by Elle Lincoln
Holding me with one hand, he begins a steady punishing rhythm. The steam of the shower slowly fades as the water turns cold, but my hot skin welcomes it. His lips find mine once more, moving over them and bruising me with his punishing nips.
Pulling away, he stares down at me with raw need. “I’ve waited for you for far too long, Damsel. This right here?” He thrusts again and again, tilting his hips until his cock hits that bundle of nerves again and again, his girth dragging along my walls deliciously. “You’re mine, Damsel.”
I smile up at him. “You’re mine, Knight.” I roll my hips to match his thrusts, losing myself to the pleasure he milks out of me.
All I can do is hang on as he fucks me until my eyes begin to see stars and my body tightens all over again. With a roar, his canines lengthen, and his mismatched gaze peers down at me. “You ready?”
To come? Yes. I nod, needing him to make this sweet torment end.
But that isn’t what he’s asking. If it’s even possible, he hardens further, filling me to the brink of pain that straddles pleasure.
Lightning fires off in my belly as my orgasm slowly rolls through my body. At the same time, he leans down and bites my neck. His teeth pierce my flesh with the sting of pain as my orgasm peaks.
I scream as his bite increases my pleasure, and black spots dance in my vision. Groaning, he pulses inside me, his hips frantic until they slow then stop.
My head falls back to the tile, my chest rising and falling with frantic breaths. Ever so slowly, he removes his jaw, licking away the sting of his bite. I wince slightly, and the bastard smirks.
“You bit me,” I accuse without any fight, because he just blew my fucking mind and I can’t even think straight.
“No. I marked you.” Without releasing me, he shuts off the water, forgoing a towel as he walks out of the bathroom and down the hall to the center door where the king-sized bed sits.
Ahh, that’s what that’s for.
“Bit me.”
“Damsel, I marked you as mine for all eternity.” He tosses me on the bed, my wet body marking up the sheets as he kicks the door closed. “And that was only two orgasms.”
My mouth falls open in a little ‘O’ as I stare up at him in disbelief just as he hardens once again.
“I promised Liam four.” He pounces on me, not bothering to wait as he spreads my legs apart and buries himself inside me. “This is where I’m spending the rest of the night.”
He slams home over and over again, fulfilling the promise he made to Liam and more, until exhaustion pulls me under. My knight wraps himself around my body as I fall into a deep sleep.
Chapter 25
Only eighteen hours, twenty minutes, and fourteen seconds ago, Christian was balls deep inside me. Fourteen of those hours I spent sleeping. Apparently dealing with multiple crises leaves a girl tuckered out. Or maybe that was the multiple orgasms. The ache between my legs has yet to fade away, and I’m enjoying every wrong move that feels oh so right.
Not to mention the bruise on my shoulder from Christian’s bite. Every now and then, he pulls my shirt back to look at it.
“Woman.” Athos pinches my thigh, pulling me back to the present argument that I’ve been ignoring for, oh, the last two hours.
So much happened, that focusing on any one thing keeps making my mind fracture and bend in ways it shouldn’t. The arguments of the day went as follows.
Sabina, why don’t you have superpowers after mating?
We need to discuss the cave.
How soon can the Irish twins ward the territories?
Can we retaliate upon Shadow Pack land?
Who are the rogues?
Why was the lake invisible?
What exactly are the details of being goddess blessed?
How did Dad acquire the weapons?
Ash walked out of the room for that last one, the suspicious bitch. She knows far more than she’s letting on, and by walking away she’s looking rather guilty.
Meanwhile, I’m over here happy as hell that the guys and I are alive, even though Nix keeps avoiding me like the plague. That I’ll have to fix. All while Christian sits in the corner with a shit-eating grin on his face. Smug bastard. I’m also more concerned with just how much tequila is left in my bottle and whether they are up for a bonfire and pushing the issues off for just tonight.
Tomorrow we can dive into all the question and the minor details. The what-ifs and where to go nexts.
Not only that, but when the guys fell into bed at the crack of dawn, their faces drawn and weary, I knew they’d need a break as well. When we all woke, their faces stayed grim while their eyes strayed to the windows. They think I haven’t noticed, but I have. Their worry is clear on their faces.
“You lost her.” Pepper’s voice holds that slight twinge of snideness, just enough for me to narrow my eyes at her. She’s also the only other one who knew nothing about this world, unlike Ash and Nessa, who are currently leaving little cups of whiskey all around the cabin. Despite Connor and Donovan claiming her as their mate, she still had no idea, believing she was having panic attacks. She didn’t deny her guys, they just never spoke to her. “Her eyes glazed over about an hour ago. You brought her back for a moment with the pinch to her thigh, then you lost her again.”
I flip the footrest of Dad’s recliner down, letting it rock me forward. The cigar in the ashtray burned out after I lit it and puffed on it once. Really, it’s only there for decoration, and it’s better than a candle. My body and mind have yet to catch up to everything that happened, and I’m not quite ready to venture into that shit storm.
I need a raincoat and boots first. Maybe a clothes pin for my nose.
“How were your sleeping arrangements, Pepper? To your liking? Were you satisfied?” I use my very best phone voice on her. She slowly sits up, her purple hair in victory rolls as those steely blue eyes squint in the fading natural light of the room. The evening is creeping up on us slowly, and with it the chill of fall.
That bitch only cocks her head, a smile lifting her red painted lips. “Seems to me like you didn’t use the clit shredder nearly enough.”
I snap. “That thing is vile and you know it!”
“It’s a gift from the gods!”
“Yeah, if you want your clit to fall off!”
“Then you aren’t using it right. If you use it properly, the angels will sing and the Holy Trinity will appear behind your eyes. Multiple orgasms are a woman’s right!” She’s so sure of this fact, her face turns a brilliant scarlet, and she’s leaning forward in her black polka dot dress, heaving as though she ran a marathon and isn’t arguing the benefits of a bullet.
Liam, that sweet teddy bear of a man, raises his hand. Today, his Hawaiian shit is hot pink, and I love how it looks on him.
Christian boxes his ears from behind. “You don’t have to raise your hand.”
Liam whips back around, tackling Christian to the ground and getting him in a headlock so fast I missed it. “Have you ever gotten between women arguing about a sex toy?”
“No,” Christian barely answers, his face smashed to the floor.
“Exactly.” He lets go, standing to face me. “Multiple orgasms?”
I rub my forehead as Pepper answers, “Yep.”
“Challenge accepted.” He stomps over to me, leaning down to pick me up, but Christian comes in from behind, tackling him back to the ground.
“It wasn’t a challenge, you idiot!”
“But it could be!”
“Shut up or I will see if it works on your prostate.”
“Wait!” I yell over their arguing. Their eyes turn to me. “Can I watch?”
A cough pulls our attention back to the present. “As much as this amuses me, can we get back to the topic at hand?” Connor rolls his eyes as he heads to the front door where he set a case of beer earlier.
“No. We cannot,” I state. I’d much rather carry on with this conversation than the serious one.
“Look, prince
ss, it doesn’t matter what you want.” Connor points his beer at me.
“Don’t call me that.”
“Princess,” he taunts, flipping his cap off.
“Looks to me like your boyfriend doesn’t know how to use the clit shredder on you, Pepper.”
“Not my boyfriend,” she grinds out, before glaring daggers at Connor. “Get me a beer, peon!”
“Aye, mate.” To my surprise, he bends down and gets another beer for her. Then he ruins it by shaking it up and handing it over while sipping his with a smirk.
“Waste of fluids,” she grumbles, and I get the feeling she isn’t talking about the beer.
I clap my hands. “Okay, Connor, Donovan. Go with Liam to the grocery store and get provisions. We will need mass quantities of doughnuts for pastry smores.”
“Wait.” Donovan walks in from Dad’s office at hearing his name called. “You use graham crackers for smores.”
“Not tonight!” I clap my hands again. “Time is a wasting! Go buy us food!”
Liam doesn’t even question it, which gives him an advantage over Nix and Athos. But he’s still behind Christian because... orgasms. He leans in for a quick kiss before darting off with the twins.
Instantly, the tension in the room lifts, and Pepper gives me a silent thanks. She may drive me crazy, but she’s more stubborn than I am. I lasted a whole week denying my mates. I don’t know how the hell she isn’t jumping them right now. I also know she kicked them out, and they slept on the couch.
“Athos, Nix, Christian, secure the perimeter.” I roll my pointer finger to get them out of my cabin so I can have a few moments with my cousins.
They stand, each one planting a swift kiss on my lips. Athos leans down last with a twinkle in his eyes. “I know what you’re doing.”
“Then humor me, Alpha,” I tease, avoiding his kiss with a laugh before darting out from under his arms.
“As you wish, but know this, eventually you won’t be a damsel anymore, little cub.” Leaning down once again, his brushes his lips over my forehead before walking away.
No. I’ll never be the weakest link again.
Luckily, my cousins and the twins agreed to stay for a few weeks to ward the woods, making them safe. But it won’t be easy, and it will take a lot out of them. They speak little of their past or their family, but the looks they shared spoke enough. They will need help on this. No wonder Athos didn’t want a mage debt. From what little I’ve gleaned, that kind of debt may never be repaid. Yet they are still willing to take it on to protect us.
Considering the goal of lycans is to protect mortals, the twins spoke as though they were morally obligated to help, even while Connor sputtered about how it wasn’t necessary. I’m just glad they’re here.
As the door closes, it opens right back up as Nessa strolls in wearing her hot pink sundress and a crown of flowers on her head. Her long brown hair cascades down her back in waves, while her smile lights up from the inside out.
“Bean!” She skips to me, pulling her crown off her head to place it on mine. “Lilies for a lycan queen!” She bows to me before pulling three more out of her satchel and placing them on all of our heads.
No one complains, because Nessa will just wrestle us to the ground and make us wear them. Finally, we all sit around the room. The guys are outside doing what I told them to, which brings a smile to my face. They only did it because I spent the afternoon complaining about how much I missed them before the guys caved and dragged me up here.
Though it’s only been a week, and so much has changed, this right here with the four of us feels right.
“Drinks!” Nessa stands, hopping over to one of the cases of bottled liquor she brought. “I don’t know how this cider will be, but it’s orange, and really you just can’t go wrong with orange!”
“Nessa saw a sign on the way up here and insisted we stop after telling us your life was in danger.” Ash’s lips split into a thin line as she takes her cider. “We went out there this morning while you slept.”
“Ah.” I take a sip, enjoying the orange explosion on my tongue, and feeling thankful they ran back out there, because this is delicious. “So…”
Silence descends on us, each of us looking at the other, unsure what to say or bring up first. I didn’t want to get into details with the guys, since they need a moment to not think about last night. But these women? They are my family, and I need the elephant in the room to go the hell back to the jungle.
“We good?” Pepper sits on the edge of her seat, her lips twisting around the bottle as she licks off the droplets of cider.
“Yeah.” I sigh, still exhausted. “I’m a little offended you said nothing, Ash.”
She nods, her curls bouncing around her face. “I get that. But some things you just can’t say. I’m bound by non-disclosure agreements. The military owns me and my opinions. Even more so than any other soldier because we are dealing with unknowns.”
“Do they know this place exists?” I question.
“They do, Uncle Allen was here, after all. I don’t know how involved he was with them or the wolves. I just know that his word got me in.”
“Which means a fuck ton,” Pepper surmises.
“It’s telling,” Nessa agrees, before she bounces on her chair. “The chess board! In my vision, I saw Uncle Allen playing chess. It was a one-man game.”
Ash and Pepper nod, but I sit and stare at her. She did say those words earlier in the week, but I was so lost in my grief I didn’t stop to consider her. Nessa was raised by one of the most incredible lesbian couples known to the modern world. Bias, yes, but true. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t affected by my dad’s loss. Nessa was my chosen friend. The one I bonded with in kindergarten. The one I got my period with. Shared notebooks in high school with and kept a log of all the boys we kissed. But she also had Dad just as much as I had her moms, Ginny and Talia.
I dismissed her grief, not realizing in the midst of it she lost him too.
“Nessa.” My eyes tear up as her smile falters just a fraction.
“Bean, it’s okay. I know what you’re thinking, stop. We each suffer grief in our own way.”
“Yeah, Nes just looks for some bigfoot dick.” Pepper’s eyes light up. “I told you an orgy was inevitable.”
“Nope. No. No. No orgy!” I point my bottle at Pepper in annoyance, even though I know she diffused the situation. “I know nothing more than when I got here a week ago,” I grumble, ready to set it aside, but at the same time my mind latches onto the slight details I missed.
“You have four mates!” Nessa coos.
“Four dicks.” Pepper smiles. “And a clit shredder.”
“You have us and a little more knowledge than you had a week ago,” Ash adds.
I take a long pull of my orange cider. “You’re right. But there’s more. So much more. Do the guys patrol? Is it just this area or do they get called out?”
“Ask them and communicate with them about it,” Nessa reminds me with her logical librarian voice.
“They go where needed.” Ash waves a hand.
“I thought you were under an NDA.” Pepper rolls her eyes.
“Yeah, when it comes to ignorant mortals and details you may not know. You three bitches are not just in the know, but goddess blessed.” Ash preens while sipping her cider. “I can talk about some things.”
“Not me.” Nessa stands, her dress shifting around her body. I go to argue, but she holds up a hand, her eyes gazing out the window. “I’m just the family friend who happens to be psychic. I have my own secrets to unravel, but it doesn’t mean I’m not family. Ya know? Though I’m happy to know you all aren’t cursed.”
I frown at the reminder. “Then why did our dads die? Your boyfriend, Nessa?”
She smiles sadly as something in her eyes surfaces that wasn’t there before—a hidden emotion she keeps close to her chest. “I can probably shed some light on that.”
“By all means, Delphi.” Ash rolls her fingers.
“You may be closer than you know with that name.” She turns, leaning against the glass as she addresses us. “When a goddess blessed your family line to mate with supernaturals, there was a balance that needed to occur. In your ancestry, there are many who had multiple lovers, who lived far longer than possible. Yet the human males died because they were not the correct fated souls. You three are blessed by a goddess to become a mate to a very lucky group of men. Not mortals. When falling in love with a mortal man, the balance of the blessing killed him off so that the soul was available.”
“I don’t like it,” Pepper grumbles. “I didn’t sign up for that shit.”
“No, but you were born into it,” Nessa argues.
“So not a curse, per se, but balance.” I shake my head. “My parents divorced.”
“But your mom’s heart never moved on,” Nessa answers softly.
I snort. “Why meddle? Why make our family the blessed ones?” I sneer.
“That’s a good question,” Ash replies quietly. “I haven’t found an answer to that. Not yet.”
“Why can’t the guys mate with humans?” That one still nags at me.
“Incompatibility. They are two entirely different species.” Nessa’s eyes glaze over, a white film turning them opaque. We all remain quiet as it happens, we’ve never seen this. I know I haven’t, and from the looks on my cousin’s faces, neither have they. Finally, Nessa comes to and begins speaking again as though nothing happened. “Goddess blessed mortals have a spark of magic that allows for mating without breaking the mortal.”
I give her a slow blink, unsure where that answer even came from. My eyes bounce to Pepper and Ash who both shrug. Guess we aren’t diving into that just yet.
“All of this comes down to bored gods meddling in the lives of mortals.” I stand, no longer able to sit still. I also need to shake off the weirdness with Nessa. “I read my mythology! I took those classes. Hera was always screwing with a mortal’s free will.” I stomp around the room, my aggression needing an outlet.
