by C. J. Cooke
“Mmmmm what’s got you all excited.” He murmured.
“Just thinking” I said turning around so that we were face to face. I threw one leg over his hip and snuggled in as close as I could.
“What about?” He asked running the tips of his fingers up the side of my thigh before grabbing my hip and pulling me closer to him. He was already hard and I could feel myself getting wet just from the feel of it.
“Sex!” I blurted out and he just laughed in response.
“We’ve created a monster.” He laughed at me as he ground his hard cock against me.
“Would that be so terrible?” I asked leaning forward and kissing him before pulling his bottom lip into my mouth and gently biting down. Liam expertly rolled me onto my back so that he was between my legs and ground his hard cock against me again.
“Definitely not” he whispered in my ear. “But if you want to shower before we eat you need to do it now.”
“Are you trying to tell me that I smell?” I laughed incredulously at him.
Liam shoved his nose in my hair and inhaled deeply. “You smell like sex, you have all of our scents on you and it is intoxicating.” He whispered in my ear.
Seeing an opportunity for mischief I flipped Liam back over onto his back so I was straddling him. Now it was my turn to grind against him. His hands immediately came to my hips as he rubbed me down against him. “You’re right, I could do with a shower.” I said suddenly leaping off him and striding into the bathroom. I popped my head back around the door frame to see him still laying on the bed. “You going to join me?” I asked. I don’t think I have ever seen a man move so fast as he jumped out of the bed and ran into the bathroom.
The shower was amazing! It was big enough that we could easily have fit all four of us in here if we had wanted to. It had a huge rainfall shower head and several other heads off to the side that we didn’t use. Apparently, it also had a steam function which I was definitely going to be checking out later. Liam had gently washed me down in the shower, he washed my hair and lovingly rinsed the shampoo out of my hair. Why anyone took a shower alone I would never know. By the time we had both dried off and stepping back into the bedroom Kyle and Sykes were unloading burgers, fries and bottles of water onto one of the desks. They both turned around as I walked into the room wearing just a towel rubbing my wet hair with another towel. As soon as I saw the burgers my face lit up and I skipped over, my mouth immediately watering. I loved burgers! Sykes laughed and held a burger in front of me as I took a massive bite out of it. It was so good that I groaned in approval. “We should feed you burgers everyday if you’re going to make noises like that.” Kyle smiled grabbing his own burger and taking a huge bite. “Okay, this is actually pretty good.” He said grabbing some fries and shoving them in his mouth as well.
We ended up pulling one of the blankets down onto the floor next to the bed and having our own little indoor burger picnic, while we chatted away.
“I don’t know what is wrong with me, I am absolutely starving.” I said grabbing a second burger which Sykes had passed to me after seeing me sadly watching it and wondering if it would come across badly if I ate a second.
“Your magic is growing, you’ll probably find that your appetite increases until it settles. Plus, that together with the mate bonds forming, your body is burning through calories faster than you can eat them at the minute.” Liam explained.
“I have questions” I blurted out.
“Shoot” Kyle laughed. It seemed like question time was becoming a regular thing for us. I hope they don’t think I’m clueless, although I do feel a bit out of my depth.
“What do you mean about a mate bond forming? And how does that happen?” I asked eating a handful of fries. I would kill for a chocolate milkshake right now.
“Well, as we become more intimate the mate bond will form between us all. Once it is fully formed it will be unbreakable. Most mates have a general feeling when their mate has strong emotions, like if they are in distress. But with the strength of your magic I would think that our bond will be more like the original bonds back when the pack was whole and our magic was stronger. When the old bonds formed mates were said to be able to mind speak and find each other no matter how far apart they were.” Kyle explained. That would be pretty handy given the predictions about future events.
“Yeah about that, why is your magic so strong? It’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt before?” Sykes questioned.
I shrugged “Maybe it’s because I’ve had it longer than you guys but I honestly don’t know. You know that my test came out with some screwy result, right?” They all nodded. “Well Headmaster Farsight seems to think that he might have an idea of what it is but he’s keeping it to himself until he knows for sure.”
“What do you mean you’ve had it for longer?” Liam asked stealing some of my fries.
“I’ve been able to feel my magic and do minor things since I was probably about nine. It really kicked in around twelve but I wasn’t able to start using it like I do know until I was about sixteen. Still I’ve learnt a lot about it over the last four years. It does feel like since I got here though that it is growing again. It felt like it had kind of levelled out before I got here.” I said thinking about how my coping mechanisms for dealing for my magic were more than managing it back at home but recently I could feel the rush of it coming quicker and I was noticing that after my normal workouts it didn’t seem to feel as drained as it normally would. It wasn’t for a minute or so that I realised that all three of them were looking at me with a strange look on their faces. “What?” I asked subtly trying to wipe around my mouth and chin in case there was something on my face.
Liam laughed and batted my hand from my face. So it wasn’t ketchup dripping off my face that had them looking at me weird.
“Since you were nine?” Sykes blurted out.
“Yeah, something like that. I first noticed it when I saw that I was healing quicker.” I coughed as I suddenly felt a lump lodge in my throat. Shit it was going to be time for that conversation. “I didn’t know what it was back then though. It wasn’t really until I was sixteen and I started using it like I do now that I realised that I had magic and couldn’t be completely human.” They were silent for a minute, like they didn’t dare ask the question but they desperately needed to. I understood how they felt. I was surprised that none of them had the pity look going on that I had grown to hate so much. If anything they just looked at me with caring in their eyes. “You can ask if you want?” I said quietly.
“You don’t have to tell us about it if you aren’t ready.” Kyle said draping an arm around my shoulders in what I thought was a loving gesture until he reached down and snagging some of my fries.
“I can’t believe you just played me like that!” I said in shock then I smiled and he grinned back at me. It was an excellent diversion and I may have just loved him even more for it. He was giving me the opportunity of an out if I wanted it. I sighed. “No, it’s okay. I think that it’s something that we need to just put out there. It happened and it’s a part of my life. If we don’t talk about it now it’s just going to hang over me as a conversation that needs to be had. I decided a long time ago that I wasn’t going to let it rule my life and I’m not going to start breaking that now.” I shuffled around a little so that I was leaning against Kyle and he put an arm around me snuggling me into him. I moved my fries just out of his reach m because, you know, they were mine, and he chuckled at me. “Do you know what I mean when I say that I grew up in the system?” I asked them. They all shook their heads at me. “Essentially, in the human world there are a lot of children that don’t have families to bring them up. In my case it was because my parents abandoned me when I was born and no one knew who my family was. For some it’s because their families have died or just aren’t fit to be bringing up children. For whatever reason these children get put into the foster system. It’s supposed to be families who volunteer to bring these children into their homes to c
are for them. Because there are so many children needing places sometimes there aren’t enough families so there are also group homes which are well a place where a group of children are placed and cared for by a couple of people. It should be a safe and loving environment but it couldn’t be farer from that if it tried. Don’t get me wrong there are some places that do care for the kids that they take in but a lot of them don’t. The system attracts people for the wrong reasons and a lot of them take advantage of taking in these damaged kids that have no one to turn to. I suppose in a sense I was lucky, no one ever did anything … sexual … with me. It could have been a lot worse.” Kyle’s arm pulled me tighter against him but none of them said a word, letting me get through it as best I could. “When I was six the family who had me had to move out of state to go and care for an elderly relative who was ill. They weren’t allowed to take me with them so I was placed in this group home. There were three other kids in there and this couple who were supposed to be caring for us. They had this basement with extra rooms in it. They used to hire us out to these men so that they could … play … with us. That’s what they called it. Going to play. They liked to do things to us, to hurt us. Well you’ve seen my scars. They were very careful to make sure not to mark us where anyone would be able to see. I was there for three years until one of the kids just lost it one night, he broke out of his room and made it down to the kitchen. He set the whole place on fire before they could stop him. I nearly died that night. They always kept us locked in our rooms at night and none of us could get out. Luckily the fire service got there quickly enough to get us out and once they did and went into the house it became pretty obvious what was going on. We were all sent to different placements after that. None of the others were ever as bad as that. When I was twelve years old I decided that I wasn’t going to take it anymore. I used to go past Alfie’s gym every day on the bus on my way to school. I marched myself right in there asked to speak to the boss and demanded that he teach me how to fight. I don’t know why but Alfie took me in and he taught me everything that he knew. When he was running out of things to teach me the other fighters at the gym volunteered to give me lessons. That place was the only place I ever felt safe. Alfie was always trying to get me to speak with social services to get me taken out of the home I was in. He knew that they hit me. I never would. What they did was nothing compared to what I had been through. Those guys at the gym were like a family to me. I didn’t know until years later but Alfie used to keep this tin in his office and they all used to slip money into it for me. Every so often a new pair of shoes or gloves or anything else they thought that I needed would show up in my locker in the gym. No one ever spoke about it. It was just there the next day. It was the only way they could see that they could look after me. I went every day after school for a couple of hours. Alfie always made sure that after training I had a hot meal before I left. I don’t think that I would have survived if it hadn’t been for them. When I was fifteen years old Alfie was the person I turned to when I was scared to go home. It was the first time that I actually spoke out and asked him for help. The boyfriend of the woman I was staying with was paying me too much attention and I knew it was only a matter of time before he tried something. I never had to go back there. Alfie gave me a job, gave me the flat at the back of the gym and got in contact with my social worker. He helped me complete all the papers to emancipate myself, which basically means that I was allowed to look after myself and I didn’t have to have a guardian anymore. I don’t know what I would have done without him. He saved me that day. I hope I get to see him again.” I felt a tear roll down my cheek and Sykes leaned forward and brushed it away, cupping my cheek and I leant my head down against it. Liam came in at my other side and wrapped his arms round us all and we sat like that, on the floor, holding each other.
“Thank you for telling us.” Liam said pulling us all closer together. “I hope we get to meet Alfie one day.”
Sykes and Liam straightened back up but Kyle didn’t let me go. He kept me tucked into his side and I knew that he was processing what I had told him. “Okay,” I said giving them all a watery eyed smiled, “time for a subject change. Whose room did you say this was?” I said looking around again.
“Ours.” Kyle grumbled. I could hear his wolf coming through in his voice. He needed this change of subject even more than I did.
“But who is “ours”?” I asked confused.
“The three of us.” Sykes laughed.
“You three share a room?” I said looking around again with fresh eyes. Jeez these guys were tidy.
“Of course, we’re a pack.” Sykes answered. “All of the packs share rooms.”
“But there’s only one bed.” I said confused.
“Yep.” Sykes answered popping the p. “We’re a pack” he emphasised.
“Huh!” I said, not really knowing where you went from there.
“Does it bother you?” Liam asked quietly.
“What that you all sleep together?” I asked him and he quietly nodded at me. “No, why would it bother me.”
“Because it is not something that happens in the human world.” He explained. “Some humans do not like the idea of sharing a mate or of two men …” He trailed off awkwardly.
I wiggled out from under Kyle’s arm and crawled across the blanket to Liam on my hands and knees. I knew that he was feeling nervous about this. Yes, there were a lot who wouldn’t approve back where I came from. It didn’t feel weird to me though. Having witnessed a moment of him and Sykes together earlier had been fucking hot. I wasn’t sure what to say to set his mind at ease without it sounding like I was just trying to placate him so I decided to opt for actions instead of words. Liam’s eyes flashed hungrily as I stalked towards him. When I reached him, I climbed into his lap straddling him. Then I kissed him putting all of the feeling that I could into it. He wrapped his arms tightly around me and kissed me back just as hard. I hoped he could feel what I wasn’t quite ready to tell him yet. Wasn’t quite ready to tell them all. It was far too early but they had all wormed their way into my heart. They were right we were meant to be together, all of us. Not just them with me.
Chapter Seventeen
My alarm rang at 5:00am and I managed to pull myself out from my pile of sleepy mates. I made sure to ungracefully clamber over them so that they were all waking up by the time that I jumped off the bed.
“Why is your alarm going off at this ridiculous hour?” Kyle sleepily grumbled.
I snickered at them “About that, you remember volunteering to join my training program?”
“Oh gods, what have we agreed to?” Sykes moaned trying to snuggle back under the covers.
“Surprise! This is your new morning routine!” I cheered. There was a collection of groans coming from the bed and not of the good variety. “Come on boys its only fifteen miles.”
“Only fifteen miles!” Sykes scoffed before rolling over without realising that he was on the edge of the bed and falling out.
“Time to get you’re running shoes on boys, we’re meeting down on the front steps in the next twenty five minutes.” I said glancing down at my watch. Kyle and Liam climbed out of bed and started getting dressed without a word. I wasn’t quite sure if they were even awake. Sykes however was still laying on the floor groaning and I was beginning to be concerned that he had somehow hurt himself from falling the whole one foot down to the floor from the bed.
“He’s not a morning person.” Liam said coming to stand next to me now fully dressed.
“Don’t worry Sykes you’ll be wide awake once we reach mile five.” I snickered again. Who knew that this was going to be so much fun?
By the time that we made it down to the front steps the girls were already waiting for us even though we were five minutes early. “Alright, for those of you that are new,” I said winking at my guys, “one lap round the building is five miles. If you are running a lap you finish a lap, no excuses. You can stop at five or ten. The goal isn’t to kill yourselve
s trying to hit fifteen. Don’t forget that you need to be able to run this every morning. Having said that, I expect you to try and I expect you to push yourselves. Okay then, let’s go.” And with that we all started to run. I tried to stay towards the back of the pack like I always did for the first lap. I liked to be able to see how everyone was faring. I could pick up the pace in the last two laps which I always ended up doing alone. The girls had been doing this for four days now and I was surprised at how far they had come in such a short amount of time. No doubt it was due to their magic and other abilities. A few started to lag a bit towards the end of the first lap but I was pleasantly surprised to see that four of the girls and my three guys ran straight into a second lap without any hesitation. I lingered at the door to congratulate those who were finishing at five miles and sending them off for breakfast and showers. We didn’t have combat this morning so I reminded them about training this evening and then set off to catch up with the rest. I was actually quite proud of my three guys that they were pushing for the ten miles in their first run. By the time we were nearing the end of the second lap I could see that they were regretting it but it was a good effort for their first time out and they should see it as the achievement that it was. The third lap I ran on my own even though it took some convincing for my mates to stop at ten miles. They definitely didn’t have another five miles in them. Plus, it gave me the opportunity to truly push myself for the last lap and take it as a sprint. I needed to work off some of the magic that was flowing through me. I was starting to feel the burn already and I needed to try and take it down to a calm simmer. There was something about the pounding of my feet against the ground that always calmed me. By the time I had looped back around and finished my third lap a freshly showered Sykes was sitting on the steps waiting for me. In his hands he had a bottle of water and a paper bag that smelled delicious.
