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Kase stood behind Troy, his fangs buried in the werewolf’s neck. The familiar lust danced in Troy’s eyes, as the venom in Kase’s bite worked through him. If Troy had any control before, this would remove it.
Hunter set a large, strong hand on my hip before filling me with his cock in one hard thrust, forcing my body to accept his.
I cried out, and Troy took that moment to shove himself into my open, waiting mouth. Hunter took me as deep as possible, his smoke moving again, making me entirely full, taking every part of me.
Grant slid onto the bed beside me, reaching beneath me to tease my breasts as they hung free, as if he needed his own claim on me, needed to touch me as well.
Troy slid his fingers into my hair, the tips of his nails having turned to sharp claws, and he used them to hold me still as he fucked my mouth. Troy gave in, not fighting his wolf or me or the other men. He had me the way he wanted me, at the same time as the other men took me, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
And itwas, at least for us. It wasn’t easy, not all the time, but it was right. It was a pack, a family, a safe home that none of us had ever found before, that none of us had believed was even possible.
No matter how much the thought of the next day scared me, no matter what would end up happening, no matter what the world threw at us, the men took my fear away. They held it for me, reminded me that the world could do its worst, because I wasn’t ever alone.
I had a place, and they didn’t mind showing me it was right between their strong, sexy and sometimes frustratingly annoying bodies.
While I hadn’t expected to find happiness pinned between four immortal men, I wasn’t sorry about it in the least.
* * * *
“You’re late.” Hunter leaned against the doorway of Gran’s shop when I showed up, sure enough a good hour and a half after I was supposed to arrive.
“Hellhounds don’t have watches, so how would you even know?”
He huffed a soft laugh at the stupid joke. “You’re lucky you’re cute. Come on, let’s get in there before Grant decides to try to summon you on his own.”
“We both know portals don’t work right on me. If he tried it, I’d end up god only knows where.”
“Yeah, but he’s annoyed enough that he might just try it. If you ended up in Antarctica, it wouldn’t be any worse for him.”
A kid rushed up, his short red hair cut haphazardly around his head with the tips singed black, no doubt from a spell he hadn’t quite managed. The truth was that most of his spells still went wrong. “Ms. Ava!” He crashed into me, hard enough that it took a hand from Hunter to keep me upright.
I patted his back, then crouched down when he disentangled enough for me to do so. “Hey, Nick. How’re you?”
As he went into a warp-speed monologue about everything that had happened in the past two weeks since I’d been by—including the time he saw a bug on the sidewalk—I couldn’t help but smile. He’d been so skinny when I’d first met him, and unwilling to even look me in the eye, far too much like most of the young mages we took in.
What a far cry from the rambunctious little kid who just about lived in the shop now. We’d found him a foster home, but I was pretty sure he didn’t spend much time there. He preferred to be in the know, in the thick of things, and often had his nose pressed into an old book.
“We better get going,” Hunter broke into the spiel, and Nick cast his gaze up at Hunter without a speck of wariness.
Then again, the kid had been amazed the first time Hunter had shown him his true form, when he’d gotten to study the way the smoke Hunter used worked. Nick had touched the scales, even measured the sharp white fangs that filled Hunter’s mouth.
And Hunter? I didn’t think I’d ever seen a man so happy to have someonenotbe afraid of him. It took me back to the story he’d told me about when he’d protected those kids who had never accepted him.
I wouldn’t have pegged Hunter as someone who liked kids, yet he’d become a de facto assistant, a guardian as devoted to the protection of the kids as the rest of us. He didn’t hold any official title, but he didn’t need one. He’d spend hours late into the night working to help the children we’d taken in, the ones who needed homes and help and guidance.
We moved toward the back of the shop, passing the young woman I’d hired to work the counter. It had taken all of five minutes to recognize that I didn’t have the skills necessary, but the idea of closing down seemed sacrilegious. Hiring folks to do what I couldn’t was an obvious choice. Once we entered the storage closet, Nick held up his wrist, the bracelet there glowing as it passed the doorway and opened the portal.
Grant had ensured we had permanent portals so I could use them, even though it never was much fun. After the rush of sickness, when Hunter put his arm around me for balance and Nick grasped my hand, both knowing I didn’t handle traveling that way well, I blinked slowly.
The sky, that odd reddish color, felt homier than it had when I’d first seen it. Then again, I’d fallen asleep there many times, with the heat of the realm relaxing me like a hot tub rather than hell. Maybe it was the lack of humidity that made it not so bad.
The realm where the Jade Room was, where we’d spoken to the council, was the perfect place for us. The council hadn’t dared to oppose Grant when he’d claimed it. It wasn’t like they were doing anything with it, anyway…
Standing in the hallway were Kase and Troy, drawing a smile from me despite my nerves. Kase still had business with the coven despite having taken a step backward, and Troy’s demanding work as a detective meant he often missed events. I hadn’t asked either to come, prepared to do this on my own, to face down my fears without the backup.
“You’re late,” Kase said as I walked up, disapproval coloring his tone. He didn’t tend to care for plans changing.
“So I’ve heard,” I answered. “I didn’t expect you to come.”
