Serpentine

by J. Kearston

  Only after they return from ensuring no one is out there with a rifle do I finally let Risa sit up again. Rubbing at her stiff neck from the awkward position, she watches Bane tuck Kayla’s gun into his pocket, looking uneasy as she rolls her window down the rest of the way. “You don’t need to walk right into a trap, let’s just turn around.”

  He strides over to her window, resting an arm on the door so he can lean in and kiss her. “No loose ends, gorgeous, or they’ll come back to bite us in the ass later. I’m not about to force you to spend the rest of your life on the run, always looking over your shoulder.”

  Well aware that arguing is futile, she sighs in resignation. “Promise you won’t get cocky and make a stupid mistake?”

  Stryker climbs in the backseat from the opposite side, stretching over me to steal a kiss of his own from her. “Do we look like the sort of men that go into anything half-cocked?” He winks. “I’m an all-cocked guy; all the cocks, all in, and all of the vengeance on behalf of my sweet angel. But I do promise that there is absolutely nothing that will keep us from coming back to you. Deal?”

  “Do you even have a plan?” she demands, worrying unnecessarily, doubting our abilities far too much.

  “Of course we do,” Bane declares with a feral smirk. “If we want to be able to buy our next house without getting flagged, we need a scapegoat to explain all of this away.”

  Her eyes flit down to Kayla’s corpse as she riddles it out. “You’re going to burn it all to the ground.”

  Chapter 13

  Risa

  “Quit moving, you big baby,” Bane scolds, pushing Stryker onto his back and pinning him in place on the hotel bed. Rooting around in the wound, Bane finally manages to get the bullet fragment out of his shoulder, Stryker cursing up a storm. Rising on his knees, Bane holds the bloodied piece of metal up triumphantly before sliding to his feet.

  Stryker slaps his palm over his shoulder, sitting up with a scowl. “Much longer, it would’ve healed around it. Still can’t believe you forced me to wait, eleven godsdamned hours!”

  Bane heads to the bathroom to flush the evidence, washing his hands before returning. “Had to get all of our ducks in a row first and didn’t want to sabotage our story, you know that.” Tossing himself on the bed closest to the door, he grins. “Couldn’t pass up the insurance pay out by becoming suspects, and if anyone knew you caught a bullet, it’d make it look like we were there when Kayla went crazy after catching her boyfriend cheating on her. Such a tragic shame, really.”

  Crossing the short distance to the sliding glass door that leads to the third floor balcony, I sigh. The way everything played out is still hard to accept as my new reality; likely never staying in one place for long, solving everything with murder. “Does this happen often? You guys jumping at any chance to throw yourselves into situations that could get you killed?”

  Mason strips off his shirt, shoving Bane to the other side of their bed so he can pull back the blanket, the sleeping arrangements decided by games of rock, paper, scissors. “Mildly frequently, yeah.”

  Sliding the heavy glass door open, a warm breeze blows across my face, letting all of the air conditioning out, so I’m thrilled we don’t have to pay the utility bill for the room. Turning to Stryker, it’s a relief that he knows I’ve got an internal lie detector where they’re concerned, because otherwise he’d likely pretend he didn’t have an issue to avoid talking about it.

  “Is that enough? I figured it would be worse if I propped open the door to the hallway with so many strangers around.” Walking back to our bed, I mull it over. “Maybe you should sleep in snake mode, since you guys said things are easier like that.”

  Grabbing my wrist, he tugs me onto the bed. “Ugh, why do you have to be so perfect? I can't stand it.” He kisses me before adding, “I nearly bit you before, but I definitely want to now.” Stroking his thumb over my skin once, his next kiss is softer. “Thank you, though. I appreciate the thought more than you know.”

  Trying to keep my heart rate from giving me away, I tentatively suggest, ”Maybe you should. You said it speeds up healing, right?”

  The entire mood in the room shifts dramatically in an instant. Bane and Mason cut off their conversation mid sentence to blatantly eavesdrop. Stryker tenses up, eyes scanning over my face like he’s searching for the trap. “It does.”

  Pulling back to put my hair in a ponytail, I act like it’s not a big deal. “Then go for it. It’s my fault this whole situation developed in the first place, and really, it’s the only thing I can actually contribute now that the chores burned down with the rest of the house.”

  Stryker eyes me hungrily, only barely masked by his suspicion. “Are you sure? I’ll likely be all patched up by morning anyhow, it isn’t too bad.” At my nod, he brushes his fingers down the side of my neck, his emerald eyes darkening to nearly black. “If it becomes too much, tell me to stop.” When I don’t answer, he tugs on my hair, forcing me to look him in the face. “Promise me, Risa. It’d be incredibly easy to get carried away in the heat of the moment, and you don’t heal as quickly as we do.”

  Tilting my head to the side, I bare my neck. “You’ve bitten me before and stopped. I trust you.”

  I only catch a brief glimpse of fang before his mouth is on me, at the crook of my neck where it meets my shoulder. The sharp sting is quickly overshadowed by the warmth spreading throughout my body, my eyes flutter shut with a soft breath. I’d muted my senses like they taught me to before entering the hotel, but now, all of those protections drop. Yet I don’t hear a single sound outside of this room, hyper attuned to Stryker at the moment. The hand on my thigh, my wrist, his scent washing over me and mouth on my skin; he may as well be sucking on my clit, every bit of blood he pulls sending a lance of pleasure between my legs.

  “Fuck,” I whisper on a breath, leaning back slightly to see if he’ll follow.

  Back pressed into the mattress, I try to rub my thighs together to alleviate some of the ache, only to have his knee keeping them apart. Shamelessly, I grind against his thigh, each gentle pull at my neck increasing my desperation as he hovers above me, blocking out the rest of the world.

  Shoving at his boxers, I can’t get them off in this position, but I manage to get the message across. With a low growl, he never removes his mouth as he slides them down. He shifts position enough to grip the waistband of my shorts, tugging them down my hips and using his foot to push them the rest of the way off so that he never has to pull away from my neck. A hand covers my bare sex a moment later, pulling me back a few inches on the bed. Stryker’s forced to release me so that he won’t tear my throat out, a savage sound his only protest.

  “Two second intermission,” Mason declares, pulling me upright, my back against his chest.

  Bane chucks a condom at Stryker’s face while Mason flicks his tongue over the puncture marks with an audible groan. His hand slips beneath the hem of my shirt, pinning me against him.

  “You were born to bring men to their knees,” he murmurs against my fevered flesh, slipping his hand between my legs and toying with me.

  Stryker approaches the edge of the bed, stealing me away from Mason. Within seconds my shirt is off and he’s lifting me up, forcing me to lock my legs around his waist as he remains standing so that I won’t fall. Reaching between us, he runs the tip of his cock over my slit twice before driving into me, dropping his mouth back to my neck and sucking hard.

  Panting, I swivel my hips, the angle terrible to ride him, but needing to move as much as my next breath. After a few shallow thrusts, the sound of a flip cap opening and closing is the only warning before Bane is working a finger into my ass, helping ease some of the need I’m drowning in.

  “After last time, I aimed to be better prepared,” he breathes, kissing my other shoulder once before striking.

  A needy gasp is all I can manage, my thoughts scrambled and drowning in the onslaught of sensations. One finger turns into two as he stretches me gradually, and after a sm
all pause as he reaches for more lube, he presses the head of his cock into my ass.

  Exhaling a slow breath, I try to relax, breathing through the brief pain by concentrating on Stryker’s mouth on my skin. Before long, Bane’s buried to the hilt. Pinned between them, they still for a moment, breathing ragged as they fight to keep themselves in check. With my arm around Stryker’s neck, I use him as leverage to start rocking slowly, and they waste no time before that feeble shred of control they managed to hold on to snaps.

  As they begin fucking me hard between them, unintelligible pleas slip from my lips as a prayer and a curse. I need them to slow down and stretch this moment out so that it never ends, as much as I need them to slam into me hard enough that I forget my own name, to feel them come for me and know I was the one to make them lose control.

  Breaking Bane’s hold, Stryker lies back on the bed, giving me a better angle to ride him harder, faster. I cry out as Bane presses a hand between my shoulder blades, urging me to bend forward and forcing himself into my ass again. His teeth sink into my shoulder with a barely audible moan, leaving me completely at their mercy as they fuck me senseless, drinking from me simultaneously. My breaths come in shallow pants, the new position letting them drive deeper than before.

  “Fuuuuuuuuck,” Stryker drags out, cock jerking as he comes. Releasing my neck, he throws his head back on the bed, fingers digging into my hips as he rides out the feeling with shallow thrusts.

  Slipping his hand between us, Bane rapidly strums his fingers over my clit, slamming into my ass relentlessly. Burying himself to the hilt, his hips jerk as he comes inside of me, sending me over the edge I was hovering upon.

  “Don’t stop, don’t stop,” I beg, covering his hand with mine, grinding back against him as my free hand fists the blanket beside Stryker’s head.

  Coming down from my high, aftershocks make my body tremble as I languidly rock between them, the three of us catching our breath. With a tender kiss over his bite mark, Bane withdraws himself from my ass, rolling onto his back and throwing an arm over his eyes, chest heaving. Legs shifting, I ride Stryker a few more times, but he’s tapped out.

  Looking over my shoulder, Mason is stretched out on the other bed, stroking himself as he watches. Seeing the look on my face, he rises up, wrapping an arm around my waist and helping me stand on shaky legs. Swiveling me in front of him, his rigid cock digs into my stomach, one hand sliding up over my throat. When he kisses me with punishing force, I pick up the faint taste of my blood still on his tongue, a tingling sensation spreading through me like a heavy buzz.

  It does feel like it’s laced with something.

  Keeping his hold on my throat, he removes his hand from my back to snag another condom off the end table. The back of my knees hit the mattress, and I catch myself as he lowers me down onto the bed with a level of patience that doesn’t match the manic look in his eyes. Using his teeth to tear it open, he rolls the condom over his dick, gripping the back of my thigh to pin my leg against my chest.

  “Do you need to stop?” he demands, holding my gaze as he presses into me, tightening his hold on my throat as I arch off of the bed with a moan.

  Knowing he doesn’t mean sex, I lift a wrist towards his face. “If you stop, I might have to stab one of you to give you a reason to reconsider.”

  Chuckling, he flicks his tongue over my pulse before striking, his laughter turning into a soft sigh. The pressure on my throat is unyielding, and his steady thrusts grow more erratic the more he drinks. When he hits the perfect spot, I grip his lower back, urging him to stay buried inside of me as I tense, coming with a strangled shout. Mason follows right behind me, hips bucking, and taking one last, hard pull from my wrist as he rides the feeling until having to call it.

  Reluctantly withdrawing, he slowly licks over the puncture marks, lacing his fingers through mine and pinning my hand next to my head. Loosening the pressure on my neck, he strokes his thumb over the side of my jaw, bending down to kiss me slowly.

  “That’s it, I’m bypassing all of the formalities.” He flexes his hips and I gasp, so he does it again with a wicked grin. “I’m declaring the four of us officially mated now.”

  I try to laugh, but as he slowly runs the hand at my jaw down my body, gently toying with me as he continues his languid thrusts, it comes across as a harsh breath. “Do you even have the authority to do that?”

  He raises an eyebrow. “Who’s going to challenge me?” Kissing me again, he slips his tongue in my mouth, and I nearly forget what we were talking about. “Besides, we’re getting your new ID in a few days, so we’ll just give them our last name to put on it.”

  Craning my head back, a small orgasm rocks through me, and I have to wait for the trembling to subside to answer. “No take backs, then, you’re stuck with me.” Three purrs of approval surround me as Bane and Stryker crawl into the bed that’s far too small for all of us.

  Bane brushes a hair out of my face, and I’m stuck looking at him upside down. “Wouldn’t dream of it. You belong with us, Risa; since before any of us even knew it.”

  Stryker places a kiss on my open palm. “And now that we’ve found you, we’re never letting you go.”

  Chapter 14

  Risa

  “I’m definitely not complaining here, but seriously guys, I’m fine.”

  Sitting in the backseat with Bane, I take another drink of my chocolate milkshake, despite the fact that it’s barely nine in the morning. But at breakfast, after seeing I ate a bit quicker than usual, they started to spiral with guilt and insisted on pumping me full of sugar, trying to replenish what they took from me.

  Bane’s golden eyes appear brighter than usual, like there’s extra pep in his step; the same for all of them, really, and there isn’t so much as a scratch to indicate where Stryker was shot anymore. Rather than use any of that excess energy that they gained from our sex-capades last night to do anything productive, they’re using it to fuel their guilty consciences.

  “We shouldn’t have gotten so carried away,” Mason states, beating himself up. “We took too much, should have eased into things.”

  Stryker strums his fingers on the steering wheel, face tight. “Especially since you heal slower than us. What the fuck was I thinking? I should’ve just sucked it up-“

  “My god, you drama queens, it’s not like you took advantage of me. Chill the heck out. If you’d have said no, I probably would have cut my hand to sway Stryker’s stubborn ass into seeing sense. Yes, you can heal quickly, but there was no good reason for him to suffer through the night unnecessarily when there was a perfectly reasonable solution throwing herself at him to speed things along. I’m the reason you were shot in the first place, and from the way you three are talking, I doubt it’ll be the last time someone tries to kill you.”

  At Bane’s pointed look, I roll my eyes, taking another drink to humor them. “If I got the short end of the straw and can’t turn into anything cool to help protect you guys, might as well lean into the sexy nurse thing. Ironic, really, with as much as I despise hospitals.” Sucking down the last of my milkshake, it’s obnoxiously loud as it reaches the bottom. “Full disclosure, wicked sex isn’t a sacrifice on my part. So by all that is holy, continue with the blood orgies, and reward me with sweets and affection, but don’t create problems that aren’t there because you’re beating yourselves up for no reason.”

  Bane presses his lips into a flat line before stealing my hand, running his fingers over my arm with a featherlight touch. “Now that you mention it, you don’t seem as pale as usual, and it should be even more pronounced after last night. But you seem to have more of that golden tone you did when we found you before it faded.”

  Furrowing my brow, I twist my arm in his grasp, not noticing it before he brought it up. “I guess you’re right.” A sly grin overtakes my face as I look up at him, waggling my eyebrows suggestively. “Guess orgasms are good for the complexion, so I get something out of the deal, too. I’m not seeing a downside here, so l
ighten up, okay?”

  He steals the empty cup from me, throwing it in the grocery bag at our feet that we’re using for trash. “We still shouldn’t feed from you unless it’s absolutely necessary, or there’s a decent gap in between. Things might be okay right now, but we don’t know what would happen if we did it too frequently, because,” he trails off awkwardly.

  It isn’t hard to fill in the blanks. “Because you’ve never seen a defective shifter before and don’t know the long term consequences. I get it, not suggesting that you ravish me for breakfast to cut down on the coffee bill or anything, Bane. I’m just saying you don’t need to act like I’m some martyr that you guys exploited. But please, feel free to continue showering me in praise for amazing sex.”

  He snorts, kissing my cheek. “I like confident Risa.”

  I shrug. “Me too. It’s weird, though, truth be told. I’ve spent my entire life programmed to be as invisible as possible, trying not to be a burden as I saw how taxing my existence was on everyone around me. But I’m feeling genuinely good for the first time in ages.”

  Stryker pipes up from the front, turning off of the highway. “Told you the sex would be so good you’d want to marry me.”

  Genuine laughter shakes my chest, and I don’t miss the soft look Mason gives me in the visor mirror in front of him. Memories of last night crop back up, and I strum my fingers on the seat beside me, nervous to bring it up, but knowing I need to.

  “Did you mean what you said last night, or was that a heat of the moment thing?

  His bright blue eyes don’t darken in the slightest, still supernaturally bright after the energy influx. He pivots in his seat to face me, honing in on my fidgeting. “Every word. I will never lie to you, Risa, and especially not about anything as serious as that.” His stern look morphs into a teasing smile. “So consider this officially the worst honeymoon in history.”