by JL Madore
Stupid Were senses.
“Zophia,” Reign said, snapping my attention back to the meeting, “have you any idea where your father might hole up to avoid discovery?”
“No. I don’t know much about the man’s habits beyond womanizing. Since you’re asking, I take it you don’t have any news of where Abbey and my mother might be?”
“Not yet, but we’ll find them.”
I had no doubt they would. My big concern was when. A surge of need tore through me, and I fought not to moan. Something more than an aftereffect to Kobi’s incubus nature was consuming me. My hands trembled, and I fought to hold the control I prided myself on.
“Zophia,” Reign continued. “What are you thinking?”
I swallowed and tried to meet the man eye to eye. The fact that I looked at Reign and saw nothing but his chiseled jaw, honed warrior body, and long, brindle hair spoke more of the trouble I was in than anything.
“This is about my mother.” I snapped at myself with more force than I meant to. All eyes of the room were on me, and my mind was a heated mess. “If Rheagan already claimed Abbey’s body, what does my mother offer them?”
“Power,” Reign said without hesitation.
Aust nodded. “Shalana remains one of the most powerful goddesses of the Fae Pantheon. Even Castian acknowledges that, in some ways, her power matches his own.”
I pulled to draw breath past the weight pressing on my lungs. “And once Abaddon drains my mother’s powers, and she’s of no use to him? What will happen to her?”
Reign shook his head, his hair rustling against the broad banding of his shoulders and arms. I wondered how soft it would be if I crawled across the table and—
“Don’t underestimate her,” he said. “From what I’ve heard, Shalana hates Dane with every fiber in her magical being. I bet she’ll put up one hell of a resistance to him and his playmates.”
Fury ignited hot in my veins at the thought that my father would even put her into that situation. Reign was right, though. My mother was more than kindness and creation; her gift was also natural disasters, tempests and storms. She had more power than anyone understood.
I glanced at Aust, sitting to my right. In a room of hard lines and men with edges, his Highborne features were graceful and charming. And he smelled so good. He was nature and life, suave and suede. I swallowed. “Aust, can you use your gift to connect with my mother and tell us where she is?”
Aust’s expression fell, and he took my hand. With a gentle squeeze, he clutched it to his heart, and the warmth in his ice-blue gaze nearly did me in. “Apologies, it does not work like that. I would do anything—please know that.”
I squeezed back, and the warmth of the contact shot through my cells. “Don’t blame yourself. I know if you could do anything to save her, you would. What about Savage? He was there. Maybe he saw something I didn’t.”
Reign sighed. “He hasn’t checked in yet.”
“What does that mean?”
“Either he’s on to something or in trouble. Too early to tell.”
Kobi leaned back in his chair and rested his arm on the back of my neck. He squeezed my shoulder, the contact easing some of the desperation building between my thighs. “What about a Hell Hound?” he said.
Reign stretched his neck side to side and sighed. “How does that fucking suggestion keep rising to the surface? I thought I made myself clear when you wanted to get one to protect Lia.”
Kobi shrugged. “They crave malevolent spirits like the munchies after smoking Haze. They track with a single-minded obsession. And, they never stop until they find their quarry.”
“That sounds perfect,” I said. “Let’s do that.”
Reign scowled. “Traveling to the innards of Hell to steal a Hell Hound pup from the teat of its maniacal bitch mother? That sounds perfect? If we survived getting it, what makes you think we can control the beast once it’s in this realm?”
“The Highborne can,” Kobi said, tilting his head toward Aust. “Our boy here has Beastmaster mojo. Shalana said so. I bet he could have the thing eating out of his hand.”
“Or biting it off,” Reign snapped. “No. It’s off the table.”
“Shouldn’t we consider every option?” I asked.
Julian shook his head from across the table. “Reign’s right. There’s no way we’re sanctioning Castian’s niece cozying up to a Hell Hound. That’s a pink slip of death for all of us. We’ll think of something else.”
“While we toss around options,” Bruin said, his voice tight, and his eyes gold with the strength of his bear ascending, “Zophia might like to freshen up after her ordeal. Kobi, why don’t you escort her downstairs to the gym? Show her the showers and where to find a change of clothes. I’ll catch you up on anything you miss.”
Kobi looked to Reign, and when his commander nodded, he stood and helped me to my feet.
Bless you, Bruin.
In the next moment, Kobi had me by the wrist, and we were racing down two flights of carpeted stairs.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“What’s happening to me?” Sexual hunger clawed, heated and raw, my underwear damp, my nipples peaked against my silk blouse. I trembled with urgent need. An intense wave of lust had me only dimly aware of my actions.
“It’s not just you,” Kobi said. “I’m sporting a fucking marble column for a cock. I nearly laid you out on the war table with everyone watching.”
He opened a door on the left and closed us in.
No lights. No preamble. He pressed me against the back of the door and seized my mouth. His tongue speared me with the attack of the warrior he was, while his velvet lips coaxed me to insanity. “I gotta get at you.”
Without visual cues, there was only sensation. His fingers made quick work of undoing things, and my pants fell to the floor in an obliging plop. The stitching on my blouse snapped as I yanked it open. I kicked my legs free and opened the front of his leathers. “Good enough. I’m dying.”
Kobi snapped the crotch of my panties and gripped my bare buttocks. The door slammed hard against my back as I wrapped my legs around his hips. His hair felt like silk as I clenched rough fingers into it and pulled him closer.
He growled. “Gods, I don’t want to hurt you, Zo . . . but I’m losing my grip here.”
Cool air from the room hit my heated flesh an instant before Kobi’s heat smothered it. He clenched his teeth. A snarl of the beast inside him tore from his throat. His hips thrust forward, and I arced at the penetration.
“Yes. Oh, yes. More.” My cry was as much a shock as our loss of control. With other lovers, I’d never been vocal. He crushed me to the door, thrusting deep inside me. The stretch to accommodate him struck an indescribable pleasured pain.
He bit my lip and then sucked on the sting. “Hold on, baby.”
I gripped the two large hooks on the back of the door and groaned as hot, slick moisture greeted his assaulting rhythm. I met each pounding thrust of his hips, our bodies glistening with perspiration as we grasped and clutched and rode each other’s pleasure.
He lifted his head, and his incisors grew. His scarlet gaze leaped and danced with the flames of hell. “I can’t control myself with you. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” I locked my heels tighter around his leathers. My release burned inside me, building, throbbing, consuming. “It’s so good.”
His groan of satisfaction ramped things up even higher. I throbbed around him, and he pumped harder. Wilder. “I want to bite you again. I fucking get off on drinking you in. I want to consume you.”
“Do it. Anything. Everything.”
The bite was instant and triggered my orgasm. I threw my head back and let Kobi take what he needed. He worked me hard against the door, my body’s greed gripping him with each pulse of my release. It didn’t take him long to join me. His breath escaped in throaty bursts as he stiffened and stilled.
Rearing back, my demon lover was the most fearsome thing I’d ever seen. Eyes ablaze, his fac
e contorted with the ecstasy of losing control, his truest nature revealed itself.
He was terrifying and yet beautiful. How was it possible to want a man so desperately?
Kobi reined himself in and let me ride out my release. When my body relaxed, he laved the puncture points with his tongue and kissed each of the four small wounds.
“You’re too fucking trusting, Zo.” His expression confused me. He almost looked disappointed that I didn’t fight him off and run screaming. I pressed my breasts against his chest as he stepped back from the wall. I thought of Hoola as I clung to him and we crossed the room.
The place was practically pitch dark. Only the glow given off by Kobi’s demon gaze, and the safety strip lights over the door, punctuated the darkness. By the echo of sound, I guessed the room had to be an easy fifty-foot space. When he stopped, he withdrew from inside me. The absence of him struck me more acutely than should have been possible. What was this between us?
Kobi shifted me in his arms and set me on my knees. Bending me forward, I laid over a stack of what felt like . . . oh, workout mats. “I’ve wanted you bent over for me since my bathroom that first morning.”
“You’re a seriously disturbed man.”
He kicked off his boots and rid himself of his leathers and t-shirt. When he knelt behind me, there was nothing between us but the silk blouse draped over my back.
He ran his fingers between my legs and up my thighs. “Gods, you’re so deliciously wet, Lacy. I’m flattered. Truly.”
He spread my knees wider and made room for himself. It occurred to me that maybe I should be embarrassed or feel awkward. I didn’t. Kobi made me feel powerful and feminine.
“Now, keep your hands locked there and let me study you. We’ve never taken our time, and I want to know everything: where you like to be touched, if you’re ticklish, what your limits are.”
“I don’t have limits, but maybe we should get back.”
“Nah. Bruin will text me if they come up with anything. Besides, our arousal was bringing his and Cowboy’s animals dangerously close to the surface.”
I remembered how golden Bruin’s eyes had been when he suggested we take our leave. “We did that?”
Strong but gentle, his fingers explored as his kisses covered my back, my shoulders, my neck. “Sex is a powerful call for Weres, especially since tonight is the full moon. I bet Cowboy is rock hard and contemplating joining us down here.”
“The three of us?”
“Mhmm. Does that shock you?”
“Not as much as it intrigues me.”
His throaty laugh had me pulsing again. “As much as I love the guy, I would never invite an unmated Were into our mix.”
“What makes you say that?”
“’Cause Were bonding is for life, and we both know where you rank on your sisters’ fuck-you list at the moment. Imagine their delight in mating you to Cowboy in the midst of all this chaos.”
“You’re right. Still, it would be fun.”
“Seriously? You’re up for a Devil’s Threeway?”
I laughed at the curiosity lighting him up. “I’m an immortal, Kobi. Sexual expression and polyamorous relationships are the norms Behind the Veil. Does that shock you?”
“Nothing shocks me.” He licked a warm path up my neck and kissed my ear. “But now my depraved and dirty mind is filling with all kinds of new possibilities.”
My nipples rose to greet his touch, my skin super-sensitive. Even the slightest sensations had me trembling. His breath on my back, the hair on his legs brushing mine, the warmth of his flesh. I twisted around to stroke him. “Come back inside me.”
The smack to my bare backside brought another rush of moisture to my core. “Don’t rush the Incubus, Lacy. I’m making sure you’re slick enough for another round. I don’t want you sore.”
I waggled my butt against his thighs and chuckled as he cursed. “You overestimate yourself, Incubus. If you can give it, I can take it.”
I expected him to come back with some kind of ‘Challenge accepted,’ but he grew silent and still. I risked another spanking and turned. My eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could read the look on his face. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Just waiting.”
“Waiting for what?”
He shrugged and sat back on his heels. “You haven’t clued into the fact that I’m a demon. You’re a fucking goddess, a member of the royal family, daughter of one of the Original Three, and I’m the spawn of all things vile. What are you doing, Zo? Is slumming it with me some kind of cosmic fuck-you for your father? What is it?”
I sat on the stack of mats with him kneeling between my legs. “What you or I were born isn’t who we are now. Isn’t it what life makes us that counts?”
“No. You have no idea—”
“—about your demon-self?” I stared down at him. “You have a winged, scaled beast writhing inside you. You like killing more than you should. The piercings, makeup, and sex are tools you use to keep people at a distance. You feed off pain, but it never quenches the ache inside you.”
The horror and sadness in his gaze pierced me. “You say the words but don’t know. Not really.”
“You feel like you don’t belong, alone in the company of many. Apart. Abnormal. You sense people judging you and wait until you make a mistake that will prove them right. Even your friends look at you like they don’t quite understand you. Like you are other.”
He cursed. “If you get that, then why? You should run in the opposite direction.”
I shivered. The last warmth of our heated bodies chilled, and my exposed flesh rose in goose bumps. “You’re a throwaway judged by worldview. So am I. I don’t believe in love or forever. I believe in right now. It is what it is between us, no more, no less, and it’s working—for me anyway.”
Kobi rose to his knees, his arms wrapping around me as he lowered us to the padded floor. Warmth bloomed once again, every long, chiseled inch of his body pressing against mine. My knees fell open, and he rolled into the cradle of my hips. “It’s working for me too. But seriously, you should run.”
Deciding we’d never get upstairs if we cleaned up together, I headed into the ladies’ locker room, showered, and found a pair of yoga pants and a top to match in the clothes cupboard. I tried to recall how many women there were in Talon that they’d need such a large space: Jade, Lexi, the Asian wizard that Bruin used to sleep with . . . and that was all I could think of.
The Talon needed more women in the field. I’d speak to Castian about that when things settled down. I only hoped that things did settle down.
Knowing that he was out there, somewhere, scouring the planet for his wife and my mother, gave me hope. He would raze the world to find Abbey. He loved her that much.
Part of me envied that kind of devotion to another. The other part of me couldn’t grasp how it was even possible.
Finished with my routine, I headed across the hall to the men’s locker room.
“Hello?” I eased the door open. There was no one in the changing area and only the sound of the shower in the distance. My voyeur instincts kicked in and before I thought twice, I strode further inside and hopped onto the men’s counter to watch Kobi shower.
He seemed to sense the moment I entered because he smiled and glanced over. Without a word, he ran his soapy hands over his chest and down his ribs. Mercy, he was a drool-worthy man.
He spread the lather over his chest and arms and then washed his pelvis and groin. When he turned to rinse, I noticed the tattoo of the Talon hawk inked on his shoulder blade. The ink was altered with magic because it glowed gold the same way their brands did when they made them visible to identify themselves.
“Do you know the significance of the Talon hawk?”
Kobi shut off the water and ran his hands over his head to shuck water from his hair. “They’re hunters, killers, and really fucking cool birds?”
I chuckled and tossed him the towel he’d set out on the counter. “Castian
’s wife, Abbey, is a Carpathian Gypsy. She can leave her corporeal body and assume the form of a red-tailed hawk. That’s how she first drew Castian’s eye, soaring through the skies above him.”
Kobi dried off and opened the men’s cupboard to grab a clean pair of leathers and a black t-shirt. He went commando, and how sexy was that? He stepped into the pants and came over to me, t-shirt in hand. “With every woman in all the realms at his fingertips, she must have been one hell of a catch to snag him. I honestly don’t get it, even as I see it happen around me.”
“Me either, but before the attack, their love was something to behold.” I pulled at his shoulder, turning him for a closer look. The detailed depiction of the bird descending, talons extended, was slightly raised and carried a signature of magic I recognized. “Castian did this?”
“You can feel that he did it? That’s crazy.”
“I can also feel there’s a warding in his touch. When did he do this, and why?”
Kobi stepped away and pulled his t-shirt over his shoulders. It was a shame to cover all that delicious skin, but I was anxious to get upstairs and see what was happening.
Kobi seemed anxious too, though I wasn’t sure why.
“Hey, you two.” Cowboy pushed himself off the wall he’d been leaning on as we reached the main floor. “You get all the kinks worked out down there?”
“Yeah, sorry about that.” Kobi shrugged and brushed the back of his finger over my heated cheek. “My Incubus mojo got away on us there. Not sure what happened. You good?”
Cowboy winked down at me. “Bruin and his bear booked it back to the Dens. Not sure if Mika will thank you for that or blame you for it later.”
Kobi laughed. “And you?”
He took off his Stetson and ran a hand through his wavy blonde hair. “Nothing a little alone time in one of the private washrooms couldn’t solve.”
“Kobi thought you might join us.”
Now it was Cowboy’s turn to blush. “Well, if I’d known that was an option, I would’ve been tempted to take you up on it. Somehow, though, I think I’m better standing my ground. Not sure Castian would take kindly to the two of us tag-teaming his precious niece. Especially in his current mood. I’m still waiting to see what happens to the demon here.”