When River and I finally returned to Omega base, I couldn’t help feeling like we were doing a walk of shame. Like all the guys knew exactly what the hell we’d been doing.
Of course, they probably did. I hadn’t bothered rebuilding my mental shields until after we’d woken up, showered together, then dressed in clean clothes. As much as Dark-Kit had loved leather, it just wasn’t practical for the weather. Not to mention the outfit I’d been wearing held a distinct, metallic smell of blood that I doubted would come out easily.
“Oh, new furniture. Who did all of this?” I commented as we entered the apartment and found everyone sitting on perfectly serviceable couches and sipping from unbroken mugs.
“Team effort,” Cole responded, standing up to clap River in a man-hug. One of those quick, hand-clasp, shoulder-pat, chest-bump things that said both, “Hey man, real glad you’re okay; I was super worried,” but also said, “We’re too macho to talk about feelings.”
I grinned and bit my tongue to stop myself from translating their body language aloud. “Well, nice work. I wasn’t looking forward to sitting on the floor again today.”
“Why’s that, moron?” Sam hissed, uncoiling himself from the back of the couch where he had been hanging out. “Bit sore today?”
“Fucking Christ, who let Sam out?” I rolled my eyes, then glared at Caleb, who just shrugged and held out a steaming mug in my direction.
“You know how pissy they get when they’re cooped up too long,” he said by way of explanation. “Besides, Tyson was helpful with moving furniture around.”
The big cat in question purred loudly and gave me a toothy grin that I couldn’t help reciprocating. Cute, overgrown house kitten.
“What did Sam contribute?” I asked sarcastically. “A rodent-free room?”
Sam narrowed his snake eyes at me and started to retort before Caleb clamped a hand over his jaw to hold it shut. “That’s enough, Cuddles,” the Blood Mage scolded, and Sam glared death at him. For my part, I was super-mature and let the whole thing slide.
Kidding, I totally flipped him off and grinned my victory.
“Where’s Finn?” I asked, looking around and not seeing my odd new friend anywhere. “I need to speak with him about what to do today.”
“He’s gone to look for a Ms. Dobelman,” Austin responded, shifting over on the couch and snagging my hand to pull me into the space he had created. “Well, well. What is this?” He arched an eyebrow at me and held up my hand sporting River’s family heirloom.
“Um,” I panicked. Hadn’t this been one of those things that River had discussed with the guys? I’d just assumed it was… but shit! What if it wasn’t and I’d gone and accepted an engagement ring—a goddamned heirloom engagement ring, at that—without discussing it with my other lovers?
“I’m teasing,” Austin assured me. “I’m glad he finally gave it to you.”
“It’s been burning a hole in his pocket for months,” Wesley agreed, leaning over to take my hand and inspect the glittering jewel. “It really suits you, sweetheart.”
A gust of relief rushed out of me, and I looked at each of them in turn. “You all knew about it already?” They nodded. “All of you?” I arched an eyebrow at Vali, and he gave me a small head dip.
“All of us, regina mea. We are all in this together, are we not? This meant a lot to River, and we could all understand that. Just as Austin felt the need to tattoo his name onto your side. We will each undoubtedly do our own ‘thing’ to show our forever, but that takes no weight or importance away from anyone else’s ‘thing.’” Vali gave a very European shrug, and Cole punched him in the shoulder.
“Nice English as a second language, bro,” he teased, and I tried not to gape at their improved easiness with each other. Maybe I needed to fuck them in front of each other more often.
“That’s really sweet, Vali,” I told him, then took a long sip of coffee to cover my own awkwardness with all the mushy feelings threatening to flood in. “So, Finn went to find Dobelman? Have you heard anything about how the recruits are doing today?”
The day was practically over already, with dusk peeking over the horizon, but given how long it had taken to change them all the day and night before, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were all asleep or, I don’t know, recovering? Every time I’d changed the guys it had been somewhat more high-pressure, so I wasn’t really sure how the process would work.
“No, that’s what he was going to find out.” Wesley ran his hand through his hair and tapped his foot against the coffee table. “I’m a little anxious to see how everything is playing out too, if I’m honest.”
Caleb snickered. “Wes is having an academic boner thinking about how many different species there might be here on campus. I’m guessing you guys didn’t check the recruitment files for their DNA-match results first?”
“Um…” Was it going to be embarrassing to admit the thought had never even crossed Dark-Kit’s mind? She didn’t give a shit what flavor of supernatural was joining her army. They were all just cannon fodder at the end of the day. Distractions to keep Bridget’s own backup busy. “No?”
“Perhaps Wesley can start with that today,” River suggested, slipping back into his team leader role. “Start bringing up all the recruit files and categorizing based on assumed species. It will help us start to sort them into training groups.”
“Training?” I squeaked, looking up at River with wide eyes.
He gave me a slow smile back, like he just knew my brain was still addled from our fuck-fest. “That is why you changed them all, isn’t it? To build us an army to go up against Bridget?”
Nodding, I swallowed past the guilt that threatened to choke me. I hadn’t given a shit twenty-four hours ago, so now was not the time to regret dragging hundreds of innocent people into my fight.
“Between us all here, I’d say we have most broad categories of magic covered. What is Finn, Vixen?” Cole asked me, and I twisted my mouth, unsure if I was spilling secrets or not.
Then again, these guys deserved total transparency from me. “A demon, and a pretty big deal one too, I think. He said his twin brother is one of the Princes of Hell.”
“Huh,” Caleb muttered, looking stunned. “I didn’t expect that.”
“Neither did I,” Austin admitted, agreeing with his twin. “But I guess he will be useful training any unusual supernaturals we end up with.”
“Like demons,” Sam offered, with an edge of sarcasm. “There are bound to be some, even if they’re a lot more watered-down than dog-breath over there.” He jerked his scaled head at River, who glowered back at him.
I ignored Sam’s comment about River and frowned at the snake. “Why do you say it like that? Like it’s a sure thing.”
Sam flickered his tongue in that insulting way of his. “Because demons have been coming to the human realm and impregnating human women for millennia. I doubt they stopped simply because their offspring weren’t magical. They just like fucking.”
“Good to know,” I murmured, rubbing at my tired eyes. “Okay, so Wes, you’ll start bringing up files and sorting them? Maybe Caleb and Austin can come with me, and we will go looking for Finn.”
“What would you like the rest of us to do, Kit?” River asked me with calm deference, not challenging my orders but subtly testing my ability to lead. Asshole. Must have been a wolf thing.
“Check out the campus and work out where we will conduct all this training. I have a feeling, also, we will have more people to turn in the next week or so.” I chewed at the edge of my lip as I admitted this. As much as I didn’t want to change anyone else, Dark-Kit had put the call out to all active agents, and they would be returning here expecting to be changed.
Also, if they were older and more experienced, they’d probably be a huge asset in training so many fresh supernaturals.
“Active agents,” River nodded, obviously remembering the same thing I just had. “We will deal with them when they get here. Can I assume these ones will have a choice on whether to accept or not?”
He didn’t mean it as an insult, but my cheeks heated with shame nonetheless. “Yes,” I croaked, feeling sick for how Dark-Kit had handled rejection. “Yes, we will give them all a choice. A real choice, this time.”
River gave me a tight nod, his jaw clenched with the same guilt as I felt. “Let’s get on with it then. You need a proper night’s rest tonight before even thinking about changing more agents.”
Sam popped up near my shoulder and hissed in my ear, “And by rest, he really means you need to rest your overactive cunt. The amount of pheromones in this apartment are enough to choke someone.”
“Shut up before I make a purse out of your skin,” I snapped back to him. Even if he did probably have a point. k.1.2
Caleb and Austin both sent their familiars back into their resting places before we left the apartment and went in search of Finn. For one, we didn’t need to scare anyone unnecessarily if they were having a hard time believing the magic stuff. For another, we didn’t need to listen to Sam yapping on the whole way.
“How many recruits do you think you changed last night, Princess?” Austin asked as we jogged down the stairs.
“Uh, I don’t really know,” I admitted. “All of them? And instructors too.”
“There were probably around ten instructors on campus and if it was a full recruit class, maybe fifty or sixty total? It won’t be fun, but I’m sure the seven of us can handle it.” Caleb gave me a smile of reassurance, and I hummed a noise of disagreement.
“Nope, Jonathan had been on a major recruitment drive. There would have been somewhere between two and three hundred. Easy.” At this, both twins stopped short, and I ran into the back of Austin before he whirled around to grab my upper arms.
“Two to three hundred,” he repeated, and I nodded. “You used your magic on that many in one session? No wonder you were so drained!”
He looked so mad, but his grip on my arms was comforting, like he couldn’t decide if he should be hugging or shaking me.
“Damage is done now, bro,” Caleb pointed out, tapping him on the wrist to remind him he was holding me tightly. “We just need to handle the fallout, yeah? Piece of cake. Kitty Kat did the hardest part, after all. Besides, it was only a matter of time.”
Austin grunted and released me but smacked a quick kiss on my forehead before continuing out of the building.
“Why do you say that?” I asked Caleb as we followed Austin’s stalking form. “That it was only a matter of time? I thought I was the only one who could change people.”
“Yeah, that part could only be done by you, for sure,” he agreed, “but I meant about handling the fall out. If it hadn’t been this, it would have been the international media. Cole and Vali’s investigation pretty much proved that supernaturals, shifters in particular, are sick of hiding in the shadows. Whether it was through Bridget’s influence or not, the end result is the same. They’re sick of hiding, so they’re making themselves known to the world. ‘Ready or not, here we come,’ kind of thing.”
“Well fuck,” I replied. It really was the best I could come up with. Maybe I was more exhausted than I had realized.
“Yep. So, this whole thing might actually work in our favor. When push comes to shove with the humans finding out, well, we want supernaturals putting on a good face, right? We don’t want these rabid, angry shifters who have been running to fight clubs to be the ‘face’ of supernatural kind.” Caleb shot me a glance and a crooked smile. “I for one would much rather have a pretty Ban Dia redhead speaking for our kind.”
I scoffed a laugh and shook my head at him. “I’m sure we can find a suitable spokesperson among Omega, if that’s what you’re getting at.”
“It is. Sort of. I honestly think you’re the best choice, but clearly we have a whole lot of other shit on our plate at the moment.” He sighed and took my hand in his, swinging it as we walked across the grass to the training center. “At least it’s a pretty sunset tonight.”
Austin made a choked, snorting sort of sound ahead of us and cast a look at his twin as if to say, “Seriously? The weather?”
“Thank you,” I told the two of them honestly. “I know I made a mess of things, so thank you for not yelling at me. I appreciate it.”
This time Austin spun around fully to squint at me while walking backward. “Oh, princess. You don’t think you’re getting off unpunished, do you? Trust me, baby girl. It’s coming.”
His words and the evil glint in his eyes should have scared me. Not turned me on. But I was starting to question the way I was wired because, holy shit, I looked forward to being punished by all six of my guardians.
