Pride Before the Fall

by Kaye Draper

  I still couldn't get over the beauty of her husky voice. She had a hint of an accent, but I couldn't place it. Probably from a language that didn't even exist anymore. An ancient kraken. I was still trying to digest that. First Oisin, then Hisashi, and even Con with his own unique form of quiet strength—once I had felt I had to be the toughest bitch in the room just to survive. But I was slowly realizing that was a lost cause with this bunch. I was just lucky they let me into the club.

  I closed the fridge and straightened, not wanting to have this conversation. The one where she said "hey, thanks, but I've gotta go."

  Con slipped an arm around my waist, my intuitive human knowing exactly what I was thinking, if the sad expression in his brown eyes was any indication. He and Kaimana had this beautiful, quiet friendship that hadn't been the least bit hindered by her lack of voice.

  "No problem," I said, forcing down my stupid feelings.

  She tilted her head, studying us. "Why do you both look so sad? Have I done something to upset you?" She shrugged as she paced closer. "I admit, it had been some time since I was among humans before that terrible old man captured me. And I really didn't have much experience with normal interactions while he kept me trapped in that horrid little shop."

  I laughed. "You do just fine, Kai. We're just.... I know you have to leave. To go home. I'll miss you. We all will." I suddenly recalled the day she had made us all dance jigs in the kitchen. The way she was always amused by things that seemed earth shattering to the rest of us. The way she pulled us back from the edge of despair so often, without saying a word.

  She stopped in front of me, her head tilted back slightly to look up into my eyes, a frown between her brows. "Go home?"

  Con squeezed my hip. "Yeah, Kai. Back to the ocean?"

  She laughed, low and throaty. "I forget how strange land creatures can be. Why would I go anywhere? This is my home now."

  I gaped at her. "What?"

  She slipped her arms around my neck and leaned in, pressing her curves to my body as Con stepped back to give us space. "You are my home, gryphon. I've been trying to tell you that for weeks. You belong to me."

  I shook my head, a laugh escaping me. "You can't be serious. You hardly know me. You've been trapped here. I know you were probably lonely before. And we were the first people to be kind to you." I pulled her arms off my neck and gave her hands a squeeze. "But really. I'm not going to take advantage of that." No matter how much I really, really fucking wanted to.

  She heaved a sigh and squeezed my hands back, her strength surprising, nearly crushing my hands. "Stop being a valiant gryphon for a moment, please. I couldn't tell you before, so I understand. But now, I am speaking. So listen." She leaned in again. "I." She planted a soft kiss on my lips. "Want." A kiss to my throat. "You."

  She pulled back and gave me a saucy look. "Preferably now." Her eyes darted around the room. "On that table."

  I gaped at her. "Oh my Gods, I never should have given you your voice back. You're like...a female Oisin."

  She slipped her hands under the hem of my t-shirt, slender fingers caressing my abs. "Hmm... maybe. But he doesn't have these." She squished her breasts against mine, slipped a leg between mine, and rubbed.

  I slipped my hands into her thick, dark hair and kissed her back, hard and hungry. The clingy, stubborn octopus. Mine, the beast in me growled. And kai growled right back.

  I startled when she pulled back, reaching out to snag the back of Con's shirt as he tried to unobtrusively make his way to the door to give us some privacy. The human stopped in his tracks as she reeled him back, fisted her hand in his brown curls and pulled his head back and around to claim his mouth in a filthy kiss that I enjoyed wholeheartedly.

  Con turned, a startled chuckle turning into a groan, one hand landing on her round hip, the other on mine. "Fuck," he gasped, when she let him up for air.

  She turned back to me, as if looking for approval. "Is this okay with you, gryphon?"

  I kind of forgot how to make coherent speech. Every bit of me was throbbing with yes, please, now.

  Con kissed a path up the side of my neck to my jaw, one hand fondling my breast as Kaimiana nibbled at the other side of my neck, slipping a hand beneath my waistband. Jesus, Buddha and Odin.

  I had the presence of mind to unbutton Con's pants and get a hand wrapped around his rock-hard cock while they whipped me into a frenzy.

  Kai slipped her tongue between my lips with an undulating motion that made me think awful, wicked, wonderful things. She chuckled against my lips and I realized I might have said that out loud just now.

  "Table," she purred, pushing me that way.

  I leaned against the heavy oak plank table and watched as Kai wrapped her arms around Con. Ever the sweet man, he hesitated. "Are you sure, Kai? I know you care for Gesa, but that doesn't automatically mean you and I have to—"

  They were about the same height. Which made it easy for her to silence him with her sweet pink lips. Pulling back, she chuckled. "I've never understood why humans feel they have to limit themselves with all these either-or choices."

  Con laughed, his hands smoothing over her ass, fitting her closer. "No idea." He nibbled her ear and she raked her long fingers through his hair.

  "Now you understand," she purred.

  I wanted to burn the sight of them into my memory forever. They were so beautiful and perfect. They undressed each other, between teasing caresses, putting on a show of it for my benefit. I drank in the sight of his dark skin against her olive smoothness.

  Con's eyes were like liquid honey, burning into mine as Kai sank to her knees and swallowed him down. His hands tightened in her hair and he trembled with the suppressed urge to thrust into her mouth. Giving up on my rapidly fading embarrassment, I touched myself through my clothes, feeling Con's eyes heavy on me as I touched my breast, teasing my nipples to hard peaks. Then moving lower, between my thighs ghosting over the fabric. I wanted to go join them right now, but I let them tease me. Drawing it out.

  Finally, Con gasped and put a hand on Kai's shoulder. "Gods, enough."

  She sat back, grinning, her dark hair tumbling about her shoulders and back, lips reddened and eyes shining. Con helped her to her feet, and they stalked toward me, Con's movements matching Kai's in the deadly predator department.

  I grinned and waited.

  Kai pulled my shirt off over my head, hands skimming my ribs and breasts, her warm tongue twirling over my nipples. I gasped and tangled my hand in her hair to keep her there as Con worked my pants off over my hips.

  The moment I kicked my pants off my feet, Kai was there, pushing me back onto the table. I was so fucking glad we had sturdy furniture.

  She pushed me down on my back, lifting my feet to plant them on the edge of the table, her hair tickling my skin as she kissed the inside of my thighs. Dark blue eyes traveled up my body and met mine. She smiled, the expression dripping lust. "Gods, I've wanted to do this for so long." Then she knelt, bringing her lips to my flesh. Her clever tongue flicked over me as Con came around the side of the table to stroke my breasts, kissing me deeply just as Kai latched onto my clit and sucked.

  I bucked up off the table, but a pair of strong, slender hands held me down. Gods what had I gotten myself into?

  Con swallowed down my shouts as I quivered beneath Kai’s touch. I may have blacked out when I came.

  Kai slapped the outside of my thigh. "Turn over." Then she glanced at Con, her face full of mischief. "Your turn Con."

  Which is how I found myself bent over the table with con pounding me from behind while my fingers sank into Kai's moist heat, her lips at my throat. "Fuck," I gasped as Con adjusted his grip on my hips and slammed home.

  Kai tipped my head back and kissed me deep as I came again, pinned between them. I felt Kai shudder beneath me, and she groaned. "Can I have your human now?" she whispered in my ear, her eyes on Con, who had pulled out and was gasping in ragged breaths as he clung to my hips, trying not to lose it.

&nb
sp; I chuckled, completely languid and wrung out. "Just be gentle with him. He's breakable."

  She laughed and moved herself to the edge of the table, crooking a finger at Con. "I've just got my voice back," she teased. "Let’s see if you can make me use it."

  He tilted his head back and closed his eyes, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed. Then he opened his eyes again and glanced at us both. "I swear to the Gods, you're trying to kill me, gryphon."

  I laughed. "Like Oisin always says," I reminded him. "Think of it as endurance training."

  I kissed him and pushed him toward Kaimana. He entered her gently, clearly hesitant to be as rough with her as I usually made him be with me. I stepped behind him, nibbling at his shoulder and whispering dirty things into his ear until he and Kai both collapsed in a sweaty, breathless pile.

  Brushing the hair back from both their faces, I leaned in and dropped a kiss to their sweaty foreheads. "I am the luckiest fucking person alive," I breathed.

  Tired. In serious need of a shower. But lucky.

  Once I hauled my clothes back on and we set the place to rights, I glanced at the poor, abused table. I gave Kai a pained look. "Thanks to you, I will never be able to eat a meal in here with a straight face again."

  She just grinned. "Good. You need to lighten up."

  Gods, she sounded just like Oisin the first time he lured me into a threesome with Con. I met Con's sleepy brown eyes. "Do you realize how much trouble we are in?"

  He put his arm around my shoulders and steered us toward the hallway. "It's been nice knowing you, Gesa. Really. But I guess death by oversexed supes isn't the worst way to go."

  I snorted. How was this my life?

  Chapter 17

  Later that night, I was in my office, trying to do some research on mages and their guild with my limited resources. It was hard to tell what was fact and what was fiction on the internet, but Evalyn had come out of her room long enough to confirm that a couple of the sites I found were real forums. What I managed to learn wasn't incredibly helpful, but it was disturbing. It sounded like the magic-users were basically slaves to the guild that owned them. For their own good, of course.

  Which, wasn't that just always the way it started?

  I was jarred from my glaring at the computer screen by someone pounding on the front door. I frowned. It was too late for a nutty customer. And too early still for Oisin to be home. The club didn't close for another couple of hours yet. So, who the everloving fuck was out there asking for an ass-kicking by pounding on my door at one in the morning?

  I heard Hisashi's feet on the stairs behind me as I made my way to the door. Con trailed after him. The knocking sounded again, loud enough to wake the whole house, if any of us had been asleep. Hisashi looked a bit drunk. Kai came down the stairs with dripping hair and a robe wrapped around her. And Con had his reading glasses on, probably grading papers for his mythological studies class.

  I glared at them all. "I can get the fucking door. I'm not helpless."

  Hisashi shook his head. "The wards are going off like crazy. Don't you feel that?"

  Well sure, now I did.

  I opened the door to find a stranger standing on the stoop in the freezing rain. He was shorter than me—about Con's height, with hair that was probably a pretty caramel color if it wasn't soaking wet. It trailed over one side of his face like a veil. What I could see of his face was stunningly good-looking, all perfect angles and unblemished skin. He was as pretty as a fae. But there was an edge of something other to him.

  My gryphon didn't like him, but I'll be damned if I wasn't immediately drawn to him. One ice-blue eye met mine and I felt his presence like a punch to the gut. What the fuck was he?

  "What do you want? We're closed," I demanded, arms crossed and one second from shifting and shoving him back out on the street.

  He held out one of our slick, shiny cards. "Is this Lionheart Investigations? I found this card in my mail and...well, I think it was a sign. I need your help."

  I sighed. This was all Oisin's fault for making us fucking cards. I eyed the guy. Everything about him screamed money, from his subdued but perfectly cut suit, to the briefcase he carried at his side. We did need to eat. And the bookstore still needed a lot of repairs....

  "Gesa Lionheart," I said, holding out a hand.

  He let out a sigh of relief and grasped my hand. I notice he was wearing expensive gloves, the smooth, flexible kind that weren't for warmth. "Orion Black," he said with a haggard look.

  Con slipped off his glasses as Black stepped into the bookstore and shook the rain off the collar of his expensive coat. His long hair shifted, and I got a glimpse of a scarred wasteland where the rest of his face should be, before he brushed the hair back into place.

  "Orion Black?" Con said softly. "As in Derek White's ex-secretary?"

  I glanced between them, taking in the dejected tilt of Black's shoulders. As if Black was even a real name. Whatever he and White were, they were terrible at choosing aliases.

  I suddenly recalled White's phone call while I was at my mother's house. And the message from the mage. He had a job coming for me, he'd said.

  "Fuck my life," I muttered, slamming the door and locking it.

  The shitfest just never ended.

  Coming Soon

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  Also by Kaye Draper

  Come Love A Fey

  Fey Lovers (Come Love A Fey Collection)

  Demon's Call

  Moonlight Calls

  Blood Beckons

  Destiny Decrees

  The Demon's Birthday Present

  The Demon's Call Series (3 Book Box Set)

  Forever After

  Light of Day

  Dark of Night

  Forever After

  Gesa's Menagerie

  Gryphon's Pride

  Heart of the Pride

  With Pride

  Pride Before the Fall

  Wounded Pride

  Pride and Perdition (Coming Soon)

  Wendigo Girl

  Beauty and the Feast

  Tommy: A Wendigo Girl Short Story

  Creeping Beauty

  Mangled

  Cloud

  Snow Fright

  Raven

  Darkly Ever After

  Owl and the Tramp (A Wendigo Girl Spin-off)

  Wendigo Girl Box Set

  Standalone

  Forever After Box Set

  Redemption (A Fantasy Romance)

  Survivor

  A Secret Sky

  Kelpie

  Watch for more at Kaye Draper’s site.

  About the Author

  Sometimes our greatest strengths come from our deepest pain. Kaye Draper writes magic and romance, starring a cast of creatures with feathers and teeth. Her books span genres from urban fantasy, paranormal romance, reverse harem, steampunk fantasy to sci-fi romance. Her favorite themes are romance and conquering inner demons, and her books range from sweet to steamy to erotic. She loves the outdoors and still hopes to be abducted by fairies. She may have more in common with her characters than she cares to admit.

  You can help Kaye create at patreon.com/KayeDraper.

  Read more at Kaye Drap
er’s site.