by Meg Xuemei X
“We’re all psychopaths to a degree,” Alaric said.
I glared at him. “That’s why you don’t get to claim me.”
“You’re not helping, Alaric,” Pyrder said through clenched teeth. “You’ll only scare our Cass away. Maybe you need more practice in talking to members of the fair sex. You seem rusty.”
“I never bothered to please anyone until I met my woman, who is in front of me now. I’d do anything to please and pleasure my Cass.”
My face flamed furiously.
“You don’t want the vampires’ touch, either,” Reysalor said.
“Are you kidding me? They’re fucking bloodsuckers!” I said.
Reysalor smiled at me with patience. “Yet you have feelings for the lord of them. You vowed never to let anyone have your blood, but you feed Lorcan every day.”
He had me trapped right there. The heir to Sihde was a most cunning being.
“Because you won’t let any of your mates die,” Reysalor continued. “And now the vampire beast in him won’t wake up unless his true mate calls.”
“I called him,” I said, fighting back tears. “I talked to him every day. I even sang to him, but he still didn’t wake up. I can’t be this mate you’re talking about.”
The thought that someone else could be his—their—mate sent an intense jolt of jealousy and pain to my chest. Before I forced out a rasped breath, I suddenly realized a horrible mistake I’d made. I’d sung Lorcan a lullaby, which might have kicked him into deeper slumber. I should have sung a battle song to get his blood boiling and wake him up. But the lullaby was the only song I knew. I’d often sung myself to sleep when I’d felt unbearably lonely and hopeless in my cage, when there hadn’t been a sliver of light in my life.
I darted a sheepish glance at the three powerful males, and their focus homed in on me—not on my guilt but on my response to their revelation.
“Talking about your favorite cake, soap, or threatening him to wake up isn’t enticing enough to bring him back,” Reysalor said. Evidently, he’d been eavesdropping on me when I’d been with Lorcan, but then all supernatural had superior hearing. I just kept forgetting it.
“Cass baby,” Reys continued, his voice beautiful and masculine, “you’ll need to call him from the depth of your need.”
“I can try again, now that you shared some useful information,” I said. I desperately wanted Lorcan to wake the hell up.
“You must call him from your soul, as his true mate,” Alaric said.
My eyes flashed darkly. Uncertainty swirled in me. What if I wasn’t their mate?
“If and when he wakes up, he’ll have to feed from you again,” Reysalor said softly.
“Fine.” I shrugged. “As long as he opens his eyes.”
“It won’t be the same way you’ve been feeding him,” Reysalor said cautiously, and all of them watched me carefully as if I might bolt at his next words. So far none of what I’d heard was excellent news, but how much worse could it get? “He’ll take control from feeding on you. His fangs will come out and pierce your skin.”
I shuddered.
“He won’t be able to help it,” Reys said. “The primordial vampire in him needs to claim you as his forever mate. He’ll be the first of us who bonds with you, under the unfortunate circumstances.”
Pyrder growled. Alaric scowled, and Reysalor’s eyes flashed darkly. They all looked like they wanted to kill someone.
“What if I fight him when tries to do this caveman claim thing?” I asked, contemplating my exit.
As I drilled it down to the root, the whole claiming mate thing was about him drinking from me and then fucking me.
You give a man an inch and he takes a mile.
“He won’t force you,” Reysalor said with a sigh. “None of us will ever force ourselves on you, no matter how much we want you, no matter how desperate we want to claim your every inch every second of the day.”
Their eyes all brightened with longing, hunger, and lust.
If I weren’t Cass Saélihn, I’d go up in flames from the heat in their gazes.
“If he doesn’t claim you, he’ll withdraw to himself and never be the High Lord of Night, believing his mate rejects him because he’s failed to provide for her and protect her,” Pyrder said. “Or he’ll go mad with self-loathing at being unable to win you.”
So, in a nutshell, if I didn’t call him to me as a promised mate, he’d be in a coma forever and fade off sometime in the future. If I got him to wake up, he’d feed on me with his sharp fangs piercing my skin and then fuck me. And if I didn’t let him screw me, he’d become a nutcase.
Just great.
“I’m still a virgin.” I blurted out.
I should still count as a virgin, right? Even though I’d had Reys’s big cock in me for half a minute, and Reys had given me a couple of solid orgasms with his wicked tongue and skillful fingers. I darted a quick glance at Reys, and the scorching lust in his eyes heated my blood in an instant.
The males shared a quick grin, as if it was the best thing they’d ever heard.
“We’ll all be there to help and guide you,” Alaric said gently. “We’ll never hurt our one and only mate.”
Pyrder nodded. “We’ll make sure all the mating is pleasurable and amazing for you.”
Reys smiled at me with warmth and assurance. He didn’t need to say anything. I knew he’d always protect me above anyone and anything else. All of them had proved that they’d put my life above theirs without hesitation.
“We want to wait until you’re ready, Cass baby,” Reysalor said. “But Lorcan is running out of time. We’re afraid if we don’t act soon, we’ll lose him forever.”
“The four of us shared our bond of brotherhood,” Alaric said. “We can feel each other’s needs, emotions, and thoughts if we don’t put up our mental block. Lorcan has no mental shield now while he’s defenseless.”
It broke my heart to hear that the once most-feared, formidable High Lord of Night had become so powerless, but he’d fallen to save Reys and me.
“He needs you desperately,” Reys said, “but he doesn’t know where to seek you. He can’t find the surface under the deep water, so you’ll have to show him the light.”
“I don’t get to choose, do I?” I asked softly, yet bitterness tinged my voice.
“The choice is always yours, Cass,” Alaric said. “You can deny him. You can deny any of us. But none of us are capable of walking away from you, and we aren’t weak-willed males. You’re our fated mate, no matter whether you feel it or not. We’ll always want you. And now we live and breathe to protect you.”
“You all have to choose me because you believe we’re fated,” I said, somehow feeling unsatisfied and hurt.
“If we don’t want you by our own will, no fate can make us want you,” Alaric said, his eyes tender and hard at the same time.
“You were forced to live in a cage all your life until we found you, yet you weren’t broken,” Reysalor said. “When you gazed up at the night sky and laughed, I fell for you right there. Nothing can break you, Cass baby.”
“You refused to put up with my crap from the moment I sat next to you,” Pyrder said with a grin. “You’re the only woman who can resist me and put me in my place. I’m glad fate chose you for me.”
“You were caged, starved, and abused,” Alaric snarled, “yet you still possess compassion that I’m utterly lacking. Despite your foul mouth and hard exterior, you’re a kind, bright soul. My Cass will make a cold bastard like me a better man. Though I’m certain most of the time you’ll still be a great pain in the butt.”
All they had said were the sweetest, kindest things I’d ever heard in my life, except the “great pain in the butt.”
I fought back tears and a choke as warmth came up to my throat in waves. My hands still braced on my hips in a gesture of challenge, but now they shook slightly.
“Don’t you want me, Cass baby? Don’t you want us?” Reysalor asked nervously.
; Panic marred their handsome faces as they waited for my answer hardly breathing.
I felt connected to each of them. I’d spent more time with Lorcan and Reys, especially Reys. But this week I also spent a lot of time with Alaric and Pyrder, getting to know them, and getting pulled to them like a pin to a magnet.
The idea of walking away from any of them turned the warmth in my chest to acid burn.
True mates or not, when Lorcan and Reys had freed me, when Reys had saved me from Jezebel and the vampire horde, and when Pyrder and Alaric had put themselves between the sadistic gods and me, my future had been tied to these four men.
I studied each male in return, and my pulse soared. Fuck, they were all smoldering hot. My heart pounded at the impossible prospect of having four mates. Could I handle all of them—the hottest, most powerful males walking the earth?
A shift in the wind, and my males’ needs, wants, and lust slammed into me. A mystic song started humming in my veins, bringing out heat and desire this world couldn’t contain.
Fire lashed at my molten core, stripping off my every pretense and showing me how much I truly wanted them—every one of them.
A premonition played through my mind.
My mates’ masculine scent of pine, fire, wine, steel, and ice caressed my senses, delighting me beyond words.
Then Lorcan’s sensual mouth traced along the column of my neck and halted beneath my artery. His fangs pierced my skin. I gasped harshly at the pain, but then a hot flood of ecstasy washed over it.
Lorcan drank only a mouthful from me. As I urged him to keep going, liquid fire pooling between my thighs, he shook his head. He gazed upon me as if I was, not his food, but the most precious being to him in the entire universe.
I was his mate.
I writhed against him, rocking my hips against his crotch. His huge bulge made my throat dry and my lips moist.
I wanted his cock inside me now. The fire was too hot in me, only he could cool it down before it burned me to stardust.
Mating fever soared mercilessly in me.
Lorcan growled. His large, powerful hand lifted me and gathered me onto his lap. He heaved up my bare ass, aiming the thick head of his shaft between my plump folds.
Then he plunged me down, and at the same time thrust into my depths.
As his cock thrust wildly in my tight pussy, an assault of earth-shattering pleasure erupted in me.
He thrust and thrust, fucking me with abandon.
I blinked back as the images of mating with Lorcan swirled away. Alaric, Reys, and Pyrder all surrounded me, wrapping me in their arms. I had a hard time telling which arm belonged to whom, but they all had piece of me.
I knew they were all incredibly fast, but I’d been so entranced that I hadn’t noticed them moving.
My lust and need for them fused with theirs, endlessly into the blackest night.
I shivered, wet heat soaking my panties.
I turned to look at the oak door—on the other side one of my prospective mates slumbered deeply, and only I could wake him up. Once I turned the knob and entered, everything would change.
I would be different when I came out.
Was I brave enough for that?
My heart beat erratically. I was eager. I was nervous. I was in heat. But I wouldn’t know if I was ready until I walked through the door.
A Court of Fire and Metal
WAR OF THE GODS, #2
A Court of Fire and Metal
The four mighty, smoking-hot warriors had wanted to use Cass Saélihn as the weapon to kill the Olympian gods, but they fell for her instead. Now all they want is to protect her. So they hide Cass in the magically glamoured Academy, the only safe place for earthlings.
But Cass won’t cower or run from danger. She sets her own rules and stands her ground, no matter how her blood heats for her alpha mates. She’s determined to take the fight to the gods, not as a weapon but a leader.
Yet an all-powerful, beautiful, cruel god is already among them, much closer than she and her four mates can imagine. He covets Cass and her power more than anything, and when the god strikes, he leaves nothing to chance.
1
I’d once told the Unseelie fae heir that I didn’t give a fuck if the world burned.
I’d lied.
I wasn’t raised in the world, but it was mine. I knew in my red-hot blood that it was mine. Only, I’d been kept away from it, locked in a cage.
And now, possessive fire burned within me.
Lorcan and Reysalor had found me and freed me. I’d tried to run away from them, seeking my absolute freedom.
I had thought the four warriors only wanted me as their weapon, but it was more than that. They’d been willing to sacrifice their lives for me when the Olympian gods had hunted me down and poisoned me with the Devil’s Love.
They had told me I was their one true mate, on whom they’d been awaiting for a millennium, and that I would bond them all. Now I knew my freedom was with them, I was done running.
I wouldn’t run from the gods, either. They would never stop hunting me, but the four males would stand by my side.
They would prepare me for the fight that was coming my way.
Yet I had no fear. I was Cass Saélihn, the wildfire.
I would start by hauling the High Lord of Night’s ass out of his long slumber and back to reality.
Filled with such determination, I turned the cold metal knob and opened the ebony door.
My gaze shifted from the fresh dandelions in a porcelain vase to the large male lying motionless on a platform bed. I had collected the flowers in the field that morning, hoping the dandelions’ loveliness and strength would kick some sense into the vampire lord, since he still refused to wake up.
It was up to me to get him to take on some responsibility.
According to the twin panthers and a demigod, I’d need all of my mad skills in seduction to coax the vampire lord back to the waking world with us.
Reysalor, Pyrder, and Alaric stood behind me, their intoxicating male scent and powers wrapping around me, muddling my mind and making my knees weak, but not so weak as to allow them to dictate how I should seduce the powerful vampire from his comatose rest.
“Cass baby,” Reysalor said, his voice enchanting and full of support.
I glanced at him over my shoulder, then at Alaric and Pyrder.
They gazed at me expectantly, eyes of different shades and colors, full of heat and sexual promise. They were all ready to plunge into action with me.
I swallowed, my heart pounding in my rib cage, my blood racing in my veins.
“I got it,” I said, shaking my head. “I need to do this alone.”
I would do this alone.
Understanding flashed in their eyes.
“We’ll be right here, Cass baby,” Pyrder said softly.
Alaric’s honey-brown eyes darkened as he gave me a respectful nod. Even if I insisted, they wouldn’t leave this suite. They would come to me if there were any hint of danger or threat, even from their bonded brother, and no door—wood, stone, or steel—could stop them.
That was how those alpha males were. They let me do this alone, only because they believed that Lorcan would never hurt his mate.
I was mate to them all.
I walked into the candlelit room and closed the ebony door behind me.
2
I was alone with the High Lord of Night, a superior being, a nightmare to other species. Even his own kind feared him.
But he was never a nightmare to me.
I remembered how he’d stared at me the first time he’d seen me. His piercing gray eyes had shined with intelligence and hunger, his nostrils flaring at my scent. I’d mistaken his intent, thought that he’d wanted my blood, but he was taking in my scent and had recognized me as his mate.
Lolling on the lily-white bed as if frozen in time, Lorcan’s face was pale and cold as marble, yet his masculine beauty still moved me.
His heart started beating a
s I entered the room. It was slow, faint, but it was beating. He hadn’t hesitated to shield Reys and me with his massive body when the Goddess of Track had shot an arrow of fire and lightning at me.
He’d nearly died to protect me.
I stalked toward the High Lord of Night.
“Lorcan,” I called.
He didn’t respond, as usual.
I sat on the edge of the bed as I brushed away a strand of his medium-length hair from his forehead. My fingers slid into his thick mane.
“It’s childish to refuse to wake up,” I chided. “Do you know that?”
He didn’t answer.
“We need you to man up. So wake the fuck up, please,” I continued, plucking a petal off the dandelion, and waited.
No dice. I needed another strategy.
“Fine, what does it take for you to be responsive? For fuck’s sake, you’re the High Lord of Night. You’re supposed to lead a vampire army. I kid you not, the war is coming!”
No go.
His sensual lips that had licked me down there in my wet dream weren’t moving at all. I’d constantly fantasized about how it would feel to have his hot mouth claiming my lips both up and down. I had a lot of dirty thoughts.
Anyway, Reys had said that Lorcan would only awake when he was greatly motivated.
It could very well start with a kiss, and I had wanted it from him for a while.
I tossed the dandelion into his hair, bent down, my palms on either side of his face, and pressed my lips to his. They were soft and cold beneath my feather-light touch, and his scent of faint pine and aged wine whirled around me, caressing me.
The High Lord’s primal power pulsed, pulling me closer into its shield as it recognized me. Even in a coma, his instinct was to protect me.
My lips traced his, slowly and sensually, but I grew impatient. I wanted more. I wanted his heat, his touch, and his icy fire. The tip of my tongue pushed forward, urging his mouth to open. To my surprise, he obliged, even though he didn’t wake.
