Page 35 of Nine Inch Nasty (Hemlock Academy #9)

Delaney

I take Spencer’s advice and close my eyes and try to focus only on my breathing.

“I want to finish my degree. I’ve worked hard for several years, and for a while there I didn’t even think I’d be able to attend an actual campus.

I worked online when I really wanted to be at Hemlock and made myself study every damn night to get as far as I did before I transferred here.

So, I for one will be utilizing the distance learning option.

I don’t care if that’s going to be weird to some people, that I’ll be a college student while… fuck. I have to say it, don’t I?

“I’ll be a college student while taking over my mom’s role as voice of the goddess, but I think I’ll always regret it if I just give up.

I don’t want any of you to give up either if it’s important to you.

I think it would be really cool if we all finished our degrees, and I think we can do it.

It might be hard, but we’ll figure it out.

Even if it takes a little longer to get there. ”

“I’m with you,” Adam agrees. “My parents always wanted to see me graduate, and I want to honor them by finishing this degree. Even if I’ll be doing something entirely different with it than I originally planned.”

“There’s no chance we could defer our new roles until graduation?” Wil asks, always the realist.

I check in with my body and already know the answer to that.

I think the power transfer is starting, because there’s a low frequency buzz running through my blood, and it’s almost like I can feel the goddess’ consciousness trying to connect to me.

“Unfortunately, no. We might have to switch up our degrees a bit, go for something a little more generic to simplify things maybe, but…I think the process has already started. It’s like I know information as soon as I need to know it. My body feels weird.”

That was probably a bad thing to say in a room full of my mates. They all go on the offensive, crowding me, wanting to soothe me. Gods, it’s good to be me. “It doesn’t hurt, it’s just…like, this sensation under my skin. I don’t know how else to describe it.”

“I can actually feel it too,” Rush admits, running a hand over my arm, hovering above my skin. “You’re full of energy. I think we need to just help you relax for now. You are going to need all your strength for whatever the next part is.”

“But I wanted balls in my face!” I whine, seeing all my dreams melt before my eyes.

“How about this,” Rush offers, peeling the blankets off of my lap. “You sit there like the queen you’re about to be, and let all of your mates take care of you, hmm? You always try and take care of us, and I think it’s our turn. Let us obsess over you and lick up every single inch of you.”

I open my mouth to do what, I’m not sure, but Rush is quick to shove Spencer back into my face so he can kiss me.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t asking,” Rush clarifies as the pants I’m wearing completely disappear from my body. In fact, every stitch of clothing I had on is suddenly gone.

The extent of Rush’s powers is both mysterious and a bit frightening. I feel like as the son of Lucifer, he needs some limits, you know?

And really, he’s right. Relaxing is probably the right call here. It just feels like we’ve all been moving so fast for so many days now, constantly chasing problems, and I need to give myself time to relax and recharge if I want to be at all successful in my new position.

So I melt into the pillows underneath me and I wrap an arm around Spencer’s neck and kiss him nice and languorously, taking my time, not trying to make it build to anything, feeling my body soften as Rush brings awareness to different parts of my legs with his fingers.

There’s whispering around me and then a blindfold gets wrapped around my eyes, and it’s actually a relief to not be expected to do anything. I know earlier I wanted to go and destroy each of these men, but the stress of everything has clearly come to a head and this is a much better plan.

“Going to put my mouth on you now, Delaney. And while we’re all worshipping you, I want you to stop pretending like you don’t have access to each and every one of our powers.

I know you think we forgot that conduits take on a bit of each mate’s powers, but how do you think you were so easily able to defeat Zac’s sister?

I think you’ve been fighting against your very nature for years, instead of embracing it.

Let tonight be the night you fully embrace everything that you are, everything that we are to you, and just let go. ”

Rush’s voice floats over me like a warm blanket, and I’m a little ashamed to admit that he’s right. I’ve been playing this inexperienced conduit that couldn’t fight her way out of any situation, because my head hasn’t stopped spinning since I met August and Jackson at that gala.

I’ve always knows that I was destined to be a conduit, and I’ve been a little bitch about it for a long time.

There’s something terrifying about just being open to whatever the goddess sends your way, and as I soak in the presence of all 11 of my mates near me, touching me in some way, I give myself permission to be worthy of the future the goddess picked out just for me.

I could spend a good amount of time wallowing in self-disgust about how many opportunities I let slip by, but if I changed anything about how I went about doing stuff, I wouldn’t be here at this moment with all these perfect-for-me mates.

We’d have met in different ways, on different paths, because I wouldn’t be the me they met and fell for.

I know I’ve been gaining power from them, and it’s been something I’ve tried to ignore because of how heavy the implication of that felt.

I could continue to panic, or I can accept things are the way they are and move forward to become the woman my parents raised me to be. The woman I’ve grown into.

Rush’s mouth starts tracing designs up my thighs as different hands carefully pull my legs apart. The lust in the room is rich enough to sustain me for a very long time, but I don’t even focus on that. I don’t want to focus on anything except the way these men are making my body feel.

I’m manipulated left and right, lifted and bent in half, and all I know are mouths and trailing fingers. Not a single part of my body goes unexplored.

With the blindfold still on, I get flipped to my belly as my back gets oiled and massaged, my ass pulled in the air so someone can stick their face in my cunt, and I don’t even try to track who’s where. It’s so much more fun that way.

“Mmm. This would be a killer coronation ceremony,” I mumble into the pillow. I’m most definitely drooling all over it.

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s actually something we could do, but it might be fun to pretend,” Cory says before doing something insane to my nipple.

“It doesn’t really matter about what happens at coronation,” August interjects. “It’s definitely about what happens after coronation that I’m concerned with. Like, does my dick become a royal dick for her to sit upon? How does that work?”

Oh my gods, why are they all so insufferable?

“Shut up,” Rush says to the entire room. “You’re working her up in a bad way. She’s supposed to be relaxing, you dumbasses. And you’re making her think about really dumb shit. So quit.”

Ah, blessed silence.

“But what I want to know—” Adam chips in, everybody groaning.

I flip around and yank off my blindfold, because if I’m going to be alert during this, I might as well get something more out of it.

I look around at everyone’s state and immediately assign Adam the corner chair so that he’s forced to watch whatever I decide happens next without actively participating.

“Go on. Line up in degree of sexual need. Figure it out. Come on, I’m waiting.”

I prop myself up on my elbows, ensuring all my assets are fully visible.

Actually, this is a hella fun game. They’re all scratching their heads and staring at each other’s dicks, trying to figure out how to tell who needs it the most.

And while they’re all doing that, Skylar crawls into bed with me, and I grab him.

“Rest assured this true version of me wants you very much, Delaney. Ace Saladriel was something that bitch crafted to torture you more, I think. Well, torture us both, really. Because this unicorn dick is starving, and your body is the only thing that’s going to satisfy him.”

There’s a chorus of protests at how incredibly cheesy that was, and I would probably be complaining as well if it weren’t for the absolute look of pure sincerity on Skylar’s face.

I cup his cheek gently, taking a moment out of the crazy around us to appreciate him. “You want to show me what that unicorn dick do?”

He’s still got some briefs on, which are pink and fantastically sparkly, and then he sits back on his haunches, a shy look overcoming him. “Before I show it to you, there’s a very important unicorn tradition I must adhere to.”

“Okay, what is it?”

His arms cross his chest and his hand cups his own chin, and he’s giving off the air that this is either embarrassing for him to admit or that it’s an awkward thing he’s got to tell me.

Maybe both. Either way, I can tell he’s reluctant, even if he clearly wants to tell me.

“Okay, so the thing is, unicorn culture is…unique.”

“Mmhmm…”

“We’re all born with this…fuck. How do I explain this to a non-unicorn? We don’t show anyone our genitals at all our entire lives. Like, at all. As in, even I haven’t properly seen what I’m rocking down there.”

My face wrinkles in confusion. “Come again?”

“We’re born with this, covering, for lack of a better word, which we call our ‘wrapping’. Our anatomy is very different. For restroom purposes, there are other ways we—"

“Don’t need the specifics.”

“Got it. The wrapping can only be opened by our mates when we are ready to commit to them.”

I sit up, wide eyed. “Are you telling me you have a natural chastity belt?”