by Cate Corvin
I understood that. The part of me I’d left back in Steelblood still hoped for a different outcome for something that would never change, and that’s why I’d had to leave.
“Make yourself at home, Miss Cold. The house is stocked and warded.”
She handed me the folded note. “Thank you, Professor Steele. If you hear anything about Professor White… please let me know.”
I touched the picture of Simon before I left, the photo taken only a week before his family had betrayed him on the deepest level. I’d never seen him again.
Now all I could do was see this through to the end.
Chapter 19
Lu
Shane and Locke kept pace beside us as Roman charged through the forest, following the twisting curve of the highway.
I leaned forward and buried my face in his soft fur, as much to hide my face from slapping branches as to give myself privacy to blink away tears.
Dominic was too good an actor. I already knew that. But hearing him tell Ivy Bloom, who’d treated me with nothing but contempt since we’d met, that I was a pathetic little dog who followed him around, that he had to see me enough already, was like having a knife twisted in my heart.
He sounded so damn convincing. Completely weary, like being around me was a constant struggle.
I sniffled and wiped my face on my sleeve. I felt so stupid for believing the old coven traditions. A coven ring meant the world to someone like me, but I hadn’t realized how little it meant to someone like him.
Our worlds were just too different.
The wolves ate up the distance between Waverly and Moira’s Forest. When Roman’s bulk beneath me slowed to a trot, and then to a rolling walk, I finally sat up.
The beautiful forest had never seemed so bleak before. I slid off Roman’s back, and Shane shifted back to his human skin, his lips drawn back over his teeth. His hair was starting to grow back, already trying to twist into curls again.
“What do you want me to do, Bambi?”
Roman rumbled against my back, the deep reverberations shaking my entire body.
I thought of the coven ring wrapped up in my closet, hidden in an old, beat-up boot, and shrugged.
“Nothing. Let him play his games.” I hoped I sounded cool and collected, instead of shaky and ill. “We have our own mission to accomplish.”
Bloom had told him something, but it’d been impossible to make out what it had been from behind the closet door, especially over the sound of her gasps and his deep murmurs.
My stomach did another rolling flip and I pushed the thought away.
I hoped whatever it was, it was worth it to him.
My vampire sauntered from the darkness, no longer looking like an artifact lost out of time, but almost like a modern man with his jeans and the shadowy stubble of his hair. “Your Holly is safe. We’ve done one good thing today, sunlight.”
“We have.” The sick feeling eased up a little. Even if Dominic was a lying asshole who was willing to give himself to Ivy Bloom for his games, I trusted him to keep Holly safe.
She’d escaped Cimmerian, and as long as she never returned, the horrific future she’d drawn couldn’t take place. “Thanks to all of you, Holly gets to live. I wish we could bring everyone, but I have no idea how we’d manage that without bringing Gilt down on our heads.”
“We can’t,” Shane said. His eyes were shadowed and feral, more wolf than human now. His fingers ran over my neck and shoulder in a way that sent prickles down my spine.
There was more possession than gentleness in his touch, and his fangs were showing. “For now. Locke, can you pass the other guardians?”
Locke’s amber eyes never left my face. He seemed as tense as Shane, both of them crowding me in and pinning me against Roman.
“It’s a possibility.”
“Then can you make yourself useful and go do it?” Shane said, more snappish than I’d ever heard him. Violet bruises of tiredness stained the skin under his eyes, and his features were sharper now- probably because he’d been running the forest nonstop without stopping to eat.
“What are you doing, Shane?” I slid my hands over his chest. He was wearing his human face, but did he still feel like a wolf inside?
“No.” Locke was next to us before I could blink. He took one of my hands from Shane’s chest, who snarled when Locke pressed a kiss to the back of my hand. “I cannot do that. But I can make myself useful in other ways.”
“What are you two talking about?” My voice came out in a cracked whisper. The proximity of two enormous, muscular, and very predatorial men penning me in sent a jolt of heat straight to my pussy.
They ignored me, their fangs shining like white ice in the moonlight as they faced off against each other.
Locke refused to relinquish my hand, while Shane moved even closer, wrapping his arm around me possessively.
“You want to mark her. You’re going mad with it, and her emotional state is making it impossible for your inner beast to ignore,” Locke said. He raised my hand, pressing his lips to my fingertips. “I do as well. You fear your bite will be agony for her, and that she’ll only associate your touch with pain.”
Shane’s lip curled and his fingers dimpled the flesh of my hips, becoming painful. “What the fuck are you suggesting, Locke?”
“And I fear if I mark her, I will lose control and try to feed.” Locke laced his fingers through mine. “So, let’s help each other. You will keep me grounded and present when I mark her for myself. And in turn, my venom will induce such euphoria, your teeth in her flesh will feel only like ecstasy.”
Shane stared at him hard, his eyes cold. “Is that true, Lu?”
I swallowed hard, pressed against the muscular slab of his chest and stomach.
Usually I’d be upset about a bunch of men talking about me like I was an object they could lay claim to… but right now, in the darkness of the forest, surrounded on all sides by protectors who responded to my emotional state, I wanted to surrender to their desires and wants.
I wanted to be made theirs, indelibly inscribed on their souls as they were on mine.
“It’s true,” I whispered, gazing up at Shane. “He’s done it to me in dreams before.”
“Dreams aren’t reality, love.” He nuzzled my ear, sending chills down my back. It wasn’t gentle but insistent.
“The book says it too,” I gasped. His teeth nipped at my neck. “I swear it’s true, Shane.”
I didn’t care if it wasn’t the time. I’d saved Holly, and I’d had my heart wrenched in half.
All I wanted right now was to lose myself in them and beg them to mark me in return.
His deep eyes glittered like the ocean and his fingers danced over the front of my shirt, almost yanking the buttons open in his haste. “Take this off, Bambi. All of it.”
I swallowed, my heart galloping in my chest. It would be impossible to explain how oddly shy I felt undressing in front of Locke in real life, even if he’d already seen all of me in my dreams.
Something shifted against my back, and suddenly there was no longer plush wolf-fur against me but warm human skin.
My lungs were in danger of imploding completely.
“I understand if you don’t want me, Lu,” Roman whispered in my ear while he slid my jacket and blouse off. Goosebumps rose where his fingers skimmed against me. “But let me help them.”
I turned my head to look over my shoulder into his eyes, as deep as Shane’s, but burning like fire instead of ice- and realized that at some point, the lines had become blurred again, and I couldn’t separate the old Roman from the new. He was the same person, but solid and whole, instead of fractured and angry.
I shrugged off the jacket and shirt and instinctively crossed my arms over my exposed cleavage and bra. Roman firmly pulled my hands away and Shane unbuttoned the bra with a quick snap.
Locke licked his lips when my breasts bounced free, my nipples already hard with desire.
I caught his gaze and held it a
s Shane shimmied my skirt down over my hips and accidentally shredded the waistband of my second-to-last pair of whole panties.
There were some minor drawbacks to sex with lust-crazed therianthropes.
Kneeling at my feet, Shane let out a noise of pure carnal need, running his hands upwards along my thighs and burying his face against me. His lips felt like a white-hot brand on my skin, sending tendrils of fire through my abdomen that settled between my legs.
His fingers touched my pussy lips and spread them, and Roman braced me against him. It felt exactly like a time not that long ago, but the positions were reversed, and now Locke was here, his heated gaze making my blood run hotter than ever.
“You’re already wet for us, Bambi,” Shane whispered, and licked a long, rough stroke over my clit. I gasped, struggling against Roman while my knees turned to water.
He gripped my hips and pinioned me while he feasted, his tongue sliding in and running circles around my clit that sent a spiral of pleasure through me with every stroke.
My eyes rolled back in my head as he quickly brought me to the cusp of orgasm, but then Locke’s lips were on mine, not hazy dream-flesh but real and warm, his fangs smooth and cool against my lips.
Roman sucked in a breath, his thick cock already hard and pulsing against the cleft of my ass. I was besieged on all sides, Shane between my legs, Roman at my back, and Locke’s warm lips moving over my neck for the first time in reality, his tongue running over my breast and sucking a hard nipple between his lips.
I could’ve spent eternity right there between them, my body for their pleasure.
Roman buried his face against my neck, panting out a growl. Shane groaned, the sound hummed against my soaked pussy, and my heart skipped a beat.
“Let me mark her,” Locke said, his deep, melodic voice becoming rougher as he released my nipple and rolled it between his fingers. “Let me give her euphoria before you bite.”
Shane ran his tongue between my folds one last time before he pulled away, rising to run his tongue over my other nipple. My chest was heaving now as Locke ran his fingers over me, finding all the tender points that seemed to spark where he touched.
“Here?” He ran his fingers over the hollow of my throat and trailed downward to the curve of a breast. “Or perhaps… here.” My nipples were pink and swollen from their attention, aching for their touch.
The only sound I could make was a helpless whimper when Shane claimed my lips and Roman nibbled my earlobe.
“No?” He ran his finger lower over my stomach, between my lips, and circled my clit. My hips jerked forward, and he gripped the soft inside of my thigh, only inches from my pussy. “Here.”
It was the same exact spot where he’d fed on me in my dream. I still felt the phantom sensation of his teeth.
“Yes,” I gasped against Shane’s lips, taking his silky cock in my hand and pumping him.
Locke knelt between my legs and ran his tongue over that exact spot, making me shudder against Roman. He kissed me until I relaxed, and then I felt his fangs dimple my flesh.
“Wait. Roman- I want you, too. I want you to know before the euphoria hits, while I’m still in my own mind. I want you.”
Roman’s cock pushed against me insistently, and one of his hands slid around to gently grip my throat while the other slid under my ass. His fingers, wet with my juices, and parted me to find the other hole and rub it gently.
“I’m marking you tonight, too,” he growled, and Locke bit down.
The initial pain wasn’t smoothed out by the mist of dreams. It was bright and sharp, like a star bursting into life beneath my skin, and I almost made the mistake of struggling. Locke held me pinned against his mouth, latched onto the sensitive spot while he gave me his venom.
The euphoria hit like a blurry glow, a drug seeping through my veins that made everything softer and more luminous at the same time, every point of skin touching skin like a storm swirling through me.
Locke pierced a vein and took a pull, and instead of pain all I felt was a thousand prickles of pleasure sparkling through me. I let out a long, ragged moan, writhing against him.
Even his fingers pressing into my skin hard enough to bruise felt glorious, the pain transmuted to pure bliss.
Locke’s growl made me even wetter, desperate to feel him inside me. He slid his fangs out, his tongue running over the two holes he’d marked me with. My skin healed over almost instantly, leaving silvery scars and a pulsing spot of euphoria.
He touched one of the scars and another wave of bliss washed over me. Even the air seemed to shimmer now, swirling and glowing.
I was suddenly in Shane’s arms and he was pulling me on top of him, my knees hitting the soft carpet of emerald beneath us as I straddled him. His cock was already pulsing with need, so hard and thick I let out a strangled moan when I speared myself on him.
Shane bucked under me, driving upwards and stretching my pussy open to take all of him. My gasps mixed with his growls, the scars of Locke’s teeth sending a shivering tidal wave through me with every thrust that rubbed against them.
Roman was behind me, his fingers working me to relax and open for him. The thick head of his cock pushed against my ass, driving in inch by inch until I was filled by both twins again.
And then Locke was kneeling at Shane’s head, his thick, dark cock just as enticing as he was in my dreams.
With Shane’s powerful arms holding me in place on his cock, I reached out to run my fingers over Locke’s chiseled stomach, down the flat span of muscles that ended in a huge, silky shaft and heavy balls.
“Come closer,” I whispered. “Let me taste you.”
He jerked a little, his bronzer skin seeming to shimmer with the light of euphoria over me, and hissed with lust when I gripped him. I opened my mouth, my lips and tongue sliding over the silky crown of his cock, taking his whole throbbing shaft into my mouth.
Before the euphoria, I might’ve choked on that much sliding into my throat, but the waves of pleasure and the sensation of Shane and Roman stretching me, pumping in and out, made me feel like I could take anything, and it would feel amazing.
Locke’s masculine groans of pleasure joined the twins’. Fingers laced through my hair as I sucked on him, wrapping my lips around his shaft and pushing as far forward as I could. He tasted delicious.
Roman gripped my hips and pulled me back against him, burying his cock to the hilt in my ass so hard my hips bucked.
I hummed in pleasure around Locke, my tongue swirling against the soft underside of his head, and the vampire pushed forward a little more.
Shane’s fangs pushed forward, as white as snow, his icy eyes running from my face to my breasts as Roman’s thrusting shook me. He let out a soft groan while he watched me devour Locke and pressed his fingers against the bite scars.
I stiffened and gasped as a fresh torrent of euphoria flooded me, my pussy and ass clenching around their cocks. Roman snarled and surged forward, bending over me to cover my back with his chest.
The sensation of his teeth grazing the delicate spot between neck and shoulder felt so good it almost hurt. I reared back, my vampire’s cock sliding from my lips.
“Bite me now, fucking do it,” I gasped, my nails digging into Shane’s brawny shoulders, and the therianthrope’s teeth seemed to fill his mouth. “Lift her, brother.”
I was as malleable as clay for them as Roman lifted me without once unseating himself from my ass, positioning between them like they had done the first time they’d fucked me.
Shane’s fingers found the bites and stroked them. My head lolled back against Roman’s chest.
Two pairs of teeth found my shoulders, each positioning themselves in just the right spot to match, as identical as the twins.
They both thrust in, Shane’s hard lower stomach pounding my aching clit, and bit down hard.
Shane’s thigh rubbed against the vampire bite, and the brief moment of pain became another nerve-shaking tidal wave of pleasure, every nerve
ending lighting up like the sun. I screamed against Shane’s shoulder as the climax hit me, the twins slamming into me and growling wildly as their teeth sank in.
My pussy spasmed, the orgasm drawn out until their cocks throbbed and they released themselves, Roman’s gasps of ecstasy and Shane’s satisfied rumble filling my ears.
Their pleasure was like music. I strained against them, craving more, until they broke free.
Scarlet blood gleamed on Shane’s lips. He stared at me with almost frightening intensity, his eyes no longer icy, and he licked the blood away. “I love you, Lu.”
“I love you, Shane.” I licked the line of his neck, making him shiver, but his eyes flicked to Locke.
“Come seal the bite, Locke. Take her.”
He buried his shaking hands in my hair and kissed me deeply before he slid out. Roman held me upright until my vampire was in front of me, and then he slid out too, releasing me to Locke’s arms.
“I love you, Lu,” Roman rasped, his face no longer shadowed but vibrant.
I gazed up at him, his bite on my shoulder simultaneously aching and blissful, and pulled him to me for a kiss. “I love you too, Roman.”
He sighed against my lips, as though afraid I’d reject him.
Locke leaned back on his heels, knee-walking me over his lap until his cock was positioned against my wet pussy. “I love you, Lucrezia,” he said. He gripped my waist and pushed into me, growling when I clamped around him.
“I love you, Locke,” I gasped in his ear, arching my back as his tongue swept over the therianthropes’ bites.
The skin sealed almost instantly, leaving silvery half-moons inscribed on either shoulder, front and back.
I felt whole.
I undulated against Locke, gasping every time his cock pushed deeper, until my hips began to buck wildly. He pinned me against him when I came, forcing me to ride out the most intense orgasm of my life, the bites sending the ecstasy deep into my bones. He groaned when he came, marking me with his seed too.
