by E. M. Moore
“Why are you smiling, Young One?”
It wasn’t just a smile. My vision became fractured as heat gathered behind my eyes. “Because I see their future stretched out before them. It’s not filled yet. It’s not concrete. It’s a vast, lengthy path and they can choose to take whichever way they want. They don’t know it yet, but the real adventure is just starting.”
Chapter Thirty
For many hours afterward, the celebration rang on. Blood was brought out in droves and those who partook, had plenty of it. Those who weren’t dependent on human blood didn’t shy away from their friends’ feeding habits. I stayed awake as long as I could until the pure exhaustion from the past week caught up with me. When I couldn’t take anymore, I found Stephan who also looked like he had enough. He took one look at me and swooped me into his arms to take me to my room.
Outside my window, we could hear the tangle of voices of old and new. For a moment, I stood looking out the glass, thankful that everything I knew could happen had actually come to fruition. Then, I closed the blinds and turned. Stephan lay on my bed, his body stretched out from headboard to footboard. I tiptoed back to the bed and drew myself up close to him. His eyes opened. “Here we are,” he said, his lips curling. “There’s no more danger.”
“Yet so much to do,” I told him. “Do you think those feeders will be okay?”
He turned toward me on the bed. “They have a lot of healing to do, but they’ll be fine, eventually.”
I smiled, basking in his positivity.
“Now, as far as you,” he said, pushing my shoulder down until it was on the bed before following me over. “I still think you need some healing.”
I looked at the barely visible bruises on my arms. “Actually, look how well I’m doing.”
He pulled my arm out and looked at it thoughtfully before leaning down and kissing me. He swept his lips over mine gently, and I ate it up, deepening the kiss. Kissing Stephan was like eating the cream between the Oreos. Sometimes that’s all you wanted because it was so good. He lowered himself over me, his penis hardening the more passionate our embrace became. His hand traveled under my shirt and skirted the waistband of my pants. They paused there before he finished the kiss and broke away. “I want to try something.”
He looked away, unsure, but I turned his face back to meet mine. “What?” I placed my palm over his cheek. “Tell me.”
His thumb rubbed over my waistband. “I want to taste you, but I don’t know how good I’ll be.”
A muscle twitched in my stomach. “Stephan, you couldn’t possibly do anything wrong.” I put my hand on his and helped him lower my pants, my panties coming along with it. His jaw clenched when he saw me bare to him. He smoothed his hands over my legs, up my thighs and past my stomach to my breasts before reaching for my shirt and pulling it over my head. My bra was next until I lay in the middle of the bed just staring up at him, my throat dry. Though I’d experienced this with the others, every new thing with one of them was something special. How Christian loved me wasn’t how Stephan did, and it certainly wasn’t like Nicolai or Connor.
He inched himself toward the foot of the bed and knelt over me. He started with slow kisses on my thighs, then down to my knees where he pulled them apart, opening me up to him. He traveled back up, his hot breath caressing the sensitive skin. I ran my hand over his hair and on his cheek as he explored, letting him go at his pace. My heart raced in my chest, just waiting for that initial touch. His fingers delved up my hips as he bent lower. My heart was in my throat, expectation coursing through me. I opened my knees wider, the heat from his breath getting closer. I was practically panting waiting for him to touch me. I bit my lip, muting a moan. I raised my hands and grabbed the pillow at my head to refrain from grabbing his head and making him move at my pace. The wait would be worth it. When Stephan did something, he did it with precision. Every response I had, he took cues from and made predictions like a true data analyst.
His tongue reached out, tentatively rimming my sensitive skin. I couldn’t stop the sound of pleasure from escaping. “Ohhhh.” I squeezed the pillow harder. He licked the other side as well, and I pushed my heels into the bed. “Oh, God, yes, Stephan.” The area between my thighs throbbed with want. He was an expert at tantalizing me, making his every movement that much more pleasurable just from having to wait for it.
He found my clit, swirling his tongue over it as if he’d done this a hundred times. I bucked into him and he squeezed my hips. “Oh, Ariana,” he said his breath coming out in gasps. “Does it feel good?”
Does it feel good? God, yes. “Please, Stephan. More.”
He bent over, straight for me. Licking and sucking and tonguing me in every spot my body cued him to take more time on. My fingers wrapped around the pillow and my toes curled. He took his time, his tongue exploring until he ran across my clit again and I bucked into him. There he stayed. His tongue played with my clit until I moaned non-stop. The door rattled, and I immediately grabbed Stephan’s head, willing him not to stop. My body was racing toward that sweet oblivion. Blissfully, he didn’t stop. He pulled me closer, suckling on my nub until I came hard and fast in his mouth. “Yes, yes, yes,” I screamed.
Stephan pulled away, fire in his eyes. Immediately, though, he looked over his shoulder. My gaze followed to find Connor staring at us. Still wrapped up in my heady emotions, I couldn’t control the thunder of my breath as I tried to calm myself. Connor nearly raised his eyebrows, looking surprised at his brother.
I didn’t care. I moved to my knees, and brought Stephan to me, kissing him in all the excitement of my orgasm. “That felt so good,” I told him, whispering in his ear. Surprisingly, he kissed me back. I pulled him to me, bringing his hips to mine. He was still hard, rock hard. I groaned and went straight for his zipper. He didn’t stop me as I unclasped the button, lowered the zipper, and spread the two sections apart. Afterward, I reached my hand into his underwear and stroked him.
He groaned into my ear. “I don’t know about this, Ariana.”
I looked up at him. “I want you. Please.”
“Don’t let me stop you,” Connor said. He sat on the bed behind me, his hands smoothing over my bare back.
I let out a cry of surprise and locked eyes with Stephan. His eyes flit from me to his brother before his hands clasped behind my neck and brought me to him, his mouth once again sweeping over mine.
Oh, my goodness. Connor and Stephan, both here with me. I eased backward until Connor’s hands swept over my back and then moved to my front to fondle my breasts. “Oh, God.”
Stephan moved forward as I moved backward. I pulled his shirt over his head and pulled his pants down, completely freeing him. He pulled away to take them the rest of the way off. Connor took that moment to drag me to him. His lips sealed onto my neck as one hand cupped my breasts and pinched my nipple. The other dipped lower, past my belly button to between my legs. He pushed his finger inside and sighed. “You are so wet. Does this turn you on?”
I moaned, my eyes opening to see Stephan staring at us. His eyes were like hot coals, fire still burning inside them. His look took my breath away. He wasn’t shying away, he wasn’t lost. I moved forward, pushing Stephan to his back as I climbed on top of him. Once on top, I eased down over his dick, thrilling myself with the pressure as he filled me. I rocked against him, eager to show him how much I loved him, how important he was to me. It didn’t matter that Connor was here, he should never take backstage. His hand gripped my hips as I rode him. Connor kissed my neck from behind. He pulled my hair over my shoulder and stretched my neck to the side as he kissed my ear, my throat, my collarbone. His hands threaded under my arms to once again play with my breasts.
With every roll of my hips, I was taken further and further into bliss. This sharing of love filled me to the brim. I bit my lip and rode Stephan harder. He was so hard and thick inside me. I bared down, appreciating every nuance of this. “I’m close,” I told them, moaning the last word.
S
tephan grunted, his body shaking underneath me as if he was trying to hold on. He groaned and bucked into me.
Yes, yes, yes, I repeated in my head. Connor’s hand moved South, just barely grazing my nub. My eyes flew open as I barreled over the edge. Stephan let go at the same time. He yanked my hips to his as I felt him come inside me again and again. My insides squeezed him until I couldn’t tell what was coming first, my pleasure or his. I let out a low wail as I came back down. Immediately, I locked eyes with Stephan and bent over to kiss him. “Thank you,” I said.
His throat worked, and then he pulled me to him again, deepening the kiss.
Connor rubbed my ass and then pulled up. Stephan slipped out of me and Connor’s dick was right there, nudging at my entrance. My eyes bulged out of my head. I pulled away. “I don’t know if I can, Connor.”
He stopped immediately. “Sore?”
“No.” I looked over my shoulder. “I’ve already come twice, I don’t know if I can again.”
He smirked. “Don’t worry about that. You just kiss Stephan and let me do all the work.”
Stephan angled my face toward his again, pulling me to kiss him exactly like Connor said. Connor eased behind me and slid inside. I made a noise in the back of my throat that Stephan ate up. It didn’t matter if I couldn’t have another orgasm, this was just perfect, this connection with two of the ones I loved at once. I kissed Stephan with a frenzy as Connor started an easy pace. Seconds, minutes passed as we took pleasure in one another. At last, Connor pulled back and entered me forcefully. “Oh,” I said, pulling away from Stephan’s mouth. He did it again, and again, hitting a delicious spot inside me that awakened my arousal once more.
I held onto Stephan as Connor continued his steady, hard rhythm. Stephan moved my hair around my ear. “You’re so beautiful.”
I smiled, happy that he could find beauty in this. When Connor came at me again, my fingers curled into Stephan’s shoulder. He reached up and played his fingertips over my nipples. How Connor could be so forceful, yet Stephan be so calm and sweet on the other side threw me for a loop—an erotic one. My body shook as I took it all in. I had the best of both worlds.
Connor quickened his pace, his strokes never relenting. With Stephan’s eyes securely locked on mine, he fondled my breasts with the utmost care. Connor gripped my shoulders. Everything became a blur after that. I focused on his constant pounding, the sweet strokes of my nipples until I was breathless.
“Damn, Princess,” Connor grunted. “Give it to me.”
His words opened up another pleasure point. Stephan pinched my nipple and Connor’s hard stroke slammed at the same time until I came—again. I let out a silent scream. Stephan’s mouth was immediately on mine, grounding me. Connor came next, his strokes subsiding as he moaned his pleasure into me. When he finished, he sat back on his heels. I finished my kiss with Stephan, pecking him once on the lips before turning to Connor and kissing him too.
That was downright perfect.
The door creaked opened again and Nicolai and Christian walked through. Christian raised his eyebrows at the scene. “Looks like we missed out on something.”
“Never,” I told them, my heart full. “We’re never missing out on anything again.”
Chapter Thirty-One
One month later…
The beating of my heart felt like quick flaps of a hummingbird’s wings. All around me, my fellow guards, instructors, and even just some onlookers cheered as I toed the line at the start. I tried to block everything out and focus on what I came here to do. To my left was, of course, the one who I knew would always be standing next to me at this very moment. Zeke Nichols.
We’d barely spoken since I’d shoved that syringe into his arm. Not that I blamed him, and honestly, things were actually better that way. He avoided me, and I was just as happy to have my life like that instead of the constant fear of what smartass remark, or worse, he might say or do to me. This moment though. This would lay everything to rest.
Using Samuel’s grading, Soren and Diesel’s insight, and her own brief glimpse into our schooling and training, Natalie tallied the school standings and it all came down to this race. A short burst of energy, less than a minute long, and once and for all, we could put all this jockeying for position behind us.
I ran my hands down my pants to wipe the sweat away. My ears rang. Somewhere out there stood four princes who would love me no matter what happened, but they came and cheered because they knew how important this was to me. This was the culmination of everything I’d worked for since coming here. I’d once joked that this was more important than the fight I had with Clive. In a way, that was so wrong to say, but looking at it differently, this was the reason why I was even in this world right now. The princes had brought me here with the idea of me becoming their guard and if I couldn’t win this race—in my mind—I wouldn’t deserve it. Sure, I’d probably be stationed at the estate, or wherever else we decided to be, anyway but that didn’t mean I’d earned it.
More than anything, I wanted to earn it. I wanted the respect of my fellow guards-in-training, especially Zeke. After everything I’d done to him—and he’d done to me—it would be a difficult thing for us even to respect one another, but at least he’d have to admit that today, today I was the better guard.
He shook his fingers out, and I steadied myself at the start line just waiting for the crack of the gun shot. Natalie, Soren, and Diesel stood with clipboards directly in the middle of the obstacle course. With Soren and Diesel’s input, they’d even changed up some of the obstacles. We’d trained on this course for the past week, but this would be the first time we ran against each other. It was tough to toe the line next to him and have no idea where I stood in relation to his finish times. We didn’t train anywhere near one another anymore. I heard rumors about his times as I was sure he heard rumors about mine. Deep in my heart, I knew all I could do was push it as hard as I could.
The initial warning buzzer sounded. I bounced up and down on my toes and hunched over into my start position. My muscles were keyed up. I stretched my fingers out and focused toward the first obstacle.
BAM.
The gun went off. My muscles fired, and I exploded ahead. I hurled myself toward the horizontal bars, sprinting the few feet that separated me and it. I jumped up onto the haybale and flew through the air toward the first rung. One, two, three…I counted them off as I went. There were twenty of them this time around, quite a bit more rungs than there were in the original course. It didn’t matter. On the last one, I pulled myself up and over the remaining haybale and landed on my feet.
From there, I went to the sandbag carry, a new obstacle. I crouched down and threw the two thirty-pound sandbags over each shoulder and sprinted toward the post where I would have to turn around and double back. My feet pounded into the sand at my feet. The terrain slowed us down, definitely a tactic of the new course. It felt as if I waded through quicksand without the grip of the solid dirt beneath my shoes, but I dug my toes into the sand one by one until I passed the line.
I dropped the sandbags and headed for the beam obstacle. Climbing the even more steep and treacherous haybales to the top, I closed my mouth so as not to inhale all the extra dirt and gunk from the bales. From there, I stood on top. The ground below was a good twenty feet away. I placed my toes on the beam and looked straight ahead, my hands coming out on either side of me for balance. With short, quick steps, I crossed the distance and threw myself down the first few bales before jumping and landing in a crouch.
Next was the rope climb. Unlike my first few runs, I no longer feared the rope. I’d already faced down my worst fears in the battle against the Dumont Clan. Surely, losing everything I loved and held close to me was way worse than falling from the rope, having my arms fail me, or even losing this race. I jumped, clearing up the rope a good few feet before I wrapped my ankles around it and pulled and pulled until I rang the bell at the top. Then, I slid down, my palms burning with the friction against the ti
ghtly woven rope.
As soon as my feet hit the ground, I pushed the rope out of the way and went to the next obstacle; the pedal pull. Jumping up, I put my hands on two handlebar-like grips that resembled the pedals on a bike. I pushed up and over, moving the pedals along a thin wire until I was across. It scorched my shoulders, leaving them worn out. I shook my arms out and launched myself toward the rope that dangled from the center of the water pit. I caught it, my grip giving a little, but I clamped my palms together before sailing across the ten-foot shallow pool and landing cleanly on the other side, the back of my right heel hovering over the pool.
I took a deep breath and pushed forward. Just three more obstacles left. I could see the finish line from here, teasing me in the distance. My brain had me wondering where Zeke was, but I knew looking for him would be futile. It would only screw up my momentum so I focused ahead at the remaining obstacles. A rope ladder rose in the air in front of me. It angled outward at a forty-five-degree angle to a large wall. This obstacle was as much a balancing game as it was about strength. My core muscles fired as I used them to try to stay upright. I got through four rungs before I leaned too far over on my side. The ladder launched me to the right, but I was able to hang on. Thankfully. If I’d fallen off, I would’ve had to start from the beginning of the obstacle. I used my legs and arms to pull myself all the way up, then flung my legs over my head until I landed at the top of the wall.
A cargo net hung in front of me until it hit another cross wall and then cascaded downward. I got down on all fours and crawled as quick as I could, scurrying across the net. My hands and feet fell through the holes a couple times, but every time I fell, I got right back up again. I used the cross beam to pull me over and climb down the other side. I ran a few steps before blinking. In front of me was an obstacle that wasn’t there the other day. A big wall, maybe seven, eight feet. I ran, jumped. As I sailed through the air, I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it to the top or no. The tips of my fingers just barely grabbed on. I curved my fingers inward, holding on for dear life. With a grunt, my muscles straining, complaining, I pulled myself up. I threw my legs over the top and jumped. The force of my momentum hitting the ground took me right to my hands and knees.