by Amy Sumida
Meanwhile, my steady strokes were making Kirill purr. I love that sound. Normal lions can't do that but my lions are magical. The soft, vibrating sound drew me away from Trevor and over to Kirill. I slid my mouth down his length, my lips tightening to grip him, and his purring increased to a growl. Kirill's hand went to my face, stroking back my hair so he could watch me. I met his stare, luxuriating in that erotic connection with him before I switched back to Trevor.
This back and forth had the men writhing. Soon, their growls became a constant rumble and their hands fisted in the sheets. My beasts spoke to me, telling me the time had come—our lovers were ready for more. I slipped free of them and sat up. The men fastened their glowing stares on me—gold and blue. They looked ready to pounce. Good, so was I.
“Shift,” I urged them.
Kirill and Trevor glanced at each other and grinned. We'd never been able to do this before—make love with both of them in a were-form—half man and half beast. Because Kirill didn't have that capability. Not until now.
Magic rippled over the men, bringing fur to the surface of their skin as it lengthened and thickened their bodies. Yes, even there. Their cocks—slick, beautiful, blushing lengths—had thickened around the middle while their tips became more pointed. I dove for Kirill's with a hungry sound, stretching my lips around his exotic member as I kept my eyes on his savage face.
A lion stared down back me—a black lion—but his face was smaller than it was in full lion form, proportional to the humanoid body it topped. His upper lip pulled back, wrinkling his whiskers as he bared his fangs, but it wasn't a warning. No, this was fierce arousal. The Black Lion needed to sink cock and teeth into his mate. But first, I'd have my taste of this new version of my husband.
I moved my mouth over Kirill, his masculine scent spiced with more lion musk now, and admired the thick, ebony mane that had replaced his hair. It spread down to his sleekly-furred shoulders, hiding his neck, then thinned into a V at his chest, where his pelt was just a thin layer, allowing the hard curves of his pectorals to show through. A pair of dark nipples poked free of the fur at their centers. They were begging to be nibbled, and I intended on obliging them soon—after I had my fill of this glorious piece of flesh. Kirill's clawed hand laid carefully over my head and then, with a growl, pushed me down further. I let him get away with it because I wanted that too. I sank down as far as I could go while I stroked his silky, furred balls.
I drew back but before I returned to Trevor, I shifted upward to lick one of those taunting nipples. Then I moved to my right and nuzzled Trevor's chest on my way down to his eager shaft. The Alpha Werewolf had laid back, reclining on a pillow as he watched me pleasure the new Lion God. But now that he had my attention, his demeanor shifted into sharp awareness. His honey eyes watched me lower my lips and wrap them around him, and his jaws opened on a happy growl. Large ears twitched atop his shaggy head and a paw with fingers reached down to work my breast.
“Enough of this, Minn Elska,” Trevor growled, his voice even lower from the shift. “Ride me.”
I grinned wickedly as I climbed back up his muscular, furred body, then settled myself astride his hips. That turgid length immediately prodded my sex, but I had to guide it home. We groaned together as my body claimed his, taking him into me until I was pressed tightly against his pelvis. Fur tickled, then teased as I started a steady tempo, but Trevor would have none of my slow pace. He pulled me down against his chest. Our bodies aligned, fur to skin, and he wrapped his bulging arms around me. As soon as I was held firmly in place, Trevor began pumping.
But he only got a few deep thrusts before Kirill moved into place behind me. Hot, leathery palms coasted up my back, then settled on my ass. The Wolf Prince looked over my shoulder and nodded at the Lion God. He stopped moving so Kirill could get into position. Kirill's hands spread me, then the tip of him prodded that other place. He had to let go of one cheek to guide himself slowly inside, inch by inch, both of us groaning in pleasure the entire way. Once he was seated, he gave a few gentle thrusts to work me open, then, suddenly, slammed deep. I cried out as the men began a tempo they'd perfected.
Fur stroked me at front and back as those savage cocks slammed into me. I went still, as I knew I had to for that position, and just enjoyed the ride. The snarls and growls of my husbands turned into erotic music but it was their words that truly sweetened the sex—their lyrics, if you will. Trevor and Kirill had perfected the art of tandem dirty talk. It couldn't all be crass or it became too nasty for me. I needed a few pretty words among the naughty, and they knew that. They knew everything that made me shiver.
“You're so beautiful, Minn Elska. Especially like this, above me,” Trevor's voice in this form was deeper and a bit gravelly, making the compliment even sexier.
Then, as his long tongue flicked out to lathe my nipples, Kirill leaned forward to whisper in my ear.
“I zink I like zis cock,” Kirill purred. “I like vatching it sink into your ass and spread you open. Do you like it, Vervain?” He nuzzled my ear. “Do you like verelion cock?”
“Oh, yeah,” I said breathlessly.
“Grind your clit against me,” Trevor demanded. “I want to see my fur cling to you.”
I did as Trevor asked and as I did, Kirill slid out of me and moved away. He crawled up to the bed poster on my right, leaned against it, then started stroking himself as he watched us.
“Show us your pussy,” Kirill's Russian accent seemed savage, coming from his lion throat. “Lean back and show us how vet you are.”
I leaned back on one hand, bracing myself on Trevor's thigh, and spread my knees wider. The men made rumbling sounds of appreciation that encouraged me to do more. I reached down with my free hand and spread my sex for them, then combed my finger through the pelt above Trevor's cock and drew it over myself. With my grinding movements, the fur slid over my damp flesh and clung to me.
“Perfect,” Trevor growled. “Beautiful. But I want to taste you now. Get up and come here.”
I eased off Trevor and got carefully to my feet. The last thing I wanted to do was fall on a werewolf with an erection, and I was as clumsy as they come. Trevor reached out to steady me, knowing the risk he was taking, and helped me straddle his chest as he sat up, bringing his muzzle to the level of my sex. He opened those deadly jaws and his tongue stretched out to lick me with one long movement. I screamed and clutched at the clawed hands that held my legs steady.
That long tongue kept licking and laving until I had shivered and screamed my way through a climax. Then those powerful werewolf arms helped me dismount the broad chest. Trevor got to his knees and drew me down to the bed again. He pushed me onto all-fours, then slammed into me from behind. His wild thrusts shook the whole bed, but he held me in place by bending over me and wrapping his arms around my waist. That's when he took the back of my neck between his jaws and bit.
I instantly came again, my whole body clenching as I roared through my pleasure. My orgasm sent Trevor into his, and he lifted his head to howl as he emptied into me, hips twitching forward with each release. The aftershocks rode us both as the echoes of our ecstasy faded.
In my ear, Trevor whispered, “I love you, Vervain.”
“I love you too,” I replied, but Trevor was already moving away—gently but steadily.
Before I could miss him, Kirill had taken his place. He slid inside me and immediately started pumping like a madman.
“I vanted to fuck your pussy too,” he growled in my ear. “Feel you vet and tight around me.”
The pad of a clawed finger went to the apex of my sex and started an urgent rubbing. I was already so sensitive, having just come down from a climax. The pressure sent me soaring back into rapture and my body began to shake.
“Not yet,” Kirill growled and moved his hand away.
His thrusts should have caused an audible slapping but his pelt dampened the sound. Still, I felt Kirill's urgency and the primal need that drove him. It was so intense that it seeped in
to my mind from his. I hung my head—drowning in the pleasure and wondering how much more I could take—then Kirill suddenly bent over me, pressing his front to my back.
“Now,” he whispered into my ear, then bit the back of my neck, just as Trevor had.
My body exploded into blinding ecstasy.
Chapter Twelve
I went downstairs fully expecting that Viper would be back. I kissed my children—who were in the dining room having dinner with Samantha, Fallon, Zariel, and several lions—vaguely wondering if Viper were still asleep. I wandered into the kitchen and set the coffee to brewing, then went to the fridge and peered over Trevor's shoulder at the selection of food in our industrial-sized refrigerator. He grabbed the eggs and I grabbed the leftover rice.
When you grow up in Hawaii, rice with eggs is a normal breakfast. Add some shoyu—or soy sauce, for those of you who don't know what shoyu is—and bacon and it's a feast. My husbands had not only gotten used to my preference, but it had also become theirs. I dumped the rice on a plate and covered it with a wet paper towel before sticking it in the microwave to soften it. Kirill was already frying the first batch of bacon and Trevor started on the eggs.
By the time breakfast was ready, my other husbands had come downstairs to join us. Even Odin was back. The only one missing was Viper. I looked around the table after we'd all sat down with our plates, then frowned.
“Has anyone seen Viper?” I asked.
The men looked at each other. We were the only ones at the table now; everyone else had finished their meal and gone about their night. Or, in the case of the children, been carted off to wash the remnants of their meal off their faces.
“Did you patch things up with him?” Odin asked.
“Not exactly,” I muttered. “He said he needed more time to cool off and decided to do that by exploring the snake tunnels.”
“And he hasn't returned?” Odin glanced at the other men again.
“I checked Viper's room before I came downstairs.” Azrael set a grim stare on me. “He wasn't there.”
Awhile back, I added towers to the palace. They branched off my bedroom suite and bracketed the balcony. Inside them were bedrooms for my husbands so they each had a place of their own in the palace. Above the balcony, filling the space between the towers, were now two additional floors—one held Vero's nursery and the other was Lesya's bedroom. Each tower had three floors with one bedroom per floor. The tower to the right of the balcony was where Odin, Azrael, and Viper slept while the one on the left had rooms for Trevor, Kirill, and Re. So, it hadn't been a big deal for Az to check on Viper.
It was a big deal that Viper wasn't there to be checked on.
I got up and went to an intercom near the dining hall's doorway. I pressed the button. “Lucas? Are you home?” I waited a few minutes then called again, “Lucas?”
“Here,” Lucas finally answered.
“Lucas, did Viper ever return to that snake house?”
“No, Tima. And we didn't find anything of the snakes beyond some discarded clothing. We gave up and came home.”
“Okay. Thank you.” I looked over at my men and that was all that was needed to convey my worry.
“He probably fell asleep somewhere,” Trevor suggested. “I'm sure he's fine, Minn Elska.”
“Well, it's not as if I can text him,” I grumbled. “Cinderella's slippers! He doesn't even have clothes. If he needed to get something to eat, he couldn't.”
“That's a good thing,” Azrael said dryly.
I looked at him askance.
“Like a runaway pet, Viper will come home when he's hungry,” Az explained. “He can trace here anytime he wants, Carus.”
“I'm going to try speaking to him again,” I warned them before going mental. Mental as in using my mind link with Viper, not crazy, though I was on the verge of that too. I pressed into Viper's mind but the connection felt strange. I didn't feel any anger from him but I didn't get any other emotions either. Viper? Viper, wake up. Viper!
“What is it?” Odin asked in concern.
“I'm not getting a response.”
“I guess he's still angry.” Kirill shook his head. “Foolish.”
“I'm not getting any emotion from him,” I clarified. Then I tried again. Viper, I need you to answer me. You're scaring me.
Nothing.
“Something's wrong,” I whispered as a horrible certainty filled my gut.
“He could be blocking you,” Azrael pointed out.
“No, I feel the connection. I'm in his head.”
“If you're in his head, then he's alive,” Odin said reasonably. “If something were wrong, Viper would be scared or angry. He wouldn't be blank. He's probably sleeping.”
“I suppose,” I murmured and tried to calm my racing heart. “I should have made him a ring.”
The ring I referred to would have been enchanted to notify all of us if Viper were in trouble and then show us where he was. But I hadn't made Viper a ring like I had for the rest of us. Mainly because he wasn't my husband and the rings were wedding bands. But I should have made one anyway. If Viper had a ring linked to ours, I wouldn't have been so worried about him.
“Just give him a little more time,” Odin suggested.
I plodded back to my seat and plopped into it. “Did you find that story you were after?”
“No.” Odin grimaced. “And I don't know if I want to waste another day searching for it. Maybe if I stop thinking about it awhile, it will come to me.”
“Same can be said about Viper,” Kirill said to me gently.
“Yeah, okay, I get it,” I huffed. “I'm being paranoid.”
“I have something I vant to discuss vith you, Tima,” Kirill went on.
“What is it?”
“I am God of Death now.“I can offer Intare afterlives.”
I blinked at him. Kirill wasn't the only death god at the table; Azrael and Odin had death magic too. Odin and I had discussed giving my lions afterlives in Asgard but there were already a few Intare souls living in Duat with Anubis. Anubis had saved them for me and when given the option, the other Intare said they'd prefer to go to Duat to be with their brothers than to Asgard. But Kirill was Intare and his home was their home; that changed things a bit.
“If they agree to it, I'm all for it,” I said.
Kirill grinned. “Good because zere's more. I vant to ask Anubis to release our lions to me. I vant to bring my brothers home.”
I went still, my eyes watering. I would love to bring the souls of our dead lions home to Pride Palace. As it was, we only got to see them when we went to visit Anubis. But...
“Is that possible?” I asked.
“Perhaps if Anubis agreed,” Odin answered for Kirill. “But then you'd have to find a way to transport their souls through the Aether.”
“You mean, like this?” Azrael grabbed the air and a scythe appeared in his hand.
The scythe had a long, wooden shaft and Angelic script carved into its blade. When Azrael harvested a soul, that script would glow blue, as would his name, inscribed on his cheek. The soul, safely contained in the blade, could then be carried anywhere, even through the Aether.
Odin chuckled. “Precisely like that.”
“Death comes out of retirement,” I said softly.
“Only for family.”
“Zank you, Brother.” Kirill laid a grateful hand on Azrael's shoulder.
“My scythe is at your service.” Az grinned and for a brief moment, his grin went deeper. Or rather, his other face surfaced—the one that never stopped grinning.
Chapter Thirteen
Before we left for Duat, I texted Austin to let him know about the bodies at the snake house. He assured me that he'd handle it. While I texted him, Re traced to Duat to warn Anubis of our visit. I hated to show up in someone's territory unannounced. Sometimes it couldn't be avoided, but Re, as head of the Egyptian Pantheon, was welcome in Duat whenever he damn well pleased so, he could announce us.
My oth
er husbands and I waited at the tracing room for Re's text conveying Anubis' approval before we traced to Aaru as well. We set our hands to the back wall of the tracing chamber and were pulled into the Aether, our bodies becoming thought, then coalesced in Duat's tracing room, physical once again.
Anubis' tracing chamber was coated entirely in sheets of polished onyx. I used to think the room was intimidating, but I've since realized that it's more comfortable to come out of the Aether into a dark room than to step into a bright atmosphere. Of course, that didn't mean the onyx wasn't supposed to be intimidating too. This was the Egyptian Underworld, after all. Anubis' job was to judge the souls of the dead. It was kinda a big deal.