by A. K. Koonce
The way the darkness at the center of his eyes dilates tells me more than his words ever could.
“Yes. Please,” he begs.
That one desperate word shivers through me in a delicious way.
My thighs shift, but he’s still planted firmly between them.
There’s fire between the three of us. Deadly, consuming fire.
It isn’t just Styx who needs a night of distraction.
It’s all of us.
My heel comes up, and I dig it into his shoulder as I push him back just slightly. The wolf’s jaw clenches, but he holds back any sound of pain he might have. Instead, he slides his warm palm higher up my leg, reaching for me as much as I’ll allow him.
“Is this okay, puppy?” I ask as I settle back against Rueren’s strong embrace.
Styx nods with so much blatant honesty in his features, it sends a trembling sensation right down through my chest and then even lower.
He wants me to alpha him.
Even if I barely understand it.
Maybe I don’t understand the dynamics of the kink that’s playing out, but I fully understand the way it makes my body feel.
It’s blazing empowerment, salacious tension, and oh-so-fucking addicting.
From behind, Rueren’s fingertips slide down my chest, pulling at the buttons of my white shirt as he goes. They unsnap from the force of his demanding touch, and a few rip from the threads entirely. Until nothing but my sensitive flesh is on display for the shifter waiting patiently at my feet.
The vampire’s palm drags back up my stomach, over my ribs, and then finally pushes hard over my breast.
A cutting sound of a breath slices from my lips.
“She’s pretty enough to eat, huh, little pup?” Rueren taunts as his long, cool fingers pluck at my nipple, squeeze, and then repeat.
My eyes clench shut with a shiver wrecking my body before I even see how Styx reacts.
Good? Fuck, I hope it’s a good reaction that leads to a better reaction that leads to deep fucking and hard thrusting and . . . oh my fucking Holy Lady of Death, how did this obnoxious vampire learn to have such a foul mouth and such a talented hand?
“Want to touch her?” Rueren rasps as his teeth scrape deliciously against my neck.
“Yes, please,” is the only quiet, rumbling reply.
“Convince her you’ll make it worth her while.”
Soft lips press to the inside of my leg, just before a hot, sliding tongue laps up, shivering sensations all across my flesh.
I shift hard at the pressure building between my thighs at the mere idea of his mouth traveling higher. The feel of his tongue swirls and flicks before sucking so hard, it spirals want right through my clit.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I moan, and it’s completely asinine for me to feel this way when they’re barely touching me, but everything is intensified with powerful magic that builds between every single touch we give one another.
Another slow kiss presses at the soft skin along the side of my knee before his tongue slides out to caress the creases of my body in a long, languid show of adoring desperation.
Steady fingers unsnap the buttons of my leather pants. One by one, the buttons give away. The cloth is pulled over my legs.
And the kissing stops.
When I heave a breath and look at the two of them, they’re both fixated on the wetness between my thighs. And the lack of panties I’m wearing there.
Styx’s fingers ghost over the inside of my thigh, and just as his palm meets my sex, a quick hand slaps him away.
“Ah ah ah. Earn it, pup,” Rueren whispers cruelly.
I glare over my shoulder at the vampire, and just as my lips part to speak my mind, the vampire’s fingers thrust into me deep and fast, stealing away my breath and every thought in my head. Faster and faster, supernaturally fast, he fucks my opening with a curl of his fingers in just the right spot.
My legs shake, and my head falls back. Thousands of sensations plow through me, shuttering and trembling to stay whole and not crack into a bursting wave of ecstasy.
The kisses against my leg continue. I feel his mouth faintly along my skin. An easy caress here, a hard bite there. Over and over and over again, he takes his time, trailing higher.
“Make him beg, pretty Sekar,” Rueren rasps against my neck.
Hot breath kisses my sex. I’m all too aware of the perfect man between my thighs.
And the way I want to make him feel.
I want him to feel like he’s mine. Even if I don’t know how much I really believe that. I want him to.
Because I care about Styx. More than anyone I’ve ever met.
The warmth of his tongue slides against my clit, and before he can go farther, my hand snatches out. Soft skin is beneath my sharp nails, and I dig them into his throat even more as I look down into the biggest green eyes.
Hopeful and wanting green eyes. We hold each other’s gazes with pent-up heat burning between our stares. The flat of his tongue slips out, and my hand grips higher, tightening my hold on his mouth itself.
He kisses my palm in a worshipping way and tilts his head closer, as if he might settle back in between my legs again.
“No,” I grind out with a gasp as Rueren rakes his teeth over my throat.
A whimper shakes from Styx, but I simply purse my lips at him and hold him so tight, I know I’m going to leave crescent-shaped marks against his pretty face.
This time, instead of kissing, he opens his mouth and sucks the sensitive skin just between my thumb and index finger. A blooming heat sears through me as his talented tongue laps over my flesh before sucking hard enough to make me clench my knees around his chest and grind against him in a shameless way.
“Please, alpha,” a deep, desperate voice asks.
And I break. Inside, I break to give him every single thing his beautiful heart desires.
But my mouth is faster.
“Sit back, puppy. And watch how Rueren fucks me with his hand.”
The growling groans that circle the room are from both of them. It’s such a wanting sound that the hard way Rueren thrusts his palm against my wetness suddenly feels all-consuming.
I hold Styx’s watchful gaze, and his attention flits from my features to my pussy, over and over and over again. Before his big body presses hard into mine, his lips graze my parted mouth, and he ever-so-lightly slides his tongue along my bottom lip.
And I’m so lost in the slamming of my heart that I can do nothing but let him.
Even as he slides his hard body lower, settles down at the heat of my core, and seals a wet, opened-mouthed kiss to the apex of my thighs, causing a cry to climb up my throat for more.
And the two of them give me just that.
Rueren’s long, talented fingers drag up my folds ever so slowly. And his absence is replaced with the firm pressure of Styx’s mouth. The way the vampire rolls his wrist, grinding just right against my clit, has me gasping. While the shifter thrusts his tongue deeper, nipping at my flesh before thrusting in over and over again.
And the two of them use my pussy in the roughest sense to give me everything I never knew I needed.
A complete, earth-shaking, star-blinding release.
The waves of it slam into me. It drills to the deepest parts of my core and comes out with screaming moans that I’ve held onto for far too long.
As the tension strung through my body eases, and my breath returns to my lungs, I realize they’ve both stopped.
Their hands cradle me, but neither of the two men are focused on my sex now.
They’re focused on me. Staring at me with hooded, admiring eyes.
My fingers reach out and slip into Styx’s hair. His body is pliant and submissive as I tug him upwards. A whine escapes his throat and I don’t know what it is, some primal instinct that has my lips pressing against the pulse at his neck. It’s not Rue’s instincts, no, those are far away, tucked in a place between our bond that I can’t reach or see. This is something
purely between Styx and I.
He groans as my teeth graze along his pulse. And something inside me urges, demands that I make him submit in every way. So I open my mouth and I bite him. Hard. His body shudders as I mark along his skin, sealing a bond between alpha and omega that I wanted to deny. But my body, my soul knows that this is right.
A channel opens up between us, smoother than it did with Rue. I feel like my senses are being invaded from all angles. Within me, I feel three distinct thrumming heartbeats. One is mine, one is Rue’s, and now one belongs to Styx.
I slide my tongue against the mark against his neck and he pulls away.
I feel both of their gazes intently on me. Those gazes change instantly when a voice flits through my mind. It’s not the submissive sound I’ve grown used to, but strangely dominant and fierce.
I’m never going to let anyone hurt you. Especially that flying rat.
Before I can question the sound of the omega’s voice in my mind, Rue is pushing out of the bed in a flash of movement. Long fingers are around Styx’s neck, and he’s pinned him to the wall with so much force, the door rattles.
“How did you do that?” Rueren hisses through sharp fangs.
“Do what?” Styx’s big hands latch over the vampire, and the strength that rips through his arms startles me. Even as he slams the powerful man to the floor, flipping the play of power in the blink of an eye.
“You were in my head. NO ONE gets inside a vampire’s head uninvited.”
Styx holds Rueren down by his arms, and they both heave in breaths, but neither of them can explain what Rueren’s talking about.
But it clicks in my mind.
“You’re bound to my soul and Styx is my omega. It’s a three-way soul bind.”
“I’m sorry, a fucking what?” Rueren says politely, like he’s not held to the floor beneath a massive shifter.
“You two are second-hand soul mates.” The giggle that stutters out of my lips can’t be helped. “Fated mates,” I add as Rueren’s mouth opens even farther without words coming out. “It’s meant to be, Rue. You can’t fight fate.”
The shifter slowly releases his hold on the vampire’s body, and he puts space between them like the two of them weren’t practically grinding their dicks against one another three seconds ago.
“No,” Rueren says flatly as he stands and walks away. “That’s not possible.”
“I think it is,” Styx whispers on a lost sound of his rumbling voice.
“It’s not,” Rueren growls.
Fine. It’s not. Styx says down the strange line of communication that links his mind to mine, as well as Rueren’s.
“I’ll have to focus more to shut your bond out. It’ll be exhausting but not impossible for an Ancient like myself,” Rue holds his glare on the poor pup, but he doesn’t leave it at that.
Try all you like, Styx tauntingly whispers.
“Fucking stay the hell out of my head, shifter!”
Styx lowers his big hands to his thighs and simply smiles.
I can’t help but do the same.
And then they’re both looking at me again. It makes me shift on the mattress. When a warm chest settles in against my back and steady hands run down my arms, I’m shifting even more.
“You’re so fucking sexy, little Sekar,” Rueren whispers hotly against my ear. “Now get some sleep.” Styx is nodding in agreement as well.
Sleep?
Are they out of their supernatural minds?
I can’t sleep. Not now. I need more.
More of both of them.
The vampire slides me back until my back hits the pillow, and before I can even remember what words are, he’s tucking me in. His body melds to mine on one side, and Styx curls up against me, his head resting on my shoulder on the other side.
My eyelids feel heavy as I shift in just right between the two of them.
And then, with their warmth and comfort all around me, I close my eyes. Sleep falls into my life faster than I ever could have imagined.
For once, life is perfect.
“Wake up!”
A harsh voice permeates my subconscious, waking me from a blissful sleep. I burrow deeper into the heat of Rue’s body, loving the bliss and peace his warmth and solidity offers. If only for a moment. If only to escape the reality that awaits beyond.
Too bad someone else has other fucking ideas.
“Wake the fuck up!”
Something hard slaps on my head.
“Fucking ow!” I shoot up in bed, rubbing my forehead and staring angrily at Kira. She looms above me, wielding a textbook in her grip like a fucking weapon. I glare at it, then her. “Fucking bitch!”
Her eyes roll far back into her head. “Your vampire friend needs to leave!” she hisses without preamble.
From the comfort of my bed, Rue rumbles, “Oh, do I now, feisty dragon?” His voice is seduction itself and warms over my skin nicely. One arm gets flung carelessly around my waist, and I smile slightly at the gesture before my eyes widen with panic.
“Styx—”
A soft whine comes in reply, and I notice Styx in his wolf form at the foot of the bed.
“Wha—” I know I couldn’t have imagined last night, his human form, his deep voice and that immense pleasure. The bite. Our bond.
You didn’t imagine it, ma chère. Rue’s voice caresses through my mind. Your little omega thinks it best to stay in this form. At least when others are near.
The book comes flying towards me again, but this time, Rue lifts a hand up and wrenches it from Kira’s grip before she can whack me across the face with it again.
“Hey, asshole! I need that!” Kira tries to reach for it, and in her attempt, nearly falls on top of us.
“Kira! Seriously, it’s too fucking early for this,” I complain, swiping the backs of my hands across my eyes.
She scoffs. “Early? It’s late! And thanks to that little security breach last night, they’re doing a head count in every dorm. So, your little vampire needs to get the fuck out before we all get in trouble.”
Rue tosses the book back at her and groans. He’s actually pretty adorable like this, though I can’t bring myself to say the words. He gets up with languid slowness, stretching his arms over his head, looking by all means like a feline.
“I can take a hint.” He tosses aside the covers and slips out of bed and into his shoes before he stands. I almost think he’s not going to address what happened between us last night or say anything about it. I don’t care. Do I? Do I want him to acknowledge what we did?
He turns and leans down, brushing his lips across my cheekbone. “I’ll see you in class, ma chère.”
And in a blink, he’s gone.
Kira sighs at his departure and fans herself. “Giiiiirl.” She plops herself onto the edge of my bed, startling Styx. “I have one word for you.”
My eyebrows rise in question.
“Yaaasssssss.”
Chapter Eleven
"The headmistress wishes a word with you."
Great.
Just what I fucking need. Marcen, also known as Rachel Ray, to pull me out of class and say those damning words after everything that’s happened in the last twenty-four hours.
Kira was gone when I woke up. I oddly missed her whiplash-style judgment and envy. I also enjoyed the silence. It gave me time to really assess what happened.
No one came after us last night for what we did in that secret room or to the hybrid. I don’t doubt they know. I don’t doubt that Headmistress Krist knows what we did.
I know I am going to pay for it now. I wonder what type of punishment she’s going to dish out. I wonder if it even matters. I already have metal embedded deep into my spine and a nice dose of belladonna constantly coursing through my veins. I’ve grown used to the cruelty. I’m no stranger to the darker sides of things.
To pain. To blood. To suffering.
What more can this academy do to me that they haven’t done already? I’ve been stripped of m
y freedom, collared, and forced to kill without question. These are the fates worse than death.
So, when Marcen says those words to me, I feel no fear as I follow him through the halls of Hallow Hill. I can feel the baker’s disdain swirling around him like an aura. His bright, flickering blue gaze keeps straying to me, but I can’t bring myself to read the expression on his features. I know nothing good will come of it.
He’s collared like the rest of us, but he isn’t like us. He’s a puppet. A very, very good puppet.
He leads me to an office in the professor’s wing. Surprisingly, it’s not the same one where she tricked me into signing my name. It’s different. Someone else’s office, perhaps.
But whose?
He takes me up a flight of winding stairs that lead up to a tower. My heart thumps as I take in the thick, wooden door. It's splintered in places, with claw marks raking down the surface of it like someone or something tried to force their way inside.
He doesn’t knock, but pushes it open and gestures for me to enter. I do so with reluctance, steeling my whole body against the appearance of pain, of . . . anything.
The first thing that hits me is the smell. Like flesh burning. Like sulfur and antiseptic. Like something dark and dangerous assaulting my nostrils. I know the scent of magic. I’m no stranger to it. But this scent is vile, so unlike anything I’ve ever smelled before, and I can’t quite place why.
In the supernatural world, there are many different types of magic and many different ways to practice it. There is no white or black, no gray. There is only the power of our deities. And this? This isn’t from any realm I know. It’s magic that’s tainted.
Unholy.
The stench burns the hair in my nostrils, and nearly makes me gag, but I pretend like it doesn’t bother me at all. I step deeper into the office and scan my eyes across the space. It’s dark and barely illuminated. Tiny rays of sunlight filter through the stained-glass windows. I consider rushing to one and jumping straight out of it, but I know it’s barred from the outside. A rug is at my feet, and it looks like it's seen better days. There is a massive scratched-up desk, a chair, and tapestries fraying at the hems hanging from the walls.