The Crow’s Murder

by Tate James

  River and Cole never did need to be told twice when the suggestion was that they get naked. In a flurry of sheets and boxer shorts, the two of them stripped down and reclined back on their pillows with looks that clearly told me, “Your turn.”

  “Well, that was quick,” I muttered with a teasing tone as I hooked my thumbs into the hem of my tank and dragged it up over my head. I hadn’t been sleeping in a bra because that was akin to sleeping wrapped in barbed wire, so when I dropped my top to the ground, I was in nothing but my dark green panties.

  Slipping my hands under the sides, I paused. “Wait, was I supposed to be like... dancing or something while I did this?”

  Cole gave a growling laugh, sounding very dragonesque, while River smirked at me with an easy grin.

  “Just take your damn knickers off and get over here, love,” our Alpha leader ordered with amusement, and I complied. Stepping out of the fabric, I placed my knees on the foot of the bed and crawled up toward them in what I sincerely hoped was a sexy way.

  When I reached them, Cole wrapped a huge hand around the back of my neck and dragged my lips to his for another long, languid kiss that had sparks shooting through me and my nipples tightening to hard points.

  River shifted, and I slipped my body into the space between the two men, relishing the feeling of being surrounded by so much hard muscle. Despite being such a strong, independent woman in my own right, there was something intrinsically primal about being surrounded by these men.

  Cole released my neck, shifting to slide further down the bed while River turned my face to his with a firm hand on my face.

  “Kitten,” he whispered, meeting my gaze with his liquid gold gaze while Cole kissed his way south across my stomach. “This kidnapping business has got to stop. Do you have any idea how worried we were for you?”

  “I have an idea, yes,” I whispered back to him, placing a gentle kiss against his lips. “But it wasn’t like we asked to be kidnapped... again. And we did manage to get ourselves out of it pretty easily.”

  River’s eyes narrowed, and he grunted a noise that sounded a lot like, “Yeah sure, this time. You also rolled a van down a bloody hill and could have broken your necks in the process.” But maybe I was reading too much into his noises.

  The time for idle chat was over though, as Cole parted my legs and settled himself between them. His cool fingers grasped my inner thighs, pushing them wider apart, and then his tongue delivered a long, ice-cold lick down the length of my pussy. Damn, he was getting really precise with that dragon magic...

  Whimpering a little, I bucked my hips, but he had me pinned down tight with his firm grip on my thighs. Instead, River claimed my mouth, his lips caressing mine, parting them, and his tongue met mine in a dance of passion and desire.

  With a sigh, I melted into their touches. One of my hands clasped the back of River’s neck, holding him close while we kissed. The other hand held Cole’s head in an iron grip, urging him for more... just, more.

  River’s hands roamed my body, rolling my hardened nipples between his fingers firmly enough to make me moan into his mouth. Breaking from his lips, I tipped my head back to the pillow with a sigh of sheer pleasure as Cole’s lips found my clit and he sucked it lightly.

  Electricity coursed through my body, lighting up all my nerve endings like Christmas lights. I writhed under their dual ministrations while River kissed and sucked at my neck, nipping me lightly with his teeth and trailing his fingertips over my belly, causing me to shiver.

  “Guys...” I started, but really didn’t know what I was planning on saying. Maybe, “Guys, what the hell? You’re killing me!” Or maybe just, “Guys, keep going. Seriously. Don’t stop.” Whatever, it just faded into another breathy moan as River’s hand stroked over my thigh, and past Cole’s face to slip a finger inside me.

  Oh, shit yes. Having River’s fingers inside me while Cole’s mouth was on my clit... pure, heavenly torture. River’s teeth closed over one of my hyper-sensitive nipples, tweaking at it and biting ever so lightly. Just enough to make me nearly scream.

  “Okay, nope,” I announced, wriggling out of their combined grips right when I felt like I was about to come. And come hard. Not that I was one of those masochists who enjoyed denying herself an orgasm; I knew full well how capable I was of doubling down on them. Also, with six exceptionally generous lovers, it was never really a concern. But I wanted to come with one of them in me. Maybe both?

  Cole shifted back up the bed without me needing to give him any instructions and reclined back against the pillows while licking his lips. Holy crap. That should be a bit ick, but in reality it was seriously sexy as fuck.

  Flooded with desire, I threw my leg over his waist so that I was straddling his hips. His long, hard length pushed against my cunt and I wiggled in delight.

  “I love this view,” Cole murmured, his large hands bracing my hips and his tongue wetting his lower lip as he gazed up at me. “You look like some sort of angel or goddess.”

  I gave a small, self-conscious snort and swept my long hair back over one shoulder so it wasn’t obscuring my view. I, too, loved this view.

  River was on the bed beside us, leaning over the edge and rifling around in a bag, and I gave his naked butt an appreciative glance as I rose up on my knees to bring Cole to my core. No doubt River was looking for something awesome to contribute here, and the anticipation sent a spike of excitement through me.

  “Vixen,” Cole groaned as his tip breached my tight entrance.

  “Here,” River offered, reaching between us with a hand slick with lube. Slowly, deliberately, and with a wicked look in his eyes, he wrapped his lubricated palm around Cole’s cock, stroking it down his length until it glistened in the half light of the room.

  “Shit,” I hissed, watching the simple action with my breath in my throat and my eyes as wide as damn dinner plates. “That was...”

  “Shh, Vixen,” Cole chuckled, pressing his now lubed up dick back to my opening and pulling me down hard onto him.

  The exquisite sharpness of pleasure-pain made me scream. His cock slid in with ease, but it was an instant feeling of fullness, or stretching, that made me cry out. But holy-fucking-wow it was good...

  After just a moment to adjust, Cole’s hands on my hips encouraged me into movement, and I began to ride him slowly. My hands braced on his chest as I moved up and down his shaft, and his panting groans spurred me faster. He was so damn sexy in the throws of passion, his lower lip snared by his teeth and his eyelids so heavy they were almost shut.

  River shifted out of my sight, but I felt him move behind me. His erection brushed my lower back as he got comfortable kneeling over Cole’s legs.

  “River,” I moaned, arching my back and tilting my head back to kiss him.

  “Yes, love?” he replied in a husky whisper when our lips parted. He had one hand on my breast, tweaking my nipple between his fingers, while the fingers of his other hand smeared lube over my backdoor. I didn’t reply for a long time, just rested my head back on his chest while he applied the slippery substance and my pussy clenched around Cole’s shaft.

  “You had something to say?” River prompted me while inserting one finger into my tight hole and making me moan. So much sensation was flying through me I was having a hard time finding words, and feeling River’s hard cock pressed between us was driving me insane. I wanted more.

  “River,” I panted again as he inserted another finger to my asshole, and I almost screamed. “I want your dick in me. Now... sir.”

  Cole chuckled a laugh, still bucking his hips but with a much shallower depth. Like he was holding as still as he possibly could for River to do his thing.

  “Well when you asked so nicely,” River replied with an edge of amusement to his mostly lust-filled voice. His fingers withdrew, and I felt the warm tip of his cock against my ass.

  Fuck. Yes. This was so happening.

  Until a sharp, frantic knock sounded at the door, and we all froze.

&nbs
p; “Seriously?” I blurted out, and River let out an almost inhuman growl.

  “What?” our Alpha barked at the door when the knock happened again, and it cracked open and inch.

  “So sorry to interrupt,” Caleb’s voice came through sounding a bit muffled from the door between us. “But if Kitty Kat’s coming to the town hall, we need to leave now.”

  “You said not until eleven,” Cole snarled back, “Fuck off until then.”

  I tended to agree with him, unable to stop myself as I rolled my hips and made him groan. River was still pressed against my ass, but hadn’t gone any farther. Yet.

  “Sorry, guys.” Caleb really did sound sorry... sort of. “There’s been developments. We need to go now.”

  “Five minutes,” River snapped back, his fingers tight enough on my waist to bruise.

  “Now!” Austin could be heard shouting from farther away. “Or we go without the Princess.”

  I groaned, but this time it was with frustration not pleasure. “Fuck. I need to go to that meeting,” I told the guys on either side of me. “Raincheck?”

  “Vixen,” Cole growled in what sounded like disbelief, but River just sighed and flopped down onto the bed beside us.

  “Go, love,” he told me. “We can wait.”

  Cole grunted, and his hands tightened as he bucked his hips to meet mine again. “Speak for yourself, sir.”

  “Now, Princess!” Austin yelled from outside the room, and I sighed.

  “Sorry, Cutie,” I whispered, sliding his rock hard erection out of me and scooting off the bed to find my clothes. “Make it up to you both later, I promise.”

  Leaning over to kiss them both, I took a quick moment to appreciate the godlike creatures before me, then regretfully left them there to go learn about mage politics. Yay for good decisions, right?

  Kit... what the fuck.

  My brain yelled at me to go back and finish what was promising to be my first experience with that particular configuration. But something in me was pushing me to attend this meeting. For some reason, it was vital I went.

  Now, to figure out why the fuck that was. Hopefully it was worth leaving for.

  4

  The mages’ town hall was held in an underground cavern, accessed by a hidden staircase within a touristy Wicca shop in Union Square. Not that we used the front door, I just found this out from the dreadlocked girl who greeted us when we portaled into the antechamber.

  Yeah. There was an antechamber.

  “So this is like... the real deal, secret society kind of business, huh?” I muttered to Caleb as he helped me into the sapphire-blue, velvet robe that the girl had presented me with.

  “Yep.” He waggled his eyebrows at me. “Be glad mages have evolved past the need to be naked at these gatherings.”

  He had a point. Not that I was any stranger to nudity, but I preferred not to be naked in front of strangers.

  “So what was the huge rush to get here? I thought it wasn’t starting until closer to midnight.” I glanced over at Austin, who had been in a surly mood since we’d left the hotel by the beach. Admittedly, that was only about twenty minutes ago since we’d used magic to get here.

  “It’s not,” Caleb responded. “But we got word that someone is going to try and petition we abdicate our positions as the leaders of mage-kind. We wanted to get here before anyone else in order to get the upper hand and prevent them chattering amongst themselves.”

  I wrinkled my nose at this idea. “Won’t they just do it elsewhere?”

  “No.” Austin snorted. “Mages are a bit like... stray cats. Or lions. They don’t really play well with others of their own species, so they rarely intermingle. Meetings like this are the only time so many of us gather in one place. Aside from that...” He trailed off with a shrug. “This clown is likely relying on getting to this meeting early to garner support for his cause since traditionally Yoshi and Jackson would turn up late.”

  “When Jackson bothered to turn up at all,” Caleb muttered, shrugging into his own blood-red robe.

  Austin was dressed in an inky black robe, and they both looked stunning. Also, they looked every part the mystical leaders of a magical race. It was crazy to think how much our lives had changed since I met these two back at Cascade Falls Academy. Back when they were still human and I still thought I was human.

  “So you know who it is that’s stirring up shit?” I asked the twins, perching on the edge of a marble-topped table to wait for them to be ready. “Why not deal with him privately?”

  Austin gave a sharp shake of his head. “We don’t. The tip came from a young seer who’d caught it in a vision. She didn’t know who the guy was, so couldn’t tell us.”

  “Wait.” My jaw dropped. “A seer? Like someone who sees the future? That’s so cool.”

  Caleb grimaced. “Not really, Kitty Kat. Seers tend to be a bit kooky. It’s a result of seeing so many possible futures they tend to lose track of the present.”

  “Oh.” I nodded, considering this. “I guess that would be tough.”

  “Come on,” Caleb said, lifting me down from the table I was perched on. “Let’s go take a seat and greet our loyal subjects as they arrive. It’s way past time that Aus and I made a formal appearance like this anyway.”

  Caleb led the way out of the antichamber and into the huge cavern that would host the town hall. It was set up with hundreds of those black folding chairs used at conferences and things, so I guess they’d progressed past everyone needing to stand.

  As we made our way to the front of the room, where two insanely ornate chairs were set on a raised stage, Austin linked his finger with mine. Between the thrones—because that was exactly what they were—sat another folding chair that must have been put there for me.

  “Aw, look guys, they gave me the space between you!” I grinned as we approached the little dais, and Austin used our linked fingers to tug me close.

  “As you should be,” he murmured in my ear, and I was under no illusions we were still discussing seating. A shiver of excitement ran through me. His innuendo coupled with my aborted threesome not half an hour ago had me so wired up it was insane.

  I’m going to have to sit through a meeting like this? Ugh, goddamn sexy guardians.

  The three of us took our seats and settled in to wait for the mages to arrive.

  So far, the only one I’d met was the dreadlocked chick who’d greeted us, exchanged a few pleasantries, and then left to come and set up all these chairs. If I was being totally honest, I was actually really nervous to meet more mages.

  For so long, I hadn’t even known magic existed, let alone that there were entire communities and species hiding right under the humans’ noses. Not that I was one to talk, being not human myself. But other than the guys—whom I’d turned—I hadn’t really had very much interaction with other magical beings. The wolves in Harrow were definitely not a good example either, given they’d tried to have me killed.

  Soon, the first few mages in forest-green robes began arriving. Some eyed us warily; some came up and greeted the twins politely, shaking their hands and giving me a cautious nod. None spoke to me, though, which was my first tip-off that we were breaking some major mage etiquette by having me on stage.

  Sitting in my hard-as-hell folding chair between the twins, I grew increasingly uncomfortable as the room filled with more and more mages and ever more people to eye me like I was a dangerous animal or a pile of moldy food.

  “Guys,” I muttered under my breath after I caught one older woman curling her lip at me in disgust. “I get the feeling I shouldn’t be here.”

  “You shouldn’t,” Austin replied just as quietly, and I gave him a sharp look. “According to Mage law, you shouldn’t.”

  “So then why am I here?” I hissed back at him, feeling my face flaming with embarrassment.

  “Because you insisted,” he countered, raising one eyebrow at me teasingly. Bastard.

  “What he means,” Caleb interjected quietly, pulling my
attention from his dickhead twin, “is that we are Mage law now. If we want to change shit, then that’s our prerogative. Besides, I think it’s maybe important that you’re involved in meetings like this since this will be our job for the next five hundred years.”

  “Five hundred years.” I sucked in a breath as I processed this information again. Fucking hell, that was a long time; I could scarcely comprehend being alive that long.

  Further whispering between us was cut off as the room quieted down and the dread-locked girl strolled out onto the dais beside us. It seemed the meeting was beginning.

  “Friends,” she greeted the crowd, her voice carrying through the chamber as easily as any microphone could have projected it. “We are gathered tonight at the bequest of our new leaders. Ink Mage Austin and Blood Mage Caleb have come into their fated powers and relieved our former leaders of their stations, but we thank Mage Yoshi and Mage Jackson for their continued service, long past their intended tenure was up.” She dipped her head gracefully then, as if in a moment of respect.

  The room clapped politely, but it was clear from some of the murmurings that they hadn’t thought very highly of Jackson, at least. Personally, if I ever got my hands on Yoshi, I intended to choke the fucking life out of him for what he’d done to Austin. But that was my own issue.

  “About damn time!” someone yelled from within the sea of forest-green robes, and the room fell deathly silent.

  Both twins stilled, and I just knew this meeting wasn’t going to be as simple as, “Oh, hi. Yeah, we’re your new leaders. Can you all stop assisting the bad guys in trying to kidnap Kit? Great, thanks. See ya!”

  “Who said that?” Austin demanded in a voice that brokered no arguments. He rose from his seat, and the power seemed to roll off him in waves. These mages were fucking morons if they couldn’t sense how dangerous he could be.

  The green-robes mages shuffled and whispered, but no one stuck their hand up to claim responsibility for heckling their new leaders so soon. Typical. Everyone was a goddamn hero when they didn’t have to own up to their actions.