Fae Unchained (The Mage Shifter War Book 2)

by Ann Denton

  So, Drake had killed Triton's parents on his quest to kill Citrine, but he'd actually saved Triton's life in the process?

  When Trite joined the council, he found out the shifter who had saved him was the very same one who’d killed his parents. No wonder he hated Drake so deeply. Admiration and hero worship had turned into the deepest, darkest kind of loathing there was.

  Larry filled the jar half full of the Memory Wiping Potion, then re-corked it. He handed the potion bottle to me before taking a seat across the table.

  "Drake vowed, that very night, to never again become that which he hated. He's killed people since. It's even been on purpose. But that purpose is something far more noble now. It's something that even the ethical side of me can respect. He won't kill for vengeance or hatred or greed. His crimes are those of passion, crimes of love and protection and sacrifice for his people. The beast may rage inside of him, but he has never allowed it to consume him like that since."

  Fate snapped her fingers and my fury at Drake faded away. Just like that, I didn’t hate him so much. I was pretty sure I never had, honestly. If anything, I…

  No. I couldn’t admit something like that. Not even to myself. Not when it would never be reciprocated. Not when it hurt me to even say his name out loud.

  I mulled my thoughts, and Larry’s words, and every event that had happened over these last few weeks, around in my mind, trying to come up with a solution.

  Everyone in this entire damn war was so busy chasing ghosts, avenging them, fighting for the memories of loved ones lost.

  Ghosts…

  Finally, something clicked. It was like the clouds opened up and sunshine radiated down on me like a halo.

  "Larry," I said, unable to keep the slight tremble out of my tone. "I think I have a plan. But I’m going to need your help."

  He stared at me without blinking. "I assume it doesn’t involve the murder of innocents?"

  I shook my head. "No, it doesn’t involve the murder of innocents."

  "Then count me in," he said with a smile.

  My lips curled back at him even though my stomach was twisting into tightly coiled knots.

  I finally knew what I needed to do...

  21

  Bodie

  "I can’t believe I had to kill Corey."

  I closed my eyes, leaning against the office door of our temporary housing. I didn’t normally feel guilt. This time wasn’t an exception. I didn’t feel guilty; I was disappointed by him, and my own judgement. I’d somehow let an asshole become my beta.

  Easton sat on the futon across the room, cradling his blond head in his hands. "I know, man. I’m sorry."

  I shook my head slowly and let out a sigh. "It was his own fault. He should have followed his fucking orders. That was his only job as beta—carry out my commands—and he couldn’t even do that. I should have canned him a while ago." My fault.

  Easton nodded, scrubbing a hand across his face before meeting eyes with me. "And Russ."

  Sighing, I ran a hand over my own face, too. "Yeah, that fucking killed me. I know why he did it, and I feel so bad about Cheryl, but it’s just… I can’t allow insubordination, you know? I can’t tolerate it. That’s no way to run a pack."

  I’d seen it happen far too often, alphas with mutiny on their hands. We already had enough enemies. We didn’t need any damn in-fighting.

  "Yeah, man, I agree. Sometimes leaders have to make difficult decisions. I don’t think anyone blames you for it."

  I nodded. I didn’t really give a fuck if anyone blamed me or not. I was doing what was right for the pack and for shifters as a whole. But I did hate that annoying sensation of remorse that swirled in my gut about killing Russ. I would miss having him around.

  "Speaking of leaders making difficult decisions…" Easton said, drawing my attention once more. "What the hell are we going to do? Drake’s not doing his job as leader, the shifters are rebelling, the mages keep attacking, and I honestly don’t know how much longer we can keep this up."

  I stayed silent. I didn’t want to admit that he was right, even though he was. We’d taken the school because we thought it would give us the upper hand. So far? It had only made things worse.

  And Drake… Don’t even get me started.

  As much as I hated it, I was starting to think he should just kiss Aubry and get this mate bond shit over with, so he could pull his head out of his ass and start thinking straight again. I was an assassin, a faceless ghost if I did my job right, and I couldn’t run all of L.A. on the side. We needed him for that. He was the one with a backup plan for every back up plan. At least before now. Stupid dogged fuck.

  "We’re gonna have to talk to Drake," I said in response to Easton’s statement. "We need him to get his shit together and do his goddamn job. No one can do it for him."

  Easton sighed, tapping his toes as he sat in thoughtful silence. "Been there. Tried that. He’s too stubborn. You think Aubry is okay?"

  "Yeah, man, she’s tough. She can handle it." I didn’t doubt that shit for a second.

  She was our mate. She was ride or die now. And I couldn’t even begin to express how fucking hot that was to me. To know she had our backs no matter what. That she’d stay cool and not lose her shit over the fucked-up things we did. Even though she might beat the hell out of us after.

  I grinned as I pictured her tiny frame and mile-wide attitude. She didn’t give a fuck that we were hardened criminals three times her size; she’d go head-to-head with anyone.

  Speaking of our sweet little fae devil…

  Aubry burst into our crap-tastic room and immediately removed her shirt. It still had blood stains from the epic shit-show from earlier, and I could tell she was totally done with wearing it. And I was totally down with that.

  She balled it up and threw it on the floor. "We need to do laundry."

  It took me a second to completely register what she'd said because she was standing there topless and my eyes were admiring the girls.

  "Nah," I responded with a wink. "We need to do you." We definitely needed to experience some positive energy after the negative shit that just went down. And she was already halfway undressed.

  Aubry couldn't seem to help the smirk that crossed her face, and I fucking loved seeing that smile. Goddamn.

  I glanced over at Easton, who stared at me with raised brows. "We?"

  I shrugged and went over to scoop Aubry up, tossing her over my shoulder just like I had after the fire. God, I loved the feel of her. She was so tiny but so curvy. Those legs. That ass. My mate was fucking hot.

  I turned and gave Easton an arrogant stare. "Fine. Just me, then. Your loss."

  I gave Aubry's ass a good smack, enjoying her delighted squeak, showcasing just what Easton would be missing out on. Then I turned and grabbed the doorknob, pretending I was gonna walk off without him.

  "Whoa! No. Wait. I'm in! I'm in!" Easton hurried to catch up.

  Aubry wriggled in my arms. "Both of you, knock it off. I'm serious. I need to wash my shit." She squirmed around enough to push herself upright. But that only put her pretty boobs right near my face. I latched onto a tit and sucked.

  Damn. Yes. This. I needed this. And I had a feeling she needed it too. A chance to destress and depressurize. A moment for us to reconnect in the midst of all this disconnect.

  I used my tongue to flick her nipple. It was so fucking perfect. Soft and pink but it got nice and stiff in my mouth and I gave it a tiny bite. My dick rose to attention.

  I hardly felt it when she smacked my arm. The blood was already rushing south. I was getting into the zone. Especially when I felt one of her little hands squeeze my shoulder. She might be telling me to stop out loud, but her body was giving me the green light.

  Then I felt Easton's hand on my shoulder. He said, "I've heard washing machines can feel like vibrators if you fuck a girl right up against them."

  Immediately, Aubry stiffened. "You heard?"

  Oooh, our little mate was jealous. I decided
to play with her. I unlatched and leaned back to look up at her, resting my chin on her chest, her soft breasts pressing against my cheeks. "He might have heard, but I know."

  Her face turned down toward me and the cutting look in her eyes was glorious. It was vicious and brutal, and it made me want to take her right there.

  I couldn't stop the laugh that burst from me. And I wasn't a laugher. I was more of a smirker. "Gotcha."

  Easton chuckled as Aubry rained down punches on me. She actually got in a few solid hits. When my ears started to ring, I handed her over to Easton, draping her over his shoulder and smacking the sweet curve of that ass again. "Here, you carry her. I'll carry the clothes. And then we'll test out this washing machine theory."

  I snagged our clothes from a pile in the back corner of the room, then walked back to scoop up the shirt she'd dropped by the door.

  Easton had swung Aubry down into a bridal carry and was kissing her lips gently. The jealousy that had once flared like acid in my throat didn't show this time. Maybe that meant I was adjusting. I didn't analyze it, just shucked off the shirt I was wearing and tossed it at Aubry.

  "Here. Cover up."

  Easton wrinkled his nose. "Dude. I would have given her my shirt."

  "Snooze, ya lose," I said, yanking open the door. "Now she's gonna smell like me."

  So, maybe there was still a little bit of competitiveness left inside.

  But Easton just chuckled as Aubry slid my shirt on. She had to fold her wings down to do it, but that just made the shirt stretch tighter across her chest. I considered that a win.

  Damn. If I had to rank my favorite sights in the world, first would be Aubry naked, but a close second would be her wearing my clothes. A month ago, my answers would have been very different. A month ago, the sight of a full moon or of my gun barrel smoking after a perfect shot would have been top of the list. Now, those things were so far down they didn't even compare. I was here, fucking domesticated, carrying goddamned laundry I didn't even know how to do—and I was excited about it.

  The world was a fucking crazy, awesome place.

  Easton and I walked to the other end of the Student Union Building before the three of us made it outside. Without speaking to anyone, and without any real idea where to go, we wandered through the afternoon sunlight with our mate and our laundry in tow.

  "Over to the right," Aubry called out and pointed toward the nearest dormitory.

  The plaque outside said "Sundara Hall, est. 1928." We opened the wooden doors with a skeleton key we'd found in one of the offices and made our way inside.

  The lights were still on. We hadn't bothered to turn them off in most of the buildings, just to help maintain pretenses for anyone walking by. The college looked full and operational. But some buildings hadn't gotten quite the cleaning job that others had. We'd yanked prisoners out of this dorm, but Kira clearly hadn't come around to "sweep up."

  "Careful not to get the powder on you." I warned. "Anybody know where the laundry is?"

  "Basement," Easton and Aubry called out simultaneously.

  I glanced back to see them start giggling together.

  "What the fuck? Have you done this laundry thing together already?" Had they had sex without me again? My wolf changed my vision and I lost the reds and magentas. My eyes could only see blue, but that's how I knew when I was pissed.

  "No! Nothing like that. It's just... jinx!" he said.

  Aubry said it at the same frickin’ time. Like they were fucking twelve-year-old BFF's with braided bracelets and shit. I wanted to yank her out of his arms and carry her instead. I wanted to give her a secret handshake and teach her the different sorts of howls I did and what each one meant.

  Goddamn motherfucking mate sharing bullshit.

  Damn it. I thought I was past this.

  Guess not completely.

  I sighed and turned, trying to convince my wolf that we were soon gonna be buried so deep inside our mate's sweet snatch that it wouldn't even matter. When he brought up the mental image of wolf fucking, it gave me dark, delicious ideas.

  Mmm. Yes.

  There were things I could share with Aubry that Easton couldn't. That Drake couldn't—if he ever pulled his head out of his flaming ass.

  Part of me hoped he didn't.

  The other part was too busy picturing me riding Aubry to care about much else.

  My dick was hard as a rock, tenting my shorts so that I had to adjust them to ease the pressure before I walked down the stairs.

  As basements went, this one wasn't that creepy. It had a couple of hallways that seemed to go around the edges of the room. In the back corner, a walled off area and a low humming sound let me know where we were headed.

  I grabbed the door to pull it open, just in time for someone to push on it from the inside. Larry's grizzled head popped out.

  "Oh!" His hand flew to his heart and he seemed startled to see me. "I wasn't expecting—I'm sorry. I didn't see you there!" He gave a little nod hello toward Aubry and Easton and then made his way toward the stairs, a container of detergent in his hands.

  "Mind if we use your soap?" Easton called out.

  Larry turned and didn't make eye contact with us. Damn it all. "Oh, um. It's empty, I was just bringing it up to recycle it," Larry said. "But I saw some in there. On the shelves."

  He scurried off.

  I didn't give him a second glance, too eager to get these damn clothes out of my hands and fill them up with something else. Someone else. Aubry.

  I shoved the clothes into a machine, got the soap, and started it. Then I hopped up on top of the rumbling metal box, sat down, and unzipped. My cock popped out with ease, so hard it was throbbing.

  "Buttercup, come suck me," I requested.

  My mate shucked my shirt and flared those gorgeous, half-translucent wings before she stepped forward and bent to take my dick between her plush lips.

  Oh hell, yes. This was what people meant when they talked about heaven on earth. Sensation shot from my balls all the way up my spine as her soft lips and warm wet mouth wrapped around me. She did something with her tongue and my toes curled inside my shoes. Aubry was so damn perfect.

  "Do that again," I said, reaching for the back of her head. I wasn't going to press down, just hold her in place, but then her hands came down on top of mine and she shoved.

  My dick slid down the back of her throat, farther than I ever expected she could take me.

  My eyes rolled in their sockets and I had to focus on something else—fast—or I was gonna come.

  I glanced over at Easton, who was just staring at Aubry and stroking himself through his jeans.

  "What the fuck are you waiting for, a mailed invitation?" I growled. "Strip her."

  Easton lunged forward and grabbed Aubry's jeans. He undid the button and zipper but got impatient yanking the things off her legs. I heard a loud rip. Then her pants were gone. Another quick snap and her panties fell to the ground, too.

  Aubry popped off my cock for a second to look, but I pushed her back on. "Don't worry about it, Butterfly. I'll buy you more clothes."

  She mumbled a reply against my cock that I couldn't hear, but damn, it felt delicious the way her tongue thrashed.

  "Thought you were into submissive shit, not backtalk, babe," I said with a grin. "East, she might need a little swat."

  That shut her the hell up. If possible, she might have increased the suction on my dick.

  Easton gave her the weakest of taps. But it still pushed her forward on my cock, her nose pressing into my torso.

  She and I both groaned and I could tell our mate liked it.

  "Again. Harder," I said, since she was currently too preoccupied to talk.

  The second smack was harder, and Easton rubbed his hand over her ass cheek, where he'd left a print. He bent and started kissing it, which made me think about how it had felt when I was stuffed inside that dark, forbidden back hole. Damn.

  I yanked Aubry off my cock and pulled her face up to look
at me. I loved how swollen her lips looked from sucking on me. Even more than that, I loved that sassy mouth, her snark, her selflessness when it came to the kids in our pack. I fucking loved her.

  And I was gonna show her. One orgasm at a time.

  "Widen your legs so Easton can eat you out," I told her.

  Her chest heaved while she complied. I didn't bother to look and see how Easton felt about me giving him orders. Our mate wanted it; it was clear as all hell from the fresh scent of arousal that filled the room after my command, and that was all that mattered at the end of the day.

  Easton dove between her legs, and a slurping noise filled the room.

  Aubry moaned. I pulled her long hair into two pigtails like handlebars and then guided her face back to my cock. "Just work the tip with your tongue," I instructed.

  She did and I instantly regretted that instruction. With Easton licking her and Aubry sucking me, that fucking intense mate magic swirled through us all.

  I had to yank my dick out of her mouth so that I didn't come too soon. I wanted to wait, to let the pressure build, so that when I exploded, my vision would fill with stars.

  And, I wanted Aubry to be a sobbing, orgasmic mess before then.

  I leaned forward and kissed her, tasting my precum on her lips, swirling our tongues together. I reached down and grabbed her breasts where they hung. I played with their full weight for a minute, squeezing them before I pinched her hard nipples, pulling down and enjoying how my mate moaned into my mouth.

  After a minute, I pulled back and scooted toward the wall.

  "East, you should make her come like that while I watch, then fuck her up against this machine and see if all the rumors are true."

  His jaw started working twice as fast from where he knelt on the floor. Aubry ended up shuddering so hard that she reached forward to grab onto the machine. I didn't let her. I shoved my hands out and let her prop herself up on my forearms instead.

  "Look at me when he makes you come, Butterfly," I instructed.

  Her beautiful brown eyes couldn't turn feral like a shifter’s, but I could tell when she was reduced to nothing more than instinct. Her jaw grew slack and her expression grew plaintive, her face begged for the peak the way her words never would. There was nothing more beautiful in the world than the sight of my mate on the cusp of an orgasm.