Auctioned to the Werewolf Princes

by Daniella Wright

  They fell silent again, but this time it wasn’t uncomfortable. Thinking about her connection with Leo now, she felt excitement once again brewing inside her. But she suppressed it and decided now would be a good time to leave.

  “Well, now that we are on the same page, I’ll let you get back to work.” She stood and folded her arms over. “I’ll see you at dinner?”

  Leo smiled. “I’ll be there.”

  “Good.”

  “Have a nice day,” he said. He was looking at her with a knowing glimmer in his eye. She tried to look away, but he was drawing her in with his gaze. He wanted her, she could tell, but what was even hotter was the fact that he no longer cared that she knew. He wanted her, and he wanted her to know he wanted her.

  She turned to leave before he could say anything, or make any sort of move. Now was not the time.

  “See you later!” she said and hurried out of the room.

  Chapter Twelve

  Finishing Touches

  Chris had arranged for the Hadron Collider to be brought to the basement, where Eden could work on installing the nuclear fusion generator. He was pretty sure he found a guy who might have the right type of superconductor, which was the other piece she needed, and he was going to see him later that week.

  In the meantime, figuring out how to install the generator was proving to be more complicated than Eden anticipated.

  Two days after what she was referring to as “the incident” with Chris, Eden was hard at work with the installation, when the witch Katy, poked her head in and said hey.

  “Whatcha’ doin?” she asked, swinging her arms by her sides like a child. Eden had never actually spoken to Katy. After the whole possession fiasco, she had been held prisoner, basically, upstairs in her room until Chris and Leo could figure out what really happened.

  “Working,” said Eden.

  “Oh what?”

  Eden frowned and put down the screwdriver she was using to open the battery panel on the collider. “This.”

  Katy smiled and walked into the workroom. “You’re not really a talker, are you?”

  “I’m just busy, that’s all.”

  Eden wanted to give the benefit of the doubt to this witch, everyone else seemed to vouch for her, but she didn’t like strangers asking her questions. Combine Katy’s insistent curiosity with the fact that the last time Eden saw her she was trying to overtake the group spell and kill everyone.

  “Amira told me a little about this machine. I thought maybe I’d come over and see if you needed any help,” said Katy. “I’m not a tech witch or anything, but I know a little. Plus, I’m good with tools.”

  “That’s okay.” Eden stood up and threw the screwdriver into the toolbox on her left. It was late afternoon and she was getting pretty tired anyway. “I was just finishing up actually. Maybe tomorrow.”

  “Okay!” Katy smiled. “Just let me know!”

  “Will do.”

  Katy lingered as Eden put the rest of her tools away and pulled the protective tarp over the machine. Eden could feel Katy’s eyes on her, but she didn’t look up, hoping the witch would get the message and excuse herself.

  “So this thing is going to close the portals?” she asked, picking up a corner of the tarp and sneaking a peak underneath. “That’s amazing.”

  Eden nodded. “Yup.”

  “Where’d you get the idea for it?”

  “Look.” Eden stopped putting things away and finally met Katy’s gaze. “I’m not trying to be a bitch or anything, but I’m really tired and I don’t have the time or the energy to explain this to you. It’s really complicated and I’ve been working on it for years. You’ll just have to trust that I know what I’m doing and that it’s going to work.”

  Katy threw her hands up in surrender. “Hey, no worries. I get it. I’m sorry I pried. I just like being helpful.”

  “Well I will let you know if I need any help, okay?”

  “Okay!” said Katy. “Sounds good. I’ll see you around I guess.” She offered a small wave, which Eden mimicked, and then left.

  When Eden finished getting the workspace back in order, she closed the door and felt the urge to lock it, only the handle didn’t have a deadbolt. She made a mental note to ask Leo or Chris about getting a lock that night. She would sleep easier knowing there was at least something standing in between just anyone in the castle and her most precious possession.

  Dinner that night was one of the best meals Eden had ever had. It was five courses, each one more delicious than the one that came before it. Chris and Leo had felt terrible how everything panned out with Lord Wellson and they had asked if Eden would be willing to attend a dinner party of sorts.

  They invited all their wolf shifter friends—the younger, more progressive ones that is, who wouldn’t be weirded out by the boys’ witch servant having a seat at the table. The other witches were invited too, but only Amira and Wen showed up. Eden had found a nice black dress in the back of her closet. It was a little snug on her hips, but she managed to get it zipped, and she thought it actually looked really good once she got the thing on. Chris and Leo both couldn’t take their eyes off her. It made Eden feel flushed and a little uncomfortable at first, but she quickly got used to the attention. The wine helped.

  By the time desert was served, Eden was complaining she couldn’t have another bite, and declined the chocolate cake. She would sneak down to the kitchen to grab some later. Coffee was served with the cake, but most people stuck to drinking wine. Everyone was pretty drunk by the end of the night, and Chris had to find each of them a ride home. Those who lived in the castle went to the living room for a nightcap, and they each trickled out one by one.

  “Goodnight, Leo,” said Wen, in a breathy, low voice. She had worn a beautiful beaded dress with a plunging neckline. She looked like a goddess. Besides Leo and Eden, Wen had been the last person to retire that evening. She winked at Leo as she slipped out into the hallway and said seductively, “sleep dreams.”

  Eden didn’t say anything but she could tell Leo was embarrassed. There was a good fifteen seconds of silence, in which Eden laid her head against the back of the couch and relaxed her muscles.

  Leo shifted around on his chair, looking uncomfortable.

  “You okay?” Eden asked. “Because, if you’re trying to come up with an excuse for why you need to go follow Wen upstairs to her bedroom, I’ll tell you right now, I don’t care. You can just say it outright. I won’t judge.”

  Leo laughed. “Oh, no. I’m not… we aren’t… What I mean is, I don’t want to go upstairs with Wen. I don’t want to go anywhere with her.” Leo shook his head and hurriedly added. “Not that I don’t like her, she’s… fine. Nice. Nice girl. But I just don’t have any interest in her, if that makes sense.”

  Eden nodded. “Yes, that makes sense.” She was grinning, not trying to hide her amusement. “No need to get flustered.”

  “I’m not flustered.”

  “Okay. Sure.”

  “I’m not!”

  Eden didn’t argue any further.

  “So did you have a good time?” he asked after a moment or two.

  “Yeah,” she said. “I had a wonderful time! Although, maybe not as great a time as some of your friends…” She motioned with her head to the rolling drink cart, which was sitting in the corner of the room. There were three empty bottles and two that only had a few sips left.

  “To be fair,” Leo said. “A lot of those were already half drunk.”

  “Whatever you say.”

  Eden sighed and closed her eyes. She hadn’t eaten or dunken nearly as much as the other guests, but she felt a little drunk just on the whole atmosphere of the night. It had felt so nice, spending time with friends, even though they weren’t her friends. Being around kind people, making good conversation and cracking jokes, it all felt very normal—a kind of normal Eden hadn’t experienced since before her parents died. Sure, her impromptu dinners with Isaac were fun, but there was always a sort of unspoke
n sadness between them. They both knew that they were playing normalcy, they were pretending that everything was okay and that they were just two friends sharing some take out. In reality, they both knew once the food was gone and the wine drunk that they would have to go back to their own, miserable, depraved lives.

  That was not the feeling at this dinner party, however. It didn’t matter that another portal had opened up on the property just that afternoon. Nobody worried about the reports of increased gang violence from the Vipers in Twin Glades. Instead, everyone just had a good time and toasted Eden, because she, as they put it, was the witch who would save the world.

  And for the first time since her father passed away and the responsibility for finishing the Hadron Collider fell upon her shoulders, Eden really believed she could.

  Tomorrow was the day Eden was going to attempt to turn on the Hadron Collider. If it worked, and all the parts Chris and Leo had managed to nab for her were connected correctly, then the collider would create a microscopic black hole that will suck the portals into. She, or another witch, would have to be next to the machine to control the black hole and make sure it didn’t grow too big. Amira volunteered to do it, but Eden wasn’t totally sold on the idea. They opted to decide definitively in the morning, depending on how Amira was feeling.

  “I take it then,” said Leo, breaking a long but comfortable stint of silence. “You won’t be needing any help getting upstairs?”

  Eden opened her eyes. “No,” she said. “I think I’ll be able to manage.” She paused and watched as Leo’s face fell. He knew she was more than capable of getting up to her room by herself, but he was offering anyway. He wanted to spend more time with her. “But, I mean,” she offered. “If you think that you might need help getting upstairs, I would be more than happy to oblige.”

  Leo smirked. “I did have a few glasses of wine. It might be best, for safety reasons, of course, if you make sure I get to my room okay.”

  Eden nodded along. “Of course. For safety reasons.”

  She stood and walked over to his chair. She held her hand out and smiled. He took it, even though he clearly did not need the help, and allowed her to feign like she was pulling him up to his feet.

  “There ya’ go!” she said and put her hand on his back, leading him towards the stairs. “This way now.”

  She played the part of sober person babysitting drunkard all the way up the stairs, making little quips here and there about how he just needed to sleep it off and that he was lucky she was there to help him, otherwise he’d have surely fallen on his way up. Leo laughed at her jokes, but didn’t add much to the scene, so by the time the two of them got to his bedroom door, Eden gave up the bit and said a genuine goodnight.

  “Thank you again for this party,” she said. “It was really great having a night off from it all. I was forced to think about something other than the end of the world for a change, which was a nice change of pace.”

  Leo smiled. “My pleasure.”

  Unlike his cousin, Leo didn’t hesitate and wait for the gap between him and Eden to close naturally. He closed it himself, pulling her into his arms and putting his mouth on hers. It was more assertive than Eden would have expected from him, and she liked it. She matched his intensity by kissing him back, with tongue, and opening the bedroom door.

  They kissed, slowly making their way towards the bed, and excitement washed over Eden quickly and powerfully. The tension between her and Leo had been a slow build since day one, and now that they were finally relieving that tension, she was practically dying to have him.

  He unzipped her dress and she pulled it off her shoulders. It was getting stuck on her hips, however, and she had to push back from the kiss to try and shimmy her way out. It was taking too long.

  “Ugh,” said Eden. “This damn thing.”

  “Do you care about the dress?” Leo asked.

  “Huh?”

  “Do you care about it?”

  “Not really.”

  He reached around her and grabbed the two sides of the opening to the dress and ripped the entire thing off of her. Standing here, only in her panties, Eden was one part shocked and two parts completely captivated.

  She started kissing him again, now even more passionately, and he reached his hand into her underwear. He started rubbing her, then he put one finger inside of her. He kissed her neck, sucked, and then bit her, softly once. The feeling of his teeth on her skin sent a tingle through Eden’s spine.

  She cried out and he gently guided her onto the bed. He took his own clothes off quickly as she slipped out of her underwear.

  He was leaning over her, kissing her neck, then her chest. He made a line of kissing, running down between her breasts, over her belly button, and down her inner thighs. She was quivering with anticipation. She could feel his warm breath in between her legs and she wasn’t sure how much longer she could wait.

  When she was a mere second from begging, he opened his mouth and put his tongue inside of her. She moaned and her hand found the way to the top of Leo’s head. She grabbed a fistful of his hair as he penetrated her. He switched his focus after a minute, lapping, licking and sucking her clitoris. She came, making a mess of the sheets, which seemed to turn Leo on even more.

  She knew he would keep it up, working hard for a second orgasm, but she wanted him now. She lifted his chin up with her pointer finger and drew him back up to her mouth. She could taste her own pleasure on his lips.

  He slid himself inside of her and thrust, not aggressively, but with passion.

  He kept thrusting, changing his pace every once in a while, taking moments to stop while deep inside of her, and kiss her or cup one of her breasts.

  As he came close to climaxing, he started to go faster. They were both breathing heavily, and Eden’s moans were getting louder and louder.

  She orgasmed first, a few seconds before him, but hers lasted even after his was done.

  He kissed her a final time, and then pulled out.

  This, combined with all the excitement of the night, and three glasses of wine Eden had at dinner, after she turned over onto her side, she fell asleep almost instantly. She was awake just long enough to hear Leo let out a long, satisfied breath, and feel his arm wrap around her as he cuddled next to her.

  “Leo!” Chris came crashing through the bedroom door in a panic. “Leo, wake up!”

  Eden was already awake, scrambling with the sheet to cover her naked body. Seriously, what was it about these two and barging in at the worst times.

  She was about to make a joke, something about how she was having crazy deja vu, as if she’d lived this moment before, but the look on Chris’s face told her now was not the time.

  “What’s going on?” Leo said, getting out of bed. It was early morning, and the sun was just barely beginning to rise. Eden looked out the window and could see it cresting over the treeline.

  “They’ve launched another attack!” said Chris. “They are pouring in from every portal in the area.”

  “We need to turn on the Hadron Collider!” said Eden. “And get it closer to the portals.”

  “Way ahead of you,” said Chris. “We’ve already had it moved to the castle grounds, next to the biggest portal. My security team woke me after the first spirit came through, and we figured it was best to be prepared in case this turned into a full-blown battle. Most of them are coming out of the biggest portal, so we figured you could start with sucking away that one.”

  “I’ll go with you,” said Leo to Eden. “Somebody needs to fight off the spirits while you control the size of the black whole.”

  “We both can go,” said Chris.

  “No,” said Eden. “You two need to protect the staff. There are a lot of humans working here who cannot defend themselves. I will be fine. Besides, Amira will be coming with me.”

  Chris and Leo exchanged a doubtful look, but Eden didn’t take no for an answer.

  She let go of the sheet covering her body, no longer concerned with ei
ther men seeing her naked body. It wouldn’t be the first time. She looked down and saw her dress, which had been torn into two pieces the night before. “Shit.”

  “Here.” Chris took his white button down off and tossed it to her. “I won’t be needing it anyway once I transform.” Given Chris’s size, the thing came all the way down to her knees. She quickly buttoned it up and then took one of the ripped ribbons of her spandex dress and tied it around her waist.

  “You two go fight,” she said. “I’ll go find Amira and we’ll have the portals closed in no time.”

  Leo hadn’t bothered putting his clothes on. He was still holding the sheet to cover himself, but based on his heavy breathing and his glossy-eyed expression, Eden could tell he was already transforming. Chris was too. For a moment, Eden was transfixed by the process unfolding in front of her, but she knew there was no time to watch. She nodded to both of them, said “good luck” and ran out of the room.

  Amira wasn’t in her workshop, so Eden ran down the basement hallway yelling her name. Maybe she went right for the Collider once the battle started.

  Eden turned on her heel, her foot on the first step heading back upstairs, when on a whim she decided to check her own workshop, just in case. She ripped open the door, and at first she was shocked to find the room empty, having grown so used to having the massive machine taking up most of the space. Her breath caught, but then she remembered and her breathing regulated. She was just about to close the door when she heard a whimpering sound coming from the far right corner, underneath the balled up tarp.

  She hurried towards the amorphous shape and tore the tarp away.

  It was Amira. She was tied up and gagged.

  “Amira!” Eden bent down and undid the knot in the cloth that was gagging her. “What happened? Who did this?”

  “It was Katy,” Amira said. “She ambushed me, the second the battle started.”

  “Where is she now?” Eden went to work untying the knots in the magic rope that was wrapped around Amira’s wrists.