Page 24

I tried to focus on the blissed-out woman next to me rather than the fear that Yelena was going to march down at any moment and try to eat me again.

My skin still buzzed from Logan’s power, but it could’ve been worse.

The torque around her neck had an ethereal glow so we would probably have to put it back to power the wards and drain some of that off.

“Did I hurt you?”

Logan hummed and rolled over on the grass. “Nope. Kind of neat my body took all the power of the first orgasm to heal. I’ve never needed that much before.”

“How much did it heal you?”

She squirmed, testing the range of her muscles before wincing and settling back down. “Not enough.”

I touched her just because I could, threading my fingers into her hair, delighted at the spark of energy against my skin. “Can I carry you back inside? We should get the torque in with the other artifacts before you melt it right off your neck.”

She traced over the gold. “I guess it is getting a little toasty.”

I scooped her up, guilt twisting a metaphorical knife in my chest when her face pinched. We crossed the grass together and I settled her back into the wheelchair, pulling on my discarded clothing before picking out the bits of plant life clinging to her hair.

People cast curious glances our way, but I didn’t stop to talk to anyone, heading straight to the elevators and down to the basement. Once I had gotten her settled in her nest, she passed me the torque and I slipped it back inside the warding. The magic it fueled shimmered.

“Do you ever feel like being afraid of the predators crosses wires in your brain it probably shouldn’t?”

“What do you mean?” I kneeled outside her tent, climbing inside when she beckoned me.

“My wires are crossed. Most of the time, being afraid turns me on. Doesn’t matter if it’s a horror movie, the panthers stalking me for fun, or running for our lives from a monster. I just wondered if you were the same.”

I stretched out, wrapping my arm around Logan when she cuddled up by my side.

“Not quite. The power of predators does do something for me, but I definitely wasn’t thinking about anything else when Yelena was trying to eat me.

It could have influenced my idiotic crush on her, though.

She’s the one that scares me the most and I hate that she’s so fucking hot and that she knows it. ”

Logan giggled, the sound cut off a moment later with a pained groan. “I was hoping laughing wouldn’t hurt anymore.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s o?—”

“It’s not . You don’t need to placate me. I know what I did.”

She fell silent, toying with the fabric of my shirt.

When she arrived here, I hadn’t dared hope to get this close to her.

Her sweet scent had haunted me from the moment she walked through our doors, and now I was in her nest. It smelled mostly like her, but the presence of the others was unmistakable.

“I feel like a teenager, wanting to ask ‘what are we?’”

“What do you want us to be?” she countered.

Everything . “I don’t know. If it were just you, I would have an answer, but you’re kind of a package deal. Seth likes me well enough, I think. The others are a different story. Neutral is the best I can hope for there.”

“I think we can hope for a little better than that. You know full well I didn’t like you when I arrived here, and Seth was the same.

Granted, Yelena, Haru, and Velda have had a lot more time to change their opinions and haven’t, but Caden could turn in your favor.

I’m still confident the others could too. ”

“I don’t want my presence to ruin things for them. Yelena is your bondmate, and we put down the building blocks for peace, but it’s not instant.”

“Relationships with the others are up to you. I can only offer myself.”

“I would think it’s obvious to anyone that I want you.

I won’t fight them, though. If I piss off Yelena, you’re going to feel it.

Even without a bond, there’s too much at stake.

I know everyone thinks I’m a selfish asshole, and maybe in some ways I am, but I’m not so selfish that I can ignore the consequences of me getting involved with you. ”

The door creaked open and Seth trotted in, little tail swishing behind him. Hey, roomie . He climbed onto my chest and settled into a loaf since Logan was sideways next to me.

The witch kissed all over his forehead, his purr vibrating right through me. “Hello there.”

Smells like you had fun.

Logan squirmed. “Not quite as much as I would’ve liked.”

“Rude,” I said with a laugh.

“I meant getting to fuck you. You didn’t get off.”

Seth stretched, ass in the air, paws in front of him, claws kneading my skin. Want me to change back and fix that?

Unbidden desire shocked my system.

Logan sat up sharply before regret bathed her features and she sank back down with a whimper. “Ow.”

Sorry, Lo.

She took a slow breath, hand pressed to her torso. “Back up a little. When did that become an option?”

Seth shrugged as best as he could in his cat form. Officially right now. Been thinking about it for a bit.

“When I told her you liked me, that wasn’t what I was referring to.”

Seth flopped to his side, stretching out before relaxing across my body. Good thing I updated then.

“Could you not be a cat for this conversation?”

I hadn’t been thinking far enough ahead with that request, because a moment later he was an unfairly beautiful and very naked man sprawled on top of me.

“Better?”

Logan was grinning so widely next to us I was surprised her cheeks didn’t ache.

“I think that depends on your definition of better.” I was afraid to move, trying to ignore the steady pulse of need in my body.

“Should I be a cat again? I don’t wanna wig you out.”

I couldn’t even make myself breathe to answer.

“Use your words.” Logan kissed my cheek, amusement burning bright in her expression. “Okay, I get why Caden says that to me all the time.”

Seth laughed, his hazel eyes keeping me trapped. “Should I leave?”

I managed a barely perceptible shake of my head.

“Care to enlighten us about at least one of the thoughts turning around in your head?”

“I’ve never…” I swallowed hard. “…with a man before.”

Seth’s eyes gleamed. “Never? What a waste of immortality.” He laughed, but sweetly, with none of the mocking or cruelty the anxiety in my brain expected.

“I take it that means you have?”

“Of course. I mean, Haru isn’t a man every day since they’re fluid, but they’re not the only one I’ve played with over the years either.

” He examined me carefully. There was no way he didn’t notice how hard my cock was beneath him, but he didn’t draw attention to it.

“If you’re after expanding your horizons, just let me know. ”

“What if I was?”

“Then I might have to kiss you. No shade if I’m not your cup of tea.”

I shivered. I was pretty sure he was one hundred percent my cup of tea, hell, maybe the whole damn teapot, the same way the witch next to me was.

Another someone I shouldn’t want. Haru and Yelena were so tangled together, and I was pretty sure they would take it as a personal slight if I kissed Seth, but I wanted to anyway. “Does Haru know you’re here?”

“Yes.”

“But…they know you’re doing this specifically?”

“Yes,” Seth said again, laughing and planting his hands on each side of my head. “They don’t own me any more than I own them. We keep each other informed, but no one is vetoing lovers for anyone else.”

Lovers.

This was not the direction I thought my day was going to go.

“Do you want me to kiss you or not?”

I nodded, whole body shaking.

“Words,” Logan reminded me as she brushed her nose along my jaw, planting a soft kiss beneath my ear.

“Yes,” I managed, and then didn’t dare breathe.

Are you afraid of me, Kendrick?

A little.

I won’t hurt you.

That’s not what I’m afraid of .

Seth tilted his head. Then what?

It’s a threshold I can’t uncross. A step toward something I told myself I wasn’t allowed to want.

I promise you’re allowed . He dipped down, his lips a feather touch against mine, but my body reacted as if he had just swallowed down my cock, hips bucking, my hands locking around his waist. Seth cupped my cheek, transforming the kiss from those first tentative brushes to a devouring I felt down to my toes.

Good gods.

I leaned closer, giving as good as I got. He tasted and smelled like the forest, just like Logan but without the additional floral sweetness.

When he dropped his mouth to my throat, I unraveled instantly, the tension too much between him touching me and denying myself pleasure to give it to Logan earlier. I broke away with a curse, panting as I came in my pants.

“Fuck.”

Logan giggled at my side and Seth looked far too amused.

“Did you just…?”

I nodded, letting my head loll with a groan.

“You’re going to give me such an ego.” Seth beamed, planting one more soft kiss against my lips before sliding to the side, cuddling next to me the same way Logan was. “Should we let you go change?”

“In a minute.”

I was in no great hurry to move. I still had four other members of the pack to form a positive relationship with, but this felt like a good start.

I wasn’t intending to try fucking all of them—I knew Velda was a lesbian and I was pretty sure Caden was as straight as a man could get—but if Seth and Logan were firmly on my side, that boded better for the future.

“This doesn’t feel real.”

“It definitely is, though.” Seth purred, the sound rumbling.

Part of me insisted I should be embarrassed by what happened, but I couldn’t work up the energy to indulge it.

Without a little body betrayal, I probably would have let things go further than my rational mind was comfortable with.

I wanted them. There was no question about that, but like I had told Logan, this wasn’t just about her, and it wasn’t just about Seth.

Wanting them, potentially loving them, came with no shortage of complications.

Even when I had tried to avoid those, they somehow found me anyway.

Maybe that was my lot in life, to always crave people I shouldn’t have.

Logan cupped my face and drew my mouth to hers, making me melt at the sweet affection. “You’re thinking so hard. I can feel how nervous you are.”

“It’s a lot of change in one day.”

“Good change or bad change?” she asked softly.

“If I thought it was a bad change, I would already be gone.” I sighed, draping my arms around each of them, and giving myself a few seconds to bask. “I don’t know how to do this.”

“Which part?” Seth asked.

“Any of it. Is this a real choice or is it fate? Is it pure hubris on my part to even consider it could be fate?”

“Fate shows us the way, but it doesn’t force us to make the choices,” Logan insisted. “Hecate told me from the start she would send the people I needed, and I spent my first while in the nest trying to convince myself you weren’t one of them.”

Ouch.

“That was when I listened to the influence of people who didn’t know you the way I know you now. I made a choice to change that. I made a choice to let you in. Fate might’ve brought us here, but the rest is us.”

That made me feel a little better. “Are you sure?”

“Logan is the only one who was told anything about meeting the people she needed,” Seth added. “There’s no divine prophecy putting me right here.”

“I guess I can’t argue with that. I want to be a choice, not an obligation.”

“You are,” Logan insisted. “Trust me, we all want to be chosen, and I’m very conscious of doing that instead of simply submitting to fate. Who I share myself with is my choice, and I swear on Hecate herself, I’m not here because she told me to be. I choose you .”