War of the Gods Complete Series Boxed Set

by Meg Xuemei X

  He intended to play dominant with me in bed. If I gave up, it would become the dynamic of our relationship, even out of the bedroom.

  “I don’t know how to succumb,” I said between my breathless moans. “Unless you teach me. You’re an expert anyway.”

  He glared at me, but he didn’t slow his thrusts.

  He pounded harder between my thighs.

  “Yes, just like that,” I said. “Fuck me harder and talk less.”

  I raked my fingernails across his rippled muscles on his back, leaving a thin blood trail. He’d just gotten his answer for “succumb.”

  The vampire roared. A crimson ring formed around his dark irises, and his silver eyes glowed brighter.

  His thrusts grew frantic.

  He was losing control. I’d pushed his button too hard, but I wasn’t afraid.

  The High Lord of Night always prided himself on his self-control, and I wanted to strip him of it. Otherwise, where was the fun in the mating game?

  Pleasure floored me. In response, I moved my hands to squeeze Lorcan’s perfect, firm ass and pressed him even closer to me though there was no more space between us.

  His rhythm became blinding, his strength pouring into me. He was giving part of his primal essence to me, knowing I could take it.

  His face fell to my neck, his fangs piercing my skin once again. There was no pain this time but an onslaught of earth-shattering pleasure.

  His cock grew harder and larger in me, pounding into my molten core mercilessly. The High Lord of Night was claiming me, imprinting me, and marking me as his.

  The question was whether I wanted it. But it seemed too late to bail out now; the incredible sensation was rendering me mindless.

  Wave and wave of pleasure assaulted me as his cock drilled into my pussy relentlessly, and somehow his claiming felt right.

  What the hell, I might as well go along for the joy ride.

  I cried in bliss as Lorcan’s ancient energy swelled into me, filling my deep well. He roared and emptied in me. A shock wave of pure pleasure pumped through my veins, and ecstasy charged my every fiber.

  Reys’s finger-fuck had elicited my orgasm, but nothing prepared me for this experience. I exploded in wetness and heat around a massive hard cock.

  As soon as Lorcan extracted his fangs, I lifted my face and bit him hard between his shoulder and neck until I tasted his rich blood. It wasn’t nectar as he said mine was, but it tasted like the best, aged wine. And that was good enough for me.

  More importantly, by biting him, I claimed him in my own ritual.

  We were even, and I roared in victory.

  He gave me a look without a comment, remaining rock hard in me. Then he flipped me on top of him.

  Mine, my dulcis, he said in my head, and started thrusting in me again.

  3

  Alaric, Reysalor, Pyrder, and Lorcan seemed unable to agree on anything. Each one of them argued that I should go to his territory. Reys and Pyrder wanted me to return to Academy, and I mostly agreed with them. I liked to be near the school and watch the magical users practice.

  Besides, I wanted the chocolate mousse cake Boone promised me. I wouldn’t let him get out of that, but I would discuss the choice of the toppings with him.

  “Why are your eyes glazed over, Cass?” Reysalor asked. “Are you still sleepy? You just had the breakfast and brunch.”

  “Lunch will follow up soon,” I said. “Xihin, Lorcan’s number one minion, has confirmed.”

  I placed my feet on Pyrder’s lap as I leaned back in my chair to make myself more comfortable, and he laid his big hand on my calf without a complaint from me. Alaric turned my chair to the side and let me lean against his cut chest. Lorcan eyed the demigod with displeasure but refrained from comment.

  When it came to the seating arrangement, Alaric and Pyrder were quicker to sit beside me. Lorcan felt fighting for a seat was beneath him, but then he always wound up sitting farthest away from me and he wasn’t gracious about it.

  I regarded Reys as the most mature and balanced of the four. He always smoothed over the fights among the vampire lord, his twin, and the demigod. The alpha males argued a lot, and each one regarded his opinions as weightier than any other’s.

  They all had ego in spades.

  Ever since Lorcan claimed me and I claimed him back by biting him, our group dynamic had shifted. We hadn’t really talked about how we should proceed and who’d be next to claim me, with me claiming him right back, of course.

  The topic wasn’t urgent, apparently, since we had a serious gods issue. The four males were anxious to obtain intel from Phobos, but the God of Terror wasn’t talking and wasn’t afraid of torture, either. But when I showed up, he sobbed like a baby. I believed my alpha males had the wrong approach when it came to making a god talk.

  I was partly relieved and partly disappointed when they didn’t eagerly pursue the sensitive, hot topic about claiming me as they had last time, which ended up with Lorcan drinking from me and fucking me.

  It had been a fabulous fuck, so I hadn’t bitched about it when I’d come out of Lorcan’s room.

  “My eyes don’t exactly glaze over.” I defended myself since all the males still focused on me. “I was musing that I need to tell Boone about the cherries. Maybe Hector or someone else can get the message to Boone if their presences aren’t required in the never-ending conferences you dudes hold.”

  I appreciated that they invited me to all of their meetings as an equal in their decision making after I’d lashed out at them for failing to. With these alpha males, who were used to doing things the old-fashioned way, I had to constantly remind them of my rights, and I was never shy about giving them a piece of my mind.

  The males gawked at me. I nodded at them. “Cherries aren’t an option anymore as the toppings on any cake, since Phobos used them to lure me to drink the poison. They’re now linked to poison in my subconscious, just as carrots are forever branded as prison food since it was all Jezebel gave me. But I still need cream on top of the cake, and we’ll consider a different fruit. Strawberries are tasty, but they must be organic. That’s what mortals say. What do you think, gentlemen? I’m open to suggestions.”

  Lorcan frowned at me, as he often had. Well, my letting him claim me hadn’t changed his attitude and insolence. He wouldn’t get a piece of my ass for a long time. He didn’t deserve it. And it wasn’t like he was the only dude with a big cock. I surveyed the three other males around the table and grinned at them. They were all for me to take.

  Reysalor chuckled. “Lorcan will never get how Cass’s mind works, even though he’s the first one who claimed her. Cass isn’t like any woman you got used to or the vampire high ladies in your court.”

  “Scowling at me?” I told the vampire lord. “Next time you want to take a sip from me, it’ll be the next century.”

  Lorcan blinked, starting to realize the grievous situation he was in. He needed me more than I needed him, and I had so many options. I waved a hand to include Reys, Pyrder, and Alaric just to show him that.

  “You misunderstood the meaning of my frown,” Lorcan said on a sigh. “I was trying to understand you. You aren’t like any other female.”

  “What’s so hard to understand about Cass?” Pyrder said. “If Cass baby wants strawberries, then strawberries it is.”

  Exactly. I smiled at him.

  Lorcan glared at him. “We have a pact.”

  “Right. And you got the best of it by not waking up until Cass had to step in,” Pyrder barked back.

  “Cass sweetheart isn’t one to play by anyone’s rules,” Alaric said. “Remember that and respect that if you want her to accept you.”

  I turned to grin at him as well. It was important to secure allies

  “Let’s bring Cass to Australia,” Alaric continued, smiling at me enticingly. “We can operate from my headquarters. I have a vast army of hybrids in my territory. Cass will fit right in.”

  “Absolutely not!” All the other three m
ales objected.

  “This isn’t the best time to move Cass out of the states. The center of the rebel operation is here,” Pyrder said. “The Academy is the safest place for her, as my twin said. Our Cass needs proper training. She also needs to hang out with people her age. We must think of our mate’s best interests.”

  My eyes sparkled. “So I’ll be in the school?”

  “Yes, Cass baby,” Reysalor said.

  “Do I need to pass some tests to get in?” I asked, hiding my worries. I couldn’t even write my own name. If there were a written test, I would make a fool of myself.

  And I didn’t want anyone to know this fatal weakness of mine. How was I going to overcome this flaw in a short time? I bit my lip, my mind running wild.

  “Dulcis won’t go to Australia,” Lorcan said. “The jet almost got shot down by one of the gods’ storms last time.”

  I remembered that he’d slept through all of it, but his minions must have briefed him.

  “It was my father,” Alaric said grimly. “He sent a warning. He knew I was in that plane. I haven’t talked to him since he returned to Earth.”

  “Distant travel isn’t safe for Cass,” Lorcan said. His heated gaze honed in on me. His remarkably handsome face was solemn, and his masculine body clad in his perfect suit emitted potent sexiness. “I won’t risk our mate.”

  Even though his scowl had offended me his hotness took my breath away, especially when my mind drifted to how he’d pounded my tender flesh between my thighs.

  The males’ eyes all grew intensely heated as they fell on me.

  I flushed. “Uh, where are we? Are we talking about cherries, jet, or destination?”

  “The safest place for Cass now is my court,” Lorcan said.

  “The Court of Blood and Void?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Lorcan said.

  “It’s such a long-winded name,” I said. “You ever consider changing it? Maybe use an abbreviation, like TCOBAV?”

  “And then everyone will ask what TCOBAV represents, and then it’ll become even more long-winded,” Pyrder said.

  I laughed. “You’re making sense for the first time, Pyrder. In the past, we never agreed on anything, but we’ve made progress lately. Maybe we should just say Blood Court, so everyone will get it. And it fits.”

  Alaric chuckled. “Or Void Court.”

  “Void means empty,” I said. “I doubt Lorcan wants an empty court.”

  Lorcan looked at us as if we were all idiots. He sighed. “Can we get back on track, please, gentlemen and lady? Time is of the essence and we can’t waste it on idle jokes.”

  He was really not used to my style. I could tell that, even though we’d claimed each other, we wouldn’t get along. If I sought a soul mate in him, I’d find a bad joke instead. It was a shame, though, since Lorcan was superhot and excellent for a wild ride.

  “It’s most economical to bring Cass to my court since we’re already in my dominion,” the vampire lord continued. “We can train her there in secret—all of us. Now that the gods know about her existence, we need to hide her better. There was a reason Jezebel succeeded in hiding her daughter in the vampire court. Without the aid of the visions, we’d never have found her.”

  The males debated for a few more rounds, and Lorcan’s argument won at last.

  But they didn’t expect my hiss at their final decision. The last place I wanted to go was another vampire court, even if it was Lorcan’s.

  I dragged my feet off Pyrder’s firm legs, rose, and stood tall, my hands on my hips.

  “Didn’t we agree that any decision should be made by the group?” I demanded.

  “We just did,” Lorcan said, regarding me warily.

  “I haven’t voted!” I said.

  “Next time, don’t doze off or drool over cake when the vote is cast, dulcis,” Lorcan said.

  I wanted to smack him.

  The rogue vampire lord wouldn’t get another piece of me, not before this century was over.

  “I propose to revote,” I said. “I voted to go to the Academy with Reys and Pyrder, so we have three votes already.” I turned to Alaric and raised an eyebrow to send him a signal to support me. “I’ll stop by Australia next. Sydney is magnificent.”

  “I wouldn’t have had this alliance if it weren’t for you, sweetheart,” Alaric said. “I didn’t even care much about the Olympian gods eliminating the fae, vampires, shifters, and such. They’re a bunch of purists. They’ve been constantly at war with my kind anyway, attempting to expand their territories into mine. But you’ve changed everything. You’re mine, and all that matters is to keep you safe. The vampire made sense in keeping you at his court for now. You need to lie low while you receive proper training.”

  I turned to the twins.

  “It isn’t in our best interest to broadcast the whereabouts of you and our captive god,” Reys said. “Phobos is still a ticking bomb. It’s best we don’t jerk around for now. We won’t stay here long, Cass baby, I promise,”

  “My court won’t be like Dario and Jezebel’s,” Lorcan said. “You’ll be well taken care of and protected, dulcis. I won’t allow anyone to harm you again.”

  Last time I’d insisted on having my way, just to get a cocktail in the mortal city, I’d brought the gods on my tail and almost gotten everyone killed. The lesson I’d learned was that when I became reckless, I put others—whom I had started to care about—in harm’s way. So I had to look at the big picture and not act like a brat.

  “Remember this. I’ve just made another compromise for you,” I said.

  The alpha males smiled dotingly and amusingly, except for Lorcan, who had no idea how to smile nicely. But his expression softened.

  I gave them a quick glance, and my breath hitched in my throat again. How could all of the four hottest males on Earth be my mates? It was a dream I didn’t want to wake up from.

  I definitely got the better part of the bargain.

  They got a piece of me and I got all of them.

  I tapped on the table with a smug smirk. “Shouldn’t we have lunch before we head to the Blood Court?”

  4

  Lorcan’s court turned out to be a gated compound and community that covered hundreds of acres.

  The gate automatically glided open at the approach of our vehicles. Several guards stood beside it. Along the tree-lined road, many more vampires patrolled the perimeter, blending into the shadows, but I could easily sense their pulsing energy.

  Xihin sat behind the driver’s seat and Hector on the front passenger seat in the four-row van. They wouldn’t let me have that front seat and get a great view, even though the males told me we were riding an armored, bulletproof vehicle.

  They wanted to train me as a lethal weapon, yet they were overprotective every step of the way. Males were contradictory, and lots of times they didn’t know their heads were up their asses.

  So I was in the third row between Alaric and Pyrder. These two were seat grabbers, and they both leaned on me, leaving me with little room.

  “You’re more than welcome to sit on my lap if you keep complaining about the tight space,” Alaric offered with a grin.

  “No way!” I said and threw a backward glance at Ambrosia and Celeb in the fourth seat to see if Alaric’s comments had harmed my image.

  Ambrosia rolled her green eyes. How typical! I had no clue why Reysalor insisted that I always had a female guard around me and that Ambrosia would protect me with her life. The fae female was forever annoying even when she didn’t radiate her air of superiority.

  And who was to protect whom? They hadn’t protected me that well at the Misery Twist club, but I decided to be a bigger person and not point it out.

  Celeb was Alaric’s elite guard, half-demon and half-human, but he was hornless. He always called me ma’am. He was big and powerful, not as badass as Alaric, yet his half-demon side could cast nightmares into his opponent’s mind.

  I shuddered at the content of his nightmares. I’d better not cross h
im, ever.

  So every person in the van was supposed to guard me—as if I needed guarding—except for Phobos, who hunched between Reysalor and Lorcan in a second-row seat. He couldn’t sit straight because I’d drunk from him before we hit the road. I’d offered him a creamy cupcake after I took a big sip from him, but he refused the cake, so I ate it in good spirit while Phobos was in tears.

  I’d told Lorcan there was no need to handcuff that god, but the hard-hearted, distrustful High Lord still put the poor Phobos in chains and bagged his head. And when Phobos lolled his head onto Lorcan’s shoulder, Lorcan shoved him away and Phobos bumped into Reysalor, which spurred a nasty growl from Reys.

  My mates all hated the Olympian gods.

  I couldn’t watch them anymore. I felt sorry for the God of Terror, even though he was a psychopath and inspired terror for breakfast. Maybe I should harden my heart too, given how brutal the gods were and how many lives they’d destroyed and cities they’d burned and leveled.

  “I want the window seat,” I told Pyrder and climbed onto his lap.

  Pyrder grinned at Alaric because I had chosen his lap, though Alaric had offered me his first. The demigod glowered at Pyrder, and I slid to the small empty space on Pyrder’s other side and shoved him toward Alaric to give me more room. Pyrder was easier to bully than Alaric, so I picked on him and got my window seat.

  Alaric would have dragged me onto his lap, but Pyrder respected a woman’s wishes more than the vampire lord and the demigod.

  “What Cass wants, Cass gets,” Pyrder said.

  I peered out the window with wide eyes. Everything was fresh and exciting to me since I’d left the cage. I knew the war with the gods was coming, but I’d still live every moment to the fullest and enjoy every new experience.

  I just started living.

  The van eased up once it got through the secured gate. It passed vast trees towering over most of the houses and facilities, providing extra shade for the vampires.

  “This place is in eternal shade,” I said, “even more so than ShadesStar. And according to my research, Portland is already one of the cloudiest cities.”