caged in. Phi drags her tongue across her bottom lip, and I watch it curl into a mocking pout. Her thick, dark eyelashes flutter with malicious intent.

This is not the weepy girl who’d been afraid of heights and spouted bullshit science behind the veil of anonymity.

No, this is the vixen.

And she’ll come out to play. Claws and all.

“Aww, jealous I have a daddy to run to, Sinclair? I’d say sorry for your loss, but everyone knows Easton’s better six feet under.”

Pop. Pop. Pop.

Bullets masked as words hit the bullseye. One after the other, I feel the searing lead in my chest.

My hands tighten on the curved railing behind her. Fresh wounds barely healed rip open. I wanna be shocked by her chirpy mouth, but I’m not.

She’s an entitled princess who knows nothing of loss. Who spits venom as her only weapon and has always talked about my father as if she knew him personally, using whatever bullshit her parents said against him.

Phi wouldn’t have a goddamn clue what the pain of slicing your palms on the shards of a loved one feels like. She’d fucking shatter beneath the agony of not being able to piece them back together.

Red blurs my vision, a crimson filter sliding over my eyes. The chambers of my heart pump a deadly heat through me, veins churning with molten lava.

I’m sick of this family thinking I’m beneath them. Sick of them using my father’s name. It’s easy to judge when you’re looking down from ivory towers, easy to shit on someone you never understood.

“Keep my father’s name out of your goddamn mouth.”

My tone is lethal, dripping disdain.

That superiority complex she was born with aged nicely behind the shield of her last name, protected by her father’s power that allows her and the rest of the Van Dorens to do whatever they want with no consequences.

But tonight? She has none of that.

Phi is all alone, and her pretty face and sweet white lies won’t get her out of this one. Not this time.

“Little orphaned Jude, did I hit a nerve?” A smug little grin unfolds on her chirpy red lips, two rows of an orthodontist’s dream catching the light.

I’m starting to think she’s forgotten who the fuck she’s up here with. That I could give a shit less if she lives or dies.

Metal separates from metal, my forearms burning before a deafening crack rings through the night. Her sharp gaze widens, fear bleeding into her eyes. I toss the piece of old railing off the tower. It clangs against the spiral staircase, making her flinch, before it hits the ground below.

There is nothing to break her fall now. Only open air behind her and a promise of a brutal death.

“It’s real dangerous for you to talk shit when there is no one around to hear you scream, Seraphina.”

Her name tastes like acid, corroding my throat the way it flows from my mouth. She scoffs, rolling her eyes, but I see her booted feet inch closer to me, trying to put distance between her and the edge.

“Spare me, please. You’re a whiny bitch with daddy issues. I’m not afraid of you, Jude.” Phi’s hands plant on my chest, doing her best to shove me back. “Get out of my way⁠—”

My hand seizes her throat, anger cresting in my stomach as she gasps. The delicate column of her throat is so tiny in my hand, so fucking fragile it would take nothing for me to shatter her windpipe.

I shove her back just as she scrambles for purchase, hands snatching the railing on either side of her body. It’s funny that she believes it will be enough to keep me from tossing her ass off.

“You were saying?” I grunt.

Phi’s panic is palpable, the metallic smell of it burning my nose, and it’s fucking feeding my scored heart. My soul craves vengeance, and maybe I’d find it in watching her father pick out her casket.

“A little harder, Sinclair. I like it rough,” she spits.

Her pulse thuds against my palm. Fear runs rampant in her chest, yet every word is laced with defiance. At the edge of her death, she gives as good as she takes it, and if she were anyone else, I’d respect her for it.

But she’s not.

This is someone who’d crossed the tracks to break into Trinity High just to decorate the walls with spray-painted hearts with wings for her senior prank. The hardest rider to beat at the Graveyard ’cause she’s so goddamn reckless you either lose or die going against her.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

It’s Seraphina Van Doren, who with a single lie had me kicked out of the only home I ever knew. Exiled from the town I’d been born in. Forced to leave the house I grew up in after God fucking knows how many townspeople set it on fire in retaliation for a crime I didn’t commit.

That house was the only place good memories lived, and they’d torched it. All because the Judge’s daughter could bat her eyes and tell a good story.

I cock my head, watching her body shake with fear as I bring my thumb up to trace her pouty bottom lip.

“Think of how many tears Rook Van Doren is gonna shed when he finds his little princess down there,” I muse, nodding my head toward the ground. “A broken doll, all twisted up. You’ll leave a pretty corpse.”

Despite the myth of the organ in her chest, she feels anything but cold to me. Actually, I think she might be burning alive. Her bones rattle in my grip, her veins coursing with a wrath so potent I can feel the heat from it on my palms.

My cock jerks in my jeans as I smear her red lipstick, crimson sticking to my thumb as I brush it across the corner of her lips.

I wanna fuck this mouth, just to send her crawling back to her perfect life with bruised knees and watery eyes, choked on my cock and the regret of letting the guy her family despises screw her.

“If killing me is worth your own shitty life, bring it on. You know my father will find you, and you won’t have a corpse to leave,” she mutters. That notorious silver tongue flicks at my thumb, and it looks very, very fucking pink.

“You run that mouth because you know your father will protect you,” I growl through gritted teeth, leaning my head forward. “The Judge cannot save you from me.”

Wind howls in my ears, the violent breeze sweeping her cherry locks across my face, leaving the smell of vanilla in my nose.

So goddamn sweet it makes me nauseous.

Of course she smells like sugar, just another trick to lure in all her victims. She’d been born a goddamn succubus demon, created to feed on guys for sport.

“Get it over with already.” Phi jerks her chin up, lips quivering with fear. “It’s just foreplay at this point if you don’t have the balls to finish the job.”

My sanity is a snapped thread, hand shaking with unruly rage as my fingers dig deeper into the sides of her throat. The water tower rattles beneath my feet as I force her further back, leaving only the tips of her combat boots on the platform.

She’s inches away from meeting a brutal, cold death, and I want her to know exactly who’s giving the introduction. With my one hand free, I grab a handful of her hair and pull it back ruthlessly, forcing her to look up at me.

Tears well up in her eyes, two pretty drops falling. I savor the sight, finding an intoxicating amount of sadistic pleasure in seeing her turn from the pretentious vixen into nothing but a helpless girl.

“That’s it, baby. Cry for me.”

With a depraved grin, my head drops. I have to bend my knees a little to gather her tears on my tongue and swallow them like water in a drought. A tiny moan escapes her as my bottom lip coasts up her flushed cheek, the sound making blood rush to my dick.

Phi’s misery tastes like it could sustain me for an eternity.

“I hate you.”

“Right back at ya, sweetheart.”

I pull back just enough to see her eyes.

It’s far past midnight. The only light for miles is the shy glow of the moon, and it’s just enough to see the rage on her features. Bold strokes of black eyeliner highlight her slitted eyes.

The look of a lioness in human skin, ready to maul me and use my bones to clean her teeth. Tendrils of hostility curl around her irises. It’s like she was always meant to look this way.

This vicious, beautiful disaster.

Phi releases the railing on either side of her, and for a second, I think she’s about to give in to the wind and tumble to the ground. But those small hands fist the front of my hoodie to pull herself further from the edge and toward me.

Our noses bump as I tilt my head, resting my forehead against hers. A live wire cords through my veins as I feel the heat of every exhale from her mouth on my own, filling our lungs with each other’s resentment, and I hope mine tastes as bitter as hers does sweet.

This is a dangerous game we are playing—one with no victor or crown to claim. It’ll end in ruin and a kingdom left in ashes.

When she darts her tongue out my hands instinctively grip either side of her head.

Exiles have no kingdom, and I have no need for a crown.

“Fuck it.”

My mouth slams against hers as I yank her violently from the edge. Thoughts of consequences go up in flames the moment I feel her lips move against mine.

It’s not gentle or sweet. There is no kindness or love.

It’s a natural disaster. Violent and unforgiving.

This is not a kiss.

I’m fucking ruining her.

My hands drop to her ass, hauling her up the length of my body. Phi’s soft thighs wrap around my waist automatically, her arms curling behind my neck as she practically crawls up my torso.

I suck her lower lip into my mouth, hearing a broken moan erupt from the back of her throat. This is the only sound I want to hear from her the rest of the goddamn night. Might’ve kissed her earlier if I knew it would shut her up.

There is a whirl of clothes flung to the platform, her shirt and hoodie gone in a matter of seconds before Phi hungrily reconnects our mouths. I grip her hair with both hands, fingers tightening in the strands as she toys with the silver barbell piercing in my tongue.

Tired of playing nice, she sinks her teeth into my bottom lip hard enough that I feel skin break before the taste of pennies hits the back of my throat.

Vicious fucking thing.

“Shit.” I pull back with a hiss, her teeth clinging to my lip for a few seconds before she finally lets go.

When my eyes flick open, I see her already staring. Gaze veiled and heady, she’s lust drunk, drinking down the sight of blood dripping down my chin.

“Told you I liked it rough. If you can’t handle a little bite, Sinclair,” she snaps, reaching behind herself and unclasping her bra, “you’ll never survive me.”

Not even the promise of sex can get that mouth to stop running.

“When I’m finished, you’re gonna wish I killed you.” I grab her face in one hand easily, pursing her lips open before spitting a mixture of spit and blood onto her tongue. “Now, swallow.”

I pour my wrath down her throat in tidal waves when our mouths meet again. I can taste how horrible this idea is the moment her tongue swipes against mine. Blood and contempt mingle together. But I can’t bring myself to care ’cause it tastes like payback.

Phi moves down, licking up all the blood she’d just spilt. She nips playfully at the skin, eating up every ounce of pain I’m leaking. I groan in frustration the moment I feel the smirk on her lips against my chin.

The metal grate beneath us creaks in protest as I turn us around before dropping her from my hold. Phi lets out a little squeal, frantically trying to regain her balance when her feet hit the platform.

I devour the sight of her streaked in moonlight. Her purple bra hangs halfway down her arms, perky nipples hardened from the cold air. My jaw flexes, thinking about ripping my teeth through her creamy, pale tits, hanging there like supple fruit.

My thumb teasingly rubs her left nipple, flicking the piece of gold jewelry piercing it.

I cock my head, a smirk tugging at my lips. “Angel wings. Cute.”

Phi rolls her eyes, shrugging her bra off her arms. Her cherry-colored hair cascades down her back, framing her sharp features and slitted eyes. She lifts both arms up and flies me matching birds, something I should’ve expected. Phi looks every bit of sexy as she does dangerous.

The tip of my tongue brushes against my bottom lip in anticipation, a low, ominous laugh rumbling through my chest. I reach behind my head with one arm, tugging my hoodie over my head, leaving my chest bare.

“Lightning? You would be that basic,” she mocks, motioning to the tattoo on my left side that spans from the top of my ribs to my hip bone.

But I see the way her eyes catch on the ripples of my abs. If it didn’t mean admitting she likes what she sees, she’d probably crawl over and lick them.

I lean forward, taking one of her middle fingers into my mouth. Keeping my eyes locked on hers, I swirl my tongue, planting my hands firmly on her hips before spinning her around.

Her chest hits the water tank with a forceful thud, a rush of breath expelling from her lips. My dick curses me for wearing pants when I pin her waist with mine. Searing heat radiates from her, burning through clothes, forcing me to thrust against her ass to ease the ache in my balls.

My hands trace her curves, cupping her tits. Phi shivers as my mouth finds the shell of her ear, teeth biting it playfully.

“You think you like it rough ’cause a few guys tugged your hair, Van Doren?” I whisper. “You’ll carry my bruises for a goddamn lifetime.”

“Is that a threat?” she asks, pressing her ass against my dick.

I drag the bridge of my nose up and down the side of her throat, hand skimming to the band of her pants. That smell of vanilla soaks her skin, warm and soft in my nose, making me groan.

There is nothing but her heavy breathing as my fingers undo her zipper, the sweetest-sounding whimper coming from Phi when I slip inside her panties. I let two fingers graze her clit, reveling in the way she tosses her head back against my shoulder before moaning to an empty, black sky.

“It’s a promise.”

I pinch her clit between my fingers, making her shudder with pleasure tinged with pain. She’s soaked, dripping onto my palm. My cock throbs, leaking precum, desperate to sink myself inside.

“Stop teasing. Just fuck me already,” she pleads as I dip the tip of my finger into her entrance.

Her ass rubs against me, moving up and down, her body wanting me. I revel in her need. It injects straight adrenaline into my veins, knowing it’s my cock that she’s desperate for, the one person she’s supposed to hate more than anyone else. The person her father told her never to trust.

Yet here she is, grinding against me like a cat in heat.

“Beg me. Beg for mercy like a good fucking whore.” I smirk. “I’ll make you come so hard you see God before I send you to meet him.”

With ease, I pull my hand from her hot center before jerking her jeans down her thighs, letting them pool around her ankles. I have no desire to tease her or bother with foreplay. I could give a fuck less if she comes.

This isn’t about pleasure. Hers or mine.

It’s about fucking her and leaving her in a pile of self-loathing. I want Phi broken. No matter how much I hate her, she’s going to hate herself more after tonight. The regret is gonna eat her alive, and I’m going to love every second of it.

“Go to hell,” she spits, turning to glare over her shoulder at me.

“Wrong answer.”

I undo my jeans, the smell of her pussy lingering on my fingers as I jerk my boxers down enough to pull out my cock. My eyes trail over the slope of her back, drinking in each dip and curve highlighted by moonlight, including the tattoo of a heart with wings on her lower back.

She would have a tramp stamp.

Her sticky arousal coats my shaft as I stroke myself, thinking of all the ways I wanna mark that porcelain skin. I want it red, purple, and blue, needing it to match the wreckage inside her.

Phi glares over her shoulder at me, dropping her gaze to my hand pumping my dick from root to tip.

A scoff shakes her chest. “That proves my theory.”

I lift my chin. “What’s that, Geeks?”

“The more toxic the guy, the bigger the dick.”

A wolfish grin tugs at my lips as I bend my knees a bit. “And you’ll take every inch of it.”

As I guide the tip of my cock to her entrance, her tight walls resist me at first, but I press forward. Inch by torturous inch, she’s every bit of slick, wet heat around my length. The sensation causes my vision to blur for a second as I struggle for control.

“Goddamn it. You’re so fucking tight.” A guttural moan rips through me as I pull back and slam forward again, harder this time.

My hips finally smack against her ass, cock buried fully inside of her body. Jesus Christ, I think as I bite down on the inside of my cheek. Every time she breathes, that hot pussy contracts, slippery inner walls massaging every inch of my dick.

A broken gasp spills from her lips as I fill her completely, her palms smacking against water tank to steady herself. Phi’s hips try to pull away, an attempt to adjust to my size.

“Ah ah ah.” I click my tongue with a shake of my head, palming her hips roughly. “You don’t get to run away. Stick that ass out and take this dick like a good fucking slut.”

Jerking her waist back toward me, I shove my cock into her with reckless abandon. Her fingers claw at the metal tank, sharp red nails scraping along the surface as she quivers from the force of my thrusts.

The rage in my bones drives me to fuck her in a primal way, twisting my gut until I sink my teeth into the side of her neck, sucking on the skin until my marks start to litter her throat. I’m relentlessly using her so I can bury every ounce of hatred I have inside her tight body.

I set a brutal pace, and like she was made for it, she takes it. Her walls loosen around me, making it easier to slide in and out. With a predatory gaze, I look down. Every time I bottom out, turning the skin red as my hips drill into her softness, her ass shakes. When I pull almost all the way out, I watch her cunt stretch and grip my shaft, leaving it glistening with her wetness.

She cries out as I roll my hips, her arm curling around my neck to keep my head buried in her neck. The smell of sex and sweat makes me grit my teeth, fingers digging into the plush skin of her hips.

God, I wish she wasn’t this hot. Wasn’t this fucking good.

Bruises form under my grip as I easily lift her body off the platform. I’m turning her into nothing but a warm Fleshlight to fill with cum as I work her pussy back and forth on my cock. Her boots dangle just above the ground as I use her to get myself off.

“Yes, right there, right there.” Phi’s voice is an alluring chant, softer than I’ve ever heard it before.

For a split second, it reminds me of the person I was talking to earlier tonight. The person who was afraid of heights, who didn’t know my last name and just existed with me.

Gripping a fistful of her hair, I pull her head back. “Where is that attitude now, huh? Hard to talk shit with my cock wrecking that uptight cunt, isn’t it?”

“Shut up and make me come.”

“Do it yourself, fucking brat,” I grunt, pulling back until I’m only halfway inside her before slamming back home, eliciting a high-pitched whimper from her lips. “Work for it. Rub that needy clit and come on my dick.”

“Asshole,” she snarls through gritted teeth, frustrated as she reaches between her thighs.

I wrap an arm around her stomach, pressing her body tightly against mine before driving into her with shallow thrusts. Pleasure zips through my spine, my balls throbbing as I listen to our bodies slap together.

The rusting tank shakes as I relentlessly pound into her, and her wetness drenches me. Breathy moans fill my ears as Phi’s velvety walls quiver around me, trying to lock me in, wanting to milk my cock, those telltale signs of an orgasm drawing closer.

“Come. Scream for me. Let the whole fucking town hear how much you love being fucked by a Sinclair.”

“Oh God, oh⁠—”

Scream she does, the force of it practically overtaking the roaring wind. Phi’s body goes taut as she tumbles over the edge, her cunt turning into a vise grip as it drenches me, spilling onto my jeans.

Fuck, I should pull out. I need to pull out.

But it’s so wet, so hot. The tightest pussy I’ve ever fucked. So fucking tight. I⁠—

A ripped moan rattles through my clenched teeth as I plunge into her without mercy. My balls draw up tight as I slam home one last time. White-hot, blinding heat flares behind my eyes as I come, cock thrumming as I fuck my cum deeper with short, jerky thrusts.

My chest heaves, post-climax haze almost making me drop my forehead to her shoulder until I remember who I just came inside of.

Like her skin burns me, I let her go. Her chest slumps against the metal tank, feet touching the ground with a thud. I try to ignore my cum dripping down her thighs when I step back, avoiding the urge tugging in my stomach to scoop it up on my fingers and shove it back inside.

I tug my boxers and jeans up, leaving them undone as the orgasm fog starts to clear. My heart still thudding against my chest, I release a breath, immediately searching for my sweatshirt.

I need a cigarette, like, yesterday.

Phi has already pulled her jeans up, and her T-shirt is halfway down her body by the time I light my nicotine stick. I watch through the puffs of smoke as she scoops her hoodie from the platform.

“In a rush?”

Phi sneers at me, mockingly pulling her hair to the side, revealing all the bruises I left on her neck and shoulders. “Yeah, I need to go get a fucking rabies shot.”

A wicked image of her walking through her house baring all those marks and having to hide who they are from makes me grin.

Casually pinching the cigarette between my fingers, I pull it from my lips. “I’m clean, princess. Should I be forking out cash for plan B?”

The lust that was consuming her eyes has disappeared. Almost as if I imagined it.

“As if you could even afford the extra fifty bucks. I’m on birth control, and stop calling me that.” Those heated tendrils of resentment flare in her gaze as she rolls her tongue along her top teeth.

A sly grin tugs at my lips, smoke rolling past my lips. “You know, princess, not all rumors about you are true. That pussy isn’t nearly as cold as your heart.”

“Fuck you.”

So tiny yet so violent.

“Already did. The sweet-ass memory of you becoming a traitor for dick is one I’ll cherish for a long time.”

Phi’s jaw works, molars probably grinding to dust before she spits, “Must run in the family. Heard your dad died still thinking about my mom.”

The red haze from earlier rushes back into my vision, threatening to engulf me in uncontrollable rage. I feel it bubbling inside of me, ready to consume me whole, and I don’t think I have the strength to be the bigger person twice in one night.

“Get the fuck off the water tower, Van Doren.”

“With pleasure, Sinclair.”

Anger crackles in me like a fire that refuses to go out. It’s always there, this town, these people always stoking the dying embers. One of these days, I really am gonna set fire to this shithole.

It’ll be a wildfire that consumes everyone in its path, and they will only have themselves to blame.

Phi disappears into the hole in the platform, wanting to get as far away from me as possible. But no matter how fast she runs away, it won’t change anything.

I hadn’t planned tonight, but it was a beautiful, vengeful happenstance.

I’ve chipped her ivory tower. She’s no longer a loyal disciple of the church of Van Doren. The moment her lips moved against mine, she’d become Judas.

The betrayer.

Every time her family mentions my name, this night will flash in her mind, and she’ll remember just how good it felt to betray the ones she loves.

My smell is on her skin. My teeth marks are on her neck. My cum is leaking between her thighs.

Tonight, the Queen of Ponderosa Spring was my exile.