The Magic Of Betrayal

by Britt Andrews

  "By the moon..." Sloane's voice sounded far away, a mixture of awe, lust, and was that panic?

  Kai's back was going to be bloodied when this was over, shit, I might be, too.

  His growls continued, and all I could do was hang on for dear life as another orgasm built rapidly. Turning my head to the side, Sloane was inching closer, and I held my hand out to him, but just as he went to take it, Kai snarled and bit him. Fucking bit him.

  And I felt a smile tug at my lips as I got even wetter for Kai, widening my thighs to let him hit deeper, despite the pain. That familiar pull I’d had the first time he walked into my shop was in full force as his hips slapped against mine, his chest flush against me, I felt like I wanted to get inside his damn body.

  What the fuck is happening?

  "It's okay, kitten," Sloane told me firmly.

  Kai grabbed my face then and made sure I was focused on him and only him while growling, "Don't look at him, Cub. Stay with me."

  Stay with him? I never want to be detached from him again.

  "Kai, I'm going to come, oh my gods."

  A moan came out of my mouth at the same time that my orgasm crashed over my body, and that quickly turned into a scream as a sharp pain exploded where my neck met my shoulder, and then the purest ecstasy I'd ever known claimed my body.

  "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?" Cam's voice boomed, Kai's hips slowing, my own legs falling open, completely useless. His tongue lapped at the mark he'd no doubt branded me with, sending a shiver down my spine.

  I faintly registered talking coming from the other three guys, but I couldn't make sense of a single thing. All I knew was that Kai's grumbles and growls had given way to purrs and the sweetest words.

  "You're everything, Sprout. I'd never, ever harm you. You are so beautiful, you’re mine," Kai murmured against my throat.

  "What just happened, Kai?" I questioned softly, wanting this moment between us.

  "You threw me into a rut. I'm sorry, Sprout. I've never had it happen before and I didn't anticipate that. Did I hurt you? Fuck," Kai cursed, leaning up over me, fear on his face.

  "You probably broke her damn vagina, you shithead," Sloane announced. "I know you almost took a chunk out of my arm."

  "You should know better than to approach a shifter in rut. I know you know that, Sloane." Fischer chastised him, but looking at his arm nonetheless.

  "She wanted me, too," he grumbled quietly. He was right. I had wanted him, right up until the point of Kai sinking his teeth into his arm and then all I could think about was how Kai would protect me against anything, even his best friends and that was something a man had never given me before. That devotion, putting me first. My hand trailed over the bite on my neck and my clit thumped thinking about how thoroughly owned I’d just been. I fucking loved it.

  "Right. Kaito, a word," Cam ordered, an edge to his voice that had me cringing.

  "It's alright, Sprout. I'll be back." His lips pressed gently to mine and I sighed as he pulled back, the warmth of his body leaving me. Kai stalked after Cam butt ass naked, no shame whatsoever. Boy had nothing to be ashamed of and he knew it.

  "Are you okay, sweetheart?" Fischer asked, offering me his palm and helping me sit up on the table.

  "Arms up, Red," Sloane said, holding my nightgown up so that he could slip it over my head. Once I was covered back up, the ache between my legs became more prominent as I scooted down to the chair.

  "I'll be one hundred percent once I get some coffee," I hinted, a cheesy smile on my face.

  "I got you, sweetheart," Fischer told me, moving towards the kitchen with purpose.

  "What's rut?" I asked Sloane without removing my eyes from Fischer as he prepared the coffee.

  "Ah... I think maybe Kaito should explain, he'll be able to do it better than I could since pyros don't experience that," Sloane informed me and I tried hard not to push, but that was... it had been like he was trying to burrow his dick into my womb, and surprisingly that thought made me feel smug as hell, like I had some ownership over this shifter, that my body could do things to his that no other person had done before. A whisper sounded in my head, a single word, mine.

  My body suddenly felt warm and needy. Not a sexual way, but I needed to see my shifter. Rising from my chair, I moved to leave the kitchen, vaguely hearing Fischer asking if everything was alright. Voices were carrying down the stairs and I drifted up them like Sleeping Beauty being called to the damn needle.

  "How long have you known? You could've hurt her, Kaito!" Cam's voice boomed as my fingertips trailed along the handrail.

  "I'd never hurt her!" Kai snarled.

  Pushing open my bedroom door, I found the two mages chest to chest, big dick energy making me suck in a breath.

  "Alpha," I breathed, my limbs beginning to tremble. Where the hell had that come from?

  Both men turned their heads toward me at the same time.

  "Oh fuck, Cub." Kai left Cam standing where he was and pulled me against him. My heart fluttered at the name.

  "I need, I need—" I whimpered, not knowing what I needed, just that I needed something from him.

  "Hush, Cub. I know what you need. You need your Alpha to praise you, Cub. Need to feel me close, isn’t that right?" Kai's hand ran down my hair, petting me in soothing strokes before scooping me up with his arm locked under my knees and walking us over to the bed. He laid me down gently and slipped in right beside me, his arms engulfing me, my cheek pressed against his chest.

  Cam disappeared into the bathroom before returning and handing a rag to Kai. I couldn’t really focus on what he was doing though, the shaking was overtaking my body. The door clicked shut and I guess Cam decided to take off and give us some privacy.

  "What is this, Kai? What's happening?"

  "You did so good earlier, Cub. You took your Alpha like a queen," he told me, his hand running up and down my back, the trembling beginning to subside with each word of praise he showered me with. He pushed my hair over my shoulder, eyes flashing when he saw the bite mark on my neck. “Look at you with my mark. Fuck,” he purred, leaning in and running his tongue over the wound, and I shivered as he kept licking me.

  "Gonna clean you up so good, little Cub,” he swore, his lips and tongue making my belly clench with need. “A more captivating woman has never existed, the way I feel when I'm buried deep inside you, it's like I've always belonged there, Cub. It's like your body was made just for my cock, I've never felt anything as exquisite as your wet pussy clenching me, urging me to mark you with my cum and my teeth."

  A little moan left my mouth and my thighs clenched, his cum slowly leaking from me and making a hell of a mess on my thighs, but I reached down and slid my fingers through it, pushing it back inside of me. “Fucking hell, that is the number one hottest thing I’ve ever seen,” he breathed in awe. His words had elation pumping through my body, I felt cherished, special, and needed.

  Kai began purring contentedly, his hands caressing, his tongue never ceasing, and the panic and urgency I'd felt when he'd left me in the kitchen dissipated completely.

  "Alpha," I whispered, pulling back to look into his eyes. "Are you mine?"

  "Oh, little Cub, I was born to be yours," he declared fiercely, his hand pulling my face to his so that he could kiss me and seal his promise.

  “Saige, listen… we need to talk,” Kai’s voice was soft and comforting, but those were not words a girl wanted to hear from her man, so of course, I startled upright and he followed.

  “What’s wrong?” I questioned, trying to keep the anxious tone to a minimum. I mean, he’d just told me he was mine, so what could he possibly want to talk about?

  “Nothing’s wrong, come here.” He pulled me onto his lap so that my legs wrapped around his hips, our chests flush against one another. Kai gently lifted my chin so he could stare into my eyes before leaning in and dropping sweet kisses on my mouth and moving to my jaw. “I should’ve talked to you sooner, but I had to be sure.” He purred in my ear and a shiver r
aced down my spine.

  “Sure, about what?” I smiled softly, trailing my hands down his chest.

  He leaned forward, pressing his forehead against mine, inhaling deeply. “You’re my mate, Saige Wildes.”

  My eyes flicked up to his, his mate?

  “But how can that be, Kai? I’m not a shifter.” I shook my head, trying to process this information, but from everything I knew of shifters, their mates pretty much always shared that affinity.

  “It can happen. Fated mates on their own are a rarity, but there have been instances of shifter's being mated to different magically gifted individuals." His hands never stopped moving their circular motions over my back.

  "Well yes, but, how do you know? Like, you have no doubt that we're mates?" I asked, and I needed to hear his reasoning on this, because I know what I had felt in the aftermath of whatever had just happened downstairs, but I wasn't exactly up to date on shifter mating habits.

  "Hmm, well, from the moment I met you, I've felt this protectiveness over you, a need to provide. I even made the food for you and Fischer's date. Yeah, I like to cook, but I felt almost... compelled to do that. To take care of you, even while you were on a date with another man." Leaning forward, Kai pressed his lips to mine softly before continuing. "So when I knew you were in trouble, and Cam and I hunted you down in that magically doused forest you created, I started to wonder if maybe this was something more. But what are the odds of such a thing? So I pushed it down, we had more urgent things to deal with. While we were having sex with Cam, something in my brain flipped," he confessed, sighing.

  It wasn't hard for me to remember that event and when the supposed switch flipped.

  "Was it when you were sniffing my soul out of my vagina?"

  Kai sputtered, his eyes wide before tossing his head back and laughing like hell. These dudes better quit fucking laughing at me all the time.

  "You're so perfect for me, Sprout. I swear." He wiped his eyes with his hands, a big smile lighting up his beautiful face. "But yeah, probably happened around that time. What can I say? I loved the scent of you, knowing how turned on you were? Fuck."

  My cheeks flamed, there's just something deliciously dirty about having a sexy man's face between your legs and sniffing like he's gonna do lines of coke off your pussy. Very fucking weird experience, but also, need that to happen again...

  "What does being mates entail? I mean, obviously I feel a strong connection between us, and that feeling I had after we had sex downstairs, that was new."

  Kai sighed, bringing his hand up to my cheek. "So, it means we're bonded. I want you, always, forever. Bagheera and I are in complete agreement about you, and so our intimacy downstairs most likely snapped the bond in place."

  I furrowed my brow at that.

  "You should have told me before we did that, I feel kind of like I didn't get a choice in the matter, Kai," I muttered, feeling kind of pissed off about it.

  "Sprout, the bond never would have happened if you didn't want it. It's not the act of sex that caused it to happen. The other night we were together and nothing happened, and that's because it wasn't on the radar, but earlier? Some part of you had to have wanted this with me, you can't force a mate bond on someone who isn't willing," Kai explained, looking pained. "I'd never force you to do something you didn't want. If you need time, or..."

  I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face into the crook of his neck. "No, that's not it. This has just been a really fucking weird week."

  Kai began purring as I ran my fingertips through his thick hair. I have a mate. A forever mate... didn't see that one coming.

  Of course Kai wouldn't force me into something, none of the guys would. Oh fuck. They know what happened. Ohhh, Daddy was not a happy Daddy. Shit. What does this mean for the rest of them?

  "I can practically hear you thinking, Sprout. Talk to me," he urged.

  "The others... I can't, I mean—"

  "Our relationship with each other is just that, ours. I love that you're with all of us, and earlier, with Sloane... I'm sorry. I'm not a jealous fuck, at least, not with the other guys. I'm going to have to guess that it was due to being in rut for the first time, my instincts were screaming at me that you were mine and I had to have you to myself. Sloane knew what was happening, he should have known better."

  My whole body relaxed, thank the stars.

  “What does Bagheera think about sharing?” I questioned.

  Kai smiled. “We both just want you to be happy, and we know that what makes you happiest is all of us. Coincidentally, everyone being together makes us very happy.”

  I thought that over for a moment. The love these guys had for each other was unconditional. Their bond was so strong and I found myself wishing that I’d grown up with a tight knit group like theirs. But maybe I’d get the next best thing and get to keep them as mine.

  "I still don't want to share you, though. Not with another woman, ever," I confessed, and pulled back when a growl began building deep in his chest, the rumbling causing my nipples to pebble.

  "There will never be another woman for me. Look in my eyes, I'm deadly serious right now, Saige." Kai gripped my chin, not roughly, but firm enough to get my full attention on his face. "I am yours. Yeah, we haven't known each other long, but fate wrote it in the stars that we're destined. You never have to worry about other women, they no longer exist."

  He was being one hundred percent truthful, the conviction in his eyes was enough to make me squirm under the intensity of it all.

  "It's so bizarre. I feel like I barely know you, and yet, I feel like you're this extension of myself that I never realized I was missing until right now."

  "I know. But don't worry about that, Cub. I'm going to wine you, dine you, and sixty-nine you until you know everything there is to know about me, and when you do fall in love with me, you won't have a single doubt in your pretty head that I'm the fucking mage for you."

  Laughter escaped my mouth, just moments before Kai's lips crashed against mine in a searing kiss. Gods, this man kissed like he had something to prove, and he spent the next couple of hours doing just that.

  Speeding towards the apartment on my vintage Indian, the bite on my arm throbbed, reminding me that I was suddenly dealing with a big, big fucking problem. Fuck!

  Mates. They're fucking mates.

  Of course they are. Nothing about this gods damn mission had been straightforward, so why start now? The sight of her soft body wrapped around Kai, the snapping of her hips as she rode him, my cock had been so hard in that moment, I probably could've stabbed someone with it. My bike roared as I gave it more gas, a perfect representation of how I was feeling on the inside.

  I'd bolted after the first hour of listening to them fucking upstairs. Cam had joined us in the kitchen, looking stoic as ever. The air had been heavy with the discussions that we'd need to have sooner rather than later, but nobody was brave enough to start throwing them out there. As far as I knew, Kai had never experienced a rut, and I knew I'd never fuckin' seen it before. The way he'd fucked her into that table, it shouldn't have been possible for any man, supe or human, and I couldn't look away even if I had wanted to.

  There would be no separating Kai and Red now. I could only hope that this shit with her mom wasn't going to be as bad as I was anticipating. Red was a good person, but damn, she was fucking up my world. For my entire life, the three of them were all the family I'd really needed. My father was a disgusting piece of existence, and thanks to him, I'd been an only child. My twin sister had been stillborn thanks to an 'accident' that ended with my mom 'falling down the stairs'.

  Yeah, by the time I was seven years old, I knew that story had been a crock of shit. For years, I'd begged Mom to leave him, we could've gone to literally any of the guys’ houses and they would've taken us both in, but she wouldn't do it. It's not like what happened in our home was a fucking secret. A broken arm here, a bloody lip there, Mom wearing her big sunglasses in the dead of winter, the sky as g
rey as my outlook on life. By the time I'd turned sixteen, all I'd had was resentment for her and hatred for the piece of shit who'd fathered me.

  So, I worked my ass off, and made my own fucking luck. The thought of not being in control of my life, my career, my finances... fuck, did that burn me up. The fire inside of me was swirling, seeking an outlet, and I was only slightly concerned that the tiniest bit of oxygen to the flame right now would cause a fucking inferno that I didn't want to deal with.

  My mind raced with all the possible outcomes of this situation... what would happen to the team? Would Kai stay here? Would they all? Would Fischer?

  Snarling, I ripped the helmet from my head and hung it off the handlebar. Movement drew my eye and I caught the back of a man darting around the corner of Vlad's bookstore. Intrigued, I quickly hopped off my bike and leaned around the building just in time to see him disappear around the back corner of the store. There was just something about his movements, this dude was sneaking.

  A flame ignited in my palm, just in case, and I peered around the corner. A blonde guy was at the backdoor of the shop, his hands pressed against the frame. This must be the abusive ex... perfect.

  "I can't tell if you have a death wish or if you're just plain stupid," I called out, my hands behind my back, fire whirling, ready and waiting for action.

  Douche-mage, as Kai lovingly calls him, turned around, a ball of water swirling like a cyclone in his hand. A dark smile slashed across my face.

  "Ah, you must be the bad boy asshole," Bryce observed, sizing me up.

  A deep chuckle left my throat. "Nah, douche, that's you."

  Bryce tossed his head back and laughed, but not before I saw the flash of fear on his face and a sort of manic look to his gaze. "I should've known that whore would be fucking all of you. Not surprising that you'd all want a piece of that ass."

  Leaning my head to the side, my neck cracked, the urge to fight quickly rising.