With me unable to form words for the tears streaming down my face, his hands found the sides of my dress and he pulled it up over my head, dropping it and my underwear on the stony path, and he guided me back until I was pressed against one of the stone walls. Our lips parted as he took measured breaths, trying to hold himself back, but I wasn’t going to let him. Putting my hands on his shoulders, I jumped up and he was forced to grip my thighs to keep me in his arms.
Steadying me with one arm around my waist, he used the other to align himself with my entrance, and he pushed me into the wall, pushing inside me with the same movement. He made slow and gentle love to me in the shadows, kissing down my neck, biting my hard nipples, and staring into my eyes like I was the only woman in the world he had ever wanted.
I kissed him deeply, feeling the pleasure rising inside me, his thrusts raking against my walls and driving me insane with his unhurried pace. I connected our minds so he would feel exactly what it felt like being in his arms, having his cock inside me, and his lips pressed to mine. The added sensations coming from him turned the tide on my pleasure and it rose higher until I could feel Knight struggling to hold off his climax for me but unable to resist the powerful tingles coming from the base of his cock, and we went over the edge together, coming inside me and shuddering around him, so connected I hardly knew which body was mine.
He had to let me down because both our legs had turned to jelly, and we sat on one of the benches until our hearts went back to a normal rhythm. Well, mine did. Knight’s sped off again when he saw the clouds part in the sky and his other girlfriend started appearing. I used his momentary stillness to get dressed again and stayed a safe distance away when his body started shifting. His nose grew to a snout, his skin sprouted long black hairs, and his feet malformed to an odd angle that only added to his towering height.
When he was fully turned, he howled at the moon in his bipedal wolf form and my spine shivered at the sight of him. He was as beautiful as always.
The wolf Knight turned to me and took a long whiff of my scent, walking up to me carefully and looking me over. He was in there, I knew he was, but he didn’t have the control he’d had in my time. It would come eventually, he just needed practice.
Wolf Knight approved of me and leaned down to nuzzle my neck where his bite was. His fur was so soft under my hands, and I found that spot on his belly he liked for me to scratch because it made his leg pump up and down like a dog. He did so, his tail wagging behind him appreciatively in time with his leg. Before I could finish, he scooped me up with his paw and put me on his back. I had just enough time to put my arms around his neck before he took off running, away from the castle and into the trees we’d been looking at.
I’d warned him in his human form about the pack that lived nearby, but wolf Knight would know to stay away when he smelled their pee line that marked their territory. I trusted he would keep us safe as he darted through the trees, jumping over fallen logs and reaching up to swing on the tree branches like a monkey.
This was the Knight I remembered from our early days, the carefree one who was free to be a wolf and didn’t have to focus on anything unless he was threatened. Somehow this seemed more his true form, even if his brain was temporarily turned off. The only thing that stopped me from never wanting to work with him on controlling his shifts was knowing how terrified he was after he woke up in the morning, not knowing what he’d been doing during the night.
Wolf Knight tirelessly ran through the forest, but I wasn’t tireless, and I fell asleep on his back at some point. I woke up, sure I’d fallen off somewhere, but I was stretched out on one of the castle benches and the sun had already risen. Knight stood on the edge of the cliff overlooking the valley, fully clothed, and I got up to stand beside him.
“Sorry I wore you out,” he joked with a smile.
Taking his elbow, I turned him until he faced me. “I won’t let you die. You’re not leaving me. Ever. We still have children to make, we have a life to live. I want sixty-seven years with you, and then sixty-seven more.”
He leaned down to me, pressing our foreheads together in the morning sunlight, his arms coming up to grasp mine. “No matter what happens, I’m not leaving your side. You, Arthur, and Balthazar are my world.” He gently kissed my forehead, holding me there until my hands stopped shaking, then he stepped back and led us down the path away from the castle.
The town was just waking up around us with roosters crowing and a herd of geese crossing the road from one pond to another. We sidestepped them and they squawked in complaint, flapping angrily at us until we ran down the rest of the street, turning right and seeing my parents’ house still in the cool shadows.
Arthur sat on the front step, standing up when he saw us. I was almost worried something had happened while we were gone, but when his icy blue eyes were fixed on Knight, I realized he’d been worried about him.
Still with our hands clasped, Knight came right up to the vampire and they bent their heads close, resting their foreheads together and sliding a hand across their backs in a loving embrace. I almost felt like I was intruding on a private moment and I didn’t break their contact until Knight tugged me between them and they kissed me before kissing each other over my head.
I never wanted moments like these to end. I wanted to be in their arms forever, except we were missing someone.
“Where’s Balthazar?” I asked with my mouth against Knight’s shirt.
Arthur grew rigid and his hand moved from Knight’s hair to mine. “He’s with your parents. They had a talk.”
I stiffened too, and groaned. “Fuck, what now?” He didn’t answer, he just led us both by our hands inside the house where my three parents sat with Balthazar at the kitchen table, and the looks on all of their faces filled me with dread.
“There’s some plates in the fridge,” Clara said quietly, her expression showing she didn’t approve of whatever they were discussing, her eyes darting to Anastasia every few seconds with a frown.
I walked up to Balthazar, putting my hand on his shoulder while Knight and Arthur went to the kitchen and started heating up the leftovers waiting for us. “Out with it. What’s got you four so upset?”
Anastasia folded her hands on the table in front of her and tapped her index finger on the faded wood. “You cannot have an Incubus as a lover.” She interrupted my response before I could get out more than a surly, “Oh come on!” I glared at her, feeling exactly like I had the first time we met when she tried bossing me around without trusting me. “He is too virile, delicately speaking. You risk a pregnancy every time you’re with him, and he understands that you can’t just keep popping out babies for the rest of your life, especially if the Bicus find out he’s making more children when they’re banned from doing so.”
“I can’t even begin to believe what I’m hearing. I’ve said this to you before, but since you weren’t there for it, let me say it again. You can’t tell me what to do.” Her face turned stone cold but she didn’t respond.
In the silence, Balthazar stood, the look on his face turning my stomach. “She’s right, Lisbeth. I’m not willing to abandon you, I’m bound to you now. I’ve agreed to go back to the Bicus realm and ask my leaders if there is anything to be done about my virility, and I don’t care what the cost is, I will pay it a million times over.”
My body went into a cold sweat and tears rolled down my cheeks. “But time moves differently there. You might not come out again for years.”
“And I might be there for an eon while only a second passes for you. It won’t matter how much time passes, it won’t change how I feel about you. And I swear…” He gripped my waist and bent so our lips were almost touching, his hands trembling where they touched me. “I swear when I return I will never leave your side again.”
My lungs burned with unreleased sobs. “What if you miss the birth of our daughter?”
“I’ll do everything I can to make sure I don’t. And if I do, I expect you to show me every
moment.” He finally bent enough for me to kiss him, tenderly dancing our lips together, my salty tears mixing in with the taste of lilacs. Only it wasn’t lilacs anymore. He smelled like the sweet scent of lavender in the sunshine.
He smelled like me.
Before I was ready, he lifted from my lips and held my head to his chest. I felt my other men behind me, and Balthazar addressed them as he stroked my hair. “I don’t know when I’ll be back. Please take care of her while I’m gone. Arthur, if something happens… I leave her to you.” He put me at arm’s length and waited until Arthur and Knight had me anchored with their arms around me before he disappeared.
The search begins
It was an odd sensation, missing someone who I’d never truly missed before. Throughout my long life, Balthazar had always flitted about, popping in a few times a year, going sometimes months between visits. I had grown to expect his absence, and it wasn’t something I got upset about. That was all out the window now. Now I missed him like someone had torn my arm off.
I sat alone at the back of the plane, staring out the window with my legs curled under me, stroking at the Bathory crest necklace Clara had given me again. I’d lost it along the way in my time and I was glad to have it back, but it didn’t fix my mood.
Anastasia approached me, standing in the aisle with her hand on the seat opposite me. “Can I join you?” I didn’t answer so she took it as approval and came to sit across from me. “I know you’re mad at me.” I still didn’t say anything, mostly because I knew I’d say something mean if I did. “While you were out with your lover, I was reading that journal you brought me. I wrote about what happened to your family when Balthazar was arrested. It left your young son on his own. Your family left you for five years to bring him back. You suffered because of that. If he doesn’t do something, you will suffer again. They’ll take him away for good and then you’ll wish you’d tried to fix it sooner.” She paused and sighed, drawing my eyes to her, and she had a thoughtful look on her face. “The way he looks at you. He never looked at my mother like that. You let him cherish you, protect you. Mother never allowed him to behave that way with her. Even in her last days she kept him at arm’s length, never letting him truly possess her. I wonder what that was like for him, finally falling in love after thousands of years, only for her to never fully accept him in her heart.”
A fresh wave of sadness overcame me and I reached out my hand for her to take, gripping her fingers tightly across our seats. “I know you’re just trying to protect me. I would’ve done the same to protect my children too.” I got up and sat on the armrest beside her, holding her close to my breast, mostly for my own strength, but also for hers because of what I was about to say.
“I need to tell you about someone. Her name was Marie.”
After a very long story that involved many tears and a pile of used tissues, I fell asleep in my mother’s lap.
I dreamed about that birthday party again, the same dream I’d had on my wedding night where my four children were outside the farmhouse setting up for my birthday. I walked out of the house again, wearing a white cotton dress and flowers in my hair, seeing a grown Gwen turn from her work and coming up to me. She was so beautiful.
“Mother, we’re about to start,” she told me, tugging me forward to the decorated table.
Kitty was busy setting out saucers for the servings of cake, but she looked up when we were near the table. “Mother,” she said with a nod and a smile.
Jason and Dreya appeared from behind some bushes and my son kissed my cheek. He was so warm and real. “Happy birthday, mother.”
Dreya smiled lovingly at me, checking above my head for the color of my aura. “Happy birthday, mother,” she echoed.
They were all four around me, so close I could, and did, reach out to touch them.
“Give her some room, kids,” Knight’s voice said from behind me. I turned to see him, and I knew deep inside that this was the Knight I knew now, not the one I’d spent a lifetime with. “You know how she feels about birthdays.”
I didn’t question what this was, I simply closed the distance between us and kissed my husband passionately on the lips, much to the chagrin of our children.
“Stop complaining,” Knight chided to them, putting his large hands around my waist. “Once your other dads get here, we’re all going to make out, and you’ll just have to deal with it.”
Confused, I bent back to look up at his face. “Other…” The roar of an engine grew louder in my ear until it stopped at the end of the unpaved road. Two men got out, Arthur and Balthazar, both holding bouquets of flowers. “It didn’t happen like this the first time,” I said out loud.
Knight chuckled at me, kissing the top of my head. “It was always meant to be this way. You just didn’t stay long enough last time to see.”
Arthur reached me first and handed me his bundle of roses, kissing my cheek long enough until my body lit up like a lightboard. “Happy birthday, love.”
Balthazar had enough lavender to fill the house, and he pushed Knight and Arthur aside to have my full attention as he swept me up in his arms, bent me backwards, and kissed me until my knees were weak. “I love you more than life itself, my pet. Happy birthday.”
When I resurfaced, Arthur was kissing Knight so hard, I was surprised the kids weren’t complaining again, but they’d busied themselves at the table, purposefully giving us our privacy for the moment. Balthazar left my arms and completed the embrace of the other two men, leaning his forehead against theirs, but before I could ask why he was touching them like that, a hand on my shoulder woke me up on the plane.
Knight was leaning over my sleeping form and my mother stirred as I did. “We’ve landed.” He helped me up and I rubbed my eyes, a smile on my face. “Good dream?”
Standing, I pressed my hands on his chest after Anastasia had gotten up and passed us, heading to the entrance of the plane. “It was one I’ve had before, in the other time. It was different though. Better. Not like it had changed, just gotten bigger. Also I’m pretty sure you woke me up before you hardcore made out with Balthazar.”
Even though I was partially joking, Knight contemplated that with a distant smile. “He’s a pretty hot dude, I could do worse.”
“You have never said the words ‘hot dude’ before.”
He drew me closer, lightly pressing our lower halves together until I felt his excitement, hard and waiting. “Better get used to it. This is all your fault.”
His head dipped until we kissed again and again. “I’m sooo…” I started, moving my hips in a circle against him. “…guilty.”
“I can’t leave you two alone for five seconds.” Arthur’s heavy footsteps approached until he was right behind me. “We have to go. Remember that part? We can tear her clothes off later.” He turned to lead us out so I jumped up on his back, putting my arms around his neck. “I can only imagine what our kids will be like,” he said without pausing for one second down the plane aisle.
“They’re awesome, because I’m awesome. And you’re awesome. And Knight is awesome. And Balthazar is awesome. Therefore, our kids are awesome. It’s science in play, Arthur.”
“I will drop you off the plane.”
I grumbled a moan and held him tighter when he started going down the plane steps. “Spoil sport.” I pressed my lips to the back of his neck. “You know you love me.” Grunting, he tried to put me down once we were on the ground, but I held on until he carried me all the way to the baggage claim where my parents were waiting. Lucas looked green at the sight of me touching a man, and Anastasia raised a judgmental eyebrow at me on my lover’s back.
“Lisbeth, how old are you? Honestly.”
“You mean in this timeline, or this one plus the other? Because if we’re going by that logic, I’m older than all three of you now.” I emphasized my point by playfully gnawing on Arthur’s thick shoulder.
When my parents had all turned to grab their bags on the conveyer belt, I let out a sigh and res
ted my chin on Arthur’s shirt. I’d let myself forget for a few moments about Balthazar being gone, Knight’s impending demise, and the fact we still had to save the world, the entire reason I was brought here.
Sensing my mood shift, Arthur squeezed my legs where he was holding them up and turned his head enough so he could kiss me on the cheek. Knight had gone ahead to get our bags as well, leaving us by ourselves in the terminal.
“It’s going to be just us soon, isn’t it,” I said mournfully.
Arthur sighed and adjusted me against him. “You’re assuming the witch was right. I don’t believe it. I won’t. We can’t have found each other again only to lose everything a second time. Look at us, Lisbeth. You brought two strangers back to you who had no reason to stay by your side. That has to mean something. I won’t believe fate could be so unkind.”
I rubbed my nose against his cheek and felt my wet tears on his skin. “You’re always so eloquent when you’re in love.”
He kissed my cheek again, running his face along mine in a caress. “And even if I’m wrong, I’ll love you enough for both of them. You can count on that.”
The warmth in my heart was almost enough to erase the pain. I reached my hand up and stroked at his short blonde stubble. “I can always count on you.” Having found our bags, Knight returned to us and he threaded his arms through Arthur’s until his hands rested on my back, hugging both of us at once.
“Son-in-laws,” Lucas piped up in a huff upon seeing our group snuggle. “You can hug later, let’s go. I need more pocky.”
Stepping down onto the floor, we walked hand in hand behind my parents to the parking lot where we’d left the Impala. It was a tight fit with an extra person, but with the women in the middle of each seat, the men were able to make do with the space left. Lucas was especially happy neither of my lovers could touch me since he’d claimed the front seat to be near Clara.
The Born Vampire series: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Complete Series, NSFW Edition) Page 95
