by Helen Scott
When she stopped speaking, an almost echoing silence filled the room as I struggled to hear her breathe. I could only assume one thing—the goddess Persephone had just sent me a message. It was beyond rare for the gods and goddesses to step off the sidelines since the world began to forget about them, let alone send a warning message. My mind swam with the possible ramifications and meanings behind the words. There was only one thing that I knew was true—I would protect Poppy with my life if need be, and nothing would stop her from claiming her throne.
Chapter Eight
Poppy
A weight was resting across my stomach as I woke, and a warm wall of skin was pressed against my back. I turned slightly, trying to see who the hell was cuddling me, and pain rode up my side. I sucked in a sharp gasp, and everything flooded back. Almost having sex with Emmett, the car accident, the fire, it seemed as though within the last week, my life had just gone crazy. I scanned my body, looking for any signs of burns, but there were none, almost as though the fire had never happened. I hoped Emmett faired the same. The idea of contributing to the cause of his death made my stomach turn. A low rumbly grunt sounded behind me, and I knew immediately that it was Knox whose bare chest and thick thighs were pressed against me.
I turned again, slowly this time, and confirmed that the massive man behind me was Knox. His thick ebony hair was tied up in a messy bun on top of his head, but half of it seemed to have come loose at some point. A small scar I hadn't noticed before decorated the right corner of his top lip. I would never have seen it if I wasn't inches from his face. This skin was only slightly puckered and a tiny bit lighter than the skin around it. Even so, it ignited a desire in me to find out what had caused it, to learn more about this man I had just shared a bed and a snuggle with.
Part of me demanded that I close the distance between us and wake him with a kiss. The desire I felt around these men was almost like an uncontrollable fire within me. While it might have been unusual for me to have such strong sexual feelings, I couldn't say I was upset by it. These men were not only gorgeous but they genuinely cared about me; well, except for Hunter. The jury was still out on him. Reining in my need, I sighed and rolled over, wiggling closer to him, which brought his arm even tighter around me, something I was happy to indulge in.
I glanced around what I could see of the room. The gray fabric-covered headboard was positioned against an exposed brick wall. The red-and-cream-colored surfaces were uneven and clearly as old as the house itself. The cement floor visible from the edge of his bed was stained and looked more like a cloudy gray sky than anything else. It made me think that the bedroom must have been an addition. An exposed pipe shelving unit stood next to the bed and acted as a nightstand. I assumed there was a matching one on the other side; otherwise, it would look weird. I could see an intricately patterned rug, along with a chair and table, from where I was. The small glimpse I could see of the room made me want to see more. Did he have anything more personal hanging around? Any art or music? Books? I shifted on the bed, trying to get a look at the rest of the room, and felt his arm tighten around me once more.
“Good morning, sleepy head,” his gravelly voice sounded behind me.
I rolled toward him, being careful of my side. “Good morning to you, too.”
“Thought you'd never wake up,” he said with a short chuckle at the end. It was as if he wanted to make a joke but couldn't quite follow through, as the worry got the better of him.
As I looked up at him, I could see the concern dancing in his eyes. “How long was I asleep?” I asked as I studied his face. The brown eyes that stared back at me, pinched with anxiety, were flecked with gold and had a green rim around the pupil. He was beautiful and sexy as hell. His soft brown skin was warm against my own, and I couldn't help but wiggle closer, enveloping myself in his saltwater and sandalwood scent. I rested my head against his chest as I waited for his answer.
“A couple days—”
“Days!” I jerked back and looked at his face once more. He was serious, that much was clear. I couldn't believe it. A couple hours, maybe, but I definitely didn't feel as if I'd been asleep for days.
“I took first watch after the accident, and then Hunter, Emmett, and me again. We each watched over you, made sure you were comfortable and connected, and occasionally wiped the drool from your mouth.”
My hand went to my face in horror while my body relaxed at the news that Emmett was at least alive and well enough to watch over me. Although, I was sure that whatever dynamic had been building between us would be ruined.
“I'm just kidding. You didn't drool.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. He started rubbing small circles on my back, and I knew I would have to be careful around him, or I could lose my heart completely. Not only was he sinfully sexy, he was light-hearted, but also scary as hell when he needed to be, and now he was comforting me in the best way possible—by just being there.
“Do you remember what happened?” he asked quietly, dropping a kiss on the top of my head.
“Most of it, I think.”
“Can you tell me what you saw? If you're not up to it yet, that's okay too.”
“We were driving and listening to music, and then I heard an engine rev and . . .” My voice trailed off as my chest felt tight, and I started to struggle to breathe. Images flashed through my mind—glass shattering, the world spinning, and haunting silver eyes just staring at me. I wanted to believe they were just some figments of my imagination, but it was as if I could feel the chill coming off them. I knew that whoever, whatever, had been standing there watching had been real, and that scared the pants off me.
“It's okay, angel. Just breathe. We can talk about it later. Think about the ocean, the waves coming in and out, slowly lapping at the shore.”
I wasn't sure whether it was his words or his voice or a combination of the two, but the tightness eased, and I was relaxing into him once more. His hand came up and carefully stroked my hair, which I was sure was knotted to hell by now, but he didn't care. The repetitive motion had me closing my eyes once more, and I almost wanted to go back to sleep, leave the craziness of this world for a while longer, but the idea of being asleep for two days made me snap my eyes open once more.
The niggling pain I had in my side had me rolling on my back and pulling up the T-shirt I was wearing to see what it was. A pink and green bruise decorated my lower abdomen and around to my hip.
“It's from the seatbelt. There's a matching one on your shoulder. I'm not sure about anywhere else, since it was Hunter who checked you over to make sure there was nothing that meant you needed to go to the hospital,” Knox said. His voice startled me out of my thoughts, and I suddenly realized I was only wearing a pair of panties and a T-shirt that wasn't even my own.
“Whose T-shirt is this?” I asked, tugging the material back down.
Knox leaned his head closer to my own to the point that his lips brushed against my ear as he spoke. “Mine,” he said with such possessiveness that it sent a thrill up my spine. As his hand brushed the skin of my arm, traveling up to my shoulder, a warm glow lit inside my belly. Was he just talking about the shirt? My heart thumped in my chest at my unspoken question.
I rolled back to face him. Desperately trying to resist the urge to kiss him, I asked, “What happened to my clothes?”
“Emmett.”
The one-word answer piqued my curiosity. “I'm going to need more than that,” I said with a short laugh.
“It's complicated.”
The man was going to drive me crazy. “Fine, I'll go find Emmett and ask,” I said as I pulled back the covers completely and began to struggle to get out of the massive bed. It had to be one of the largest I'd ever been in, if not the largest, and the only thing I could think of as I took in the size of it was where the hell did he get sheets for this thing?
“Don't go,” Knox said quietly.
I couldn't tell if he was asking for himself or because he thought I needed more rest, but
it made me pause. “Will you tell me?” I asked, looking over my shoulder at a man who I was more drawn to than any other, except Emmett.
He nodded. “Just try not to freak out, okay?”
“When have I freaked out?” I asked indignantly.
“There have been a couple times,” he said with a grin.
Damn it. When I thought about it, I knew he was right. “Okay, okay. I'll try not to freak out.”
“Emmett has a new form now. There is his human side, his hellhound side, and then a merger of the two that basically turns him into a big fireball, but the fire doesn't hurt him or, evidently, you.”
“I remember seeing him on fire. I was so worried when I first woke up that he was dead, and then you said he'd taken watch, and it was as if I could breathe again.”
“So when he turned into this fiery thing, his clothes got burned up, and so did yours, unfortunately. Everything except your undies.”
I nodded. It made sense for the most part. “He didn't know he could do that?”
“He's never been able to before. We think it might have something to do with finding you.”
“Wow, okay.” I wasn't sure what to say to that. The idea that I'd somehow brought about this secondary form was a little crazy, but definitely not the weirdest thing I'd heard since I’d met the guys.
“Do you remember anything from while you were asleep? Any dreams or whatever?” Knox's voice was neutral, almost too much so.
“No. Why?” I didn't, did I? There were vague snatches of images, but nothing that made any sense, and the more I tried to grasp them, the more they broke apart.
“Just curious. You were asleep a long time.”
I felt as if there was something he wasn't telling me, but I wasn't going to push the issue; at least, not in that moment. My stomach gave a loud, unceremonious growl, which made Knox howl with laughter. I laughed with him, and for a moment, I felt the relief of something normal.
“Did any of the stuff I packed survive the fire?” I asked, wanting to get up and get some breakfast, but not particularly wanting to parade around in a T-shirt and panties.
“I honestly don't know. Emmett and Hunter took care of all of that while I took first shift watching over you.”
“Is anyone else home?”
He just shrugged. “I was asleep with you, so I have no idea.”
I sighed and swung my legs out of bed and made my way to the kitchen. Fortunately, the T-shirt was long enough that it was almost a similar length to the dress I had worn to the club with Rox. It seemed as if that had only just happened, but I knew it had been well over a week by this point. Somehow, it felt as if time were going faster than normal.
Less than fifteen minutes later, I was finishing up my second bowl of cereal and had just shoveled the last spoonful into my mouth when Emmett walked around the corner. It looked as if there wasn't a scratch on him, and my heart sang with relief.
“You're up!” He smiled crookedly at me, and my heart melted.
“You're okay,” I breathed as his arms wrapped around me and pulled me tight. I winced, and a hiss of pain escaped me. The height of the kitchen stool meant that he was only a few inches taller than me, and his hands and arms had found just the wrong spot to squeeze.
“Sorry, I totally forgot about your bruises.”
“Don't you have any?”
“Hellhounds can heal when we shift between forms,” Knox said from across the kitchen island. I had the slightest feeling that he didn't want to be left out. “Apparently, it works with Em's new form as well.”
Emmett nodded as he looked down at me. His eyes softened as a small, more secretive smile tugged at the corners of his lips. I knew he was thinking about us, about what had happened in my apartment. I was, too. I couldn't help it. His lips were on mine an instant later, their soft heat pushing against my own, and when his tongue darted out and slid along the line of my bottom lip, I opened for him. His hands gently circled my waist as he clutched me to him.
One hand slid up my back and cupped my neck and the base of my skull, angling my head just right so his tongue could delve in and tangle with my own. Small needy noises were coming from me, and my hands gripped the edges of his leather jacket, hanging on as though my life depended on kissing him. When a throat cleared across the kitchen, I felt guilt wash through me. Knox, the man I had just been snuggling with, had been standing right there, and I just threw all that in his face.
I detached myself from Emmett's lips and shot Knox an apologetic look, only to find a small grin on his face. For the first time since I had woken up, I realized that I didn't have to be touching Emmett anymore. The pain I had been experiencing in my apartment was gone. The desire I had felt for him, however, was even more present than before. The weird thing was I felt the same about Knox. The last thing I wanted to do was cause some kind of rift between them.
Chapter Nine
Poppy
A blush stained my cheeks as I looked at Knox and then Emmett. How could I want two guys equally as badly? It didn't seem fair, but then, nothing about this situation was fair if I was being honest with myself.
“You two got more intimately acquainted, I assume?” Knox's voice was full of laughter.
Emmett just nodded and continued to watch me as I sipped at the rapidly cooling coffee I had made for myself.
“Did you tell her about the bonding?” Knox asked, his eyes eagle focused on Emmett's face.
“No, I was going to talk to her about it when we got back.”
“Her is sitting right here and is quite capable of speaking for herself and listening to explanations of whatever is going on,” I huffed at them. They both looked slightly guilty, but when neither of them spoke, my temper flared. “Knox, what is the bonding?”
“Are you sure you're ready for more of this craziness, angel?” His eyes searched my own, as though he was checking my certainty.
“I know I only recently woke up, but please just tell me and get it over with. I prefer my bandages to be ripped off quickly, not slowly over the course of a week.”
“Bonding would mean that you have committed to this path. It can be done in a number of ways. Sex is one, a blood bond is another, or just a straight-up emotional attachment. The strongest is sex, because whether you want it to or not, an emotional attachment will form if you sleep with us. The blood bond is also stronger than the emotional bond, but that's just because it is faster and more direct. It's also permanent. When or if we bond with you, we won't be able to bond with another until your death, which means that we would be forced to wait another century before we could continue our search.”
I felt a cold chill run down my spine. “The car accident was done on purpose?”
They both nod, somber eyes watching me, waiting for me to freak out and lose it.
“Do you know who was behind it?”
“Not yet, but I'm working on it,” Emmett said, a low vibration of anger winding through his voice.
“So that's why you didn't want to have sex at my place?” I asked him.
A barely there blush colored just the apples of his cheeks as he nodded.
“And I'm supposed to bond with all three of you?” I asked, glancing over at Knox, who nodded with a grin on his face. “And you're all okay with that?”
Emmett and Knox both shrugged before Emmett said, “Yeah. I mean, we've had a few hundred years to think about it and get to know one another, so we've accepted that if we want to go the sex route, then we will have to share you.”
Visions of being in bed with the two of them danced in my head, and heat flared in my core, making my panties damp. As though he could sense my thoughts, Knox got a seductive grin on his face. The two of them were looking at me, and I felt as if I was supposed to say something, but what should I say to that?
“Once you've bonded with us, we can shield you from whoever attacked you guys. We will have the ability to mask the magical trace you give off, take you off the grid, so to speak,” Knox said, his
grin fading as he got technical.
“Magical trace?”
“Think of it like a scent. When you're in the same parking lot as a bakery, you can smell the fresh bread, right? This is like that. When you put that necklace on, it set off a magical bomb, not just inside you to activate your powers but on the outside, too. When it went off, every supernatural in the area could sense you for a second, and the ones looking for you? They will know exactly what that meant and will be coming for your blood and to lure you away from us.”
“Why on earth would I leave you?”
Smiles bloomed across both their faces. Emmett jumped in and said, “While we appreciate the sentiment, the beings after the kind of power you will be able to unlock will be seductive. They know what the score is much better than you do so far, which is why we are having this conversation.”
“I don't think I would leave you that easily.” I wanted to pout. I felt pulled in multiple directions. Part of me knew that feeling so attached to men I'd only known for a week or so was odd, but the other part of me screamed that this felt natural and right, that being with these men was my destiny.
“I believe there is a phrase about the devil showing up as everything you've ever wanted. These people are like that.”
“Got it,” I said, unsure of how to convince them that I didn't have any intention of leaving them. “And if I want to bond with you, what then?”
Their eyes gleamed in the light as they took in my question. Knox cleared his throat and said, “Then when you're ready, you tell us what type of bond you want, and we do that.”
“So if I want to have a sexual bond, I just tell you I want sex and that's it?”
“Pretty much,” Emmett said.