Page 64 of Caelum

FIVE

EVE

Half of me felt like I was the walking dead. The other half? I was alive. On fire and burning for my mate, because that was Samuel. He just didn’t know it yet. But it was time to Choose him and time to Claim him. Time for him to wear my mark and for me to wear his scars.

I shuddered at the thought and allowed him to haul me over his shoulder, my naked body on display, and deep into the bedroom I didn’t even recall falling asleep in.

When we approached the bed, I knew the sheets had been changed, because if I’d been sleeping in them for as long as he said I had, then they’d stink, but they didn’t. These smelled like fresh sea air, and they enticed my senses as much as the man lying on the bed with his feet crossed at the ankles.

Samuel staggered to a halt as he stared at his brother. “What are you doing here?”

“Eren said her Hell Hound was out to party.” Reed shot me a narrow-eyed glance that made me burn even brighter as the animal inside him responded to the one inside me.

Goodness, I felt like I was being torn in so many ways. Reed was Chosen but not Claimed, and Samuel was neither. But how could I do both at the same time?

Was that even possible?

What I’d done with Frazer had felt so right, so pure and beautiful, but with Samuel and Reed both in need …

Samuel settled me on the bed with a care he hadn’t shown back in the bathroom when he’d carried me in a fireman’s lift out into this room. I twisted to face the male sitting on the bed, then turned and watched as Samuel began to strip off his sopping wet clothes.

Neither looked ill at ease at the prospect of Samuel suddenly wearing no clothes in front of another man, and even though arousal unfurled inside me, the need to Choose and Claim burning hotly in my veins, discomfort and embarrassment began to creep in.

Doubt too.

“H-How…?”

Reed cocked a brow at me. “Do you trust us to keep you safe when we get off this yacht?”

The question astonished me. “Of course.” And I did. There wasn’t a second’s hesitation in my answer, and I sensed both men’s innate satisfaction with that.

“Well then, trust us here too,” he said, his tone as simple as the words, and though they put me at ease, there was more to this than just trust.

I blinked at him, and I wasn’t sure where it came from, wasn’t sure because I’d never have thought the question was even remotely possible, since people didn’t do things like this, did they? “Have you done something like this before?”

Reed and Samuel shot each other a look I knew meant the answer was yes. They’d been together, naked , and with another woman.

The Eve that was rational and slightly innocent was faintly perplexed and, I had to admit, curious. I’d had sex now. Outside the bonds of marriage, but within the confines of a union that, to my mind, was even more holy than that of marriage. How couldn’t it be? Someone, somewhere, had deigned to put me with Frazer, as well as the other men. Not just for the safekeeping of my body, but my heart too.

But there was a different Eve at play in this moment.

An Eve who had been stirred when Samuel had urged me to awaken in the shower. The eighth soul, the one Eren had called djinn, was in control, but the Hell Hound was awake and raging at the confines of my being.

That particular beast?

She did not appreciate the knowledge that she was not the first to be in such an intimate environment with Reed and Samuel at the same time.

My hands curled into fists, and I stared at first Reed, and then Samuel until the latter hissed. He strode over to me, grabbed my hand, and hissed again at the sight of the blood on my palms—my nails had dug through the flesh and I hadn’t even noticed. He raised my arm, sniffed at my blood, then his tongue flickered out. The pair of us shuddered the second he touched me, and I clenched my eyes closed as the Hell Hound’s outrage began to simmer down.

I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to maintain this rage or allow them to do to me what they’d done to someone else.

Was nothing sacred?

The thought had my eyes fluttering open, and I grated out, “You’ll touch no other female.”

“We wouldn’t want to,” Reed stated immediately. “We’re your Chosen.”

“Speak for yourself,” Samuel retorted, though his hand still clasped mine. They were the wrong words to utter.

In the blink of an eye, I surged upward and shoved him away from me. He fell back, straight down onto the rug beside the bed with a startled ‘oomph.’ The second he was flat on his back, I was on him, with my legs straddling his nakedness, my bare body atop his, and my hands at his shoulders as I pinned him down. My strength came from the creature that spewed these toxic emotions deep inside me. The blood from my palms stained his flesh, painting him in it, and the ruby red smears were a delicious counterpart to his skin. He was more tanned than me, but still pale too.

As I stared down at him, my Hell Hound bristled with outrage but also, desire. He was beautiful. If a man could be that. His hair was dark and thick but shorn close to his head on the sides. The top was longer, scruffier, and against his paler skin, he looked all the darker and more delicious for it. His jaw was solid, his cheekbones high. His top lip was ragged thanks to a scar that skewed the Cupid’s bow, but I wanted to trace that scar with my tongue so badly that I felt my body clench with the need I was barely withholding. His eyes glittered up at me like shining onyx, and his nose, with two kinks in it from several breaks, wasn’t as patrician as say Stefan’s or Frazer’s, but it didn’t detract from his attractiveness.

Samuel looked like a fighter. A nasty scrapper that would fight dirty to win.

The thought shouldn’t have inspired anything other than disgust in me, but if anything, I shuddered with want.

The need to Claim this male was so overwhelming, but so was the need to be in control. I knew if I released my hold on him, he could have urged me upright, forced me onto my back, and taken over.

But as I eased my grasp, he didn’t.

And I think I fell a little bit in love with him for it .

“I meant you hadn’t Chosen me,” he rasped. “Not that I want another female.”

Reed snorted. “As if we’d want another.”

They spoke so matter-of-factly, and yet, Father Bryan, the leader of the cult I’d been raised in, had easily added to his coterie of wives whenever a prettier woman came into his line of sight. If someone who pretended to be so pious needed that, then how?—

But Reed broke into my thoughts when he asked, “Do you know how many people could do that?”

I blinked at Samuel, then tilted my head to see that Reed was at the side of the bed with his elbows on his knees as he stared at me.

“What?”

“Could take Samuel unaware and get him on his back?”

“How many?”

“The people on this boat. Probably Damon, but only because he’s an experienced fucker. Samuel is one of the nastiest fighters in Caelum. Even in the graduated ranks.”

But I’d attacked him twice before and scored hits each time.

Reed grinned at me as he saw understanding cross my face. “Exactly. If you think a woman with your particular talents isn’t going to keep all of us on our toes, then you’re not as clever as I thought you were, Eve.”

Was being a freak something that inspired attraction in men?

I stared up at him, unsure why he looked so amused, so certain , but that certainty bled into me. It made me realize that even if I felt unsure of myself, they didn’t. And, I had come to realize, they never would.

Where I was weak, they would be strong.

And when I was strong, they would back me all the way.

A shiver whispered down my spine as the thought resonated with me, hitting me right where it mattered—the place where the souls resided.

The Hell Hound took it down a notch, no longer actively wanting to strangle Samuel for daring to suggest there might be another female he’d have in this position, and instead, the creature induced me to rock my hips.

Both our eyes widened, and our breath hitched as his hardness, which lay flat against his belly and I was inadvertently straddling, ran down the softness of my sex. It hit that place a few of my men had discovered before, which I was learning all on my own was a hub of pleasure.

Because it felt so damn good, I did it again. And again. Until I had to close my eyes and drop my head to deal with the welter of emotions that were sparking through my veins.

Shuddering in sheer delight, I whispered, “You’re mine, Samuel. ”

His eyes flashed. “I know it.”

Nostrils flaring, I dipped my chin, accepting his acquiescence. At that moment, I felt like a queen, so gloriously adored that it was a wonder my head didn’t expand.

Hands moved around me to cup my breasts, and I jerked in surprise then moaned in wonder as rough fingers, strong and sure, began to rub my nipples, followed by hard strokes, tight pinches, and gentle squeezes of soft, giving flesh. Torn between sagging into Samuel’s body and reaching back to stretch against Reed’s, I hovered between them both, staggered by the welter of sensation the two could inspire in me.

Samuel’s fingers dug into my hips as he began to urge me to move faster, to be more sure with the way I rocked against him, and Reed made me want to sob as he tormented the flesh that was hardening for him, my nipples turning into harder-than-diamond points at his ministrations.

My childhood taught me that this was obscene. Man and wife, not men and wife. But how could this be anything other than beautiful? How could it be anything other than a joyous exploration of the feelings we had for each other?

It might have been wrong, but for me, it was right.

So right.

Perfect.

“Help me,” I rasped, my voice low and threaded with need. I was hungry, but not for food, and after five days asleep, that made no sense, and yet, it spoke of a different need. A need to be taken, to be Chosen and Claimed by these men too. “Make me yours.”

Two grunts were my answer, and Reed began to pull away. Fear whispered down my nerve endings—where was he going? Just as I started to panic, he pressed a kiss to my shoulder and whispered, “Relax, Chosen.”

Quivering at his verbal Claiming, I realized he was stripping, and I could hear the murmur of his clothes as the fabric bunched. And while he was busy, Samuel was too. He stared up at me with hot eyes, eyes that Claimed me in turn. His grip on me changed as he urged me into sitting higher on my knees so that there was space between us. I pouted at the distance, then something insidious flashed deep inside me as he reached for his hardness.

What did Dre call it?

A cock.

My mouth watered with a need that was foreign to me. It was like I was hungry, my mouth salivating for cake and certainly not…

Was it wrong to taste a man’s hardness ?

His cock?

I gulped, swallowing thickly as Samuel groaned. “Don’t look at me like that, Eve. You’ll make me come.”

My eyes widened. “I will?” I wasn’t sure that was possible, but what I knew about things like this could be written on the back of a postage stamp.

“Yes,” he replied on a gruff chuckle, one that managed to sound pained. “You will.”

I wouldn’t lie about that making empowerment surge through me. I was hot and ready for something; I just wasn’t sure what. And considering I had two men in the room, with ‘something’ on their minds, I figured I’d best get with the program before I ended up biting off more than I could chew.

“Are you certain you’re ready for this?” he growled out, surprising me with how in tune he was with me.

“Ready?” I blinked at him. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

A snort sounded from behind us. “Yeah, Sam. She’s only been asleep for five days solid. Why wouldn’t she be ready for a threesome?”

Samuel grunted, but I frowned and answered, “I feel fine.”

“You were shaking earlier,” Sam argued.

“I know, but I’m not now.” And that was the God’s honest truth. Whatever reason for my earlier weakness was no longer there. Was this what I needed to feel revitalized? Because I seriously felt as though I could climb a damn mountain and not get tired.

“Come here, mate,” he grated out, his pain sounding clearer now that he had my assurance I was well. His hand was on his cock and he was holding it upright. Was I supposed to sit on it?

I licked my lips and decided that if there was some kind of research material that would make me better at this, I was going to spend a few hours gorging on it and learning every single thing I could. Cosmo and Wikipedia weren’t enough.

Even as I wondered if there was video material that might be more informative, he rasped, “Come here,” and with his other hands, he urged me forward. My hands slammed onto his chest to keep me from collapsing against him.

When his cock brushed my softness for the first time in this position, my eyes shuttered closed. How couldn’t they? It felt different. Like it was harder, like that nub was being directly ‘prodded’ but in the best possible way.

Shivering, I whispered, “That feels so good.” My words ended on a moan when he did it again, rubbing me over and over until I could feel slick juices run down my inner thighs. Reed reappeared halfway through and began teasing my nipples once more, and he sucked on my throat as though he were the Vampire and not Samuel.

When his teeth scraped against the tender flesh, however, I shot off like a rocket, because just thinking about Samuel’s teeth burrowing through my skin and sucking down my blood made me want to come.

“Now,” Reed bit off, and even as the fireworks that were igniting behind my eyes carried on, I felt the blunt tip of Samuel’s cock penetrate my slickness.

He was so thick, so hot. So damn right inside me. My hands began to burn, raging with a heat I knew Samuel had to feel against his pecs. Even though I felt weak with pleasure, I bowed lower over him so he could access my throat when he was ready because that was all I wanted—his fangs inside me.

When the soul of a Vampire became the dominant one, and after he crossed through Caelum’s portal, the creature’s fangs were supposed to erupt in the tiniest of shifts. Were Samuel’s there now? Even if he hadn’t crossed the portal? I hadn’t noticed before, and I wished I had. I wanted them against my skin more than I wanted Reed’s fingers on my breasts—and that was saying something.

With a whimper, I felt Reed’s and Samuel’s hands drop down to my butt and they began to rock me without me having to do anything. They… I knew the word from movies but felt hot and shaky inside for even thinking it. They fucked me. Over and over again.

Samuel was hot and slippery with sweat, but my hands stayed on his pecs, where a burning heat seemed to send fire through our veins. I whimpered as the fireworks began to sizzle in my blood again, and the shadows and light began to play behind my eyes, and just when I knew I was about to fall over the edge into nothingness, he bit.

His fangs—they were there, and I didn’t even have it in me to question it—raked against my skin as I’d known they would. He tested the flesh for a second, then like a knife through butter on a summer’s day, he penetrated me twice over.

A whimper escaped me as he took from my vein, as he fed and nourished himself from my lifeblood. Then, as the heat from my palms grew to the temperature of an inferno, we both reached the summit. It wasn’t like before. Wasn’t as blissful, as delicious as the last time I’d experienced this. Instead, it hurt with how good it was. As he took from me and gave to me, it was beyond anything I’d ever known, could ever think to know, and I was overcome with how ecstatic I felt.

Even as we came down from that high, and as his cock slipped from me, I felt another thick shaft at my entrance. With the slick seed that Samuel had granted me, Reed slid deep inside my core from behind with an ease that had tears falling from my eyes. I relaxed my back against his muscled chest as he moved inside me, and I let Samuel drink his fill.

That exquisite pain was still there, still tormenting me, torturing me as I was hurtled back up the summit once more. Never allowed to rest, only allowed to endure. As Reed fucked me, Samuel moaned into my neck as he hit his satiation point. I felt the click inside him as he went from hungry to satisfied, and the joy that whirled inside me from knowing that I’d done that to him added to the agonizing pleasure Reed was forcing me to endure.

When Reed slipped his fingers between Samuel and me, when he brushed the nub that made me take off like a rocket, I wasn’t sure if I could take it, if I could last much longer. Then he pinched me with those fingers, and with his other hand, the one pressed firmly between my breasts, holding me tightly against him, he raked his nails down my sides. The sensation was a trigger, and as I’d done earlier with Samuel, I sought the soul inside me that purred at Reed’s touch. Dragging that soul forward was no hardship since she was in charge today, but when I urged her to seek Reed’s? She leaped with eagerness into the fray.

The heavy thrusts into my body became short and choppy, and hoarse groans and grunts escaped Reed as I forced his Hell Hound to the surface, forced the beast to battle the others, to take command over what was his.

Though my Hell Hound recognized when it happened, my body was made fully aware of the change in my Chosen. The nails that had dragged down my sides? They were now claws. Reed could shift. Blood poured from the wounds as he tore into my side, but though the pain was there, it had me shutting down, had me hitting another stratosphere as the joy of the moment had me wide open.

This time, the climax had me sobbing as, spent from blood loss and weak with pleasure, I collapsed onto Samuel’s chest and was embraced in his loving arms as Reed’s beast sought his own ecstasy in my body, before finding his release and toppling onto me.

Seconds, minutes, hours later, we lay like that, and I began to ache from the weight on my back. Surprisingly, the wounds on my side and neck, where blood still steadily dripped down, was a pleasurable pain I enjoyed. However, Reed was a heavy presence atop my back, and God only knew how badly Samuel’s body was aching with the two of his on top of him.

I began to shuffle in place, my body urging me to move from the awkward position, and started to move my hands from his pecs, where they’d remained planted all this time—I had the pins and needles to prove it. He yelped as my fingers drifted from his skin, and Reed jolted upright, his body falling to the side as he swiftly rolled to his feet. Even in his still sleepy haze, he was ready to defend us against whatever had made us cry out.

“It’s nothing, Reed,” Samuel managed to grate out, but when I stared down at him, stared down at his chest, I realized why he hurt.

On his chest were my fingerprints. Branded into his flesh. It wasn't like the others’ ink, nor was it like mine. It looked like his blood had been seared into his skin in the shape of my prints. As I peered down, I saw that each tiny line that made up my unique identifying marker was forged of words. Tiny, tiny words I could only see because my vision was so good.

Even as I tilted my head to look at him, to declare that he was my Chosen, Reed grunted, “Well, that’s it for you, Samuel. You’re definitely Chosen now.”

I wasn’t sure why I found that hilarious, just that I did, and as laughter had me curling into a tight ball, I fell back onto the floor—ignoring the rug quickly growing saturated with my blood—and let my joy rush through me.

Who knew how many moments like these we’d get?

How many instances we’d be allowed to just be?

We needed to embrace each of them, hold them firmly in our grasp, and celebrate that we were, in truth, Pack.