Page 53 of WitchCurse

Nick broke the kiss and glanced back at Toby. “Guess we need to give him something else to remember?” His fingers stroked over my skin, the flesh sensitive and ticklish, more alive than I could recall feeling most of my existence. “Healing begun, but much more to do,” Nick said. He traced my arms and shoulders, touch dancing over the bonds that tied him to me; they had never been that sensitive before. Every touch sang through my body in ways I hadn’t experienced for a millennium at least.

My hips jerked, groin begging for touch. “What?” I asked, trying to sort through the waves of sensation. Long broken and starved, I’d forgotten what it was like to not feel like I was covered in numb, wilting flesh. Toby studied my body, hands searching, sliding over muscles that began to fill beneath his caress as he directed more magic to heal me. I couldn’t help but flinch, unfamiliar with being touched by anyone anymore.

Nick wrapped his arms around me, body solid and warm, but even his touch was unfamiliar as it had been muted for the entire span of our lives together.

“I like this healing,” Toby said. “Do I need to eat more?” He sculpted the magic, like an artist working clay, filling in spots that echoed with raw emptiness. Toby’s grip tightened on my shoulder as his gaze stared into mine, that gold ring around the pupil of his eyes again. “He’s not as thin.”

“But not near what he was. We’ll need more energy for that, probably a pack larger than Sebastian and Liam’s, at least if we are speaking in terms of theHunt,” Nick said. “I don’t think they provide as much as a living wolf pack would. If there aren’t much for shadows left, I’m not sure how else we’ll feed him.”

“I asked for a pack,” Toby said. “Liam said I’m not ready.” He scowled. “He’s not wrong, but that can’t stop my wolf from wanting control.” He slid his hands up to cup my face. “Can I have control of you, Kiran?”

I frowned, never a fan of letting someone else set the rules. It always ended with me in chains, seduction often used to manipulate and cage me rather than provide pleasure. The first time I’d been given to Zephyr, I had been willing. Young and naïve, eager to learn and experience, but hadn’t returned unscathed. My willingness had been used against me time and again.

“He has forgotten how strong he can be,” Nick said, as he reached between us to slide his hand over my groin, cupping my cock and awakening an internal heat I’d forgotten existed at all. Those lost days of Landon’s gentle touch, demanding need, and breathtaking worship, were things I thought long gone. Did I want that back? I wasn’t even sure what to do with any of it anymore. Emotion, life, hope, those were all foreign to me.

“Let me rephrase my question.” Toby straddled me, his own cock hard and leaking against my stomach, as he pressed in close, trapping Nick’s arm between him and me, and moving his hips to add friction. “Fuck,” Toby cursed. “We want to take and worship all at once.” He bowed over my shoulder, breathing hard, hands stilled, his teeth touched my shoulder and I tensed, waiting for pain. “I won’t be able to hold back.” He licked my shoulder. “I want you to wear my mark. Both of you.”

“We may heal it. It’s hard to tell how his fae powers will react with the wolf magic. Does Sebastian wear Liam’s mark?” Nick asked.

“Yes,” Toby groaned. “I need that.” His voice went gruff, teeth nipping at my shoulder. “Mine.” When he looked at me again it was with wolfen eyes, hungry and demanding.

Was he planning to eat me, or fuck me?

“Both? Maybe?” Toby asked, trying to clarify whatever was in his head.

He wasn’t strong enough to really hurt me. That was what Nick was saying. Toby could take control, but I would always be stronger, fae, kitsune, monster in waiting. I was the terror in the room, why did I feel like prey?

“We did hurt you,” Toby corrected. “Almost killed you trying to remove all the curses at once. Not even the kitsune could heal the damage. I devoured the others, and the omega had to feed us power. It might have helped if we knew where Wesley was, since he generates wild magic, but that guy is slippery, vanishing the second anyone needs him.”

I let that thought churn for a moment. Weakened by the nightmare of endless curses, then stripped of them and healed, I tested my strength, pushing the wolf back with ease. It was a need to be in control, or at least free enough to make decisions. I’d never liked being the rabbit. Toby sat back, studying me, and I curled in on myself, gathering a wall of magic to pool glamour around me, but found them directing it to healing instead, frustrating me as I needed a shield, even if it was only a visual one.

Nick frowned, studying me. “Why are you tense?” He cupped my face and kissed it again, tracing dancing circles from cheek to forehead to nose to chin. “You don’t flinch from my touch?” He stared at me like he was trying to dig through my mind, and the healing made me too tired to add more barriers between us. He glanced back at Toby, who vibrated with energy and a need to dominate. I wasn’t certain I was ready for that, and couldn’t help my flinch at the idea of fangs tearing me apart again.

Nick reached back and touched Toby’s shoulder. The wolf paused, his gaze turning to Nick, gold fading from his eyes and leaving them blue. Whatever conversation they had; they didn’t share it with me. Toby scowled again, but slunk away. Nick caught his face and kissed him, deep and long, lips on lips. It was pretty to look at, their passion, even if it left me feeling a bit lonely.

“No reason to be,” Nick said after he broke the kiss with Toby. He slid his body over mine, enveloping me with his warm bulk, the thin sleep pants barely clinging to his defined hips. He touched my face, fingers caressing my skin for a minute as he seemed to study me. I couldn’t help but relax into his touch, familiar, warm, and safe. “Toby doesn’t make you feel safe?”

Toby growled from somewhere behind Nick, sounding more wolf than human. I couldn’t hide my cringe, the memory of many hunts long past in which my mother’s beasts had dragged me back.

“He’s bound to us, ours,” Nick said though his gaze didn’t leave me. But trust had been hard for me for a long time. I didn’t voice any protests as I didn’t want to upset my scions. They could take whatever they needed from me. I would probably survive it.

“We don’t want you surviving,” Nick said as he pressed his forehead to mine, cupping my face to keep me from seeking where the wolf had gone. “We want you thriving. Like you did as a child in this world, when you roamed free, exploring and learning. We want that.”

Didn’t he know I’d long been a shattered thing? His heated gaze filled my sight, my pretty scion back to his healed perfection. What was left of me to give him? I’d given him what power I had, a long life, as difficult as it had been, watched him grow and become the powerful being he was. Wasn’t that enough?

“And if I want more?” Nick asked.

“What do I have left to offer?” I wondered out loud, awed by how beautiful he was, like artwork of a finely sculpted man, though I knew his skin burned with warmth and life. I dreamed of touching him, but feared tainting his beauty with my curse.

He tilted his head to study me for a moment. “You find me beautiful?”

“Yes.”

“But I remind you of a former lover.”

“Only sometimes,” I admitted. Mostly, when I felt vulnerable and dreamed I hadn’t lived the nightmares of my long life. I often wished I’d escaped with Landon to find another life where he hadn’t become a dragon and I hadn’t been the death of everything.

“Is it me you see when I touch you like this? Or the lover of the past?”