The Tiger’s Ambush

by Tate James

  With River watching, I barely lasted a few minutes more before screaming my release. My muscles clenched hard around Cole’s fingers, and I dropped back into the armchair feeling boneless in the best possible way.

  “So, I take it something happened that forced you to use your magic?” River asked as Cole trailed teasing kisses down my thigh to my knee.

  “Why do you say that, Alpha?” Cole teased in the playful way that was totally unique to the three of us being alone like this. “Maybe I just wanted to show my girlfriend some attention?”

  “Girlfriend?” River raised his eyebrows at me, and I gave a little jelly-like shrug, both totally satisfied and still wanting more as Cole sat back to grin at his team leader.

  “Vixen called me her boyfriend this morning,” he announced, sounding a little bit smug, and I groaned.

  “Oh did she just?” River asked, giving me a curious stare. “And so what does that make me?”

  A small laugh bubbled out of me, but I was floating on cloud nine and didn’t mind joining in the teasing. Pushing up from the armchair, I, too, sank to my knees on the carpet, then crawled over to River in what I desperately hoped looked like a sexy sort of way.

  “Alpha?” I purred when I came within reach of him, and he separated his legs to allow me closer.

  “Yes, Kitten?” he replied, trying to look stern but with eyes that were laughing.

  “Would you also be my boyfriend?” I batted my eyelashes and caught the small twitch to his lips that betrayed a smile he was trying to hold back.

  “Hmm, I don’t know...” He tapped his chin with his finger. His other arm was still in the sling, suspended across his body, but his gaze roamed down my body as I sat back on my feet. Sitting there in just my sweater and nothing below the waist felt a bit silly, so I stripped the woolen garment off and tossed it aside.

  “What about now?” I joked, feeling a surge of satisfaction when his golden gaze locked on my emerald lace bra and everything in it.

  “Maybe...” He pondered, so I reached up and unclasped my bra, throwing it aside too. “Okay, bloody hell you twisted my arm.”

  “Really?” I grinned, leaning forward to take his face in my hands. “You want to be my boyfriend, huh?”

  River rolled his eyes dramatically, but a smile was pulling at his lips. “Yes. I do.”

  In response, I simply pressed a kiss to his mouth, gently, as though I could actually tell him how I really felt through my lips. Not that I knew myself. Just that I liked him. Them. A lot.

  River snaked his good hand up my back, and he held me firmly as he took control of our kiss and slipped his tongue into my mouth, finding and caressing my own in his possessive sort of way.

  “Hmm, well as your boyfriend—” River was cut off by Cole’s fake cough. “As one of your boyfriends, I should mention you don’t look totally recharged yet. I think Drake might have gone a bit too quick.”

  “Mmm, you think?” I asked, sitting back on my heels once more and sliding my hands to River’s belt. “Guess it’s only polite for you to help me out then, right... sir?”

  River made a frustrated sort of groan, and I heard Cole snort a laugh behind me.

  “No using that arm though, Alpha,” Cole warned. “You’d better just sit back and take whatever our girl has in mind for you.”

  Tugging down his zipper, I was beyond pleased to find River had gone back to his commando ways and was already bare, hard, and waiting for me.

  “I may only have the use of one arm right now,” River murmured in his sexy British accent, “but don’t forget who is in charge around here, Kitten.”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it, sir,” I agreed, shuffling back a fraction and stroking him with my hand. The velvet steel of his cock pulsed under my palm, and a droplet of pre-cum glistened on the tip, practically begging me to lick it.

  Bending down, I used my grip on the base of his cock to bring him to my lips. I slowly trailed my tongue across the flat head, tasting the salty sweetness of him before sealing my lips around his tip.

  River hissed a sharp breath as I sucked lightly, running my tongue over the join and swirling around the head. His hand shifted from my back to my hair, winding my long hair around his wrist until he had a solid grip, and I pulled back a fraction to look at him curiously.

  “You didn’t really think I was letting you take charge, did you, love?” He chuckled in a dark sort of way that made my nipples harden and my pussy clench. Trying not to smile, I stroked my fist up and down his slick cock a couple of times while looking up at him through my lashes.

  “What would you have me do then, sir?” I asked in a breathy voice, my belly already aflutter with excitement. Given all my many issues with authority, it was a total mystery to me why River’s domineering personality turned me on so hard. But it did, and I wasn’t questioning that.

  “First, I want you to spread your knees a little wider,” he ordered, his own voice thick with desire as I continued stroking his shaft but did as directed. “Perfect, love. Just like that. Now I want you to take me in your mouth.” I did as directed, wrapping my lips over his rock hard cock and smoothing my tongue down his underside.

  “Take your hand away,” he ordered, and I did so, bracing my weight on the carpet on either side of his hips. “Now. I am going to set the pace and depth. If it gets too much, just tap my waist. Understood?”

  My mouth full, I could only make a small noise of agreement, but it was clearly enough for him as he used his grip on my hair to pull me down onto him further.

  River let out a small groan as I relaxed and let him lead me, simply sucking and licking while he set a rhythm thrusting into my mouth and just barely testing the limits of my gag reflex. From the corner of my eye I saw Cole leave the room briefly, then return.

  Consumed as I was with River’s dick in my mouth, I lost sight of where Cole went until I felt his large palms on my naked butt cheeks. River’s request for me to spread my knees wider suddenly made a whole lot more sense, and a thrill ran through me. Silently, I begged Cole to join in. The threesome we’d had in Alaska was fresh in my mind, and I was hungry for more.

  “Kitten, I had better still have your full attention,” River commented in his stern voice, and my inner walls tightened just at the sound of it. “I’m taking this deeper. Just relax into it.” With that warning, he pushed my head down harder at the same time as his hips bucked up a little, and he reached the back of my throat, causing me to gag a little.

  “Relax,” River growled, and I did what he said. The next thrust, he disappeared further inside me. I remembered to relax my throat, and when he reached my limit, he held me there while my throat spasmed a little. “Breath through your nose, love,” he reminded me quietly, then withdrew after a moment, allowing me a short reprieve.

  Cole, meanwhile, was trailing a teasing finger over my exposed cunt, stuck up in the air as it was. When I heard the distinctive metallic clink of his belt being removed, I almost wanted to cheer.

  Fuck yes.

  He kneeled behind me, pushing my legs a little further apart with one knee while the broad head of his cock pressed against my opening.

  “Kitten, Cole’s going to fuck you from behind while I fuck your mouth,” River told me in that sinfully sexy voice of his. “Don’t forget you can tap out at any time.”

  Internally I snorted a laugh. As fucking if.

  In lieu of words, I pressed back a little, encouraging Cole to get on with it, while I gently scraped my teeth down River’s shaft, eliciting a dark chuckle from him. He tightened his grip on my hair, and in flawless synchronization he pumped into my mouth at the same time as Cole pushed himself into me with one thrust. I groaned in overwhelming excitement and pleasure feeling the slickness between Cole and I, realizing he’d used lube to allow that smooth of an entry. For a man his size, it was no easy feat.

  Considering I had already come once, it wasn’t going to take me long to get back onto that ledge, and the feeling of utter vulnerability and po
werlessness as Cole pounded me from behind and River pumped into my mouth with an iron grip on my hair was going to do it for me. Fast.

  The guys clearly knew it, too, because they weren’t messing around. River was the first to go, swelling and jumping between my lips, then ramming hard into my throat to empty his load with a groaning gasp. Almost immediately, he withdrew and used his grip on my hair to lift my face. Capturing my gaze with his, he watched my face hungrily while Cole shifted his grip on my hips and pushed a lubed up finger into my ass while we both came simultaneously.

  “Jesus bloody Christ that’s hot.” River gasped, his pupils dilating as he watched the both of us shudder and moan through our climax.

  Words had completely escaped me, and I let myself collapse onto the ground with Cole halfway on top of me.

  “What is?” I panted when I finally found my voice again, some five minutes after River had spoken.

  “What is what?” he asked, running his fingers through my hair as I lay with my head in his lap.

  “What is hot?” I reminded him, and he grinned.

  “Seeing you two come apart like that. It is hot enough it almost makes me hard again just thinking about it.” He groaned a little, and I smiled.

  “Have you guys ever...?” I trailed off but waggled my eyebrows at him.

  “Fucked?” Cole finished for me, stretching out on the couch River was leaning on. “No. But we’re not against a little sword crossing when things get... crowded.”

  “As I’m sure you can appreciate, Kitten, if that were my cock instead of Cole’s finger... well, you can’t be afraid of a little touching, can you?” River waggled his eyebrows back at me, and I laughed but was also insanely turned on by the mental image that conjured up.

  “Fuck, that’s hot,” I whispered, and Cole barked a laugh.

  “All right, the others will be back any minute if you want to get cleaned up. I was supposed to have started dinner already, so chop-chop.” River patted me playfully on the leg, and I sat up with an exaggerated groan. I was just about the furthest thing from exhausted, if I was being truthful. The two of them had done more than enough to fully recharge my magic. And then some.

  Gathering up my clothes, I headed to the bathroom for a quick shower while my mind wandered back to the girl I had healed. When would we find out if she’d been changed? And what the fuck was I going to tell Jonathan?

  12

  VALI

  “Sir?” My stewardess tapped on the bathroom door lightly. “We’re cleared to disembark now.”

  My pilot had fucked something up on our flight plan, and we’d been stuck on the damn tarmac for almost half an hour waiting for clearance by the ground crew. On the plus side, I’d managed to take care of some garbage while we waited.

  “Got it!” I yelled back, scrubbing my hands with soap tinted pink with blood. It had been a long couple of days cleaning house within my organization.

  This was something I’d been actively working toward for years, ever since taking over the empire from my psychotic father, but it had been a slow process. Until now.

  Too many of my men were relics from my father’s time. Disgusting, immoral individuals with not a decent bone in them. Some had needed paying off to get them out of my company. Some, like Gheorghe, I’d simply killed for seemingly small infractions. Actions like that worked for me two-fold. For one, it kept my men in fear. As far as they were concerned, I was just as volatile and unstable as my father, and that’s how I wanted it to stay. The more they feared me, the less likely they were to double-cross me.

  This latest mess that I was cleaning off my skin was one of those small infractions.

  Despite my employees’ opinions that I was an unstable megalomaniac like dear old dad, I was simply using their little slipups as an excuse to rid the world of some of the most vile scum alive. These were men who got off on rape, murder, and violence. Those men didn’t deserve to breathe, so I considered my rash of housecleaning a public service.

  “Sir.” One of my lackeys cleared his throat as I left the bathroom rolling my shirt sleeves back down. It hadn’t been the cleanest kill, and certainly was not something I’d planned to do on board my jet, but I had to take opportunities where they came.

  “What?” I snapped, allowing a little thread of dragon growl to ride my voice.

  “What do you want done with the body, Romanul?” The man asked, dropping his gaze submissively and probably not even realizing what he’d done.

  “Clean it up. This meeting shouldn’t take too long, I want the jet kept ready, understood?” I didn’t wait for a response. They’d do what they were told if they knew what was good for them.

  Striding across the tarmac to my waiting town car, I allowed myself a small sense of grim satisfaction. The man whose throat I’d just slit for daring to speak over me was a cold-blooded murderer. He’d strangled his pregnant girlfriend the year before, while he was fucking her, then covered up the evidence. No charges stuck to him, but I didn’t give a shit about the law. I conducted my own justice system.

  The car door closed behind me with a heavy thud, and I gave a polite smile to the man opposite me.

  “Victor, thank you for taking the time to meet with me,” I addressed him, and he raised his scarred eyebrow at me.

  “It seems I needed to have put a bit more punch into that repellant spell I used. You must have something a little more than just dragon in you, huh boy?” Despite his youthful appearance, at least on his unscarred side, it was obvious he was considerably older than he looked. Smarter too.

  “Romani.” I nodded. “From my mother.”

  “Ah, that explains it. They did manage to skate through the plague pretty untouched. So I assume you want more answers?” Vic scratched his good cheek, watching me. “What makes you think I can tell you anymore than I told your wee girlfriend?”

  “If you couldn’t then you wouldn’t have bothered with magic to make everyone forget their questions.” I gave him a flat, no bullshit stare.

  “Right you are, boy,” Vic murmured, narrowing his eyes. “Well, go on then. Ask away, if you think you can phrase the questions clever enough to beat the geas.”

  “If you were a Ban Dia, what would be the most vital piece of information to know about yourself?” I asked, having thought carefully about my phrasing prior to getting here. My question referenced neither Kit nor Bridget but was simply a discussion about species.

  “Good start.” Vic dipped his head in acknowledgement. “I would want to know where my bloodstone ring was. All Ban Dia children are gifted one at birth, regardless of whether they are the heir to the magic or not. For the ones who are not Ban Dia, it is just a pretty trinket. For those who are, it is vital to completing the bond with her guardians.”

  “And how would it do that?” I ground out between clenched teeth. This asshole seriously had withheld a vital piece of information like that from Kit?

  “Once she chooses her three guardians, their blood is collected by the stone, which the Ban Dia then wears on her left ring finger. It allows almost like a reciprocal bond between them so the dianoch can tap into some of their Ban Dia’s abilities and she can draw from theirs. For example, if you had a bonded Ban Dia, she might be able to breath fire, or even shift. It depends on the strength of the bond.” Vic sighed and sat back in his seat. “But that is irrelevant unless she locates her bloodstone ring.”

  “I see. And if such a ring existed, what would it look like?” I asked carefully, desperately trying to hold in my fiery temper, which seemed to be a hundred times worse since first going scaly.

  “It’d probably be in a yellow-gold, intricate setting with a large, princess-cut sapphire. I imagine that—” Vic cringed and clutched at his head. Obviously what he’d been about to say was pushing the limits of Bridget’s magic.

  “What species are you?” I asked casually, changing the subject.

  Vic sucked in a breath, the pain visibly clearing from his face as he considered this question. “Fox s
hifter, same as Nicholai. Lachlan is a wolf though.”

  “Are you Kit’s father?” My time was short; I wasn’t here to fuck around with niceties.

  Vic grimaced. “Probably? I couldn’t say for sure. When Bride reached the age of fertility, she wasn’t wasting any time trying to produce her Ban Dia heir. While at the time I was her favorite, it could have easily been Nicky or Lachlan that fathered her.”

  “Age of fertility?” I repeated. “What’s that?”

  “I couldn’t give you an exact age because I don’t know myself. It’s somewhere around the three-hundred-year mark though,” Vic told me, looking surprised himself that he’d managed to say so much. “It’s like a built-in population control that they can’t reproduce any faster than that. Because they never die, if new Ban Dia were being born every twenty-odd years, then the world would be overrun with them.”

  “Makes sense,” I murmured, rubbing at my chin with a warm hand. My whole body seemed to be permanently warm these days, actually.

  “You were in the Blood Moon labs with Bridget weren’t you?” I pressed. “What can you tell me about that?”

  “Nothing.” Vic winced in pain. “Try again.”

  “Do you know what happened to Kit before social services found her as a kid?” I asked, and Vic squinted at me.

  “I’d say her memories were erased,” he said, like I was a moron.

  “No shit. Do you know why?” My patience was running thin with this guy. His jaw clenched; he shook his head, indicating he couldn’t answer again. “Okay, what can you tell me?”

  “I can tell you that I’m doing my best to break this fucking spell that bitch placed on me. The second I do, everything I know is yours.” He huffed in anger. “Until then, don’t trust anyone but your Ban Dia and fellow dianoch.”