Not quite. One person was missing. The one person whose work and calling and personality had set things in motion. Knowing Ludo was thinking the same, feeling the same soul-deep longing, Jago slung an arm over his shoulders. They both stilled. They were on the periphery of a huge crowd, their shifter senses buffeted by the sounds, sight, and scents of a multitude, yet they both would have known that individual scent, that unique mild yet spicy herbal fragrance, in a million. They turned to see her behind them. Ellie. She looked… Jago didn’t know how to categorize it, but seeing her standing there, thinner, paler, her shoulders slumped, instead of her head held high, and her in the middle of things… Jago wanted to rail at his own stupidity.
“Ellie, this… We weren’t…”
“It’s nothing to do with us not valuing your work or abilities,” Ludo rushed in, seemingly having arrived at the same idea. “If it hadn’t been for you—”
“I know.” She raised her head. “I’m not going to accuse you of jumping on a bandwagon or stealing my thunder, if that’s what you think. I couldn’t miss that you included me in everything, referred people to me, cited and quoted me all through it. I just wish…” She stared at the crowds, the full venue.
“What, love?” Jago dared to reach out a hand and touch her arm, Ludo doing the same.
“That we’d met earlier so this happened sooner! It only happened when we met, like something clicked, like parts coming together. I’m not explaining very well, but I’ve been doing a lot of thinking over this month.” She hadn’t done much else, so seeped in her misery, in the pain of missing her matches. But better alone by herself than alone in a relationship that wasn’t working, where the gap between the parties was so huge that there was no common ground to be found in it.
“I could have done things differently. Oh, not just in being stupid to run into danger like I did, without assessing the risks, and proper planning, thinking I knew best. Although there’s that, too, and I’m so sorry.”
At least she hadn’t lost her honesty. “I built my career on the pain of others, on their stories, their struggles like some sort of savior when I should have worked to help them find their own platform, get their own voices heard. But I will, from now on. Oh, not just this”—she indicated the gathering—“but instead of me writing research and articles, I can edit a journal where shifters can publish their own stories, their own work. I can liaise with media, finding the best spokesperson for the job—”
“We,” Jago said. “We can.”
“If you’ll have us,” Ludo said.
Her heart thundered. They stood there, impossibly, unfeasibly handsome, having taken their places in the shifter movement, having made the movement possible, and were asking her for another chance? What could she say? Well, one thing…
“On one condition. You take me home right now and—well, you can guess the rest.” She touched a hand to each beautiful face, traced full lips, threaded her fingers through silky, curly hair. “Oh, and we fly there. Please. I want to see you properly.”
“Ellie, if you want to ride us, you only have to say.” Ludo’s grin could have lit up London.
“I just did. Aren’t shifters supposed to have good hear—oooooh!”
The undignified gurgle she let out was a result of the twins seizing her hands and pulling her behind a Victorian-looking wooden stand, away from the spectators. Away from prying eyes, which was necessary, she saw, when they stripped.
“You know, I like this shirt. Could you take it for me?” Ludo asked, passing it over.
“Oh, actually…” Jago handed her his, too, along with his jacket.
Which was how Ellie found herself wearing the items of their clothing she couldn’t stuff into her bag or tie around her waist, and standing saucer-eyed, her hands over her mouth as the brothers crouched low and shimmered and stretched and shimmered some more and segued, was the only way she could think of it, into the most handsome gryphons she’d ever seen. “The only gryphons I’ve ever seen,” she whispered, stroking each long, lean, powerful body, each warm, strong wing, both noble faces. “Who should I ride? Alphabetical?”
Jago roared.
“Chronological?”
He roared louder, and Ludo butted his head into his brother.
“I’ll swap over halfway,” she promised, still unable to take her eyes off the magnificence in front of her.
The crowd cheered and clapped when the two winged beasts circled the grounds, flying low to let everyone see them, and their passenger. The media went crazy, trying to film them long after they’d flown over London and then over the Hadshire Hills.
Ellie screamed the first time the gryphon she rode plummeted downwards, leaving her in empty air for a microsecond before Ludo was there, providing a safe seat. She squealed the second time, when Ludo swapped places with Jago, even though her rash promise to do so meant she only had herself to blame. She’d just got the hang of kneeling and throwing herself from one to another when Normanston House came into view, and the twins surprised her by circling it, showing her the grounds and woods, before landing and transforming one at a time, due to its size, on the tower roof. Ellie hugged each beast as it shifted, holding it through the change. It was extraordinary.
She felt absolutely hollow with lust, watching the twins pull on the suit pants she passed them, as soon as she’d got her land legs. As usual, they were unconcerned with their nudity, full or partial, and didn’t feel the chill of the late afternoon.
“Not the Gatehouse?” she panted, pointing over at it. She’d grown fond of it and the gardens in the week she’d been there, and had missed it over the last month. “Oh, there’s the maze. You know, I was frightened by those stone gryphons in the centre.”
“Oh, they scare us, too,” Ludo told her. “Mainly because when we were little, Smith told us they were real gryphons who misbehaved and been turned to stone, and that if we carried on annoying him, it’d happen to us, too.”
“Oh my God!” Ellie couldn’t believe it. “Actually, I was terrified in the maze. Of the maze. Not just the statues. It’s creepy.”
“It should be—it’s haunted. What?” Jago caught her look. “We told you about the maze. Ludo, we told her the maze was haunted, didn’t we?”
“I’m sure we did? We must have,” his brother replied. “Well, as you know, all the best stately homes have a ghost, but ours happens to be a real sod. A complete bastard. Why do you think we couldn’t get out of there quickly enough, that first night you were here? We’re bloody petrified of it.”
As so often happened, Ellie didn’t know whether to believe them, but the relaxed, playful atmosphere had a smile curling on her face. “Can I ask you something? Why is it I was never attractive to shifters, before? I think there must be some reason, and that you know it. You had such a meaningful look on your faces before when— Yes, that expression right there.”
“It’s not that you’re not attractive to shifters,” Jago began, after a look at Ludo. “More that they wouldn’t act on it, because you weren’t theirs. Would never be theirs.”
“Their…”
“Mate,” Ludo finished. “Because you’re ours.”
“Mate?” Ellie exclaimed. “Your mate?” She looked from one to the other. “But we were only just matched.”
“It’s deeper than someone pronouncing words, announcing something. It’s evident. Recognisable. On a lot more elemental level.”
“Bone-deep. Cell-deep,” Ludo tried to explain. “Destiny-deep.”
“And you knew?”
“From the second we scented you,” they said together.
Ellie laughed. “So, not quite love at first sight, but… Oh, God, sorry! I didn’t mean to use the L word. I know men hate it.”
“As we told you before, we’re much more than just men, love.” Jago proved his point by lacing his fingers through her hair, positioning her head at the perfect angle for him to take her mouth in a deep, slow kiss that seemed to last forever. And when it did end, he’d se
t every single centimetre of the inside of Ellie’s mouth ablaze with longing.
Breathless, she turned to Ludo, who answered her mute plea by swooping down to possess her mouth in a heated, demanding kiss too. He was wild, plundering her mouth, licking the inside of it over his brother’s traces.
“Oh.” Ellie touched her lips. Then their words registered. “Mate? As in, you’re finally going to fuck me senseless?”
Jago grinned, crooked and beguiling. “Oh yes. But we have to mark you first. Always remember your three Ms. No? Oh, sorry—I forget you’re only human. Match, mark, mate.”
“In that order,” Ludo clarified.
“Mark? Mark?” Ellie was still saying, her voice rising with each repetition, as they led her down the spiral stairs to the tower bedroom.
Chapter Twelve
“Oh, look, here you are again.” In the bedroom the staircase led down to, Ellie stopped to study the Calter coat of arms displayed high on the wooden panelling wall. She stroked the gryphons and this time studied the other elements making up the crest. The sword meant something to do with battles—Calters had been soldiers of the crown throughout the ages—and the figure of the knight expressed military duty too. The metal helmet thing meant protection, like a portcullis did. Now, she studied the middle of the shield, the images between the gryphons.
“The red roses mean hope and joy.” Jago took her finger to trace the flowers at the bottom of the teardrop.
“And the harp?” The golden-coloured stringed instrument took up most of the centre. All she knew about it was that it was played by bards and druids.
“A mystical bridge between heaven and earth,” Ludo said. “Or, something connecting the sky and the earth.”
He turned her around and she stood between them, in the middle of one extraordinary-looking man with eyes the colour of woods and trees and grass and another, just as preternaturally handsome, whose eyes were the celestial blue of the higher realms. Right.
“So, this marking.” She cleared her throat. “Any chance you can just draw it on, with a Sharpie? No. Okay.” She took a deep breath and threw her hair back, exposing her throat. Then, in case that wasn’t enough, she pulled her blouse away at the neck, exposing the top of her shoulder. “I’m ready.”
“Jesus, Ellie! We’re not going to bite you!”
“What do you think we are, wolves?” Jago finished. He smiled. “It does involve preparing you, though.”
“Bathing you,” Ludo said. “Oh, and we noticed you have a few toys to make bath time fun. Interesting menagerie, all waterproof. A double dolphin vibrator, a vibrating starfish, a vibrating rubber duck… See the theme?”
“Pity they’re not here,” Jago said.
“I could summon them?” Ludo blew on the fingers of his right hand and stretched out his arms, fingers splayed.
“No! Can you rea— Oh, ha-ha.” Ellie was still trying to convince the men that those had all been presents, were still in their original packaging, but ceased any objection when led to the luxurious bathroom. Just as the bedroom was old yet fitted with modern furniture that was in keeping with the ambiance, so was the en suite, especially the huge sunken tub in its centre. “Oh!” She dashed to it to turn on the taps. “It’s like being on holiday!”
Entranced by the beauty of the floating rose petals on the dancing water, she jumped when the two men came up behind her to strip her of everything but her glasses. “Don’t you dare throw me in,” she warned them. But that sort of play seemed far from their minds. Instead, they bathed her, as they’d promised, floating her on the water between them to wash every inch of her. Jago, supporting her head and shoulders, bent over to give her an upside-down kiss, and Ludo, supporting her legs, dived under the water to nibble her toes.
Ellie shrieked, then almost choked laughing at Ludo’s plastered-wet curls and spiky eyelashes. She would have felt relaxed by their massaging, if she hadn’t been so turned on. When Jago played the shower spray over her breasts, she squirmed at the stimulation, and widened her legs for Ludo to do the same over her pussy. Between them, they had her body writhing with hungry need, heat spiking within her—which was they slowed the pace, leaving her on the edge, then making her tiptoe away from it.
“Shhh.” Jago kissed away her annoyance, soon turning the embrace sensual again, rather than soothing. Ludo copied him, lifting Ellie’s foot from the water to suck her toes, then trail sharp nips up her leg. With a minute she was panting and wanton again, pressing herself up to meet Ludo’s mouth closing in on her centre. This time he gifted her with a long, slow seep of his tongue—before stopping.
“What was that?” Jago bent over her as if to catch the curses she was issuing from between her gritted teeth.
“Seems she wants something?” Ludo added, his clever, tormenting fingers replacing his mouth, held just at Ellie’s core. He inched one upwards, but Jago impeded Ellie’s attempt to impale herself on it, to relieve even a fraction of the itch they’d set up deep within her.
“Please,” she whispered.
“Please…”
“Take me to bed.” She turned to rub against Jago’s stubble, like a cat. “I’m only human. You said.”
“You’re a beautiful human,” Jago corrected.
“Our beautiful human,” Ludo amended. standing to assist her out of the water.
The room was a little cold after the heat of the bath and Ellie hid a shiver as they dried her and led her through to the four-poster bed. In a second, it was a switch had been thrown and a current of electricity galvanised them to make up for their month-long separation, and the bed became a tangle of limbs and tongues. Ellie had no idea where her glasses had fallen and cared even less. In the middle, facing the headboard while the men faced the foot of the bed, one on either side of her, she rolled from one to the other, ravenous for them, for their taste, for their heat.
Ellie swallowed first Jago then Ludo down to the root, only to writhe and thrash in turn under their ministrations. Her clit swelled under Ludo’s rough caresses and next Jago delivered clever flicks of her tongue to her folds before delving deep, pulling tight, tiny quivers from her, sensations he built to shivers when he tongued her G-spot, and that became racking shudders when she turned to Ludo again, for him to suck and nip.
She hung suspended, riding the waves buffeting her, and Ludo slipped from under her and spun to sit against the headboard. He was huge, erect and throbbing, and she was wet with her juices, empty and needy, despite having just come. He tugged her onto his lap and brought his knees up behind her, to make a frame. Panting and heavy-lidded, Ellie tried to make sense of it, especially when Jago came to sit beside Ludo.
“Females have to make their way up to the highest-ranked male,” Ludo husked, in answer to her unspoken question. He turned her face so she was looking at Jago, and Ellie held eye contact with him as Ludo lifted her, his strong hands at her waist, lining up her dripping pussy with his shaft. Jago bent forwards and took Ellie’s mouth, swallowing the scream she loosed as Ludo lunged up at the same time he pushed her down, his thick cock thrusting high into her still-rippling cunt.
He was huge, filling every millimetre, and yet seemed to swell inside her tight heat, turning the ripples into a whirlpool. Ellie reared back from Jago, needing to force air into her lungs, but couldn’t stand to lose her connection to him. She took his shaft into her tight fist, moving it up and down faster and faster, mimicking Ludo’s taking of her cunt.
Jago drew her nipple into his mouth, sucking and biting until it was distended and pulsating red. Ludo angle his head to copy his brother once Jago had finished, pulling and tugging to where pleasure became too extreme, tipping into pain.
“Ellie,” Jago whispered. “The mark—it’s not a bite.”
Ludo pulled his lips free, leaving her nipple a dark, ripe pulsing berry. Ellie understood a second before he spoke, the moment she saw both he and his twin had a hand ready and that one fingernail of each of them was now a needle-fine claw.
�
��It’s a piercing.”
She tried to speak and could only nod, and then found her voice, to scream out at the claws and flash of metal at her breast and the white-hot sensation lancing her nipple. Ludo thrust, deeper and more demanding than before, and her orgasm shook her by the root of her hair, surged through her every fibre and sizzled along every nerve she possessed, holding her prisoner in the eye of a wild electrical storm.
She was dimly aware that Ludo had come, too, his thrusts turning to wet spurts inside her channel, and that Jago was climaxing in her hand. All her attention, fuzzy though it was, was on the small platinum ring piercing her nipple, the ring and the three tiny stones threaded through it, one sky blue and one earth green, with a warm brown, the colour of her eyes, in their middle.
Spent, trembling, Ellie fell forwards, still spasming. Ludo cradled her to him, and Jago wrapped protective arms around her too. He bent to lick her pierced nipple, and her sheath undulated, more contractions seizing her.
“Holy crap,” she wheezed.
“Charming,” Jago replied, his face flushed and his hair sweaty.
Ellie dreaded to think what she looked like. Not that she cared, not when a blood-deep contentment and rightness flooded her. “Is…that it?” she whispered.
They understood, of course.
“We’ve matched and marked, deorling,” Ludo answered.
“When you’re ready, we’ll take the final step.”
“Mating.” Ellie nodded, then frowned. “What…is that, exactly?” Because the marking had been soul-wrenching. She didn’t know if she’d survive much more.
“Mating? A dictionary definition is to join for breeding.”
“Join for… When I’m ready?” Ellie gasped, her brain trying to start up.
Jago nuzzled into her neck. “Umm. You’ll be ovulating in about two weeks.”
“But until then, we can have plenty of fun, too. And after—it usually takes years to get a mate pregnant.” Ludo’s grin split his face and was mirrored on his twin’s and, after a shocked second, on Ellie’s.
Paranormal Dating Agency: Think of England (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Roar Britannia Book 1) Page 10
