“If you need anything or get hungry in the middle of the night, there is always someone on duty in the kitchen. Call down, and they can bring anything up,” my dad tells the guys as we push back from the table. “And there’s a fully stocked bar, but again, anything you need can be requested.” He sounds kind of frantic, like he needs to please us.
“Loki, they will be fine. I’ve got them,” Titus assures my father, and I wonder about their relationship. It kind of feels close. Hell, Titus has a room in the palace. If I had to hazard a guess, they are more than just employer and employee. It kind of feels familial. I wonder what his relationship is like with his own family.
“Thank you, my boy. Have you seen your brothers? I wanted to fill them in on everything that is happening.”
Titus shakes his head. “None of them are in residence at the moment. Each are in their respective kingdoms, and Luka is chasing down a lead in one of the gambling dens in the city. He’s trying to figure out who put the hit out on Colbie.”
“The what?” I ask, snapping my head around to look at my fairy mate.
“My assassin guild was offered a job to remove you,” Loki explains. “Of course we turned it down, but it didn’t mean others didn’t.”
“I guess that explains the attack on the way to Zalfari,” Liam grumbles, rubbing his chest where the arrow pierced him.
“You were attacked?” Titus growls. “By who?”
Micah and Hunter take turns explaining what happened, and by the end, the assassin, as well as my father and Nox, are looking at me with wide-eyed awe.
“Holy shit. Challenge day certainly wouldn’t be a problem, even if the goddess wasn’t going to put a stop to it,” Nox says admirably.
“Yeah, I’m not so sure about that. I’m still not particularly coordinated in hydra form,” I admit, and Titus snorts with amusement.
“I noticed. We will work on that tomorrow morning before we leave. The goddess can wait a few extra hours. You need to gain control of every one of your shifts. You never know when you might need them. Even with the crown on your head, those factions are still creating an army, and despite my and my brothers’ attempts, we still haven’t worked out who is behind it all. They have been very successful in hiding themselves.”
“Hopefully when Lena tracks down the missing children, we’ll find more clues,” Gem points out.
“My mother is very good at her job. She will have the location for the children before you know it,” Nox assures me. I didn’t share her hostility when we first met with him because she quickly came around to the idea of helping us, even if it was just for the children. I have hope going forward that our relationship won’t be so rocky.
We take our leave, and Titus directs us to my new suite. We don’t do much there but get ready for bed, our conversation avoiding any of the serious topics and just sticking to getting to know you kind of stuff. The others grill Titus and Nox, and the two are good sports and allow the interrogation. I think the guys realize I have reached my limit for the day, so they keep the focus off me. The bed in this suite is huge, big enough for all of us to climb in together. A sneaky goddess definitely had a hand in creating something this big. It’s basically one big mattress built into a sunken base in the floor, kind of like Hunter’s dragon nest. His smile stretches wide when he sees it, and he quickly shucks off all his clothes except for his boxers and throws himself into it. I blink, stunned to see him roll around in it.
“Ah, what is he doing?” I ask Liam.
“He’s covering the bed in his scent. The others will do it too, watch.” He’s right. Gem, Gryffin, Brodie, and Nox all strip down to their underwear and join Hunter on the bed. Liam follows them down, leaving Titus, Micah, and me on the side.
“Animal shifters,” Titus scoffs. “Ruled by their baser instincts. To be honest, mer and fairy shifters are most definitely the higher beings of the shifter race. We aren’t reduced to animal instincts and retain our logic when we shift,” he whispers quietly.
“Shh, don’t let them hear you,” Micah hisses, and I giggle. I think they are messing around, but I’m not entirely sure.
“Come, our queen. Let’s join the riffraff. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.” Micah holds out his hand, and I strip out of my pants, then he helps me step down into the bed.
My animals poke their heads up for the first time since we left Titus’s room, and I get the sudden urge to roll around on the bed too, but I grit my teeth and clench my fists, trying to control it.
“Just go with it, baby.” Brodie tugs me down into the pile of bodies. “Despite what those two assholes say, there is nothing wrong with giving into your baser instincts.”
I give in and throw myself onto the puppy pile, a feeling of contentment and pure happiness replacing all my worries. For now, I’m going to enjoy this. I’ll save the worries for tomorrow.
ChapterThirty-Eight
Colbie
Isleep like the dead. Everything that has happened since I was marked, as well as mating with eight men, has taken its toll. Not even their bickering about who was going to sleep next to me could keep me from falling asleep. They are big boys and could sort it out between them with no input from me.
It’s the feeling that I’m baking in one of my own ovens that finally wakes me. Being surrounded by eight of them has me dripping with sweat. This will be great in winter back in Aramis, but it’s way too freaking warm in Chaos to be dealing with this. I look around the room, and in the filtered light peeking through a curtain over a window, I see an AC vent. Note to self, it goes on every night if we are all in bed together.
I turn my head to the side and find the main culprit. Hunter has one arm thrown over my waist, his body pressed against my side, and he is snoring softly, smoke drifting out of his nostrils every now and again. His skin is scorching against mine, like his dragon is working overtime to keep me warm. On my other side is another snorer. Liam is a lot louder than Hunter though, and I grimace and pray that I am the first to fall asleep every night, otherwise I may ban them from the room. Goddess, I hope the rest of them don’t snore, but I won’t be able to find that out today, because none of the others are still in bed. I hear voices out in the living area of our suite, and I also hear water running somewhere.
Ugh, a shower to wash off all the sweat would be amazing. I carefully slide out from between the two guys and smirk in amusement when Hunter reaches for me but finds Liam instead and tucks him against his body. Liam is so deeply asleep he doesn’t even notice. He just mumbles my name and presses a kiss to Hunter’s cheek before snoring again.
As much as I want to stick around and see their reactions when they wake, I want a shower more. When I get into the bathroom, I find Brodie singing quietly under his breath as he runs a loofah all over his body. I lean against the wall and watch for a moment, admiring his form, which I really didn’t get a good look at originally. Brodie is not quite as covered in muscles as Micah, Hunter, and Gryffin, nor is he as sleek as Gem or Titus. He has a very similar build to Nox—wide shoulders, a tapered waist, like a swimmer, and an eight pack on his stomach. When my gaze drops lower, I find his hand wrapped around his sizable cock, stroking it languidly. When I bring my eyes up, I find he’s watching me with a smirk on his lips.
