by Katee Robert
“I said I wouldn’t do this.” He curses long and hard, looking like an entirely different person, a creature more beast than man. “Say yes, Mina.”
No mistaking what he means. No pretending I don’t know what I’m going to get if I agree. I don’t know if he’ll let me walk out of this room if I tell him no, but I believe with my entire heart he’d try.
I don’t want to say no.
I take a shuddering breath, allowing myself to be lost in the flames in his dark eyes. There are so many things I once believed I should want, but there’s no place for should here. There is no future, no past, nothing but this moment where the two of us perch poised on the precipice of no return. Wolf, too.
I lick my lips, tasting Wolf’s blood there, too. It zings through me, just as potent as Malachi’s, but different. His tastes as hot as his flames do. Wolf’s is spicy and somehow barbed. It tastes better than alcohol, but I knew my answer before it hit my veins. “Yes.”
11
Malachi kisses me. It’s just as consuming as every other time, and I dig my bloody hands into his hair as I lose myself in his taste. I’m only vaguely aware of him moving our bodies, hitching one of my legs up and around his waist. He drags his cock over my pussy and then his broad head is pressed against my entrance.
I tense, but he doesn’t shove inside. He leans back enough to meet my gaze. “The first time can be painful.”
Trying to think past the buzzing in my veins is almost too difficult. “I know that.”
“I’m going to bite you to negate that.” He hesitates, suddenly looking more like the man I’ve been spending so much time with, rather than the monster who just ripped his friend’s throat out so he could fuck me first. “Are you sure, Mina?”
I pull on his hair, frustration getting the better part of me. “I’ve never had a choice, Malachi. Not once in my fucking life. I’m saying yes, choosing this. Stop questioning it and fuck me.”
Wolf gives a wet laugh from where he’s leaning against the side of the bed, his hand against his healing throat. “You heard her.”
“I’ll deal with you presently.”
“With more orgasms, I hope.”
Malachi gives an exasperated rumble. “Shut up, Wolf.”
“Yes, Sir.”
I whimper. “Malachi, please.”
He hesitates for so long, I think he might have changed his mind. But before I can say anything else, he curses and strikes, sinking his fangs into my throat on the opposite side of where Wolf did. At the same time, he drives into me. I get a blast of pure agony and then the pleasure of the bite takes over, washing it all away in a tidal wave of need. I think I scream. Maybe I black out. I don’t know.
The next moment I come back to myself, my legs locked around Malachi’s hips and my fingers tangled in his hair as I rise to meet each slow thrust. Pain and pleasure dance together in an elegant symphony. “Oh fuck.”
Malachi slows down and lifts his head a little. “Stay with me.”
I run my hands down his broad back and dig my nails into his ass. “Don’t stop.” I moan. “Don’t you dare stop.”
His stride hitches, but he recovers quickly, kissing me as he resumes that slow fucking. He’s big, and he feels bigger inside me than he did when he was pressed against me. I revel in the fullness, in the way my body stretches to accommodate him.
“Malachi.”
We go still at the warning in Wolf’s tone. Malachi shudders out a breath. “I have it under control.”
“Do you? Because I have no desire to die in a fire because you’re so lost in our Mina’s sweet pussy that you burn the house down around us.”
“I have it under control,” Malachi repeats.
It’s right around then I notice the flames behind him is roaring high enough it looks like it might burst out of the fireplace at any moment. I should care, but I really don’t. I dig my fingers into his ass again. “Don’t. Stop.”
“I won’t, little dhampir. I won’t ever stop.” He kisses me against and resumes moving, driving me higher and higher.
Part of me wishes I could blame this on the bite, but it’s pure Malachi. He’s overwhelming, and the fact we’re fucking while covered in Wolf’s blood only makes this more depraved, more perfect.
I catch sight of the pulse thrumming in his neck and bite him without thinking. It’s messy—my fangs really are too small to serve their purpose—but Malachi shoves his arms between my body and the floor, lifting me closer to him so I have better access to his neck. So he has better access to my pussy. He shifts the angle just enough that, combined with his blood coating my tongue, I scream my way through another orgasm.
It’s like lighting a match in a room full of gunpowder. He crushes me to him and then he’s driving into me just shy of brutally, rumbling my name as he comes.
We slump to the floor and I stare at the ceiling, wondering if the stars themselves have been rearranged. It feels like they should be. The world is no longer the same as it was an hour ago.
Nothing will ever be the same again.
“Malachi.” Wolf’s tone is dry. “Control yourself.”
I twist just enough to see the fire has escaped the hearth and is snaking its way toward us. Malachi curses and it immediately reverses course, shooting into the fireplace and returning to a normal sized flame. He eases off me. “Did I hurt you?”
“Not in any permanent way.” I ache all over, but it’s nothing compared to the pleasure pulsing in time with my heartbeat. I lift a hand to my mouth. I feel… Different. Strange. I give myself a shake. Of course I feel different. I just had sex for the first time. More, I just all but agreed to have sex with both these vampires in the near future. I am a stranger to the woman I was two weeks ago.
Malachi sits up and leans over to peel Wolf’s hand off his throat. The skin there is new and pink, but intact. “Sorry.”
“No, you’re not.”
“No, I’m not.” He grabs Wolf’s chin and pulls him forward into a quick kiss. “Maybe one day you’ll be able to resist pushing.”
“Unlikely. If it hasn’t happened yet, it’s not going to.”
The fact they’re joking after Malachi ripped out Wolf’s throat is so purely vampire, I almost laugh. But the events of the last hour are catching up to me quickly and I’m starting to shake. Malachi notices first. He stands, scooping me into his arms. “On your feet, Wolf.”
“So bossy.” Wolf staggers up and follows us into the bathroom.
Malachi’s bathroom is even bigger than mine, with a tub large enough to be termed a pool. Wolf moves to turn the tap on without prompting, but Malachi heads directly for the shower. I understand the moment he sets me on my feet and I get a good look at the three of us. I knew we were covered in blood, of course, but seeing it now the adrenaline and lust is fading hits differently. We look like we’ve just survived a massacre.
I let Malachi tow me beneath the spray, but then I try to pull my hand from his. “I can wash myself.”
“Hush.”
I blink. “You did not just hush me.”
“He did.” Wolf steps into the space behind me, and suddenly the roomy shower feels almost crowded. He catches my hips. “Malachi is feeling guilty. Let him make it up to you.”
I look up at the vampire in question and I’m shocked to find that Wolf’s right. There’s something akin to remorse in those dark eyes. He and Wolf guide me farther into the water and the blood runs off my skin in waves. I’m so busy trying to process the guilt, I let them wash me.
It feels…good. For once, it’s not sexual, but the sensation of skin against skin is almost too much for me. I’ve been touched more tonight than I have in the past five years combined. Gods, that’s depressing, but after I turned eighteen, touching meant a beating or some other kind of torment. Better to avoid it altogether. I didn’t realize how much I missed it until now.
Once they’re satisfied, Malachi shuts off the water and they guide me to the tub, now filled will steaming water. It s
tings as I step into it, but the heat quickly soaks into my bones and I sink down with a groan.
I don’t know why I’m surprised the men follow. They take up positions across from me, creating a little triangle with the three of us. The tub is so large, there’s still plenty of room, which might make me laugh if I had the energy for it. As it is, I’m suddenly so exhausted, I can barely keep my head above water.
Malachi sighs. “Come here, Mina.” He doesn’t wait for me to response, just reaches over, grabs my wrist, and tows me over to half-float in his lap. He guides my head to his shoulder, and the position allows me to relax fully. He carefully sets his hands on my hips, keeping me anchored in place. “I didn’t mean for it to happen like this.”
“There he is.” Wolf laughs. “So eager for that guilt. She said yes. That’s consent.”
“I promised I wouldn’t.”
I give into the feeling of gravity weighing my eyelids down. “I wouldn’t have come to your room if I didn’t want to end up in some variation of what happened.” It’s the truth, even if I couldn’t admit it to myself until the moment Wolf tempted me with something I hadn’t realized I wanted. Worrying about doing this the right way is silly. There is no right way when you live in a world of vampires and blood wards and sacrifices. Which reminds me… “Is there another way to break a blood ward beyond killing someone?”
Both men go still and I open my eyes to find them exchanging a look. Wolf finally shrugs. “There’s a theory other supernatural creatures might have ways to do it, but I’ve never seen it firsthand. You’d have to fill the space with so much power the ward couldn’t contain it, but without a sacrifice, it’s impossible for a vampire to do it.”
That’s what I’m afraid of.
It’s not that I think Malachi will kill me. Foolish or no, I trust he means me no harm. But as long as that blood ward is up, we’re both trapped here. Now that we’ve crossed the line of no return, it’s theoretically only a matter of time before I get pregnant and my father comes to collect me. No matter how powerful Malachi is, he’s no match for my father and his turned minions. They have numbers on their side, and my father is also a bloodline vampire. Malachi won’t win, which means I’ll be carted back to the colony until I give birth and they decide they no longer need me.
There has to be another solution. There has to be.
“Don’t worry about that, Mina.” Malachi’s chest rumbles at my back as he speaks. “You’re safe here.”
Safe.
What a foreign concept. I’m not safe here. None of us are. Not while we stay where my father can reach us.
I close my eyes again and relax back against him. “We’ll find another way out.”
“We, huh?” Wolf’s tone is lightly mocking. “She gets one cock inside her and we’re all a big happy family.”
“You’re free to go whenever you want, Wolf.” Malachi rests his chin on top of my head. “Nothing’s keeping you here.”
A pause, and I have a feeling they’re doing one of those silent exchanges. I don’t open my eyes. No matter what I was feeling in the moment, I’m honestly not sure of Wolf. I won’t ask him to stay, especially since he’s not trapped her like we are.
Finally, Wolf gives a dramatic sigh. “I suppose I’ll stick around for a bit.” A calculated pause. “Rylan mentioned he might meet me here at some point, but you know how he is.”
Malachi tenses beneath me. “You’re just now telling me?”
“It slipped my mind.”
“I’m sure it did,” Malachi curses. “Convenient, that.”
“Isn’t it?”
I finally drag my eyes open. “Who’s Rylan?”
“Another Bloodline.”
That shocks some of the exhaustion from my system. “Another Bloodline? I thought most of you were scattered or loners?” Three of the Bloodlines, including my father’s, are still in power in their respective territories, even if their numbers are low. But I was under the impression the remaining four were scattered to the winds.
“We are.” Wolf’s got that strange smile on his face, as if he’s telling an inside joke. “But the vampire community isn’t so large that any of us are strangers, especially those of us who have been around for a few centuries.”
There’s more there, more he isn’t saying, but I don’t have the energy to drag it out of him tonight. I twist a little to look at Malachi. “Is Rylan a problem?”
He hesitates, clearly torn. “No,” he finally says. “We have a complicated history, but he’s not an enemy.”
“So confident,” Wolf murmurs. “I wonder if Rylan feels the same way. Especially now you have this delicious little dhampir riding your cock.”
“Fuck off, Wolf.”
“Tempting.”
I look at them both. “Another ex?”
Their silence confirms my guess hit right on the mark. I barely resist the urge to sink beneath the surface of the water and scream. It’s not exactly surprising Malachi has people who care about him, complicated history or no, but I don’t look forward to another conversation about sacrificing me to get his freedom. And, yes, maybe there’s a little jealousy there for these two vampires that have known him long enough to have a complicated history.
I rise on shaking legs, but brush off Malachi’s hand raised in an offer to help. “I’m very tired.”
“Mina—”
Wolf moves, blurring out of the tub. I barely get a chance to tense before he wraps me up in a large towel. He grins down at me, obviously enjoying the minor chaos he’s stirred up. “What our darling Malachi won’t say is that he wants you to stay.”
“He’s more than capable of speaking for himself.” I slant a glance in his direction. “Or ripping out throats when words don’t work.”
Wolf gives a deep, happy laugh. “I like you, Mina. Most mortals would be rocking in a corner after all that bloody fucking. You’re interesting.”
“I’m pretty sure you’re certifiably insane.”
“Guilty.” He grins and shrugs. “You learn to enjoy the ride.”
Against my better judgement, I find my lips curving. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Do.” He squeezes my shoulders, hands curiously gentle on me despite his irreverence. “Stay, love. We’ll be on our best behavior.”
“I don’t believe that for a second.”
“Guilty again.”
I hear Malachi rising out of the tub and the water draining, but I don’t look over. My instincts are to retreat and lick my proverbial wounds until the ground feels steadier beneath my feet. But I can’t deny the thought of letting these two ground me is attractive. Maybe it’s weak, but I can’t really bring myself to care. “Okay. I’ll stay.”
12
I wake up between two male bodies. I keep my eyes closed and fight not to tense, waiting for my brain to catch up with my circumstances. As sleep fades away completely, the events of the last twenty-four hours comes back to me.
Gods, things keep happening too fast. It feels like the entire world has changed its shape around me. It’s so incredibly tempting to pull the covers over my head and hide away to avoid thinking about it, but I haven’t survived this long by ignoring the reality of my circumstances. It’s better to deal with the hard truths up front than to ignore them until they’re literally ripping your throat out.
Wolf’s back is pressed against mine, and when I open my eyes, I find Malachi watching me. I lift a brow. “Creepy of you.”
“You were thinking hard over there.” He presses a finger to the spot between my brows. “Regrets?”
“No, nothing like that.” It’s even true. I don’t make a habit of regretting my choices, but this goes beyond that. My feelings for Malachi are a pulse in my blood I can’t ignore. It’s more than desire, more than lust, even more complicated than something as ridiculous as love. I don’t understand it, but I don’t have to fully understand it in order to acknowledge its existence.
I worry my bottom lip. “How are we going to
get out of this?” Will there even be a we after we do? Or will he grab his freedom with both hands and ride off into the sunset, happy to no longer be chained to a cranky dhampir with rage issues. “And after—”
Malachi twines a strand of my hair around his fingers. “When you’ve lived as long as I have, you learn to recognize the important things.”
“Like freedom.”
He snorts. “Like you, Mina. I’ve never met anyone quite like you.”
“You mean you’ve never tasted anyone quite like me.” I don’t know why I’m being so stubborn about this, but what he’s saying is impossible. We’ve known each other a week little over a week at this point. There’s no way he’s feeling some kind of mystical connection to me. It’s far more likely he finds me valuable in a different way. That’s how vampires work, after all. Power and ambition above the softer emotions. Always.
“I mean what I said.” He tugs lightly on my hair. “But I respect it’ll take you longer to trust me, given your history.”
“That is remarkably patronizing of you.”
He chuckles. “I’m trying to tell you I like you.”
Like feels too tame a word to use for what flares between Malachi and me. I’m not sure what to say to that, so I swallow hard and change the subject. “So how do we get out of this mess?”
“If Wolf is to be believed—”
“I am.” Behind me, Wolf turns around and slings an arm over my hip. He doesn’t quite press his hard cock to my ass, but I can feel the tension of it behind me.
Malachi snorts. “Then Rylan will be here shortly. Between the three of us, we can figure out a solution.” He shoots a sharp glance over my shoulder. “A solution that doesn’t involve your death, Mina.”
“Tsk, tsk, after last night, I’m not particularly fond of the idea of our Mina bleeding out for your freedom. Why waste all that delicious blood on something as mundane as freedom?” His breath ghosts the back of my neck. “We’ll find another way.”
“As simple as that.”
“As horrendously complicated as that.” Wolf sounds like he relishes the challenge, but even after knowing him such a short time, I’m not surprised he’s perverse like that.