Page 86

The moon was high when we walked outside, the breeze cool and refreshing. Grace took in the armed men standing sentry around the perimeter of the house, then looked back at me. "You seem like a nice person, Julie."

"I'm sensing a but coming."

"But if I'd known this was coming, I might have voted that you be exiled through the gate and left to fend for yourself.

" Her eyes, so familiar yet not, fixed on mine.

"Finn's all I have left. This place has taken everything from me.

I was a stranger, like you. I fell into this topsy turvy world, where men throw themselves at women.

Multiples of them, beautiful men too, not some grotty barflies.

When I bonded with Max, I thought my heart would burst in my chest, unable to feel so full.

Then Rhydian and Grey joined us..." She glanced over to the driveway, across the road, where the neighbour’s house sat.

"Don't let them send my boy away. Fight with whatever you have, use whoever you have to.

You saw it at council. They don't like powerful males, they think of him as a throwback to those who raped our forebears and left them to die.

Finn was always a threat, being Ophelia's grandson and Kelly's nephew.

They think they've kept him neutralised, not realising it’s his good heart that's always kept his power in check.

You're his mate now, you’re ultimately responsible for him. Protect him from them."

I nodded, unable to come up with anything sensible as her words hit me hard. I blinked, staring but not seeing for a moment before I said, "They'll never take Finn from me. I'll make the place burn if they do."

She looked me over carefully, then reached out and patted my hand.

“That’s what I needed to know. He’s special, my boy.

All mothers say that, but in this case, it’s true.

But you know that already, don’t you?” I nodded.

“I’m sorry, this is not how I’d wanted to welcome anyone to our family, but…

Changes are coming. I need to know he’s safe. ”

I walked inside in a bit of a daze, drifting over to the kitchen as that's where the noise was coming from.

"We're running out of room in here. I sent most of the food the caterers had brought back, but still."

Hawk stood in front of the fridge, a dish in his hand, looking for a space to put it.

"Hey," Brandon said, pushing away from the sink and coming over, hands all soapy from doing the dishes. "You OK?"

"They send you guys through the gate, into... that world?"

His eyes darted to Hawk and then back again.

"It doesn't really happen?—"

"But it can. If you don't toe the line? If you piss the alpha or the matriarchs off?"

"Can't be just that, love," Hawk said, coming so close, I could feel the warm length of his body behind me. "Jack'd be thrown through a million times over by this point."

"Except he's the son of the alpha. Has he got any sisters or brothers? And where are his dads?" Silence at that. "Did his dads go with Finn's?"

"It was before all of us, obviously. The nanas and the aunties don't talk about it, except in the vaguest form of a threat," Brandon said. "There was a schism of some sort, and the dissenters lost. That's all I've been able to piece together. They went through the gate, never to be heard of again."

"To that place, the one that looks like some pastoral idyll?"

"Not sure if it looks like that anymore," Hawk said.

"It's only the miners who go through." I frowned slightly.

I'd heard about this mine, but never seen evidence of it.

"Gold's common as dirt there, just an overly soft, pretty, but useless metal.

We mine it, sell it to the humans. Carefully though, we nearly crashed the market before we understood the process, apparently.

But c'mon, you can't be thinking of the past on the night of taking your second mate. I made you something special, kept it to one side so that Jack, the greedy little cunt, didn’t eat it. "

Hawk dug into the fridge, swiftly moving around dishes until he produced a small ramekin full of what looked like chocolate cake.

"God, is that...?" Brandon said. Hawk nodded, his smile broadening. "Jules, you're in for a treat. That's Mate's Torte. It's fucking amazing."

"Have a taste," Hawk said.

"Don't I have to wait for Finn or Slade or something?"

"He's got his own in the fridge."

"OK, well, do you guys want some?" That provoked a low moan from the two of them. "What? It's just cake."

"Not just cake," Brandon said, tugging me backwards so I could feel his hard body against mine. "This shit is next level. How'd you get the recipe, Hawk?"

"My nana shared it. Kept having sons and grandsons, so no girls to pass it onto."

"I'll wash some spoons. I think they're all in the sink," Brandon said, shifting beneath me.

"Don't need to," Hawk said, and sunk his finger into the glossy dark surface. "Here."

Those coffee brown eyes watched mine as I looked at him, then the lump of cake on the end of his finger.

His smile flickered when I leant forward, and Brandon's hands went to my hips when they were forced back against his, my hand wrapping around Hawk's wrist. As I opened my mouth, Brandon said, "This has meaning to it. "

"Shut up, Brandon," Hawk said, but it wasn't harsh.

"She's sick of going into this shit blind."

"What?" I said, my mouth watering as I smelled the unique scent of man and cake combined. Both were going to feel so good going into my mouth.

"Sharing your mating cake is an indicator for the non-bonded, that they might be next."

I glanced around at Brandon, noting he still held me firm against him. "Like catching a bouquet at a wedding?"

"Just eat the damn cake, Jules. I'm not going to assume anything by it." Hawk said.

I cocked an eyebrow, then shrugged and sucked the sweet off his finger.

Oh... fuck. I've had a whole lot of damn good cakes over the years. Like chocolate and liqueur, chocolate and tart cherry, double chocolate and salted caramel with cream and chocolate shavings. But nothing compared to this.

Hawk chuckled when my hand wrapped around his wrist, preventing him from pulling away.

Intense flavour burst in my mouth—chocolate and hazelnut, liqueur and cream, butter and sugar, coffee and something else.

I licked his finger, finding every scrap of cake and rasping it away to reveal the salty, slightly nicotine flavour of Hawk.

When I realised I'd been acting like some kind of ravening animal—complete with grunts—I pulled back, blinking.

Hawk didn't look in any way put out, his smile twisting into something as dark and delicious as the cake itself.

"Nice?" He reached out and brushed away a spot from the corner of my mouth, my eyes watching as he licked his fingertip clean.

Goddamn.

"Do I get any?"

Brandon's voice was a low buzz in my ear, his pupils blown large when I looked around at him.

"Of course." I twisted to get him a serving, but Hawk was too quick. We both watched him hook a thick finger into the container again and pull out a mouthful.

"Here."

Hawk's hand stretched out and past me, holding his offering out to the other man. Brandon's hand gripped my hip hard as he leaned forward, forcing me to move with him. I had a ringside seat for watching Brandon wrap his full lips around Hawk's finger and suck.

"Why is this hot?" I muttered. "Why is sucking cake off his fingers so fucking hot?"

Hawk heard me and chuckled, something that sent a low thrum through me.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?"

Jack stood in the kitchen doorway, a picture of golden indolence. His green eyes were hooded as he watched Brandon finish the job just as thoroughly as I had.

"Getting people to suck you off for baked goods again, love? We talked about this."

"Fuck off, Jack." Hawk's voice was a low growl.

"Why?" He strolled over to take position behind his lover, pulling his thick brown hair back before placing careful kisses along the muscular column of his neck.

His eyes burned into mine as he pushed the man's collar away, revealing the place where a white mating scar should be before kissing over that.

I wasn't sure if he was staking his claim and shoving it in my face, or trying to invite me to do the same.

My Tirian paced inside me, eyes watching his every movement.

"If someone's licking you, I wanna watch. "

Brandon's lips pulled free with a pop, and he drew back, looking a little dazed. "God, that's good."

"Isn't it? He made an amazing batch with his Nan when his cousin was mated.

We ate it all nice and neatly at the bridal table, but he had extras, didn't you, love?

" Jack's voice was a hypnotic sing-song as he unbuttoned Hawk's shirt.

We both watched his hands smooth the garment away, then claw through the smattering of dark hair across his chest. "Took them to bed with us, didn't we?

Smeared it all over our bodies and then licked.

.." We watched his fingers tug at Hawk's nipples.

"it all..." His hands went to Hawk's waistband, toying with the button there. "...off."

"Sounds like a good way to get a UTI."

Our heads snapped around to see Slade, Finn, and Aaron in the doorway. Slade watched me shake my head as I stepped away from the cake orgy in the making and over to them.

"The cake is amazing, Hawk," I said. The words sounded clunky and awkward, but I couldn't think of anything more intelligent to add right now. I shifted, feeling that uncomfortable slickness again.

This you again? I thought, waiting for the black wolf to reply. All I heard was a chuckle, but it was difficult to know if it was real or just my memory of today.

"Got any more?" Slade said. "You've got these two panting, so it must be good."