I couldn't allow that to happen.
“Zara,” Anubis said after a moment, this flirty little smile on his face. “Since we're not doing anything tonight ...” he continued, glancing out the window at the now dark sky. I'd made the decision not to move today. We all needed a break after last night, and we were playing the long game here. Rushing into something when we were tired wasn't going to do anyone any good.
My breath caught and my fingers curled into the blankets.
I was almost positive Anubis was going to ask for sex.
Part of me wanted him to.
“Do you want to practice with the silver?” he finished and I swallowed hard. I think Montgomery noticed because he chuckled slightly as he tossed his brush aside and started braiding his hair again. “The first few times you wear it are the worst, right? And the silver protects. We should get used to wearing at least one piece each.”
“You're right,” I said, even as I felt a foot brush my ass, glancing over my shoulder to see Tidus stretching his long, tanned form out on the bed. I didn't think he meant to cop a feel with his toes, but … I also didn't mind so much. “All of this magic we're stirring up together, it's of no use if the witches are draining it right out of us.”
The thought of them using our own power against us made me sick to my stomach. How we were supposed to fight them when they not only sucked us dry but then wielded our natural magic against us like the sharpest edged sword?
“Awesome,” Anubis said, flashing a grin and clapping his hands together. “I'll go grab it.”
He disappeared downstairs as I looked back at the bed and the five men lying in it. They kept a respectful distance from one another, but they didn't look quite as repulsed at the idea of sleeping in the same bed as they had a few days ago. Their desires to mark and dominate and claim were being subdued by the natural need of a werewolf to touch and cuddle and feel the presence of Pack.
“I'll start with the silver tonight,” I told them, five sets of eyes flicking up to mine. “You guys just … support me through it, okay.”
“You don't want us naked and dressed in silver?” Jax purred, sitting up and letting the sheets fall into his lap. He was still shirtless, had been all day actually, and now I was wondering if he was even wearing sweats or if he'd kicked them off under the blankets when I wasn't looking. “Or maybe you just want us naked.”
“Maybe I'm trying to be practical and if I'm the head of the pack, all the power funnels through me? Besides, the last thing we need is to have all eight of us lying comatose and bleeding from silver poisoning.” I stood up off the bed and pushed my sweats down my hips, listening to the random assortment of noises as my bare ass was exposed.
I pretended not to notice. Nakedness was, after all, a normal part of everyday life … it didn't have to mean so much. But in that moment, surrounded by my males, it did. I'd never felt such such power in my sexuality as I turned around and flashed a small grin, tearing my shirt over my head and tossing it aside.
Anubis' timing was perfect and he stepped into the room at just the right moment to end up with my shirt hanging over his face. With a groan, he hugged the wooden box with the silver jewelry close to his chest and used the other to yank the fabric off of his head.
“God, it smells like honeysuckle and pine, Zara. It smells like you.” Anubis took a deep breath and stared at the rumpled red fabric in his fist. He looked like he was resisting the urge to bring it to his face and inhaled. Instead, he chuckled, this flirty, throaty little laugh and tossed it into the hamper. “You smell so damn good,” he told me, coming over and flicking the lid of the box open, his eyes never leaving my own as he flashed the mountain of silver inside. “The sweetest scent I've ever breathed.”
“What a line,” Che scoffed as Tidus chuckled, but I didn't think it was. No, Anubis had this interesting mix of personalities—half-flirty and half-scholarly—but I didn't think he was anything but genuine.
“Thank you,” I told him, feeling my throat get tight as I reached into the box and took our piece of jewelry—the silver belt—off the top of the heap. Right away, my fingers started to bleed. I hoped Harlem—currently staying the night with Aeron at Lana's house again—was right about the jewelry's properties. If not, then I'd be bleeding and hurting for nothing, and the last thing I needed to do was weaken myself before a war.
“Let me help,” Anubis said, setting the heavy box on the floor. If he'd been human, he might've struggled to carry it, but even weighing as much as it did, the Alpha-Son of Pack Crimson Dusk wasn't even breaking a sweat.
He stood back up and took the silver belt from me, stepping close and then reaching around my naked body to clasp it above my bare ass. Standing next to him like this, it was impossible to ignore how tall he was, how muscular, how beautiful the sun-kissed color of his skin was against my own pale flesh. And his smell? Well, it was as sweet to me as he'd claimed mine to be.
The reaction inside of me was natural and inescapable. I couldn't hide my arousal from seven werewolves, not even if I wanted to.
Anubis shuddered as he took a step back, dropping to one knee and digging through the box for my silver eyeglasses, the ones that paired up with Jaxson Kidd. He stood up, sucked his lower lip under his teeth and then reached out, sliding them onto my face.
All the places his fingers touched burned with heat—in a good way. All the places the silver touched however? Hurt like fucking hell.
I exhaled, but the pain wasn't that bad … yet.
“Two down and six to go,” I said, trying to keep a positive attitude as hot red liquid dripped down the sides of my face, slid over my hips, caught in my ass crack in the most uncomfortable way possible.
“If you need to take it all off,” Nic started, concern clear in his voice as he scooted closer to the end of the bed to watch. “then just start chucking shit. We don't care; we won't judge you.”
“I know,” I whispered as Anubis selected Tidus' silver cuff next and slid it over my bicep. He was starting with the easy pieces first, bless his fucking heart. “But I'm okay still. Remember, I had enough mojo to tongue you all during the ceremony. Don't underestimate my ability to stay standing.”
“I could never underestimate you,” Nic said softly, and even though Che turned his eyes in my bodyguard's direction, he didn't mock him. I guess dying and coming back to life bought Nicoli Hallett a few get-out-of-jail-free cards.
“You're going to pierce her?” Silas asked after a moment, his voice slightly husky. I wasn't sure if it was from sleep, lust, or the copper reek of blood permeating the room.
“I bet he'd like to,” Che inserted, and Tidus made a sharp sound under his breath.
“Dude,” he whispered, but even though Anubis' eyes didn't leave my own, I saw the skin on his forehead tighten slightly. Fuck. I really did want Anubis and Tidus. The fact that they were the last ones to sample my bed didn't actually mean anything. Everything that'd happened between me and the boys thus far had been … organic. It'd just happened.
Our time would come.
Anubis placed the crown on my head next and I couldn't help but glance over at Montgomery as he did it. I hadn't even known the man when I'd picked this piece, and yet I knew there wasn't another choice of silver that would've suited him so perfectly.
“Are you okay with me … piercing you?” Anubis asked, and he had to fight to keep the corner of his lip from turning up in a smile. I smiled back, even as blood ran down my face and body, dripping from my chin to my breasts. I could feel the metal's poison tainting my blood, bringing my strength to question.
“More than okay with it,” I said and heard Jax chuckling softly from the his side of the bed. “Stick it in me, Pack Crimson Dusk,” I whispered, blood tainting my lips as I fought back a laugh, reaching up to adjust the crown on my head.
“As you wish, Alpha,” Anubis said, finding the tiny piercings at the bottom of the box and taking a deep breath, his navy blue hair sticking up every which way like one of th
e anime characters on his pants.
With gentle fingers, he reached out and took hold of my lip, our eyes locked as the sharp piece of silver slid through the flesh on the left side with a piercing ache that made my throat feel tight.
Picking the warrior's choice for so much of my silver … may not have been the smartest choice I'd ever made. But I had to remind myself that even though I was the Alpha Heir, I was still only eighteen years old and prone to mistakes. Majka was an entire century older than I was. I'd get wiser as I made mistakes, right? At least I hoped I was smart enough to learn from them.
“Give me your tongue, please, Alpha,” Anubis said and this time, it was Silas making a sound of disbelief in the background. I ignored the rest of the boys and instead used the sexual innuendo passing between me and Anubis to keep the pain at bay, push it back under the wave of a more powerful emotion—lust.
Sliding my tongue between my lips, I waited as Anubis carefully lined up the piece of silver.
'Deep breath, and I've got you, Zara,' he whispered in wolfspeak, just before driving the metal through my flesh and making my vision flicker white with pain. Fuck. I thought I'd remembered how much it hurt from the Bonding Ritual—after all, despite everything we'd been through it'd literally only been a week since then—but I think maybe I'd blocked some of the memories out.
Because holy shit.
Nostrils flaring, I pulled my tongue back between my lips and tasted blood, hot and sticky as it ran down the back of my throat.
“Two more,” Anubis said, putting his palm flat on my belly, just above my navel. The heat from his hand was enough to give me the strength to get through that last piercing, like a blade being shoved through my belly button.
The world seemed to tilt around me as my stomach twisted with nausea, but I pushed it all back and waited for my new mate to put the books on the floor.
Using his shoulder for balance, I let Anubis help me into them and then stood naked and proud, bleeding red across the wood floors of our bedroom.
As I stood there, the mark on my wrist began to glow and I lifted it up for inspection, tiny vines snaking out and wrapping my wrist.
“Fuck,” Anubis breathed as Monty rose to his feet and came over to us.
“It's happening again,” he said as he took my wrist in his hand and studied it, just like he had earlier when he was still buried inside of me. “So it's not necessarily a sex thing ...”
“It's a magic thing,” Anubis finished for him, watching as the vines teased and twisted around my arm. I could feel it then, power flowing down my skin like electricity, originating from all the spots where the metal touched my skin. It drained in a continuous wave and as it did, I felt my knees go weak.
Both Anubis and Montgomery caught me as I fell, one on either side, and laid me on the bed with Nic's help, getting my head situated on a pillow.
“Should we take the silver off?” he asked, but I reached up and clutched at his shirt, feeling my muscles quiver and shake with the drain of power. But I could feel it now, and it wasn't leaving me so much as it was coiling in that mark.
“Let's leave it on as long as we can,” I whispered as the boys gathered around me, their combined weight making this little dip in the mattress where my body rested. Someone—I think it was Tidus—reached out with a wet rag and wiped some of the blood from my eyes so I could see all seven concerned faces surrounding me.
Other than the pain and the metal poisoning and the excessive bleeding … it was kind of nice, having seven men gathered around me like that. Mine. All seven of them were fucking mine.
“What's happening with the mark?” Nic asked as he reached out and brushed my hair from my forehead. As soon as he did, the mark on his wrist began to glow, tiny green vines licking across his skin.
With the sweet scent of wet earth and decaying leaves, I felt a rush of power through my body and into Nic's hand. He made a sound that told me he felt it, too.
“What the fuck ...” he growled out as Monty put his hand on my belly and carefully, quietly said my name.
“Zara,” he whispered, lifting his other wrist and showing me his mark. As soon as my eyes made contact with the glowing rose tattoo and the snaking vines, I felt another wave of magic rush through me and into Monty this time.
My back arched up off the bed and I think I even screamed. It was hard to say with my pulse pounding between my ears. It was like I could hear blood sloshing around inside my skull, even as buckets of it oozed up and out of my skin, making me shiver and shake.
Warm hands covered me, familiar fingers plucking the silver from my skin as I coughed and choked on the blood, my vision flickering white before my hearing stopped and everything … went completely black.
“Hey,” a voice whispered, and I smelt the pungent reek of mint beneath my nose. Still, it seemed like far too much effort to crack a single eyelid and see who it was. In that moment, I didn't give a crap about anything but sleep. Not only did it feel like I had a hangover worthy of a full weekend of partying and binge drinking, but my body was sore all over. Every muscle ached, and even my bones hurt.
“Zara Wolf,” the voice said again, and I groaned, turning away and rolling across clean, crisp sheets and into another warm body. “We have to meet Julian at the school, remember?” the first voice reminded me while a second one chuckled and made the firm chest under my cheek rumble.
“Good morning to you, too,” the second man said as I finally blinked, my lids heavy, like they were weighted down with concrete. Before I even opened them fully, I figured out who the two men were on smell alone—the musky amber scent from behind me was Tidus Hahn, and the bergamot oil, vanilla, lavender mix from in front was Che Nocturne.
“What the hell happened last night?” I asked, finally coming to and sitting up so suddenly that my head spun. I felt drained, like every drop of energy that made me, me had fled into the marks on my, Montgomery's, and Nic's wrists.
“You passed out,” Tidus said, presenting me with a cup of mint tea. “Here. Your grandmother said you should drink this.”
“Majka stopped by?” I asked, leaning against the headboard and closing my eyes against the nausea clenching my gut. I was not the type of person who passed out easily or often. Whatever had happened last night was big, important. Monumental. I just had no clue why or what the fuck had actually happened.
“A lot of people stopped by last night,” Che said with a heavy sigh, reaching over and cupping the side of my face in one big sweet smelling hand. I leaned into his touch with a sigh of my own and—reluctantly, because goddess only knew what was in it—took the tea from Tidus' hand. If Majka wanted me to drink it, then drink it would. I wasn't kidding when I said she was one of the few people in the world I knew I could trust.
“Nikolina?” I asked and the silence from both boys told me that was a resounding yes. “Please tell me you were respectful?” I said, choking on the bitter taste of my drink. It smelled like mint, but I could taste something else on the back of my tongue, barely masked by the sweet kiss of honey.
“I just did my best to stay out of her way,” Che told me with a small shiver and a smile. “That woman is one scary motherfucker, that's for sure.”
A small laugh escaped me as I yawned and blinked at the bright rays of sunshine streaming through the window. The trees were still wet and dripping, but it looked like the spring storm had moved on … for now.
“Scary motherfucker, huh? That's one way to put it,” I said, noticing that the other five alpha males were missing. Damn, I thought as I sipped the unpleasant mug of tea, I slept through any chance I had of … hanging out with the guys. And we needed that, too. Time to hang out and just get to know each other—sexually or otherwise. “Who else was here last night?”
“Allister Vetter,” Tidus said and my heart stuttered inside my chest. “Him and his alpha female, their betas.” He paused and gave me a crooked little smile, one that sat pretty on that gorgeous face of his. Those gray eyes of his looked in
to mine, as uncloaked and open as Montgomery's. I didn't much peg Tidus Hahn for a liar either. I had a feeling the Alpha Son of Pack Amber Ash lived and breathed honesty. For different reasons, I think, than Montgomery. He had an innocence to him that I found intriguing. “My parents were here, too, so I'm kind of glad you waited until this morning to wake up.”
Tidus chuckled as I raised my eyebrows.
“My mom stayed way past her welcome and made sugar cookies—in our kitchen. I tried to get her to go, but … alpha is as alpha does, I suppose.”
“You don't want me to meet your mom?” I asked and Tidus flushed slightly in the cheeks, lighting up his hands, palms out. His entire right arm was covered in bracelets while the tattoo on his left was delightfully bare below the strap of his powder blue tank.
“That's not it at all, promise.” He used one finger to make the shape of an X over his chest. “Cross my heart and hope to die.” He tossed me a dramatic wink and then leaned in close, making the mattress dip with his weight as he pressed a warm kiss to my cheek. A thrill fluttered through me and my heart started to race as I met his stormy eyed stare. “She's just … a lot to handle for someone who practically bled to death in their bed.”
“Is that what happened?” I asked, closing my eyes and trying to bring together the flickers of memory from last night. Nic's mark. Montgomery's mark. All of that magic and power. I could feel it coiling inside of me, like a snake ready to strike.
“Nikolina said she felt a violent power surge. Majka, too. It's what drew all the alphas here, that shift in magic,” Che said, his voice raspy and sexy and low. Based on the way the sun was shining, I didn't think I had a lot of time left to get dressed and get to the university to meet Julian, but if I did … I would roll over on top of Che and slide my palms under his hoodie, find his pebbled nipples, grind my pelvis against his …
As if he could sense what I was thinking, a smirk lit his lips, and his violet eyes shone with appreciation as he looked me over, naked but completely free of blood and silver.
Pack Obsidian Gold_A Reverse Harem Werewolf Romance Page 6