“Not the kind of darkness you’re thinking about,” Theo retorted, sounding amused for the first time this morning.
She’d figured finally getting laid by his fated and actually having laid claim to her would have put him in a cheerful mood but she’d been wrong.
His sense of humor was whacked if the first thing to make those sexy lips twitch was the thought of someone being struck dead because they crossed a fucking door jamb.
“What kind of darkness are we thinking of?” Mikkel demanded, slamming his hands to hips in disgust.
“The human kind.” Theo cocked a brow. “Fae darkness is a whole different kettle of fish.”
She blinked at that, and figured he was right. Morningstar, the fucking Devil, was Fae.
Theo wasn’t fucking wrong.
Shit. What level of deviousness were the Fae capable of if they spawned the infamous Beelzebub?
“I’ve wished a lot of motherfuckers dead in my time,” Mikkel was griping. “I mean, it’s like part of the job, Theo. I’ve killed a lot of fuckers too.”
Theo rolled his eyes. “You think I haven’t?” The way they spoke of killing had her rolling her eyes.
“Fuck’s sake,” she grumbled. “This isn’t a pissing contest. Nor are we living in a video game.”
“Never said we were,” Mikkel countered with a sniff. “I just mean, in any religion, killing someone ain’t exactly good for the soul, Thalia. That mean I have a hint of darkness in my heart? Because I really don’t feel like finding out in death by door.”
Theo mirrored Mikkel’s pose—he stuck his hands on his hips as he stared the human male down. “You think I’d bring you here if I thought you were in danger?”
“You might not—”
“Might not, what? Have realized you’d killed people?” Theo snorted. “You’re a soldier. Of course, you have.”
Thalia reached up to rub her temple. The headaches caused by Rafe’s ability to speak telepathically with her had abated since her She-Wolf had gone AWOL, but one was definitely brewing now.
“Are we safe?” she demanded, cutting through the BS before they could start bickering.
“Of course we are,” Theo said on a huff.
“Is this the reason you haven’t brought us here earlier?”
Rafe’s gentle question packed the punch of Thor’s hammer, and Theo gaped at him. “No!” he bellowed. “Fuck, Rafe. Fuck! Of course not. You think I’d wish any of you harm?”
Rafe and Mikkel cut each other a look, and Thalia sucked in a sharp breath until they both shook their heads. “No. We don’t.”
Theo firmed his jaw. “I should hope not. Mother help me! This past week has been trying for reasons that appertain to my long absence from Court. I have responsibilities that I left in the hands of my people. I was making sure they hadn’t let me down.”
“And did they?” Something about his tone made her think everything wasn’t smelling of roses in this particular garden.
“No. Not everyone.”
“Are you dealing with it?” Rafe asked calmly.
“It’s dealt with.”
Theo’s stony response didn’t inspire further questions, but Mikkel being Mikkel ignored that. “How? You kill them?” he queried, studying the Fae male with an inquisitiveness that made Thalia wince.
Talk about baiting a pissed off bear!
Or, Angel, she supposed in this instance.
“What do you think?” Theo asked softly, his eyes narrowed into thin slivers.
“I think it depends on what the bastard did,” Mikkel said after a few seconds of contemplation.
“Good answer,” Theo rattled off as he approached the portal.
Thalia cut her males a look then stared at Theo’s back. She had no idea what was about to happen, and though a heads up would have been appreciated, hell, such was life that that wasn’t going to be forthcoming.
Seeing that the conversation was over, Mikkel turned to watch Theo too. Together, they studied him as he pressed his hand to the door. When they split open, Thalia blinked, wondering how that worked.
Theo could have magicked the door open from where he’d been standing in their small grouping. Instead, he’d touched the door. For a reason.
Why?
Was the magic, or glamor as he called it, tuned to his blood? Was that how it worked? Was there some kind of inbuilt system that allowed members of Theo’s family through the door? But how did that work with other people? Was this a private or a public entrance?
With many questions tumbling around in her head, Thalia almost missed the scene before her. Then, she saw.
She really saw.
And her mouth dropped open.
“Sweet Gods.” She and Rafe muttered that simultaneously as Mikkel’s eyes almost bugged from his head.
At the sight before him, Theo was the only one unimpressed. But there was a purse to his lips, a curl to his nostrils, that told her he was pissed about something.
What, she wasn’t sure, but the orgy going down before her eyes could have had something to do with that.
And to be fair, an orgy was pretty much an understatement
The room was huge.
Like a football stadium huge.
Yeah, that big.
But really, the size was the only thing she really saw because of all the sex.
And she meant all the sex too.
There were…
Her tongue cleaved to the roof of her mouth as she tried to quantify exactly how many people were having sex right in front of her eyes.
A thousand people?
Two?
She really didn’t know. All she saw was the mass of bodies, and then the scents hit her. It was like pheromones on drugs. She almost staggered back at its power. It overwhelmed, that was how strong it was, and she wasn’t sure whether to take a step toward Theo or to stride back to their rooms.
Only the fact Theo hadn’t moved, that he was scanning the room too, made her think this wasn’t strange.
But…
This couldn’t be normal, could it?
And yet, it seemed like it was because… well, Theo’s were the only eyes of their quartet who weren’t bugged out on stalks.
He wasn’t even particularly interested, she noticed. Naïve and innocent she was in many ways, but she wasn’t that naïve and innocent. She recognized arousal in a man—like Mikkel, he was definitely feeling the pheromones. Rafe, at her side, was tense but she sensed he wasn’t particularly happy at the sight of all the wriggling and writhing bodies.
Theo wasn’t aroused or uncomfortable. He just looked pissed.
“Theo?” she asked quietly, managing to unstick her tongue from the roof of her mouth.
“Yeah, baby?” he replied, somewhat distractedly.
“What is this?”
“It’s your welcome to the family,” he ground out, sounding anything but welcoming.
A squeak escaped her. “You mean, this is for me?”
He shot her a look, finally turning back to stare at her. “Yeah. It’s for you.”
“Why?”
“Because this is how we celebrate a claiming.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s been such a long time since one happened that I forgot…”
“Wait a minute, how the fuck do people know you claimed her?” Rafe said on a growl. His protectiveness of her throbbed through every word.
Theo seemed to pinch his nose harder. “Because the land told my mother.”
If she’d been gaping before, now she’d have to pick her mouth up from the floor.
“The land told your mother?” she asked, repeating his words carefully.
“Yes.” He sighed. “This is supposed to be an honor, but you’re not Fae.” He shook his head. “This is an insult.”
Hell yeah it was, but shit… Isaura was a bitch. Thalia hadn’t had to spend more than five minutes with the woman to recognize that, and she knew, not just from their talk with Kane yesterday, that Isaura was not happy ab
out their favorite son being claimed by his fated.
Why that was, when most parents would surely want such a connection for their children, Thalia didn’t know. She didn’t know how good parents worked, she didn’t even know how bad ones worked, because her own simply hadn’t been interested in parenting for most of her life thanks to circumstances above and beyond their control.
Only being claimed by her mates, only feeling that grounding sensation as her world ceased rocking on the precipice of calamity, did she realize how fucking hard her fathers and her mother had it.
She didn’t have to forgive them, didn’t have to appreciate the past she’d had, to understand and empathize.
Thalia, until seven weeks ago, had been physical proof of their lack. And the TriAlpha didn’t lack. It wasn’t in their DNA.
Until Damien, Luca, and Adam Lyndhoven had sired her.
“What do we do?” she asked, her throat choking.
“We have no choice.”
Theo’s words had her frowning. “No choice?”
He jerked his chin toward the scene in front of them. “We have to go to Mother. Only she can declare our bond fulfilled.”
****
Rafe
The scents were so cloying, it was enough to churn his stomach.
When faced with the sea of sex before him, a man shouldn’t be thinking about his gut, but Rafe was because his breakfast was really close to making an appearance.
Why?
He wasn’t sure.
He’d never been a prude. It wasn’t in him to be one. He was Lyken. Unashamed of sex, unashamed of mating. But this was different. This wasn’t sexual or enticing, it was vulgar.
Unpleasant.
It was also non-consensual.
Thalia didn’t need to see this. Neither did he, Mikkel, or Theo. This was being forced on them, and according to Theo, they had no choice but to step closer toward this bacchanalian scene and deal with it.
His Wolf hated the scents of sex that were floating toward him. They weren’t reminiscent of Thalia in any way, shape or form, and he could feel the beast actually start to butt the confines of the man in outrage at being near the essence of other aroused females.
A mated male wanted no other. That was fact. A mated male needed no other, and cheating was something that just wasn’t possible with Lyken-kind. The beasts were as tied to their mate as their human half, and where that part was weak and could fall into temptation, the beast couldn’t.
Uncertainty filled him at his thoughts as he glanced at Mikkel. He was human. He was weaker, and he didn’t have his beast to control him.
And Theo. How did this affect him? He looked pissed, but Rafe thought that was more to do with the power plays that were going on around him, power plays Theo had only mentioned recently to any of them, having kept them in the dark up till now.
But Mikkel?
He was aroused.
Rafe could scent it.
He wasn’t sure if the disgust was from his Wolf or if it was his human half that found such inconstancy revolting, but he wasn’t pleased with the other male. Then, he felt guilty because Mikkel reached for Thalia, and as he turned, moving in front of Rafe to grab her, Rafe caught sight of the male’s eyes—his eyes were like pinpricks.
But that was wrong.
Lust would have made his pupils large and heavy with his need. Not small and tiny.
There was no reason for his pupils to be the size of a pinhead, and yet they were.
Almost like he was drugged.
Thalia jolted when Mikkel grabbed her, and before Theo and Rafe could do anything else, Mikkel had pushed her against the wall to the side of the doors which were at the bottom of a long corridor.
Before their bewildered eyes, Thalia’s included, Mikkel dropped to his knees with a franticness that spoke of panic.
In the toga Theo carved out of magic for her every morning, Thalia was the epitome of accessible.
Rafe was well aware of the things Theo didn’t fashion out for her—bras and panties. Which meant she was totally open and exposed when Mikkel grabbed the fabric of her skirt and moved it aside.
The sight of his mate’s pussy, the scent of her sudden arousal at being at the center of her human mate’s attention, had his Wolf roaring to life. The creature ceased butting against the confines Rafe kept him in, and instead, started panting at the scent of the female that was his.
“Mikkel, stop it!” Thalia gritted out even as she helped Mikkel spread her legs wider apart. “Fuck! Stop,” she spat as Mikkel, totally ignoring her, reached up and with a single swipe, tongued her already glossy cunt from clit to slit.
Rafe’s mouth watered at the sight, but more at the way Thalia was glancing around in panic at the very public PDA, while her hands were gripping a tight hold of Mikkel’s head, digging through his hair to keep him close. To keep him exactly where he was.
Where she wanted him to be.
Theo let out a grunt, and Rafe cut him a look. The male was aroused, the loose trousers they wore weren’t that loose, after all. But more than that, he was angry and impatient.
Thalia let out a sharp cry as Mikkel worked her over, his tongue never stopping, his mouth tasting and sucking, his teeth nipping and biting. It was like watching a starving man at a feast, except Mikkel wasn’t starving. Rafe was well aware that Mikkel tumbled Thalia at least once a day. Sometimes, he walked in on it, other times he just saw Thalia looking flushed and hot.
What could Rafe say?
He did the same thing.
With, he hoped, far more finesse than Mikkel who had some fairly brutish qualities to him, but Thalia hadn’t exactly complained about the human male’s technique.
Theo, on the other hand, had been celibate until yesterday. When Thalia had taken his hand in hers and had led him to the bathing chambers. Whatever the hell had happened, Rafe wasn’t sure. He just knew Thalia had been quiet after she’d returned with Theo to their bed, and not in a good way, either.
“What the fuck’s going on?” Rafe asked the Fae male quietly, hoping like hell he understood what was going down, because Rafe was sure as shit confused.
“I think he’s reacting to the Fae’s pheromones,” Theo told him, speaking slowly and telling Rafe everything with his tone—Mikkel’s behavior was out of the ordinary.
“Does this happen to all the Fae’s lovers?”
Theo shook his head. “No. But…” He wafted a hand back at the sight in the room ahead. “There’s never been a human around for this level of—” Theo broke off, apparently unsure of how to classify the level of fucked-up in his mother’s Court.
Rafe licked his lips. “What do we do?”
“I don’t know. This is extraordinary, Rafe.” Theo rubbed a hand over his jaw. “Should we just leave him alone?”
“I don’t think we have much of a choice,” Rafe said drily, watching as Thalia came on her human mate’s tongue.
The shriek she released was desperate and loaded with a welter of emotions that Rafe’s Wolf could sift between as easily as if she’d spoken words of how she felt. There was a gamut. Anything from mortification to delight, hunger to fright.
The negative pissed the beast off, but the positive feelings Thalia was experiencing more than outweighed them otherwise Rafe would have pulled Mikkel off her.
The trouble was that even as she was riding Mikkel’s face like she was on the back of a bucking Bronco, her orgasm didn’t seem to break the human of the frenzy.
“He isn’t easing up,” Theo said under his breath, and he followed that up with a: “Fuck.”
“Not yet,” Rafe retorted grimly. “If we stick around much longer, that might just happen.”
And from the way Mikkel was fisting his cock through his breeches, Rafe figured ‘fuck’ was about to come down sooner than they reckoned.
“What do we do?” he demanded of the Fae male.
“I told you already—I’m not sure.”
Rafe didn’t appreciate being growled a
t, but he understood the welter of confusion that Theo had to be feeling. After all, Rafe’s life had been one mass of confusion since Thalia had stepped into it.
Not that that was a complaint but Thalia epitomized complicated.
Unable to help himself, Rafe watched with curiosity and no small amount of lusty interest as Mikkel began tongue-fucking Thalia. She squealed at something he did, and the Gods only knew what because there wasn’t exactly much you could do with a small appendage like the tongue in a channel like the vagina.
“I think if they fuck, that might calm Mikkel down.” Theo’s tone was contemplative, and Rafe knew Theo was speaking more to himself than him.
The Fae male pressed his hand to the golden doors, and Rafe jolted as they closed with a scraping sound that reminded him of stone against stone which made no sense as the marble underneath was polished and the doors were crafted of gold. After they were closed, he strode forward and clicked his fingers. Like that, Thalia was naked. She gasped in surprise, her eyes widening as Theo approached her.
“What the hell are you doing?” she asked, her hands coming up to cup her breasts. Rafe wasn’t sure who she was shielding them from, considering they’d all seen them more than once and would see them, he hoped, a million times in the future. But then, she peered around, and he realized it was because they were in public.
Which also made no sense because Thalia felt more at ease in her skin than she did in damn clothes.
Wondering what that was about, he watched as she jerked, the muscles in her belly twitching as Mikkel continued what he was doing that had her twitching like a fish on a spit.
“W-Why?” she stuttered, her eyes closing then and her hands moving back to cup Mikkel’s head as she rocked her hips into him.
“You need to fuck him,” Theo said calmly. “We hope that will ease the strain.”
“T-The s-strain?” she asked on a gasp that turned into a high-pitched moan that had Rafe’s cock feeling uncomfortable behind the loose confines of his pants.
Wondering if closing the huge golden doors helped contain the pheromones, he watched Mikkel with intent—his need didn’t seem to have lessened any, so Rafe asked himself if Theo had closed it to give them some semblance of privacy in a totally public setting.
Triad (The TriAlpha Chronicles Book 3) Page 16
