I assess the warm gleam in Bones’s dark gaze, taking in the heat banked in Curio’s and Scorpius’s stare, and it’s clear my explanations aren’t needed. There’s a knowing in their eyes, like they’ve been exactly where I am now. But of course they have. They haven’t shared every dark detail of their pasts, but they’ve told me enough to know that each of them has been powerless, shredded, beyond all hope, and then it all changed.
Just like me, they were forced to work through it, to face the horrors and the injustices. They built an Order on top of that foundation instead of allowing the weight of such heavy things to bury them. The Scorpions rose from the dregs of what was done to them, and they grew into who they are now. And what shines back at me in each of their gazes is the unwavering faith that I will too.
The four of us are kneeling in the tall grass and flowers. Skull is at my back, Bones at my front, and Scorpius by my side. Each of us is breathing heavily from the kissing and adrenaline of everything else that just happened. I move to get up, and the Scorpions do the same, each of them watching me carefully as though I’m far more fragile than I am.
“Can we go home, or is there somewhere nearby that’s safe?” I ask.
“Safe for what?” Scorpius questions at the same time Skull answers, “We should stay in the Dawn Court. It’s easier for the Vulpi to summon us if they need something.”
I don’t answer Scorpius.
“Summix’s tavern is safe, our quarters are warded, and he’s as loyal and trustworthy as they come,” Bones offers. “What do you need, Beasty?”
Again I don’t answer, leaving the question to drip to the ground like the slowly closing wounds on his arm. I step away from them and stride to the shadows that brought us here.
“Safe for what, Telson?” Scorpius demands more insistently, moving to cut me off.
I stare up at him, annoyed. I know what I want, but I also don’t want to be talked out of it or told I need to wait for a list of reasons that I don’t give a searing shit about right now. I’m not the fragile little flower they think I am no matter how unhinged I might look. I needed to get some things out. Granted, I didn’t realize just how badly I needed it until the screams were shredding my throat, but now I needthem. I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life.
Scorpius reaches for me, pulling me into him, and I go, fighting the urge to try to burrow into his soul like he’s burrowed into mine. I pull in a deep breath and look into his sooty gaze as I answer.
“To fuck you,” I tell him evenly.
Scorpius’s eyes widen with surprise, and I feel satisfaction at catching him off guard. Really that kiss should have told him everything there is to know about what I want right now, but I’ll take the win of throwing him off-kilter, even if it’s only for a moment.
“I’m in,” Bones declares, and he starts traipsing toward the shadows as though it’s a race he’s determined not to lose.
“Auset—” Scorpius starts.
“That’s Telson to you,Scorpius,” I correct, and a possessive glint sparks in his glamoured inky stare. I glare at him. “If the wordlaterso much as slips out of your mouth right now, I will make you regret it,” I warn.
“What you just went through, what I think you’re still going through right now… I don’t want to make it worse. I don’t want to set you off,” he argues, his tone deep and worried, but I hear the need bleeding through the edge of his agitation.
“I know my own mind, Scorpius. This isn’t me running from what just happened or looking for a haze of sex and orgasms to get lost in. I need you. I want you…all of you. I’m not being driven by bloodlust or loss. You’re not taking advantage or disregarding my emotional state. There are still walls between us”—I gesture between our bodies—“and I want to tear them down. I’m ready.”
His eyes study mine, and I hate the uncertainty I see etched in his face. His hesitation makes me want to scream. They’ve been pushing for this. They’ve been edging me closer and closer to joining with them in every possible way, and now that I’m making it clear that I’m here for all of it, Scorpius is…wavering?
Fuck that.
“You said I was a Scorpion…” I snap at him. “That I was your future and you were mine. Well, I’m right fucking here! Take me already!”
My heart plummets a little as he just stares at me, his chest heaving as hard as mine is right now. I can practically see the debate in his mind, and it’s maddening. I want to shake him, tell him to just—His mouth is punishing as it meets mine. He grabs my ass with both of his hands and pulls me up. I wrap around him as he devours me, finally letting go of everything that’s been holding him back. The handles of the blades hidden in his pants rub against my inner thighs, and it turns me on as much as the feel of his hard cock through his leathers does.
The in-between wraps around us while flames lick down my body and settle between my thighs as he shadow walks us away. Instead of stepping back into the storeroom of Summix’s tavern, he strides out into a large room with four pallets that have been pushed together against one wall. There’s a roaring fire blazing in the massive hearth, and a large furry animal skin is lying in front of the glimmering flames, taking up almost the entire center of the room. When Scorpius moves to set me on the makeshift bed, I unlatch myself from him and stride instead to the pelt on the floor.
His brow furrows and he looks at the comfy bed, but I don’t need the softness of tangled sheets and a feathery mattress. I need the hardness and familiarity of the floor, and Ineedall of them right now. Skull breaks the standoff by striding over and kissing the ever loving fuck out of me. I groan at the power his mouth gives and takes, and then I’m lost to him and his dominating, demanding, exquisitely perfect kiss.
“Strip her down while I check the wards,” Scorpius orders, his voice gruff and dripping with need.
Bones’s hands are on me then as he slowly, sensually starts to pull my weapons from my rapidly overheating body. Skull works his mouth against mine until I’m a mewling mess. His tongue swirls and strokes, a rough mimic of how I want his cock to be sliding in and out of my drenched cunt. Tingles of release are already collecting through my limbs, and none of the Scorpions have really started to touch me yet. I’m still fully kitted and on the verge of coming in my rinds. It’s not exactly how I envisioned breaking in my armor, but now it might need to become a tradition every time I put it on.
The driving urge to claim them grows even more insistent, and I’ve never been overly patient. It may take me time to decide things, to move in one direction or another until I’ve worked through all the possibilities and consequences of my actions, but once I’ve decided on something, I go for it with a single-minded focus that helps make me the best at what I do.
I don’t doubt.
I don’t question.
I take.
