by Meg Xuemei X
“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 him, 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 full 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.”
“Lorcan picked this region centuries ago when it was a forest,” Reysalor said, turning his red-golden head to gaze at me. As usual, he was one of my main sources of information. “In the last century, technology arrived and ushered his realm into the modern age.”
But weren’t the gods wiping away the technology and civilization?
“My realm is warded and cloaked by deep magic,” Lorcan said, picking up the conversation. “The gods have been searching for this place and failed. They’ll eventually find it. We must take the war to them before they hunt us down to the last one.”
The van stopped before a palatial golden mansion with fountains, sculptures, and a vast lawn in front of it. Dario and Jezebel’s dome had some luxury and aspirations to class, but it was like a hill to a mountain next to Lorcan’s mansion.
A lineup of vampires waited before the magnificent entrance of the mansion. A dark-haired beauty who carried herself like a vampire queen stood out the most. She wore an elegant silver gown worth more than a working-class family’s annual income.
I kind of hated rich people.
The vampires bowed at Lorcan as we stepped out of the car. “High Lord.”
The striking beauty stepped toward Lorcan, her gray gaze glued to his face, greedily taking in his every line.
A sudden jealousy stabbed me. I wanted to slap her.
“Welcome home, my lord,” the beauty said, her gaze flicking to me for a nanosecond before returning to Lorcan. Her world had only him.
“Who are you?” I stepped forward, refusing to let anyone dismiss me.
The beauty glared at me with icy hostility. Vampires were the most unfriendly creatures anyway.
“This is Mistress Selena, dulcis,” Lorcan said.
Selena’s eyes widened at Lorcan’s endearment.
“Mistress?” I narrowed my eyes at Lorcan, anger and humiliation sizzling in me. “Like she’s your concubine? Why wasn’t I informed?”
And how dare he take my blood and claim me when he already had a woman at home!
“Selena administers my realm when I’m away,” Lorcan said. “I trust her to care for my land. She’s loyal and excels in all things, but she doesn’t share my bed.”
“Then who shares your bed?” I demanded, black fire twirling in my eyes.
“You, dulcis, only you,” he said, amusement sparkling in his gray eyes at my tone.
“Oh,” I said, feeling my face flaming. I stepped back. One had to know when to fight and when to withdraw.
“Don’t retreat yet,” Lorcan said, pulling me to him, his hand circling my waist. “I haven’t introduced you. These are my most trusted inner circle. You’ll get to know them.” He then turned to Selena and his inner circle vampires. “High Lady Cass Saélihn is my chosen mate. You’ll treat her as such.”
All the vampires’ eyes widened before they covered up their astonishment in the nick of time. Have I mentioned that I have super eyesight and reflexes? I didn’t miss anything, nor did I miss the pure hatred in Selena’s eyes.
Being her High Lord’s mate had made me her number one enemy. As long as she didn’t act on it, I’d let it slide.
“Cass is not only my mate, but the mate to all of my bonded brothers,” Lorcan added, sweeping a hand toward Alaric, Pyrder, and Reysalor, who maintained steely cold expressions.
They knew how to deal with bloodsuckers.
I should have used the same look in front of the vampires rather than my customary sneer, but it was too late to wipe my sneer off now, so I turned it to a smirk.
The vampires remained still and didn’t even blink naturally.
“My mate and my brothers need to settle in,” Lorcan said sternly. “We’ll hold a meeting in an hour.”
“Yes, High Lord.” The vampires bowed again.
A vampire butler led us into the mansion, which was the finest in every way. I looked left and right and up at the ceilings, awed, before I grinned at Lorcan.
“I hope my home is up to your standards,” Lorcan said, his arm never leaving my waist.
“It’s above average,” I said.
“It’s your home now,” he said.
“In that case, I hope the cuisine is up to par too, at least better than the mediocre food in ShadesStar court.”
Lorcan shook his head, a smile ghosting his sensual lips. “Dulcis is hard to impress.”
Then I was in Alaric’s arms.
All the males had long legs, and Alaric was sparing me from sprinting. I enjoyed pressing my breasts against his cut chest anyway, so I let him carry me all the way until we entered a vast suite that had connected five rooms and one large common room.
The sleeping quarters were perfect for us.
The guards stayed outside the door, so only the five of us were in the common room.
“I built this suite to honor the pact a millennium ago,” Lorcan said, his heated eyes on me before he swept a glance at Reys, Alaric, and Pyrder. “Only now, finally, it’s put to its full use.”
“I want the largest room that has a full-window view,” I said before anyone else could stake a claim.
The males chuckled.
“You don’t need your own room, Cass baby,” Pyrder said. “All the rooms are yours. You’ll just pick a different bed to sleep on every night.”
My face flamed as blood heated in me.
“Since we’re all your mates,” Alaric drawled, “you’ll learn to balance us and treat us equally if you don’t want fights to break out among us.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. If it got too hard, I’d just quit!
“No, no,” Alaric said, as if he read my thought. “You’ll never quit on us, sweetheart.”
Before I could stand up for myself and fight back against his dominance, he grabbed me and crushed me to his hard chest. Wasting no time, he dipped his head and slanted his mouth against mine.
His scent of pine, leather, and oil painting wrapped around me, both gentle and harsh. His kiss was raw, hard, and tender. Only the demigod could administer such contradictory kisses.
My mates were so different from one another. Even the twin fae didn’t share many traits, though they had the same features and turquoise eyes. And yet Pyrder’s eyes were a shade darker, and he had a tattoo of a golden panther on his forearm and half of his chest. One day, hopefully soon, I’d get a chance to explore him as well and get a good look at the entire panther.
Alaric’s kiss deepened. His tongue thrust into my mouth, tasting me, and I twirled mine around him, tasting him back. He had lightning in him, compatible with my fire, yet the two elements tended to compete, which c
aused many sparks between the demigod and me.
I melted into him, forgetting why I’d been fighting him a minute ago.
“It’s not entertainment time.” Reysalor’s deep voice rang beside us. “Let’s settle in first. We have serious business.”
If he had his tongue down my throat, he wouldn’t have mentioned this “serious business.” Alaric obviously thought the same. He sucked my tongue playfully and erotically before releasing me, though I didn’t want release since fire was coursing in my bloodstream.
Displeased with the cold, empty air on my lips, I turned to Reys with a glare.
Reys only pulled me to him and kissed my lips hot and hard before letting me go. I instantly forgot my anger and gazed up at him longingly. The scene of me riding him and him giving me oral pleasure reeled back. I hadn’t been as close to Reys as I’d wanted since all my mates had shown up, and Reys was my first best friend.
“You’ll have all of us soon, Cass baby,” Reys said with a wink. “We’re all yours.”
I wondered if I would have them one-on-one or all at the same time, as in that dream I had, but I had no time to ponder that since we had to rush to the vampires’ meeting.
To be honest, I’d rather have taken a nap, or cuddled with one of my males, which would certainly lead to further exploration and fireworks, than attend a meeting. But my new role seemed to require me to take part in all the activities of my alpha males if I didn’t want to be left behind.
I’d reached maturity physically and sexually seven years ago. Only now was I being dragged to adulthood mentally and emotionally, in all ways. By my nature, I needed to dominate, so I told myself to suck up and truly be an adult woman, which meant I had to take on some responsibilities I didn’t feel like taking. Like attending boring meetings.
Fake it until you make it.
I showered quickly, and an elegant, light blue gown was on the counter for me. I stepped out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around my torso.
Reys, Alaric, Lorcan, and Pyrder wheeled toward me, their heated eyes glued to me. This would take time to get used to.
