by JL Madore
When he reaches back, I watch the twist and pull of his abs flexing. I grip my cock and savor the sight. He’s waaay too good for me, but I’m enough of a bastard that it didn’t stop me from claiming him.
“Come to me. Straddle my hips and let me kiss you some more.” He follows my instruction like a freaking champion.
I lean back in the corner of the couch and he climbs into my lap. His thighs straddle mine and within seconds, we’re chest-to-chest and kissing again.
His smooth chest moves over my nipple rings and the gentle tug and rub on the platinum hoops sends a zing of sensation to my sac.
Kotah’s got a lot more fire in him than I first anticipated.
Even a vanilla life with him will never be ordinary.
I ease back from our kiss and open the spout of the lube and stroke myself slick. When I’m ready, he raises on his knees and I reach beneath his sac to prep him. The key to great male/male sex is lots of slick and slide.
His eyes roll back as I massage the moisture in… first with one, probing finger, and then two. With eight thousand nerves in the anus, it’s no wonder it feels amazing to be stimulated. I owe Jaxx so much for opening my eyes to what that means for the five of us.
Kotah drops his head back and shifts his hands to grip the backrest of the couch on either side of my head. His Adam’s apple bobs with deep swallows as I work him in. “Good?”
“Yes. So, good.”
I smile at the catch in his voice and the knowledge that I key him up as much as I do. “Look at me wolf.”
He’s so fucking obedient.
This is what I love with Kotah—the connection.
Gazes locked. Both of us actively involved. Touching. Kissing. Everything is about the two of us being present with each other.
Withdrawing my fingers is a shame, but I make it up to both of us by propping my cock against the stretched opening.
“At your pace, Kotah. Don’t rush. I’m so fucking good with slow torture.” I grip my cock at the root and let him work his way down my shaft inch by glorious inch. His hips shift and rock as he works himself down.
The hot grip of sliding inside him steals my breath.
Cum leaks out of his crown and I grip his erection, palming him as he rides my cock for his pleasure. The mate in me is content stroking him wet while we play but the alpha in me needs more.
I want to slick things up with our juices.
“I want to fuck you.”
“Yes, please.”
With my arms around him, I twist to the side and lay him on his back. Still joined, I bring my knees onto the cushions of the couch and push forward. His head falls back as he opens his knees wider to give me space to rock my cock.
The throaty growl his wolf lets off when I start a slow and sensual grind notches up my heart rate.
Oh, fuck yeah. This is what we need.
Chest-to-chest with his cock trapped between our rubbing abdomens, I pick up the pace and start slamming home. With each forward thrust, my balls smack his ass, and the sound of flesh hitting flesh sounds off.
I gather his hair between my fingers and marvel at how beautiful he is. His hair is like chestnut velvet and fans out on the cushions around his head like a fucking halo.
I drop my mouth to his neck and suck on his pulse throbbing against his throat. With all my emotional walls down, I’m lost to the sensation of Kotah. He’s doing something with his gift, enhancing the connection we share.
There is no beginning or end to the pleasure. Sexual ecstasy fills me, and surrounds me, and cradles me in its hold.
“I love you, Bastian.”
The breath in my lungs exits in a rush and my timing falters. I slow to keep from losing it. I was doing great until he said that. I don’t know if it’s the total surrender of my emotional guard or a lucky guess that tells him to say that, but it’s fucking perfect.
“Tell me again…” I growl against his throat. The solid length of his erection is trapped between our grinding abs and getting a firm rubbing as I work back up to a punishing rhythm. “Just like that, Wolf. Again.”
“I love you, Bastian.”
I let off a throaty bark and push in hard and fast. My abs burn and the pounding gets wild. To his credit, Kotah braces himself like a warrior. “Too much?”
“No,” he gasps, digging his fingers into the fleshy rounds of my ass. “Perfect. Exactly this. I love you wild for me.”
The world dissolves and there is only me and my mate. A tingling heat rushes through me and it twangs our mating bond. The tie that binds us thickens and even though I claimed him before, this is something on another level—something I didn’t even know I was capable of.
I gasp as my release erupts and my hips convulse. Thrusting forward hard, I lock in place and arc back, grunting as I come hard. Fuck yes, this is what we needed.
When we’re like this, all is right in the world.
Fuck that… there is no world.
There’s just my wolf and me.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Kotah
It’s after eight when I wake, snuggled on the sofa with Hawk. My cheek is resting on his chest and the steady beating of his heart softly whispers in my ear. I don’t stir. I lay there, breathing his scent deep into my soul, staring at the little platinum ring pierced through his nipple. I will live and die thanking the Powers for giving me the mates I have.
At first, I think he’s asleep, but then the feather-light touch of his fingers caresses my bare back. It trails a seductive line from my shoulder blades, down my spine, and over the rise of my hip. When he gets to the downward slope of my ass, his touch changes direction and comes back up.
He’s playing with my hair.
My tough guy, corporate raider, alpha is playing with my hair. Too sexy. “Did you sleep?” I ask, not willing to move and lose this connection.
“I did. Very well.”
I press my lips against the inked span of his chest and look up to catch him watching me. “Thank you for last night.”
The smile he blesses me with is easily the most contented look I’ve ever seen on his face. “I was serious when I said you feed my soul, Kotah. You soothe me like no other and I cherish that. You only ever have to be you.”
As simple as those words sound, it’s nice to hear. In a lifetime of people looking at me and expecting me to be what they want or need me to be, to have mates who love me for the man I truly am is a gift.
Hawk’s stomach growls and I press a hand on the ridged planes of his abs. “I suppose we cannot live on love alone. How about omelets for breakfast? I’ll cook and you can make those calls to arrange our trip to Pennsylvania.”
“Sounds good. You should check in with your sister too. I know how upset she is about your mother, but if she and Doc want to come with us, it could take her mind off things. Maybe working toward thwarting my father might give her some peace until we have more info on your mom.”
I roll to the edge of the sofa, find my lounge pants, and pull them on. “Since the Fae Council and the Prime duties are shut down right now anyway, I don’t think she’s tied to anything here. I’ll ask her.”
“Oh, and please ask them not to mention where we’re going. We’ve got a leak somewhere and I’m tired of my father being one step ahead of us.”
“My sister’s loyalty isn’t in question, is it?”
“No, no. Not at all. I merely want to play it close to the vest. My father has been half a step ahead of us all along and it’s pissing me off. It’s coming to a head though—I feel it.”
Calli
“Hey, kitten, are you feelin’ okay, babe?”
I blink awake and am lost in the concern in Jaxx’s warm turquoise gaze. It’s like looking into the tropical waters of the most exotic holiday destination and wanting to dive right in. “Hey, puss. Why the long face?”
“No reason. If you tell me you’re good, all will be well.”
I straighten the covers and wipe the saliva off my cheek. “Why
wouldn’t I be okay? What’s up?”
“It’s after ten. You’ve been sleepin’ for twelve hours. Hawk and I want you to get up and get some food and drink into you. We’re worried that maybe you didn’t carb load enough after the battle yesterday. We don’t want you slippin’ into another coma.”
I shake my head and sit up. “No, I’m good. I feel fine. I feel better than fine. Maybe I needed a recharge. We’ve been run ragged lately. I didn’t miss anything important, did I?”
By the guilty look on his face, the answer to that is obviously yes. “Hawk and Kotah came to a few hot and heavy realizations around three. It woke Brant and me up. We got started, thinkin’ you’d wake up and join in, but you missed the whole thing.”
“Huh… weird. Usually, I’m the first one to key up when the mating bond is triggered.”
“Thus, my concern,” he says, pressing his lips to my forehead and holding them there as if he’s assessing my temperature. “You’re sure you’re okay?”
“Yep. I’m great.” I scootch off the bed and grab some clothes. “Do we have a plan for today?”
“The plane is fueled and ready on the tarmac. Hawk and Kotah came up with an inspired theory in the wee hours.”
“So, it wasn’t all about mating fun?”
“Nope. There was a definite meetin’ of the minds before the meetin’ of the males.”
“And what’s their theory?”
Jaxx gives me a brief update on a property in Pennsylvania and then heads downstairs to let the guys know I’m up and getting ready. I tell him to pack me a to-go breakfast and do the speed round shower and dress routine. I forego makeup and give my hair a quick blow dry before pulling it into a ponytail.
Look at me. A phoenix girl on the go.
Fifteen minutes later, I’m jogging down the stairs. Lukas is chatting with Hawk over at the coffee machine and Doc and Keyla are sitting at the table with Kotah.
“Ready to roll. Sorry, guys. I didn’t mean to be the lazy daisy on the team.”
“No apology, beautiful,” Brant says, intercepting me by the table to kiss me. “If your body didn’t need the sleep, you would’ve woken up on your own.”
Everyone has their shoes on, and I feel even worse about them sitting around all morning waiting on me. “Next time wake me up earlier. I don’t need to sleep all morning if we’ve got things to do.”
Kotah sends me an apologetic look. “We did wake you up, Chigua. Or, at least, we tried. You growled at Hawk and told him to go away, and an hour later told Brant to shove his promises of bacon up his ass.”
My mouth falls open. “I did not.”
Brant chuckles and flashes me a toothy grin. “Oh, you did. I only wish I had my phone ready, so I could’ve caught the look of disgust that went with it for posterity. I’ll be ready next time though.”
Heat flares in my cheeks and I can’t face the amused looks of our friends. I drop my gaze to the floor and focus on getting my shoes on and getting ready to leave. “Sorry. I don’t remember that.”
Jaxx chuckles. “It’s okay, kitten. If you were exhausted, we’d rather give you the time you need to rest up than have you crash. We never want to go through that again.”
I meet Hawk’s gaze and offer him a reassuring smile. “It won’t happen. I promise.”
He nods. “We’ll make sure of it. Now, before we leave. Take five minutes in the library and see if you can connect with Riley. Let her know we’re heading to these coordinates and will try, once again, to find a way to make contact with StoneHaven and her realm.”
I take the paper with the coordinates and head to the library. “I’ll try, but don’t hold your breath. I think that whatever Riley was trying to hide from and avoid, has forced her into hiding. There’s no way she’d drop off the map like this if she could help it.”
“See what happens, Spitfire. Destiny has a few surprises left in store for us, I’m sure. Might as well have the most people on our side as possible.”
Jaxx
The flight to the property in Pennsylvania takes almost three hours. We’re comfy in Hawk’s plane and quite at home. The eight of us have become quite a happy entourage and after yesterday’s ceremony, we’re all ready to get away from the palace for a bit.
Our inflight entertainment is Brant playing the part of our steward and offering mile-high opportunities, while Hawk tries to brief us all on who’s who in the Black Knight camp.
“You look a lot like your father,” Calli says as we study the picture of Sabastian Senior on the monitor. “It’s that creased brow of harsh disdain and those icy gray eyes.”
“I grew up wishing I looked like my mother,” Hawk says, shifting his weight in his seat to pull out his wallet.
Lukas smiles. “Oh, now there was a beautiful woman. Liza was tall and elegant and had the warmest hugs of any of the magicals my parents visited when I was a kid.”
“She did. And man, she loved kids. If she hadn’t gotten sick, I bet I would’ve had four or five younger siblings.”
Hawk’s smiles are coming easier every day. He pulls out a small picture of a radiant woman squatting down with her toddler to point at ducks on a pond.
I look at it, take a picture of it with my phone, and then pass it to Calli. “How old are you here,” she asks.
“The date’s on the back. Four, I think?”
“You’re right. She’s stunning.”
“Losing her was a true loss,” Lukas says.
At the mention of Elizaveta’s disease, they both sober. I forget sometimes that Lukas is a Squire of the London Order of the Guild of Mages and his family served Hawk’s mother.
Hawk looks like waxing philosophical is hitting a bit too close to home, and then he flips to the next photo. “I guess I did get one sibling. You remember my half-brother, Hunter. Spineless, entitled, inflated opinion of himself.”
I frown at the face of a man who looks nothing like Hawk. He doesn’t have the internal strength of our mate and certainly doesn’t have that core code of honor that Hawk lives by. “I think you got off easy with him. He was in your private circle for years and could’ve done a dozen things to you and gotten away with it.”
Lukas and Hawk both nod.
“And these are the missing Fae Council members. We’re currently placing them in the enemy camp, but the jury is still out on that.”
Hawk flips through a few more slides and then turns off the monitor.
“Do we know who owns the land on the opposite side of the river yet?” Kotah asks. “Do they know we’re coming?”
Hawk shakes his head. “I came across a convoluted chain of shell companies. I didn’t have time to track through the paperwork, so it’s a case of ask forgiveness not permission on this one. Besides, the area we’re targeting is so remote, there likely isn’t anyone around. We should have no troubles.”
Brant snorts. “He says, not believing his own bullshit.”
Hawk shrugs. “Where there’s life there’s hope.”
“Where there’s smoke there’s fire.”
Calli laughs. “Where there’s fire there’s me.”
“Where there’s you, there’s us, Chigua,” Kotah adds.
I finish the round-robin. “And where there’s us, there’s usually trouble.”
“Preach,” Brant says, popping up his fist for a bump. “But maybe this time it’ll be different.”
We all look at Brant and bust up laughing.
“Or maybe not.”
We land without incident and two trucks are waiting at the airport as usual. The five of us pile into our truck and buckle up. Hawk and Brant in the front, Calli and Kotah in the middle, and I’m stretched out in the back.
Lukas, Doc, and Keyla take the other truck with the two FCO drivers who brought the trucks and will now join the expedition as back up security.
“What’s our plan to get into the site?” I ask as the truck slows and takes a sideroad. “By the aerial shots, it looked wild and really, darn remote.”
Hawk grins. “Oh, it is. We’re going in on the river.”
“Boats?” Brant asks, looking alarmed.
“A raft, actually, but a big, sturdy, raft. The river bottom is too rocky and uneven for boats.”
Brant’s growl fills the truck. “Hello, living anchor here.”
“I haven’t forgotten, Bear. Don’t worry. I’ve got you and Doc covered. We’re not going to lose you, boys.”
Brant lifts his chin and puts on a front but he’s not fooling anyone. Our bear isn’t afraid of anything—except water.
“We’ve got you, my man. I’m the water shard, remember? I won’t let you drown. And hey, if the river bottom is too rocky for boat motors, it’s shallow enough that you should be able to stand up.”
“Unless it’s one of the uneven points and I sink… or I get swept away by the current.”
“You won’t get swept away, Bear,” Hawk says. “The guide I spoke to says this river is smooth as glass. Nothing to worry about.”
“And speaking of the mating crystals,” Calli says, turning sideways in her seat to look at all of us. “When is it going to do its thing and become a pendant of unlocked power?”
We all look to Kotah. He’s our man with the answers and has researched the phoenix lore more than any of us. “The ancient fae tongue is a hermetic and sylvan language which is intuitive and flexibly woven. When translated the description given evolves into something like, “When the quint is bound and five become one, the binding of power shall be undone.”
Calli shrugs. “Well? Didn’t we do that? We’ve all mated with everyone. We’re all on the same page for life, love, and purpose. We are one, aren’t we?”
I take her hand from where it rests on the back of her seat and bring her knuckles to my lips. “The mating crystals don’t think so, kitten. Not yet anyway.”
“Could they be broken?” Brant asks. “They were magically sitting around in the ether for gods only know how long. Maybe they need a jump start or something.”