Stained Minds

by Helen Scott

  Now the question was, how exactly we were supposed to get her back to bed without touching her? As though she’d heard me, she stumbled back to her knees, then almost face-planted into the carpet until Gid stated, “I’ve got this.” His tattoos lit up like a Christmas tree, prompting wind to gust through the front door, swirling around our Sixth and lifting her off the floor. As though to illustrate exactly how exhausted she was, Marcella didn’t even fight it, just went with it as though it was too much effort to even lift a finger in resistance.

  “We’ll wake you as soon as we can, love,” Keir murmured, and I knew then that he was helping keep her calm as well.

  A sleepy, unintelligible mumble came from my mate as she was floated back to her room, and I was sure that even though I didn’t see it happen, she was wrapped up in blankets and passed out on the bed.

  If only that could be the case for all of us.

  We followed her path with her eyes, not moving a muscle even though I felt sure I wasn’t alone in wanting to join her up there. Not just because of the heat, but simply to be with her.

  These last few days had been a cluster fuck. Nothing was as it seemed, and the illusions were starting to take over everything to the point that I wasn’t even sure what we could trust anymore. If I couldn’t rely on my senses, then what the hell could I rely on?

  Even as the question concerned me, the slight clearing of a throat drew my attention to the bottom of the stairs.

  Elayne was there.

  Watching.

  Waiting.

  “I have sequestered Morgana once again,” she informed us, as though we’d never been interrupted in the first place. “However if I do not monitor her, she will break free once more, and the moment she does, she will come after your mate.”

  I almost demanded to know what she was doing hanging around with us then, but I managed to hold my tongue. Somehow, I doubted the Mother of Druids would appreciate snark from a Stained shifter. When no one said anything, she moved to stand where she could see out of the window as though she longed to be in the wilds instead of trapped in a house with us.

  Elayne’s expressions lacked the deadliness of Morgana’s, and though she tended to beam beatific smiles around like some kind of benevolent and overgrown Tinkerbell, there was metal behind them. Of the iron variety. This woman was used to getting her own way.

  “I will keep my sister contained, keep her from your mate, provided you do me a favor.”

  “What would you have us do?” Darius inquired stiffly, keeping his head bowed in deference as he spoke.

  “Wake Arthur. We need all four of us to Awaken if we hope to keep Merlin contained. Do that, and I will be able to spend my time... entertaining Morgana. If you don’t, then it will be up to me to wake them, leaving Morgana to do as she pleases.”

  I scowled at her. “Wait a minute. I thought that was the last thing we needed? All four of you Awake?”

  Anger flashed across her face. “Sometimes, needs must,” she rasped.

  “We don’t even know where he is. How the hell are we supposed to wake him if we can’t find him?” Raven demanded.

  Elayne’s eyes darted over to him. “My child knows his location, he sensed it before you were tied to your mate. As for how to Awaken him, surely that is obvious. Arthur’s children hold the key to that.”

  Raven’s jaw snapped shut as he looked over at Gid, who nodded almost imperceptibly.

  “Why not Morgause?”

  A gentle shrug. “She Stirs without need for aid. She will Awaken on her own, but not Arthur. The slugabed. The pervert would settle himself at an all-girls Academy.” Her top lip curved into a sneer.

  “We agree to your terms,” Darius capitulated, bending at the waist in a deep bow.

  “Good, now I go to my sister and leave my brother in your hands. Do not fail me.” Elayne’s figure started fading while she was speaking, as though she had never really been there at all.

  It was enough to make me wonder if things like astral projection were real.

  “Great, now we’ve got to wake up Arthur? Doesn’t that seem like a bad plan?” Cade asked, looking at each of us in turn. “And why the fuck is Morgana obsessed with Marcella anyway?”

  “We have no choice. Allowing ourselves to become the target of one of the Sires would put us in a much more precarious, if not deadly, situation,” Darius explained, running his hands through his hair, messing it up as he did so. I wasn’t sure I could remember a time when I’d seen him so discomposed. Which didn’t bode well, did it? “You don’t ignore their direct orders. If you can, you evade their attention, but once they know of you…” He shook his head. “It’s too late.”

  Those words seemed to echo around the foyer, hammering home exactly how far down shit creek we were.

  “Are the others coming back?” I inquired after a few moments, wondering where exactly Rhys and his cohorts had gone. If they were almost as old as the Sires themselves, then could they just fade in and out of wherever they wanted as well? Or was that kind of power even beyond them?

  “They’re not. Drake advised me that they were taking Elizabeth and leaving. We conferred in the cellar, shortly before I brought the prisoners up,” Darius stated as he cracked his knuckles.

  “Well, at least that’s something,” Keir commented, his soft voice somehow unexpected. It wasn’t that he liked everyone, but the man rarely said a bad word against other people without good reason, and I was surprised to hear him express any kind of distaste for the Cavalry.

  Our dream walker did have a dark side to him, but for the most part, he was a kind and understanding soul, the perfect counter to the other two walkers who tended to be more brash and rude.

  “Indeed. I was not looking forward to them being around while Marcella was in heat.” Darius practically shuddered at the idea.

  “How long will she sleep?” Gid asked, his brow pinched with concern over our Sixth, our mate. Our everything.

  “A few days at most. It will pass quickly, but the next time will likely be even more intense since she is sleeping through this one,” Darius answered, his voice resigned as though he was already dreading it. “There’s no evading her next time.”

  “So we’ve got a few days to plan and figure out what the hell we are doing. That’s plenty, right?” I joked, trying to lighten the mood. When sour faces met me every which way I turned, I realized that today had already been too long, and we all needed rest just as Marcella did, but ours would have to be on rotation so we could keep our mate protected.

  Chapter Twelve

  Barclay

  With Marcella due to wake from her four-day restorative sleep, I found myself excited and nervous all at the same time at the prospect of seeing her again. It was like she’d been away on vacation or something, and I was all riled up with the anticipation of her coming back.

  It was why I’d decided to cuddle next to her while I waited for her to stir and Maker, she smelled so good that I never wanted to move away from her. She was everything that was beautiful in the world to me. There was a hint of verbena, of sunshine, even jasmine. Floral and light flavors, all natural, and all mine.

  Marcella hated waking up alone. I knew that more than the others because of her scent. It was always full of longing if one of us wasn’t there with her, which was precisely why I was curled up next to her at that moment. I didn’t care how long it took for her to awaken. I just knew I’d be there when she did.

  After a long while, I felt her stir and her breathing changed, coming faster as her body began to flex and stretch before pushing into mine, as though she was trying to escape the realities she’d have to face once she fully awoke.

  What I didn’t expect was for her to start kissing and rubbing against the small amount of skin that she could reach from the loose neckline of my t-shirt. I couldn’t deny her this small thing, not when she’d been through so much in the last few days, so I resigned myself to endure her attentions without acting on my own.

  “
Barclay,” she whispered, her eyes still not open.

  “Yes, love?”

  “Thanks for being here.”

  “Of course. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be. I love you, Marcella.”

  She froze. Was that the first time I’d said it aloud? I couldn’t remember. It seemed as though I’d known this woman forever, as though she’d always been a part of my life even though I knew it wasn’t true. I could have sworn I told her how I felt before now, but perhaps not, at least not if I went by her reaction.

  “I love you too,” she murmured, as she opened those big blue-green eyes of hers. I wanted to drown in their depths, in the emotion they held. A Sixth who loved me? That was the stuff dreams were made of.

  When her lips connected with my own, I couldn’t resist, I was already lost to this woman. The small needy noises that began to escape her as we kissed went straight to my cock, making it rock hard in a matter of seconds. If I had been standing, I probably would have been lightheaded from all my blood rushing south.

  Marcella’s lips were like velvet or silk against my own as her hands roamed under my t-shirt. Her dainty fingers almost tickled as she ran them over my abs and up my chest until she found my nipples. When her fingers brushed over them, I couldn’t help but growl low in my throat. She was playing a dangerous game and she knew it. The woman was a master at teasing me until I couldn’t take it anymore.

  My tongue swirled into her mouth and my wolf delighted in the sweet taste of her. There was nothing better than my mate; nothing in the world could come close to this. With a burst of strength, she pushed me onto my back, and I let her, because why would I deny her what she wanted, at least if there was no harm in it. And now that her heat was over? Well, the fun and games could begin again, right?

  “I’ve missed you,” Marcella crooned, her voice low and husky as my heart thumped at her words.

  “I’ve missed you too.”

  “Show me how much you’ve missed me,” she demanded, as she pulled my t-shirt high on my stomach and began peppering the newly exposed skin with kisses.

  I gently rolled her back over so I was on top. “I’ll show you, but I don’t think you’re ready,” I teased. My hands slipped under the edge of her tank top and pushed it high on her chest, intending to leave it there, but Marcella propped herself up and pulled it over her head. Her beautiful, creamy breasts were exposed to me, and I fell on them like a man starving. She was my everything, my oxygen, my purpose, my whole life, and I intended to show her how much I loved her the best way I knew how.

  The pert pink nubs of her nipples called to me like a siren song and I was powerless to resist as I began kissing and sucking on them, first one then the other, then back again, until my mate was panting with need. I slipped a hand down her stomach and under the elastic band of the pajama shorts she’d been sleeping in. The closer I got to my goal, the more her breath hitched, making me want to get us both naked as fast as possible.

  As soon as my fingers touched her most delicate of parts, I was lost. Her scent, her need, everything overwhelmed me to the point that I was acting on instinct alone, the need to pleasure my mate was the driving force behind my actions. I could have blue balls for weeks and I wouldn’t care, as long as I made her come over and over again. Her folds parted for me and I slipped my finger between them, savoring the feel of her wetness on my skin as I pulled my hand back up and began working her clit.

  Part of me wanted to taste her, to have her come on my tongue, but with the way she was kissing me, I couldn’t move. Instead, I just thrust one finger into her, searching for the magical spot that I knew would give her one of her best orgasms. My thumb kept busy on her clit, bringing her higher and higher toward her pleasure.

  “Barclay...” Marcella moaned my name like a prayer, and I couldn’t help but grin. “Please, I need...”

  “I know what you need, love,” I said quietly, as I kissed a trail down from her neck to her breasts, to the waistband of her shorts before I slid them down her long, elegant legs.

  She kicked free of them before I could get them all the way off, which caused an awkward moment where she almost kicked me in the face but hit my shoulder instead. Marcella’s head jerked up, her eyes wide with surprise, and before she could start apologizing like I knew she would, I snorted with laughter and she burst into giggles. The seriousness of our moods both lifted within seconds and I watched her for a moment as she smiled up at me, completely lost in her gaze.

  “Shouldn’t you be getting naked as well?” Marcella all but purred at me.

  “As my lady commands,” I replied with a wink, before popping up off the bed and stripping down. Her eyes devoured every inch of skin as I bared it to her, making me feel more loved and wanted than I’d ever felt before in my life. As I crawled back onto the bed, I teased, “Now, where was I?” I dropped a kiss on each of her inner thighs before I worked my way up to her sweet pussy.

  My fingers slid into her molten core once again, but this time instead of my thumb working her clit, I used my tongue. Her scent wrapped around me as I tasted her for the first time in what felt like forever. She still tasted just as sweet and exotic as she did before, as I swirled my tongue around her most sensitive bundle of nerves.

  Within moments her hips were rocking against me, thrusting my fingers deeper into her as I lapped up her wetness while I brought her to orgasm. Her hips bucked and her hands slapped the mattress, clenching in the sheets around her while her whole body arched off the bed.

  I could feel her pussy clenching around my fingers and I couldn’t wait to get my cock inside her, but I knew if I did that right now, it would be too overwhelming for her, so I waited until the last of the waves of pleasure had rolled through her.

  “Good?” I asked as I nipped at her inner thigh.

  “Fucking fantastic,” she panted. “I need you inside me, though, Barclay. I want to feel your pleasure.”

  Without wasting any time, I reached between us and swiped my cock along her opening, smearing her wetness all over me before I pushed into her. She was like a velvet glove around my manhood. Her core was tighter than normal after that orgasm and I had to breathe through the urge to be a one minute man—Marcella deserved better than that.

  The warm hold she had on my cock was only the beginning. Her dainty hands gripped my thighs and her heels dug into my ass as she pulled me ever farther into her. It was only when she let out a hiss of breath that I began to move. Thrusting in and out of her was like stepping into a sunbeam in spring, where it was hot in the light and cold in the shadow. Marcella was my light, my heat.

  When her pussy clenched around mine occasionally, I knew I was hitting that spot that she liked, so I kept trying to make sure I rubbed against it over and over again as I played with her nipples. I had a steady, rocking rhythm going when she became impatient and began moving her hips at the speed she wanted me to fuck her. It was faster than I thought I could handle since we hadn’t had sex in a while, but I wanted to please her, so I slowly ramped up my speed until my balls were slapping against her ass and the sound of skin meeting skin filled the air.

  I sat back and brought her legs up, hooking her feet over my shoulders so her ass was just off the bed. My own orgasm was already on the horizon, so I began playing with her clit once more, determined to make myself last long enough so I could bring her another round of pleasure. Her sweet pussy enveloped me again and again as I pushed into her, while my fingers played with her clit, and the others pinched at her nipple.

  Marcella’s head was thrown back in bliss and her hands were fisted in the sheets around us while I pumped into her, feeling her steadily clamping down on my cock. Soon, I was unable to thrust fully in and out of her, and instead just rocked within her, rubbing that sensitive spot with the head of my cock. I wanted to come so badly, but I knew she was close, so I dug into my reserves of willpower and bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood.

  Her eyes flashed toward me, going silver for a minute, and her f
angs shone in the light. I removed the hand that was playing with her nipples and held it to her face. Her eyes watched me as she bit into my wrist. The pull of suction on my vein reminded me too much of the pull on my cock when she was sucking me off and I almost lost control. Instead, I pulled her wrist to my face, leaning over her so I could reach it while I kept rocking my hips.

  I watched her for a few seconds and when she nodded, I bit into her wrist as well. The rich explosion of blood over my tongue had my mind spinning out of control. I had unintentionally picked up my pace and was now fighting a losing battle. My fingers circled her clit while I drank her down. When I thrust my fangs even deeper, she lost it. Her orgasm rolled over both of us like a physical thing, sucking all the air out of the room like a tidal wave sucking water away from the beach before it comes ashore. When she screamed my name, I was lost.

  Her pleasure made my own impossible to resist, and within seconds, my balls tightened. I felt myself explode within her, a roar erupting from my throat while my whole body jerked forward like I was a puppet on a string as I pumped her full of my seed. I couldn’t stop once I started, and my orgasm racked my body long enough that by the time we were both done, I had to brace myself so I didn’t just collapse on top of her. When we were able to open our eyes, I rolled off her and pulled her into me so we could cuddle—sue me. I was a wolf; I liked the post-coital snuggling.

  “I love you, Barclay,” Marcella whispered as she rested her head on my chest, and my heart just about exploded with joy.

  “I love you too,” I murmured, as I dropped a kiss on the top of her head. We both lay like that for a while, until a commotion outside the door had Marcella yanking on the sheet to cover our naked forms.

  Raven

  “Furry dick, why didn’t you tell us she was awake?”