by Erin R Flynn
Except I was just fooling myself. I watched her any chance I got, and I got more of them after her period was over. She walked into a room, and my eyes found her. She laughed, and I was listening in on the conversation. I’d probably scared her by saying I knew she fixed the electronics, but it didn’t take a genius to put that together if someone really paid attention.
The best decision I’d ever made was to slip into the pool that night and try for a chance to see more of her and how she interacted with her nobles privately. I swear my heart was completely hers when I saw how she was with them, playing and laughing, giving herself and her affection freely as they cut her swimsuit off of her.
And then I got a front row seat to watch one take her, the minx giving me looks that it turned her on that I watched. Her blood sang to me. The moment it touched my skin, I knew there would never be another who could make me feel that.
This game we were playing was unbelievable, pleasurable torture. Hearing her voice in my ear with messages just for me—or fuck, that video she gave me was extra—drove me nuts and made me want more. So much more.
Which was why I took a chance on the outfit, and what a chance it had been. I about swallowed my tongue when she walked in wearing it. I’d choked on my bite and spilled my coffee all over my lap I was so shocked… And turned on. She looked perfection wearing it and with the confidence she wore it well.
I didn’t think I’d ever lost my cool like that with a woman just from seeing her, but knowing she wore it for me—I was in such trouble. I was dying for her to come back from their fun in Edmonton in the hopes I could catch her in my room and steal a kiss. That was it. I was dying for a damn kiss. Maybe touch her perfect, lush, jeans covered ass as I did.
Shit, it made me so hard just thinking about it.
“Dude, you’re making the rest of us look bad again,” Eddie grumbled as I returned the bin I’d emptied for him. I was darting between several who were cleaning out expired everything from the houses that were going to be raided once they had a chance to air out. We’d all agreed it was step one to make everything easier on ourselves.
“So you want me to slow down so this takes longer?” I threw right back, smirking when he rolled his eyes at me. “We all play our part and have people who can make us seem to be slacking.”
“Yeah, yeah, you’re fabulous,” he muttered, shaking his head even if we were friends. He was one of the few nobles that had given me a chance when we’d met on the ship because he came from a coven with a powerful but crazy reputation and knew how hard it was to overcome that. I’d clutched to that life line in the chaos, and he was like a little brother to me.
Well, one I loved, as I loathed my siblings almost as much as my mother.
I went off and collected several more bins from Dennis and other nobles from the Wessex coven. I was assigned to watch over them so Kristof could be in Edmonton with Inez, and Sebastian was plotting how to handle the overpopulation of wolves and bears in the best way.
Plus, I scared the fuck out of Dennis way more than Sebastian, which was always fun. Kristof was deadly, no doubt of that, but those born in the last millennium weren’t as well versed in the house of Priest as those of us older were. But my house was still alive and maybe the most powerful coven now given who else had been taken out. Which wisely terrified Dennis, as I wasn’t tied to Inez.
But I wanted to be, and I made that known. So many rumors were told of my house, as so few had visited the past century as Mother had drawn back from the spotlight because technology terrified her and it was safer to not make waves outside her area that way. So yeah, every look I gave Dennis or any with him, I was sure they were trying to decipher and were on their best behavior with me.
I caught sight of something past the backyard of one of the houses and went to check it out. A grin slowly formed as I realized what I was looking at.
A freight train engine. Canada’s rail lines ran right past here. I didn’t even tell anyone I was leaving, blurring away and checking the whole line to see its condition.
And I liked what I found, my grin widening as I arrived in Prince Rupert where the aircraft carrier and destroyer were parked and the merchant ship was coming back to. It was perfect.
“My princess will be thrilled to learn this and maybe reward me,” I muttered to myself, wanting to rub my hands together in glee. I raced back and went further to check the tracks all the way to Prince George, and they were fine, a bit overgrown and cars that we’d need to get out of the way, but for sure, it was a better option than semis going back and forth.
Nice.
I worked even harder when I rejoined the others, as if that would make lunch come faster and my chance to tell Inez. Finally it was time, and I knew she’d be handling ghosts, but she was getting so good at it and the numbers last night weren’t all that daunting that I thought it wouldn’t be long.
Except there was a new development when I arrived at the hotel and there were just over two hundred barn owl shifters there getting rooms… And one I knew.
I hadn’t seen Thomas Gagnon since he had been but a boy of eighteen or so, but I recognized him, his scent telling me it was the Gagnon clan even. I always made sure to pay attention to those telling smells, and my mother’s one praise for me ever was my nose could tell me more than most could get in hours of interrogation.
Fear filled his eyes when he saw me, and I nodded for him to follow me so we didn’t do this in front of others. There was no reason to worry his clan, and I certainly didn’t want people to have more fuel for the rumors about me because of my house.
“Is your mother involved with this?” he asked the second we were a block away.
“No,” I told him firmly. “Mother doesn’t know of Inez, and I hope they never meet.”
“So your mother survived?” he asked, his tone sounding disappointed.
I snorted. I felt the same. “Unfortunately.”
“I’m shocked that’s your answer.”
I rolled my eyes. “We are more than our names, but Mother inspires terror in most, and doing what you’re told is best to survive your time at her coven. I thank my lucky stars I was home just before the apocalypse hit, as she requires us to come home every century for an extended stay, and I can’t even imagine how unstable all of this has made her more than her normal crazy.”
Thomas shivered. “I fear the corrupted and the apocalypse less than that court.”
“You are not the only one,” I grumbled. “I’m glad your clan survived. There was a reason Mother tried to pressure your grandfather to commit to her.”
“She put the screws to him and skated around that line of forcing a shifter, as Aether doesn’t allow that,” he seethed. “My grandfather was never the same, and we fled back to Canada the second we could.”
“You don’t have to convince me she’s evil, but I wasn’t party to that or saw it, only talk she was pressuring him,” I interjected gently when he looked like he was ramping back up. “How are you here now?”
“One of the princess’s knights, Trisha, sensed us and came to check it out. We’re on the direct path they will lead the corrupted to here or something.” He gave me a curious look. “How much of this is real? They have electricity and water? Toilets work and so does the kitchen?”
“It’s all real, and so is she,” I promised. “I didn’t believe it either, but give yourself a few days and you’ll see this isn’t a trap but a miracle.” I decided to clarify instead of let something go. “And Trisha’s not her knight, her baby brother is, and Inez is very clear that she doesn’t expect oaths or require them. People can be loyal without them, but she will shoot you if you fuck with their group and hurt her friends.”
He just blinked at me, and I couldn’t even blame him. That didn’t sound like any princess ever. Inez was so normal instead of pompous.
But I did love her bratty side too. When she had stormed in wearing only undergarments that she’d thought Jaxon wanted her to wear in public—and thus show
ing all of us—I’d groaned when she’d stormed back out with promises to punish him.
Shit, I so wanted some of that.
“I know it’s hard, believe me I do, as I’m much older than you and have seen so many horrors, but just give her a chance to heal you and hope the world really can be better after all of this. All she will ask is that you help, pull your weight, as no one gets a free ride in the apocalypse. You will see her work just as hard as you do, if not more.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” he muttered before we returned back to the others.
We ate lunch, and the slower nobles headed back with a warning I would be there soon to check on their progress and I’d better be happy. The moment I felt Inez approach, I raced to my room and hoped she was going to leave the phone. I wanted to thank Aether when she came moments later.
The second she was inside, I moved to capture her, my eyes going wide at the state she was in. I’d seen her wound up and more after the ghosts, but never so close and like this.
She about climbed me, and I lifted her up and wrapped her around me as I moved her against the wall. I locked in on her lips, but she ducked me at the last second.
“Wait, too all over for a first kiss and no sex yet, sorry, shit, you’re too hot,” she rambled as I kissed along her neck. “I was okay, but I can’t go that long of a gap again. It was none for over a week to back to a lot.” She moved her body against mine, and I was seconds from losing it. “Wanted to get caught and invite you to watch.”
“Shit, yes and yes,” I growled, darting out of my room with her and bringing her to her room where Cerdic and Jaxon were waiting. I brought her to the bed, and when I put her down, she moaned and wrapped her legs around me tighter so I couldn’t leave.
“Again, fuck, please, again,” she begged.
My eyes almost rolled up in my head. Our hips had ground together when we’d landed, and that was what she wanted. I pushed up and licked my lips as I moved again, seeing how much she liked it.
“You want a taste of what it would be like?” I asked as I moved my hands to her hips and ground our bodies together.
“Yes, shit, so rough,” she moaned, yanking off her shirt and then bra. “Make them bounce.”
Oh fuck. I did, entranced with how her perfect breasts moved as I ground my jeans covered hardon against her jeans covered pussy that was so wet I was sure it leaked into the material.
“Soak my jeans and cock,” I growled as she got close. “Come on those tiny panties I know you’re wearing.”
Her eyes glazed over, and then she cried out my name as she reached her peak. Watching her orgasm was one of the best things I’d ever seen, certainly the sexiest. She twitched once it was over and then gave me a seductive, sated grin. The minx unlocked her legs from around me and then moved them up enough so she could take off the boots and socks.
I watched as she peeled off the jeans next, getting to see the panties were just as good as I hoped. Then she actually took them off and held them out to me.
“Thanks for the outfit. I really like it.” She seemed to think better of just giving them over and used them to wipe up more of her wetness first before offering them to me again.
“You are so fucking delicious,” I groaned, taking the panties and smelling them for her to watch. “One day I’m going to eat you out so much that this will seem a drop in an ocean of juices I will get from you.”
She shivered and her fangs came out.
“Wait, love, you can’t drink him yet,” Cerdic interjected.
“Just a lick,” she argued, sitting up and locked on my neck. “Show me your neck, Branko.” I instantly did, and she climbed onto my lap, fisting my hair and kissing my neck. “Can I have a lick?”
“My blood is yours, Inez, take what you want from me even if you drink me dry,” I muttered, meaning every word I was so hers.
“I could never drink you dry,” she muttered before nicking me with her fang. She moaned as she lapped at the blood and then it closed. “Jaxon, it burns, please, it burns.”
“I know, my love,” he muttered as he joined us on the bed and went to pull her away.
“Please, leave her here,” I moaned, knowing what they were about to do.
“Inez?” Jaxon checked.
“Yes,” she hissed, pushing me to lie back and straddled me. She whimpered as he got her ready. “It burns from the jeans.”
“I’ll be gentle,” Jaxon promised.
“No, fuck me hard and harder,” she growled, giving me a heated look. “I want to feel all of it.”
He did, and I had to fist my hands not to touch her, unable to push or take advantage when she was almost frenzied like this. She was such perfection. I’d never thought that of a woman before, and it seemed corny that her nobles said that of her, but after the first day of really getting to know her, I completely agreed and thought it accurate.
She nicked her finger and drew the triangle on me before sitting up so she could play with Cerdic too. She kissed him and fed from him while stroking him. She also made sure not to ignore Jaxon like he was nothing but his dick. When she finished, she finished, screaming as multiple orgasms wracked her body.
Jaxon and Cerdic joined her, and I was outrageously jealous their seed got to touch her but not mine. I wanted to come on her, orgasm in her body, and let me have her as they did.
“Wait, before you distract me so I don’t see what she can do, I wanted to show her something,” I said when Cerdic moved like he was going to do just that.
“He knows,” she told them. “Or guessed. He said it in the message.” She gave me a worried look. “Did you tell anyone? Only those on Team Inez are supposed to know.”
“I’m on Team Inez even if not official yet,” I promised. “Let me show you I am.”
She nodded, and they hurried to get cleaned up as apparently she really needed to let the energy out again, scratching her arms and neck as she redressed. She’d found new panties that worked with the bra, and I pocketed the ones she’d given me, not wanting to lose those. Jaxon grabbed her, we raced off, and I was glad it wasn’t too far away.
I stopped at the railyard and focused on her. “I checked the line all the way to Prince Rupert, and the tracks are in good shape. There are some blockages, but otherwise, it’s a much better option than caravanning all the semis. There might be other tracks and lines to check out to help efficiency.”
“Yes, if someone knows how to drive a train,” she agreed, checking it all out. “I mean, that can’t be easy, right?”
“It’s not like flying a plane, but I’m sure those who can fly a plane can figure it out as long as we check the rails,” Cerdic said. “We have so many who can drive semis I’m sure someone’s driven a train.”
She nodded. “Can you show us what needs to be cleared?”
“Of course, but we will need more help I’d think.”
“Um, right, yeah,” she lied, clearing her throat and looking away. “Right, I can only juice things up and fix stuff.”
“Well, he clearly knows that’s a lie now,” Jaxon drawled.
“Sorry, it’s hard to think of focus when I itch like this,” she growled, scratching her neck almost hard enough that she bled.
“Follow me,” I muttered, not wanting her to be uncomfortable another moment. I led them to the first group that was a commuter train that had gone off the tracks and were all over the place and in the way. My eyes went wide as she touched them and they dissolved into energy beads.
All. Of. Them.
“What else?” she asked as if it was nothing. “Hurry.”
I cleared my throat, nodding. “Right.”
She cleared three more obstacles, one being some very large trees that had come down from bad weather. Sighing when I said that was it, she leaned against Jaxon heavily. “Thanks.”
“Anytime, My Princess,” he murmured, leaning down and giving her a soft kiss.
“I want about another hundred of those, but we have to go be the bosses,”
she murmured against his lips. “That was seriously sexy earlier. I came so hard I swear I still feel it.”
I wasn’t the only one who groaned.
We headed back to the hotel, and I was about to go back to my overseeing task when she waved for attention.
“Okay, meeting about tonight’s changes and more. To the war room!” She turned to go that way and then spun back around. “Do we have a war room here yet?”
A lot of people burst out laughing, but James recovered enough to speak. “We’re all set up in the conference room.”
People started moving, and I nodded for Thomas to come with. He’d want to see this for sure so he got a clear picture this was the place to be.
“We kept using the one on the aircraft carrier, and it’s not parked here,” she grumbled. “Okay, knights and everyone old, let’s get this going.” She moved up to James and looped arms with him. “Now, do I get to drive the M-ATV Assault vehicle?”
He winced. “Sexy bite, I applaud you for teaching yourself to drive in the apocalypse, but your skills reflect you were self-taught, and let’s not lose one of those.” He hurried on when she pouted. “When we’re on roads, sure, you can take a turn, but we’re on terrain and torn up. That takes practice.”
“Fine,” she grumbled as we reached the conference room.
“And we’re not relocating,” Kristof added. “We filled in a section of the river to make a land bridge. We will fix it before we leave the area, but you picked the perfect location.”
“Oh, cool, I didn’t think of that.” She let go of James and went up to Kristof, giving him a quick peck. “I like smart men.”
“I know,” he chuckled. “We’re all trying to think of ways to improve on any plans since you’re so open to it and you reward cleverness.”
She shrugged, leaning into his hand when he cupped her cheek. “Every plan can be improved upon. I don’t deal with being bossed around, but suggestions are always welcomed.” She nodded to me. “I think you guys might tie for best ideas of the day then because he had a good one.”