by Kamryn Hart
“Was it worth it?” I asked.
He hesitated. “Yes.”
“You don’t regret it?”
“Should I, Sorissa?”
“I don’t know. Evie said she loved him.”
He laughed, but it sounded more like he was choking. “If that was love, we really shouldn’t be considering a truce. They kept him locked up in a literal cage, Sorissa, isolated from everyone else. He was completely alone. Sure, his needs were met, but I had never seen a creature more pitiful. He told us to kill him and damned his own kind because he knew he was the last male.”
“The last male at the time,” Rodrick reminded, “with no guarantee a newborn male would eventually take his place.”
I said, “I don’t understand. Evie seemed genuinely hurt—”
“There’s nothing to understand,” Caspian growled. “If there’s one thing the king is right about, it’s the damn vampires.”
“You sounded like you were interested in this truce with the vampires when you were talking to Philip earlier.”
He ran his hands through his curly hair. “Are we done talking about this?”
“Sure. I’m tired anyway.” He didn’t want to talk about it, so I wouldn’t push. We had other more pressing things to worry about, and I needed sleep. I stretched and curled up on the couch we were sitting on. “I’ll sleep right here.”
“That’s unacceptable,” Caspian said as he placed a hand on my left ankle. His touch made me smile through the tension that had gathered. He was unbelievably warm, and I wanted to be closer. “You can have my bed.”
“I don’t want to steal anyone’s bed,” I protested.
“What if we just took turns and rotated the couch out?” Todd suggested.
“That, I’ll accept,” I said. “I’ll take you up on your offer then, Caspian.”
I hopped off the couch and looked at each member of Phantom Fangs, letting my gaze linger. There was a question hovering in the air. There was energy in my hands, and my lips, all over my body, sparked to life again by Caspian’s simple touch. I wanted to feel them. I had wanted to curl up next to Caspian the moment he sat on the couch, but he sat a cushion away from me. I figured that meant he didn’t want me to, that maybe they didn’t have this same unbearable ache for me that I had for them.
“May I give you all a kiss goodnight?” I asked, twirling a finger in my long curly tresses.
“Do you realize what your kiss last night did?” Caspian asked.
“It brought us closer together? Placed a claim on you? I don’t really know,” I confessed.
“We don’t really know either, but if you’re okay with what all of that could mean…” His voice trailed off.
“Are you all okay with it?” I asked. “I know I’m a newcomer. I know you had each other before I came in and started causing trouble. But since leaving my woods, since meeting you, all four of you have stood beside me. You’ve saved me more than once already, and it hasn’t even been a week. I can’t imagine being without any of you. I want to keep you all forever. This world is too cold without you. And I won’t always be trouble. I promise. I can protect you.” I looked at each one of them carefully as I said the words, steadily holding their gazes so they knew I was serious.
“I want that, too,” Todd agreed. “All four of you.” Then he blushed and dipped his chin in an attempt to hide his eyes. “Not like that.” Caspian, Aerre, and Rodrick laughed. Rodrick was the closest to Todd and clapped him on the shoulder.
Caspian got off the couch and took a few steps toward me until he was standing in front of me. He grabbed my chin with calloused fingers and tilted my head up. Then he bent down and captured my lips with his. My whole body went limp for a moment before I gathered my bearings and slipped my arms around his neck, into the curls of his hair, kissing him back.
He stopped the kiss too soon, but he kept his face close enough for our noses to touch as he said, “I’m not going to fail you. Any of you.”
He stepped away and Rodrick took his place. “I get a proper kiss, little fighter. No teasing this time.”
I smirked. “It was your own fault for teasing me first.”
Rodrick dove in without warning and captured my lips, using his teeth to bite just hard enough to hurt, but not hard enough to pierce my skin. He swept his tongue over my teeth and found my own tongue, inviting me to a dance I didn’t know but was quickly learning. I pressed into him so I could feel better, rolling my hips against him. He swallowed a moan deep in my throat.
More. More. More.
I was almost lost when Aerre grabbed Rodrick and forced him away. Wisps of blue licked his skin, and I knew he had used moonlight to do it. “The Princess didn’t sign up for any more than a kiss, Rodrick. Don’t get carried away.” He said the words to Rodrick, but he was gazing at me with his lake-blue eyes. They were sparkling, beautiful. He gave me a soft smile, and then he kissed me just as softly.
“Third kiss,” he whispered in my ear. “Think I’m addicted.”
When he stepped away, Todd automatically took his place. His face was a bright red, eyes downcast, so I took the lead. I ran my fingers across his cheeks, feeling his soft skin and mapping out his freckles. I wrapped my arms around his back, asking him to bridge the short distance between us. He bent down and kissed me as his hands found their way to my hips. He lifted the bottom of my shirt and drew gentle, tantalizing circles on my skin. I wanted to roll my hips again, but I restrained myself, cut the kiss short, and ripped the beanie from his head instead, gracing the room with the bright red of his hair. It was a vibrant color that almost seemed to cast a light of its own.
“I’ll share your hair with Phantom Fangs,” I said, smiling.
I didn’t know how it was possible, but Todd’s face went even redder as he replied, “Okay.”
My heart was full in this moment. In hardly any time at all, these werewolves had become my friends. No, they were more than that. They were family. We risked our lives for each other. That more than qualified us as family. As pack. They were the pack I always dreamed of having someday when I left Babaga’s woods.
I had wanted them to be my home. Now I knew they were.
It was dark, and I was alone.
I was curled up against endless void, wearing nothing but the thin black shift the vampires provided me. There was no solid ground underneath me, no way to orient myself as I floated in a vast expanse of nothing. When I reached out, my hands pressed against something solid, and I got to my feet. Slowly, I looked all around me in every direction, trying to gauge where I was.
I was nowhere.
I walked forward, my feet finding purchase on some unknown surface underneath. I kept walking in what I thought was a straight line, but I couldn’t be sure since there were no landmarks. I couldn’t hear my footsteps either. This place was as silent as it was empty.
Then a scream echoed from somewhere. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as I looked around wildly for the source of pain. Then I saw light in the distance. It was flickering, growing.
Flames. Smoke. The silhouette of a kingdom. A tall and proud castle. The wails of the dying. It all came from the same place.
I was afraid.
“Caspian!” I shouted. “Todd! Rodrick! Aerre!”
No one answered.
Where was Phantom Fangs? I needed to know if they were safe. I had to find them. They would be doing the same for me. That was what we did. We saved each other. Over and over no matter what. That was what made them pack. That was what made them mine.
The world outside of the woods was cold and dark, but it didn’t have to be. Phantom Fangs was my warmth. They were pure light.
I closed my eyes. The awful sounds pounded into my skull, but I thought only of Phantom Fangs. Even if I couldn’t see them, I knew they would always be with me. I had created something with them. The willingness to sacrifice your own life for the life of someone else had an unbreakable quality after all.
I pressed my hand t
o my chest, feeling my steady heartbeat.
Then there was silence.
When I opened my eyes, Phantom Fangs was in uniform and standing before me in the void. We were surrounded by nothing, but I wasn’t scared anymore. There was no more screaming. No more fire. No more dying kingdoms. There was serenity.
Caspian wore a playful grin. Rodrick was smirking with that signature lopsided upturn on the left side of his mouth. Aerre flashed perfect white teeth. Todd’s lips were barely set in a smile like it was something he didn’t do very often, but it was sweet, happy. These were looks they gave and saved for me.
I moved forward to touch each one of them on the cheek. Each time my fingertips met their skin, a burst of energy shot down through my body and dispersed in a tingling shower of fuzzy sparks.
“You are mine,” I growled.
Caspian grabbed me. He wrapped his arms loosely around me and rested his hands on my butt. I shivered, wondering what it would feel like to have him touch me like that without fabric in the way. I remembered him naked the first night I met him. I recalled every detail of his sculpted body perfectly because he was burned into my memory. Skin dark and tinted blue in the night. More muscle than I would ever have.
I let out a little gasp when his hands suddenly felt closer. I opened my eyes and realized we were both naked. His skin was touching mine, hands pulling me closer, pressing me into his hard body. His erection was at my stomach. But I couldn’t quite feel it. Like it wasn’t real. I could only imagine. Still, the heat between my legs was real. There was a powerful need inside of me that brought a whimper to my lips. It never stopped when I was close to Phantom Fangs, and I didn’t know how much more I could take before I sought some kind of release, but I didn’t want just any kind of release. I didn’t want to touch myself like I had in the tub inside Wolf Bridge Castle. It wasn’t enough.
Attraction. This was all the result of sexual attraction. Their bodies and mine. I sort of understood it, but I had never experienced it before Phantom Fangs. I didn’t know what to do with it. I didn’t know if I was supposed to try and ignore it because they hadn’t made a move, but they felt the same way. Didn’t they?
I held Caspian’s arms as I shook and managed to look past him to the others. They were all attracted to me, like magnets. I knew it even though the others were still in uniform. I had seen it before, their bodies reacting to mine. I wanted to see them naked too, but I couldn’t quite get a picture. Caspian was the only one I had seen naked. That seemed wrong.
My body ached worse, and I broke out in shivers. I didn’t feel whole. I was fracturing. I needed something.
“Re… to… Howling Sky.”
I blinked, and the scene changed. I winced and grabbed my head as distorted words echoed around in my skull. The void turned into a scene: grass, mountains, a kingdom sitting on top of the clouds. Then I was inside of the kingdom, standing in front of a pristine castle that looked like it was made from moonlight itself. Werewolves stood there, tall and proud. They were of the highest caliber, powerful and wearing expensive colorful silks in light pastels. The guards were dressed in glistening metal; the purple insignia of a wolf howling at the sky was displayed on the left side of their chests.
This was the “High Kingdom.” This was Howling Sky.
The scene blurred forward again, and I was taken to the castle courtyard where a large circle sat at its center, reflecting the full moon in the sky. Two werewolves were fighting in their moonlight forms with an audience of werewolves in their base forms watching on the sidelines. This was what Caspian would be doing for the Alpha Challenge.
I flinched when the two werewolves collided, moonlight on full blast. It sent out a shockwave that resounded all around me like an intense thunderstorm. The wolves flew back and clashed again. Each blow was quick as lightning, skilled and calculated. They held a lot of moonlight, but they were also using it efficiently, toning it down when it wasn’t needed, concentrating it into specific points of their bodies. Perhaps they held less than I could, but they knew how to make it last longer.
This idea weaseled its way into my head. Howling Sky was home to werewolves of the highest breeding and skill. They had become the High Kingdom for a reason. They fell, but I was certain they put up the best of fights. Maybe there were answers in Howling Sky, things even Philip didn’t know about moonlight.
“Return to Howling Sky.”
CHAPTER 10
SORISSA
I SAT UP IN a rush. The void was gone. I was in Caspian’s room inside of Phantom Fangs Lair. The room was dark with only unaligned moonlight drifting in through the window past the curtains, allowing me to see. This room looked a lot like Aerre’s. There wasn’t any defining personality beyond the basic tan, dark-blue, and orange-red color scheme used throughout all of Wolf Bridge. It was spotless, bare. Aside from Todd’s tech, Phantom Fangs didn’t appear to be very materialistic.
I tried to resist the urge to jump out of bed since it was so late, but I had to share my dream before I forgot it—not that I thought I could forget something like that very easily, but dreams were fickle like that. I threw the blankets over to the side and ran out of the room in the oversized shirt and short shorts I fell asleep in. I almost jumped down the entire flight of stairs and slid into the main room where Caspian was sleeping on the couch. I was so wound up, I didn’t bother being careful when I pounced on him.
Caspian gasped and startled awake. He sat up and came face to face with me. He blinked a couple times. Then the shock wore off. He closed his eyes again and dropped back down onto the couch with a sigh.
“You trying to give me a heart attack?” he mumbled.
I shifted so I was straddling him instead of digging into his stomach with my knees. Hard muscles or not, I was certain it wasn’t comfortable. The couch was just wide enough for me to place my knees next to either side of his waist. He only had on a white shirt and loose-fitting pants. He had no blanket, so I didn’t get tangled up in that.
I placed my hands on either side of his face and squished his cheeks. “You need to wake up, Caspian.”
“It’s too early, Sorissa. The sun isn’t even up. Most werewolves like to sleep in until noon.”
“My sleep schedule is pretty much nonexistent these days.”
Caspian kept his eyes closed. I noticed the dark circles underneath, purplish against his dark skin that typically had more of a blue, moonlight-like undertone. He started breathing deeper, threatening to go back to sleep. I thought about letting him. Then I thought about the dream I just had. I was touching him in that dream. We were close like this. Except there was no fabric between us. It was all skin. I wanted to feel it for real.
I shuddered at the thought.
I shifted, lifting myself up on my knees so I could get my hand underneath his white shirt. I pulled up the fabric and placed my hand on his firm stomach. My eyes rolled shut. My dream didn’t do this justice. His warmth seeped into my fingers. I explored the defined divots in his abdominal wall, tracing the muscles. Heat flared in between my thighs. Tingling. Throbbing. Aching.
Caspian’s eyes shot open. The hard-to-see blue flakes that tumbled in the dark abyss of his eyes were falling faster than usual, swirling around like a tornado. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“I had a dream about you, Aerre, Todd, and Rodrick.” I rocked my hips against his stomach, hitting a sensitive area of my sex. I decided I liked being on top of Caspian. At least for the moment. I shifted down. Was he hard? Was he feeling what I was feeling?
Caspian’s breath caught. He set up, planting me firmly in his lap. I rocked against him again after wrapping my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist. A needy whimper escaped my lips.
“Stop,” he said. His fingers dug into my waist, and every muscle in his body went rigid.
“Why?” My eyes were half-lidded, lost in this inexplicable sensation. I shook my head to try and clear it. “This doesn’t feel good for you?” I asked, concerned. I loosened my
clasped hands at the back of his neck. I thought about withdrawing, but I couldn’t move off his lap because his fingers were still digging into my waist, keeping me right there.
“This feels very fucking good,” he said and let out a breath. “I’m just… I’m not doing this right here and now.”
“Okay,” I said, unsure.
“I want you, Sorissa. I’m not sure if you realize how much, and I’m not sure if you know what all of this means exactly: your kisses, the way you’re touching me, the way you look at me—all of us.”
“I want to keep you,” I reminded him of what I said earlier.
“Does that mean you want four mates? Because that has never been done before, and I can’t do this.” He sighed. “I just don’t know. I don’t want to break things.” He growled and pressed his forehead to mine. “What are you trying to do right now?”
“I’m not sure,” I confessed. “I want to be close to you. My body aches. I have a need that won’t go away.” I tried to ignore his erection jamming into the sensitive flesh between my legs. I could barely stand it. I needed to move. I needed the clothes gone. I needed him inside of me.
Caspian rested his forehead on my shoulder. He tilted his head to the side, breath labored and hot against my neck. “I would gladly help you take care of that need if I thought I could without”—his teeth grazed my skin, sharp and zapping like static electricity—“biting you and sealing you to me.”
“I don’t think I would mind,” I whispered. My hips had a mind of their own, and I tried to roll against him again, but his hands were like hard restraints without any give. He held me in place. I was so frustrated. Sitting like this was putting a constant pressure on my vagina that nearly had me in tears. I could barely breathe. “Caspian,” I begged, “please.” I was trembling so badly, I thought I might shatter.
“No,” he said. “I can’t do it, Sorissa. I can’t. I’m pretty sure my heart can’t take getting broken before the Alpha Challenge. Don’t play around with us.” His lips moved softly against my skin, dry until he pressed his lips more firmly to my neck in a welcoming wet heat. He softly touched his tongue to my neck, and then grazed my skin with his teeth once again.
