After showering quickly—but thoroughly—I redressed in the clothes that the guys had stripped off me when they’d most likely found me on the verge of comatose.
“Okay, how do we get out?” I asked the guys, eyeing up the fire barrier. I could see the rest of our team on the other side but wasn’t stupid enough to stick my hand into dragon-fire, if that’s what it was made of. “They look… okay?” I frowned at the scene on the other side of the fire, sure it must be playing tricks on me.
The living room was trashed. Totally trashed. Not a stick of furniture remained in one piece, and everything showed the unmistakable marks of fireball scorches. Despite this, River—still in beast mode—lay on his belly in the middle of the room, locked in what seemed like a staring competition with Cole, who sat cross-legged in front of the wild thing.
Vali was standing at a careful distance to the side, a scowl pulling at his brow while he watched his brother… I wasn’t sure what the hell Cole was doing. Talking to River?
“I have no idea,” Wesley admitted, standing beside me at the blocked doorway. “I’ve been trying to get Vali’s attention, but he seems really focused on whatever Cole is doing.”
“He’s watching in case River does something,” Austin observed. “He’s ready to take River out if he tries to actually harm Cole.”
“Vali wouldn’t do that,” I murmured, disagreeing with him even though waves of tension seemed to radiate from the way Vali held himself.
Austin grunted. “He would if River has made him swear to do exactly that.” I gave him a sharp look, and he sighed. “I overheard them one night before… all of this. River actually made Vali promise to kill him if he shifted at all, but I guess that wasn’t really possible at the time, seeing as Vali was unconscious.”
This information stunned me to speechlessness for a moment. River had felt that strongly he’d rather die than be changed? Why hadn’t he told me that?
Of course, the answer to that question was simple. He hadn’t told me because he knew I would do it anyway. Given the same choice of letting River die or changing him and letting him live, I wouldn’t do anything different.
It was selfish of me, I knew that. But it was the truth.
Searching my mind, I found my mental walls were all gone. Not just down, but gone. Like they’d been blown up or something. It was something I would need to deal with, but not until we were out of this current mess.
“Hey, my shields are gone.” I frowned. “But I don’t have all of your thoughts crowding into my head. What the what?”
“Oh, that was me,” Caleb offered. “I remembered how you said it was super-hard for you with just Austin’s thoughts in your head, so I did a little warding spell as soon as we got here. It’s only holding our thoughts back, and you can probably break it like tissue paper if you want to. I just thought, until we knew if you were okay, you didn’t really need four or five extra voices up in there.” He tapped the side of my head, and I gave him a grateful smile.
“Thank you, Cal, that was incredibly thoughtful of you.” Because he was right. Just having Austin’s thoughts had been hard enough; I could only imagine the chatter from five dudes plus myself all at once.
With that puzzle solved, I reached out in my mind to poke at Vali’s. It clearly worked because his head jerked away from Cole and River, and his granite eyes fixed on me through the fire barrier.
Raising my hand, I gave him a little wave and tried to indicate that I needed him to drop the barrier. He hesitated, glancing at Cole and the big demon dog before skirting carefully around them to approach the blocked doorway.
“Guys, I need you to stay in here,” I told the three inside the bedroom with me. “I don’t know why River hasn’t killed Cole and Vali yet, but he’s almost guaranteed to go for you if you smell like me. Given this… pact that Austin overheard, I think it’s best we just avoid that situation, don’t you?”
There was a long pause before any of them replied. They were clearly not happy with me leaving them in the bedroom but knowing I was right.
“Fine,” Austin responded for all of them. “But leave the barrier down. We don’t need to be barricaded in here.”
I gave him a quick nod of agreement, then raised my eyebrows at Vali where he waited on the other side of the fire. He understood what I wanted and waved a hand down the length of the doorframe, extinguishing the swirling flames as it went.
“You sure you’re okay?” he asked me, blocking the way out and tilting my chin up to peer into my eyes.
“Good as new,” I assured him. “Strong enough to whack a demon dog in the head, anyway.”
The big Romanian huffed a small laugh. “Cole has been calling him a shark-donkey. Or, donkey-shark? I don’t know, something like that. He has been making good progress though, so you might not need to do much.”
“Good,” I said, holding my hand out to Caleb. “Can I have your lancet thing? As soon as we get him to shift back, we’re binding him as a dianoch.”
“Is that a good idea?” Caleb asked, but handed over the little pricker I’d asked for. “It seems to be pretty rough on you.”
“It’s nothing compared to losing River. Something I learned when Wes helped me fight off my own crap is that River has been doing this alone for too long. By bonding, he shares his magic and his issues. We can help him. Together.” This was something I was supremely confident in. If there was any way to truly help River become comfortable in his new identity, it would be by sharing the burden between us.
“Let’s go then,” Vali murmured, stepping aside and letting me out of the sex-drenched bedroom.
Giving the other three a sharp look that clearly said, “Keep your fine asses in the damn bedroom,” I ditched the cautiousness that Vali was using to skirt around the room and marched straight up to my murderous partner in crime.
“Well, this looks cozy,” I commented, plonking down on my—slightly tender—ass beside Cole. “What are we talking about?”
“Vixen,” Cole greeted me, wrapping one muscular arm around my shoulders and pulling me in closer to him. “You’re okay. We were so worried, weren’t we, big guy?” This last was aimed at River, who huffed a little fireball onto the carpet where it smoldered and went out.
“I’m fine. Now. What’s going on here, though?” I eyed River cautiously, but he didn’t seem to be treating me any differently than he had a day ago. He’d never made me feel threatened at all, but I had been a little worried he would sense the shift in me.
“I think we have worked some shit out. What do you think, Alpha?” Cole frowned at the hellhound, who made a whining growl and pawed at the carpet like an overgrown spaniel. “He just can’t seem to shift back to human form. Any ideas?”
“Um, yeah. I think I can help,” I offered, and Cole gave me the most genuine smile I had ever seen on him—outside the bedroom that was.
“That’s the best thing I have heard in a long time, Vixen,” he told me with a hint of relief, “other than your sweet screams of pleasure coming from the bedroom earlier, that is.”
My cheeks flamed, and I dodged his eye contact. “I thought those fire barriers were soundproof or something.”
Cole snorted, dragging me over to sit in his lap, facing River. “Yeah right. I’ll need to hear those screams again firsthand soon, though. Just to refresh my memory.”
“Noted,” I replied, wiggling my ass against his steadily growing erection inside his jeans. “Now, River. You ready? Wes taught me a cool trick that I think will work for you too.”
The hound lifted his head from the carpet and gave me a look with his hellfire eyes that I could only assume was consent.
“Well, here goes nothing…” I sucked in a deep breath, remembering the lesson Wes had just taught me. The same lesson that had allowed me to control and accept my own darkness.
I placed my hand lightly on the patch of less deadly spikes between the hound’s eyes, then called on my newest magic.
How long it took to work with River to fully accept his hound, I had no idea. I did know that Cole kept me wrapped in his warm embrace the whole time, and at some stage all the guys had gathered around us.
When it was done, River’s hellhound form shuddered once, then he stood up and shook like a wet dog. Except when he shook, it was like he was shaking off the demonic aspect, leaving him that pure white—still massive—wolf I had caught a glimpse of when he first shifted.
“You’re doing it, Alpha,” I breathed my encouragement. “Just a little more.”
This time his change seemed to take a whole lot longer and looked a whole lot more painful. Eventually, though, a naked and exhausted but, most importantly, human River lay collapsed on the charred carpet.
“River?” Cole asked cautiously, as though afraid of what the answer might be.
“Yeah, mate. I’m back,” River responded, his voice husky and pained. Without lifting his head, he reached out a hand to squeeze mine. “I’m back, but I just… I need a minute.”
Not bothered by—or not noticing—his nakedness, River pushed himself up off the floor with what seemed like a lot of effort and hurried out of the scorched front door. Vali or Cole must have dropped the fire barriers at some point.
Scrambling to my feet, I rushed after him, ignoring Cole’s protest that I should let him go, and caught him in the deserted hallway outside our old apartment.
“Kitten,” River groaned as my hand grabbed his arm. “Please give me a moment alone. I… The stuff I’ve done…”
“You mean the shit we’ve done,” I corrected him with a sharpness in my voice. I knew where he was at inside his head. I was there too. But surely that was all the more reason not to be alone?
“Yeah,” he murmured. His voice was soaked in self-loathing, and I needed to swallow past a lump in my throat as I searched for the right words. Or any words that might make this better.
“Go, River, take some time to get your head straight,” Cole answered for me, holding out a pair of Omega-branded sweats from behind me. “We will be right here waiting as long as you need.”
Our leader, the man who I could always rely on to have his shit together, wouldn’t even look at me as he accepted the garments from Cole and flashed a tight smile of thanks.
“I’ll be back; I just…” He trailed off again, and I needed to bite my lip hard to keep from screaming at him.
“You’re okay, Alpha. No explanations needed here.” Cole was the one who responded, finding the words when I came up blank.
All I could do was stand there with my jaw agape and my voice frozen while River walked away from me. Was it stupidly selfish of me to want to scream at him to stay and talk to me? We’d been through a lot, done a lot. But we were equally responsible, and I couldn’t help the sick feeling in my gut that he was walking away in more than the literal sense.
“Come on, Vixen,” Cole murmured in my ear, his broad chest pressed against my back. “Give him some space. You know how he is. Most likely he just needs to go punch some trees to get all those pesky emotions under control again, and then he’ll be back, good as new.”
“I fucking hope so,” I muttered, still frowning down the empty hallway where River had gone.
Cole’s huge hands settled on my hips, then he picked me up and turned me to face him. “Well, while we wait, I’d say someone owes me a proper hello.” He raised a dark eyebrow at me, and a small smile pulled my lips.
“Oh, you do, do you? Has that brother of yours been neglecting his manners? I’ll need to have words with him about that.” I was teasing, acting like I didn’t damn well know he meant me—or that he gave a shit about his brother’s manners. Cole’s eyes glittered with the promise of some sort of punishment. Maybe even a spanking, if I was lucky.
“Guys, we’re going to go check out the cafeteria for food,” Caleb announced, joining us in the hallway fully dressed again, with Austin and Wes following. “Any requests?”
“Cheese and coffee,” I replied so fast the words almost ran together. “I can’t even remember when I last ate properly.”
“You got it, Kitty Kat.” Caleb grinned at me, and I beamed my thanks. “How about you, Killer?”
“Requests?” Cole rumbled, squinting at Caleb even as his hands tightened on my waist possessively. “Yeah. Take your time.”
Wesley coughed a laugh, and Caleb waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
“Maybe we shouldn’t be going right now…” the Blood Mage murmured, giving me a look that was pure sex and made me shiver with desire.
“Next time,” Cole snapped. “Now fuck off and get food.”
He didn’t wait for another response from the guys, instead sweeping me up bridal-style and striding back into the slightly charred apartment and kicking the door shut with his heel. The second it slammed, my back was against it and Cole’s lips were locked on mine with feverish intensity, stealing the breath from my lungs and the fight from my limbs.
I’d missed him… Them… All of them, so damn hard.
“Cutie,” I groaned against his kiss, and he chuckled. Releasing my lips, he began kissing down my neck, pausing to nip at the bend where he already knew I had a fetish for bite marks.
With his head shifted, my gaze locked with Vali’s across the room and held it.
Was this weird to be doing right in front of Vali? The fact that I’d just fucked twins at the same time was a totally different situation. These brothers had been on the verge of killing each other in their sleep not so long ago.
“Cole,” I started, licking my lips nervously. But he’d just hooked his fingers under the waistband of my butter-soft leather pants and was easing them down my legs already. It would be rude to stop him now, wouldn’t it?
Vali didn’t seem too perturbed by the whole thing either. In fact, he strode over to an upturned armchair and righted it to sit down and watch.
Well shit. If that’s how it is…
“When did you start wearing leather, Vixen?” Cole asked me as I stepped out of the pants and he stripped my tight V-neck tank off my top half. “It’s hot as hell, I have to tell you.”
“It seems bad-Kit was a fan of leather,” I admitted, pausing before adding the rest. “It was the easiest fabric to wipe blood from.”
Out of everyone, I was glad it had been Cole and Vali I’d admitted that to. Neither one of them batted an eyelid, and Cole even gave a shrug of agreement. Violent fuckers.
“Sorry, babe, for old times’ sake.” Cole had my silk panties ripped clean off my ass before I could even open my mouth to protest. Not that I really gave a shit once he hoisted my legs up around his waist and teased me by sinking just the tip of his cock inside my already soaking pussy.
“Cutie,” I moaned, wrapping my arms tighter around his neck for grip. “Fuck me hard and fast, baby.”
He groaned, pulling me further down onto his cock and stretching me wider. “How can I resist when you talk so pretty to me, Vixen?”
I grinned, then captured his lips with mine as he began to move, fucking me hard against the door just like I wanted him to. With the exception of his brother watching, it was oddly reminiscent of our first time together, which only served to turn me on even harder.
As I kissed my dark, sometimes angry, and always brooding dragon lover, I couldn’t help but meet Vali’s gaze across the room. There was something just so… taboo about fucking one brother while the other watched. Which was rich, coming from me a mere hour or so after experiencing my first twin sandwich.
“Christ, Vixen,” Cole groaned, breaking our kiss and sinking his teeth into my neck for a quick bite. “I missed you so much.”
I needed to drop my head back to rest on the door for a moment to catch my breath before replying. Something about those bites was almost as good as someone licking my clit, and that was no exaggeration.
“I missed you too, Cutie,” I finally panted out. Any more words than that were impossible as Cole released one of my thighs to snake a hand between us and rub my clit while he nailed me hard.
Remember what I’d just said about his bites being better than clit play? Well, combining the two was just plain torture. The second his hot mouth closed over the tight muscles of my neck, lightning began shooting all through me, and I came hard in a screaming mess.
Fuck.
When had I become so damn loud during sex?
Cole followed with his own release seconds later, his fingertips biting hard into the back of my leg while he drove into me as deep as was physically possible.
I placed little kisses up the side of his sweaty neck—even as I locked stares with Vali again—waiting for Cole to finish fully.
“I think your brother is feeling left out,” I whispered in his ear, but knew Vali had heard me by the slight widening of his eyes.
Cole huffed. “Too bad.” I swatted him playfully in the head, and he sighed. “Fine, yes, he probably has balls bluer than a strangled smurf right now.” He slowly detached my legs from around his waist and lowered me to the floor before tucking his still semi-hard dick back into his open jeans.
I didn’t bother picking up any of my discarded clothes as I stalked naked across the room to the smolderingly sexy man in the lopsided armchair.
“Vali?” I purred in what I really hoped was a seductive sort of way. I mean, how sexy could one be when standing stark naked in the middle of a trashed apartment with another man’s seed fresh on my cunt?
“Yes, regina mea?” he replied with an amused tilt to his mouth.
Bracing my hands on the armrests, I leaned over to place my face closer to his. “Do I get a kiss hello? I missed you too, you know.”
“A kiss, huh? Yes, draga, I can handle that.” He gave me a wry smile, snaking his huge hands under my hair and using his grip on my head to haul me into his lap even as his lips captured mine.
A small squeak of surprise escaped my throat before I settled onto his lap and lost myself in his kiss for a long moment. His lips were the perfect combination of soft and firm, demanding but not devouring, and when his tongue touched mine, it was with an oath I couldn’t help but hear.
“I love you, regina mea,” he whispered in a rough voice when our kiss ended, voicing everything his kiss had already said. “Please never leave us again.”
Peering back into his pain-filled eyes, it killed me to lie. But how the hell could I know what the future might hold? If I thought it was for the good of the team, I wouldn’t hesitate to leave them again.
So instead, I offered the only truth I could. “I love you too, Vali.”
Silencing any further discussion, I pressed my lips back to his and found his belt buckle with my hands. With the skill of a practiced pickpocket, I had his belt undone and his fly lowered in seconds. Not that his fly even needed the help to open; his monster cock was hard as diamond and straining so tight in his jeans that it practically leapt into my hand when the top button was released.
“Regina,” Vali groaned as I stroked my hand down his hot, hard length. My fingers didn’t even touch together, and I bit my lip when a rush of butterflies exploded inside me. “I don’t expect you to…” he trailed off with a pained noise as I circled my thumb around his tip, smearing a droplet of his own fluids across the broad head of his cock.
“I know, idiot,” I replied, breathless with excitement. “I want to. More than fucking anything right now.”
I gave his thick shaft a few more strokes, spreading that small bit of pre-cum down his skin, but that was all the patience I had to spare. He needed to be inside me. Now.
Bracing one hand on Vali’s shoulder, I rose up on my knees and lined him up with my center. Even as wet as I already was, it still took a bit of wiggling before I felt him reach as far as he was ever going to get inside me.
“Fucking hell,” I chuckled, resting my forehead on his shoulder and relaxing my thighs for a moment, “That thing could do some real damage, you know.”
Thankfully, Vali took it as intended and chuckled back rather than getting offended. “Nah, regina. You just need a bit more practice to get used to me. Something I’m more than willing to dedicate time to.” His hands ran up my sides then cupped my breasts. “For now, I’ll let you do whatever feels good. Make the most of it though; next time I’m in charge.”
“Oh?” I wriggled again, feeling his massive cock slip a little further inside me—something I wasn’t even sure had been possible. “I look forward to it. Now shut up and let me fuck you, Romanul.” I said his crime lord nickname with amusement, and his eyes flickered dangerously.
Holy shit he was hot.
Gripping onto his shoulders, I used my legs to ride him. Up and down, in exactly the pace I wanted. Hitting all the spots that I needed, sending me creeping up hard on a deep-seated g-spot orgasm. Utterly delicious.
Tingles began shooting through me, and I chased that orgasm down like a hungry lioness, pumping faster and faster on top of Vali’s impressive cock until the chair started rocking unsteadily on its broken leg.
Still… I was so damn close.
Vali’s broad hands clasped my waist, helping to lift and pull me down again, obviously chasing down his own orgasm as his breath sped up and his granite eyes glazed over with thick arousal.
Fucking hell, it was a turn-on to see what I did to these men. I’d never felt so beautiful or desired in my life. And they were just as in love with me as I was them.
How the hell did I get so damn lucky?
“Oh shit, I’m coming,” I hissed. My fingers tightened on Vali’s shoulders, my nails biting into his flesh through the thin fabric of his gray T-shirt, and I slammed myself down on him once more, moaning my climax like a seasoned professional.
“I’m not far behind,” he admitted, “Hold on tight regina, and tell me if I hurt you.”
He didn’t wait for a response—thank fuck, I was still whimpering and panting into his neck. Instead, he gripped my waist tight, lifted me up to create enough space that he could take over our rhythm, and pounded up into me with a punishing pace, shoving me straight off the cliff into a second orgasm right along with him. At the same time, the chair broke and deposited us sprawling, tangled together, in a heap on the floor.
For a moment, there was a pause wherein I’m sure Vali was thinking the same thing as me: What the ever-loving fuck just happened? Did we just break a chair?
But that stunned silence soon dissolved into amusement as the two of us burst out into peals of laughter. Or I did anyway. Vali chuckled a whole lot more than I’d ever seen him laugh, but it was still a long way off from the hysterical giggles that were holding me incapacitated on top of him.
“Well, in the chair’s defense, it was already damaged from River’s hellhound rampage,” Cole snickered, appearing above us and holding out a hand to help me to my feet.
“Oh my God, we broke a chair,” I wheezed out, wiping tears of laughter from my eyes as I regained my feet and inspected the damaged item of furniture.
“Fucking scales, bro. How do you even walk with that thing?” Cole exclaimed, holding out a hand to help his brother up from the floor too. “Ever tripped over it?”
“All I hear is jealousy, little brother,” Vali retorted, tucking the appendage in question back into his pants, then extending a hand to me. “Regina mea, can I interest you in a shower while we wait for the others to return?”
“Shit yes,” I accepted, taking his offered hand. “I think I will need about sixteen thousand showers before I’ll feel properly clean after all I’ve done in these past six weeks.” I shuddered as just a fraction of the atrocities River and I had committed crossed my mind.
“About that,” Cole started, frowning at me in concern, but I shook my head to stop him right there.
“Not now, Cutie. Just let me enjoy having you all back. I’ll deal with all the… other shit… tomorrow. Okay?” I pasted on my very best brave smile and headed toward the apartment’s main bathroom. “Now, were one of you planning to help me wash my hair? Or… both of you?”
The brothers exchanged glances and grimaced. “We’re working on things, regina, but we are a long way off from that sort of relationship yet.” Vali gave me an apologetic shrug.
“Worth a try,” I teased. “Well, hurry up and rock-paper-scissors or whatever you need to do. I’ll get the water running.”
It sounded flippant, but I just badly didn’t want to have to choose between them. Hopefully in the next few hundred years, their relationship might get close enough that I would eventually never have to choose. In that moment though, I was happy with whichever one of them ended up joining me, so long as they knew how to wield a loofah and soap.
