Matt snorted, ever secure in my abilities. “Of course, she is. You shouldn’t be asking if she’s okay, but if the Assembly is.”
“They’re better off than they should be,” I muttered with a sniff.
Dan was always the first to hug me, and Matt was always the first to have faith in me and my strength. Both sometimes grew annoying. I didn’t always want to be hugged, and contrary creature that I was, I didn’t always want to be thought of as strong. Still, with Seph to act as intermediary, things didn’t blow up too often.
It was handy having three mates, especially as my fiery Latina temper had only grown more volatile in the aftermath.
Squeezing Dan for a second, I sought out Seph with my gaze but he wasn’t there to soothe my ruffled feathers. Instead, when I found him through the open door, talking to his father in the other room, I grimaced. “What’s he doing here?”
“Noa wants you to make him young again.”
I rolled my eyes. “What makes him think that I’m going to say yes this time?” He’d already asked about twenty times, and I’d said no. I wasn’t about to reverse my principles, not when it could cause chaos.
“He says that he and the rest of your grandmother’s living Virgo want to make another go of it.”
Arching a brow, I pulled myself out of Dan’s arms—the only place I really wanted to be at that moment—and headed into our private office. It had four desks in here, since each of us preferred to deal with the shitshow that was our lives in a private space.
It was weird to think that only two months ago, I’d been a student within these walls, and now I was faculty, but Sol, it wasn’t like it was my choice.
I wasn’t happy with my position. Not at all. The only thing that was bearable about my life was the fact that I was doing all this crap with my Virgo.
I’d never wanted power. I’d never even wanted to be a part of either witch or Fae society, yet somehow, I was both. Integral to peace on both sides.
It sucked, and yet, it seemed that was the Redeemer’s destiny.
“Noa,” I said in greeting.
He turned to me, his eyes pleading. “Please, Riel.”
I frowned at him. “Why? Why should I?”
“Because I want a second chance.”
I snorted. “Don’t we all.” Heading over to Seph’s side, I pressed a hand against his shoulder, and dipped down so I could kiss the top of his head. It wasn’t the type of kiss I wanted to bestow upon him, but beggars couldn’t exactly be choosers, could they? “You know as well as I do, Noa, that if I did something like this for you, then—”
“I’d move away. I’d leave the Assembly.”
Seph stiffened. “And do what? Where would you go? How would you hide?”
“I’d go to Honolulu. Linford and Gabriella have said I’m welcome there. Darwich wants to as well.”
I narrowed my eyes at that. “So he wants a free pass at another youth too, does he?” I scoffed. “Going to Hawaii isn’t enough. You’re Noa vil der Luir, Noa. It’s not like you can just disappear. Anyway, what about your wife? And Landgow?”
“Yes, what about Mother?” Seph retorted, but I heard the wryness in his tone and knew he found this situation amusing. I wasn’t sure what was funny about your father wanting to abandon your mother, but I was mostly just glad that he wasn’t distressed.
Considering Matt and Dan had told me more about his mother’s frosty reception all those weeks ago, maybe it was fitting. Seph wasn’t close with either of his parents, after all.
“She’s as unhappy with me as I am with her,” Noa ground out. “You know that, boy.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, a thought occurring to me. “Nothing comes for free in this world, Noa.”
His mouth tightened. “I come here knowing that you’ll want something from me.”
Lips twitching, I murmured, “You could say that.”
“I’ll pay whatever price you ask of me.”
I heard the plea in his voice then, heard it and knew it was genuine. He wasn’t trying to play me, he genuinely did want to be with my grandmother.
My relationship with her and Linford hadn’t improved really. I still couldn’t get over her lies, over her absence in my life when I’d needed her the most, and the fact that she’d withheld so much from me—to the point where Seph had suffered because of it.
Since the Day of Redemption, I hadn’t spoken to my family either, and I knew I’d need to rectify that at some point. While the magic wasn’t turning me nuts, it was isolating me. My power hadn’t lessened in the aftermath, and when all was said and done, at the end of a long day, I wanted nothing more than to be with my Virgo.
Preferably with one or more of them inside me.
The last thing I wanted was an argument with my brother or to bicker with my mother. That was the kind of relationship we had. It wasn’t bad, per se. It was just how we rolled, and at the moment, that was more than I could deal with.
Thinking of them made me feel guilty though, and I mumbled, “I will grant your wish, Darwich’s too, if—”
At my hesitation, he eagerly asked, “If?”
“You have to work on the Assembly. That’s the fourth time in the last two weeks that they’ve tried to attack me. It’s getting boring.”
He winced. “That’s not as easy—”
“Who said anything in this life had to be easy?” Matt inserted drolly. “I think that’s a fair exchange, and we’re all about the exchange now, aren’t we?”
Appreciating his wit, I grinned at him, and an hour later, when Noa had left and we were alone, I appreciated him some more as I widened my legs and let him feast on my pussy like he was a starving man in need of sustenance.
When Dan approached me, cock in hand, and I felt the tug of Seph’s lips on my nipple, I had to reason that it wasn’t a bad life.
Sure, nothing was how I’d ever imagined it.
I was in charge of a school I didn’t know how to run. Was an intermediary between two bodies of government I’d never respected, and had more power in my little finger than my Fae mates had, and yet…
I had my Virgo.
Gaia and Sol had taken much from me, but by bestowing these three mates on me?
They’d given me the Earth.
Literally.
Two Decades Later
As I stared at the Thanksgiving table, I had to hide a grimace. I was supposed to be cheerful and thankful today, but into my forties now and with more sass than ever, I never really appreciated having to force those feelings.
Call me the Thanksgiving Grinch, but I was okay with that.
Hovering around my family, with all their heathen brats screaming and playing, I was grateful there'd only been one 'accident' over the years. With zero maternal instinct in my body, I'd had my tubes tied after, and had thanked Gaia all the way to the doctor's office that Olivia was a girl and that my duty to the line was completed with her birth.
It figured that Olivia would be the complete antithesis of her bratty cousins, though. Maybe that was also kismet. Gaia knew I couldn't put up with any of the shit my brothers or my brothers-in-law did with their horrible children.
“Stop scowling.” Dan grinned at me, so fucking cheerful that I wanted to scowl all the more. Only when he dipped down and pressed a kiss to my lips did I stop glowering, and then I sighed into the kiss and purred a little when he slipped his tongue into my mouth.
Sure, I was in front of family, but did I give a fuck?
Nope.
When he pulled back and nipped at my bottom lip, I mumbled, “Later.”
“For definite.” His eyes twinkled as he stared at me, and Sol, if I didn’t just fall that little bit more in love with him.
He, Matt, and Seph were the exact reasons why I didn’t need Thanksgiving. Every Sol-given day I was grateful for them. Thankful for their presence in my life.
They grounded me.
Kept me sane.
Without them? I wasn’t even sure what I’d ha
ve done. Not just with the Assembly and Conclave crap, but with Olivia too. Without them? I’d have been dust.
I reached up and cupped his chin, letting my fingers drift over the stubble gathered there. “You growing a beard again?” I complained half-heartedly.
“Maybe.” He squinted at me. “You got a problem with that?”
I sniffed. “Well, if you want me to go numb when you go down on me, then yeah, we’ve got a problem.”
One thing that hadn’t been foreseen?
That little ‘Rut’ thing?
The one that had been triggered then put on hold thanks to my turning into the fucking Redeemer?
Yup, it hadn’t gone away.
Ever.
In most relationships, after twenty years, I knew things got stale. Women sometimes stopped wanting sex, men started getting wandering eyes. Not with us. If they didn’t fuck me every day? Twice a day? I stopped looking like the Redeemer and started looking like a She-Devil.
“Get that look off your face,” he growled playfully. “You only just came, baby girl.”
I wrinkled my nose. “That was a quickie.”
His eyes rounded. “Bullshit. There is no ‘quick’ way to have a foursome. Stop being greedy.”
“What’s this I hear about being greedy?”
I sighed with delight as Matt’s dulcet tones slipped into my ear and a deliciously hard cock nudged against my butt.
The Rut wasn’t exactly how any of us thought it would be. Instead of just being like animals twenty-four-seven, their sex drives were tied to mine. So if I was horny? Their cocks got hard.
Pure magic.
The best magic ever, in fact.
Gaia must have known I’d be a real bitch when my sex drive reached the point of no return, so she’d put a safeguard in. That safeguard involved lots of yummy erections.
Seriously, their dicks were better than peanut butter cups.
“She’s horny. Again.”
“That’s because it’s easier to be horny than it is to be nice to people,” Matt said wryly, making me pull a face.
“Stop knowing me so well.”
I felt his smile as he pressed a kiss to my cheek. “Well, that’s a little hard to do. I mean, you’re mine so I was born to read you. I can’t forget what I read.”
Stupid photographic memory.
Heaving another sigh, I whispered, “I really am horny, though.”
“Stop pouting. We’ll take the ache away later. For now, you have to eat turkey, stop being a grouch, and be nice to people you won’t see again for another year.”
“But that’s a lot to ask!” I whined, hiding a smile when Matt tweaked me on the ass before copping another feel.
“Which part?” Dan retorted with a laugh.
“The ‘being nice’ part. I love Seph, guys, but sheesh, his family are dicks.” And mine weren’t that much better.
Their mutual grimaces said it all, though, when I cast them both looks. There was no denying that truth, and what sucked the worst was the fact we had to come to Landgow to partake in the meal because it was the only place big enough to fit all of us. What with Darwich, Linford, Noa, and Gabriella, as well as my mom and dad, my brothers, their wives, and then their heathen spawn, throw in Dan’s parents, Matt’s mom as his dad had died about eighteen years ago from the pox, and his siblings, then Seph’s horrendous brothers? Sol help me, it was a trying time.
Genuinely, genuinely, the only person I liked around the table were my Virgo, my kid, Ril, Matt’s grandfather who I might have helped by extending his time on the mortal coil because he was too cool to die, and then my dad.
That. Was. It.
Everyone else?
Yeah, I wasn’t grateful to be eating dinner with them.
Nope.
Call me bitter, call me too hard, and say that I held a grudge… whatever.
The past twenty years of ass-licking and butt-kicking politics had forged me, made me into the woman standing here today because those two decades had been the opposite of easy.
We’d fought for the peace that was around this table. In fact, my Thanksgiving table was like a bubble, a glance into society as a whole. Thirty years ago, the witches would have told the Fae to go fuck themselves before they could even have taken a seat, and the Fae would have asked the witches and the humans where the next course was because they’d have been the servers.
Instead of warring over politics, it was one big mash up of races, where the arguments were about who had hogged all the cranberry jelly and the usual BS that families tended to fight over.
We’d done that.
This table, the miserable day ahead of me, wasn’t racial. It was about family, character. Personality. I didn’t dislike my in-laws because they were Fae, I just hated them because they were assholes. Simple.
“Why do I have a hard on?”
The words came out of nowhere, but they made me snicker because Seph sounded perplexed as all Sol.
“My dick is literally still wet from the last time you were riding it, Riel. Gaia help us, do the doctors even prescribe Viagra for the Fae?”
I pouted. “Most people wouldn’t complain about their wives wanting them.”
“None of us are ‘most people,’ Riel,” he said dryly. “And you more than want us. I swear, you’re starting to strain my dick and I didn’t even know it was possible to get whiplash in your cock.”
Though the other two snickered, I frowned at him, then turned to glower at them all. “That isn’t funny.”
“It is,” Dan said around a laugh.
“Yeah, it is, babe, because he’s right,” Matt retorted with a snicker.
My lips pursed, but my cheeks grew hot at their amusement. Uneasily, and with my gaze still on the cacophony ahead of me, I fidgeted.
Was I hornier than usual?
I mean, I didn’t think I was. I just wanted them.
Okay, so I wanted them all the time. But not like that aforementioned beast who needed sex twenty-four-seven… Although… Just the thought made my nipples bud and my belly burn.
A groan escaped Dan. “Stop thinking about sex.” His cock dug into my side, thick and hot and hard and so perfectly ready to ride.
As slick gathered between my thighs, my brain came to a mental halt.
Shit.
Was there something wrong with me?
“I’ll try,” I mumbled, suddenly feeling guilty. I’d never thought too much sex would be a problem.
Turns out I was wrong.
I sensed my guys realized they’d hurt my feelings, but before they could say a word, either in apology or justification, Ril called out, “Riel, girl. Help me to the table.”
Matt grabbed my arm as he snorted. “Old bastard doesn’t need your help.”
I pulled away from his grasp, though. “Can I help that I’m his favorite?” I retorted, relieved to have an excuse to get out of here and away from this conversation. That wasn’t something I was used to, either. Most of the time, I couldn’t get close enough to my Virgo!
I slipped away, aware that they were watching me, and if I punished them by swinging my hips that little bit harder, then so what? They deserved it.
What kind of man said their wife wanted them too much?
More than a little pissed now, I stalked over to Ril but my mother grabbed my arm along the way. She had a glass of white wine in her hand, and the sight of that made me want to groan. Shove a little Chardonnay into her and she made sour Altoids look sweet. “You act like a slut when you’re around them.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “They’re my Virgo. How would you like me to behave? Like a frigid bitch with a block of ice up my ass?”
Luisa’s mouth pursed. “There’s no need for such crudity.”
“There’s every need.”
I remembered last Thanksgiving when she’d chided me for getting my tubes tied, and I sought calm and quiet. The last thing we needed was a repeat of that when she’d stormed out, my father chasing after her,
because I’d told her opinions were like assholes, and hers was bigger than most.
Determined not to ruin this Thanksgiving, I sighed, “Ril wants me.”
“He covets you.” My grandmother tinkled a laugh as she shimmied up beside me. “Luisa, are you making mischief again?”
Relieved that she’d saved me from my mother, I cut her a grateful look. My abuela and I didn’t always see eye to eye, and I did hold a grudge against her, enough to always call her Gabriella to her face, but we were a united force against Mama.
“Yes,” I grumbled, at the same time as my mother blurted out, “No! Of course not.”
“Apparently I’m too lax around my men,” I informed her grandly.
She immediately scowled. “They’re her Virgo,” Gabriella repeated, pretty much as I had. “She’s supposed to—”
“Oh, I knew I’d get no sense of decorum from you! You’re just as bad with those three old perverts.”
“My three perverts look younger than your husband!” was her instant retort, which drew every ounce of my mother’s attention from me and onto my grandmother—just as she’d intended.
Taking full advantage of that, I slipped away, shooting my abuela a grateful if apologetic look, one that was received with an amused smile she sent my way.
That, right there, was my Christmas and birthday present all in one.
I swore, no matter how much my mother and I tried, we were destined to never get on well.
Sliding between two of Seph’s brothers who were arguing about the cost of doing business with the witches, a group of kids who smelled like sick—I really didn’t want to know why—and Dan’s parents who were the only ones I actually liked—enough to swerve in and give them a quick hug—I eventually made it to Ril. Who, when he looked at me, cocked a brow.
“I know being with these asses isn’t great for the digestion, but what’s put you in a snit? I could see it from all the way across the room.”
I huffed. “Your grandson.”
He waved a hand. “Husbands do that.”
“True.” I bent down and helped him up. My control had grown over the years, so I could ease pain and extend life without making someone twenty again. I’d done that with Ril half a decade ago when I’d sensed his time on this realm was drawing to a close.
The Ascended: The Eight Wings Collection Page 64