by Rae Foxx
Shit. I needed to get in the shower and cool off.
Wash off the lusty smell of a Fae god that I definitely shouldn’t have been fucking. Except he didn’t seem to be fussed. He had even said I was Fae.
I froze halfway to the bathroom, “Scarlet, I need to ask you a question.”
She made a gun with her pointer finger and thumb, aiming the thing at the ceiling. “Shoot.”
“Do people have more than one magic? Like, can you be a shifter and say a vampire? I know it’s forbidden,” I used a low voice when saying the word. “Or whatever, but has it ever happened?”
She sat up and kicked off her shoes. “Why do you think we have rule number one?”
“So, you don’t have a million babies attending daycare one-oh-one?” Scarlet gave me a look before shaking her head.
“No, you can’t breed until you reach full maturity. For shifters that tends to be about thirty or forty years. None of us are getting pregnant anytime soon. Which is why the library—” she stalled and shook her head again. “Never mind. You can’t get pregnant, but that doesn’t mean you can go be a dumb ass. Wait for your mate.”
Probably too late on that account, but at least I didn’t have to pester her about locating a morning-after pill now.
“Besides, you must have similar magic or blood to bond anyway. Fae to Fae, Shifter to Shifter, Vamp to Vamp, etc. Trust me when I say we don’t fuck around with that rule. We just fuck with other shifters like horny teenagers until we find our mate—our true mate. Can’t be helped.”
“Unless you’re betrothed.” I rolled my eyes, hating how quick my mind went back to Howl.
“Yeah, but they are playing with fire, trust me.”
“What do you mean?” Something was getting all tight and uncomfortable, the feeling growing as Scarlet sat up to look at me.
“They are forcing a bond, but that doesn’t make the true mate of either of them disappear. It doesn’t mean the wolf connects to the other.” She shrugged and unbuttoned her pristine white shirt and let it loose, exposing her bra. “I would hate to think what would happen if their true mate shows up. Or how far the Alpha will go to ensure bloodline.”
“You make it sound like we are part of the mafia or something.”
She shrugged one shoulder. “Maybe we are.”
I snorted. “Well, if I’m ever asked to ‘take someone out’ I’m officially resigning from this madhouse.”
Rolling her eyes, she flung herself back onto her pillow. “Yeah, good luck with that.”
My throat was suddenly feeling very tight and uncomfortable, heat spreading over my chest as I slipped into the bathroom and locked the door behind me.
Everything was suddenly feeling very foreign like I was looking at the world through a paper tube. Magic didn’t intermingle and having more than one magic was impossible. Yet, I had felt Finn’s magic. I had felt that connection.
I had also turned into a giant wolf and beat the shit out of Selene.
If what Scarlet said was true, one of those things did not belong.
One of those things was not possible.
Flustered, shaking, and a bit neurotic, I flipped the shower water on, needing to feel something normal against my skin.
Pulling off my shorts, a tiny piece of paper slipped from the pocket, fluttering to the ground like so many of the beautiful petals. My hands shook as I picked it up, literal glitter falling to the ground as I unfolded it.
My heart and soul belong to only you. Where you go, I will follow. Think of me as you dream, Honeybee. ~F
No amount of cold water was going to be able to cool me down.
Chapter 12
“Are you feeling like your stomach is going to devour you from the inside out? Because I am one grumble away from going wolf on this book and treating it like a steak.” I leaned over to whisper to Scarlet who was nose deep in a brown leather book with a picture of what looked like a dragon-man on the cover.
I wasn’t going to ask.
“It’s nowhere close to dinner, Ivy. You still have two pages to get through on that paper.” She tapped the edge of my partially completed essay with the end of her pencil, giving me a narrow look from behind her red bangs. “You don’t want to piss off Caruthers. You’ve made it almost a month. Don’t jinx it.”
I shifted in my seat and seethed into her ear, “What are we supposed to do until then?”
I got shushed by one of the tall, dark and crony librarians behind the desk.
Scarlet’s accusatory glare burning a hole in my soul as she leaned over the large wood table. The big leather chair she sat in creaking ominously.
I played along, even though I was desperate for some secret passage to hamburgers and potato chips.
“We study. Hence the word study hall.”
“Brat.” I sighed and leaned back in my chair. Scarlet chuckled and went back to her studying. Reading a line and copying it down on her notepad. Then reading another line and copying it down in her notepad. Then reading another line and surprise, surprise, copying it down in her notepad.
I groaned more and slouched into my chair, thankful that we got to dress down for this library driven drudgery, not that I ditched my red bra. Of course, we seemed to be the only people that were studying. Most everyone that entered the library made a bee-line for the stacks and were not doing anything close to studying.
Not that I heard or saw anything suspicious, just like all those students in the hall when Finn had cornered me in the courtyard when the flowers had grown thick around us, and our clothes…
I swallowed and slammed my book shut, suddenly feeling hot, cold, clammy, and electric all at once.
“You okay?” Scarlet asked without even looking up.
“Yeah,” I barely choked out the word, “I need another book on…” I glanced at the next question on my paper, “mating traditions in a supernatural group.”
I choked. Of all the mother fucking things for me to choose to read.
Scarlet looked up to me slowly, but I was already gone, hightailing it to the stacks in search of a book that was probably the last thing I should be reading with how warm, wet, and tingly everything had become.
One or two of the freaky replicated librarians seemed to be following me as I made my way through the towering bookcases, casting confused glances at the old leather spines that were printed in languages that I didn’t understand. I was beginning to realize that unless one of them had a gold inlaid image of two vampire-slash-werewolves-fae getting it on I wasn’t going to find what I was looking for.
I quick-stepped passed the all-seeing grey eyes of yet another replicated librarian and turned a corner, passed black leather books with red-lettered spines that looked too much like blood, around another corner, and right into an ass crack.
A smooth, brown, muscular ass crack.
“What the fuck?” I trilled, jumping back as an unfamiliar face twisted around, green-slitted eyes piercing into me.
The guy made a sound that was more like a hiss and continued pumping his cock into the blonde beauty who was laid back and open to him, the girl moaning and clutching a row of human encyclopedias like they had value.
“Get out of here, bitch, or you’ll be next,” the guy groaned as he pushed against the girl, except it wasn’t the first dude that had spoken that time. It was another guy, this one behind the girl, his hands wrapped around her waist as he pushed his dick into the still moaning female from behind. The two men pumped and moaned and gasped and… I swallowed, my head spinning.
I had seen my fair share of fetish porn, but watching this… it was stirring something to life that I didn’t know existed, some feral rumbling hunger.
“Take it, babe,” one of the men said. “Take it all.”
I swallowed, realizing how much I wanted that. Oh god. I probably would have jumped in if it wasn’t for the electric heat that was rumbling inside of me, the sparking magic angry, powerful, possessive.
The growling beast in my head had
returned. I took two steps back grumbling something that sounded like ‘no thank you’ once the hot rumbling lust had melted away and I could form words again. I backed away as the threesome moaned and shrieked with more earnest.
I wasn’t wrong about the students breezing into the stacks. I didn’t expect it to be a full-on orgy in here.
Luckily two bookcases away I couldn't hear the trio anymore, but I was no closer to finding what I needed.
“The sound of your shoes is as asinine as the future you are wandering into.” A scratchy voice spoke right behind me, causing me to jump and yell as I spun around to face yet another of the replicated librarians. This one’s eyes were so faded that I wasn’t sure she could see me, through me maybe, like a ghost that was drifting between two worlds. I shivered.
“Excuse me?” I was even stuttering.
“The section you’re looking for is over there.” She pointed one boney finger toward the other side of the library and I was off, drifting through books and dark corners until I stopped dead at the sound of a scratchy voice that was familiar in all the wrong ways.
“If you don’t stop your moaning someone will hear us,” Howl said in a hiss and a grunt, a sigh following right behind.
I turned the other way, I wasn’t interested in walking in on another bang-fest featuring the king of the wolves and his bitchy mate.
“If you would fix it, Howl, then I won’t have to,” Selene responded, her voice sultry and manipulative and winding up my spine until my wolf felt ready to jump out of my skin and rip her face off.
“You brought this on yourself, Selene. Don’t come moaning to me to fix it,” Howl snapped again, the dry anger in his voice sending me growling. Like I had some need to step between the two.
They could solve their own shit.
I took one step back, not liking how alive and angry my wolf was suddenly feeling.
“What if I could make it more interesting.” Selene continued in that same voice, the tone froze me in place again. “I know you like the way I go down on you. The way my tongue runs over your shaft--”
Before I could stop myself, I had taken the five steps back to them, zipping around the corner to face a very angry Howl and a very shocked Selene, who was on her knees, already fumbling with Howl’s fly.
I only caught a glimpse of the turgid flesh and red nailed hand when icy fingers wrapped around my forearm and pulled me into the darkened stack on the other side of the now moaning pair.
My back pressed against the hard ridges of wood, the cold hand pressing against my arm while the other lifted to tap against my hip.
Both cold.
A luscious, brittle cold, that felt hot against my frayed nerves.
I sighed as someone else did, as my focus lifted to a pair of steel eyes and long curved lips that were the lightest shade of rose. Perfectly pink, formed lips. Perfect grey-green eyes shining below a shaggy coif of black hair. Even the way the shaggy locks laid over his forehead and slightly pointed ears were perfect. Perfect everything.
It was as though he was carved from clouds, sprinkled with God’s tears, and given the abs of every single lickable man on the planet.
“Shhh,” the stranger said, lifting a finger from my arm to press against my lips, the touch cold and electric all at once. “Don’t let them hear you, my rose, you do not wish to awake that one while she feeds.”
“Feeds?” I gasped, louder than I intended. Although I don’t think Howl and his cock sucker could hear over his moans. The bookshelf I was pressed against was even starting to thump.
“Yes, the mating habits of the wolves can mirror that of my kind,” he said, those dark eyes peering past me to the books that were now jumping on the shelf.
“Your kind?” I asked in a whisper as Howl moaned, the sound tightening angrily over my chest.
The guy didn’t answer, he just smiled, the points of his elongated canines poking out from behind the perfect curve of his lips.
“Vampire.” I hadn’t meant to say it aloud, to make those lips turn up again. To make my heart stutter. He heard the fear and quickened pulse of my heart and he leaned in, his nose pressing against the hollow of my throat as he took an icy breath in.
“Don’t be scared, my rose.” his words chilled me as much as his inhale. “There is no reason to fear.
“Well that’s shit,” I hissed as Howl moaned. “Don’t you drink blood or something?”
The vampire pulled away, hands curled around the pulsing shelves beside my head as he peered into me, nostrils still flared as he looked at me.
“Drink yes, but not drain, especially when we find our queen.” He was moving back into me again. “The one whose blood calls to us. Speaks to us, sings to us.”
He was still inhaling, slow and deep as his tongue ran over his bottom lip, his eyes watching my blush flower over my cheeks.
Weeks. I had spent weeks fearing the Vampires, scared of those fangs, of the dark stare that had become something out of a horror novel. Being here, his cold hands running over my skin, his dark voice triggering every erotic hungry thought in me.
“Oh… yeah?” I asked, aware that I was stuttering, that the bookcase was hitting against my back more, that Howl’s and Selene’s moans were getting louder. “And who… who is that?”
“I think you already know. I think the pulse of your heart betrays you, the aroma that drifts from you has given you away. You know what you are to me. You are ready for it.” Even his voice was ice, the air growing to match as his hand drifted over my hip, wiggling its way under the hem and over my stomach. Over the firm skin formed from too many hungry nights, and against the waistband of my jeans.
“Eager. Do you want me to feed the desire, to make your blood run hot?” he asked, his eyes flashing and pulling all logical thought from my mind as his fingers tickled below my waist.
Before I could inhale, he popped the button, pressing his palm against my abdomen as his hand dove against me, fingers moving against me as he went lower. Lower. I moaned and laid my head back, pushing myself against his hands, against his fingers that were now pressing against my clit.
Cold, rippling, heat that was swirling through my veins, swelling with want and need. Oh god - I couldn’t wait anymore.
“Do you want to take your place as my queen?” “Do you want me to make your blood sing?”
“Please,” I moaned, pushing myself against those wandering fingers coaxing him down lower, closer to the wet want that pulsed between my legs.
“Please,” I said again, the tip of his finger circling me, pushed into me just enough that I almost lost control. Would have if I hadn’t opened my eyes enough to see him lean into me, see those smoldering eyes and the sharp white points of incisors as he leaned in to inhale me, to run lips and teeth run over the exposed skin of my neck.
I had been scared of Vampires since I first stepped into this school. But now? Now, I wasn’t scared of that. I wanted more of that. All of that. I wanted those sharp teeth to burrow into my flesh.
Oh god.
“Soon,” he whispered, cold breath sending a chill over my skin, leaving me desperate and wanting as his hand vanished, as his lips pressed once against my neck, his sex bulging against my stomach.
“Soon, my rose. Until then…” Something hard was placed in my hand. Then he was gone, leaving me gasping, wet, and confused. I stood in the middle of the dark aisle, an old leather book in my hand, and a dirty old librarian staring at me from the end of shelves, smirking.
“Dirty, old hag,” I snarled and stepped away, clinging the book against my chest, the chorus of Howl and Selene’s pants and groans an unwanted chorus to my retreat.
I didn’t look at the book until I got back to Scarlet and slammed the massive book on the desk, sending up a plume of dust as the five words on the cover slammed reality against my chest.
‘Ancient Mating Habits of the Supernatural Harems.’
I guess that’s seven words, I didn’t care. I flipped it over before Scarlet
could see.
“Where the hell did you go?”
“Into orgy haven, apparently.” It was taking far too much effort to keep my voice even.
Scarlet looked up at my answer, “Oh, yeah, I should have warned you. The librarian’s a prude. The student body doesn't care as long as they can feed their mating needs.”
“Wait. I thought they were all fiercely loyal to their bonded pairs.” Suddenly all the fucking around that was happening in the library made no sense.
“Well, they are.” Scarlet sighed, putting her pencil down. “But eighty percent of us are immortal. Sometimes it takes a while to find your one true mate. Well, we get lonely.”
She shrugged like being fucked by two guys at once was something one does when they are bored.
Maybe it was. I wouldn’t know.
My eyes drifted back to the stacks, hot want pooling between my legs as not the trio, but the pale perfect specimen of lickable flesh wandered from between the bookcases. He gave me one look and I about melted into goo right then.
“Ivy!” I heard and had to shake myself out of the woozy bubble I’d been in.
“What?” I yelled a little too loud and the guy chuckled before walking away.
“Vampires are off-limits. Don’t even look at him. Besides, I thought you were scared shit-less of those guys?”
“I am. I mean I was! I mean--” I jumped and flustered in my chair, looking for something, anything to preoccupy myself with. All I found was the book. There was no way in hell I was grabbing that with the way Scarlet was still looking at me.
“Well, keep it that way, Ivy.” she hissed, giving the retreating back of the Vampiric god a glare before turning back to me. “They are hot, yes, but they feed off their lovers.”
“Feed?” I squeaked; the word heavy on my tongue.
“Yes, suck their blood. They allure their blood whores into the school and bind them to them. You don’t want that.” She shook her head and went back to her incessant note-taking.
I watched her for a second,
“Oh… and… what about the Fae.” I could already feel the damn blush rising, the note in my pocket burning a hole through it. Thankfully she wasn’t looking at me.