“Fuck. Off,” Nigh snarled, and shoved his father back a step. Magic rose around him in a black storm, a fierce tornado of shadows and mist that slammed into Dark Star and knocked him off balance.
Eri ducked and grabbed Rani around the middle, throwing her over his shoulder as she struggled to get free and go to the fallen man. She needed to help him, that poor man, someone should help him to his feet. But Eri ran for the train station, Rani bobbing on his shoulder, and Rani’s protests were ignored.
“Go,” Nigh bit out, hurrying after them, still swirling with darkness. For whatever reason, the humans around them didn’t seem able to see it. “I’ll keep him away. Get us on a tube; I don’t give a shit where it’s going.”
Rani was going dizzy, but it helped clear her head in a bizarre way. The urgency to get to their father lost its grip on her and she sagged against Eri’s back.
She’d fallen under a spell somehow. Dark Star ... he’d used magic on her. He’d tried to kidnap her, but subtly, coaxing her to come with him rather than using force. He could have abducted her in broad daylight, and she would have gone willingly.
She’d have followed him like a rat after a piper if it hadn’t been for Tom’s arms around her waist.
“Goddess,” Rani whispered in horror, her stomach a knotted mess of nerves and fear. “I nearly...”
“Head in the game, Rani,” Nigh grunted, flicking his fingers at the ticket barriers Rani watched come into view, but sideways thanks to her being thrown over Eri’s shoulder. Every barrier flew open at once, and Eri rushed through, the four of them hurrying towards a tube about to depart for central London.
How had Nigh ... the ticket barriers ... Rani didn’t understand how nobody had seen what he’d done. When she looked back, there was a train official walking up and down the barriers, looking confused but not alarmed. The woman hadn’t seen the shadow mist, hadn’t seen Nigh at all. And she wasn’t chasing after the rest of them to make them scan their oyster cards, either.
Rani let her head loll against Eri’s back, determined to get answers. Just as soon as the world stopped spinning.
Teamwork Makes The Dream Work
Rani had just about managed to shake off the dizziness by the time they reached the guys’ flat in Shoreditch. She was on high alert as they walked up the high street, scanning the shops and pedestrians, as if Dark Star would be lurking among them, her chest winched tight with anxiety. She was relieved to get inside, even if it did mean she had to climb four flights of stairs to the top floor apartment, wheezing for a few minutes when she got there.
As Tom had bragged, they had impressively high ceilings and beams crisscrossing the space above their heads. It was all open space and red brick, with comfy-looking brown sofas and shelves of books and DVDs lining the walls. At the back, an open-plan kitchen hugged the external wall, untidy with bowls and open cereal boxes left on the countertops. Several doors at the back of the vast space led, she assumed, to bedrooms and a bathroom. It was nice. Messy, but nice.
A weight fell off her shoulders as Eri locked the door—or rather, engaged all six locks on the door—and brushed his hand down the glossy wood, a net of glimmering midnight magic fading through the white paint into the door.
“What was that?” Rani asked, feeling awkward as she stood there in the middle of their home. She felt more like an intruder than a guest, but she’d have to get used to that feeling. She didn’t have anywhere else to go, and with Dark Star’s interest in her, she didn’t want to be alone.
“Reinforcement for the door,” Eri replied, coming over to squeeze her shoulder, his face chiselled by worry and his short hair windblown. “You’ll be safe here. If Dark Star hasn’t found us in three years, he won’t find you.”
“You don’t call him your dad,” Rani observed.
“Because he isn’t,” Nigh said harshly from the kitchen, rattling around the fridge until he pulled out a beer, used the edge of the counter to knock the top off, and guzzled it down. “He’s a pathetic excuse for a father.”
Rani chewed her bottom lip. “Sorry.” She hadn’t meant to touch a nerve, but ... she didn’t know anything about these men, or Dark Star. “What does he want with me?” she asked quietly, and found herself pulled into a hug by Eri. She sighed, his scent of old paper and bittersweet chocolate filling her lungs.
Like it had when they’d met last night, the hug reached into all her tense muscles and soothed them, and she sagged against him as a sigh rushed from his lips too, the feeling clearly mutual. The brand on her bicep warmed, a soothing heat. But he didn’t answer her question.
“He’s ... obsessed with power,” Tom said finally, when it was clear neither of his brothers planned to. “He always has been. That sounds bad—he’s not horrible. He’s just focussed, and he’ll do anything to bring her back.”
Rani pulled away from Eri, looking at Tom with wide eyes. “Who?”
“Mum,” Nigh spat. He downed the rest of his beer and shifted to his cat form, leaping onto the kitchen counter, and then up onto a beam.
“Oh,” Rani said softly. She couldn’t imagine how much it must have hurt them to lose their mum; she flinched away from the thought of losing her own.
“She was his mate,” Eri said quietly, tightening his arms around Rani, his voice full of grief. “When he lost her ... something in him broke. I think maybe he’d always struggled with his power, but mum had kept him in check, helped him balance it. When she died, he ... he was consumed by it. Now all he cares about is getting more and more. There’s a ritual—”
“That’s enough,” Tom said, coming to pry Rani out of his grip. “Gorgeous doesn’t want to hear about the morbid details.”
“Um,” Rani said as Tom led her across the flat to a big, comfy chair. “Actually, I kind of do. He nearly kidnapped me. I’d like to know who he is, and why he wants me.”
“He wants to drain your power to bring back our mum, but that’s no fun to talk about.” Tom gave her a lopsided grin, his icy eyes glowing with mischief as he pushed her down into the chair. “Actually, why don’t we abandon talking altogether?”
“What—?”
Tom knelt on the rug at her feet and while Rani tried to carefully word what she wanted to ask—how their mum had died, and what this ritual was that Eri had mentioned—Tom leant up over her and fastened his mouth to her neck, finding the spot above her collarbone that made her weak, as if he knew the exact location of it already.
“Goddess,” she exhaled, heat spreading through her whole body, a spark shooting to her clit at the feel of his tongue lapping that sensitive area. “Wait, I have questions...”
“We can talk later. Let me worship you, mate.”
“I...”
Wait, why was Rani arguing? It had been months—and months and months—since she’d been touched this way. And it felt good. Amazing, really. The mating brand on her thigh came to life, and Tom let out a pleased rumble.
Energy seemed to thrum around the mark on her thigh, moving through her like a comforting heat until she was lax against the chair, her head tilting back to allow Tom better access. It felt a lot like sinking into a hot bath, all her stresses fading, like when Eri had hugged her.
“I hardly know you,” Rani murmured. “And you don’t know me...”
Tom sucked her pulse point, then lifted his head. “So? I don’t need to know you to want you. Plus, there’s this.” Heat and crackling energy rushed down her thigh from the brand and she gasped.
Tom grinned. “You felt it then? I didn’t know that would work.”
Rani laughed, the tingles seeming to move all the way down her body, raising goosebumps where they went. “It worked,” she said, breathier than she’d meant.
Eri perched on the arm of the chair, his fingers gently tilting Rani’s face towards him. “If you want him to stop touching you, say so. My offer to throw him in the bath stands.”
“Bastard.” Tom scowled, but it was playful like everything else about him. “Do you w
ant me to stop, Rani?”
“I don’t understand why you started,” Rani replied honestly.
He shrugged. “I want to.”
He said it as if that explained everything, as if everything he did was simply because he wanted to.
“Because I’m your mate?” Rani asked hesitantly, her face flushing under their full attention. Tom grinned in response to the words—your mate—and even Eri sat straighter beside her, full of pride.
“Yes,” Tom replied, his pale blue eyes dancing. “Also, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you’re one sexy lady. I’d have to be blind and celibate not to want you.” He emphasised the statement by sliding a sinful touch from her stomach to her thigh. Right over where his brand pulsed on her skin.
Rani’s heart skipped a beat. “I just ... find it hard to believe you’d want someone so soon after meeting them?”
“Why?” Tom’s brow wrinkled, his lips—the top thinner than the bottom, and both oh so tempting—tilted down in a frown. “Humans do it all the time. They go out to clubs and take home strangers. This is no different, except you’re my soul mate and I’ll be devoted to you and only you for my entire life.” He grinned then, full of desire and mischief. “Oh, and I have to share you with my brothers. But that’s no chore; I’m interested to see how much pleasure we can give you together. Can we make your eyes roll back and your legs shake, do you think?”
Rani’s eyes went wide. “I...”
Eri laughed under his breath, his fingers carding through her long, honey-blonde hair and sending a shiver down her spine. She was overloaded with sensation, with the closeness of both of them, and they were barely doing anything. “We’re yours, treasured mate. What’s the point in delaying the inevitable? You’re made for our bodies and we are made for yours.” He brushed his lips over the crown of her head and Rani’s heart turned to sappy mush in her chest. The brand on her bicep lit up with its dual flare of colours, a match to his eyes. “Let us help you feel good.”
Rani swallowed, her chest jerking with a ragged breath. “Okay,” she agreed, because she’d have to be utterly mad not to. And they were her mates. The only reason she’d shy away from a sexual relationship with a stranger was because she didn’t know if she could trust them. But her mates ... they couldn’t hurt her. Literally couldn’t. Like she couldn’t hurt them.
“Bedroom,” Tom said, rising and taking Rani’s hands to help her up. His eyes were aglow with excitement, his wiry body pressing close to hers, but despite the urgency in his voice—and in the hard length pressing against his jeans—he slanted his mouth over hers and kissed her with a groan.
Rani gasped, curling her fingers into his shirt and kissing him hard, need shivering through her and her body awake with sensitivity. When Eri brushed her hair aside and laid a kiss on her shoulder where her top had ridden down, it felt like he’d kissed pure nerve endings, and she shook, somehow close to climax.
She’d known mating brands could heighten sex but this was just kissing and touching. Goddess. She wondered if they felt the same, and slid her hand down Tom’s chest as her tongue moved sinuously against his—and with a shudder, he ripped his mouth from hers, the pupils of his pale blue eyes expanded.
“I need you,” he said gutturally. “Now.”
Rani nodded quickly, breathing fast, cool shivers racing down her spine as Eri’s lips continued to map her shoulder, her clit swollen and needy. “Where’s your bedroom?”
“Through here,” Nigh replied. Nigh. When had he shifted back? When had he lost his leather jacket and shirt, exposing the beautiful lines of his slim, muscular body and all those tattoos? She watched blue-violet colour burst from his mating brand before she felt her own heat up her chest, and her eyes slit shut on a groan.
Goddess. With all her brands glowing, speeding warmth and comfort and need through her at once ... she was going to lose her mind. She needed one of them inside her right now and she wasn’t too choosy about which one.
Tom dipped low, wrapping his hands around the underside of her thighs, and Rani was about to tell him not to lift her—he was as skinny as a twig and she was sure she weighed twice as much as him—but he’d already pulled her up against him, his hands firm and sure and his magic against her back to stop her falling as he walked her towards the door Nigh had opened.
Eri followed, his eyes as dark-pupiled as Tom’s, stripping clothes off as he went. His gaze never once left hers. Rani shuddered, and it had a ripple effect; Tom groaned a curse, his hips bucking against hers almost unconsciously as he walked, and Nigh grabbed the door frame of the bedroom, his knuckles white.
They wanted her. All of them.
Rani’s pussy flooded with arousal, but the logical part of her asked how the hell this would work. “Uh, guys?” she asked, and they all stopped dead wherever they were to look at her, reaching out to touch her as if she was a queen and she’d commanded them. “You’re not ... all going to ... at once? Right?”
“Whatever you want,” Eri replied, his voice scratchy and low. “Anything and everything you want, treasured mate.”
“Okay,” Rani said on an exhale. “Good. You, too. We won’t do anything you don’t want.”
A low laugh rumbled from Nigh as he kicked the door shut behind them, pulling the curtains closed opposite the bed. “I doubt that’ll be an issue, Rani.”
“But, um ... you’re brothers.”
“Exactly,” he replied, pinning her with a predatory look that made her breath catch. “We’re already used to working together. The only difference is now we’re working together to give you the biggest orgasm of your entire life.”
“Oh my Goddess,” Rani breathed, shuddering as Tom laid her down on the double bed. She barely saw the rest of the room, her eyes refusing to budge from her men. Her mates.
“Yes,” Eri agreed emphatically. “You are a goddess. And we’re going to worship every inch of you.”
Disciples
Tom’s long white hair slid over Rani’s chest as he stripped off her shirt and threw it across the room, the sensation of silken hair on skin making Rani’s eyes slide shut, a groan in the back of her throat. The groan deepened as he moved lower, scattering kisses wherever he went. Rani honestly couldn’t have said who removed her jeans, only that two pairs of hands helped unfasten and pull them over her hips, and then Tom’s hot mouth fixed to the paw print emblazoned on her thigh, his tongue sending energy pouring through her in a wave so powerful that her back arched.
“I need—” she gasped, her hips rising off the bed of their own accord.
“Hurry the fuck up, Tom,” Nigh growled, “or I’ll give her what she needs.”
Tom hissed a throaty warning and sucked her brand one last time, pulling a needy whine from Rani’s throat, before he shucked his jeans and slid her underwear down. Rani peeled her eyes open as the head of his cock nudged her pussy, but instead of plunging right inside, Tom held her gaze and teased her clit with his tip until she was squirming, drenching his length with her arousal.
“Tom,” Eri warned, sinking onto the bed beside them, his body taut as if he was holding back.
“Please,” Rani breathed, widening her thighs and bracing her hands on Tom’s hips, feverish as she pulled him closer.
With a groan of surrender, Tom drove into her, leaning over her body to mash their mouths together in a fast, desperate kiss as he slid, inch by inch, inside.
“Fuck, gorgeous.” His voice was so low and guttural it was unrecognisable. “You feel incredible.”
Nigh unleashed a snarl that made Rani shudder, and Tom smirked at his brother as he stalked closer, staring at the place where Rani and Tom met. The brand on Rani’s chest flared, and she could feel his need, could feel how jealous and furious he was that Tom was inside her and not him.
“Come here,” Rani breathed, holding out her hand. When Nigh sank onto the bed beside them—Rani nestled between him and Eri—she reached up and caught the back of his neck to pull him down for a heated kiss. A moan
shuddered from her mouth into Nigh’s as Tom began to rock into her, every place he touched exploding with sparks of sensation, and that was before Eri lowered his mouth to Rani’s nipple and sucked, rolling the hard nub between his teeth.
“Goddess,” Rani breathed, sensation blurring her mind until all she could focus on was the three of them.
Tom’s hips snapped against hers, burying his cock so deep inside her that Rani saw stars with every thrust, and the climax that had been coiling in her lower belly for the past few minutes rampaged through her whole body. Her toes curled, her mouth open on a cry, and she spasmed around Tom’s cock as rush after rush of pleasure broke over her like a wave.
“Fuck,” Tom grunted, and then he was jerking against her inner walls, so deep inside her that she felt every throb.
Pleasure moved through every inch of her body as Rani melted into the mattress, thoroughly dazed, and Tom pulled out and rolled onto the bed beside her. He completely ignored Eri’s bark of complaint as he was pushed off the edge of the mattress, and caught Rani’s lips in a kiss that was languid and tender. Rani smiled as they kissed, utterly blissed out. She felt every bit of tension slide away as she relaxed into the cushions, a long breath escaping as Tom kissed her one last time and drew back.
“I should probably move. I think Eri’s ready to murder me just to get close to you,” he said with a wink, his voice all soft and throaty.
He wasn’t far wrong; cool, composed Eri looked on the edge of losing control, his breathing fast and his body so tense it should have snapped in half. The paw print on his bicep was glowing strong, leaking light all across his chest.
Rani gave a little tug through the bond, not sure if it would work, but a breath punched from Eri’s lungs and he climbed back onto the bed, covering her body completely with his. Rani groaned, his touch offering both protection and intense desire.
Bound to Change: A Limited Edition Spring Shifter Romance Collection Page 72
