by Rae Foxx
Saxon tried to take down the witch again, Jackson's wolf biting him back with unnerving speed. I didn't see how we were going to get past that. Not the two of us…
Before I could second guess my thoughts, I pulled out of my wolf form, Howl's cries were agony in this form, but I didn't turn. I stared at the witch, my eyes digging into the emotionless abyss of hers.
"If I surrender," I began, ignoring Saxon's horrified look. "Will you promise that all my mates. Saxon, Howl, and Finn, are safe."
Her eyes widened, "Three mates? Well, aren't you the little whore? Like your daddy."
"My father wasn't a whore," I snapped back, my confidence wavering halfway through the statement.
"Sure about that dear?"
No. I had no way of knowing what he was or wasn't after all, considering I just found out he was some kind of super-eternal.
The witch cackled again, Jackson moving to pace before her now that Saxon had stopped attacking. Thankfully, I had distracted the witch enough she had stopped attacking Howl, his wolf whimpering and limping up behind me, still trying to protect me.
‘Damn it Howl, stay down,' I hissed not sure he could hear me.
"Will you protect them?" I said aloud to the witch, raising my voice again, still not sure if I was doing it right. "Saxon, Howl, and Finn."
She looked around, her cracked yellow teeth beaming as she smiled, "Odd, I only count two. It seems that one isn't going to do much."
She nodded to Howl, the poor guy barely able to stand, yet he was still snarling and glaring at the bitch with blood-soaked teeth. I stepped back, running my fingers over the fur on his muzzle, trying to calm him down. He wasn't having it.
"That's because Finn is on his way," I laughed with a sound to rival the old witch, Saxon gave me a wicked smile when a red fox streaked from the stairwell to circle us.
I wonder if Scarlet found him, or if he had followed my voice. Seeing as I had no idea how that worked, I was going to say it was Scarlet.
Didn't matter, he was here.
I needed to distract the bastards for a few more moments.
"It doesn't matter who you bring, you can either surrender or I can kill you all." The witch continued. "Either way, everyone dies."
Her cackle was getting on my nerves, the sound was loud and grating and echoed over the cave.
Well, until a golden spike slammed its way through her stomach from behind. The laugh stuttered to a stop, her eyes wide as she looked down at the spike.
"I have no interest in letting that happen," Finn gasped, the guy covered in melted cheese.
I wasn't going to ask.
I was staring at the witch, her eyes still gaping as she fell to her knees. The vampire had vanished, Nicky was still bleeding and moaning the corner, Jackson's wolf whimpering and nudging her out of there.
I didn't bask in the fact that we had won, I mean, it couldn't have been that easy. Whatever, it was done.
"Ivy? Are you okay my love?" Finn asked, rushing over the blood-soaked room and pulling me from Howl who finally laid down with a sigh. I leaned into Finn, the powerful Fae crushing me against him as his warmth flooded everywhere.
"Yeah, I'm fine." My voice was muffled and I pulled away from his embrace, only then did I see the bright red streak on his goo covered shirt.
"Oh yeah, I kind of, maybe, tore Nicky's arm off." Yeah, it was an exaggeration, but seeing his face was worth it.
"What?" he gasped, pulling me back into him. "What happened? Are you sure you okay, Ivy?"
"Yeah, we're fine," Saxon mumbled, still circling to the side of us, still looking at the witch. "Now kiss her and get over here, we've got a problem."
"What? The witch?" The lady was still muttering and sighing as she swayed.
Swayed, but didn't bleed.
"I would suggest we leave now," Howl said as he shifted back, his voice weak as he came up behind me, thankfully held up by a human-formed Scarlet. "Before she finishes--"
Howl's plea was cut short as the blood in the runes began to glow, the color throbbing as they began to lift from the ground and spin around us.
Faster and faster, closer and closer.
"What the hell?" Howl snapped, pawing at the runes like a cat with a mouse on a string.
My guys pressed against me, facing the runes as if they were going to fight them. Try as they might, any punch or slap went right through the things as if they weren't even there. They kept swirling, becoming smears of red against the grey stone, a carousel to the witches mumbling.
Her incantation turned to a shriek; the runes moving into a tornado. My mates batted at the colors, the runes so close now they were practically moving through them. Moving right into me.
It felt as though I had been punched, the wind sucked from my chest as the smears of blood moved into me.
"Fuck!"
"Shit!"
"Ivy!"
Expletives surrounded me as I wheezed and gasped, expecting to collapse with whatever the witch had done. Before the world went black from lack of air, the cave opened up in a shriek the pressure released and I fell to the ground, heaving in air.
Surrounded by Scarlet, Howl, and Finn.
Saxon was across the cave, holding the head of the witch in one hand, her severed body falling the ground below him.
"I hate witches," he snarled, throwing the head to the ground with a thud.
Jackson’s wolf was staggering a bit but still growling, ready for more. Now, he wasn't alone.
A line of animals streamed through the dark stairwell, Pater's silver wolf followed by Anatoly's gorilla, and at least twenty others, all circling us.
"Shit," Howl snarled, then whispered into my mind ‘Don't look at him, Ivy. Promise. This is dangerous.'
I didn't even have it in me to fight. I stepped forward staring right at Pater as he stepped out of his wolf.
"Ivy," Howl hissed, weakly tugging on my hand.
I squeezed his fingers before I pulled past him, my wolf growling in my chest.
"What happened here?" Pater nailed me with his Alpha stare but I didn't even flinch. "I was surprised to hear of your distress Ivy. I thought you had left."
"Left? You mean been locked underground by your gorilla buddies," I was snarling, sending one glare to Anatoly who was sporting a brand-new bruise around his eye. Wonder where he got that.
Yep, I totally smirked.
"I know of no such thing," Pater said, his eyes still digging right into mine, my wolf still freaking out.
"You sure about that, Alpha?" I made sure to sneer the last word.
He cleared his throat and shifted from one foot to the other. Good. It was about time someone else felt uncomfortable in this situation.
That's when I realized I was no longer scared of Pater Wulfson.
I'm not sure I ever had, to be honest, but I think I had expected to be more afraid after he had threatened me, punched my face in, and locked me up.
I wasn't.
I was just pissed.
"What happened here?" Pater asked again, finally looking away from me, to his son.
"We were attacked by your good friend Nicky and her clan of hooded supernaturals," I stated, taking a step forward.
"Nicky?" Pater asked confused, I waved towards the bloodied mass that was still sobbing in the corner.
"Turns out she wants my blood for some kind of ancient ritual," I paused, giving everyone as much of a hooded warning scowl as I could. I wasn't in the mood to detail everything that had happened down here with the wolf.
"Are you saying she tried to kill you? Lured you down here?" Pater's voice was hollow as he walked toward us, his animal menagerie starting to peel Nicky off the wall. Unsurprisingly Jackson had vanished.
"Yep. Maybe I should get a damn punch card. You gonna give me the first punch?" I flashed him a toothy grin and my wolf growled loud enough that Saxon turned, Finn taking a step as Howl tugged on my shirt.
‘Please, Ivy,' He whimpered, his pain echoing in his voice.
‘We cannot fight him now.'
I would have given anything to stepped forward, bared my teeth or some shit, but instead, I stepped back. I sure as shit wasn't going to lower my eyes though.
"Get them to the dungeon and the rest of you file out." His eyes never left mine as he spoke to the other shifters in the room. "You may have come out alive from this ordeal, but that doesn't mean you have gained acceptance in this pack. We will not tolerate these indiscretions. The choices you have made will not go unpunished."
He gave some serious stink eye to Howl.
"You fucking tortured your son--my mate and threatened to rape me to death and I'm the one who has to worry about my choice not going unpunished?"
God, I wanted to hit him.
"You've broken a major rule, Ivy. You are actively breeding outside of your race. With more than one male. Our world is one of order, Ivy. Betrothals, alliances, packs who had never been united before were going to work together and now...well, you've destroyed it all."
His eyes bore into me and I felt the push of his power against my own. Like throwing up a brick wall, my power surged in defense, refusing to give him an inch--blocking him push for push. Inside my body, my wolf's hair stood on end and she growled, fusing sound with energy. She wasn't putting up with this so-called Alpha's bullshit anymore either. Scratching and clawing me from the inside, she begged with no words for me to let her out so she could end this tyrant.
He could stare all he wanted.
"Then call us some god-damned revolutionaries."
"Ivy, try not to challenge him. Please, look down," Howl whispered, his fingers winding around mine as he came to stand beside me. All four of us standing shoulder to shoulder.
"We will meet you in time," Howl said, forcing his voice to be stable after the near torture he had endured. "For now, I think you should leave."
Pater snorted. "Puppy thinks he's a big dog now because he's marked some slut in the woods. I don't think so, Howl. I refuse to call you son, anymore."
"I don't think I ever was, Pater," Howl said with a growl of his own.
I had about ten-thousand other questions, but with a snap of his fingers, everyone left, him bringing up the tail with a glare and two words that could have been made of ice.
"I'll see you soon, Ivy."
My near-death experience had clearly made it impossible to count correctly.
No one said anything as we watched him go. We stood in the center of the blood-soaked room, staring, waiting until we too could get the hell out of here.
When he was gone, I took a long breath and leaned my forehead on Howl's shoulder. He hadn't moved since the departure of his father.
"You did well," Howl whispered, with a sweaty kiss of my temple. "I know it doesn't seem like it, but I think he is scared of us now, at the least, he sees us as a threat."
"That's a good thing? Because at this point I am going to die of cardiac arrest before I'm twenty."
"My father doesn't kidnap and beat the shit out of enemies, generally. He finds more--subtle ways of handling things."
"So, what you're saying is we haven't seen the last of him?" I asked, chest tight.
"I should hope not," Saxon whispered, winding his hand around my waist and pulling me into him. "It would take away all the fun,"
Chapter 26
Evan and Owen took great pride in showing off pictures of Nicky's car covered in shiny slices of cheese, the whole thing broiling in the sun like a casserole. Scarlet started to gag when they talked about how the entire staff parking lot smelled like moldy shoes.
Carred Cheese, that's what they were calling their masterpiece.
The name alone was enough to make my stomach spin.
"Okay, enough about that. We get it. You're the kings of distraction," Scarlet groaned, batting the pictures away.
"Nope, that's Ivy." Finn nuzzled into my neck with a sigh, Saxon perking up at the groan that came from my throat before lying back down with his book. The guy was still on high alert. I wasn't sure ‘Wuthering Heights’ was going to help him.
"Anyway," Scarlet said with an exaggerated groan, Finn jumping back into ‘good Fae' pose and rubbing my back. Thankfully, everyone, Howl included, laughed at that. "Can we please talk about Ivy staring down the damned Alpha with no problem at all. I mean, that was some badass shit. But doesn't that create like massive problems?"
Howl cleared his throat. Through our bond, I could feel his trepidation over the whole thing. What it meant for his father, for me, even for him and us as mates.
"She is a daughter of one the originals," he said slowly, shifting on the bed beside me. "She's more powerful than any of us, probably combined. I, for one, don't know what it means, but I'm proud as fuck to have her as our mate."
"She was my roommate first," Scarlet said and then flopped onto the floor, then crisscrossing her legs. "Fucking up the whole school in less than one year. I knew I liked you."
"Let's not get too comfortable," Saxon grumbled from where he had sprawled out on my bed with his book, though he didn't look up from it. "Nicky has friends. She won't stay locked up even half the time she deserves. Someone will get her out and without enough evidence, there's nothing we can do about her remaining headmaster of this school. She's a force we will have to deal with one way or another."
The thought of dealing with Nicky made my stomach turn, but even worse, was the deeper plan. All the talk about my power and my blood and those secret meetings made all of us think that something much more sinister was happening beyond a simple power play.
All of it had something to do with me.
"Great. So, we need to go on a scavenger hunt for my long-lost father," I groaned, falling back on my bed, Saxon instantly moved to run his fingers through my hair. His favorite thing to do. "I don't want to think about what would happen if she and her caped teammates find him first."
Finn spoke up. "What about your mother? Can she be of any help?"
I tensed, thinking back to the wispy memory that had assaulted me when I was about to die. The burned kitchen, my mother knowing what I was, who he was. I mean, she called him by his name. Something was wrong and it was twisting in my stomach.
"This is going to sound crazy, but I think her memory has been wiped. I saw something… and then her signature on my birth certificate was a name I had never heard of," they were all looking at me now. "Ivory Junius."
I half expected them to all gasp in instant understanding, but they looked as confused as I was.
"Okay, so no go on that one…" It was hard not to sound disappointed.
"Nah," Evan said, giving me a wide grin. "It just means we have to do some reading, maybe distract the librarians and steal a few books."
The twins were smiling now, the two giving me a simultaneous wink before they bolted out the door.
"Great," Scarlet sighed, I think I unleashed a terror on this school. "I'll go supervise. I need some air that isn't dripping with hormones anyway."
She gave me a wink and followed the twins out the door, locking the thing behind her.
"Is it that obvious," Howl whispered, Saxon and Finn chuckling as they rose from the bed, Howl leaning in to litter light kisses over my neck. "Now that the danger is gone, I think we have some unfinished business."
Saxon and Finn melted into the walls and Howl turned to me, those glowing eyes wide and open and wanting.
I couldn't help it; I licked my lips. My tongue darted over my lower lip, Howl smiling as his wolf growled in his chest, my wolf rising to answer and he leaned into me, his lips pressing firmly, hungrily against mine.
His tongue dragged over my lower lip, slowly darting into my mouth as the kiss deepened, his hands winding through the fabric of my shirt, balling it up. Tugging it over my head.
With a growl the shirt was gone, breasts bouncing free thanks to the absence of a bra. I wasn't quite sure where that had gone, but I had a feeling that the smiling Fae to the left of us had something to do with it.
The
vamp and the Fae stood there, arms crossed, pants tenting as they watched. Waited.
The hot pools of lust swelled at the thought, everything growing warmer as Howl's lips left my mouth to leave a line of kisses down my jaw, over my neck, pressing into my chest.
I gasped as his hands trailed over my stomach, their touch as soft as his tongue as it darted over my heaving breasts, his mouth capturing my nipple with a tiny bite.
"Howl," his name was a moan as he suckled at the flesh, his teeth and tongue flicking at the aroused peak of my breasts, the electric touch writhing and clenching through me. I was soaking through my shorts now, my need of him growing as his hands gripped my hips and hoisted me up, laying me down against the bed.
He gave my nipple one last bite before blowing on the perked flesh until it was fully erect.
"We are going to make you ours," Howl said with a growl.
"Are you ready for this?" I asked, trying to ignore my desire to ride him and claim him and wait for logic to catch up.
I had forgotten what happened last time we tried this.
"Yes," Howl whispered, coming closer to me. "Finn helped me to see what I am to you, what we all are. Sharing will take practice. But I want to try."
I didn't get a chance to respond before he was stripping off his shirt and pants before gripping the tiny gym shorts I was wearing and ripping them in two.
The sound of shredding fabric was like a bullet in the room and I arched my back desperate for the touch to return, for any touch to return. For all of their touches to fill me.
It hadn't missed my notice that he had said ‘we'.
"My beautiful wolf," Howl whispered as he lay down on top of me, his legs pressing between my own, spreading me wide as the hard knob of his cock pressed against my swollen lips. He shuddered, that single touch of my lust having done him in. "God, you're so fucking wet."
"You have a gift for doing that to me," I murmured, anything else I had been meaning to say lost as Howl rocked against me, pushing into me, filling me.
I don't know how, but he was even bigger than last time, his cock pulsing and twitching inside of me as he slowly fucked me.
