Okay, then, she'd get out. See some humans, Mingle. Maybe she'd even take one home with her. That thought made her heart wrench and her stomach tighten.
But as Sybil glanced around the silent living room she decided that staying there alone, remembering how she'd first met Kenric, wasn't exactly a good mental health move.
She took the time to shower and change into something she hadn't worn through a battle zone, then beaded for her car.
Driving wasn't nearly as fun as flying, but the muscle memory and habits that took over made her feel more human. Putting on the seatbelt. Disengaging the parking brake, engaging the gear. Sybil made her way to a bar she'd heard the name of frequently but never been to before. Maybe she'd feel less strange in a place she didn't know.
Parking and locking the car were automatic. She made her way inside, found an empty spot at the bar, and ordered a draft. It tasted wrong, but that's what she got for drinking what was on tap. Sybil pushed the glass to one side and focused on the crowd.
Human faces. Human sounds. Human dramas. A couple in the corner kissing.
More on the dance floor flirting, touching, leading up to an inevitable conclusion. The atmosphere seemed sexually charged, from the music to the low lighting. All around, people were hooking up. And she was alone. Sybil took another sip of her beer and wondered why this had seemed like a good idea.
“Come here often?”
The lazy masculine voice made her turn her head. The man who'd asked the question leaned against the bar beside her. He was attractive, and the half-smile on his face told her he knew it and gave the accident of genetics a lot more credit than it warranted.
If he ever met Ronan, his ego would shrivel up and die.
“No,” Sybil said. Her tone, expression, and body language added go away.
“Want to dance?”
“No.” She turned back to her beer. Ronan looked better and danced better. Mere mortals couldn't compete.
“Want to leave?”
She swung back to stare in disbelief at the question. “No.” Heat prickled under her skin as power gathered, “I like it here.”
“Waiting for a better offer?” The man smirked at her. “Good luck.”
He left. Sybil brooded. She had five better others waiting. She just didn't know what to do with them. The one thing she knew for certain now was that she didn't belong here anymore. This wasn't her world.
You can't go home again. But if home wasn’t an option, what did that leave?
She could go back to Xanadu. She could hole up in Kadar's lair and Jet him run interference for her with Kenric, but that seemed both cowardly and unfair. She was a big girl. She should fight her own battles, not lean on a dragon, Okay, then, go back, choose her own place. Maybe Kenric couldn't accept her, but he couldn't throw her out, either. Over time, she could outwait his stubbornness and wear him down.
And why did she want to wear him down? She forced herself to face the question and answer honestly. Because she did care. Because she'd been drawn to him from the beginning. Back at the oasis, she'd known it wasn't smart. She'd wanted him anyway.
And then she'd given herself to him and that had sealed the deal.
For her, at least. And he wasn't indifferent to her. But if he couldn't trust her, they had an unsolvable problem.
“Too restless to stay, Sybil retrieved her car and drove back home. Was there anything in her apartment she wanted to take with her? She wandered through it, idly touching books, pictures. None of it seemed real to her anymore. Nothing seemed to belong to her.
Maybe she was just tired. Big decisions like what to take and what to abandon could wait until morning. At least here sleeping alone should feel normal. Sybil retreated to her bedroom, stripped, and fell into bed. The space around her seemed empty. She hugged her pillow, curled into a ball, and closed her eyes.
The heated skin against hers, might have been a dream. The hands that pulled her closer, the low growl, blended with memory and fragments of night visions. Sybil turned into the warm male body that held her and nuzzled the strong column of a familiar throat.
“Kenric.” She might have thought the name or said it our loud.
“Witch.” The word sounded almost anguished. The tone disturbed the drowsy pleasure she felt, sending a rift through the dream of contentment in his presence. His hands tightened on her, and his jaw rubbed against her hair. “You left.”
“You didn't want me.” Her sleep-thickened voice was matter of fact.
“I want you.”
“For this?” Sybil hooked her leg over his.
“And more.” He levered his weight onto her and pushed her into the mattress, his body hard and heated as it settled between her legs and on top of her torso. “You belong to me.”
“I belong to all of you, and none of you are mine.” She woke up all the way, but not in rime to gather her defenses. The ache in her heart echoed audibly in her voice.
“I am yours.” Kenric rested his forehead against hers. “Is that what you wanted me to admit? You hold me in the palms of your little hands.”
She blinked, confused. This sounded like a dream, but it felt real. “Kenric?”
He growled again. “Who did you hope would come after you? Did you want your pet dragon? Your beloved demon. The vampire who broods over you? The fee who lost his head for the first time in a very long life?”
Sybil took a shaky breath. “I didn't think any of you would come after me, Not this soon.”
“They all wanted to come. I claimed the privilege. I claim the right. I claim you.”
Her world tilted. Her heart leaped. “What?”
“You heard.” His mouth slanted over hers, hard and demanding and utterly welcome. “You're mine. My mate.”
She kissed him back until the voice of reason made her break away. “You don't trust me.”
“I trust you. You were right, you aren't the one who betrayed me.”
“You say that now, but what about the next time something makes you doubt and you look at me and only see a witch?”
“Witches are a law unto themselves,” Kenric answered. “I trust you to be true to your own law, and to us.”
“And the next time there's an open gate, a loose demon, or some other threat to the mortal world?”
“I won't try to keep safe, far from the action.” The words sounded grudging. “I forgot that you’re immortal, too. My head knew it, but my body wanted to be between my mate and any danger.”
“Has your body learned its lesson, or do I need to teach it one?”
“I need many lessons.”
Sybil laughed and undulated beneath him, loving the press of his body against hers.
“Then we should get started right away.”
“I will devote myself to study.”
Kenric lowered his mouth to hers, claiming her lips, persuading them to part for him, and exploring with his tongue. She drank in the taste of him, twined her tongue with his, and wound her arms and legs around him to hold him closer.
His hands moved over her, discovering sensitive places to exploit and seducing her with every touch until nothing was left but a soul-deep longing to join flesh to flesh.
Kenric aligned their bodies and entered her with a single, slow thrust, drawing the moment out as she stretched to accommodate him. The sensation of his shaft filling her, pressing further in until she held all of him, sent waves of urgent heat through her.
Then the knot formed, deepening his possession of her.
He drank her groan of pleasure from her lips. Sybil strained to get closer, to take more of him and offer more of herself. His body on hers, in hers, felt like a gift and a miracle. Each stroke sent need spiralling inside her, drawing her muscles taut, her sheath gripping him tight, then rippling in orgasm. His rhythm sped up, and then she fell his cook jerking, inside her. The heated liquid jet of his release heightened her pleasure. Their movements slowed as they rocked together drawing it out before they came to rest, spent, flesh
still locked together.
When he was able to, Kenric rolled to his back and pulled his woman with him, tucking her securely into his side. She'd taken his heart with her when she left, and he hadn't even known he'd lost it until then.
“What changed your mind?” Sybil traced the outline of Inanna's star on his chest as she asked the question.
“A dragon threatened to brain me if I didn’t get over my stupidity.”
“Nothing else?”
“Let's see. The elf said he understood if I didn't feel worthy of you, but since he'd been a god, he could be your equal.”
Sybil laughed. Kenric didn't. The sidhe had meant it, damn him. “The vampire said I had spent too much time with whores and not enough time in the company of women of quality and it had rendered me incapable of appreciating you. He himself had no such liability.”
“Adrian is a gentleman.”
“The demon thought I was insane for allowing you to get away. He would have ended the argument by sating you with pleasure until he'd driven any disagreement from your mind.”
“Fighting is probably foreplay to Abaran,” she said. “But nice as all this is to hear, it doesn't really answer my question. Somehow I don't think you went around having heart to heart chats with all the guys to explain why I wasn't there, leading to the sudden realisation that you couldn't live without me.”
“Of course not. They knew the moment you left and descended On me to drum enlightenment into my skull by way of their fists if need be. They blamed me for driving you away. They were right.”
“Did they enlighten you by way of their fists?” She rose up on one elbow, peering at him as if searching for evidence of violence.
“They didn't have to. I had a fist-sized hole in my chest the moment you left me.
And a matching hollow place in my gut when I realized what that meant.”
“Chest pains and hunger pains. It must be love,” Sybil agreed in a solemn voice.
“Joy at the sight of you,” Kenric corrected, reaching out to trace her features. “Peace at your presence, close by in the night. A host of emotions, some pleasant, some painful.
All of them better than the hollowness left behind with you gone.”
She brushed a kiss against the corner of his lips. “Did it really make you feel at peace to have me sleep beside you?”
“Yes.”
“When you were still in your wolf form?”
“Enjoying your presence is not always sexual. It feels right to have my mate nearby, wrong when you are absent”
“Does that mean you missed me after you handed me off to Kadar?”
Kenric settled her slight form atop him and wrapped his arms around her, securing her there. Her little nipples pebbled against his chest, and he could feel her sleek thighs and the outward curve of her pubic mound right where he could make use of them. “I missed you. You might remember that I joined you when the opportunity presented itself.”
“Threesomes and foursomes, oh my,” Sybil said with a soft laugh. “Which reminds me, Abaran said I should ask you what the knot meant. It was on my to-do list, but between getting possessed by a demon grimoire, demon battles, rescue missions, and a bunch of wicked witches, it slipped my mind.”
His arms tightened around her. “It meant I was an idiot. I told myself it wasn't possible, you were a witch, you couldn't be my mate. But from the first time, my body knew what you were to me.”
“It's a mate thing?”
“It’s a mate thing.” He brushed his lips against her hair and struggled for words.
“Something I never thought I'd have. You thought I didn’t trust you. I told myself I couldn't trust another witch, but the truth is, I didn't trust myself. I was the alpha. It was my duty to protect my people. I was the one who failed. If you were my mate, I had to face the rear that I might fail to keep you safe. So I tried to keep you at arm's length.”
Kadar had been right about that. If he'd listened to the dragon sooner, she never would have left.
Sybil was quiet for a minute, absorbing his words. “That makes a twisted kind of sense, I hope you're over it now.”
“I think I was over it about two seconds after you left me.”
“Good.” She nuzzled him, then asked, “What about the others?”
“If I don't bring you back, they'll put my immortality to the test,” he informed her in a dry voice.
She giggled. “Not what I meant, I mean, you and me, and the others. I'm your mate.
I think I felt it from the first time, too, but they're still part of this.”
“I enjoy having you to myself, but I also enjoy having you with others. We are going to need a much larger bed.” Kenric felt his balls tighten at the thought of her naked body stretched out on a very accommodating mattress, with him between her thighs and two other men on each side of her. Just thinking of it made him achingly hard.
“I like it, too.” She slipped her thighs over his hips. The change in position opened her and brought her slick labia into contact with his cock. “Especially when we're like this, it' amazing how quickly I adapted to multiple partner sex and how deprived I'd feel if I couldn't have two men at once ever again.”
“I think they will all do their best to ensure that you are never deprived.” Kenric slid his hands down to cup her buttocks, molding them in his hands, then pulling her down a bare inch so that his head penetrated her folds “But when we're alone, I can go as hard and fast as I please, without having to take care not to jar you or upset another's rhythm.”
“So we're good either way,” Sybil said with a sigh. She arched her back and pushed against him, taking another inch of his shaft inside. “I want you to understand that it isn’t just sex, though. Kadar said I'd be a junior wife to all the others if one of you claimed me, and that's how I feel. I care about each of them. I didn't just go to Adrian to have a quickie spiced with venom. I like his company, and I liked learning about his garden.”
“That doesn't mean you love me less.” He thrust deep without warning, seating himself fully inside her. “I understand that.”
“You have what you want, then.” Her inner muscles quivered and tightened around his invading shaft. Her hips made tiny movements, rocking just enough to feel the pressure of his full penetration at the deepest point. “I’m a tiny bit in love with each of them, but I love you with a passion that's unreasonable.”
“Show me your unreasonable passion,” Kenric invited with a guttural growl.
“Like this?” She undulated on top of him, teasing him with her small, perfect breasts, gliding up and down his thick shaft with her slick, hot flesh that parted readily for him and enclosed him so tightly his breath expelled in a hiss.
“You make me feel very unreasonable when you do that.” His voice roughened. His hands gripped her hips, giving him leverage to thrust a fraction deeper.
“If we have this, I'm not sure there's any point to reason.” Her breathy whisper caught as he rocked his pelvis into hers.
“You will set no argument from me.” Instinct gripped him now. His mate rode astride him, and the time had come to claim her with pleasure.
He established an irregular rhythm that kept them both on the edge, teetering on the brink of fulfillment They were locked together until their release, a moment he brought closer and closer, then denied them both. He loved the smooth slide of her bare skin against his, the subtle perfume of her skin, the softness of her hair, the wet heat that drove him wild.
“Mine, he-whispered, claiming ownership of her body and her heart. “You're mine.
No other lover gives you what I do.”
She made an inarticulate sound. Then to his surprise her tiny, sharp teeth raked his shoulder. “You're mine,” she returned, her voice low and fierce. Power crackled along her skin as ghost flame danced. “Mine until the end of time.”
That struck him as just possibly long enough. He moved harder, faster, taking her with urgent need.
Twenty-Three
“Bringing me a gift? How thoughtful.”
Kenric bared his teeth in a mock-ferocious-grin, “I don't come to give but to take.
You have the largest bed.”
“I hope you don't think I’ll leave it to you.”
“You'll notice I put her in the center.” Kenric climbed in on one side. “There's plenty of space for us all.”
“All?” The other man took the open side and wasted no time sandwiching the sleeping witch between them. “Have you invited more company?”
“No, but they’ll be here anyway. They'll want to welcome her, and she deserves a proper mating celebration.”
Kadar nodded and spoke the formal words. “Joy to you both. Joy of your hearts, joy of your bodies, and may the sharing of your joy increase it beyond measure.”
“Joy to you, brother of my heart. Share my joy in my mate.” He'd always thought the old ceremony would fade from memory, never used. Now a mate had come and the five men were no longer solitary guardians. They had a lover and wife to cherish, and a powerful new ally in their eternal duty.
“Do you want to share her between us?”
Kenric shook his head. “I want to watch her joy in you.”
He watched as the other man cupped her face with tender fingers, kissed her with sensual expertise until she responded, her mouth softening and parting for his, then finally opening for his tongue to sweep inside.
His witch. His woman. Her nipples pebbled in reaction as Kadar caressed them first with skillful fingers, then lavished attention on them with his mouth until they bloomed like exotic flowers, darkened and dampened from suction and pressure.
Kenric took in the picture of sensual abandon she made, her eyes half-lidded and her body relaxed with her legs a little apart. He bent to kiss her sweet mouth, running his tongue along her lower lip before sliding it inside, enjoying the way Kadar's devotion to her breasts made the act of kissing hotter, more erotic.
He drew back to allow the other man to slide on top. Sybil's eyes held his, dark with passion and alight with emotion. “I love you.”
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