“Besides,” Owen said, pausing to yawn and stretch, “we need to brief you on the Queen and King of the Vampire Nation of North America and buy you some new clothes. Not that I’m saying a black shapeless dress with a white apron isn’t sexy, but you can do better, especially since now I know what’s underneath.” He skimmed a hand over my still-sensitized flesh, earning a moan from me.
“Don’t make those noises or we’ll never leave this room,” Silas warned.
Charlotte couldn’t stop the laugh that bubbled out of her. Never in her life had she felt so happy, protected, and cared for. It made everything she’d been through worth it.
Chapter 10
The last week had been a blur of activity, from clothing shopping, to learning the names of the royal court and learning how the mating bond would work, to falling into bed with one or more of the brothers again and again. Charlotte had never had so much sex in her whole life, and she loved it.
A knock sounded at the bedroom door, and she hurried to hide in the bedroom, since no one except the brothers knew she’d been staying with them. Silas grinned, and she knew that he was entertained by her behavior, but they were all excited for the ball that evening and declaring that they had all chosen Charlotte as their mate.
“Mother, what a surprise. Please, come in.” Silas’s voice was loud, as though he wanted to make sure my mage hearing could pick up on it.
“Are your brothers around?” The queen’s voice bounced off the walls and made Charlotte anxious. She heard movement from the other bedrooms, and Owen and Julian must have appeared, because she continued. “Could one of you please explain why I’m getting angry phone calls and e-mails from the king of the Bloodmoon clan? Something about his daughter being seen in your company?”
“Whoever we spend time with is none of his business,” Julian said, his voice low and serious.
“It is if it’s his child. You might not remember what a bond with a parent is like, but he wants his daughter back.”
“I think this is best left between them, don’t you agree? After all, mages and vampires don’t mix politics for a reason. Isn’t that what you always said?” Julian kept pushing.
“I know I’m not your biological mother, but you still need to show me the respect I deserve,” the queen growled.
“Just don’t bring trouble to my doorstep, okay, boys?” She sighed, sounding defeated.
“It won’t be your doorstep for much longer anyway, so what does it matter if one of us chooses her for a mate?” Julian asked, clearly being the one willing to challenge their mother the most.
“It matters because it would wreak havoc on their delicate political structure since she’s already betrothed to another mage.”
“As I understand it, that mage isn’t worthy of her attention,” Julian said, while at the same time, Silas said, “Would you really send a woman back to marry a man she had no choice in? I thought we’d left arranged marriages behind with your generation.”
“Your father and I may have been an arranged marriage, but we grew to love one another,” she said as her voice went up in pitch with each word.
“That’s why you sleep in separate wings of the house and are only ever seen together at public functions?” Silas asked, bringing up what Charlotte assumed was a sore subject.
“Yes, well, unfortunately, love is a double-edged sword.” Their mother sighed. “Look, if you want to mate her, that’s fine, but be sure you announce it before the mage delegation shows up tonight. Okay?”
Charlotte’s blood ran cold at the words. She heard faint noises of agreement, but the rushing of her own blood in her ears effectively blocked most other things out. If her parents showed up tonight, they would bring enough people to take her home by force. There had to be a way around it, but she wasn’t sure what. She didn’t even realize she wasn’t alone in the room anymore until the toes of Owen’s shoes came into view.
She looked up and found his dark eyes watching her with concern. “You okay, babe?”
“I’m fine,” she breathed as she tried to stand up. When she had sat on the floor? She wasn’t sure, but that was where she found herself. The process of getting back on her feet was harder than it should have been, but that probably had something to do with her still struggling to remember to breathe. The world seemed to tilt and shift under her feet, with Owen and Silas coming in and out of view.
“I think she’s in shock or something,” Silas whispered.
“Charlotte?” Julian’s voice sounded next to her, but as she turned to him, she lost her balance and began to fall. Strong arms caught her before she could make it far, and her eyes slid shut as though they just couldn’t take any more in right now. “I’ve got you. I’m going to lay you down on the bed so you don’t hurt yourself.”
She felt the soft mattress that Silas preferred sink under her weight, and then again as each of the brothers joined her. The ringing in her ears was getting quieter, and she felt a little better now that all three of them were around. Each of them touched her as though they could absorb some of her fear. Her eyes flickered open once more, and she looked around the room, seeing Silas lying next to her on one side and Julian on the other, while Owen was at the foot of the bed, giving her a little foot massage. She should have felt like she was in heaven, but instead, the only thing she could think was how much it was going to hurt when all this was ripped away from her.
“We won’t let them take you,” Julian said as though he could sense the source of her fear.
“My parents are too strong. You won’t be able to stop them,” she whispered.
“Let us worry about that,” Silas growled.
“If I leave now, I could get enough of a head start that they won’t be able to track me very far, but the thought of leaving you three makes me nauseous.”
“We don’t want you to leave,” Owen said, his hands firmly holding her feet as though he could stop her from leaving just with that.
“I have to. It’s the only choice. If I don’t, they will destroy your family until they get what they came for.”
“You have no faith in us whatsoever?” Silas asked quietly.
Charlotte cringed at the question. “It’s not that I don’t have faith in you, but I’ve seen what my parents can do. They are extremely powerful mages.”
“Could your brother help?” Owen asked.
“Victor? I don’t know, maybe? I don’t even know where he is, to be honest.”
“You’re a mage, aren’t you? It’s not like you don’t have methods at your disposal to help you figure that out,” Owen said, with Silas nodding his agreement at the statement.
“I think you’re wrong about your options. It’s not just stay and be taken or run away now and leave us behind. There’s another path we haven’t talked about,” Julian said.
“Spill it, Bro,” Silas said, sounding like the youngest of the three brothers.
“What about the mating bond? We could put that into place early, before the event tonight.”
The words dropped into the silence of the room like bombs. Charlotte had no idea what to think. She didn’t even know that the mating bond was something created until a few days ago. She’d always just thought the bond was one of those things where a saying had stuck even if everything else had changed, like having someone’s guts for garters. No one actually did that anymore, if they ever did, but it made a good threat. Turned out she was wrong, the bond was a real thing that was created between mates.
“I don’t think Charlotte’s comfortable with that. I mean, her heart is thundering, just listen to it,” Silas said.
That only made her heart rate increase. “I’m not opposed, but isn’t that kind of permanent? I thought we were going to verbally declare it and then do the bonding part later when we were sure.”
“The bond can be removed. It’s just that the process is excruciatingly painful for all involved. If we go through with the bond and you decide that you’d rather go through that pain than spend
any more time with us, then I will go with you to get it removed,” Julian said.
“You would?” she breathed. Just the idea of him in pain caused a tightness in her chest and made breathing uncomfortable.
“I would, too,” Owen said.
Silas nodded silently before adding, “None of us want to trap you, Charlotte, but I don’t want you to have to go on the run again or to fear being taken. We protect what is ours, whether it’s our family or the vampire nation.”
She nodded. “How does it work? We’ve never really gone into detail on it.”
“We feed from you, and you feed from us.” Owen shrugged.
“There is also some jewelry that accompanies it. We will wear rings with a drop of your blood stored inside, and you will wear a necklace with a drop of each of ours inside.”
“Okay,” she said.
“You’re okay with wearing blood around your neck?” Silas asked, apparently concerned that she hadn’t freaked out about it.
“Blood mage, remember? The last thing that’s going to weird me out is blood. I used to use it every day in my castings and incantations, so you don’t need to worry about me on that front.”
“Fair point,” Julian said, before directing the conversation back to her brother. “You should contact Victor. I think having him here will help you deal with your parents.”
“Okay, is there anywhere you’d prefer me to do this?” she asked cautiously. “All I need is a mirror.” It shouldn’t be messy, but blood magic could easily get out of hand.
“Wherever,” Silas said, and since they were in his room, she figured they could just stay where they were.
Charlotte moved to the end of the bed so she was sitting next to Owen, and gave him a quick smile before she crossed the room to the full-length mirror that stood in the corner. After she pressed her ring to prick her finger, she waited until there was a decent-sized drop of blood that had welled up on her fingertip. Carefully, she drew the markings on the mirror that she would need to reach Victor before she squeezed her fingertip for more blood and spread it over her lips. Finally, she began chanting the incantation quietly in low tones.
The glass of the mirror changed, and suddenly, her reflection was a swirling vortex. She reached out mentally, begging the mirror to connect with one around Victor. The longer they waited, the more hesitant she became that this was the right thing to do. Just as she was about to stop chanting, Victor’s face appeared before her.
Her brother looked older, somehow more worn than she had expected. Older and colder than she remembered him being.
“What?” Victor’s eyes barely glanced up from the table where he was reading as his voice ripped through the magic connecting the two mirrors to slap her, not literally, but she was regretting letting the brothers talk her into this.
“Vic? It’s Charlie.”
His head snapped up then, while his eyes tried to bore into her very soul.
“Why should I believe you?” he sneered.
“When we were little, you wanted to be a doctor. To use your powers to help heal supernaturals and humans alike.”
“I used to prattle on about that to anyone who would listen. That means nothing,” her brother growled, and waved his hand at the screen as though he were about to dismiss her.
“Wait! The night we ran away, you stole one of mother’s rings for me so that I would always have something of our family with me no matter where we ended up, and to keep me connected to my magic.”
His jaw dropped open as his cat jumped up on the table next to him.
“Shawshank!” Charlotte squealed as the large Siamese cat approached the mirror and sniffed it daintily. He was wearing a turquoise sash around his neck and looked more regal than ever. “Hey, buddy! Who’s looking more handsome than ever, huh?” She had loved Victor’s cat since it was a kitten, and all she’d ever wanted was to get a familiar of her own, but female mages were considered too volatile to have a familiar. The cat sat and seemed to straighten himself because he looked more than a little regal.
“When you’re done cooing over my cat, dear sister, would you mind explaining where the hell you’ve been these last few years?” Anyone other than Charlotte would think that he was angry based on his tone, but she knew better. He used anger as a distraction while he was trying to hide his real emotions. It made him come off as an asshole, which was what he wanted most people to think about him.
She took a deep breath and jumped in, explaining everything that had happened and watching his face for minuscule reactions, even going so far as to introduce him to the guys.
Chapter 11
The guys had moved the chest up to their rooms after Chef had left for the evening one night, and it had been rotating between them ever since. When Charlotte needed something, she just had to search their rooms, and usually she’d find it. Being able to exist in her own skin, act like herself, kiss like herself, it was all something she had been scared she’d lost forever.
“Charlie?” Owen’s voice rang out.
“Ugh, please don’t call me that,” she shouted back. “Vic only uses it because he knows it irritates me, the same way me calling him Vic irritates him.”
“Noted.” Owen chuckled.
She had come into the other bedroom to find her trunk and get her dress out for the evening’s festivities, and to clear her head a little before they completed the mating bond. Her chat with Victor had set her at ease about everything, but it was still a big step with men she still had a lot to learn about. That being said, she wasn’t willing to give them up, give up the chance of a happy life, just because her family wanted to make her marry some old, twisted necromancer.
“Are you ready, sweetness?” Owen asked, trying out a different nickname.
“As I’ll ever be,” she murmured before turning to smile at him.
“You might want to lose the dress,” he said, waggling his eyebrows.
“Oh?” she asked in surprise.
“This can get a little messy. It’s also why we are going to do it in the bathroom,” he said as a corner of his mouth lifted, giving him a lopsided smile.
“Could you unzip me, then?” she asked as she turned her back to him and pulled her red mane over one shoulder.
“My pleasure,” he growled from the doorway.
His strong hands came up and caressed her back before slowly pulling the zipper lower and lower. When the zipper reached its base, his hands slid inside the dress while he peppered her neck with kisses. Powerful fingers crept around her stomach and over her hips, coming to rest just over her panties at the apex of her legs.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever get enough of you,” he whispered in her ear, his voice dripping with lust.
“Good, because I never want you to.” She sighed as his fingers began to work her through her panties.
“If you two don’t stop, we’re all going to end up in bed together again, and we’ll never get the bonding done,” Julian growled from the hallway.
Charlotte laughed and let her dress fall from her shoulders. It got stuck around Owen’s toned forearms, and she had to remove them from her body even though her body was begging her to let them stay. Once the dress was off, she strolled into the living area in just her bra and panties before making her way to the bathroom.
“By the Maker,” Silas cursed low under his breath when he saw her standing in the doorway. Her mind raced with possibilities on how to tease the brothers once she was able to get a few shopping trips of her own in. She’d always loved lingerie, and now that she had someone, or multiple someones, to wear it for, she needed to stock up.
Silas sat on the edge of the tub while Julian sat on the closed toilet. Both of them were just in their boxers, and she had to bite her lip to stop from asking them to strip completely. Owen came into the bathroom behind her, and the three brothers made a triangle around her. Charlotte’s heart fluttered in her chest in anticipation. If only she could adequately express how she felt about them, how much she wa
nted each of them, how much she was willing to risk for them, for this strange thing growing between them.
“This might sting at first,” Julian said, his lips brushing against her ear as he spoke.
“That’s okay,” she said, her voice breathy from lust.
Julian started them off, moving to stand just behind her as he kissed and licked the skin on the side of Charlotte’s neck just on the other side of the cord of muscle that ran up to her ear and skull. Owen was next. He claimed her mouth first, his tongue sweeping in and twining with her own until she was making needy noises for him. He kissed a line from the corner of her mouth to her jaw and down her neck, where he nibbled the skin and licked it. Between just the two of them, she wasn’t sure how long she’d be able to stay standing, especially if they kept overloading her like that.
Silas was standing to one side, watching the activities, not even trying to hide the erection he was sporting as he watched his brothers devour her. When her eyelids fluttered closed once more, she felt his hands connect with her body. His mouth found the breast and nipple closest to him and began to suck and lick until her hips were moving of their own accord. Her body responded to them in ways she’d never responded to any male before, and she loved it.
After paying plenty of attention to her breasts, Silas kissed his way down her soft belly to her thighs, where he lifted one leg and hooked her knee over his shoulder while his mouth seemed to be searching for a specific spot on her skin. She wished he would keep searching until he found her center and the part that craved the three of them the most.
He rumbled as he seemed to zero in on whatever he was looking for, and as though that was the key to the whole thing, the three of them bit down one after the other, starting with Julian. Charlotte could feel their fangs parting her skin, but it didn’t hurt. It was more like an itch she couldn’t scratch. She moaned as she felt them sucking on her, feeling them draining her life force. It didn’t make her feel weak, though. As she nourished the three of them, she felt stronger than ever. Her magic flared within her, and she could feel the power that she’d repressed for so long bubbling to the surface.
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