by Helene Gadot
The guard he’s attempting to snack on smashes the handle of his whip into the vampire’s face, even though the threat is over and his friends are dragging him away.
He’s lucky the guard didn’t shoot him.
Blood soaks the furious vampire’s mouth and our eyes meet, a buzzing vibrating in my ears, a silent scream building in my chest.
I’ve only experienced this once before.
With Rowan.
My mate.
And based on the threads plucking at my chest and pulling me towards the other two Arcanes with the vampire when I flick my gaze over to them, he’s not my only mate.
This cannot be happening.
I’ve already been through this.
And lost it. Lost him.
He’s gone and I don’t want a replacement.
I refuse to accept one. Much less three.
This cannot be happening.
Chapter Three
Sterling
WHAT IS HAPPENING?
My chest lurches then heats until it’s burning so hot I worry something’s wrong and almost lose my grip on Archer. My unicorn is neighing and whinnying and completely melting down inside me, but I can’t tell why.
Until I remember all the stories I’ve heard growing up from other Arcanes.
They described it just like this.
Oh, hell no.
We are not here to find our bloody mate. There must be some kind of mistake.
No wonder Archer is losing it. He had his thirst under control until he was out of the cart and looking at a haunting girl with tangled golden hair and a too-large upper lip giving her a perpetual pout.
We don’t need more complications.
Especially a trembling, starved little songbird who looks like she’d shatter if a brisk wind hit her.
We’re here on a mission and even with this fucking collar cutting me off from my arcane side, there’s no way he’ll let me leave her in this hell.
He’s awake enough to be a pain in my ass when it comes to our mate, snorting and pawing inside my head, trying to push me to go to her.
Based on the snarl curling Archer’s lips and the way he panicked, not to mention the stiff incubus on the vampire’s other side, I’m not the only one mated to the pathetic creature.
This is just getting better and better.
It was supposed to be a quick in and out, but now we’re going to need to change our plans and tuck our damn mate somewhere safe before we head back into the fight waiting for us back in the real world.
How did the three of us end up with the same mate? Multiple mates are common, but they rarely happen with people you already know like this.
If this was happening anywhere else and with someone a little more...impressive, maybe I’d be thrilled. It would mean our family doesn’t have to break up.
Though regardless of who or what our mate is, now is the worst time possible for us to find her.
Tired of the guards still yelling and snapping their whips, I growl and yank Archer to his feet, ripping my attention away from our shaking mate. We can’t let on that we feel anything for her. Mates are forbidden in this lovely world of ours.
We’re all dead if these idiot shit humans figure out we’re bonded. Or worse, separated before we’re able to finish our mission here.
Gavyn shoots me a grim look over Archer’s head. “We’ll deal with this later.”
The three of us turn our backs on our mate and I ignore the scream of my animal inside me as he fights me. But with the collars stripping my powers, he’s weak.
So weak it’s easy for me to ignore him and keep walking when the guards herd us towards some shitty building.
“What the fuck.” Archer mutters the words underneath his breath, his tongue darting out to lick the blood from his mouth.
Gavyn darts a paranoid glance around us, watching out for eavesdroppers. “We’ll talk about it later. First we have to get through whatever hell they’re going to send us through to make sure we know our places.”
I eye Archer, worried over how long he’ll make it without blood. Regular food will only do so much for him. He needs blood.
We planned to let him feed off us, but it’ll only work if we have privacy. Do they supply blood for vampires? Or do they just hope they slowly starve to death?
Probably the latter.
My temples pound with frustration. So far, this is a complete clusterfuck.
We’ve already lost contact with our person on the outside and we’re at the wrong prison.
If I believed in fate, I’d believe the reason we’re here is so we could find our mate.
But that’s bullshit.
It’s some insane coincidence.
Mates may be real, but it’s something biological. Fate has nothing to do with it. There’s no higher power worried about the romantic lives of each Arcane in the world.
Though I have no idea what biology in me or the other guys connected us to a damn nightingale.
A bird shifter?
I scoff and shake my head.
The most she can do to protect herself is fly away. We need someone a little sturdier than her.
Part of her tiny stature may be living here, but you can tell she’s naturally a petite person. She looks more like a pixie than a shifter.
But my unicorn doesn’t care what she is or how weak or strong. He wants me to turn around and go to her immediately.
Which I’ll have to do eventually. But not until it won’t raise suspicion from the guards.
I shove the banshee off me when the guard sends yet another Arcane careening into me. Everyone is keeping up, they’re just pushing to be dicks.
I look forward to getting the green light to kill these assholes.
But first, we have to wait for our damn contact to find us.
For now, we’ll play the game.
But I can’t wait until I get to finally unleash on these prick humans who think just because we’re Arcane and have abilities they don’t that just existing should be illegal.
Chapter Four
Allegra
TAHIRA NUDGES ME WHEN I keep staring at the door my new mates just disappeared through. “Come on. We need to get into the kitchens. We’re already late, but hopefully with the new arrivals taking their attention, they won’t notice.”
Right. Work.
That’s where my focus needs to be. Not on the three beautiful and furious Arcanes here to make everything so much harder.
Who didn’t look any happier to see me than I am to see them.
I rub at my chest as I follow Tahira back towards the kitchens, memories of Rowan marching through my mind.
Remembering our stolen moments — his sweet kisses, the way he purred to help calm me down and when he was happy or snuggly, his patience with my fears and nightmares, the way he was grumpy with everyone but me.
My golden lion. He was so beautiful.
I really believed it when he said we’d escape here one day and find some place we could be safe and happy. He’d tell me stories of the beautiful places he’d seen throughout his life, places we could hide away from the rest of the world.
When I woke up one day and he was gone, I stopped believing. In everything. There’s no escape. There’s no happiness. There’s no love.
What little you might find won’t last before the humans rip it from you. This is the only life I’ve ever known and I’ll die here just like I was born here.
Sometimes I think I should hurry up that day.
But I can’t do it to Tahira or Zakar.
I’m not there quite yet.
These new mates don’t bring me the hope Rowan did when he made me feel like I was no longer alone. That someone or something out there in the universe had sent him to me, created him for me.
I don’t believe in those children’s tales anymore. I’ve seen too many mates ripped apart or killed in my time here and after experiencing it for myself, I’m never going to allow myself to go through it again.
It took ages for Rowan to get me to trust him and open up. I’ll never make that mistake again.
Hopefully we can all avoid each other and mind our own business until the mating bond releases us. With the collars on, it shouldn’t be too hard to ignore. It’s only a mild draw when we’re cut off from our arcane side after the initial panic.
I’ve only experienced it at full strength once when they’d released my collar to allow me to shift and heal my wounds when they went too far and almost killed me.
Even though Rowan was on the other side of the prison, I could feel his lion calling to me, begging me to join him, roaring in fury at my pain.
My nightingale, bloody and injured, tried to fly to him even with her wing broken and chest caved in. The pull was that strong.
And terrifying.
And beautiful.
Once I felt how much Rowan loved me, how pure and protective and possessive his feelings for me were, my doubts fled.
Even once they collared me and smothered the fire banked in my chest at the knowledge of Rowan’s love, a lit coal remained, too strong to be completely put out.
Where once that warm and reassuring spot in my chest glowed, now resided an emptiness, cold and dark, taunting me with what I once had and lost.
I don’t want to fill the void with new mates.
I won’t.
It would be a betrayal. And foolish.
If only the nightingale inside me would agree and stop pecking at me to go find my mates.
“What’s with you, fledgling? You’re even more dazed and in your head than usual.”
Tahira’s words pull me back to myself and I blink when I realize we’re back in the kitchens. I don’t remember walking here.
We don’t have enough privacy at the moment to chance me explaining what I just discovered. If anyone knows I’ve found a mate, much less three, we’re all in danger.
“I’m fine.” I scrub at the counter of my workspace and avoid her eyes.
I’ll tell her everything later, but here and now isn’t a safe space for this kind of secret.
“Bad night?” She raises a brow.
I shrug. “Something like that.”
“I know the nights when you have to perform are difficult for you.”
She means the nightmares are usually worse for me on performance nights.
“They’re not my favorite evenings. Zak took the worst of it though.”
“Poor thing. I saw the bruises on his face.”
Helpless rage shakes my hands as I chop bruised and wilted vegetables for the weak stew that’s supposed to feed so many of us.
Zakar and I have been paired up for a while. Other than Tahira, he’s my best friend. We’ve grown incredibly close over the years.
And occasionally, there’s something there a little stronger. We grew up together, him and me. I was born here and have never known anything else. He was captured so young, he barely remembers anything else. It’s brought us closer, having such a horrible thing in common.
Though sometimes, I think we’re the lucky ones. We don’t know or remember how good it is outside these walls, we don’t know what we’re missing. No matter how many stories we’re told or how many dreams and fantasies spin through our minds about what might be just out of our reach.
“The new prisoners were certainly feisty this morning. Should keep things interesting around here for a while.”
Tahira and I exchange a tired look at Margol’s chatter. The other kitchen workers chime in with their agreements and opinions, gossiping about some of the specific Arcane’s they noticed.
My vampire is a real hot topic since he made such a fuss.
It’s always worse when new prisoners arrive and they’re unruly. Watching the guards break them is never interesting. It’s horrifying.
And my mates definitely don’t seem like the type to keep their heads down and out of trouble.
They seem like nothing but trouble.
Yet another reason to keep my distance.
I’ve had enough trouble to last me multiple lifetimes.
Chapter Five
Gavyn
MY STOMACH COMPLAINS as the line we’re forced into inches forward inside this rickety shack. I glance over at Archer, worry overtaking the hunger. He’s looking incredibly peaky. Somehow, being separated from his vampire by these damned collars has done more harm to him than the rest of us.
It’s easiest for me to live with the collars since my powers are so often a larger pain in the ass than a help. Charming people and distracting them with desire has its uses, but it certainly doesn’t hurt me too badly to be without the abilities.
My main goal is keeping my men alive.
And figuring out how the hell we’re going to escape this place without the help we expected from the outside. Unless our mage can find us.
This entire mission has gone completely balls up.
Archer’s knees give out on him and I barely grab him in time to keep him from hitting the floor. He can’t go much longer without blood.
I pull him completely into my arms, his face buried in my neck, both of us tucked against the wall. “Drink.”
He tries to push off me, but he’s too weak. “Not like this.”
“There’s no choice. Just a little. Just enough.” I drag my hand up his side and back to cup the back of his head.
Archer’s tongue darts out and licks my carotid, making me shiver and my incubus perk up and leer. Archer is the only vampire my incubus accepts and lets get close to us. Something that always puzzled me but I now realize has everything to do with us sharing a mate.
It’s never felt wrong between us like it usually does for non-vampires.
My other hand grips his trim hip. “Hurry, Arch. Before they realize what we’re doing.”
Archer’s teeth sink into my neck and I bite back a groan, my cock swelling and pressing against my filthy pants as his tongue and teeth torture me.
My eyes roll back into my head as heat and need travel through me. Each pull he takes seems to have a direct line to my cock, making it twitch every time.
He growls and presses closer to me, his dick as hard as mine as they rub against each other.
With one last gulp, Archer pulls away from me, putting a little space between us. We stare at each other, both of us a little out of breath, both of us a little dazed, both of us wanting more.
I can taste his need, his desire to pull me back, torn between my blood and my lips. And I’m not even using my power. I can’t.
It’s all his. The power of the bite when it’s shared with someone it’s meant to be shared with.
I lift my hand to Archer’s face and use my thumb to wipe away the drop of blood from the corner of his lips. He grabs my wrist before I can pull away and draws my thumb into his mouth, cleaning the blood from my skin, never removing his blue gaze from mine. A groan rumbles in my chest as heat pools in my spine.
Fuck.
He releases my thumb with a pop and shoots me a wicked grin, breaking up the tension between us. I narrow my eyes on the brat and clear my throat.
Archer adjusts himself without shame, winking up at me. “Thanks.”
I snort and shake my head. “You’re welcome.”
He’s looking way better. Still not at full strength, but the best we can do surrounded by Arcane’s and guards looking for a reason to punish us.
Sterling curses and folds his arms, making himself even bigger than his usual hulking form, hiding Archer and I from sight, glaring at anyone who dares make eye contact with him. The idiot is going to draw attention to us with his stiff fury.
Ever since he caught sight of our mate, he’s been barely holding himself back from losing it.
It seems impossible that she’s here, that she belongs to all of us.
The timing could certainly be better.
I’ve dreaded the day, the day I find my mate. In this world, they’re nothing but a weakness, someone who can be used against you, s
omeone else depending on me, someone else to lose.
My power may not be the greatest, yet I’ve somehow found myself in a leader position I never wanted and in the middle of a mad plan that will probably get the people I care most about killed.
“Next!”
My teeth ache at the guard’s strident tone, but at least the queue we’re in moves forward the slightest bit.
No clue why they brought us into this shitty building only to pass out uniforms and scribble down our information.
All the prisoners surrounding us are as silent as us. The last one who tried to ask questions is still lying in a small pool of blood on the floor, not yet returned to consciousness.
None of us bother with him though since the wolf shifter had spent the last eleven days whining every single mile we bumped along shitty roads on our journey here.
It was nice someone had finally shut him up for a little bit.
Sterling kicks him in the ribs as we step over him to move up in line. I shake my head, ignoring the spark of amusement trying to curl the edge of my lips.
He’s such a moody bastard.
Half the time I’m envious of his ability to not give a single fuck how others view him. But he has that luxury since no one looks to him to lead. They just look to him for protection and violence.
Or they look at him like he’s a powder keg waiting to blow.
Which he is.
And I’m afraid the little songbird is the spark that’ll light his fuse.
Once Archer is feeling better, he may be the only one of us the slightest bit enthused over our new mate. I am not looking forward to explaining to the poor girl that we can’t be what she needs. There are people out there relying on us to get back to them and we can’t take on anymore responsibility. Especially not the heavy responsibility of a mate who doesn’t look like she can aid us at all in our mission.
Through no fault of her own of course. She looks like she’s been trapped here for a long time. We’ll at least get her out of here. There’s no way my incubus will let me leave her behind in this hellhole.
