Shadow Warrior: The Nightwatch Academy book 3
Page 11
Why did the proposition sound so good, and why were the words hell yes on the tip of my tongue?
I closed my eyes. Gah, there was literally nothing about this guy I didn’t want to know more about. But Brady’s face swam in my vision. I owed him more than this. He’d made it clear he was happy to share me, but he deserved to be consulted about adding someone to our dynamic.
No … It was more than that. I wanted him to know. I needed him to be okay with it before I took this thing with Kash further. Brady and I had unfinished business, a confession, three words that were long overdue.
I opened my eyes to find Kash studying me in anticipation. “I can’t, not yet. Not until I know Brady will be okay with it.” I stroked Kash’s cheek. “I’m in love with him.” It was the first time I’d admitted it out loud in full like this, and damn, did it feel good. “I need him to know how I feel. I haven’t had a chance to tell him yet.”
Kash nodded. “He’s an ogre-tainted, isn’t he?”
I smiled. “You really have done your homework.”
“You make me want to be a better man,” he said, deadpan.
I couldn’t help but grin up at him. “I like you, Kash. More than I expected to.”
“So … You want to be my girlfriend … I mean, if things are okay with Brady?” The arrogant, confidant weaver looked suddenly unsure and vulnerable, and I wanted to hug him tight to soothe his fears.
“Yes, Kash, I do.”
He sucked in a breath and rolled off me to lie on his back. “Well, you best claim me quick, because this”—he indicated himself—“won’t be put on hold for you forever.”
I propped myself up on an elbow and looked down his hard body to his crotch. “Says the guy with spunk in his pants.”
“Fuck.” He leaped off the bed. “Looks like I’m going to need to shower again.”
Eighteen
“And when was the last time you saw Larkin?” Brunner asked.
I gnawed on my bottom lip, fake-thinking. “I think it must have been the day before the official end of term. I spoke to him briefly.” I shrugged. “After that, I went to Mirage Hills with Kash. I wanted to know my weaver side. They have a ball, you know?”
“Yes, I’ve heard,” Brunner said. “But you came back before the ball.”
“Right.” I rubbed my forehead. “I guess I wasn’t feeling well.”
“You guess?” Brunner looked speculative.
“Honestly, my head’s a little fuzzy on the topic.”
“Yes.” Brunner tapped a pen on her desk. “I spoke to Kash and his grandmother. She confirms you were feeling ill and that Kash brought you home. She also asked me to let you know you’re welcome back at any time. She said it doesn’t matter which weaver sired you, the Raj family will happily take you in.”
Of course they fucking would. They wanted my ability, my genes. Brunner’s words also reminded me about the alteration in everyone’s memory. I was tempted to mention my dad, to say Carter Payne out loud just to see her reaction, but the thought of a blank look on her face made me bite back the urge.
“I’m sorry. I wish I could help more.” I offered her a small, confused smile, and her stern expression softened.
Damn, my acting today was on point.
Brunner exhaled wearily. “That’s fine, Justice. If you see or hear anything, please let me know. Classes start tomorrow, and we’re going to need a new dorm master for the cadets. Can you pass this to Master Hyde, please?” She handed me an envelope. “I’m sure you’ll see him sooner than I will.”
Panic gripped me. Did she know about us? “What? Why would you think that?”
She frowned. “You are headed back to cadet duty, are you not? I was led to believe all cadets would be working in the mists until the new batch is unveiled.”
“Yes. Right.” I stood quickly and took the envelope. “I’ll pass it on.”
She gave me a wary look and then nodded. “Good, oh, and this arrived for Mr. Stonewall.” She handed me a brown padded envelope. “Brady Stonewall. He’s a second-year, do you know him?”
I nodded.
“The port showed he arrived an hour ago. Can you pass this to him?”
Brady was back? I took the package, eager to get away now. “I’ll get it to him.”
“Thank you, Miss Justice.”
I slipped quickly from the room and headed back to the cadet dorms. The halls were filled with voices, cadets returning from the break. Excitement fizzed in my veins as I pushed past them all and broke into a jog, keen to get to barracks five.
Brady was back.
* * *
Brady was in the kitchens when I got to the barracks, and the unmistakable smell of cocoa filled the air. Nostalgia and all kinds of homey feelings flooded me. He had his back to me, joggers molded to his tight ass, tee stretched across his powerful back.
Mine.
He paused while reaching for a mug, then grabbed another.
He knew I was here.
“We have the place to ourselves, it seems,” he said. “Why don’t you change out of the armor, and we can talk.”
Unease stabbed at my chest. There was something in his tone. Something … wrong. “Brady?”
“Indigo … please.”
An icy fist grabbed my heart, and I took a step away from him. “Okay. I’ll just be a minute.”
Behind my screen in the dorm, I shucked off the armor and quickly pulled on sweats and a tee. I was back in the lounge in record time to find Brady in the same position I’d left him in. He was braced against the countertop, his head bowed.
Two mugs of cocoa were placed to the side, steam rising in neat curls.
His shoulders rose and fell, and then he picked up the mugs and turned to face me. His eyes were red-rimmed as if from lack of sleep, and the corners of his mouth were turned. It was the face of someone dwelling on unpleasant things … Or the face of someone about to deliver unpleasant news.
My stomach quivered in apprehension. “Brady … you’re scaring me.”
He set the mugs on the table. “Please, sit. We need to talk.”
We need to talk? No sentence that ever started with those words ended well. Panic made my breath shallow and my chest tight because I knew what was coming.
“No.” I shook my head. “Just tell me what you have to say. Spit it out.”
Heat gathered behind my eyes as if in preparation for the words that would tear me apart.
Brady ran a hand over his face. “I’ve run out of time, Justice. You know about ogre-tainted. You know about how we mate, how we bond. But I didn’t tell you about my adopted family. I didn’t tell you that they’re troll-tainted. They also mate for life, but they don’t suffer from the same affliction as ogres. They don’t have the same intense draw to a mate that ogres do. They have a tradition, one that has been observed for centuries. One I vowed to uphold.”
Where was he going with this?
“In the Stonewall family, the male must take a mate by his twenty-fifth year.”
It struck me that I hadn’t bothered to ask Brady how old he was, but it was obvious now. “You’re twenty-five?”
“In a few months. Tradition dictates that if I don’t find my own mate, the heads of the household will find one for me.” His throat bobbed. “They’ve picked out a mate for me. The mating will take place at the end of term.”
My body went cold and then blazed hot. “And you said yes?” My tone was incredulous.
He blinked slowly at me. “I have no choice. I made a vow.”
“And what about us? What about what your ogre wants?”
A look of pain skimmed across his face. “When I made the vow, I’d hoped that the mate my ogre chose would be the one. That I’d satisfy both my family’s traditions and my own primal nature. But I’m out of time. I went home hoping to extricate myself from the vow I made. To give us more time. But I failed.” He took a step toward me and checked himself. “I can’t give you more time, and I can’t force you to make a decisio
His voice was raw as he wrapped an arm around his torso.
He needed a mate. He wanted me, but he thought I wasn’t ready, but … but I was. I was ready to give myself to him. I was ready to be his mate.
He was looking down at the cocoa, a nostalgic smile on his face. “I’d hoped we’d share many nights of cocoa to come.”
My heart swelled in my chest as I bridged the distance between us. He tensed, his gaze flying to my face.
“Indigo …”
I reached up to stroke his jaw and ran my thumb over his bottom lip. “Let’s get something straight, Stonewall. No one, and I mean fucking no one, gets to kiss these lips but me.” I pressed my mouth to his in a firm kiss before pulling away. “And no one gets to ride this …” My hand slid over his crotch, my stomach flipping as he swelled beneath my touch.
Brady’s chest rose and fell rapidly as he scanned my face. “What are you saying?”
I gripped his arousal through the fabric of his sweats, and he sucked in a sharp breath that was part moan, part shock. A thrill of power shot through me. I did this to him, I made his pupils dilate and his cheeks flush.
I licked my lips and leaned in close so our breath mingled. “I’m saying you can call your parents and tell them you’ve found your mate. You can tell them you belong to me.”
His dark eyes flared bright with stars, and then his hand was on the nape of my neck, holding me steady, holding me close.
“Mine?” He ran the tip of his nose up my cheek and inhaled. “You want to be mine?”
The tenor of his voice had dropped, deeper, more gravelly.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed the full length of my body to his, reveling in every hard plane and dip as I molded to him.
“Now, Brady. I want you to claim me now.”
His chest rumbled. “Fuck, Indigo, once I start, once I let the ogre out—”
I kissed him, cutting off his words and claiming his lips. He tasted of dark chocolate and mint. I licked the inside of his mouth, and he caught my tongue in a slow, sensuous suck, swallowing my moan. We broke the kiss, chests heaving.
“Indigo. I need to know you’re sure,” he asked again, his hand still on the nape of my neck, the other cupping my ass. “I can claim you now, but the official mating ceremony must take place at my home. If you change your mind between now and then, I’ll be torn between you and the mate they’ve chosen for me forever.”
He didn’t know how badly I wanted this. How badly I wanted all of him. It was time to tell him.
“I’m not changing my mind because … I love you, Brady.”
The words spilled out and sat between us, warm and filled with meaning.
His breath caught. “Say it again.”
“I love you.” I stroked the back of his neck as Kash’s face came to mind, followed by Hyde. “I give you my heart, but there may come a time when you have to share it with others. I’ve accepted I’m someone who can love more than one man. Can you accept it too?”
His grip on me tightened, and a low, menacing growl ripped through him.
“Shit, Brady?”
He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to my cheek. His body was vibrating as if he was battling an internal demon. Long seconds passed, and he raised his head to look down on me again.
“The ogre doesn’t share,” Brady said. “When you’re with me, you’re mine, mind, body, and soul. When we’re together, you belong to me. If you can promise that, then I can do this. I can share.”
“Yes. I can do that.”
He brushed his lips across mine, then trailed kisses across my jaw to the tender spot under my ear. “It won’t be slow the first time. I won’t be able to go slow. The ogre will want out …” He sucked on my earlobe. “It’ll want to rut. Hard.”
Fuck, he was making me wet with his words. “I don’t care, Brady. I just need you inside me.”
“In that case, Indigo Justice, will you be my mate?”
“Yes, dammit.” My voice was breathless.
The words had barely left my lips when he’d hoisted me up so my legs were wrapped around his waist.
There was only one place we could go to ensure we wouldn’t be interrupted. The tower.
Nineteen
We staggered onto the balcony, mouths fused together in soul-mingling kisses that had me aching to get closer still, to slip under his skin and become one with him. The click of a lock engaging was followed by my back hitting the wall. I was pinned by Brady’s hips, by his mouth on the tops of my breasts and his hands tearing at my clothes. I was swelling, nipples throbbing as he freed them from the constraints of my bra.
And then his warm mouth was on them, sucking, licking, and tugging with his teeth.
“Too many clothes,” he growled.
He set me on my feet and yanked down my sweats. I kicked them off, and I was naked.
He pinned me to the wall with one hand splayed across the top of my breastbone so it bracketed my collarbones. His hungry gaze swept over me, and then he slid two fingers deep into me. A ragged groan erupted from my mouth at the invasion, but before I could acclimatize to it, he was tapping my nub with his thumb and sliding his fingers in and out until I was dripping wet.
His eyes were dark as he peeled down his joggers to free his cock. Fuck, he was huge. I’d felt it through his clothes, ridden it through fabric, but would I be able to take it?
“Brady.”
His chest rumbled. “I need to fuck.” The voice was grit and gravel. The voice was the other side of Brady.
Apprehension mingled with excitement lanced through me.
“Take it slow.” I grasped him and began to slide my hand up and down his shaft. “Just ease it in, okay?”
But Brady was taking a back seat; I could feel it in the pinch of his fingers as he gripped my thighs and the rumble of his chest as he lifted me up easily. He slid his fingers out of me and replaced them with the head of his cock. It pressed against my heat, ready to slide into my wetness.
“Brady.” I grabbed his chin, locking gazes with him. “I want you here with me. I want to do this with you.”
The darkness in his eyes bloomed with stars.
“Indigo …” Brady’s voice was hoarse, rough. “I’m here.” He groaned, his mouth finding mine in a desperate kiss. “I need.”
I tilted my hips and met his thrust. He filled me, stretching me, and he didn’t stop to let me catch my breath. He slid out and thrust again, long deep thrusts that hit my G-spot and tore guttural sounds from my throat, sounds that mingled with his grunts as we did what his ogre needed. We rutted against the wall, cold flagstone against my bare back, his balls slapping against me as he pounded into me. It was raw and primal and fucking hell, I loved it.
He leaned back while he fucked me, keeping one hand on my hips and the other at my throat as he looked down, watched us joining. I wanted to see, I wanted to know what was causing that primal look on his face. But then he was sliding out of me and pushing me to the ground.
“On your knees. I want to fuck you from behind.”
Shit, yes. I did what he asked and opened my legs, pushing my ass up to give him the angle we both needed for maximum satisfaction. He pushed into me, deeper in this position. And then he began to thrust over and over until sobs were swelling in my chest and erupting from my mouth. My hands made claws, nails scraping the flagstones as a part of me rose out of my body. I watched us from above. Brady’s powerful muscles rippled as he fucked me. I watched his buttocks tense with every thrust and my breasts jiggle as he pounded into me, and then I was rushing down, slamming into Brady’s body, into the ogre, into a new kind of sensation where my groin was a mass of sensation, where I was inside someone feeling every ridge of their sheath as I invaded it with my hardness.
Brady’s cry was mine as he came … as we came. Fuck, this was … This was something else, this was balls-tightening release. This was—
I slammed back into my body in time to tumble over the edge, in time to touch Brady’s soul as it exited my body. And then our cries filled the night as we came together.
* * *
The tower was flagstones and mist beyond the windows. There was no bed, no carpet or rug to cradle our post-coital bodies, but none of that mattered. We lay on the ground, naked limbs entwined.
“Did you feel it?” Brady asked.
Putting it into words would be too weird, but I knew what he meant. The connection we’d forged was unmistakable.
“Yeah … I did.”
He stroked my cheek. “Mine.”
This was right, being here with Brady like this was right. “What now? What happens at the mating ceremony at your home?”
“More of this,” he said. “But after an official family feast and signing of the book. It’s an old tome that contains every name in the Stonewall family.”
I sat up slightly to peer down at him. “Does that mean I have to take your name?”
He smiled and touched my cheek. “No. But you can if you wish. It’s not necessary. Any offspring we have will take my name, though.”
Offspring. The thought brought a warm feeling to my heart. “But what if we can’t procreate?”
“Then we can’t.” He frowned. “I don’t care if we can’t produce offspring of our own. And if you do find other mates and have offspring with them, I will love them as if they were mine because they’d be an extension of you.”
Damn, he was perfect. He was everything, and he was deep in my heart now, him and the ogre. We’d bonded, and he was simmering in my veins.
I needed to know more, to know everything about him. “Tell me about your family?”
“They’re good people. They’ll love you because I love you.” He smiled, and his expression grew soft and reminiscent. “They accepted an ogre-tainted as one of their own, after all.”
“Do troll bloods and ogre-tainted not get on then?”
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