The Viper's Nest

by Tate James

  “Aus?” I whispered, “Are you jealous?” I couldn’t help it... I grinned. Of course, I could never have anticipated him being my first bonded dianoch, so the prospect of Austin “Asshole” King being jealous where I was concerned just really hadn’t crossed my mind.

  “Bitch,” he muttered, narrowing his eyes at me and making me grin even wider. I loved our snark; it was too much fun to just up and drop suddenly because we were in love with each other.

  Shuffling myself closer to him, I pressed my lips to his, and for a rare moment we simply kissed. There was no combativeness to it, no frenzied rush of emotions from the other person to confuse things. It was just us. And it was perfect.

  “I’m wrecked,” I admitted when we eventually separated. “Can we nap until Cal gets home?”

  Austin groaned. “I thought you’d never ask.” He hauled himself up from the floor, then helped me up. “You’ll need all of your energy for later, too. Who knows what might happen when you bond with two supposedly extinct magical creatures.”

  Cracking my neck, I stretched and yawned. “Wait, they’re extinct? Like, I just figured they’re magical, which is why no one knew about them.”

  “Nope.” Austin shook his head as he followed me upstairs to my room. Apparently he was napping with me. “Even within the magical community they’re considered extinct. Otherwise I would have suggested they meet up with other dragons to learn from them.”

  “Huh,” I mused. “Sometimes I forget you’re the new Big Bad of magic. What about Wes? Any ideas?”

  “About what he is?” Austin kicked off his shoes beside my bed, then stripped down to his boxers. “None, and I have done some asking around too. We’ll work it out though. It’s sort of my job now. Well, mine and Cal’s.”

  Another wide yawn creaked my jaw, and I got comfy in my giant bed just before Tyson padded into the room and jumped up to snuggle into the dead center of the mattress. We’d left him asleep on the floor of the den, but he clearly wasn’t satisfied being left alone.

  “Move it, bud,” Austin told his tiger familiar. “On the edge.” He snapped his fingers at Tyson and gave him a no-bullshit glare. Reluctantly, Tyson huffed, then stood back up and climbed over me to snuggle my other side, allowing Austin to take his spot.

  Flanked on either side by my two favorite Bengals, I was asleep in seconds.

  When I woke, it was pitch black in my room, and Tyson’s warm weight had been replaced by someone considerably less furry. Austin was asleep on his back with his legs still tangled in mine and the blankets pushed down to his waist.

  “Time to get up?” I asked Caleb in a soft whisper, not wanting him to hear the tremble in my voice. The images of my dream had fled upon waking, but the cold sweat on my back and the sick panic in my gut said I’d woken from yet another nightmare.

  Caleb burrowed his cold hands under my T-shirt and pulled me tight against him, kissing my neck. “Yeah, pretty much. I just wanted to slide in for a cuddle first, if that’s cool?”

  “Mm, always,” I murmured sleepily, enjoying how the brush of his fingers across my rib cage and the soft caress of his lips on my shoulder chased away the ghosts of my imagination. “Good session tonight?”

  “Very,” he replied with a note of pride that saw me rolling to face him. “I told my teacher about that incident we had earlier...” He raised his eyebrows, and I gave a small nod, remembering our incident clearly. Also remembering how damn tempted I’d been to push him further. “Well, she was really impressed that I’d managed to walk away and said I had come a really long way.”

  My eyes widened, and I bit my lip from pressing him any further, but inside my head I was screaming. Her?

  That was the closest he’d ever come to mentioning this secretive teacher of his and certainly the first time he’d confirmed it was a woman teaching him. A sick feeling pooled in my belly. Who the hell was this bitch? Call me paranoid and possessive, but my automatic reaction was jealousy. Why else would she need such secrecy? Surely if her motives were pure, she’d have no issues with me knowing her.

  “Kitty Kat.” Caleb frowned, rubbing a thumb over my cheek. “You look like you’re freaking out about something, but I can’t feel anything from you. I take it the blocking worked out?”

  “Um.” I cleared my throat, pushing my jealousy and paranoia down. “Yeah. Yeah it did.”

  He smiled a little sadly. “I miss it.”

  Trailing my gaze over his face, I forced myself not to push. Not to demand more information that I knew full well would cause him pain to try and tell me. He would try too, I already knew from experience. He wouldn’t just clam up and say nothing like how Vic had done under Bridget’s geas; Caleb genuinely tried to answer every question I asked and paid the price for it.

  “I can turn it on and off, I think,” I whispered back. “Or I should be able to when I get better at it. But for now, it’ll save my sanity when I have all six of you bonded to me.”

  Cal smiled and pecked a short kiss to my lips. “I can’t wait for that to happen.”

  He meant for his own bonding, I knew full well. The flutter of butterflies in my belly confirmed that I, too, was excited for it. For all of my bonds... including whatever River was so damn scared of.

  Closing the gap between us once more, I kissed him back just as I felt Austin stirring behind me. The butterflies inside me seemed to morph into hummingbirds when Cal made no move to stop kissing me, even though he must have known his twin was awake.

  No words were spoken between the three of us, but when Austin’s hard body pressed the length of my back, I hissed a gasp against Caleb’s mouth. Austin’s mouth pressed to the bend of my neck in an echo of where Caleb had kissed me only moments earlier, and his erection ground against my butt.

  “Kitty...” Caleb groaned, releasing my lips even as Austin’s hands gripped my breasts through my shirt. “We don’t have time for this; the others are already waiting downstairs.”

  Despite his words, his hands gripped my thighs and pulled me closer to him, grinding his own hard length to my front, and I almost came right then and there... sandwiched between the King twins.

  “Cal’s right,” Austin rumbled against my neck, then grabbed my earlobe between his teeth and nipped me sharply enough that I moaned. “This would require we not be rushed.”

  I shuddered as my mind went wild on what this was going to be. It wasn’t hard to guess.

  Caleb sighed and threw back the blankets. “Come on, let’s go get you bonded to some lizards; otherwise they’ll be busting down the door any moment.”

  Snorting a laugh because he was totally right, I wiggled out of Austin’s way too tempting embrace and perched on the edge of my bed to rub at my eyes and assess my clothing options.

  “Uh, should I like... dress up for the occasion or something?” I asked the twins and was met with baffled expressions.

  Caleb picked up my black, ripped jeans from the floor and tossed them to me. “Kitty Kat, you could go down there in nothing but a thong and no one would complain. Actually... come to think of it, give those jeans back.”

  “Ha ha, very funny.” I grinned as I tugged the jeans on and then hunted for a bra. I wasn’t exactly the tidiest woman alive, so my suitcase looked a little bit like a grenade had gone off in it. A couple of times Wes had offered to unpack for me, but I’d shrugged him off. Why unpack when we might need to haul ass at a second’s notice?

  Once I’d located a simple red bra, I threw one of River’s shirts over the top and rolled up the sleeves. My wardrobe was almost half full of men’s clothing these days, as apparently they all had a fetish for seeing me in their shirts. Not that I was complaining; men’s shirts were comfy as hell.

  “All right, let’s do it. Do we have coffee?” I asked Caleb hopefully as the three of us made our way downstairs to where my other four guardians waited in the den.

  “All over it,” Wesley offered, holding a steaming mug out to me, and I beamed. My guys were actually just the most amaz
ing, thoughtful people. “It’s Irish... seeing as it’s the middle of the night.”

  My eyebrows shot up, and I took an experimental sip of my coffee, which was indeed laced with whiskey. The rich blend of smoke and honey mixed with my coffee rolled across my tongue, and I moaned my approval. Yep, Irish coffee was a win in my books.

  “You ready to do this, Kitten?” River asked me seriously, his golden eyes flickering over his shirt on my body and pausing at my chest, where I hadn’t bothered buttoning the fabric over my bra.

  Giving him a reassuring smile, I nodded. “Absolutely. Are you guys?” I turned to Cole and Vali, who were standing awkwardly in the middle of the den with their arms folded and mirror frowns creasing their brows. “You guys look... really worried. You don’t have to go through with this, you know? You can say no.”

  “Not happening, Vixen,” Cole rumbled in his gravelly voice. “I just want you to be sure. We can’t...” He sucked in a breath, his jaw set tightly. “We can’t feel whether you’re sure or not.”

  “Huh.” I cocked my head and flicked a glance at the twins. “Who’d have thought you’d all get so used to it in such a short time. I would gladly take the wall down, but I don’t know how successfully I can put it back up again and think it’s best to keep it in place for now.”

  Vali gave me a small smile. “That’s understandable, Regina mea. We just worry. But if you’re sure...”

  “I am.” I said it as firmly as I possibly could. All this “Are you sure?” was giving me a headache. It wasn’t like I was the kind of girl to be pressured into anything I didn’t want to do, after all. “Come on, step up. Who’s first?”

  There was already a large area already cleared in the middle of the den, so I walked over to it and parked my ass down. “Uh, wait. Do either of you still have the spell thing?” I looked to Caleb and Austin—because clearly there was no way in hell I could remember it from weeks earlier when Austin and I had bonded.

  “Got it.” Caleb pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket and handed it over. Unfolding it, I scanned the unfamiliar words again and found them a little less daunting, thanks to Austin’s merciless magic lessons involving their language.

  Cole and Vali both joined me on the floor, and when I raised my eyebrow at each of them, Vali smirked and Cole glowered. “Let me guess, Vali first?”

  The response I received was just a broader grin from the Romanian, and I nodded. Clearly they’d sorted this out in advance, and Cole was still sulking about losing whatever the bet had been. Fair was fair though, as he’d won the one to take me flying.

  “Nervous?” Vali asked me quietly as I handed him the spell and my hand trembled.

  “Yeah,” I admitted. “And excited.” Our gazes met, and I could clearly see he was feeling the same way.

  “Let’s get it done, then,” he coaxed, breaking eye contact to read the spell as Wesley handed him a small knife. Hesitating, I remembered the part where he needed to drop blood into my bloodstone ring, which was what bound us together, and I glanced up at Caleb sitting on one of the sofas.

  “I’ll be fine,” Caleb reassured me. “Promise. If not, Austin can take me.”

  Satisfied that he knew what he was doing, I indicated for Vali to begin.

  Meeting my gaze with a nervous-looking smile, Vali sounded out the foreign words carefully, then waited while I recited my part before stabbing his thumb.

  Same as it had the last time, my ring absorbed the droplet of blood and the rune circle flared to life around us. Vali’s wild, hot dragon magic flooded through me with the force of a tsunami, heating every facet of my being and then building higher, like gasoline on a bonfire.

  As the burning inside me reached the point of excruciating pain, Vali’s lips pressed to mine. His mouth opened, and his tongue slipped in to meet and dance with my own., Vali’s kiss acted as an outlet for the overwhelming sensation that I was being burned from the inside, until eventually the heat subsided to a small fire, warming me but no longer burning.

  “Holy shit,” I choked out when the magic finally settled to a bearable level and I pulled back from Vali’s scorching kiss. “Was that what it was like for you? When you first changed?”

  He gave a small shrug, his eyes full of regret and apology. “I don’t know what it is that you felt, only that you were in pain and I knew what I needed to do. But, if it’s anything like what I went through, then I cannot apologize enough.”

  “It’s fine.” I shook my head. “It was fine once you kissed me.” I glanced to Austin, and he gave a tiny head nod to confirm it was the same for him—that he’d just known what to do to soothe my pain.

  Rubbing a shaking hand over my eyes, I sucked in a deep breath and gusted it out again before moving out of Vali’s lap. Somehow, I’d ended up straddling him while we’d kissed, but I also didn’t feel at all uncomfortable for having done so in front of my other five lovers.

  “Ready?” I turned to Cole with a weak smile, and he scowled at me. His granite eyes sparked like a lightning storm, and I could see indecision written all over him, plain as day.

  “Maybe we should wait a bit; that looked like it took a lot out of you, Vixen.” His words were sensible, but I could see how desperately he wanted to complete the bond. Cole was too damn thoughtful and considerate sometimes.

  “No, now. If I’m going to start learning dragon magic, I want it to be with both of you.” I nodded firmly, shuffling on my knees across to him so that we were face to face. My reasoning was weak; I knew that. But I didn’t care. It sounded more plausible than telling him I suspected being bonded to Vali and not him might just destroy the progress they’d made on their relationship this far. As much as my guys were all technically okay with sharing me, they were all—even Wesley—dominant in their own ways. Sharing didn’t come naturally to them, and it was to be expected that there would be some jealousy and in-fighting.

  All I could do was make it as easy on them as possible. Part of that was not bonding Vali without Cole. Seeing what it was doing to Caleb, who had a great relationship with his brother, was enough to imagine how hard it’d be on the Romanians, who had barely gotten into the not-hate stage of their relationship.

  No, this was happening now. I could sleep and recharge later.

  “Let’s do it,” I encouraged Cole and handed him the spell to read out, along with the knife. “I trust you, Cutie. You’re not going to let anything bad happen to me.”

  These last words were whispered for his ears only, and I saw the indecision fade from his face. Cole had appointed himself my unofficial bodyguard way back when we’d first met, ever since Simon had shown up at lunch that day and gotten all weird and threatening. Protecting me was his thing, and I just needed to remind him of that.

  Sucking in a breath, he looked down to the paper and began reciting the foreign words carefully, as though afraid a mispronunciation would change the outcome. Actually, that was a fairly valid concern, knowing what I now knew of magic.

  Once Cole’s thumb was pricked and his blood absorbed by my ring, the spell was complete. The rune circle flared to life around us, overlapping the still fading outline of Vali’s circle. Almost instantly my body stiffened like I’d been dropped into the Arctic, and pain racked my form as Cole’s magic swept through me, clashing with the existing magic already within me. My fingers ached, and an anguished cry ripped from my throat only a split second before Cole’s lips met mine.

  His kiss warmed me like a thermal blanket in a blizzard, wrapping around me and hugging tight until I could feel my skin again, until my joints unlocked and relaxed and the biting cold died down to a pleasant shiver deep in my core.

  “Is it just me,” Wesley started quietly when Cole released my mouth and I rested against him while panting like I’d run a marathon, “or is that becoming more intense each time you bond?”

  “The pain?” I asked, not bothering to open my eyes. My whole body felt like it had been turned to custard, and I was positive my legs wouldn’t hold
me if I tried to stand. “Yeah, it is. I don’t know why... Maybe because there’s more magic in me that it needs to compete with? That’s what it feels like. Like it’s finding a balance.”

  “Hmm,” Wesley pondered aloud. “That sort of makes sense.”

  “Kitten, are you okay?” River asked me, crouching on the carpet and stroking a hand down my back.

  Why does River always ask me the hard questions? Was I okay? My body was electric, sparking with four different types of magic all swirling and flickering inside me, making me feel wired and hyper. At the same time, I was pretty positive I couldn’t move if I even tried. So in response, I just mumbled an incomprehensible noise.

  “Okay, I think maybe sleep is the way to go, don’t you love?” River chuckled. “Cole, can you carry her?”

  “Of course,” he rumbled, wrapping his arms around me where I was already halfway collapsed against his chest, and standing smoothly.

  Before leaving the room, he paused, and Vali leaned in to place a soft kiss on my hair.

  “Sleep well, Regina mea,” he whispered.

  Again, I mumbled a noise in lieu of words, and Cole swept me out of the room, returning to my giant bed in the master suite.

  “I’m fine, Cutie,” I whispered as he lay me gently down on the rumpled covers I had just climbed out of not long ago. “I promise. I’m just...”

  “Exhausted?” he finished for me, and I gave him a weak smile.

  “But not, at the same time. I don’t feel weak—totally the opposite. My muscles just don’t want to play ball anymore.” I blinked a few times, trying to wake myself up while Cole unbuttoned my jeans and tugged them down off my legs for me.

  “Just sleep, Vixen. It’s three in the morning, anyway.” He pressed a light kiss to my belly, where River’s shirt had ridden up. “Do you want me to stay with you?”

  “Always,” I replied, shuffling over slightly and tucking a pillow under my head while Cole stripped down to join me. He rolled me onto my side and tucked me tight against his huge body, making me feel warm and safe.