“Thank you,” I said, swallowing my nerves.
“Now, go back to your world,” Lilith said. “You have work to do, yes?”
I nodded, my throat tight. “Thank you. Can I call you again if I need you?”
“Anytime, my child,” she said, cupping my cheek in her palm. Her touch was like cool mist on my skin. “You hardly need to call me for such small matters. I am here when you have a true emergency, though.”
I thanked her again, and then I felt myself drawn back to my living, breathing body. I was still in the chair beside Anya’s bed, my head slumped over on the edge of the mattress, my limp hand still lying on her belly. I lifted my head and looked around. Chief Alina sat by the window, her hands folded over her rounded belly, her wrinkled face placid as she calmly waited. Anya was lying on her pillows, looking at me expectantly. Neither looked alarmed that I’d apparently passed out in the middle of the procedure.
I closed my eyes again, focusing my magic.
Trust your instincts.
Everyone seemed to be telling me that today. So, I listened to their advice. I let a bit of magic seep from my fingertips into Anya’s skin. I pictured the inner workings of her body, focusing on her womb. I pictured healthy tissues, blossoming flowers. My conscious mind butted in, wondering if I was going to put some plants inside her and kill her, but I pushed the thought away and went into my meditative state again. I pictured a garden blossoming, overgrowing with an abundance of flowers. A smiling, toothless baby reaching up for her face. A girl with pigtails and skinned knees and tears on her freckled cheeks. A teenager slamming her door and yelling to be left alone. And then I did it again, picturing a boy this time, since I didn’t know which she wanted. Maybe she’d have both. Maybe just one. Whatever the case, I gave her enough magic that I hoped whatever she wanted, it would come to pass.
At last, I opened my eyes and sat back. I was surprised to see that the afternoon had turned to a blue evening outside. I felt as bone tired as if I’d been battling shifters all day.
“Did you do it?” Chief Alina asked, sitting up straight from where she’d slumped in her chair.
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “Only time will tell. I don’t want to give you false hope, but I did all I could think to do.”
“I feel it,” Anya said, cradling her belly like a baby already resided there. She looked up at me with a shy, hopeful smile. “I can already feel it.”
“That’s impossible,” snapped a cold voice from behind me. I turned to see Camila standing in the doorway, Gabor hovering behind her like a shadow. She was glaring at Chief Alina, her nostrils flared in anger. “She’s a human. You can’t actually believe her. She’s promising you something she can never give you. There’s not even a chance it will work.”
“She didn’t promise us anything,” Chief Alina said, pushing down on the arms of the chair to lift herself to her feet. Her short stature didn’t detract from her imposing air as she glared at Camila.
My sister threw her hands up and turned to Anya. “She’s completely hoodwinked you into believing her because she knows you’re so desperate for a baby that you’ll believe anything. I can give you something right now—something real.”
“There’s one thing you’ve refused to give us since you set foot in my house,” Chief Alina said. “Respect.”
“What?” Camila gasped, color draining from her already pale cheeks as the lynx chief rifled through her pockets. “I respect you! I’m telling the truth, and my sister is nothing but a liar and a thief and a—a—usurper!” She screeched the last word, pointing a trembling finger at me, her eyes flashing gold with outrage.
“Two out of three wins the amulet.” Chief Alina handed me a small, oddly shaped wooden object that, upon closer inspection, I could see was carved like a doll with the ears and tale of a lynx. “May you bless your kingdom, whether or not you rule it as queen,” she said. “You have given my daughter hope and, maybe more impressive, you have brought back a smile to her face today. For that, you’ve gained the amulet of the Lynx Commonwealth. What you choose to do with it, I will let your own wisdom decide.”
She smiled, the corners of her eyes creased deeply with wrinkles. “Now, please take this circus elsewhere. I would love a quiet evening with my daughter.”
“Thank you,” I said, bowing deeply, the amulet cupped between my hands like the most precious jewel. “I am honored. And since I know you don’t want a long speech, that’s all I’ll say. That, and please send me word when you find out if you’ll become a grandmother.”
I bowed to her daughter as well, then slipped past Camila to take my leave. “You’ll never get away with this,” she hissed as I stepped past her. But she didn’t try to stop me. Instead, she turned to Chief Alina and started arguing her point, even though the amulet was already in my possession.
I shook my head at her antics, only to be caught in the act by Gabor, who stood in the middle of the hallway.
I pulled myself up to my full height, pretending I wasn’t embarrassed that he’d caught me rolling my eyes at the princess, my sister, his one true love.
“Excuse me,” I said, my voice cracking annoyingly and ruining any attempt at dignity.
He frowned at me, his gaze darting to Camila and then back to me. He stepped aside, but as I moved past him, he cleared his throat and muttered two words.
“Be careful.”
Five
“Why do you think she let us leave without a fight?” Jetsun asked without turning from the window of the private jet Sir Kenosi chartered to carry us across the ocean. The others were sacked out on the beds in the back half of the plane, but when I’d woken to use the restroom, I’d seen a light on and come forward to find Jetsun sitting up reading.
“Is that what’s keeping you awake?” I asked, sinking into the plush leather seat next to him.
“Many things keep me awake at night, Princess Itzel.”
“You don’t have to use my title,” I pointed out. “I’m your sister.”
He swallowed and looked down at the book in his lap. He’d closed it, but his finger marked the spot where he’d left off. His hand obscured part of the title, but I remembered it well from the dreaded tutors who’d tried to force me to read it a hundred times—The History of the Feline Nations.
“Good book?” I asked, since he hadn’t responded to my comment.
“I thought I’d brush up before we got to your country,” he said with a shrug. “The drawbacks to being an isolationist clan.”
“The Ocelot Nation is one, too,” I reminded him. “Maybe I can read over your shoulder.”
“I read this once, as a teenager,” he said, brushing the tips of his long, elegant fingers across the embossed title. “I liked science better, so I’m afraid I haven’t kept up with the politics of the world as I should have.”
“At least you have a good excuse,” I said. “I found all of it a total snoozefest, so I snuck out instead of learning. I wasn’t exactly mature.”
“You were a princess,” he said with a fond smile. “I’m sure others have done worse.”
“Yeah, well, I find myself wishing I’d tried harder, studied more, and learned my lessons the way Camila did,” I said. “I never thought I’d need to know any of that. I wasn’t a shifter. Why did I need to know about their politics? But that’s a terrible excuse. I wanted to be an advisor, and I ran around like a little brat while she memorized all that. No wonder she hates me.”
“Never too late to admit your mistakes and try to remedy them,” he said, smiling at me and opening the book. “Crash course?”
“Thanks,” I said, leaning in next to him. Our shoulders pressed together, and for a second, neither of us moved a muscle. My breath caught, and I waited for him to pull away. It was silly, considering his fingers and tongue and cock had plundered every orifice on my body, but we’d spent every day since my heat ended determinedly avoiding physical contact. Since the others had assured me that what happened in a heat stayed in the heat, we�
��d never come close to mentioning what happened in that cave. We barely made eye contact.
And now I was flush against his shoulder, and the heat of his body washed over mine, sending tingles all the way to my toes. I could barely breathe as I sat waiting for him to move away. Instead, he shifted closer, just a fraction, but I could feel his weight sink into mine a bit. Then, he started reading. I tried. I read along, trying to absorb the ridiculously dry text while the sexiest man in the universe sat next to me, practically cuddled up to me, but completely untouchable in the way he was meant to be touched.
I couldn’t keep my mind from wandering to our predicament. I couldn’t have him, but I had five other mates. He had no one. For the rest of his life, he’d have to go back to being celibate or fuck some other woman. The thought made me feel like turning into a shifter and ripping someone to shreds, and I couldn’t even shift anymore.
He turned the page, shifting the book toward me. I tried to concentrate, to focus on the page about Queen Jaguar’s rise to the throne. But then my eyes slid off the bottom of the page, and I wasn’t looking at the book anymore at all. I stared at the very obvious, thick bulge in Jetsun’s lap. My mouth watered, and I swallowed hard, trying not to drool like the thirsty bitch I was. But gods, it looked so good. My fingers itched to reach out and wrap around his familiar bulk, to delight in the perfect length and thickness of his beautiful, hard cock, like I had so many times before.
Fuck, what was wrong with me? He was my brother.
I tore my eyes away and refocused on the page in front of me, crossing my legs and squeezing them together, feeling the delicious pressure building there as my arousal heightened. How could I get this turned on just by reading a dry text book with a man? I snuck a glance at his godlike, chiseled features, the sharp sculpted jawline, full lips, and thick, dark lashes that cast shadows across his pale cheeks. His lids fluttered as his eyes moved across the page, as if he were completely oblivious to the raging erection in his lap.
I couldn’t think of anything else, even when I forced myself to avoid looking. I could feel my heartbeat pulsing between my thighs, my clit throbbing every time I thought of his hot cock sliding against it. Magic shimmered through my limbs, along my skin, swirling between my thighs until it felt like a hungry tornado was forming there, wanting nothing but to suck him in.
“You’re hard,” I whispered at last.
“Mmmhmm,” he murmured, continuing to read.
I wanted to scream. No, I wanted him to make me scream. To hold me down and force himself into me, to tell me it didn’t matter that he was my half-brother, that he had to have me, to fuck me, to lick the juices from my pussy one more time.
“Everyone else is sleeping,” I said, swallowing hard.
He made a non-committal sound, a little hum of agreement.
“If you wanted to…” I said. “We could. I mean, no one would know…”
“No,” he said. “You know we can’t.”
But we can, I wanted to scream. This is our only chance.
Who knew when we’d be alone again. I had six mates. Alone time with any one of them was going to be a rare, precious commodity.
“You don’t really mean it,” Jetsun said. “It’s just your magic talking.”
My magic. Shit. My fertility magic—basically sex magic.
“Oh, right,” I said, forcing a laugh. At least I had an excuse to hide my shame, even if I was pretty sure he was wrong. It wasn’t my magic. It was me. I wanted him still.
“Does it not affect you?” I asked.
“It does,” he said, flipping the page. “I’ve had a lot of years of practice.”
“Right,” I said again. “Being a monk and all. Abstaining.”
“Yes,” he agreed.
“Not to mention you’re literally a god,” I muttered.
“A demigod,” he corrected. “But yes. Maybe that makes me able to resist your magic better than a mere mortal.”
“A mere mortal?” I teased, poking his bicep. “Is that what we are?”
“Isn’t it?” he asked, a hint of haughtiness in his voice. And even though I hated it when Camila looked down her nose at me, on him, it looked good. A little confidence just made him even sexier.
Damn it.
I was so screwed.
Or not screwed, as the case may be.
“I should get back to bed before someone notices I’m gone,” I said.
“I think it may be a little late for that.”
“What?” I asked, standing and pulling back the curtain around us.
Tadeu stood leaning against the next seat, his arms crossed and a triumphant gleam in his eye.
“Did you follow me up here?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.
“The better question is, why didn’t you tell us you were still fucking your brother?”
“I’m not,” I snapped, unable to meet his eye. Technically, that was true. We hadn’t fucked. But gods, I’d wanted to.
“Not for lack of trying,” he drawled.
“We were reading a book,” Jetsun said behind me. “You have no reason to be suspicious.”
“Nice try, pretty boy,” Tadeu said. “I heard enough to know that’s bullshit. This horny bitch was trying to get some dick from her own brother.”
“Don’t call her that,” Jetsun growled.
“At least one of your guys is a gentleman,” Tadeu said to me. “Too bad he’s your brother.”
“Nothing happened,” I said through clenched teeth, glaring at him.
He grinned at me, tapping his chin with one finger. “Now, let’s see. Who would like this information most? Your harem of fuckboys? Your sister? Or Ebele and her reality show?”
“You promised,” I hissed.
“And you promised I’d be your first,” he said.
We stared at each other without speaking for a long moment. Tadeu was his best self when he was needed, valued, and appreciated. He was at his worst when he felt disrespected and taken for granted. But I didn’t know how to fix that right now, so I went for the next best thing.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“I thought you’d never ask,” he said, pushing away from the chair and towering over me. The top of my head was barely even with his nipples. He leaned down, lowering his voice to a rough, taunting growl. “I want you on all fours, with your ass in the air, spreading that little wet pussy as wide as it will go for me. I want to hear you whimper and sob while I wreck you, just like you did when I fucked you up against the woodshed.”
I swallowed hard, blood rushing in my ears as I nodded. “And you won’t tell anyone what you heard just now.”
“Itzel…” Jetsun started. “You don’t have to do this.”
“She wants to,” Tadeu said, smirking over my shoulder at Jetsun. “She can’t help herself. This little slut’s wet every time I touch her. She may play otherwise, but she likes the pain as much as I do. You can watch and see, if you want. I bet you’d like to watch me plow your sister, hit so deep in her cunt it knocks the breath right out of her. I know you can never go that deep, but you can watch and see how much she likes it.”
“This isn’t right,” Jetsun muttered as my eyes pleaded with him to leave it alone.
I reached for the curtain, but Tadeu yanked it back. He chuckled and pointed at the floor. “Get down there and spread ‘em for me. Your brother’s going to watch how a real man fucks his little sister.”
On trembling knees, I knelt on the floor, glad my back was to Tadeu. I forced myself not to look at Jetsun in the chair to my right as I pulled my pajama bottoms down to bare myself for Tadeu.
He pushed a finger into me and pumped it in a few times before adding a second. Then he pulled them out and held them up. “Look how wet she is,” he said. “She may pretend otherwise, but this pussy’s always hungry for my cock. Unless you got her wet and ready for me, big brother. Is her cunt dripping for you?”
Jetsun’s hands gripped the arms of his chair, but I couldn’t see his f
ace. I didn’t want to. I lay my chest on the floor and turned my face the other way.
“Yeah, princess. Spread it open for me to show me how much you want me,” Tadeu said.
I obeyed, reaching back to spread myself wide for him. Tension built inside me while I waited, unable to see him looming behind me. I bit my lip at the trembling nerves running through me in anticipation of the coming agony. The huge head of his cock pushed against my opening like a fist. I bit back a whimper when he pushed forward, straining to breach my entrance.
“Oh fuck,” he groaned, pushing forward until he’d forced the head into me. “You may be a slut now, but my cock’s so big that it feels like you’re still a virgin. Every time I fuck you, it brings me back to those little virgin milkmaids I fucked in your father’s stables.”
I knew it made me insane and more than a hypocrite, but jealousy flared in me at the thought that he was picturing someone else when he was inside me. I held onto that to keep from giving him the satisfaction of my cries as he pumped deeper and deeper, forcing his incredible girth into me inch by inch. At last, he reached my depths, and I couldn’t hold back a strangled cry of pain.
“Stop,” Jetsun growled. “You’re hurting her.”
“She likes it,” Tadeu said, grabbing my hair and lifting my head. “Don’t you, you little slut? Tell your brother how much you like it when I fuck you like the whore you are.”
I nodded, trying to hold back the tears that were leaking out the corners of my eyes. Tadeu pulled back and thrust his giant cock deep into me, and I choked with shock, unable to draw a breath for a second.
“Tell him,” he growled.
“I like it,” I managed. Tadeu pushed my head back to the floor, holding it pinned while he thrust into me. He fucked me hard and fast, hammering into me with a frenzied speed and force that made tears pour from my eyes and a silent scream force my jaws open. At last, my battered insides couldn’t take any more, and I sobbed aloud as he slammed into me the final time, his flood of cum washing into me and burning through my battered insides like icewater.
Suddenly, a deafening shriek filled the plane. I clapped my hands over my ears and rolled away as Tadeu’s grip vanished from my hair. My heart slammed against my ribs as I tried to reorient myself and clear my head. I was lying on my back at Jetsun’s feet with my pants around my knees, staring up at him. He stared back at me, his face pale and stricken.
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