by D. R. Rosier
He treated her like she was a woman, and a person. Not just some bitch in heat with three holes to use and discard. She liked how that felt. She felt… valued.
She loved her sister and the rest of their cat pack very much, but she didn’t want to go back to being a booty call to men that just needed a warm hole to get laid and let off some steam. They’d never looked at her like the way he does, it was why she still didn’t have a mate, even though she was over fifty years old.
She hadn’t even known what she was waiting for, until she’d met him.
But it was impossible, he could never be a true mate, without shifter magic of his own there could be no true mating, no true magical connection between them. Though, she wondered if that was really that important. She was sure he would keep her sated, and there weren’t shifter assholes coming into this house looking for some, so she was pretty sure she could even be just his. Why would she ever settle for less? As for all his other women, well she wouldn’t mind that, perhaps they could even help her out if he was too busy to take care of her sometimes.
She looked up at Malina, and the succubus nodded slightly, as if in approval of her thoughts.
She walked over to the cute pixie-like blonde who looked a little frazzled.
“Hi Karen.”
Karen looked up and sighed, “Susan right? I know we met a couple of days ago, but I had to run so fast that morning.”
She sat down next to her, “He’ll be fine.”
Either that she thought, or they’ll all die, so it won’t matter.
Karen smiled, “He’s smart, if he thinks this will work, it probably will. I’m glad you’re here, I can’t protect him the way I’d like to.”
Susan shook her head and winked, “You know I’ll have to report that.”
Karen laughed, “That’s okay, I figured the cat was out of the bag so to speak when you saw me yesterday. Pun intended. Yes, we made a pact for the peace treaty, and me getting Clarissa out of the way. But he’s also my husband, and I love him.”
She tilted her head, “You don’t mind sharing?”
Karen shook her head, “No. Lilliana and Malina are great, and he needs them. He’s a warlock, and warlocks are like that. I can’t bitch at him for being what he is. If I had to be mad at someone, it would be at myself for falling in love with him in the first place. I went in with my eyes open, at first it was ambition that pushed me, but then I lost my heart as well.”
She smiled softly, “I think I understand, do you think you’d mind sharing with one more?”
Karen snickered, “As if you two haven’t already?”
She blushed, “Sure, but I meant on a more permanent basis, I don’t think I want to leave when the warlock thing is done with. I figured I’d better ask the women he already lives with first. Although I’m pretty sure Malina already approved, do you think she reads minds?”
Karen giggled a little naughtily, “I know she does. She isn’t afraid to use it in bed either.”
Karen shook her head, “As to the other, I don’t have a problem with it as long as you don’t try to get between him and me. Or anyone else. Have you talked to him yet?”
She shook her head, “I thought I’d ask around first, no one seems to mind.”
She was a little amazed at that actually. She was pretty sure she could deal with sharing him too, maybe it was a good thing they couldn’t be true mates by shifter standards. If their magic could entwine, she wouldn’t have tolerated the others at all. Shifters are notoriously jealous of their mates.
It was better to be respected as a warrior and a woman than it would be to settle for a male shifter that saw her as nothing but a hot lay after a hard day’s work. That’s the real reason she’d never chosen a mate, she hadn’t been able to catch any of the few cat shifter males, and she always thought choosing a male from the other shifter species would be settling for less.
The human equivalent of a trophy wife. The only true advantage to it was she’d only be taken advantage of and used by one man, instead of any that walked through the door.
Now she just had to talk to Shawn about it, and then her alpha. She was more worried about the latter to be truthful. It was tradition and law that mated couples couldn’t be separated or messed with by the alphas. Of course, this wouldn’t be a true mating, and she wasn’t sure how Darren or Katie would handle it. Maybe if she spun it as being a permanently emplaced spy she’d have better luck.
Her and Karen turned their heads sharply toward the ritual room, as Korrina started to scream and carry on. The Nephilim sounded really pissed off, which had to be a good sign.
Chapter 18
I walked into my office with Lilliana, and then took a seat behind the desk and put my feet up.
Malina cleared her throat, “So… shouldn’t we be killing her about now? You have her helpless right?”
I frowned, “No Lina, you’re still thinking with your fear. I’m going to let her stew for a while, and then have a conversation with her.”
Malina didn’t look at all happy that I’d said that, but looked frustrated as well.
I smiled, “I don’t have a full plan yet, I’m not hiding anything from you, I need to find out what she really wants first. It’s what us warlocks do right? If it comes to it, and I can’t make a pact with her, I’ll stick her with Krystal. I’m not convinced she should die though. That whole abomination thing is a cop out, and is part of what caused the problem in the first place.”
Karen came over and sat on my lap, and kissed me lingeringly and deeply, and then nibbled my lip teasingly before she said, “I’ll be back tonight, I need to get back to work before they figure out they don’t need me there.”
I pulled her in for another kiss, and then watched her leave. Not just so I could stare at her cute ass either, but because I already missed her. I had it bad for my wife.
I looked over to the door and could still hear Korrina screaming her head off.
“Why don’t we go upstairs? I still have that promise to keep. And I have a feeling it’ll take a long time for her to calm down.”
I picked up Susan, and carried her upstairs. She’d already started on me by kissing my neck, and playing with my hair and neck all the way there. This would be a fun challenge, even if I lost…
Several hours later we were a sweaty spent naked tangle of flesh and entwined legs. I was almost sure they could walk, but they were sated, and so was I, for the moment anyway.
Susan was cuddled up against me and I could literally feel the satisfaction radiating off of her. She was tracing her fingers along my chest, and I had my arm around her and played with her hair and back. It was very comfortable. On my other side, Malina and Lilliana were curled up together, at the end there Susan had ridden me while those two were doing a sixty-nine.
She asked me softly, “I don’t suppose you’d want me to stay here, after the warlock is taken care of, if he isn’t already.”
I smiled, “Did you forget already?”
She lifted her head up and looked me in the eyes, “Forget what?”
I laughed, “I can’t kick you out, or even ask you to leave. You live here per our pact until you take your leave. Remember?”
She frowned at me and I decided to stop teasing her, I knew she wouldn’t stay if she wasn’t welcome.
I pulled her in for a kiss and then told her, “No, I wouldn’t mind at all if you stayed. In fact, you seem to fit right in, and I value you for much more than your mind blowing talents in bed. I’d like it very much if you stayed as both my guard and lover, and who knows what the future will bring.”
I’d only known her two days, so that was about all I could offer. I liked her a lot, she was sweet and kind, quick to laugh and was playful, but could also be very serious and protective when the time called for it.
She was also wild in bed, sexy, and had a killer body. I’d be lying if I said that didn’t make a difference. It wasn’t the only thing, or even the definitive thing, but it did have an imp
act. At the very least, the sex made me like her that much more. Maybe in the future I’d care about her more than that, it certainly hadn’t taken me long to fall in love with Karen, Lilliana, and Malina.
I was kind of a sucker for beautiful women who kicked ass and cared about me. Maybe it was because I’d been basically a loner growing up, and this would all blow up in my face one day, but I was kind of hoping not.
She sniffed my neck again, I wasn’t really sure what that was about, and then she licked and kissed it. Cat instincts maybe?
She practically purred, “I’ll talk to my alpha, I don’t think she’ll order me home, but she might.”
Something felt wrong, it was nagging at me, and it wasn’t the psychotic Nephilim in my basement. I’d felt it about an hour ago, but was way too distracted at the time. Now it was like an itch I couldn’t scratch.
“Malina? What is that?”
Malina looked over at me like she was looking through me, and then said, “Pact. One of them is going wrong which means you need to deal with it before it defaults. Do you remember the third spell?”
I frowned in thought. There were two divination spells I used for the two different pacts, to identify a person and their situation that would be receptive to my kind of deal. There was a third spell as well, divination, that would identify a pact going wrong.
“I think I remember it, I never casted it before though, and didn’t bother to memorize it either. I remember thinking I had to go back and learn it, we’d been rather busy at the time dodging mages.”
I groaned as I got up, put some clothes on, and headed back downstairs. The ritual room was quiet, but at the moment I wasn’t ready to deal with her. I looked up the spell, it was about a minute long, and studied it. A lot of spells were very close to the same, and there were only a few differences in the divination spells so it didn’t take me that long.
Then I casted it.
Shit. Cynthia’s stupid producer went and got himself killed. He was supposed to be there another ten years, but free will introduced random elements in life, and sometimes fate was derailed by stupidity. Her new boss, a woman named Christine Edenton, was all set to fire her in about an hour.
The Nephilim would have to wait.
I went back upstairs to let them know we had to go out for a bit, and then grabbed a coffee. None of them looked even slightly unsteady on their feet. Of course, one was a demon who could heal herself and recharge her libido, the other two were a vampire and shifter, their bodies bounced back fast. It was a foolish challenge, but it had still been fun to try…
It wasn’t even that late in the day, maybe three in the afternoon, when we pulled up to the studio. Malina had stayed behind to keep an eye on our guest, after she promised not to kill her until I’d gotten a chance to speak with her.
I trusted Malina with my life, and her experience was vast, but I knew in this case she was wrong. Only because she wasn’t using that experience in this case, she was simply afraid. It would be worth it if I could work out some kind of deal with the being.
“Stay here, this shouldn’t take long.”
I got out and walked into the building. I used my inherent command ability on the guard. It wouldn’t work for anything too complicated, but it was fine for finding out where Christine’s office was, and for ignoring the fact I didn’t work there. I jumped on the elevator and rode it to the sixth floor. A few people looked over at me askance, but I was in an expensive looking suit, and also looked confident.
No one was brave enough to challenge me as I walked across the floor.
Christine’s office door was closed, but now that I was so close I could also feel Cynthia in there as well. Maybe because I had a piece of her soul? I turned the knob and walked in.
Christine’s face changed from smug and bitchy, to shocked and bitchy. I nailed her with sleep spell before she could object to my entrance.
Cynthia’s face had gone from intimidated, to relieved.
“Thank god you’re here, I thought…” she trailed off.
“Hell, or hell fires. Or did you forget who I was.”
She looked confused.
I said slowly, “Thank hellfire you’re here, not the other one,” and then I winked at her playfully.
Her eyes widened, and then she nodded.
I wasn’t sure why I was being such an ass. I remembered when we made the deal she’d kept her word and given me a hell of a blowjob. She also had a weird fetish, she liked to be degraded and used. That had been strange to me, I was used to pleasing the women in my bed. That what pleased her was me being a total dick, which had gotten her off, had stuck in my head for a while.
I supposed it had disturbed me, because she’d made me lose control and treat her like that. I’d never known something like that lurked within me before that moment. More than that, I wanted to do it again to her right now. I knew if I degraded her and ordered her to her knees, she’d do it. That’s why I was being an ass, because it really bothered me. I wasn’t like that with anyone else, and the thought of doing anything like that with the four ladies in my life right now hadn’t even occurred to me.
But somehow, through her own actions, this woman was lessened in my eyes. A part of me felt it would be reasonable for me to do it again, just because she would like it. It was twisted. Maybe the failing was just mine. Dirty and nasty talk turned me on a lot, it was the degrading crap I couldn’t deal with. I was even good with submission and domination games, but not to that point.
Maybe that’s also why the cat shifter thing had annoyed me so much. They were strong powerful women with a libido that needed extra attention. They didn’t want to be degraded for that, and shouldn’t be, but the male shifter population did exactly that. If not by word than at least by their actions. Maybe I should send a couple of those guys to Cynthia, that would be a match both sides would be happy with.
I shook off the dark thoughts. It wasn’t Cynthia’s problem, it was mine. I shouldn’t think of her as less for her particular brand of fetish. It was my mental issue, but I just couldn’t adjust my thoughts to wrap my head around it.
I casted the same memory spell I used on the other producer, and made it so Christine believed Cynthia was the only possible one to do the job, everyone else paled in comparison to the sexy young woman who brought in all those ratings. I also removed any memory of her planning to sack Cynthia, and put in something about her calling her in to confirm her anchor position was secure with her as the new producer.
Cynthia bit her lip and asked, “So, does this count toward one of my five interventions?”
I shook my head and felt a bit guilty, I needed to get over it, I was the one with the problem here, and the one doing the judging.
I said gently, “No, that’s only after the initial ten years which is covered by the original pact. The first ten years it’s all on me. When she wakes up, she’ll congratulate you on what a fine job you’ve been doing, and assure you that she has no one else in mind for the job.”
Cynthia smiled, and she looked almost sweet, “Thanks.”
I suppressed a sigh, “Good luck, hopefully Christine’s future is a bit more solid.”
I stepped out of the office, and released the sleep spell as soon as the door was closed. No one challenged me as I left, and I got back into the car.
Susan commented, “That was quick.”
I nodded in agreement, “Just had to tweak the new producer. No big deal.”
Lilliana grinned impishly and said rather suggestively, “I’m surprised you didn’t stay longer too.”
I shook my head. I wasn’t that bad… was I?
Chapter 19
When we got back to the house, I grabbed a couple of bottles of water and headed downstairs. Korrina was still silent, so I went into the room and walked up to the circle, and tossed her the water.
Korrina still looked furious, but she was also in control now.
“How did you do this?”
I shrugged and opened my
water, and sat down on the floor and waited.
She grudgingly sat, and opened her own drink.
I pointed at the inner ring, “The first and second circle surround the symbols to both summon and contain a greater demon, or I suppose an angel as well, if I knew any of their names. That is what’s stopping you from pulling power from other realms. Between the second and third rings, are the symbols used to cut off a mages power. It separates them from the magic of this plane.
“I had a theory, that your golden energy is actually a mixture of the two, which seems to have been verified. Lastly, although Malina can’t use her full power on this plane to fight you, she can through me, her mortal agent. Which means my summoning spell trumped your power big time.”
She frowned, “Why haven’t you killed me yet?”
I smiled, “You know, when I summoned Malina in that circle over there, and we renewed the pact between her and my family line when she bent over the altar over there, I had a question. She’d told me all about infernal power, spells, pacts, and do you know what I asked?”
She narrowed her eyes at me but didn’t speak.
“I said, ‘Malina, what’s the point, what do I do with all that power’”
“She laughed at me, and said I could do whatever I wanted to. I could build riches and have a harem of women, or I could open an orphanage and serve people all day long. But most likely it will be somewhere in between.”
I took a drink of water.
She scowled, “What’s your point?”
I smiled gently, “My point Korrina, is that you need to get over yourself.”