The Viper's Nest

by Tate James

  “Again,” I growled and Wesley smiled.

  “—again, then people have no reason to suspect us as anything other than human. Right?” He spoke softly so that no one would overhear, even though the chatter from the hundreds of people around us was enough white noise to drown us out.

  “Right,” I murmured back, sitting on a bench beside the ice rink to swap my shoes for skates. “So why does that feel like a famous last words moment?”

  “Because that has been par for the course in your life lately and you’re still coming to terms with the fact that you’re not alone in this mess anymore? Because you’re still learning to lean on the six of us rather than shouldering all the guilt and worry and hurt yourself?” Wesley sat up from tying his own skates on and met my startled gaze seriously. “Or something like that.”

  “Damn, Wes,” I breathed. “Way to get deep and meaningful on me without warning.”

  He grinned, then tucked my shoes next to his under the seat and stood up in his skates. Confidently. He stood really confidently.

  “Come on, we’re supposed to be having a normal date remember? No more talk of magic or dragons or... whatever the fuck I am. Agreed?” He held his hands out to me and I took them, standing then almost falling on the thin blades.

  “Fucking shit,” I cursed, clutching at his strong forearms as he held me steady. “Agreed. But uh... I’m thinking my healing will come in handy before this night is over. How the hell are you making it look so easy?”

  Yes, I was aware we weren’t even on the ice yet. So was Wes apparently, as he snickered.

  “You’ll be fine, sweetheart,” he reassured me, releasing one arm to cup my cheek and kiss me gently. “I won’t let you fall. Ever.”

  Butterflies erupted in my stomach, and my body washed with a warm tingly feeling that I only ever got around my guys. My guardians.

  “I think I rather like being able to feel your emotions.” Wesley grinned, but a delicate pink blush staining his cheeks told me he was still a bit awkward about it all. Not that I blamed him. Most of the time, I was still awkward as hell about the fact that I couldn’t hide what I was feeling, even though there was nothing that needed hiding around Wesley.

  That man had me hooked, well and truly, and I didn’t even care if he knew it.

  Biting back a goofy smile, I squeezed his hand and nodded to the ice. “You ready to watch me flail around like a baby giraffe on... well, like a baby giraffe on ice?”

  He snorted and helped me over to the edge, stepping carefully—confidently, damn him—onto the frozen water, then turning to guide me.

  “You couldn’t look anything less than perfect if you tried, sweetheart,” he murmured, and my heart clenched. Damn him. I was falling hard and fast, and I was totally okay with it.

  The night flew past in a blink of an eye, and I would have loved to say I took to ice skating like a duck to water... but I didn’t. My skills on skates were nothing short of horrendous.

  Wes was true to his word and never did let me fall, despite my uncoordinated legs best attempts otherwise. It was after about the seventh person I almost mowed down that we decided to call it quits, though.

  With cold fingers, I unlaced my skates, exchanging them for my boots once more while I watched Wesley making his way through the crowd back to me. He’d gone to grab us food and drinks, but I was taking full advantage to admire my date.

  Not much had changed since we met half a year ago... He still wore loose jeans and a hoody that was at least two sizes too big for him. His blond hair was still surfer shaggy, and he still blushed on cue when anything embarrassed him or made him uncomfortable.

  And yet, so much had changed. He held himself with more confidence, didn’t dodge eye contact, and was much quicker to speak his mind. At least, he was with me.

  “I got us,” he announced, setting the huge tray down on the table, “nachos with extra cheese, cheesy fries, and hot dogs with ketchup, mustard, and cheese. Then to drink... frozen margaritas from one of those slushy machines.”

  My eyes widened, taking in the cheesy goodness in front of me, and my mouth watered.

  “Holy shit,” I breathed. “I think I’m in love.” I paused. “With the food,” I clarified, knowing I’d pulled that line a couple of times before to mess with the guys, but this time it had just slipped out. I really did love cheese!

  “Uh-huh.” Wesley grinned. “Sure.”

  Crap. Maybe I did mean more than the food? He would probably know better than me, given his magical insight into my feelings… Okay, maybe I wasn’t so comfortable having him know me better than I knew myself.

  “So um,” I changed the subject while stuffing cheese covered fries in my mouth, “how much time do we have left?”

  Wesley checked his chunky black watch and grimaced. “Not enough.”

  “Can we be naughty and stay out past curfew?” I pouted, this time giving Wes my very best puppy dog eyes in an attempt to drag him over to the dark side.

  He narrowed his eyes at me while fighting back a mischievous grin. “I might have a better idea up my sleeve. Eat up, and I’ll show you.”

  My eyebrows rose in surprise. Wesley... up to no good? This I had to see!

  “You got it.” I grinned and happily went to town on the cheese shrine in front of me.

  For the next little while, we talked and laughed as we ate, just like any normal couple would. When Wes stood to dispose of our trash, I felt a pang of sadness.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked me when he came back.

  “Just... thinking how shitty it is that this can’t be us all the time.” I shrugged, chewing at my lip but linking my hand into his to make our way out of the ice rink area.

  “Because you’re dating my four best friends and kinda got something with Vali too?” Wesley asked, but the cheeky grin on his face told me he was teasing and not upset about our unconventional relationship.

  “No... because people are trying to hunt us or kill us or experiment on us... and then there is the whole need to save the world situation.” I scowled, and he pulled me to a stop at the side of the road.

  “So?” he challenged, sliding one cold hand into the hair at the base of my neck. “That just means we need to fight harder for these normal moments and make them count.” He kissed me then, and my heart melted into a puddle of goo at my feet. Fuck, for such an introverted guy, he seriously knew the right thing to say.

  “Besides,” he continued when we separated, both our breathing a little escalated and our cheeks pink, “what is normal anyway, right?”

  Just as I smiled at him, my lips parting to say something mushy and emotional, there was a screech of breaks and a loud thump behind me, followed by a scream.

  “Shit,” Wes cursed, his eyes widening, and I spun to see.

  A taxi sat in the middle of the road with its engine still running, and the driver leaped out while we watched, running to the front of his car and the person crumbled on the ground there.

  Acting on instinct, I started toward them but Wes grabbed my arm in an iron grip and held me back.

  “Wes, what the hell? Let me go so I can help!” I snapped at him, frowning. What the fuck is he playing at?

  “Kit, stop. Look around.” He held tighter to my arm, knowing perfectly fucking well I wouldn’t use my strength against him. “Look at how many people are watching right now. If you heal her, you’re outing yourself to the entire world.”

  Reluctantly, I glanced around. He was right, of course. There were already some thirty-odd spectators gathered, several with their phones out to record. Fucking vultures.

  “Look at her, she’s okay,” Wesley continued, nodding to the girl on the pavement.

  She wasn’t okay exactly, but she was howling in pain and clutching her knee, which meant it probably wasn’t a life threatening injury. She was one of the kids from earlier that we’d seen running around and screaming about dragons.

  But knowing she didn’t need my help didn’t affect the magic in me.
It wanted to heal her and didn’t understand the concept of secrecy. I’d noticed this happening back at Omega with all the “accidents” that kept happening. Each time someone was injured, it was like I acted on sheer instinct. The magic wanted to restore all supernaturals to their rightful place in the world, and it seized every opportunity it could.

  “Wes,” I said from behind clenched teeth. “I can’t not heal her. You need to get me out of here.”

  He didn’t need telling twice, and certainly didn’t need to question me. Instead, he adjusted his grip down to my hand, then pulled me firmly along behind him through the gathering crowds and away from the injured girl.

  It wasn’t until we’d made it at least three blocks away that the compulsion to heal her faded and I could relax my shoulders once more. My fingers tightened on Wesley’s, and I tugged him to a stop.

  “I’m okay now,” I assured him. “Thank you. That desire seems to be getting stronger. I don’t know how long it’ll be before I just go crazy and heal everyone regardless of whether they’re injured.” A shudder wracked through me, and Wes wrapped me in his arms.

  “It’ll be okay, sweetheart. You have us, and we will protect you against anything,” he murmured, and I tucked my face into the crook of his neck, cuddling tighter.

  “Even myself?” I asked in a small voice, and he chuckled.

  “Yes, even yourself.”

  We stayed like that for a little longer before I sighed and let him go. “I guess I ruined whatever you had planned, then?”

  Wes tilted his head and smiled. “Why do you say that?”

  “Uh, near magical disaster? Won’t you want to report back to River?” I frowned, knowing full well what protocol demanded in a situation like this.

  “Near being the key word, sweetheart. I say it can wait... don’t you?” His cheeky smile was back, and I was brimming with curiosity.

  “Breaking River’s rules? Hell yeah, count me in! Where to?” I grinned and snaked my fingers around his waist to tuck into his belt loop as we began walking again.

  “Actually, not far from here,” he said, wrapping an arm over my shoulders and pulling me close. “You’ll see.”

  4

  The where that Wes led me to was actually the lobby of a fancy hotel. We bypassed check in and went straight to the elevators. He was still being tight-lipped and secretive, so I said nothing and followed when he stepped inside and pressed the button for the fifty-eighth floor.

  We stood there in nervous anticipation while the little box carried us all the way to the top of the hotel. Okay fine, I was in nervous anticipation. Wes just looked excited... but a little nervous too, come to think of it.

  Then again, that was sort of Wesley’s norm.

  Our fingers linked, he guided me down the long hallway to the impressive double doors at the end where he pressed the little doorbell and waited with a small grin on his face.

  For my part, I had my eyes narrowed with suspicion. But I trusted him implicitly, so it was just more curiosity than anything. Who were we here to see?

  The doors flew open, and my jaw dropped in surprise and confusion.

  “Caleb?” I frowned, “What...?”

  “Shhh, I’m not here, you never saw me,” he smirked, tossing a magnetic hotel key to Wesley, then grabbing my face for a firm but very thorough kiss that left me a bit breathless and weak at the knees.

  “You have no idea how badly I want to stay right now,” he murmured, his lips still close enough to mine that they brushed when he spoke. “But it’s the Crow’s birthday, so I’ll be nice and leave you alone. See you in the morning, Kitty Kat.”

  Caleb smacked another kiss onto my lips, then clapped Wesley on the shoulder and took off down the corridor toward the elevators.

  “Ahhh,” I was a little lost for words, but Wesley just smiled and tugged me inside so he could close the door.

  “You rented us a hotel room?” I asked, looking around the beautiful suite, which was lit by countless flickering candles.

  “Not just any hotel room,” Wesley corrected me with an insanely proud grin on his face. “Look.” He lead me through the suite to the double doors of the bathroom, and I gasped when I looked inside.

  The huge Jacuzzi tub sat in front of a massive picture window that looked out over the city of Toronto and all its twinkling lights. The tub itself was full to overflowing with jasmine-scented bubbles, and there were even more candles lighting the room. Caleb had been really busy, unless he’d used magic.

  “I kinda thought... this is sort of our thing?” Wesley murmured, his cheeks stained pink and his free hand running through his hair nervously. “But is this too presumptuous? I just thought—”

  “Wes,” I cut him off. “It’s perfect. I’m just surprised is all. I kind of thought maybe you were...”

  I trailed off, feeling like a bit of an ass for making assumptions. “It’s just you have been taking things slowly, so I thought...” Yeah okay, it sounded a bit stupid out loud. Just because he didn’t immediately try to nail me the second he had a chance, I’d assumed he was a virgin?

  “I just wanted to make it special.” He shrugged. “But that doesn’t mean I expect anything. If you don’t want to—”

  “I do!” I blurted, cutting him off again and this time sounding rather eager. Fuck it, I was eager, and given he could feel what I was feeling, there was no point pretending otherwise. “And you’re totally right. This is perfect.”

  The grin spreading across Wesley’s face was easily the highlight of my night. Well... so far.

  He closed the distance between us, kissing me gently as his hands slid my jacket from my shoulders and dropped it to the floor. Just as he slipped his warm palms under my sweater, the doorbell chimed, and he pulled back.

  “Two seconds,” he whispered. “Get in while it’s still warm, and I’ll be right back.”

  Perching my ass on the edge of the bath, I took a long moment to admire Wesley’s rear end as he left the bathroom, then tugged off my awesome boots and set them aside to strip the rest of the way down.

  I was just sinking under the floral-scented bubbles when Wes came back in holding an ice bucket with a bottle of champagne and two glasses. He placed them down on the ledge beside the tub and handed me a little folded card with a grin.

  “Read that,” he laughed, kicking off his own shoes and stripping out of his own clothing to join me. I very politely looked at the card and did not eye up his junk as he stepped into the bath and sank beneath the bubbles opposite me.

  Hah, yeah right! Totally looked, totally turned the fuck on now.

  Once he was safely out of sight beneath fluffy white bubbles, I turned my attention back to the little card while clenching my thighs together.

  “Happy birthday, you lucky-ass motherfucker - C,” I read aloud and laughed. “Caleb. No way in hell is Cole sending champagne up here for us to drink in the tub together.”

  “Caleb indeed,” Wesley confirmed, gliding through the water to kneel beside me and pour us both a glass. “He was the only one I told about this plan because, despite everyone seeming to be okay with the whole sharing-Kit situation, we seem to get interrupted a lot.”

  “Ah yeah, we do. But that’s almost always Austin,” I agreed, taking a sip of the bubbly wine and letting the buttery taste roll over my tongue.

  “Uh-huh,” he nodded. “And you still think he’s not in love with you?”

  He was teasing, but I still splashed him with some water anyway.

  “Wait, so not even River?” I asked, surprised he hadn’t cleared it with Alpha. Wesley, out of all the guys, respected River’s authority as team leader above all else, so for him to break a directive…

  “I cleared us to be out until morning; I just didn’t tell him where we would be.” He shifted so his back was in the corner of the tub and sipped his wine.

  Humming my understanding, I nodded, then moved from my position to straddle him in the water. “Well then, I guess we should make the most of our
free time?”

  Now that I was seated across his legs, My upper body was out of the water and just barely covered by the bubbles clinging to my skin. Wesley didn’t fail to notice either, with his eyes darting down to my chest before he swallowed visibly.

  I took one more sip of my wine before placing the glass back on the ledge, and Wesley followed suit. Hands free, I brought his face to mine and slid my body in closer until I could feel his hard length between us and my erect nipples brushed his chest.

  “Shit,” he hissed, sliding wet hands up my back, then cupping my breasts in each hand. “Um, I’m a little embarrassed to say this, but ah, the anticipation of this has kind of been killing me all night, so...”

  With my hands in his hair I pulled his lips to mine and kissed him deeply while my hips pushed closer to his, grinding my already swollen clit against his shaft.

  “So,” I finished for him as I pulled back, panting, “can we cut the foreplay short and get on with it?”

  “Um,” he blushed, but his fingers were confident as they rolled my nipples and made me moan. “Pretty much. If that’s okay?”

  “More than okay,” I agreed, biting my lip as his mouth closed over the skin of my neck and sucked. Bracing my hands on his shoulders, I raised myself up a little, giving him space to position the tip of his cock against my opening before sinking down onto him ever so slowly.

  As turned on as I already was, combined with the bathwater, it wasn’t necessary to take as much time letting my pussy adjust, and soon he was fully sheathed inside me.

  My face fell forward when our hips met once more, and my forehead rested on his shoulder, enjoying the full feeling of him in me for a moment.

  “Fucking hell,” he murmured in a breathy voice, nipping lightly at the skin of my neck while his hands roamed over my back, then settled on my ass. “This is... way better than I’d imagined it.”

  “Oh yeah?” I gasped, adjusting my knees in order to start moving. “You’ve imagined this then?”

  He groaned as I rose and fell slowly, even as I knew full well I’d imagined it too.