Death's Serenity (Sequel to Luna's Revenge)

Vile Machinations

A moan echoed through the lavish room, illuminated only by the lights of scented candles as Justin and Jenna laid entangled in each other's bodies, driven by their throes of pleasure and ecstasy.

Their lips moved in raw passion, kissing and biting at each other until they were both facing their highs, together.

After another long and intense session of love-making, Jenna finally slid off of him and onto the bed, lying down on her back as they both stared at the chandelier-clad ceiling with satisfactory grins on their faces.

Justin turned his head to her with a huge grin on his lips, "that was...." His words trailed off with a small sigh.

Jenna turned her head to meet his gaze as she reached out to gently stroke away the few hair strands that had fallen onto his forehead, "I know, love." She said with a smirk on her lips.

Justin smiled, leaning towards her to gently kiss her lips once again, slipping his tongue into her mouth as she moaned yet again before they finally rested their foreheads against each other's while Justin softly caressed her cheeks.

"I still can't believe that we're actually here." Justin mumbled, kissing her forehead slightly before he pulled back to place his arm underneath his head as he looked around the room.

Jenna smiled, coming to place her hand on his bare chest as she propped her leg over his knee, "I can." She affirmed and he looked at her with an eyebrow raised, "I have plotted for this for as long as I've been alive." She said smirking.

Justin raised an eyebrow at that, "have you, now?" He asked in an intrigued tone, even though he already knew the answer.

Jenna shrugged, laying her cheek against his chiseled chest, keeping her gaze at nothing in particular as she said, "I was always wary of Ophelia, growing up. She was given the special treatment even if I was better at everything than her. And then when her parents died, even then, my father deemed Valerio more worthy of the throne than me and Ophelia was granted with the greatest responsibility of getting the family sword." Her fingers gently grazed the pendant around her neck, unknowingly, "I became nothing. I was nothing more than a spy for this stupid city while everyone, including my own twin, doted on Ophelia like she held the cosmos in her b****y eyes!"

Jenna was hateful, vengeful, because of the way she had been treated and the things she had faced. And all she wished for was to be recognized and now, she finally was.

Justin saw all that on her face and smiled, "well, I would just say that they were all idiots. For choosing someone else over you. You deserve the best, my love."

Jenna couldn't help but feel overwhelmed as she snuggled into his chest and he placed his arm around her, pulling her closer.

"I have to ask you something. If you'll be comfortable in answering." She whispered hesitantly.

Justin hummed, playing with her hair.

"Were things serious between you and Ophelia?" She asked in a meek voice, his brows furrowed as he turned his head to look at her and found her face contorted in insecurities.

He knew that Ophelia was always a sore subject for her, even if she was out of their lives for good.

"No, sweetheart, you mean the world to me. You are everything." He instantly reassured her, looking at her with his eyes filled with all the love he could muster, not wanting to leave her in doubt for even a moment.

She blinked, smiling slightly, "yes, I know that....but I'm your mate, so that's bound to happen." She whispered before taking a deep breath, "look, what I'm trying to say is, when you didn't know that we were mates, when you had just met Ophelia, were you serious about her?"

Her words tugged at Justin's heart, knowing that his answer was going to hurt her and he didn't wish to lie to her.

"I want honesty between us, so, yes, I was serious about her." He answered with a somber expression.

Jenna's gaze diverted from his face as she bit the inside of her cheek to prevent herself from saying something that she might regret. She couldn't help but feel a burning jealousy and anger towards Ophelia, knowing that her mate was indeed falling in love with her before he had noticed Jenna fully.

"However...." Justin stated, seeing the sadness now covering her face, "she was never worth it. I realized that soon after. She is nothing in comparison to you, my queen." He told her with a charming grin, cupping her face tenderly.

That made Jenna smile, "you really mean that?" She asked, looking back at him with nothing but utter adoration in her orbs.

Justin eagerly nodded his head, kissing the top of her head, "and besides," a teasing grin appeared on his face, "let us not forget that you were shacking up with Rowan at the time." He stated, bopping her nose with his finger.

She scoffed, rolling her eyes as she looked away, "oh, he was a means to an end." She said with a disgusted sigh, "I can't imagine the number of times I wanted to kill him instead of kissing him." She grumbled.

However, those words about his mate kissing another man aroused an instant possessiveness in Justin as he grabbed her jaw and planted his lips on hers, "but now," he said between devouring her lips fully, "the only one," she clutched the back of his neck to bring his lips back to hers, "kissing you, would be," her breathing turned into pants as he devoured her lips, sliding his tongue in between them, dominating her, "me."

And when he pulled away, her lips felt raw and an intense fire had covered her entire skin with greed.

"Oh, come back here." She mumbled against his lips before kissing him harshly, and this time, he trapped her body underneath his own and they each sated the wildfire in their hearts.

♚♚♚

Jenna and Justin walked through the halls of the palace of Escalara— or what was left of it— hand in hand as they exchanged grins.

"Are you certain that you want to do this?" Jenna asked him with giddy excitement. She was looking forward to what they were about to do and she wanted, more than anything, that Justin would be on board with it.

Justin grinned, "oh, I have yearned to see that smug bastard in the situation that he is now. I have waited for this for months, if not years. I am more than certain, my love." He stated, giving her hand a small squeeze.

"Perfect!" Jenna grinned as her raven hair sat perfectly till her shoulders and the deep red gown that she wore, slid like silk along her skin as one of her toned legs peeked through the high slit against her right thigh. Her feet, clad in high heels, clacked against the marble and the diamonds around her neck glinted in he night sky. There was a devious smirk on her red lips.

Justin, just the same as her, was dressed in fine clothing— a marvelous suit with snakes embellished on his collars as he styled his blond hair back in a sleek manner and there was nothing, if not cruelty, in his steel blue eyes.

They turned a corner and then continued silently down the stairs which led to the dungeons— most of which had been destroyed, but even then, some parts of the prisons remained standing proudly. Perhaps even the most important sections.

The two of them finally turned right and right as the sounds of their footsteps echoed through the empty cells around them, they heard a tired, hoarse voice call out to them—

"Come to check if I'm still alive after the explosions, Ophelia?"

Jenna's eyes sparkled, listening to Rowan's thick baritone of despair. She gestured to Justin to wait a few feet away from Rowan's cell as she covered the rest of the distance and finally had the chance to look at the fallen Alpha of Viribus.

He was sitting hunched over in one corner of the cell, looking pale and sickly and the bags under his eyes had worsened. His cheeks were hollowed out from the lack of food in the last few days and his lips were covered in dead, dry skin due to dehydration.

Jenna clicked her tongue in disapproval, "guess again, lover." She purred and in her mind, she heard an angry growl from her mate but she winked in the direction that Justin was standing, away from the light and Rowan's sight.

Rowan then raised his eyes to finally looked and he blinked profusely as his vision took a few moments to dehaze.

"Jenna....what...?" He mumbled, unable to speak more than a few words at a time.

Jenna smirked, "your darling Luna wouldn't be coming down here anytime soon, Rowan. In fact, I believe that she wouldn't be prancing about, anywhere, for that manner." Her voice was filled with nauseous joy and the glint in her onyx eyes was almost too suspicious for Rowan to not notice.

"What do you mean?" He asked, not wanting to show emotion but still, he was curious about what Jenna was doing here in the first place. Especially since he had poisoned her in Dragary.

Jenna tilted her head to the side and smiled, "oh, didn't you hear?" She cooed with honey in her voice before her tone turned exceedingly cold, "Ophelia is dead."

Rowan's eyes widened and a shaky breath escaped his lips as he stared at her, trying to make sense of the words he had just heard. However, no matter how much he tried, it was impossible for him to even consider the scenario where Ophelia was dead.

"That's not possible..." He whispered.

Jenna smiled, "why, pray tell, do you think so?" She asked with an almost innocently upset tone, "I thought you would be happy to know this news."

Rowan couldn't believe what he was hearing and his mind and heart fought to differentiate between truth and a ruse.

"You're lying!" He hissed through his teeth.

That was when he heard another pair of footsteps, "she doesn't have a reason to lie, dear brother." And the person who appeared beside Jenna drove Rowan over the edge as he growled loudly.

"Justin." He hissed, "what the hell are you doing here?"

The anger he felt, seeing the smug grin on Justin's face, while he sat defeated in the corner of a prison cell and Justin stood tall and proud, was enough to make Rowan's blood boil.

That was when Justin stepped closer to Jenna and slowly, and deliberately, slid his hand along Jenna's waist, pulling her closer to him as she snuggled into his side and grinned widely.

Rowan couldn't believe what he was seeing, he couldn't help but furrow his brows as he looked between the two of them.

"Oh, you don't know, do you?" Jenna asked, "Justin here," she said softly caressing Justin's suit lapel before smirking at Rowan, "is my mate."

Another revelation that blew Rowan's mind.

He didn't even know what to say, however, he didn't need to, especially considering that what Justin said next was even harder to digest.

"Also, Ophelia is dead, Valerio is in the wind after he ran away like a damn coward, your Betas have bounties on their heads and Escalara and Viribus are both ours now."

Rowan felt like his life was playing a sick joke on him.

But even then, he glared hatefully towards them, "then why the f**k are you two here?" He growled.

Jenna smirked, "to tell you how Ophelia begged us to not kill her, telling us that she was pregnant with your child, and how I stabbed her in her abdomen, right after knowing that."

Rowan felt his heart dropping into the pit of his gut as his entire body went numb at that revelation.

"And then we tossed her body in the woods where she died alone and by now, every last trace of her corpse must be gone." Justin finished.

His child.

His Luna.

His Ophelia.

Gone.

Forever.

Rowan didn't think for a second as a murderous rage ripped through his body and his eyes flashed green and right inside his cell, he shifted and instead of the man, a beast took over.

It was all finished.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello, sweethearts!!! I am so glad to be able to update today. I hope that you liked this chapter. And I love you all!! Please don't forget to comment.

With Love, Devu.