“Does it bug you when we talk about them?” he asks, and my worried gaze softens.
“No. They’re your family. They raised you. I like hearing there are other sides to them than the ones I saw.”
Valen nods simply, but I can see his shoulders rise like a weight was just lifted from them.
“Did you think I’d be mad if you still cared about them?” I ask curious. It had never really dawned on me before that any of the guys could be worrying about this.
“No, I didn’t think you’d be mad.Ifelt like I was betraying you somehow. We all did. We saw the way they treated you. That’s not who any of us thought they were.”
“Valen, just because they didn’t want me doesn’t mean they didn’t want you,” I reassure him.
Valen stares at me for a moment, his gaze tracing my face. I’m not sure what he’s looking for.
“Come here,” he eventually says, his warm voice wrapping around me like a tether.
“Why?” I ask, suddenly eyeing him warily.
Valen chuckles. “Just come here, I want you to sit on my dick while I tell you a story.”
I laugh, and butterflies flutter to life in my stomach. “Well, how could I resist such a flowery offer?” I snark, but I get up anyway and inch closer.
When I’m within reaching distance of Valen’s long corded arms, he snags me by the waist and pulls me toward him. I squeak at the manhandling, but spread my legs to straddle him as he pulls me chest to chest. Valen runs his hand down the runes on my spine, and I shiver, very aware of the erection nestled between my thighs. My breasts press against Valen’s wet muscled pecs. Ilovethe feel of his naked body against mine.
“I’ve wanted you from the moment you woke up in my arms, sitting on me just like this,” he tells me, rolling his hips up just like he did that first movie night when we woke up alone all twined together. “I realized how hard I was falling for you when you disappeared after we went dancing. I saw you in the back of that SUV, covered in ash and blood, tenderly and carefully taking care of your friend’s ashes, and I knew I was a goner. You were it.”
Valen kisses me softly, and I try to swallow past the tightness in my throat.
“Bastien wanted you from the first punch, Sabin from the first ‘fuck you.’ Ryker fell the day you came back after cliff diving and told us about what happened with the shifters. Knox wanted you from the first time he ever saw you. Siah knew you were it when you offered your blood like it wasn’t a big deal; you saw him for him and not the monster others had spent his whole life seeing. You had Torrez from the minute you broke his jaw. Do you see a pattern here?” Valen asks me, leaning back so he can stare intensely into my eyes.
“That I kick a lot of your asses?” I joke, and Valen laughs.
“No, that you have all of us. Hook, line and sinker, you have us.Wewant you. Weloveyou, and we’re going to keep on doing that forever. I know you didn’t find what you were wanting to here or with Lachlan. But youdohave it with us. You know that, right?”
Valen’s eyes are beseeching. I run the tip of my nose against his and run my fingers through his wet hair. I lift up on my knees and position myself until I feel Valen’s hard length line up with my opening, and then I slowly sink down on top of it. Valen moans and grips my hips tighter.
“Should I take that as a yes?” he teases, and his cock twitches inside of me.
“Yes,” I tell him. “Now let me sit on your dick and tellyoua story,” I parrot, grinding against the black curls at his base.
Valen chuckles and nuzzles my neck, nipping at Siah’s runes on my shoulder. I pull his head back so I can stare in his eyes.
“I love you,” I tell him, pausing dramatically. Valen stares at me, waiting patiently for more, but for me, that’s it. That’s the whole beginning, middle, and end to this story. I love him, and I always will. I smile sweetly at him and lean in for a kiss.
“The end,” I tell him, and then I lift up on his shaft and drop back down.
Valen laughs as he deepens the kiss, and I begin to ride him faster. Water sloshes up the sides of the tub as Valen and I let our bodies shoutI love youto the other over and over again. Valen leans down and sucks on my nipples, supporting my back with one hand and playing with my clit with the other. I revel in the feel of him everywhere and drive harder, pushing for both of our release.
I can feel Valen is close, and just before he can come, I lean in and whisper, “Now show me those spirit fingers.”
He bellows out a laugh that twines with a moan as he comes. He rubs at my clit harder, and I fall off the edge right behind him, screaming, “These are spirit fingers!”
20
Istare at the old school parchment invitation announcing that my presence is requested by the tribunal. It looks so ancient and out of place in my hands that I expect it to crumble to pieces at any moment. Or maybe it will go full Harry Potter and become a mouth that yells at me to get my ass down to the tribunal room. It does neither of those things. I fold it back up and drop it on the table.
“Do you think that you and Siah combined couldbothpush magic into him, and that would complete the transition into a lamia?” Ryker asks Sorik, who nods absently in thought.
I’ve been listening to all of the guys speculate on what they think is going on with Vaughn and how it could be fixed. The consensus is that when Adriel’s magic wasn’t enough to complete Vaughn’s transition into a lamia, it left him in this weird stasis. Adriel’s magic was enough to keep Vaughn from dying, but not enough to turn him all the way, and now he’s stuck being what he is now.
