“Do you have it in you to kill a mate?” Yeti asks me point blank. He’s been in a morbid mood since his discharge from the medical centre and fair enough, honestly. “It’s the only way to prevent all of this.”
I want you fangs out and wild.
Minnie pales, but she doesn’t shirk away from the question. “It’s what Ghoul wants from me,” I say. But what I don’t say out loud is that it’s not what Ghoul needs. It’s not what our pack needs.
The Boneweaver pack is not the Devi pack. We all know that. Minnie nods at me, understanding what my hesitation means. “It’s a regina’s choice,” she says quietly. “To deal out judgement. That is our privilege and responsibility.” She places her hand over Yeti’s. “Yeti knows I will always take care of him. With whatever he needs.” I stare at their joint hands, the bond between them, and how much they’ve come to mean to each other.
“I wish I could help,” Yeti says, glancing at his missing foot. “I’ll assist as much as I can from the wall.”
“Thank you,” I say. “Everyone has a role to play, and you’ll find your place, Yeti.” He doesn’t have it in him to smile, but he nods all the same.
“If we cannot kill Ghoul,” I say. “If we can’t manually stop the shadow vortex, we will have to stop the person who commands him.”
“Mace,” Yeti says.
I smile without humour at my friends. “And Idohave it in me to kill my father.”
“He’ll have protections around him,” Minnie says earnestly. “Probably even more than his favourite general.”
My hands clench into fists in my lap, and Henry chirps comfort in my ear. “We’ll just have to get through them.”
I leave Minnie and Yeti to go back to their dorm for a ‘canoodling’ session, as Minnie likes to call it. She has a schedule for the three of them, but today’s is unplanned due to the oncoming enemy. It’s a good idea to power up before everything starts. Henry and Gertie get sent together to find Eugene.
There’s a feeling you get in your gut when you know someone’s on their way to kill you. It’s something beyond nausea. Beyond dread. Claws scrape at my insides. A beak taps with impatience. There’s the rising of a colossal head, casting predatory eyes beyond all things. A weariness weighs down both my bones and my mind. Meeting Ashzale and Altara, Lord Raen and Kai had taken a toll on me. There’s an entire world out there I don’t know. That is yet to be explored. Perhaps I have even just scraped the surface of what it means to be…me.
Suddenly, I get a glimpse of another future, and my heart swells to be full of something I didn’t know was possible.Thisbaby could use another aunt.I close my eyes and remember their faces, proud and fierce. I want to get to know them more. I want to go back and see why my blood sang as soon as my foot touched the earth there. There’s just one thing getting in the way of that. A simple case of annihilation.
I’m heading back to the animus dorm before I consider my options.“My mates,”I whisper through the air,“I need you.”
I make them hunt me. Shifting multiple times—bird, possum, lioness, serpent, wolf—on my way to the secret space under the school where Scythe sometimes uses the pool for soaking his weary mind. I take off my clothes and slip into the cool water, lit from below with a subtle blue. Briefly, I slip in and out of my shark form, enjoying the change in the way the water feels against my skin, and the way water goes from feeling like home to feeling like pleasure.
I feel them enter the cavern when I’m submerged underwater, twisting onto my back to observe them come up to the pool, their bodies and faces waving and rippling. I rotate back onto my stomach and leave them behind me, kicking upward until my head clears the water. I gasp a grateful breath and reach for the concrete edge of the pool, pulling myself up slowly, letting my mates see my naked skin as I emerge.
My right leg twinges as my foot takes my weight, and I try to hide the hiss of pain. Warm hands brush the skin of my thigh, sending black-tinged golden power through my muscle and bone. My sigh is involuntary, and I close my eyes, letting Xander pour his healing into me.
“Perhaps it will always hurt just a little,” I breathe. “But you always make it better.”
When I get no reply, I open my eyes to see Xander’s giant form towering over me, a small furrow between his dark brows. “Come here.” I reach for his neck and pull him down for a kiss. My other mates gather behind me, their fingers skimming myskin, Lyle pushing back the wet strands of my hair to kiss my shoulder. Their powers seek out mine, dark and hungry, wanting to power me up for what’s to come, and craving a touch of me.
“There’s nothing else in this world better than being with you,”I tell them. I break away from Xander and find Scythe at my side, pulling my chin towards him. He breathes across my lips, his light blue eyes piercing me right to my core, telling me he has something important to say. Behind me, Savage gets on his knees, rubbing his face against my thighs.
“My only world is you, regina,” Scythe says. “It will only ever be you.” My body crumples into his, and I fling my arms around his neck as he devours my mouth, the great white in him thrashing around violently under his skin. Savage finds my ass with his mouth.
Lyle growls from the side, burying his fingers in my hair and wrenching me away from Scythe’s mouth to his. My lion growls into me, and I moan into his hungry mouth, his tongue finding mine in a little coaxing dance that calms his aggression. A pair of arms wrap around my waist and yank me away from all of them, and Xander is suddenly smirking as he steals me away to the nest of pillows and blankets off to the side. Growls and angry snarls chase after us as Xander carefully lies down on the nest, settling me on top of him. I sit up, pressing my palms against his chest as the others gather around us. He crooks a finger at me, suddenly serious. I dive down, pressing my lips against his, wet strands of my hair hanging down around us. Lyle’s fingers pull my hair back while Xander’s fingers work at his belt until his cock springs free of his pants, bouncing up behind my ass.
I have to lift myself a bit to angle myself for his immense size, but once the swollen head of his cock kisses my entrance, he runs his hands down my body. “I know I’m not the best thing that’s happened to you, regina,” he says, eyes burning with that bright light. “But you are the best thing that’s happened to me.Without you—” I slide down his length and we both briefly close our eyes to savour each other. “Without you, I’d be the worst version of myself.” He pulls me down to press my forehead against his. “I need you to know that.”
A gentle touch caresses my asshole, and I realise it’s Lyle. Xander grabs my hips and thrusts into me, and any reply is lost to a moan as his immense power reaches for mine and we twine around each other. There is lube in my ass, and Lyle’s finger works me until I’m panting and writhing. When he positions himself behind me, his lips finding my neck, my eyes fly open.
“Go slow,” Scythe growls as I breathe, readying myself for the two biggest cocks in my pack. Hands on my thighs and around my waist caress me, making me gush around Xander until my head is thrown back on Lyle’s chest. There’s pressure, so much blissful pressure in my core as Lyle’s cock presses against me. I gyrate my hips, slowly working him in. My power sparks like volatile electricity as Lyle’s golden hue requests entry, and I grant it, letting it join the pulsing columns of me and Xander.
Savage kneels on my right, and I reach for him, finding his mouth and tongue and the slight scruff along his jaw. He shows me a mental image of myself, from his point of view, writhing in pleasure between my precious mates. It only serves to make me wetter, loosening my muscles to fully accept my lion as he and Xander gently thrust at alternate times. Savage’s power, wild and off kilter, rockets into my body, searching and finding, joining the combined column, adding his own leaping strands. My body vibrates under the three of them, but it’s not until Scythe’s feet find themselves at my right side that I shudder, looking up at him.
Savage’s lips find my nipple as Scythe looks down at me, undoing his shirt button by button, making my mouth water as his glorious, rippling muscle is revealed. He finally gets to his belt buckle, tattooed fingers working, his eyes only for me. Hiszip comes down, and I reach for him as his pierced cock springs free. He strokes himself, and I toy with his first piercing, pausing to look up at him for permission, licking my lips.
A soft smile touches my shark’s lips as he nods, and he takes another step forward so I can lick off the bead of pre-cum at his tip. I savour his heady taste before dragging my tongue over the rest of him. Scythe’s hiss of pleasure is a thing of dreams as I take him into my mouth, only to feel his power seeking permission at my lips.
I moan around the four of my mates, giving me what I need, satiating their hunger and using my body as their powers join my own in our unique dance. Scythe’s cold tundra power joins the fray in a now multi-coloured column that has me tensing and shuddering around Lyle and Xander. My lion wraps his arms around me from behind, forever a pillar of strength.
