Axel throws together a breakfast spread for everyone. Piles of every type of food line the long island table we’re all sitting around. I’ve only tried his pancakes and these little puff pastry things, and I’m already in fucking heaven.
If the whole alpha thing didn’t work out, he could definitely be a chef. His food is that good. The flavors explode in my mouth like mini orgasms.
I shove another forkful of food in my mouth when I realize the guys have gone quiet. I look up, finding their heated stares on me. Axel is smirking down at me like he just won a shit ton of money.
“What?”
“You said that aloud.” Axel’s gaze dips to my lips.
“What—” Oh. I shrug, too absorbed in my delicious food to give a shit about them hearing my thoughts.
“Don’t let it get to your head,” I tell him, but the fucker’s smile just grows.
“Too late.” Jax frowns, eyeing Axel and my food.
“Mine.” I scoot my chair and plate closer to Luka in case he gets any stupid ideas.
The guys chuckle around me, but I wasn’t kidding. If he came anywhere near my food, I might just accidentally-on-purpose stab the cheeky fucker. It’s not like he wouldn’t heal.
Jax narrows his eyes, a glint of challenge lighting them.
“Don’t even think ab—”
Before I know it, Jax has me thrown over his shoulder and is heading out of the apartment.
“Jax! Put me down. I want my food.” I lift my head, trying to reach back, but the little traitor already has me out in the hall, heading for the lift.
“No. You’ve given me a challenge. I need to prove myself.”
“How the hell did you come to that conclusion?” I ask him, baffled by how his mind works.
“There’s no way Axel’s food is better than my hands or mouth. I’m going to make you come so many times, you won’t even remember your own name, let alone his shitty food.”
“His food isn’t—Wait.” My brain finally catches up to what he said. “I mean… we could definitely try that theory.” I squirm as his grip tightens. His hand slides up my thigh just as we reach the lift.
“Jax! Let her finish her fucking food.” Axel storms into the hall.
“No. We’re heading off to get hitched. You’re not invited.”
What? “How did we go from orgasms to getting married?” I was down for orgasms, plenty of them, not fucking marriage.
“They come after.” Jax pats my ass, his tone telling me it should be obvious.
My brain must be fried as I start to debate whether it’s worth it. That is, until Axel reaches us, blocking the lift.
“Either put her down or I’m taking her from you,” Axel grits out.
Jax’s grip tightens on me. “You can try.”
“She needs to fucking eat.”
“If she’s still hungry after your shitty food, she can suck on my dick.”
I mean, I wasn’t against the idea, but having to get married for it didn’t seem like a fair trade.
The blood starts rushing to my head, making me feel like I was spinning. “Jax, put me down.”
“Yeah, put her fucking down, Jax, before I do it for you.”
“In ten minutes, she won’t even remember—”
Axel scoffs, cutting Jax off. “Ten? It takes you that long to—”
“Guys!” I shout, but neither of them listens to me.
Jazmyn was right. They do love the sound of their own voices.
“Jealous that you can’t lock yourself inside her tight wet—”
“How about Axel feeds me while you fuck me from behind?” I say, making them freeze.
The silence grows around me, but without being able to see their facial expressions, I can’t tell what they’re thinking. “Is that a yes?”
“I’m down,” Jax tells me.
I push myself up on Jax’s shoulder, twisting around I find Axel’s dark eyes looking right at me. “Fine, but you’re getting my dick for dessert.”
My smile widens as I wet my lips. “Deal. Now put me down. All the blood has gone to my head.”
Jax slides my body down the front of his, making sure I feel every one of his hard muscles, including his thick length.
Jax licks his bottom lip, glancing down at me. “Thought you might like a little preview.”
Fuck.
I’m already fucking wet, and they haven’t even touched me. Clearing my throat, I glance at the two of them. “What the hell are we waiting for?”
Jax and Axel wear matching wicked smiles as we head back to the apartment. We walk into the lounge, finding the guys all standing around looking pale.
“I got a call. More demons and beasts just showed up. A shitload of them and there doesn’t seem to be an end to when they’ll stop.”
“Fuck.” Axel breaths.
The guys share a look between them before landing on me.
“Don’t say it. I’m coming,” I tell them.
Kai sighs but nods his head.
“Guess it’s time for round two.” Jax winks at me, but he can’t hide the worry that flashes across his face.
While Kai heads off to organize a portal, I head back to my room and throw on some warmer clothes. I try not to think about what we’re heading into too much. The dread building in my stomach already tells me it isn’t going to be good.
Luka walks in just as I finish getting dressed. “Hey, what’s up?”
Without saying a word, he walks over to me and pulls me in to his side. “I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
“Me either.” The last time it was bad, and that was only one demon. I can’t imagine what it will be like with dozens of them, if not more.
“If I begged you to stay, would you?” Luka tilts my chin up to him, his eyes pleading.
“If I asked you the same, would you?”
I understand their worries. Hell, I more than felt it myself when they headed off anywhere. It was so much worse after thinking I lost them, and even with their new abilities and healing, that fear is still there every time they go off somewhere. But I can’t keep them locked up any more than they can me. We have to trust that once we fight like hell to get back to one another, we will be okay.
Luka sighs. “It’s different. There’s only one of you and five of us.”
I pull back, looking at Luka like he just lost his damn mind. “You are not replaceable, Luka. Not one of you. I will never choose to lose one of you over the other. That’s not how this works. Each of you has a part of me, and I need all of them to be whole.”
“I’m sorry.” Luka shakes his head. “I don’t know what I was saying. I just don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“I get it. You’re worried. I am too. But we’re a family. We’ll do this together, just like everything else from here on out.”
Luka nods his head. “Together.”
This time, the demons and hybrid beasts are on the other side of the city. The portal brings us near enough to see what’s going on but far enough away that we don’t land straight on top of the chaos.
Everywhere I look, it’s bad. I don’t know what to focus on first.
Just like last time, buildings are completely destroyed; most are leveled with thick black smoke billowing from their base.
Demons of every kind span out across the entire area, with hundreds of hybrid beasts all around them. From large ones, like the one we fought last time, to a couple like the ones Rion, Jax, and Luka described.
It looks like hell on earth, or what I would imagine it to be. Everything is dark, destroyed, and fucking horrifying.
“Just do what you can, but get yourself out of here the minute it gets to be too much,” Kai demands. The others back up Kai’s demand with warning glares.
I nod a reply, knowing now isn’t the time to tell them I can handle myself. I am scared as hell for them, too.
Jax salutes him, giving me a wink. “Yes, sir.”
Kai shakes his head, walking over to me. Pulling me into him, he takes a deep breath. “Don’t you dare leave me again.”
“Same goes for you.”
“Deal.” Kai pulls back, his eyes filled with worry and fear, not making the dread in my stomach ease.
Kai gives Axel a nod before heading towards the chaos.
“Princess!” Axel’s tone is demanding, making me look at him.
“Axel.” I use the same tone but barely get a tilt to his lips. His whole face is drenched in worry. “Please, be careful.”
“I promise.” Axel nods his head before following Kai.
Rion moves in front of me, sharing a look with Luka before nodding. “If anything happens—”
“Get out of here. I know. But you all know—”
“That you would never leave us. I know.” Rion pulls me into him, his scent wraps around me. “I’ll stay close by.”
“Be careful.”
Rion nods his head, giving us one last look before turning in the same direction as the guys.
Luka stays near me like before. He takes a step back, giving me a shy smile before closing his eyes.
His shadows appear, trailing down his body, but instead of black like they normally are, they have a tint of red in them. They’ve also changed shape, looking more like Jax’s full flames instead of shredded tendrils. They engulf his entire body, slowly receding to reveal a large wolf.
His dark mane has hints of silver in it that I didn’t notice before. His flames are redder, cloaking his entire body.
Luka’s wolf comes up beside me as we head toward the nearest group of demons and beasts.
Just as we near them, I reach down and pull up the energy hidden inside me. I feel it as it slides over my body, expanding outward.
Once I’ve gathered enough of it, I push it out around me.
It shoves most of the demons and hybrid beasts closest to us back long enough for Luka’s wolf to rush forward and blanket them in flames.
He travels around them, lighting them up before moving onto the next one. But it’s like we’ve become a beacon, and every beast and demon heads straight for us.
I push more and more power out around me, keeping most of them away from Luka and me, but they keep coming.
It starts to feel endless, with no end in sight. We kill one, only for three more to appear behind it.
I glance over and see Kai’s two headed hound take on a large demon that looks like it’s made from black rock with eerie yellow eyes. He’s holding his own, but there are so many other demons around him, trying to take him down.
Rion is already in his basilisk form, taking on a dark demon with lava running down its body, but just like Kai, he’s surrounded by hundreds of hybrid beasts.
I find Axel in the sky, swooping down to attack wherever he can, but there are so many demons and beasts, his flames or power to absorb and amplify energy barely make a difference.
Luka shifts back, coming up beside me panting heavily from constantly fighting. “There are too many of them. We need to get you out of here.”
I’m about to reply, to tell him there has to be another way, when I notice something wrong with Kai. Something is happening to his hounds. Shaking their heads, they back up, stomping and scraping their clawed paws against the ground.
“What’s wrong with Kai?” I ask Luka.
Luka looks over at Kai, and his brows raise. “I think he’s finally unleashing his third hound.”
“Third?”
I catch it just in time to see Kai’s hound’s body expand. And by expand, I mean he’s fucking huge. Towering over the demon he was fighting.
A third head appears in the middle of the other two but is completely different from either of them.
With long sharp teeth and blood red glowing eyes, this thing was a beast. Without stopping, Kai’s large three-headed hound tears through the demons and hybrid beasts around it like they’re nothing but ants.
But even with his relentless energy making his way through the demons, there were still so many more of them taking their place.
It gets a whole lot worse when a mass of them arrives in formed groups. They spread out, heading straight for the guys.
“We need to go help them,” I tell Luka.
“Even if we wanted to, we’re surrounded ourselves,” Luka says.
I glance around and see more and more demons and beasts getting closer to us.
“I need to get you out—” Luka doesn’t get to finish, as he whips around, shifting and pouncing on the demon sneaking up behind us.
Using my powers, I hold back the rest, but I can’t last much longer. My energy is starting to feel depleted.
I push and push, but the more I do, the less energy I feel.
Feeling helpless, I watch all of my guys each fighting off the demons and beasts but slowly getting more and more overwhelmed.
We’re going to lose if we don’t figure something out. But what? My ability is barely hanging on. I drop to my knees, still pushing out my inky mass of shadows that has become nothing more than wisps of smoke.
But I keep pushing, not willing to give up. I just needed to hold them off long enough to think of something.
But my brain can’t think past my guys as they get more and more overwhelmed.
I can’t lose them. Not again.
I feel a pulse of a connection just before the shadow beast appears. My eyes widen on its dark form.
“Help me,” I beg it, but it stays where it is, barely moving an inch.
“Then help them,” I order it, but I haven’t got enough energy to command it to listen to me. I begin to let fear take over. It grips me hard, choking me with its razor claws.
I start to see dark spots in my vision when I hear a familiar deep voice in my head.
“Let it out.”
“I can’t,” I tell the shadow beast. “I have nothing left. Please, just help them,” I beg, but still, it doesn’t move.
“Let it out,” it says in my head once more.
“I can’t.” My inky shadows start to let up, dissolving in front of me. Fear slices me with its thick claws.
“No limits. Let. It. Oouuttt…” The shadow beast speaks again, its voice darker, more demanding.
No limits… No limits… My body is exhausted… beyond exhausted. It is bone-tired, but I have to at least try.
Reaching down, I search for anything left inside me but find nothing. A chamber of silence and nothing but an empty black end, its barrier so dark I can’t see anything beyond it. I try to push past it to see if there’s anything more, but it doesn’t budge.
I push and push, but it still doesn’t give. I feel the sweat drip down my back. My whole body is stiff from trying, but still nothing happens.
I fall to the ground, my hands scraping off the small pieces of rock as I catch myself.
“Kiarra!” Luka screams to me, but I can’t see him, the world around me getting darker as I try to stay conscious.
But I wasn’t ready to give up yet. I couldn’t.
Digging my hands into the ground beneath me, I start pushing through the thick, black barrier. There has to be more. The shadow beast said, no limits. But what did that mean?
Did my power have no limits, or did I? But it is the same thing, isn’t it? My power comes from me, and one cannot exist without the other.
A crack forms in the black barrier, revealing a sliver of light. It pulses, trying to seep out toward me.
It’s then that it hits me… The barrier isn’t real, it’s me. I’m what’s stopping myself. The more my mind opens up to the idea, the more the barrier cracks.
There was never an end. The shadow beast is right. My power is limitless.
And it’s time I reach out and take it.
Feeling the cracked barrier with my mind, I reach out and brush against it, and with the slightest rip, it fractures entirely before completely falling away.
I gasp as power like nothing before rushes through me. Every one of my senses comes alive, and power spreads out to every nerve in my body.
This new energy feels endless, with boundless potential, like there’s nothing I can’t do.
I let it fill me, not stopping until I’m brimming with every ounce of that energy, my entire body vibrating with it.
While my power continues to build, I let my mind turn to the demons and beasts around me, pausing when I find a slight pulse of energy inside each one of them.
I grip on to it, letting each one become my new target.
When my power is so full it’s almost painful, I let it go, releasing it out around me. It bursts out of me like an explosion, the surge of dark power rippling out of me and slamming right into the mass of demon and beasts heading right for us.
