Phoenixheart: A Reverse Harem Romance (The Rogue Witch Book 7)

by KT Strange

  “Your feet aren’t flat,” I protested. “And you’ve got smooth moves. You’re also, hey, a huge rockstar, so…”

  “Moves, huh?” He bent down and his mouth covered mine, and his hand snuck over the curve of my ass, squeezing possessively. My heart skipped in my chest, an uneven thud that had me catching my breath just to kiss him back.

  “Mmm, moves,” I agreed when he pulled away, a smug look on his face.

  “Let’s see Finn replicate that.”

  “Oh god, really, I don’t have the energy to deal with you and Finn trying to one-up each other." Except that was a lie. I did have the energy, and from the throb pulsing between my thighs, my body was more than into the idea. Finn and Eli? Doing me in? Ugh, yes please.

  A wicked, evil, panty-ruining smile spread across Eli's lips.

  "Yeah, bet you'd like that. Maybe let Cash in on the action too, huh doll? He's pretty good with his hands. I heard all those sweet noises you make when he gets his fingers up your skirt." Just like that Eli had gone from dashing to dangerous. I swallowed hard, trying to gain back the balance that had escaped me. I always felt like the world tipped sideways when in his arms. I inhaled his scent, letting it carry me away.

  "You know I think you like talking dirty too much."

  Eli laughed at my words, a low huff of sound.

  "I like the way it gets you hot," he replied. "Your skin heats up. I can practically feel your magic right under your skin, sparking up," the wonder in his voice made me pause, and I glanced up at him. His eyes were shut, and he looked like he was half-gone, in a trance. "I think that we did that, that we make you lose control over yourself-"

  "Not really hard to do, when I'm a quarter trained and half scared of my own powers all the time," I whispered, but my words didn't have any strength to them. He looked happy... about my magic, enthralled by it even.

  It was like he really cherished me because of them, not despite them.

  "You're better than you think you are." He lifted tender fingers to cup the side of my face, and my insides twisted, shifting from turned on to absolutely, completely, and in every way, feeling loved and adored.

  "I have to ask the question," I whispered, the noise of the ballroom, the dancing, all of it vanishing into the background, "are all wolves like you guys? Just... so focused on their mates?"

  Eli's eyes opened slowly, and he inhaled, dipping his face until his forehead was pressed to mine, the move sweetly animalistic in such a handsome man.

  "You're our heart," he said. "How could we be focused on anything but you?"

  Fuck.

  "You sure know how to deliver a panty-dropper of a line," I said, my voice weak.

  "Not a line," he promised with such intensity that I suddenly understood what it was meant by the word 'swoon'. I felt swoony. Or swoonish. Or-

  "You bitch!" The shriek yanked me out of my little universe, and I turned just in time to see her.

  My sister, Eva, her eyes wide, her hair crazed, dressed in a torn nightgown that sagged down her shoulders. She stood, in a parted crowd of witches.

  "Ah," was the only noise I made in the silence. The quartet had stopped playing. My sister's hands were shaking, and the nearest witch to her, an elder statesmen-type, stepped back in alarm. I wanted to tell him not to worry, she barely had any powers, didn't he know, him and his gender liked to strip us women of our magic when we married? My mind whirled uselessly, trying to grasp what I'd done to anger her to the point of her showing up to a ball looking like she'd been dragged out of bed after a 5AM rager the night before. She even had makeup smudges under her eyes, the skin puffy and reddened.

  She looked like shit. That’s when I noticed the swell of her belly, as her nightgown fluttered around her, fabric pressing to the rounded curve of it. She was pregnant. Very, very pregnant. When had she gotten… she hadn’t looked pregnant last time I’d seen her, but that was months ago…

  "I-"

  "Murderer," she breathed before I could say anything, distracting me from the fact she was obviously in a family way. Eli growled. Finn emerged from the shadows a second later, sliding to stand in front of me without a word. He cocked his head.

  "So this is the sister?" He asked everyone and no one. "Don't see the family resemblance. You sure you're not adopted, Darce? Or maybe she got all the crazy bitch genes from your father, leaving all the normal shit left for you?" His voice rang out into the silent room, bouncing and rolling off the high ceilings. I swear I heard a chandelier crystal ping.

  "Don't anger it," Eli said, sounding more amused than he ought to. He moved to push me behind him, but I ducked under his arm, thank fuck for being a shorty.

  "I'm fine," I said to them, "stand down, seriously." I let my steady gaze fall on my sister and took a breath before speaking.

  "Let's take this somewhere more private?"

  Everyone was staring. How could they not? My sister looked unhinged, and I'm sure more than half of them believed that I'd murdered Creston in cold blood, no matter if Luka was demanding a fair trial for me. What didn't make sense was my sister's reaction. I knew she’d been kinda weirdly fond of Creston but… this was a bit much, even for someone who was prone to histrionics over every little thing.

  "Darling, please- you’re too delicate right now, your condition-” Kenton pushed through the witches forming a half-circle around my sister, and tried to grab her arm. He was dressed in a tuxedo, trim to his body. She flinched and shrieked, swiping at him with clawed fingers.

  "Don't," she snarled. "You're useless! You let him go to her, to die! She murdered him, I don't care what your father says-"

  Kenton grabbed her, wrapping an arm around her waist, another one clapping over her mouth. She made a noise, her eyes widening further. Her hands came up to scratch at his arm.

  "I beg pardon," he said, to one and all, his eyes skittering over me for a moment before looking away. "The grief of losing one of our own has affected us deeply. My wife is not well."

  "No shit, there, son," Eli muttered. My heart squeezed hard as he manhandled her, my sister's face going from angered to panicked.

  "Kenton, stop," I said, stepping forward. "You're hurting her."

  Kenton glared at me for a moment, before shaking his head, and pulling her tighter into him. She made an enraged sound, even muffled behind his hand. I glared.

  "I said stop!" I threw all of my power into the word, and felt everyone around me shudder in response. Kenton froze, and then let go of her. She stumbled forward on unsteady legs.

  "Useless cunt," she spat the words at me, lifting her hands. The trace of green magic threaded through her fingers, although it pulsed and faded erratically, barely there at all. My heart ached. Robbed of her powers, robbed of what made her a witch, my sister was an empty husk. She couldn't have grown a single vine around my ankle if she'd wanted to, and from the murderous look in her eyes, she wanted to. "You ruined him, ruined everything when you... Creston..." Her voice broke and she buried her face in her hands, her shoulders shuddering as she sobbed.

  "Christ," Finn muttered behind me. "You all gonna stand around and stare while a pregnant lady is in distress? And I thought you people were supposed to have all the manners." He shrugged out of his jacket, draping it over her thin shoulders gently. When she glanced up at him, her lips twisted into a shaking smile for a moment before she heaved a huge sob again. Finn glanced back at me, a question in his eyes. I gave him a brief nod. "Shhh," he soothed her, pulling the coat tight around her to shield her from the stares. "S'alright now, you cry it out." She rested against his shoulder, her sobs fading into hiccups.

  Kenton sneered and beside me Eli stiffened.

  "What, you gonna judge him, when he's the one comforting your wife?" Eli demanded. "Not any kind of husband, are you, son?”

  The look on Kenton’s face shifted from smug to infuriated. His eyes flickered, red flashing in the depths of them.

  “You’ll watch how you flap that tongue, cur,-” he started, the lick of fire
glowing, spreading from the rims of his eyes before it spilled down his cheek bones, like he was made of it.I lifted my hand up, summoning a bright ball of crackling lightning; somewhere in the heavens above, thunder rolled and Kenton jerked his head to look at me, his flames disappearing in an instant.

  “Alright, we’re not doing that, not any of that, at all,” I said, fisting my fingers into a tight ball. The power absorbed into my skin, lighting up the surface of it, and glowing from the cracks between my fingers. “You want to go toe to toe with me and my guys, Kenton, then you do it away from where we can hurt anybody, especially my sister and your unborn child.”

  “Yeah, what are you, some sort of insensitive dick?” Finn taunted.

  “Finn,” I hissed. He shot me a wicked grin. He knew he wasn’t making it better, but I didn’t have the heart to rein him in.

  “Let’s take this somewhere private,” I said, leveling Kenton with a glare that should have rightfully left him shaking in his expensive, shiny, crocodile-skin shoes. “Now.”

  Eight

  Darcy

  Kenton didn’t last more than two seconds in a private room with us, not when both Luka and Wolfe joined our little gathering. Instead, he stiffly made his goodbyes to us, and leading Eva, took my sister back to the Hailward estate. She didn’t say another word to me, just clung to the jacket Finn’s jacket and stared at me like I’d ruined her life. When I’d tried to talk to her, Kenton silenced me with a furious glare, and hauled her out of the room.

  The evening, for us, at least, was over too, the altercation taking it out of me. I just wanted to get home and out of my shoes. Wolfe made goodbyes for us while we took a side hallway that let out in the front of the building to avoid more attention, and got into the waiting limo that had dropped us off earlier.

  "You know what's weird," Finn said later that night, naked from the waist up, his head hanging off the end of the bed so he stared at me from upside down. I was trying to let down my hair, which had been held in place with way too many irritating pins for me to be bothered with that fancy of a hair-do ever again.

  "Isn't the blood rushing to your head?" I asked, glancing at him in the mirror.

  "Nah it's all down in his dick," Eli said with a laugh as he entered the room, tossing his jacket on the the chaise lounge that dominated the entrance to our bedroom. That chaise lounge was... it looked good. I had uh, plans for that chaise lounge, if I could coax one of the guys into relaxing enough to y'know, engage in the business as it were, with me, on it.

  Finn rolled his eyes.

  "Before smartass here interrupted, I was saying, what's weird, is that they just all... stood there. Like lemmings. Or meerkats. You notice that? You think that witches are secretly meerkat shifters?" Finn said, stretching his arms down, to reach the floor, his muscles tensing and flexing. Eli walked up to me, running his fingers through my half un-done hair.

  "Want some help?" He offered, seeking out and pulling a pin that made my scalp hurt with relief once it was gone.

  “I can’t believe she’s pregnant,” I muttered. Eli raised an eyebrow at me and I shook my head. “I think I'd notice if I was a meerkat shifter," I continued, "besides, who says meerkat shifters are a thing?"

  "Who says they aren't," Finn rambled, his cheeks a little flushed. I was beginning to think hanging half-off the bed was giving him a head rush. "Bet there's zebra shifters. I know damn well there's lion shifters."

  "Is he drunk?" I asked Eli, meeting his eyes through the mirror. He smiled and shook his head, pulling out a few more pins.

  "Just the idiot coming out stronger in him than normal."

  "Hey, I resemble that remark," Finn said, hauling himself up to sit, back to us. I envied his abdominal core control. He hadn't even grunted in doing that move, just rolled up like he could do a few hundred sit-ups and it wouldn't wind him. The guys were beginning to teach me not to be self-conscious at all about my stomach pudge, but still... I kind wanted to be able to do that sort of trick. Speaking of pudge… Eva had been rail thin except for her belly. She looked ready to pop though. She must’ve been pregnant when we’d sat down for dinner… and I just didn’t know. My mind whirled. I was going to be an aunt. Not like they’d ever let me see the baby, though. Why did that leave me with a sad feeling, dragging my heart down?

  Eli did something with his thumbs, distracting me, digging them into the sore muscles on the back of my neck and I sighed, letting my eyes fall shut.

  “Oh more of that,” I breathed.

  “Oh yeah?” Eli’s hands were so warm as they caressed my neck, moving over my shoulders. He paused for a moment, pulling a few more pins from my hair, letting all the messed up and kinked curls fall down my back. When I opened my eyes, he was bending down to plant a kiss on the crown of my head, a contented sigh escaping him as he did. “I’m never gonna get used to that.”

  “Bring her over here and share, like a good brother.” Finn twisted on the bed, his feet hitting the floor. “Our girl looks tasty enough to eat.”

  “I should shower, I got makeup on,” I protested, and pushed at Eli when he tried to pull me up. “Seriously, you don’t want to be licking foundation off my face.”

  “Then don’t wear it next time,” Eli reasoned with me. I rolled my eyes and scrubbed at my face with a makeup wipe.

  “Girls, the hidden world we never knew about,” Finn said, hitching his hips as he dragged a thumb down his belly. His eyes caught mine in the mirror and I paused at digging at some very stubborn waterproof mascara. His gaze was on fire, and I nearly dropped my makeup-remover wipe. “Um,” I said, witty as ever when Finn did that.

  And he knew exactly what he was up to, popping open his dress pants and shoving a hand inside them.

  “Fuck, I’m hard,” he commented idly, and from the way his forearm flexed, I knew he was gripping himself through his underwear.

  Never-mind that me taking off my makeup had to be the least sexy thing in the world, he had my heart thumping in my chest like maybe I was just that dead-hot.

  “You wanna keep him waiting, sweetheart? Told you all that blood had been going somewhere. Maybe you should have a look see, huh?” The aroused gravel in Eli’s voice had me swiping off the remnants of eyeliner in a second, stumbling to my feet. Eli grabbed me, steadying me before he let me go so I could walk right up to Finn.

  “Sorry, got my hands full,” Finn teased, although from the flush of his lips and the way he bit down onto the lower when he looked at me, his arm tense, I knew how hard he was and how bad he wanted me.

  “Maybe I should let Eli have me first then, you can wait, y’know?” I glanced over my shoulder, and that was all it took before Finn yanked me down onto the bed, pinning me with his body in one breath.

  A startled yip escaped me as he eyed me with hunger.

  “He’s always first. Except with you. I was first there, wasn’t I? He stood around like an idiot, listening to you in the darkness while I made you mine.” Finn’s words were so hot. It wasn’t fair. His mouth ought to have been a banned weapon. He didn’t let me think of all the government agencies I could report his tongue to, though, when he bent and kissed me, chasing every thought from my mind other than how much I wanted him.

  “Bet you wanted to fuck her right there in the middle of that damned ballroom, didn’t you?” Eli’s weight pulled at the mattress as he moved to lay next to me. I could feel his presence, the heat he was throwing off through the long t-shirt I was wearing. “Show all of them where she belongs, who she belongs to.”

  “I thought this was equal-opportunity bonding, what if I wanted them to know you’re mine?” I protested quietly as Finn moved to inhale at the neckline of my shirt, nudging it off my shoulder with his nose. I cupped the back of his head, threading my fingers through his blond hair, trying to feel like I was sort of in control of the situation.

  “Oh, you don’t need to show them that we’re yours, sweetheart, they already knew. No werewolf would walk at your side if he weren’t wholly, and co
mpletely yours,” Eli said, and I tried not to bring up the elephant in the room, that. Well… he wasn’t completely mine, was he?

  “You got panties on?” Finn asked, before swooping his hand up my thigh. “You’re killing me, doll,” he murmured, and I shivered as his fingers stroked up my skin, his thumbs rasping on me.

  “You’re the one who’s teasing.” I spread my thighs with a sigh as his hand cupped my pussy, the warmth of him radiating outward, nearly making me squirm.

  “This is mine,” his voice was heated, his expression intense as he leaned down over me. I shook my head.

  “Nah-uh, everything the light touches is yours, so not there, you can’t ever go there,” I said, shivering as one of his eyebrows rose slowly.

  “You are not quoting Disney right now,” his words shot right through me, his hands lifting my legs up until he slid his shoulders under my knees.

  “Fuck, Finn.”

  “He’s gonna make you come so hard you cry,” Eli said as Finn licked softly at one of my thighs, hot on my skin as I shivered. My next words, that doesn’t sound good, vanished in a gasp as Finn licked into me, holding me open for his tongue, his fingers digging into me just right. Eli leaned in close, his mouth brushing over the edge of my ear. My lips parted, a whine escaping me. “That’s right sweetheart, let him work you over until you’re ready for me.”

  Finn snorted, lifting his head for a moment and my hips lifted, chasing the sensation of his mouth on me.

  “You think I’m doing this for you? Try another one. This is all for her.” Finn’s fingers slid over my clit, stroking it with a practiced move. “Just like that, right there’s where you love it, don’t you, Darce?”

  “Mhmm.” I let my eyes close and gave myself over to it, every inch of good feeling he was giving me, the warmth rolling up through my body and spreading to every edge of my being. Finn would take care of me, always.