by Emma Dean
But Niko knew he and Piper had similar personalities, similar interests so it wasn’t all that surprising that they’d gotten along so well. No, what had Niko in complete awe of her was the spell she’d put on Caleb. It was like watching a man come back from the brink of death to see Caleb smile for the first time in years.
Piper squirmed away from Caleb. “Not until these two are making out,” she told him.
The shock he felt the first time she’d boldly ordered them to do as she wished had almost made him come on the spot. And it still shocked him every time she opened that dirty fucking mouth to say something else.
Caleb growled at him and Xavier and it would be almost comical if the golden glow of his cat form wasn’t flickering in his eyes.
“Poor baby,” Piper murmured, reaching out to caress Niko’s face. “You want to watch, don’t you?”
Xavier let out a slow breath next to him and the two of them were still as statues. Finally Niko nodded. She tilted her fucking head and Niko would never be able to watch her do that again without thinking of this moment.
He licked his lips when Caleb’s large hand spanned her neck and held her so her back arched.
“I suppose that’s fine,” Piper teased. “Just means you get to do it for me later.”
Niko had to grip his dick as it hardened painfully. This…this was enough to shove him head over heels in love with her. Not just because of the way she handled them in the bedroom, but because of the way she had Caleb smiling as he slid into her.
Piper gasped and Xavier groaned. Both of them were stroking their dicks as they watched even though Niko would have sworn he was done for the night after Piper milked him dry.
Then Caleb gripped her neck and pulled her up so her back was against his chest, Niko and Xavier could see everything. He thrust into her without mercy and Piper’s eyes rolled into the back of her head as she held onto his neck, the sound of flesh slapping together was driving him crazy. And then Caleb’s free hand came around to rub her clit. Niko gritted his teeth.
Their Alpha was powerful and strong, but Niko could clearly see the careful way he held their mate. She was just as precious to him as she was to them, just as special – if not maybe more. Piper was hope, she was the future, and Caleb looked at her like she hung the fucking moon as he kissed and licked her neck.
Niko’s speed increased as he jacked off to the most erotic scene he’d ever witnessed in his life. His Alpha and his mate. Watching Caleb – Niko felt closer to him than he’d felt the entire time they’d known each other. They’d served together in the Army, and he trusted him – saw him as a brother. Niko also trusted him as Alpha and knew Caleb would do anything to keep their pride safe.
But for the first time he was seeing the man behind all of that, not the boy he used to be or the front he always put on for everyone. There was still that fear in Caleb’s eyes, the desolation that leading a dying pride left, but there was also hope and love. Caleb loved Piper.
Niko groaned as he came, spilling cum all over his hand and stomach. Xavier lost it too and then Piper was screaming as Caleb picked up the pace, loving her body with his almost violently. The roar Caleb let out when he came made Niko shudder to imagine what that would feel like.
He could practically feel what Piper felt in the thick air of her room.
Caleb released her neck and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close while she shivered and slowly came back to them. She smiled sleepily and then turned just enough to kiss Caleb.
Niko wanted more, but they were all exhausted. He made a move to get up but Caleb shook his head and laid Piper between him and Xavier. Then their Alpha disappeared into the bathroom. He came back with washcloths.
He knew it was rude to stare, but this wasn’t the same man Niko had known his whole life. One glance at Xavier and he knew he felt the same. They all cleaned up in companionable silence and Niko wondered if Piper would want them to leave, but she snuggled into Xavier with her eyes already closed.
Niko shared a look with Caleb and then moved. He spooned Xavier and wrapped his arm around both Xavier and her. Caleb may not be shy, but he wasn’t comfortable with them the same way he was with Piper. So Caleb spooned Piper, but he didn’t shy away from their contact either.
Did wonders ever cease? This Alpha practically purred sharing this tiny fucking bed with them, their mate already asleep between the three of them. There was no safer place for her to be.
Niko closed his eyes. He dared a fucking demon to try and take her with all three of them there.
“Niko.”
God, he was tired. What fucking time was it?
“Niko.” Then there was a little push on his chest.
“Hm?” He cracked an eye open and realized he wasn’t holding Xavier anymore, but Piper and they were alone.
“I wanted to ask you something.”
Niko closed his eye and rolled onto his back so she could lay her head on his chest. “Go back to sleep Piper.”
“If you turn me into a cat, could the crocs still use my blood for the curse or would it be different? Even if it’s not, would me being a cat make the Council step in?”
He sighed. “You want me to wake up now don’t you?”
She giggled and poked him in the ribs. “Yes. Answer my questions.”
Niko grumbled and rolled over so he was practically smothering her. He rubbed his face against hers, against her neck, breathing in her scent mixed with all three of theirs.
“Stop!” she laughed, trying to push him off, but she wasn’t really trying. “How are you always hard?”
Niko nipped her throat, but was careful not to break the skin. She was fucking delicious and if he could wake up like this every morning he would be the happiest man alive. “Want to do something about it?” he teased.
“I want an answer to my questions.”
Niko took her wrists and pinned them above her head. She wasn’t trying to get away so he wriggled in between her legs so that he was comfortably pressed against her. “We could claim you and turn you into a shifter. Then you would be officially under Samuel – the Alpha of the West Coast Pride, but it’s not a quick process.” He licked her throat and then traveled down to nibble on her breast.
Her gasp was music to his ears. “Why not?”
Niko grumbled and moved further down so her breasts were at the perfect level to suck. “You have to register with the pride, file the paperwork, and then once it goes through Caleb can send a request to Samuel.” Then he pulled her nipple into his mouth.
Her fingers tangled in his hair and she made a soft moan. “How long does that take?”
Niko looked up at her, annoyed. “Could take a week, could take longer. It’s not always the same. Depends on what the West Coast Pride Alpha has going on. Do you want to keep talking or would you rather I do something else with my mouth?”
She laughed and wiggled under him. He could smell how aroused she was already. “We can’t do both?”
“Babe, I’m not that skilled.” He kissed one breast and then the other, moving slowly down.
“Okay, one last question,” she murmured, eyes closing in pleasure. “Could they still use my blood if I was a shifter?”
Niko kissed her belly button and kept going, sliding his fingers down and over her clit before parting her slick lips. “I would have to ask Morgan, or talk to a pride doctor. I don’t know anything about that.”
Then he pressed his mouth to her center and her groan as she lifted her hips to give him better access was exactly what he wanted. Niko was done talking. He wanted to taste her until she came in his mouth.
He licked long and slow, tasting her, diving into her, letting her ride his face as he sucked and nibbled until she was shaking beneath him, practically ripping the hair from his head as she came. Niko flicked her clit with his tongue as she settled, panting.
“See, much better than talking.”
Piper smiled and stroked his hair, eyes closed again. “This isn’t wei
rd for you guys?”
“What’s weird is you cussing,” Xavier said, bringing in a tray of food. “Didn’t think I’d ever hear you use the word ‘fuck’ in my life.”
Niko laughed and grabbed one of the orange slices. He was still naked and so was Piper, but Xavier was freshly showered and dressed. “Yeah, didn’t expect that either.”
“Only in the bedroom,” she said, blushing despite being completely naked and wet from what they just did. Christ she was adorable.
“I’m not questioning it,” Xavier clarified, giving her a sweet ‘good morning’ kiss. “Just commenting. I love hearing you talk dirty.”
Piper cleared her throat and reached for the coffee. “Thank you for this. Where is Caleb? Checking the perimeter again?”
Niko snorted and adjusted. Damn, his dick was still hard as a rock.
Piper glanced at him and grinned over her mug. Instantly his heart rate accelerated as he wondered what dirty thing she was thinking. “Need some help?” she asked.
He desperately wanted to say yes, but he also didn’t trust that gleam in her eye. “I’ll survive,” Niko told her.
Piper arched a brow and then looked at Xavier. “I think Niko needs some help.”
Holy fucking shit.
Even Xavier raised his eyebrows in surprise. “You want me to suck him off?”
Just the words made Niko harder and he groaned, pressing his face into Piper’s stomach.
“You did say cats were good at licking things.”
Niko laughed with Xavier. Somehow that little teasing comment had come back to bite them in the ass.
“What, you don’t like to do that?” Piper asked. “Niko may be a power-bottom, but he needs relief too.”
Xavier’s smile widened and he removed the tray from the bed. Piper sipped her coffee and her eyes sparkled as she watched Xavier grab Niko’s ankle and pull. Then he flipped Niko over and looked up at Piper. “With you around we all need relief constantly,” he told her, getting down on his knees.
Niko breathed hard and looked down at Xavier. The more dominant and straighter of the two of them, Xavier had never gone down on Niko before. Ever. A hand job was no big deal, but the man had never been that intimate with him before.
The second his warm mouth touched him Niko threw his head back and cursed. Xavier may never have gone down on him before, but he knew exactly what he was fucking doing. He sucked him so hard and so fast Niko barely tapped his shoulder in time.
Xavier stroked him as he came and Niko could have sworn there were stars. Fuck. He’d never experienced anything like that before in his life, not even with a woman.
Piper smiled like a cat that got the canary and sipped her coffee again. “Your turn, Xavier.” She set the cup on the nightstand and crawled over to him.
Then her alarm went off and they all froze.
“Mother trucker!” Piper scrambled off the bed and grabbed her phone before running into the bathroom. “I’m going to be late for work!”
Niko looked at Xavier and busted up laughing. To his credit Xavier smiled and got up off the ground. Then he wrapped his hand painfully in Niko’s hair, twisting and pulling him forward. The kiss was rough and dominating. Xavier shoved his tongue into Niko’s mouth, taking what he wanted.
“I liked that, but I’m still the dominant one,” he growled at Niko.
When he released him, Niko grinned up at his best friend. “Whatever you say, man. But between the two of you I might just die of dehydration.” He got off the bed and went to join Piper in the shower.
Was this what it was going to be like for the rest of their lives? Niko wiped the blood from his lip where Xavier had bit him. God he hoped so.
Chapter Fourteen
Piper
Xavier flipped a page in the book he was reading and she glanced at him for the thousandth time. Her shift was dragging and Piper just wanted to close the library already so she could scratch the itch that had been bothering her ever since she’d watched him suck Niko so hard and fast he came in under a minute.
That took skill.
But they hadn’t had time for her to do anything about the raging desire she had after watching that. She had work. Then Caleb said Jess wanted to meet with him and Niko was outside the library making sure nothing tripped his tech magic up.
So it was just her and Xavier. Who was more distracting than she thought he would be.
Most of her shift she’d spent reading demon books and helping a student when they needed it. At this point in her research she probably knew almost as much as a witch or a hunter about demons. The texts were somewhat repetitive, and some were just some kind of demon genealogy.
It was helpful to know who ruled which demons, but it didn’t help her with demon contracts or breaking one. The books just stated over and over that the demon was the only one who could use the loophole, and the original summoner the only one to break the original contract, though it wasn’t advised.
Most contracts ended in the death of the summoner to be honest. Piper didn’t know why the crocs were so desperate. What was it that made them so relentless?
“Could you ask Oscar for more recommendations?” Piper asked, closing the book when she finished. Now she knew more about Jewish demons than she ever cared to know, and still had no more answers than the day before. She should really be reading up on the croc and leopard history, but she was nervous to go down and peruse.
Piper chewed her lip and glanced at Xavier again. It was hard to forget the way he looked on his knees that morning, or the way he’d taken Niko on top of her. The only thing that had helped her get her mind out of the gutter was reading.
“Isn’t this like the fifth book you’ve read? How do you read so fast? This one isn’t even in English,” Xavier said as he looked the ratty book over.
She shrugged and glanced at the other books. “I read fast, and once I get used to the language again, I can read just as fast as I can in English. None of these are going to be able to help us.” Piper tossed the other two on her desk and sighed.
“We don’t throw demon books,” Xavier gritted out. “Some of them are practically sentient and could take offense.”
She ran her fingers over the books lovingly, silently apologizing. “I like reading them, but there is no answer we don’t already have to this problem. In a week Eisheth is going to have to take me to the crocs.”
“I already told you, babe, I’m not letting that happen.”
Piper looked up and studied Xavier’s golden brown eyes, less amber than the day before. They practically glowed against his dark skin and he looked amazingly gorgeous with thick arms and a broad chest in that tight shirt. “I believe you.”
Xavier was still a bit of a mystery to her, but she knew he liked to be in control. He challenged Caleb whenever he could, but usually they were a united front. There wasn’t a lot they disagreed on when it came to her.
Out of the three of them Xavier was the most superstitious and wary of any of the other paranormals. He really disliked demons and witches and so had refused to meet with Jess. Niko was the only one out of them willing to touch witch magic so he had to stay with her to use it.
Caleb couldn’t care less about the other paranormals, not really. He didn’t like that he couldn’t trust demons, but overall they didn’t bother him in the same way they did Xavier.
“What aren’t you telling me?” she finally asked him. “Why aren’t you happy in Crescent City?”
Xavier’s eyes widened in surprise. “What makes you think I’m not?”
She shrugged and opened the next demon book which was in Sanskrit. “You don’t talk about it, and when it’s brought up you change the subject or redirect to Niko.”
He took her hand in his and sighed. “I didn’t want to join the Army, but after serving, I wasn’t ready to leave when Caleb ordered it. I liked being overseas. The desert feels right to me. Not all those fucking trees and rain. My leopard was happy over there. Caleb felt it too, but he was Alp
ha. He had to go back and retake the pride from his Third before chaos erupted.”
Xavier shook his head. “We were deployed usually for a year or so at a time and not much out of the ordinary happened while we were gone. We could have stayed for another tour, but the pride was getting antsy. The crocs were quiet for a while. Then they decided to move on us a few years ago and tried to murder the leopards in Tahoe. We only managed to save the kitten, Charlotte.”
Piper squeezed his hand, but didn’t say anything.
Xavier shrugged. “I felt free from all the bullshit for the first time in my life while we were overseas. When we came back I still didn’t have any discernable skills or money so I learned how to weld and now I do that, but it’s not the same. When we were in the Army we had a purpose, and we got to see the world.”
Piper chewed on her lip and looked down at the first page of the demon book. “Well, you can still travel. Would you like to come to Egypt with me sometime? I have to go back at least once to finish my thesis.”
He grinned at her and kissed her gently. “I’d love something like that. Does that mean you’re warming up to the idea of staying with us?”
She was honestly surprised no one had asked her already. Caleb had been so careful to only answer her questions. It was easy to see he was terrified she would run away. But the reason she’d asked those questions was because of the opposite.
As more time passed with them the more the bond between them all strengthened. Piper could feel it deep in her chest. Every time she thought of them her heart leapt. They turned her on in ways she’d never thought she’d experience again after her ex, and then managed to top him.
What she’d been trying to come to terms with this whole time was the idea that there were three of them and only one of her. Not only that – the intense emotions she already felt, and they only built every time one of her leopards did something sweet or nice. Like when Xavier had brought her breakfast in bed, and obviously waited for her to finish with Niko?
