“Not yet, baby.”
She heard the squirting of the tube, but still jumped when his slick fingers rimmed her. “Widen your stance.”
She shivered and complied. How could she not? One at a time, he pushed two fingers inside working them back and forth before withdrawing and reaching for the plug. Once it was lubed, he put it in place quick, not allowing her body time to protest the invasion. She felt full and expectant. The chain connecting the clamps was heavy and tugging on her nipples. She wasn’t sure how much of it she could take.
Caleb looked her over, nodded, and stepped out of the way. Zach brought the stool with him when he approached. He set it in front of her, a couple feet from the side of the bed, and helped her get on it. One of them turned on the anal plug. Then Caleb picked up the flogger.
He flicked his wrist and the soft leather straps grazed her stomach. Soft as butterfly wings. Teasing. Promising. She tried to bite back a moan of anticipation, but was unsuccessful and he grinned at her.
The different between tonight and the last time he’d used a flogger on her five years ago was so vast that she marveled at the change. Last time was so serious and intense, as if they’d known it would be many years before they’d come together again. It was nothing like his light mood now. He was different. She was different. And then she realized that even without their previous conflict, a relationship between them would not have worked five years ago.
“We didn’t waste all those years. We needed them apart,” she blurted out.
He scowled. The flogger wasn’t so soft this time when it contacted her skin.
“Why do you say that?”
Another swish, this one hard enough to sting. She had to suck in a deep breath before she could answer.
“Too young. Neither of us would be who we are now. I might not be paladin, and eventually I’d resent you for it.”
“Maybe.” His answer was distracted, but the strokes of the flogger were focused, coming harder and faster. They left her gasping. Burning.
When he paused, she smiled. “Besides, we wouldn’t have met Zach.”
“That would be a real tragedy,” Zach drawled, easily adopting their Southern accents. He stepped closer with a second flogger. “Now, no more talking, kitten.”
She couldn’t have if she’d wanted to. They both worked her with alternating strokes of the floggers. Sometimes soft, sometimes with a light sting. But building, always building to something more, something more intense until leather strips bit and left her gasping for more.
Caleb continued while Zach removed the nipple clamps, timing them with Caleb’s swings so that the biting pleasure/pain merged. When the second clamp came off, she cried out, every muscle tensed as an orgasm overwhelmed her. She gripped the edges of the stool as she rocked with the force of it, panting as the aftershocks shook her.
Zach dropped the flogger and lurched forward. His chest pressed against hers and he gripped the back of her head, stole a hard, ravaging kiss. After urging her to her feet, he backed up to the bed and sat down, pulling her with him. It was instinct to line her body up to his, to kiss him back while her pussy rubbed over his cock. With one decisive thrust, he filled her. Still kissing her, robbing her mind and body of everything but sensation, he urged her down with him so she lay flat against his chest.
She was so consumed by Zach, she didn’t even notice when Caleb moved behind her, barely registered the removal of the anal plug or the squeaking sound of the tube of lube. Until the broad head of his cock began to push inside of her. She gasped. Squirmed. She could hear Caleb grinding his teeth while Zach whispered soothing nonsense, hands gently stroking her until she relaxed.
“That’s it, baby,” Caleb whispered, his voice almost guttural as he eased into her. Holding still, she took deep breaths through the sensation that was a bit too much pain to be pleasurable. But then Zach moved, slowly withdrawing from her pussy, each inch rasping over sensitive, inflamed skin, and just like that, the pain was gone. As she tried to move with Zach, to recapture him, she moved against Caleb.
In one smooth surge, he filled her, then slowly withdrew while Caleb filled her. They kept up the maddening, unhurried rhythm until she begged. It was too much. Too much feeling. Too much sensation. She wanted to come, but she also didn’t want such sharp pleasure to ever end.
Her body came without her mind’s permission, and she fell against Zach’s chest, gasping, muscles frozen. He wasn’t far behind her. With a low growl, he dug his fingers into her waist hard enough that she knew she’d have bruises in the morning, but who cared? And then there was Caleb, thrusting into her one last time, his roar filling the air, before collapsing onto the bed with them.
Pressed between them, slick with sweat and her body filled with bone-deep satisfaction, she closed her eyes and let the magic fill her. She was learning magic had a different feel, a different taste, from person to person. Each was individual, and hers was changing. Becoming infused with a bit of both of her mates. It felt good. Right.
It made her leery. What if she lost one of them? What if Zach decided he couldn’t accept her as she was after all? How would she recover? She fell asleep worried about what the morning would bring.
Chapter Twelve
The call came as she left the house for her office, and she hurried to change directions, Caleb and Zach following. Jonas had the juveniles separated, the fight stopped, but there were angry looks all around. Six teenage boys. Three visiting for training from another pack. All six needed some sense knocked into their thick skulls.
“What’s going on, guys?”
No one answered. The ones from her pack had the good sense to look embarrassed.
“Fine. Extra duty until someone cares to explain.” She narrowed her eyes and spoke to Jonas. “Pair them up. Maybe they’ll learn to work together that way. The southern fence needs repairs.”
That got Jay’s, one of their visitors, interest. “I won’t take orders from a witch.”
“You will if you expect to stay here.”
“Oh yeah? What are you going to do? Get your mate to beat me up?”
Surprise startled a short laugh out of her. “Puppy, you really are as dumb as you look, aren’t you? I can handle any beatings myself.”
Ignoring him, she turned to Jonas. “When you leave, escort anyone who has a problem with my authority out of our territory.”
“You can’t do that! My father will…”
She gave him a cruel smile. “What? Ask your father what happened the last time he pushed me too far. Do you honestly think he’d send you to a weak pack for training? You do realize who’s in charge of training around here?”
The kid’s face took on a mulish expression. She sighed and met Jonas’s gaze with a slight nod. “Sometimes a little pain is necessary to hammer home a point.”
She heard shifting behind her, knew it was Zach even though she refused to turn around and look at him. What happened next would probably totally change the way he looked at her. He hadn’t really accepted what she was. Who she was. She hadn’t really expected to be confronted with her fears of the previous night so soon. It made her sad to contemplate how this would change things, but it couldn’t be helped.
The stronger juveniles, the ones who would grow to be the pack’s defenders, were her responsibility. She hated this part of her job, but she had to teach them self-control and respect for authority. It was necessary, if distasteful. She stepped into the small clearing and crooked her finger.
“Give it your best shot, puppy.”
From the corner of her eye, she saw Caleb grab Zach’s elbow and hold him still. Caleb knew it wasn’t necessary to interfere. Zach would figure it out soon enough. That would have to be dealt with later. She concentrated on the kid.
The fight was short and brutal. In the end, after the third time she’d knocked him on his ass, she stood over him with her hands on her hips. He hadn’t got one hit in; she, on the other, hadn’t missed one. His lip was cut, his nose probabl
y broken. He held his arm close to his chest, and she knew it was also broken. The crack had been loud in the quiet clearing. He started to roll to his feet, and she put one booted foot on his stomach.
“Don’t get up.”
After a second, he nodded. She looked at the juveniles milling around. Time to send for the healer. “Go get Mick.”
When he arrived, he took in the scene in a quick measured glance. “A lesson learned, I hope,” he said mildly to the kid as he kneeled next to him and helped him sit up.
She shrugged. “We’ll see.”
She motioned for Jonas to follow her and left. He fell into step beside her while Caleb and Zach brought up the rear.
“Was that because you’re leaving?”
He looked surprised. “No. That’s been brewing for a while. Teenagers. Not much in the way of brains yet.”
She made a noncommittal sound. “Still. I think it’s a bad idea for you to leave right now. We haven’t been vigilant enough in the training of the older juveniles.” She held up a hand to forestall his protest. “I did say we.”
The silence stretched a moment. “We were friends once. I’m not sure exactly how or when or why that changed, and it doesn’t matter. The welfare of the pack comes first.”
She watched him as she spoke. His expression went from angry to pained to wistful. No, that didn’t make sense. She had to be imagining it.
“I’d never do anything to jeopardize the pack.” He turned and gave Zach a look she couldn’t read. Almost defiant. She sighed. Pissing contests were not limited to juveniles. “I’ll stick around as long as you need me.”
“Good. New training schedules. I want that group so exhausted they can’t think straight, much less harass each other.”
He grinned. “You got it, boss.”
After a few minutes, he peeled off onto another path, leaving her alone with Caleb and Zach. A few yards later, another trail veered in the opposite direction leading to Caleb’s house. She took it, ignoring the activity around the place when it came into sight. They were making it habitable again and making good progress. She walked around back where the patio set looked like it hadn’t been abandoned for years. Knowing she couldn’t avoid Zach’s gaze any longer, she looked at him, steeling herself against what she might find there. Rejection? Revulsion?
*
Zach forced himself to breathe normally while he waited for Liza and Caleb to look at him. To finally meet his gaze. He’d almost been expecting it, but the wariness that stared back still shocked him. He’d been with Caleb long enough his body language was easy to read — protective — and knew he was more worried about Liza than Zach’s reaction to Liza.
He was getting to where he could read her too. Her jaw was clenched. She was stubborn. And stoic. She fully expected him to reject her. He couldn’t deny it was difficult to reconcile the hard warrior woman he’d seen today with the soft loving woman who came apart in his arms at night.
She wasn’t what he’d expected. She didn’t need his protection, and his wolf side needed to protect its mate. She was just like Caleb. Strong. Smart. Stubborn as hell. But right now she looked worried. A little scared and beaten down. He couldn’t stand that look but didn’t know what to say. He pulled her into his arms, held tight until she sighed and rested her head against his chest.
“I love you, Liza,” he whispered. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Then Caleb was with them, arms embracing them both. It was enough for now. Zach’s heart swelled. It was more than enough, the two people he loved most in the world in his arms. The rest would come later.
Epilogue
Jonas paused at the tree line. It was late afternoon, not quite dusk, and the pack hadn’t arrived yet for the celebration. The young ones were gathered, though, around a small campfire and Liza.
She glowed in the fire’s light, the swell of her belly easy to see. Soon the next generation of alphas would be born. Twins. Both boys according to the ultrasound and their witch mother. It was considered a good omen, a sign of continued prosperity, and hence the reason for tonight’s party.
She was an excellent fighter, a superb paladin, and he knew she’d be just as capable as a mother. He was relieved the jealousy of a year ago had faded to faint longing. She still had no idea that he’d loved her for years.
She was telling the story of Little Red Riding Hood, and he noticed that even some of the older juveniles, those done with training or work, lingered to listen. Why wouldn’t they? The story came complete with a magic show.
Despite the magic, it was not the witch version of the tale, something he was too well aware of after the last week. He scowled down at the slight woman by his side.
“Wow,” she murmured. There was awe in her voice, appreciation on her face. “She’s very good.”
Suddenly he realized this exiled witch who’d come to them begging for sanctuary was very pretty. Her sexy, curvy body made his heart pound and his mouth water. He stood frozen in place and studied her. Her expression was rapt, while he fought the response of his body to her proximity.
Finally Liza ended her tale. She looked up and met his gaze in the gathering darkness. “And now it’s your turn, old friend.”
TWICE SHY
Chapter One
“You will marry him.”
“No,” Harper answered firmly while quaking on the inside. Her father didn’t take defiance well.
She kept her face blank as she met his cruel smile. It was unthinkable. Marrying an old man just to strengthen her father’s alliance with him? Not to mention the man in question had a very unsavory reputation. Just … no. He had the same stomach-curdling aura her father had. The sickening sweet mental stench of someone who’d used too much black magic in his life.
Her father’s eyes widened and she knew her refusal surprised him. She so seldom said no after all. He took an aggressive step forward and she couldn’t repress her involuntary flinch, waited for the blow that could be physical or magical.
“You will, Harper. And you will not embarrass me in the process.” His voice was deceptively soft, but she couldn’t help imagining how she’d be punished for that transgression. No one crossed him. Ever. His human business associates knew him as a well-heeled, distinguished rival. One it didn’t pay to piss off. He was relentless in ruining those who dared. The magical world both feared and reviled him. The black arts were illegal, but who could stop him? He was powerful. Untouchable.
Behind him, her brother paced, his expression murderous and she knew she had to get control of this now before Dane did something stupid. Like get himself banished. Or dead. She took a deep breath and tilted her chin arrogantly into the air. Her father understood arrogance and strength.
“Tomorrow is soon enough for my answer.”
Finally, she saw a spark of approval in his eyes. “Good girl. Wouldn’t want to appear too anxious, eh?”
He ruined the jocular tone by sweeping his critical gaze over her body. “Of course, you’ll have to lose some weight for the wedding.”
She kept her face impassive through years of practice, but she heard her brother’s sharp intake of breath. Still focusing her father, she shrugged. “Good thing I have time.”
He barked a laugh. “No, my dear. One month.”
One month? Only one month to find a way out of this? To convince him she could make a more profitable match elsewhere? She gave him the slightest nod, turned, and left the room, fuming as she walked up the stairs to her bedroom. A size fourteen was not fat, damn it. There were plenty of men who liked her ass just the way it was thankyouverymuch. And her boobs? Even better!
She slammed the door behind her, wincing a little as it banged loudly. She should be used to it by now. The taunts and criticisms. And normally, she would blow it off. She was just upset about the whole arranged marriage thing. Lucky her. She didn’t turn when Dane silently entered. Didn’t respond when he walked up behind her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
“You have to lea
ve. Run.”
“I can’t do that. I can’t leave you alone.” Besides, where could she go? No one in the magical world could shield her and she wouldn’t put a human in such a dangerous position.
He turned her, hands on her shoulders and shook her a little. He smiled. “I love you big sis, but I can take care of myself. I’ll be eighteen in less than a month. I’ve already passed all the tests and been elevated to wizard. He can’t hold me over you anymore.”
“He’ll find me if I run,” she whispered.
“But he can’t touch you if you go to the wolves,” he answered just as softly.
It took a minute for his words to register and surely her eyebrows were in her hairline. “Are you crazy? Or just pretending to be?”
He chuckled and stepped away while shaking his head. “Our mother’s sister lives among them, remember? They’ll give you sanctuary and Father can’t trespass without starting a war he doesn’t want to fight.”
She was tempted. Oh, was she tempted. There were ancient treaties with the werewolves that even her father wouldn’t dare breach. But that was for good reason. She shook her head. “We don’t know anything about them. They’d probably kill me on sight.”
“They won’t.” He was so confidant she knew he’d had a vision.
“What did you see?”
“Just that this will make you safe. You have to go, Harper. Tonight.” His smile turned devious. “I can keep father unconscious for two days. That will give you a head start.”
Her nod was reluctant, but gods was she proud of him. Their mother would have been so pleased to see him mostly grown and full of honor and conviction. But he’d never make it to fully grown if he stayed behind.
“Only if you come with me.”
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