Root Rot Academy: Term 3

by Rhea Watson

  He owned his mistakes.

  He was everything I wished I could be.

  I clutched at his steely forearms, eyes locked as I said, “I’m actually… not using you. I hate that you feel that way, and I’m sorry I’ve made you feel like that before.”

  “Really?” Bjorn’s cheeks hollowed briefly, and he tossed a nod over his shoulder. “After all that?”

  Obviously he had seen what went down with Benedict back there. He knew it would set me off—send me running. He knew me.

  “I’m angry about so many things in this castle,” I told him, because that was the truth—Bjorn deserved nothing less. “But…” Nibbling my lower lip, I eased down a step, pleased that he let me, arms buckling. “Maybe you’re just irresistible.”

  “Come now,” he rasped, chiding me with a little tap to the nose even as his eyes darkened, the storm upgrading to a hurricane. “Don’t be like that.”

  “Like what?” I asked innocently as I flicked my hair over my shoulder to show off the round scars he had left. This wasn’t the first time he had seen them on my skin, but his gaze snapped to my neck like he needed to look—like the monster inside was hungry for a reminder of that night. I stretched my head to the side, angling my throat into the light of a nearby gas lamp. Even though the toxin in his saliva, the one that made my orgasm feel like a shooting star gone nuclear, sealed wounds instantly, I still needed to heal them. I wasn’t a shifter or a vampire or a fae; healing wasn’t automatic. Given my medicinal stockpile in the greenhouses, I could have whipped up a cream to dull the red dots in a day.

  I had left them alone for moments like these, for the visceral thrill of the dark gleam in his eyes as he stared.

  “Alecto.”

  His snarl made every hair on my arms stand up, and desire throbbed low in my belly.

  “Bjorn?” I fluttered my lashes girlishly when our eyes found each other again, innocence paired with a bratty smirk that would have made Jack scowl.

  It made my vampire attack. Just as I walked my fingers up his silky black tie to the knot at his collar, Bjorn struck, dragging me to him with a sound that was all monster, all bloodthirsty animal—that made my toes curl even as I gasped, fear flashing through my veins and need pulsing between my thighs. His mouth found mine in a brutal kiss, and my back soon met the wall as he shoved me into it, caged me in, trapped me with a hand on either side of my head, his fangs wild, neither of us bothering to accommodate for them this time.

  They split my lower lip open.

  Made my tongue bleed.

  And he drank me down like a starving man. Bjorn sucked at my tongue, my lip, and kissed so fiercely that I’d be bruised for days.

  Yes.

  His masterful hands scooped me up by the thighs, spreading them open so he could settle between, his desire pressing like steel to my core. I moaned, writhing against him, basking in the first flutters of pleasure whenever my clit brushed his shaft, way too many layers of clothing between us.

  My mouth throbbed when he broke away, his lips trailing over my jaw and down my neck, utterly brutalized from a vampire’s bloody kiss. The second his fangs brushed my throat, however, the thought of him marking me in the exact same spot on the other side beyond thrilling—but not tonight—I groaned and pushed at his chest.

  Nothing.

  The monster was ignoring me.

  “Bjorn, wait,” I whined, grabbing at his hair and tugging hard. The vampire eased back with a snarl as if to humor me, his eyes bloodshot. “Too messy.” I yanked my sleeve back and offered the tender underside to his wanting mouth. “Here… Just a nibble.”

  Bjorn cocked a curious brow, putting a little more space between us to take my arm and stretch it out to the side. While he might have looked like he was surveying a priceless artefact, there was something sinister in the lift of his lips that made me gulp. Slowly, tenderly, he nuzzled his nose along the delicate skin, over veins and tendons, right to the fluttering pulse point in my wrist. The monster’s eyes then flashed up at me, and he clamped down with a vengeance, the pain bright and the pleasure explosive.

  As soon as his fangs pierced my skin, I was gone, lost in oblivion, in a lazy river of heady heat that had me flying. Pleasure bloomed in my belly, between my thighs, my heart dancing for him as his toxin’s climactic sedation seized control.

  And then it was over.

  “Just a nibble,” Bjorn rumbled against my arm before lapping up the hot red streaks. I blinked down at him, mind foggy, and only then realized at some point he had planted his hand over my mouth—apparently I was loud in nirvana. His firm body kept me pinned to the wall, and once he had licked me clean, swirling that teasing tongue around the sealed wounds, Bjorn went for my stockings.

  Not the waistband of the opaque nylon, but the dead center, right over my pussy. He tore them clean open along the seam.

  “Bjorn!” Seriously, did he have any idea what a fucking nightmare it was to find good stockings that didn’t ride up or slide down or split on a whim?

  “I’ll buy you new ones,” he growled as he unbuckled his belt and peeled open his trousers. Limbs like jelly from his bite, I threw my arms over his shoulders and teased the wispy hairs on the nape of his neck, watching like some princess while he did all the grunt work.

  Which paid off in spades.

  With a flash of teeth, Bjorn dug his cock out, hard as rock and straining for me, then ripped my panties aside and steered the head to my slickness. I half expected him to kiss me first, maybe thrust two fingers in to test the waters.

  Instead, he impaled me in a single, gloriously brutal plunge, same as before, driving all the way to the hilt as my moans and his groans ricocheted off the stone. Holding on with earnest now, I rocked up to meet him, the pleasure and pain utterly sublime, and my eyes fluttered shut with the first pump of his hips.

  Harsh. Punishing. Rough and careless and, ugh, everything I had always wanted from Bjorn without realizing. He was the kind vampire, the empathetic friend, the hilarious roommate. I had never imagined him as a violent lover, but I should have.

  Because as he pounded me into the wall, mouth at the crook of my neck and shoulder, fangs scraping with every thrust, I couldn’t fathom us any other way but this.

  Lovers who didn’t take their time.

  Who fell right into the thick of things from the start, as if we had wasted enough time already and were desperate to make up for it.

  Like we couldn’t get enough of each other.

  At least, I hoped that was the case, because I couldn’t get enough of him, his rough hand and his biting kiss and his sandalwood cologne blended seamlessly with the raw masculinity that he exuded naturally.

  Bjorn could be sweet.

  Bjorn could be spicy.

  And Bjorn Asulf was fucking mine.

  With the castle’s population split between the student towers and the dining hall, we tried to be quiet.

  Key word: tried.

  But I couldn’t contain my moans and cries any more than he could silence his snarls and groans. His hand found my mouth every so often, and as I dragged him against my shoulder so that only I heard and felt the monster’s pleasure…

  Laughter rippled up the stairwell suddenly. We stilled.

  Footsteps clicked across stone. Bjorn hoisted me up higher, protectively gathering me to his chest as we—I—held our breaths. He made no move to flee, cock still buried deep, and when the corners of his mouth suddenly kicked up, I relaxed.

  Because… I knew that laughter, didn’t I? Lyrical and teasing and seductive—

  Gavriel rounded the stairs a moment later, hands in his pockets, silvery gaze positively wicked as it swept over us.

  “How did I know I’d find you two fucking somewhere in this castle tonight?” he drawled. Bjorn eased off the wall, offering my back to Gavriel instead, and I clenched around him, full and stretched but not exposed, both of us fairly covered despite the brutal lovemaking. Even still, heat flamed in my cheeks, and I ducked my head, unsu
re what to do with myself in this situation—with both of them here, me in a precarious position, trapped between two men who made my pulse race.

  Bjorn chuckled, the sound soft and laced with darkness, his laughter taking me by surprise. “A very good guess, old boy.”

  Gavriel hummed in agreement, his every step toward us making my heart beat harder, and I inhaled sharply when his fingers suddenly burrowed into my straightened locks.

  “Rather selfish,” he whispered harshly as he fisted my hair, “to have started without me…”

  And before I could get a word out, the fae dragged me back and slammed his mouth to mine.

  11

  Bjorn

  Alecto wasn’t the first woman I had shared with another man.

  But she was the first woman I loved with all my heart.

  The first woman I would kill for.

  And the only woman I would die for.

  True immortality was rare, even in the supernatural world. I had centuries at my back and a lifetime on the horizon—of course I’d fucked men, women, and all the fluidity between. In the last seven hundred years, there had been orgies and threesomes and all manner of debauchery, because how dull would it be to tiptoe through eternity locked into sexual monogamy.

  No, thank you.

  Alecto complicated things. I loved her. I had probably loved her from the moment she first walked into the flat, oblivious to my presence as I watched her from the shadows of my bedroom doorway. Love complicated things, and initially I feared I couldn’t share her heart, especially with someone else who felt like I did.

  As Gavriel and I grew closer, however, that opinion changed.

  At first, it had just been us boys bonding, but since the new term started and Iris turned the academy on its head, we had become a united front. A trio. The fae spent more nights in our flat than his own these days, always leaving to sleep upstairs but present for TV binges and faculty bitchfests.

  We had become a team, Alecto, Gavriel, and me.

  And there was a smaller team within that team—because when you loved the same woman, whether or not your teammate would admit to it, you needed support, communication, and mutual respect.

  Jack remained on the outside, physically and emotionally, but that wasn’t his fault. At least we knew where to find him. At least he was good for our girl.

  At least he still made her heart pitter-patter.

  When all this was sorted, we would add a fourth to the team.

  For now, I reveled in the strength of three.

  Especially after so many years—decades, really—being a team of one.

  Alecto’s cunt clenched with interest the longer and deeper Gavriel kissed her, and my eyes nearly rolled back in my head as she constricted around my cock. Her soft gasps, her body arced in a lovely bow, her legs locked and her excitement palpable—I could barely stand it. Barely stand here, the support for these two, without losing control and spilling myself inside her.

  The monster wanted to lose control.

  Claim her in the most intimate way possible after tasting her blood.

  Give it time.

  Patience.

  Alecto adored the monster. She wasn’t afraid of me or him—and that made it fucking impossible not to touch her all the time since our romp in the highlands, every night after filled with scorching kisses and bloody nibbles that only just sustained me until I could have her again.

  She was the first who didn’t fear me. Only other vampire lovers had embraced both sides before, the rest, even the supernatural, always put off by my fangs and my predilections.

  Her hand suddenly found my lapels, and she used me like an anchor to tear herself away from the greedy fae plundering her mouth.

  “We should…” Cheeks pink, Alecto glanced between us as her heart pounded and her chest shuddered through every gasping breath. “We should m-move somewhere… else.”

  I bit back a snort. Her words said one thing, her tone, her body, another. Alecto didn’t want to go fucking anywhere. As Gavriel climbed another stair, the pair of us boxing her in, this little witch was in her happy place. Chuckling, the fae looked to me, a silent conversation flowing between us with nothing more than the arch of his brown brow and the devilish gleam in his eyes. My grin was all he needed, and both Alecto and I flinched when he smacked her backside.

  “No,” he said, simple and frank—no room for argument there. Alecto’s swollen lips parted incredulously as she glared between us. How dare we not cater to her every whim?

  “Guys—”

  This time, it was me who dragged her into a punishing kiss, our mouths crashing together, my hand around her throat to guide her back to the monster. I swallowed her protests and nicked her lower lip with my fangs, the kiss serenaded by the sounds of Gavriel undoing his belt and trousers. Although we had never floated the idea of sex positions before, never discussed sharing a woman, I had my fair share of experience—and no doubt Gavriel did, too. While he peeled his all-black suit open, I lowered Alecto and myself onto the stairs. My body took the brunt of their bite, stony edges gritted into my back, my shoulders, my hips.

  Following my lead, Gavriel crouched beside us, Alecto straddling my hips, and both she and I jumped when warm, confident fingers stroked us. Us. First the base of my shaft, all that was left exposed, then Alecto’s plump nether lips, slick with desire, her pussy wholly occupied.

  “Stars above,” the fae muttered roughly, “she’s soaking.”

  “I think she likes me,” I said as I settled further into the stairs, making myself comfortable for the show. With one elbow propped on the stone, I delved my free hand under her dress and found her clit through the gaping hole in her stockings, the poor little bud still trapped under the panties that I’d only ripped aside.

  “Fuck you both,” Alecto whined, body trembling as I circled the sensitive bundle of nerves, her cunt shuddering along my shaft and her hips rocking in perfect time with my slow, lazy pace. Gavriel’s mischievous gaze landed on mine for a moment, and he wiggled his brows in a way that told me he was going to destroy her.

  Obliterate her.

  Make her scream like the goddess she was.

  “Request received, fury.”

  Alecto and I both stilled at the sudden crinkling of plastic, followed by what sounded like a cap cracking open, and then the undeniable smell of—

  “Oh my gods.” Alecto twisted around, her hands on my chest for balance, her hips undulating, rocking back and forth in the most divine form of torture, and then scoffed at Gavriel. “Is that lube? Do you carry around travel-sized lube in your pocket?”

  Fuuuuuuck she felt so good riding me. I tipped my head back and closed my eyes, basking in the sensation even as the fae huffed back at her.

  “I like to be prepared for all eventualities.”

  “You’re kind of gross, dude.”

  “Just go snog your vampire.”

  “But—”

  I found her throat without needing to open my eyes, but when I did, it was to watch hers round as she crashed into me. A firm buck of my hips had her moaning, and she folded over on top of me, writhing and whimpering—then stilling once again at another rip of her stockings. Eyes snapping open, Alecto tried to pull back, but my arm snaked possessively around her waist and pinned her right where she was, Gavriel situating himself behind us.

  Stroking us.

  Testing her.

  I finally let her retreat when two lubed-up fingers probed her ass, the sensation felt by both of us. While Alecto adjusted her legs, spread them wider, pushed down further, added a glorious arch to her lower back to prepare herself for Gavriel, I sat back like a king on a throne.

  Pleasure surged in my core with every pump of Gavriel’s fingers. Not only was he readying her, but he managed to caress me through her inner walls.

  “No, no,” Alecto protested with a feeble moan. She squirmed against me and pushed at my arm snapped tight around her, but she couldn’t go anywhere. Her defeated Riesling-tinge
d huff told me she knew as much, but the stubborn creature would never stop trying to get her way. “W-we should really… Someone could walk i-in—” Her voice snagged as Gavriel pumped faster, lashes fluttering, eyes fighting to stay open against the onslaught. “Someone m-might see this and—”

  “And weep with jealousy,” the fae finished for her, finger-fucking her tight hole in earnest now. Alecto moaned again and tried to sit up, which resulted in her curving around my immoveable forearm, my fingers clutching at her through her dress hard enough to bruise. As soon as she started rocking her hips again, I settled back to watch, pleased to be involved but briefly on the sidelines, allowing them their moment of connection.

  And what a moment it was. Alecto had been all fire with me, giving as good as she got, but in Gavriel she found a willing surrender that made my heart ache for her. By the time I had found a casual rhythm again, rocking my hips in a slow grind, Gavriel replaced his fingers with his cock. Inch by inch, he possessed her, filled her, never asking for permission—never asking if he ought to stop, if she was all right. They had danced this routine many times before, and it didn’t surprise me one bit that they were so in tune.

  It only surprised me that adding a third participant, another man who had her heart, didn’t throw off their flow.

  In fact, if the look of pure, uncut bliss on Alecto’s face said anything, adding another cock seemed to make it better.

  Her body struggled to take us both, the fit tight, all of her clenching against the intrusion so that Gavriel and I both felt it. When his hips finally collided with her ass, her scrunched dress keeping me from seeing it jiggle, she let out a hoarse, strangled cry that must have carried through the entire tower.

  “Quiet, fury,” Gavriel growled with a chiding pinch to her thigh, which made her squeak and jump and, ugh, tighten. “Someone might hear.”

  Grinning, I pushed the curtains of hair from her face and tucked them behind each ear. I took my time, her hair one of my favorite physical features—though I really missed her rogue curls tonight.