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“Shade?” Ethan said, stepping forward.

So that was what his name was. He had long black hair, glossy as a raven’s wing, which partially fell over his face, hiding the sharp lines of his face, those penetrating eyes that seemed to see everything but flinched when he was seen in turn.

His hands scraped through his hair as his eyes darted, taking everyone in, but coming back to me, over and over.

“Hey,” I said, to the man whose cock I’d just sucked. To the man who I’d somehow spied on psychically. An inadequate response for sure, but it was all I had. My brain was too…full.

So stop thinking and just feel. He’s hard, feeling that need throbbing inside him.

Our eyes slipped down to the very impressive erect cock before us, impudent and insistent where the man attached was anything but.

Why bother analysing when you could spend the night, the day, the week indulging in all the ways the five of you can intersect?

A familiar slideshow of debauchery was presented to me, letting me know explicitly just how hot that could be.

But she overestimated her powers, Branwen, when she showed me Shaun, bent over and gasping on the end of Ethan’s, Axel’s, then Shade’s dick, grinding like a bitch in heat.

He’d made it clear that was not how he rolled, and I respected that.

The idea of any of them being forced into a sexual situation?

It felt like I’d been splashed in the face with a glass of ice water.

I know who you are now. What the fuck are you is what I need to know next , I told Branwen.

I am you , she replied.

The fuck you are. Why the hell are you in my head? Where’s my Tirian?

She went to splutter a response, but a god almighty roar put paid to that. Her voice died and was replaced by a much more familiar one.

Interloper! my Tirian snapped. Trespasser!

And with that, it appeared she’d shoved the mysterious Branwen out of my head.

What the hell was that? I asked my beast.

Possession , she growled. Intrusion.

It seemed like she could only manage one-word answers, so that needed to be left for now, particularly as my head seemed to be my own. Which left the latent shock that had been held at bay by Branwen’s temptations.

“Um…I’m Bec,” I introduced myself belatedly.

As if we weren’t already acquainted. I mean, cock down throat wasn’t exactly a traditional greeting, but yeah.

My eyes dropped down when Shade just stared back, probably wondering what crack I was on, but long slender fingers touched my chin, tipping it back up, forcing me to meet his eyes.

He seemed to crave that, and something that I remembered came to me.

“I’m Shade,” he said in return.

“No, you’re not.”

His lips pursed, so full and soft looking, my mouth watered for a taste, then they smoothed out. He shook his head.

“My mum calls me Simon.”

“And what do you want me calling you?” I asked.

“Mine. I want you to call me mine.”

He stood straighter, facing me down, the room down, an almost rebellious look in his eyes as he waited for a reaction to that.

He wanted to get closer, to reach for me, I could see that in the fine tremor in his body.

He was so much taller than me, had a body packed with heavy muscle, but he shivered when I moved in closer, sliding my arms around his waist, his wrapping around me readily enough.

When I put my ear to his chest, I heard the rapid beat of his heart, the hoarse rasp of his breath.

“Well, the first step towards that is getting to know each other. What name would you prefer I used?”

A hand went to my hair, stroking through, then pausing when I asked the question.

“Shade will do,” he replied, his voice magnified because I was this close now.

“So how the hell did you get in here, Shade?” Ethan asked. “The alpha residence has been locked down. No one’s supposed to be coming in or out.”

“I needed to see her, to feel her.”

I heard the fervour in his voice, a stranger’s voice, but when his arms tightened around me, I found I could only lean into the pressure.

I wanted him to hold me tight, to press his body against mine, and when I tipped my head up, blindly offering my mouth to him, he blinked for just a second, those long fingers touching my lips, hissing when I parted them for him, my tongue flicking out to taste the tips.

That was replaced by his lips all too soon, his mouth crushing down on mine in a messy, uneducated kiss.

So I slowed things down, pulling back, forcing him to wait before moving in again, kissing him slowly, deeply, and he proved to be an astute student.

He followed my lead, sucking on my bottom lip, parting my mouth and then sliding his tongue inside until my fingers clamped down on him, my body grinding against his.

“That doesn’t really answer the question,” Ethan insisted, then looked around the room. “There’s something… You act like you know Shade or are drawn to him.”

“Like you are us,” Axel announced, his eyes sliding to Shaun, almost warily, but he needn’t have worried. Shaun moved closer, Shade’s arm tightening around me, like he was afraid I’d be pried free, but Shaun just shook his head.

“Is that true?”

That could have been an accusation, but it was deliberately voiced softly, gently.

“I…I’ve got some stuff to update you on, but yeah.” I looked back over my shoulder, saw Shade standing there, too stiff, too tense. “I saw you guys, all four of you. At least I think it was you. We’ve done this before. Like before, before.”

Shaun, Axel, even Shade, they nodded, but Ethan just frowned slightly.

“I saw rituals and a place where the floors were all mosaiced.”

“Oemis,” Axel said in a hushed tone.

“It’s where we think we all came from,” Shaun explained.

“Where our Tirians came from, kinda like Atlantis.” I nodded, as that fitted with what I’d seen.

“Jules calls it Wolflantis.” Shade’s hand slid over my arm, rubbing me soothingly when I tensed at the sound of her name.

“Is that where the priestess thing comes from?”

“That’s more complex,” I said, then sighed.

“I’m gonna have a shower, put some clothes on.

” Shade’s grip tightened at that. “And Shade’s going to help me.

We’ll sit down and have a chat about everything that’s happened and then sleep.

” A wave of bone-deep weariness hit me. It had to be almost morning now, and this day had just gone on and on and on.

I’d ridden the highs and the lows, but now I was just done, and somehow, Shade seemed to know that.

He pressed his lips to the nape of my neck and then pushed me towards the en suite, even when the guys were about to protest. He shut the door with a firm snick and then removed what was left of his clothes.

This was why I was trashed. How the hell was a girl supposed to shut her eyes when all this damn hotness was on display?

He looked shy momentarily, while I stared like a creeper, taking in all those long, lean muscles.

I’d seen them flex and tense in my mind, but not here, not close enough to touch.

“You’re beat,” he said, moving past me and turning on the showerheads. Multiple, it appeared, as if in preparation for multiple people needing a wash.

“Yeah, but…”

“You’re dead on your feet.” His hand on my shoulder, steadying me, let me see just how wobbly I was. “C’mon, I’ll wash you.”

“I can wash my?—”

He grabbed my hand and dragged me under the water, which was somehow the perfect temperature, picking up the soap and lathering it in his hands.

“This is the first time I’ve ever touched a woman I’m attracted to.” He said the words bluntly, but his eyes were on the soap, looking at the bubbles intently. “I…haven’t really touched anyone in a long time.”

“So you liked guys?” I asked carefully, but he shook his head.

“It’s not a big deal. Like, I know Axel by reputation…”

“Bit of a slut, is he?”

He snorted, then flicked black hair over his shoulders before shrugging.

“It’s just not my thing. I was…”

His hands went out, soapy and ready to wash me, but something held him back. I pulled that hand closer, putting it on my shoulder, and for a second, he just blinked. Then he nodded, smoothing it and the soap over my body.

What passed was a weirdly intimate moment with a stranger.

He got himself acquainted with my body, with all of it, perhaps more thoroughly than any of the other guys, washing me carefully, neatly as a nurse, but this wasn’t a clinical relationship.

I heard the harsh rasp of his breath, because my lungs were doing the same, pumping harder, faster, in time with our hearts.

When his hands moved down firmly, surely, cupping my breasts and washing the skin over and under them, forcing his hands to keep moving, I moved, grabbing the soap as I stepped back under the water, letting it all wash over me before starting on him.

“Has anyone touched you?” I asked him before I started. Initially, he just stared before shaking his head. “Never?”

He went to move back, frowning, his face closing down, but I caught him by the wrist.

“Shade, I ask and will keep asking out of respect. I don’t want to do anything you don’t want or aren’t ready for.”

“Ready?” This came out as a strangled sound.

“Fuck, I’ve been ready for ages. I dreamed of you, saw you in Tirian form, pacing those streets.

I knew you were coming, that’s why I shoved off anyone who actually fucking saw me.

I caught your scent when you got to town, heard Shaun had this new girl that had gone into heat.

I milled around his place, saw you through the glass door. ”

He grabbed my hand and placed the soap against his chest, rubbing it over the muscles, forcing it lower and lower until I gave up all pretence, soaped up my hand, and wrapped it around his aching cock. He let out a long hiss in response.

“I saw you there, being pleasured by Shaun, caught every moan, every gasp, until I couldn’t fucking stand it anymore. I wanted to slam open that door and slam into you.”

At those words, I could see it, the moment recast and him doing exactly that as Shaun slid up my body, ready to take my…

“But I knew I couldn’t. So I took off, hightailing back to my place, the one I share with my flatmates, barely able to get inside my room before my cock was out.”

I swivelled my hand up and down, his hips moving with it.

“This is what I imagined, what I saw…”

That was barely more than a whisper as his body tightened, his cock throbbed, the only warning I got before he erupted all over the floor.

And when the water washed it all away, soap, cum, dirt, whatever, I moved in, wrapping my arms around him until his breathing evened out again before I turned off the water and stepped out.

I grabbed a towel for myself, drying myself off, and then handed one to him.

Now he was empty of cum and confessions, that haunted expression was back, partially stifled by the time we started to pull clothes on. That worried me, Branwen worried me, my recovered memory bullshit worried me, all of it, until I felt so weighed down, I found it hard to move. So Axel swept in.

“That’s the problem with more,” he said, steering me out into the lounge room. “The point between enough and too much is pretty damn close.” He pushed my wet hair off over my shoulder. “We’ll work it out, together.”

“Together,” I replied, nodding.