Page 37 of Wings of Ashes (Wings of Ashes #1)
CHAPTER
“ T his is where you live?” Thierry criticized as they entered the off-campus house.
Blankets and shirts were strewn about the floor of the living room, but it was not as unclean as human males in their twenties kept their living spaces. There were no crumbs on the couch, after all.
Hating the stereotypes about dragon shifters being messy, violent slobs and meatheads, Ryker always ate with slow precision.
His father had warned Ryker before he left for the academy, “ Do not give them any reason to believe you the villain they’ve painted all of us. ” And of course, the loudest speaker of anti-dragon shifter propaganda was Nix Oadess’s father. The council president.
“Try sounding less jealous,” Bael said sarcastically.
“Why do you not live on campus?” Thierry asked.
Tuning out the others, Ryker watched Nix’s beautiful face as she walked around the small living room. Ryker wanted to know what she thought of it.
“As if the dean would allow an incubus to sleep under the same roof as other precious, innocent shifters,” Bael said.
Thierry’s nose scrunched, and he pushed his glasses higher on his nose. “He refused you housing due to your species ?” Thierry asked, alarmed at the disturbing fact. “That’s against—”
“The dean thinks he can do whatever he wants.” Bael shrugged.
“You’re okay with it?”
Bael smiled sinisterly. “I know where he’ll be in a few years.” He pointed down. Hell.
“You expect the dean to die in a few years? You can’t know that.”
“Oh, there are rumblings down below of a lot of upcoming changes, Stoney.”
“Do not call me ‘Stoney.’”
“Why not?”
“It’s disrespectful,” Thierry grated.
“To stones?”
Ryker stepped over to where Nix examined the photo sitting on the side table. The photo depicted Ryker, his parents, and his seven brothers, all smiling at the camera. It was taken a few years before they had faced their worst tragedy.
“Place is…okay?” Ryker grunted to Nix. He was still getting used to needing to speak aloud instead of telepathically like the dragon clan did.
“You have a big family,” Nix said, touching the picture frame. “Must be nice.”
“More to lose,” Ryker said lowly, pain practically leaking from each syllable.
Nix glanced up with furrowed eyebrows of concern. “What do you mean—”
“Shower?” Ryker asked, trying to change the subject from his family issues. With Nix’s questionable history of losing her parents to dragons, Ryker did not want to dwell on what non-dragons had done to his family.
“Yes, please. I, uh, will also need a change of clothes.”
Ryker nodded. He would find something for her, even if he had to wash and shrink some of his own clothes so they did not slip right off of her. Hell, one of Ryker’s shirts might cover her to her knees.
He gestured for her to follow him up the stairs, and she did. Does she trust me? Could she? Ryker wondered to himself. Over the last few days, Ryker had replayed the way she recoiled from him when she first learned he was a dragon shifter.
“Hey,” Bael exclaimed, rushing toward the stairs. “You are not getting her naked without me.”
étienne Thierry caught the back of Bael’s shirt and launched him backwards, so Thierry could go up the stairs after them first.
“Damn it, Stoney,” Bael cursed after colliding with the couch.
Ryker led Nix, Thierry, and Bael to the large bathroom.
There were two sinks with plenty of counter space, considering the only objects occupying the surface included toothpaste, toothbrushes, and a large bottle of coconut oil.
The shower was also uncommonly spacious and could fit three people if needed.
Would there be a need? Ryker swallowed at the thought of showering with Nix and watching the water drip down her naked body.
Nix asked naively, “What’s the huge thing of coconut oil for?”
Bael raised a brow at Ryker and chuckled as Ryker blushed and rolled his eyes.
Bael started, “You see, when a man lives alone and approaches immortal maturity, his body goes through changes—”
Nix’s face grew red under the light marks of ash and soot covering her from head to toe. “ Oh .”
“The oil works as a lubricant as we jerk off about twice a day due to the raging hormones of an unmated—”
“I get it,” she stressed and glared at him.
“It really makes the strokes feel better. The slick wetness might cause a squelching sound; so, if you hear it tonight, know it’s not a ghost, it is just a giant cock being jacked off to completion—”
Nix threw her palm over Bael’s mouth, silencing him. She squealed and pulled her hand back when he sensually nipped and licked it.
Blushing, Ryker opened the linen closet and pulled out a fresh, clean towel for Nix. Red, like her new hair.
Gently handing it to her, Ryker warmed at how she cuddled the towel to her face and smelled it. She smiled and looked at all of the men.
“Okay,” she said. “This is the part where you leave.”
Nix waited for the men to exit the bathroom, so she could strip and shower.
Meanwhile, the three looked at each other with narrowed eyes of “ you go first ” and “ after you ” like some kind of deadlock standoff.
“Bye-bye,” she added, shooing them with a wave of her hand so she could be left alone. Did they really think she would get naked in front of them?
Bael intellectually pointed out, “But you could slip, fall, and drown. Shouldn’t one of us stay in here to help keep you safe?”
“With his eyes closed, of course,” Thierry added darkly, glowering at Bael.
“I assumed that didn’t even need to be said.” Bael shrugged innocently. “Kind of pervy that you felt you needed to say it.” Bael shot Nix a look that said, “ Should we kick this guy out of here already or what? ”
“I have showered by myself before. Successfully,” she said.
“But tonight was traumatic for you.”
“I am showering by myself tonight. Now, please leave.”
Bael mumbled disappointedly under his breath, but all three men shuffled out of the bathroom.
Nix took a deep breath and stared at her reflection in the mirror.
Finally . The reversal potion was clearly working. Even under the marks of dark ash coating her skin, she could tell that her eyes and hair had changed to her natural appearance.
“ Red is my favorite color now ,” Persius used to tell her in their cages as he stared lovingly at her hair.
Her nightgown was tighter and shorter as her body lost the lithe and thin cygnus shifter illusion and filled out into curves.
And her face…looked completely different. Why had the elixir to make her appear like a cygnus shifter changed her face so much? Ugly Duckling … Had that been on purpose? To isolate her? Why?
Nix wanted to look nothing like them now. Maybe tomorrow I will wake up completely myself .
She turned on the hot water and watched it batter the white-tiled shower floor.
Alone, her mind could finally think.
étienne was her mate, and if it took the reversal potion for him to recognize her as such, maybe Persius would realize it tomorrow when she tracked him down.
There was also the confusing fact that with two destined fated mates, Nix was still attracted to Ryker and Bael.
The men were so different from one another.
Where Ryker was the strong and quiet type, Thierry was the intense, sexy brainiac, and Bael was the impulsive and never-stops-flirting sex demon.
Who was Persius in this life? Because Nix had known him when he was broken and cynical. This version of Persius seemed like human sunshine—and he liked Elle.
But I’m not going to think about that right now .
As she stepped under the hot water, her body relaxed, and soot and blood washed down her limbs.
The steam warmed her, and she breathed in the musky scent of Bael and Ryker’s soap and body wash. The fragrance was as comforting as it was titillating.
She shivered as she bent and picked up the bottle that smelled most like Ryker. A woodsy vanilla that reminded her of blown-out birthday candles.
Squeezing some of the body wash gel onto her palm, she rubbed it into her skin. Lathering herself with his scent, she panted at the rush of arousal that coursed through her. The masculine scent filled her lungs and tingled inside her.
Maybe the whole “ approaching immortal maturity ” horniness thing was not only applicable to the guys. Did they really use that massive bottle of coconut oil to jerk off twice a day, or did Bael just say that to tease her?
Nix’s legs squirmed as water raced down her breasts and stomach. Her nipples tightened into sensitive peaks as droplets of warm water pelted the pink tips like delicate flicks of an invisible tongue.
Did Ryker really coat his fingers with the oil and wrap his fingers around himself when he had an erection? Did he typically masturbate in this bathroom? Maybe in the shower, where Nix now stood.
Did he ever get so overwhelmed by the self-pleasuring that he slammed a hand onto the shower wall and…
Her core throbbed as a familiar pulsing began between her legs.
Damn it . Would the alphas scent her arousal?