The Horned Mage: Books 1-5

by Hayden Harper

  In lieu of blankets, my naked girls pressed into me on either side and crawled atop me. We were hot and sweaty and stank of sex and I had never been more comfortable or satisfied. My magic pulsed through our connection and each of us felt each other’s pleasure, our delighted exhaustion, and our love for each other. We were all together as one and as I felt sleep reclaiming me, I knew that we always would be.

  The Horned Mage Goes to Comic Con

  By Hayden Harper

  I tossed my luggage on the queen sized bed with its plastic-esque comforter and took in my room. Best Western wasn’t bad but it was a shame we couldn’t have gotten something a little closer to Dallas’s Comic Con. This was the best deal for our budget though and we’d booked this weekend months in advance. The girls had become master strategists when it came to date planning in the year and a half we’d been together. It was actually hard to imagine a time before them.

  Between my four lovers, my sort-of-mother-in-law, my adopted mother, two toddlers, and myself things were a little crowded. After Reagan and Sarah had given birth, my sons, Ethan and Mason, dominated everyone’s time and attention. Ethan was Sarah’s son, born pale and blonde like his mother, and prone to turning into a furry wolf-hound pup with sharp teeth and oversized paws when he got upset.

  Mason had been born with his mother’s beautiful complexion and her last name, though we were still discussing changing it from Coleridge to Marshal. I didn’t fully understand her reluctance, but I’m pretty sure it had something to do with the fact that she wasn’t one of my girlfriends while both her daughter and stepdaughter were. There was no doubt that Mason was mine though, only a month after being born a pair of nubs started growing from his forehead that would be sure to bud into full on antlers as he grew older.

  And if there was any doubt left after that, both had my green eyes. I’d learned that was unusual, that babies typically started out with blue eyes that then changed color as they grew older. Not my sons. Both had fiery green eyes that took in everything from the moment of their birth. And doctors wanted to make case studies out of both. With the backing of my new law firm buddies, a deal that I was sure would have some strings attached that hadn’t presented themselves yet, we’d actually been given several grants to in exchange for a few reports, tests, and articles being written about us. Considering the growing success of The Horned Mage modelling site, it really didn’t seem like a big deal.

  Even with the extra money and all of us working together we were worn out and everyone’s dates became especially cherished times with just me and them. All of us together had rented a large property just outside of Woodhurst and commuted to school while saving up from our respective jobs and renting out the old house in Dallas in the meanwhile, hence why we needed a hotel during our visit instead of staying there. We had money now, but we kept to a budget. I was never going to let us be in a situation like we were when all of this started, living on other’s generosity and essentially homeless. I had a family to care for now and part of that meant strict budgeting.

  Lexus, despite our protests that she could go to a better school, had refused to leave us and accepted a full ride track scholarship to our local university and would be finishing up a year behind me and Jadeite if all went according to plan. At which point we’d sell the Dallas house and purchase a new one. We were in agreement that either Austin or Dallas were best, allowing all of us the best opportunities for our respective careers.

  Not that the girls needed much help. Their modeling business had taken off and they’d all done different shoots. Some individually, some as a group, and sometimes they even got me to pose. Lexus was actually getting sponsors and considering taking her athletic career professional as her reputation grew.

  Victoria had started taking some IT classes and working with Thomas on programming related stuff that meant nothing to me but translated to learning kickass web design. She used that to launch her own sexy mechanic’s website. Turns out there is in fact a client base out there who likes the idea of a dangerous, beautiful woman working on their equipment, though they are few and far between. She was the one who was being held up the most by our waiting to move until we had all graduated. For her business to really thrive she needed a more densely populated city than Woodhurst.

  By contrast Sarah could work just about anywhere she chose. Motherhood hadn’t slowed her down and while she had been forced to rethink her professional trajectory as she was no longer legally allowed to doctor to humans thanks to the lycanthropy, no matter how mutated and magically altered, she had realized that there was an underserved market and, having just graduated from medical school, was now making house calls to supernaturals in need of a doctor’s services, which had her flying out at least once or twice a month. She was already looking for investors to start a private practice when we settled.

  And Jadeite…she was going to graduate summa cum laude if I didn’t get in the way. Her relationship with Deirdre She, which had started out as merely cordial and professional, had since bloomed into genuine friendship. She’d acquired a few more contracts since that one but none of the beings she’d contracted with could ever hope to compete with Deirdre in terms of sheer danger-factor. I was definitely okay with this; the biggest, baddest critter we’d ever encountered in Woodhurst was on our side.

  And me? I was properly interning for Eleanor Hardin and loving it, especially when I was able to get out in the field. My time attempting to research my own genetic history had left me with an ingrained habit of trying to ferret things out that went well with the notes she would send back to me and my magic did really well when she allowed me to accompany her out. Not as often as I’d like, unfortunately. I’d changed majors—learning magic was hard and my own abilities didn’t line up well with the curriculum. I might have been able to be a decent mage, but I could be a damn good arcanologist and that meant refining my academic skills in that area. It felt good learning things that would actually be useful, and as a bonus, I never had to see Eleanor’s brother, Prof. Hardin, except when we passed each other on campus.

  Every month I would take one of my girls out on a spectacular date, with either the location a surprise and aided by the others, or planned out carefully together in advance, as in the case of this Comic Con trip with Jadeite. One date a month was about all we could manage between our crazy schedules and two children. Sure Mom—I had finally come around and started calling Caroline Mom, full time, even in my head, especially as she got better—and Reagan were helping, but the kids were all of ours and took up a lot of time and energy.

  Comic Con Dallas had been perfect for me and Jadeite. None of the others had our particular passion for nerd culture whereas the two of us had originally bonded over our love for a certain sci-fi western that was canceled far too early. Those particular interests had been ours and only ours and coming to this together for the weekend felt right in every single way.

  My only real regret was that costumes didn’t really work for me—my antlers inevitably ruined the look and prevented a lot of head gear from being worn. Inevitably someone would ask why I’d added them and I’d gotten sick of explaining that I hadn’t. I knew that Jadeite was dressing up, though she’d been all kinds of secretive about it. I was fairly confident she’d come out as either a gender-bent Malcolm Reynolds or as Zoe Washburne. I’d even packed a Hawaiian shirt just in case so I could make a passing attempt at playing Zoe’s husband, Wash.

  When the bathroom door opened a moment later and she stepped out, it was not as a character from Firefly. My mouth dropped open. The golden metal bikini contrasted strongly with her beautiful, dark skin and drew attention to her heavy breasts, leaving her belly completely bare. Even the brownish-maroon loincloth hanging down to her ankle high boots only served to draw attention to her bare thighs. She wore a golden collar around her neck, a chain dangling from the front down to her bikini bottoms.

  Her grin was shy even as she struck a pose, holding the chain like she meant to
strangle somebody and cocking a hip so that her ample curves were more generously displayed. “You like it?”

  Of all my girlfriends, Jadeite was both the shortest and the curviest and the combination had given her something of a body-image complex. She was gorgeous, absolutely stunning, but because she wasn’t a stick she seemed to think that somehow made her less attractive. Apparently working with The Horned Mage had done some good for her self-image because I had never seen her intending to go out in public wearing either so little or provocative.

  “Hot. Damn.” I said when I remembered how to speak. “I would never have guessed slave Leia.”

  Her grin turned into a smirk as she sashayed across the room to me. “Why? I can’t dress up in one of the most iconic sci-fi costumes ever because I’m black?”

  My mouth opened and closed several times but no words came out. That hadn’t even crossed my mind. The outfit was just sexy as hell and the chain and collar thing was just…oh, right. My brain struggled to find words, only to give up when she looped the other end of the chain from her costume around my neck and pulled me down into a kiss. Her lips were soft, her tongue silken against mine as they dueled, my mouth reacting on desirous instinct long before my idiot brain had a chance to fully appreciate what was happening.

  When the kiss broke, she grinned up at me, mischief plain in her burning green eyes. “Well?”

  I swallowed and that seemed to help. “I guess I just figured you’d go for a Firefly costume.”

  She laughed. “I thought about it. But then I realized that as fun as Firefly is, Comic Con is really a chance to wear something sexy that I never would anywhere else, and Star Wars is just plain sexier.”

  Wearing that outfit I was not about to argue the point with her, regardless of what my inner nerd-voice may have said. That voice was currently locked in a comatose stupor of lust and breathing through its mouth staring at her.

  “You see,” she said, smirk widening as she used the chain still around my neck to pull me low enough that she could whisper in my ear. “In Star Wars, there’s no underwear in space.”

  I grinned and surged forward, pulling her up and into me, lifting her off the ground as I kissed her—our kiss turning to a squeal of delight as I toppled us over onto the bed and pinned her beneath me, the chain falling off to the side. I pulled my mouth from hers and grinned down at her, letting her feel my erection through my shorts. “I’d better make sure you’re following the rules and staying in line with the canon.”

  She giggled as I kissed her neck, carefully so as not to hit her with my antlers—nothing ruined the mood faster than a sharp poke to the eye. My kisses trailed down her chest and between her breasts. She giggled some more and pushed at my head playfully. “We’re going to be late.”

  I kissed lower, just above her bikini bottoms. “A princess is never late. She arrives precisely when she intends to.”

  “That’s wizards dork,” she said. “And Lord of the Rings, not Star Wars.”

  I slowly pulled the loincloth aside. “Nerd.”

  As promised she was completely bare underneath, which shocked me. Was this really Jadeite? My shy little Jadeite who hid her figure beneath the most unflattering hoodies she could find? She had done like Lexus and completely waxed herself so that I had an unobstructed view of her sex. I loved the way it opened just enough to let me see the pink contrasting with her dark lips.

  She brought a finger to her lips. “I may have been a bad princess.”

  I didn’t answer, instead bringing my mouth down to kiss her nether lips and lathe her pussy with my tongue. She gasped, wetness rushing to coat my tongue with her particular spice as it found its way to her clit. I sucked the sensitive flesh between my lips and let my tongue dance over it. Her fingers wrapped themselves around my antlers and pulled my mouth more firmly against her as she gasped.

  I teased her, pulling back to lap and suck on her folds instead of trying to rush her toward an orgasm. I brought her to the edge time and time again, until she finally cussed me out and yanked my antlers so that my attention was returned to her clit and she screamed as I pushed her over that edge into orgasm, thighs clamping shut around my head.

  When she finally let me go she pulled me up to kiss me, heedless of her taste on my mouth, and all but ripped off my shorts and underwear. When my cock sprang free she gripped it in her hand and put me on my knees, backing me up so that my arms rested on the top of the headboard. Her expression was feral as she brought her mouth down to my erection, but instead of attacking it the way I expected her to she gently placed a kiss upon the crown. Then another. And another. Each lingering just a little longer until she was French kissing my member on her hands and knees.

  She cocked her head to look up at me, holding my gaze as she slowly brought more and more of my cock into her mouth. I felt a sudden urge to come right then and there and bit my lip to fight it off, my erection pulsing with desire against her lips and tongue. Soon, but not soon enough, her lips met the base of my erection and I was fully inside of her mouth and throat, gasping for air.

  She slid me out slowly, letting her tongue tease the underside as it slipped free, and made as if she was going to take me in her mouth again. No more of that, I thought, and it was the last conscious thought I had before grabbing her by the shoulders and flipping her over beneath me. She let out a surprised sound, somewhere between a squeal and a moan and then I was atop her, my member pressing against her pussy, her heat and wetness mingling with the coating of saliva she’d left.

  With a single thrust I was halfway inside of her, her hot confines pulling me in and squeezing my length. I loved being inside of her and was overcome by the urge to be inside of her fully, to be one with her, and my hips thrust with sudden mad force until they met hers and my erection was hilted in her pussy, our bodies completely one.

  She threw her head back and gasped as I bottomed out, then took the side of my neck in her mouth and sucked on it. I could feel her teeth against the skin, not breaking it or biting down, but definitely marking me. I grinned and began thrusting into her. Short bursts at first, then more fully, pulling out until just the head of my cock remained inside her channel and then reversing course with all that I had, our flesh coming together in a wet slap that only spurred us both to greater effort, her hips lifting up in time with my thrusting to bring me more fully inside of her more quickly.

  The first orgasm rocked her body shortly thereafter, her legs wrapping around me as tight as they could, squeezing my hips and struggling in vain to hold me in place as I continued to thrust into her with everything I had. My magic—alive in ways I wasn’t sure I understood anymore—leapt from me and spilled into her, feeding off of her orgasm and redoubling it, transforming the one into two and then the two into four, creating a chain so that every time she crested another peak a new wave careened through her until she was coming with each and every thrust. Fluids gushed from her, coating my thighs and testicles and the comforter beneath us.

  Her mouth on my neck did bite down then as she lost complete control, the sharp pain somehow mingling with my own pleasure and sense of claiming her. She was mine. Lover. Mate. Mine. My magic seemed to know these words and I felt a profound sense of them with her. We were making magical, savage love, and only her teeth’s lock on my neck held her sanity in check as the pleasure literally crashed through her and she screamed into my flesh through her jaw.

  The spasming of her pussy around my cock became too much and I began my own orgasm, bursting with seed on every pulsating thrust inside of her, spilling myself over and over until I had to tear myself free of her jaws to bite back myself or risk being lost. I tasted her flesh, salt and copper, and she screamed—really screamed—as her final orgasm exploded through her, entire body seizing beneath me.

  I collapsed on top of her as I finished, her body giving little twitches and spasms beneath me. My length slowly became flaccid inside of her and might have stayed there longer had we not created
so many fluids between us. I slipped free in spill, adding to the mess between our thighs and on the bed’s covers. We lay there, sweaty and exhausted for a good few minutes, incapable of thought, let alone motion, until someone banged on our door.

  “This is hotel security,” said a firm, authoritative voice. “Is everything okay in there?”

  Peals of laughter tore from Jadeite and she motioned for me to roll off of her. I did and she adjusted her costume to hide our mess on her body as she staggered upright and made her way to the door. Sweat drenching her grinning face and reeking of sex she opened the door a crack to let the security guard know that nobody had been murdered.

  As soon as the door closed she burst into a fit of giggling. Leaning against the wall she sagged to the floor. “I can’t—I can barely walk. What the hell did you do there?”

  I tossed my shirt off—it was way too sweaty to leave it on—and went to her naked, sitting down on the floor against the wall with her and letting her collapse into me, head resting on my shoulder.

  “I don’t really know,” I said. “My magic just sort of…acted.”

  It had been like that ever since taking in the magic my mother had stolen from Eleanor’s land. Eleanor still wasn’t pleased about that. Somehow it had mingled with my own magic, which had always felt more instinctual and alive in a way that magic, as I understood it, wasn’t supposed to. Now it seemed to almost have a mind of its own sometimes. I could almost hear it making noises of contentment somewhere deep inside of me.

  “I think we’re going to miss the first panels,” Jadeite said. “There’s no way I’m going to be able to walk for at least an hour.” She pressed her head more firmly against me, braids cascading over my bare chest. “God, this is the most delicious soreness…”