We were going to be an egalitarian trio. As I pointed out, “You can boss your pack, you might be bossing all the packs, but at home, we’re a family, and families decide things that concern them all together.”
He took it well—for a prince.
The evening flew by as I danced every dance with one or the other of my mates until my feet were about to fall off, and I wound up sitting in a corner with Nora, gossiping about who danced with who and who was sitting in a corner making out with whom. Most of us would be going home tomorrow for the holiday; I’d have to call my parents and let them know not to expect me for a week or so. Then they could expect the three of us.
We hadn’t solved all our problems. The guys had dealt with the two trespassers, but someone was paying them to kidnap Aramis, and his family would be launching an investigation into the issue, and, he believed, would be sending a bodyguard back with him if he couldn’t talk them out of it.
But all those things would work themselves out in time. For now, I had only happiness. Thanks to my brave mates, the moonlight run was on again, and, at the stroke of twelve, we all streamed outside and left our finery—its bright colors, shades of black, white, and gray—in the moonlight, heaped around the courtyard. Our wolves, too, had to celebrate Yule, and their howls echoed over the countryside.
How quickly life could change.
And sometimes, in unimaginably wonderful ways.
I tipped my head back and howled my gratitude to the Goddess and her moon then raced on with my mates, my friends, and all the students and faculty who had come out for this most important run of the year.
There were other issues, other worries, and they, too, would have their moments.
But not tonight.
An Excerpt from Third Snarl: The Lycan Academy Book 3
Chapter One
Signs of my mate, the one I told to leave me, were everywhere. As I wrapped a warm towel around myself, courtesy of the heating rack my other mates had purchased for me, I looked down to see the most glaring sign of them all—the silvery, almost iridescent mark where he’d bitten me, claimed me as his own, and changed my life forever.
The scarf that hung on the footboard on my bed constantly reminded me of him—his scent still faintly clung to the soft fibers I snaked around my neck to protect myself from the cold.
Nothing could protect me from the cold I felt in Syn’s absence.
Except, I wasn’t quite ready to say the words to make him come back. He should’ve told me. He should’ve told me right away. He told me right as I realized I wanted him and the others as my mates—was ready to accept them for the rest of my life.
And a niggling in the back of my brain reminded me he’d only told me out of guilt—guilt eating him alive.
And now, the hole he’d left in my heart chewed at me day and night.
At a faint knock on the bathroom door, I pulled my towel tighter against my body. “Yes?”
“It’s me, Fury. We are wanting to talk to you.” They always left him to break the bad news.
“I’ll be out in a second.”
As I dressed, my cell phone buzzed. My twin sister, Sharon, texted me from the infirmary where Headmaster and the nurses insisted she stay for another week.
She insisted she was breaking out at the first moment she was able. Her text read BORED. I bet she was. She’d been possessed by the demon who’d pursued me as well for quite some time, and she wanted to resume real life, something not spent in a basement inside a room just short of a cage. She’d shown it to me, so I knew.
Her former “room” was open on three sides, or appeared to be, but she explained warding there had kept her in. Her bed was a mattress on the floor with a single blanket and no pillow. She had a toilet a lot like in a jail, with only a half wall hiding it from full view and very little else. Her memories of that time were vague and choppy, but she thought she’d had a better setup to start with, but as she sank deeper into the control of the demon, she’d either destroyed things or tried to harm herself so ended down to almost nothing, eating with her hands and snarling at her keepers.
Worse, she had no idea how she’d escaped, no memory of the time she’d run wild on the grounds and killed Sophie. Somehow, that didn’t make her feel any better about it. But her story did make me feel a little better about being the one Mom and Dad gave away. Aunt Sela might not have been a real aunt, but she had loved me and taken good care of me, even when she went without herself.
I texted Sharon back then got dressed in a pair of pajama pants and a long-sleeved thermal. Slippers, courtesy of Roth, covered my feet, and I padded into the living room.
Before turning the corner, I watched them as they spoke to each other in bass tones. They were discussing Syn. His name was mentioned in between rapid strings of Russian verbiage.
They missed their brother, and it was my fault he was gone. I should’ve taken a breath and a step away from the situation before telling him to leave.
One check into the true feelings of my heart, and I would’ve never uttered those words.
Fuck. I wanted him back.
“I’m sorry,” I said, more to Syn than the brothers, but they all turned to face me. “Your brother is gone, and it’s my fault.”
Fury approached me and wrapped me up in his ever-comforting embrace. “We understand, mate. He knew there was chance you would reject him after he confessed.”
I pulled back with a jerk. “I don’t reject him as my mate, Fury. I needed some space from him—to think and understand.”
Relief was written all over his face. “Brothers, she is still wanting Syn as mate.”
Was that what they’d thought? My telling him to leave was rejecting him as my mate?
Shit. I needed to explain.
“My feelings for Syn haven’t changed. Yes, I’m upset, but he’s still mine. And I’m still his.”
Fury’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “Come, sit with us. That is what we are wanting to talk to you about…and Sharon.”
“What about Sharon?” I asked as Fury led me to the living room where I sat on the couch, smack in the middle with Fury on my right and Danger on my left. Roth sat on the floor in front of me and pulled my legs over his shoulders so he could rub my feet.
“We are wanting you to find out as much as possible about parents and demons—everything she knows. More information—better protected.”
“Okay, I will.” Her memory gaps would be a problem, but maybe if we worked on it together, we could find more of the facts in her mind. We were twins after all.
As cozy as I was with three of my mates surrounding me, my body yearned for the fourth.
“Will he come back? I mean, did I make him go away forever? Does he…does he still want me to be his mate after what I did?” I loathed the vulnerability in my voice and the tear poised at the corner of my eyes.
Roth turned to speak to me. “Nora, he is mate. That is never changing. Trust me. Wherever he is, he is wanting you—loving you—and will not hesitate to come back if you call for him. He is belonging only to you—forever.”
“He is hurting without me,” I murmured.
“He is. I’m sure of it. I would be hurting without you. But he is also learning lesson about hiding things from mate. It is obviously bad idea.”
Was that what I was doing? Punishing Syn for his crime?
We sat there for a while in silence. Roth went back to rubbing my feet while my hands tangled with Fury’s and Danger’s. There was something on TV, but I didn’t know what the hell it was.
“I am going to bed. Early class tomorrow. Goodnight, Nora.” Fury got up and kissed my temple before leaving the room. Danger followed him after a sweet kiss to my lips.
“You are sleeping with me tonight, da?”
I wiggled my toes. “You are sleeping with me. My bed is the best.”
He chuckled, jostling both of us. “True. Only the best for mate. Come.”
Before I could get up, Roth stood and tossed me over his
shoulder in a very Shrek and Fiona move that made me giggle and shriek while beating on his back.
“Quiet,” he commanded with a swat to my butt. “You are waking others. Noisy mate.”
Chapter Two
My sister, my identical twin sister was doing far better than the healer and the nurse had predicted. She was awake, coherent, and determined to make a break from the infirmary. We weren’t yet sure what that would mean. She had killed another student. True, it happened while she was possessed and not in control of her body or mind, but it had been hard enough for the others to accept I was not a murderer.
But if Sharon did not return to regular classes, where would she go? She hadn’t finished her education and, so far as I knew, had no marketable skills. If Aunt Sela would agree, I supposed she could go live there and take up the life I’d led, but if I hadn’t wanted it for me, why would I want it for my twin sister? Also concerning was the possibility of future attacks by the demon who seemed focused on Sharon and me. If it had breached the school walls and protections, what could it do “in the wild” so to speak?
Try as I might, I saw no other options outside of these two—at least as long as the demon remained on the prowl. I felt it sometimes, outside the fence, although we’d had no repeats of the blood markings there.
“Mate, what are you thinking about?” Roth tugged me from the far side of the bed into his arms. “You are far away.”
I sighed, snuggling close and resting my head on his bare chest. “My sister. And the demon…”
“Do not talk of demon. Will attract its attention.” He kissed my forehead and stroked a stray lock of hair out of my eyes. “Sleep.”
“I can’t. My mind keeps going around in circles...wait. Is it true? If we mention the...you know...it calls it sort of?”
“Not exactly but more or less.”
New worries. “Then...how do we plan to fight something we can’t let enter our conversations? My sister…actually, all of us…are at risk unless we come up with a strategy to end the constant barrage of negativity.” Did it help to dance around the actual word demon? Don’t think demon.
Demon.
Demon.
Demon.
Argh!
“Shh. We will fight. But tonight, we must sleep to have energy.”
“You’re very good to me.” I nuzzled his throat, inhaling the soothing scent of home, of mate. “But your lives would all be much simpler if you threw me out the door, you know.” I yawned, exhaustion still warring with worrying. “You could take me far away and leave me in the woods. Without bread crumbs.”
Roth choked. “Why would we leave you in forest with no bread? To be hungry?”
I giggled despite myself, loving the warmth of his skin, at least above the waist. He wore sweat pants to sleep with me, probably out of consideration for me. “You don’t know the story of Hansel and Gretel?
“Tell me the tale, kotyonok. Maybe will help us both sleep. Is story about bread crumbs?”
“No. Okay. If you want to hear it, I’ll tell you, but it’s a children’s fable probably about avoiding the woods.”
“Story, kotyonok.” His large, rough palm stroked my back, lips rested on the top of my head. “I listen to your beautiful voice.”
“You’re silly.” But I loved he said that about my voice. Fury was the one who always knew what to say to make me feel better, but sometimes, Roth could make me feel amazing with a word or two. “Do you really want to hear Hansel and Gretel?
“Yes. Tell story for sleeping.”
“Once upon a time, there were two children named Hansel and Gretel. They lived with their father who loved them very much, and their lives were poor but happy until the day their dad decided they should have a mother and married a local widow…”
“She was beautiful this widow?” He stroked my cheek and followed his fingers with his lips. “Made the father very happy and more babies?”
“N-no.” My eyelids drifted closed as he sketched kisses over them. “She was beautiful and probably made the father happy, but she was cruel to the children.”
“Is sad story, then?” Storytelling stopped for a long moment while his lips covered mine and took possession of my mouth. When we paused to breathe, he said, “Do go on.”
“Ahh...so the mean stepmother took Hansel and Gretel into the forest to gather something, berries I think, and she left them by a tree and said she’d be back soon. Ohhh. You’re not paying attention.”
Roth sucked gently on my collarbone then grasped the hem of my long T-shirt and pushed it up, baring my breasts. He lifted his face. “Keep telling story. I am listening. Bad stepmother is picking apples in forest.”
“Not exactly, but close enough.” I arched my back as he cupped my breasts in his palms, hefting them as if they had much more weight than they did. “So, uh, the kids sat by the tree and ate the lunch she’d packed, which should have been a hint of the nefariousness of the situation.”
He tipped his face up toward mine in the dimness. “The nefary?”
“I mean she never made them lunch. They were almost st-starving.”
He held his lips above one of my nipples, his warm breath teasing the tip. “Is bad to starve children. She should go to jail.” He sucked the tip into his mouth.
“Yeah...oh.” How could he expect me to tell him fairy tales when he was nibbling on the peak of one breast then the other, suckling and lapping and otherwise making my brain explode? “You’re distracting me.”
I could feel his smile around the breast he was currently tickling with the tip of his tongue. Evil thing. But so good. I’d show him I could handle myself, even under pressure of the most extreme sort. “The children were about to...to eat the last bit of bread when Hansel said, ‘Wait, Gretel, let’s use it to find our way home.’ Wait, that’s wrong, they should have left a trail along the way, I don’t know.” Distraction! I gave up and tangled my fingers in his hair as he continued to suckle and his hand trailed south over my abdomen to rest on my mound.
“Part legs, kotyonok, I would touch your kitten parts.”
“Kitten parts?” Okay. I slid my legs open wide enough for him to reach between and stroke a fingertip over my folds. My wet, swollen, aching folds.
The wind chime tone sounded from the night table where my phone was charging, and I jerked, slamming my thighs together and imprisoning his hand. It didn’t stop him from touching me. “Let it ring, kotyonok.”
“I can’t.” Grasping his wrist, I pulled his hand from where it was making me feel so good. “That’s Sharon’s ring. If she’s texting so late, something must be wrong.” Because if it wasn’t, I’d kill her. I reached for the device and brought up the message.
I need you.
Roth read over my shoulder. “I will take you to her.” Without another word, he stood up and reached for a shirt. No complaints about being interrupted while we were being intimate. No demands to come first—probably a good thing since they were all going to share me. Just instant reaction to my needs. What did I ever do to deserve them?
We were halfway to the school buildings when he stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. “In the story, what happens to children?”
“They are almost eaten by a witch but, eventually, find their way home.”
He chuckled, linking his fingers with mine and starting out again. “Oh, is the story of Baba Yaga, then. We have that one.”
Table of Contents
The Lycan Academy Series
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chap
ter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty Five
An Excerpt from Third Snarl: The Lycan Academy Book 3
Jaded Love (The Lycan Academy Book 4) Page 9
