by Cali Mann
“Yes,” Drew said.
“What are Chuck’s demands?” Lucan asked.
“He wants Larkin dead.” I stroked Nox’s ears. My thoughts were clearer than they’d been in days. “And he’s left poison in the woods. He wants one of you to administer it.”
“Fuck,” Drew said. “This guy doesn’t mess around, does he?”
I shook my head. My eyes went to the windows. People still bustled around the infirmary. “Are they going to let me go?”
“You burned a bed and went into a coma,” Lucan said. “They’re going to lock you up and throw away the key.”
“We’re not going to let that happen,” Drew growled.
I turned, looking at the path out of the garden. “Then let’s not give them the chance. I know where he’s left the poison. Let’s go and fetch it.”
“Right,” Drew said, taking my arm.
Lucan blinked at both of us, but then he shrugged and followed along.
When we came out from between the buildings, the weak fall sun shone down on us. It wasn’t very warm, but it felt good on my skin. I’d been inside too long. I stepped through the grass in my bare feet, the slight moisture squeezing between my toes. I shivered as a chill ran through my thin hospital gown.
“Use your fire,” Drew said, his eyes watchful.
I blinked, then nodded. Pulling my fire to me, I let it run along my body, heating it. It wasn’t much—I’d burned a lot of energy setting the bed alight—but it was enough. I was warmer. “Thank you for always knowing what I need.”
He squeezed my shoulder.
Lucan stepped up next to me on the other side, and Nox hissed at him.
I bopped him on the nose. “What’s the matter with you?”
“Wolves and cats don’t get along,” Lucan muttered.
“Well, you better get over yourself,” I said. “Nox is here to stay.”
Lucan raised his hands, expressing innocence. “I didn’t hiss at him.”
Drew snorted.
“Do you have a problem with Nox?” I asked Drew.
“Nope,” he said, eyes on the ground.
I glimpsed Lucan raising his hand at Drew behind my back and I was pretty sure he was flipping him off. I smothered my smile in Nox’s soft fur. No one came running after us as we crossed the wide yard. Apparently, they still believed I was down for the count.
Leaves had fallen along the tree line, and when we stepped into the woods, they made a softer path for me to tread. I was careful not to let my flames get too strong, afraid the forest would go up in one big fire ball.
I followed the directions Chuck had given. They were burned into my brain. Go past the stream, turn left and follow the water until you reach the old oak with an X carved into it. In the roots of the oak was where he’d hidden the poison. I set Nox down on the leaves and crouched. Sure enough, there was a narrow space under the tree. The ground was wet and full of leaves, but I kneeled and shoved my hand into the dark gap. My fingers stuck in a sticky spider web and I shuddered. Finally, I found a piece of hard glass and felt around it—a jar. I pulled my hand out and came up with a small unmarked vial. I slid it into my robe pocket.
“That’s it?” Lucan asked.
I nodded. “For now.”
“You’re not really going to poison Larkin, are you?” His brown eyes bored into me as if he was trying to see my soul.
I glanced around the forest, and then I stepped closer to him, pressing my body against his. I traced his lips with my finger, then I leaned next to his ear and whispered, “Do you think I’m a killer?”
He shook his head. “I just—”
I wound my fingers through his hair and pulled his lips to mine. I didn’t think Chuck would have lingered after dropping his package, but I couldn’t be sure. This wasn’t the place to have this conversation, so I distracted Lucan the way I knew best—with my body.
But the more we kissed, the more I melted. I’d convinced myself I didn’t miss Lucan. That I didn’t need him to feel complete. But there it was, just underneath our skin: a connection that couldn’t be denied.
Reaching behind me, I pulled Drew closer. I wanted both of them with me. I needed both of them to be strong enough to do what needed to be done. We needed to fool Chuck, and that wasn’t going to be easy.
I ran my hands down Lucan’s bare arms, tracing his muscles. His dick hardened in between us, and he growled with need. I smiled, enjoying my effect on him. My growly wolf. But this was about more than passion: they cared about me. Lucan and Drew had come to me when I’d been in need. I knew I could count on them. Warmth rose in my chest. I’d never had anyone I could lean on before. I’d always been the one everyone else leaned on.
Drew pulled aside my hair and kissed my neck, untying my gown and sliding it down my shoulders. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” he murmured.
The worry in his voice hit me deep inside. He loved me, and I loved him. Warmth uncurled in my gut. I shouldn’t have been thinking those thoughts, feeling those things when my brother was in danger. But I needed this minute. This reconnection with my guys after I’d spent so long alone. The touch of their lips and hands stabilized me, melding their air and earth, the sky and the ground. I could feel their powers running through me, meeting and merging with my own, giving me the strength to go forward.
I met Lucan’s eyes. “You’re okay to share now?” He’d been so demanding, insisting that he needed to be first to claim me, but then he’d retreated when his pack was hurt. Was he back for good? Or would he find something new to be angry with me over?
He chuckled, low in his throat. “I am first, and Drew and I are old friends. Besides—” he brushed my hair away from my forehead. “You need us to balance you and keep you from the spirit madness.”
“There’ll be more,” I whispered, knowing that if I fully mated, there’s be a water and fire mate too. Not that I expected to live that long. I pushed that thought away, trying to hold on to this moment, these men.
“I know,” he said. “But I’m your alpha.”
Lucan pushed my gown lower and leaned down to take a nipple in his mouth, his hands stroking and cupping my breasts. The rough wetness of his tongue as it swirled around my sensitive buds made me moan, arching toward him.
I couldn’t deny his words even when we fought. Fate had bound us together. And over the last days, I’d come so close to becoming a killer, to dying, but I hadn’t. This time with them reminded me that I was alive. I was real. I shut out the rest of the world and focused on this moment.
Drew yanked the robe down my arms and dropped it on to the leaf-strewn ground. Then his hands were on me, trailing down my back and between my legs, while his teeth nibbled along my shoulder blade. “May I taste you, my love?”
“Yes,” I answered, my breath already ragged from their ministrations.
Drew dropped to his knees behind me and lifted my leg, positioning himself to bite into my thigh. I gasped, pleasure cascading through me. Giving first, no matter his own pleasure.
Lucan grabbed my hair in his fist and brought my lips back to his mouth. He plundered my mouth, stealing my breath away, taking what he wanted.
They were so different, feeding different parts of me. I needed them both to fill my heart, to make me whole, and yet there were still parts missing. Places that would be whole in time, if I lived. But I wouldn’t live. I shook myself, pushing those thoughts from my mind, and reaching for Lucan’s pants, undoing them swiftly despite my distraction. When my hand closed around the hard length of him, he moaned into my mouth.
Drew’s fingers walked through my wetness, flicking my clit and sending sparks radiating through my sensitive nerves. Pleasure whipped through me, my eyes rolling back in my head and my thoughts fleeing. His gentle tug on my vein and his explorations of my core had me rocking back and forth.
“I need your skin,” I murmured to Lucan.
Lucan obliged, yanking his clothes off. My hands were on the firm muscles of his chest, explorin
g their ridges and valleys. I drifted down over his abs and then I pumped his already hard dick, enjoying the way his breath labored with each pull.
Drew’s fingers moving faster, in and out of me, distracted me, and I released Lucan. I bit my lip, and Lucan pulled me against him, holding me. He stroked my hair as waves of pleasure crashed through me. Drew’s pace ripped the orgasm from me, and I came screaming into Lucan’s chest.
Drew released me, sealing the cut, and a coolness ran over my back as he stepped away.
I eyed at Lucan’s hardness, bobbing between us. I needed to take from him for a change, to feel him lose control. I dropped to the ground, the dry leaves crunching beneath my knees. The smell of forest and earth rising around me.
His eyes heated, Lucan looked down at me with surprise and a bit of reverence. I took him in my mouth and slid down the length of him. I fed on his pleasure, on the way his muscled thighs tightened under my hands. I relished this new way of connecting to my demanding wolf, forcing him to follow my will.
Behind me, Drew spread my legs and pressed himself to my entrance. He always seemed to know just what I needed. I was already wet and slick, ready for him, and he thrust deep and hard. I moaned and Lucan slid in more. We all stumbled into the right rhythm. My arms and legs trembled as my body gave itself up to sensation. Lucan’s solid earth and Drew’s light air were bound together by me, both physically and spiritually. We moved as one being, the current carrying us toward the cliffs of bliss. When we hit them, the three of us burst together into rapture. Drew cried out and the echo of my wolf’s howl split the air.
Afterward, we lay spent on the leafy ground, my robe spread beneath us, and my body kept warm by theirs.
18
Sasha
When we walked back into the building, we were mobbed by the guards.
“Where have you been?” Poseidon demanded, his eyes sliding over our disheveled appearance.
I grinned. He knew exactly where we’d been. Part of me wanted to make him spell it out, to see if he’d blush and stammer. Shifters were rarely shy about sex, but I had come back from the woods with two thoroughly fucked guys on my arms. I winked at him and said, “I’m sorry you weren’t invited.”
Poseidon narrowed his eyes.
“Sorry.” I chuckled. “Next time.” And I started around him.
“Where do you think you’re going?” My guard stepped in front of us.
“Well, I think I kind of need a shower, don’t you?” I pretended to sniff my armpits.
“I’ll escort you,” Poseidon said, reaching for my arm.
My guys growled.
“It’s okay.” I pecked Drew on the cheek then whispered into his ear, “Go and do as I asked.” Then I kissed Lucan too and told him the same thing. I still cradled Nox in my arms.
Poseidon led me away from them and back toward the infirmary.
I pulled to a halt and shook my head. “No, big guy, I meant it. I need a shower and my own bed.”
“You just came out of a coma. They need to look you over.”
I gave him my best smile. “I’m fine. Really. I need a night in my own room.”
Poseidon grumbled. “You set the goddamn bed on fire.”
“Yes, but I didn’t actually hurt anyone. And the headmaster did say I wasn’t under arrest.” I blinked at him. “You can watch if you want.”
He muttered something about little twits and gestured for me to walk ahead.
I rolled my shoulders. I really did feel good. I hadn’t killed anyone. Yes, I was worried about Alex and if Chuck would hurt him, but I had a direction and motivation that was clear and honest. I wasn’t hiding anything from the people I cared about, and it made all the difference. I strolled off toward my new solo room.
As soon as the door closed and I was alone, I dropped the gown and headed straight for the shower. I scrubbed until my skin was raw, reveling in the feeling of being clean. My hair was a rat’s nest, and it took me a while to untangle it all. I gazed in the mirror. I looked thinner than I had before. Guess getting the life sucked out of you will do that.
The image in the mirror seemed paler than my usual skin tone, and the eyes had a red tint. I leaned in closer to check it out.
Someone knocked on the door.
“No, Poseidon, I’m not offering free tours.”
“Good,” Lucan grumbled. “May I come in?”
“Of course.” I grinned and wrapped my wet hair up in a towel.
Lucan stepped inside, his eyes darkening as he looked up and down my naked wet body. My nipples peaked under his gaze.
I swatted him with the towel. “Quit it. What did you find out?”
“You have to admit you’re a little distracting,” he said.
“What did Larkin say?”
“She said she’ll do it. She’ll pretend to get attacked,” he said. “But she still wants to try to search out Chuck through the Council.”
I shook my head. “No, he’ll find out. I told you they’re all on his side.”
“My uncle—”
I glared at him. “Your uncle worst of all. He hates the spirit shifters, but me especially.”
“He doesn’t like that we’re mated.”
“It’s more than that, Lucan. I met him on my first day, and he wanted nothing to do with spirit shifters then.”
“He’ll come around,” Lucan said, running a hand through his hair. “I’m up for leadership of the pack. He’ll have to accept you then.”
I just stared at him. He didn’t get it and probably never would. “Don’t say anything to him or any of the Council. Chuck has eyes and ears everywhere.”
“But wouldn’t it make more sense to find out where they are?” Lucan asked, following me out of the bathroom and across the empty suite.
I’d talked Poseidon into waiting outside the door because what trouble could I get into here alone? Well, ignoring the fact that I’d recently set a bed on fire. In the bedroom, I yanked open my drawers, looking for something to wear. At this moment anything other than my hospital gown and robe looked fabulous. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” he said with a sigh, “if we could talk to some of Chuck’s old coworkers, maybe we could get a sense of where he might take Alex.”
I spun around. “He’s a goddamn executioner, Lucan. He’s been hunting and killing spirit shifters forever.”
Lucan frowned.
“So, that means he knows all about hiding. He can keep out of sight. There’s no way we’ll find him.”
“But if we ask around—”
“—then he’ll know we’re looking.” I pulled out underwear and bra and set about putting them on.
“If we can get the jump on him—”
“Then he’ll kill my brother,” I snarled, yanking on a pair of black jeans. “What are you not getting about this?”
“There has to be something we can do.”
“Yes,” I said, turning back to my closet. “You can do exactly what I say.”
He bristled behind me, but I ignored him. It wasn’t his brother. He needed to calm the fuck down and follow the plan. I grabbed a button-up blouse, and my hand brushed over something extra soft. I reached deeper and grasped the item, pulling it to the front. My hand remembered it before my mind did, but when it happened, I wrapped it around my shoulders and dropped to the carpeted floor.
Lucan rushed over. “Are you okay?”
I licked my lips, stroking the pale blue shawl between my fingers. “No, Lucan, I don’t think I am.”
He wrapped his arms around me, and I leaned into his chest.
How had something I’d dreamed about ended up in my closet? Something I’d dreamed about when I was in a goddamn coma.
“What is it?” Lucan asked, stroking my hair.
I lifted the edge of the shawl. “I didn’t buy this. I don’t own it.”
“Maybe the previous person who lived here left it behind,” he said reasonably.
“When I was in a coma, I dreamed about i
t.”
He chuckled. “You dreamed about a shawl?”
“And a huge palace in the mountains. It was cold and snowy,” I said. I could close my eyes and see it all so clearly now.
He stilled.
I lifted my head, studying his face. “What is it, Lucan?”
He shook his head. “No, I’m just being silly.”
Silly was hardly the word I’d use to describe this gruff wolf. “Tell me.”
“The Oracle lives in such a place. My uncle told me about it,” he said.
“In the mountains?”
“In the Swiss Alps in fact,” he said.
“Would she have a shawl like this?” I asked, barely daring to breathe.
“I’m sure she has a great many shawls, but how would one end up here?”
“I don’t know.”
“And why?” he asked. “Has the Oracle been visiting you in your sleep?”
“No, there was no one in the palace when I was there. I only left a note on the desk.”
“Left a note?”
“I wrote, ‘help’.”
He nodded. “I think the Oracle is offering that help.”
I stared at him. Of all the people I knew, Lucan was the least likely to believe in omens and magical gifts. He was so sensible. Rough and prone to extremes, but ultimately sensible. “Is it possible?”
He smiled. “I’ve been told that very little is impossible with the Oracle.”
19
Lucan
When I left Sasha, I finally felt like we’d had an actual conversation. Sure, it was about the mysteries of the Oracle, but at least it wasn’t only sex and off we go. That was progress.
I still thought we should see if we could pinpoint where the executioner might have taken her brother. We had a better chance of getting Alex back if we surprised Chuck. My wolf approved of that. He wanted the hunter to become the hunted. And we could put more men in the field looking so we wouldn’t be tied down to one plan.
Faking the headmaster’s death seemed like a bad idea. So much could go wrong with it, and it would upset the Council and the parents more. But Sasha wouldn’t be talked out of it.