Page 43 of Zodiac Beasts

Her teeth sank into me fully, and she sucked hard on my bloodied lip. So greedy. I’d have to be mindful of not letting her go too far. As it stood, I could easily overpower her. But if she kept going, it wouldn’t take long to reverse that power imbalance in her favor.

“Slow down.” I ordered her directly into her mind. “Focus on your pleasure. Harness your magic. You don’t need my blood.”

She sucked harder. If my Alpha commands weren’t getting through to her, then we were entering full loss of control territory.

Dammit, she’s still barely showing her form.

I groaned into her mouth. The last thing I wanted was to stop, but she wasn’t leaving me any choice. Apparently she was teaching me patience, which I maintained was a highly overrated character flaw.

I entered that teetering moment of fight or flight, where I knew I had to make a choice or risk her putting me in a coma, then I clasped a hand around her neck and shoved her down into my pillow to separate us. Her narrow, slightly curved, long, and snake-like fangs were still extended, her lips were swollen and painted the deepest crimson, and my blood dribbled down her cheeks to her jawline. Her brown eyes had narrowed to slits, while the gloss and disorientation was of a woman possessed.

We were making progress, but we wouldn’t make it to the end of the road today.

So while I held her down, keeping just enough pressure on her neck to prevent her from reconnecting us, I played her clit until she was at her limit, and I pushed her through a full body high. The shared intensity of her orgasm hit me so hard, I came in my jeans.

Fully sated, her partial shift retracted into her again, and she was back to being completely ordinary and human-like.

“S-sorry.” She stammered. “I don’t know what came over me.”

I climbed off of her, not wanting to tell her I now needed to shower and change my jeans. “You didn’t do anything wrong. It takes time to learn to control it. Most of us learn when we’re young, after a lifetime of having existed among magic, and even then it’s… a process.” A full body shudder ran down my spine. “You’re doing great though. Don’t be too hard on yourself.”

To think that this was only the shifting portion of our lessons. I’d not even begun to teach her to close her emotional link yet, and I didn’t know if I’d have time to before this month’s moon.

“So do you think I’m some kind of snake? Or a sub species of vampire?” Lila wiped the blood from her mouth with the back of her hand, then she stopped to admire the color against her pale pink knuckles.

“I think you’re something similar to a snake or a vampire. But no, I don’t think you’re fully either.” I stepped towards the bathroom. There really was a comedy in that. Part Zodiac shifter or not, to draw out myself, Adrian, and Ceto, she must have been something very specific that could hit all three of our alternate forms. “When is your mother supposed to get here? Will you have your answers before the full moon?” It would be inconvenient if she was still in the dark prior to her night with my favorite Omega. But then, I was also curious what he might draw out of her, so I was willing to let it slide.

Though I’d certainly be paying him a visit to set some ground rules first.

She was my mate, after all. Not even Adrian could get around that. A shifter who had no mate claim on her wasn’t in a position to make any demands by Graves law or otherwise.

“No, she’ll be here after the full moon. She was going to wait until my Finals were wrapped up so her visit wouldn’t interfere with my studying.” She said, an annoyed eye roll punctuating her statement.

“Well, if we can’t have all of the information before then, I’m hoping I can give you at least partial control of your alternate form.” I chose not to add that she might need it for her own protection. She didn’t know Ceto like I knew Ceto. Which also got me thinking. “Out of curiosity, do you know what he is? Your coworker, I mean.” If she was going to share the night with him—and whether she realized it or not, very likely a bed—I fucking hoped she’d done her homework.

“Oh, him?” Why is he so worried about Ceto? She thought idly, yet she noticeably didn’t say his name out loud. “He’s just a Gemini shifter.”

“A Gemini shifter and?” I pushed. She couldn’t be that naïve. She had to know he was a hybrid, right? If he hadn’t revealed his bloodline to her, then they couldn’t be that close.

“I gathered you already knew he was an Omega.” She answered like she wasn’t sure what information I was looking for, but I could read her mind too easily to fall for that. She knew she was dodging the question. I had no idea why she thought I wouldn’t catch on. But then, if she was about to ignorantly walk into a trap, who was I to hurt her fun. This was a vicious world, and he wouldn’t kill her, so I’d let her make her own mistakes. If she ended up in actual danger, she would have two Alphas who would be there in an instant.

The mental image of Adrian and I breaking down the door to a clothing boutique flashed through my mind, and I would have laughed if I wasn’t so horrified by the mental image of genuine teamwork between us. This girl was making me soft as fuck.

“Well, just don’t forget that if he’s half Gemini,” I emphasized the information that she wasn’t giving me. Eventually she would understand that I knew him better than she did, but smart as she was in the classroom, she didn’t seem to be the best at picking up on social hints. “then his birthday doesn’t just mean cake and ice cream. If you forgot what it was like for Adrian during the month of the Capricorn, then I’ll just suggest keeping the doors very, very closed.”

Her eyes widened, like it hadn’t even occurred to her, and I wanted to laugh. Instead, I slipped into the bathroom and started the shower, so she could decide for herself what she wanted to do with that information.

I wasn’t her parent, and I wasn’t some guardian angel on her shoulder trying to steer her away from trouble. On the contrary, I liked trouble. If she was going pick him over me to spend a lunar surge, I’d let her learn the hard way why I was the better choice.

If she was anything like the beast I thought she might be, Ceto was the one who was in real danger here.

Chapter 23

“May 21st to June 20th is the month of the Gemini, and there is no better sign to draw from as you enter finals week.” Professor Karras began the lecture, while I was staring at the wall behind him in a daze. Because I was apparently an insatiable pervert, my first thought was “What would a Gemini shifter even look like, and what would it be like to fuck one.” But then I remembered I’d be in a store room for this month’s full moon, far away from both men who had a claim on me, and I dismissed any notion of inappropriate threesomes.

It was probably for the best that I’d be getting a break from the usual suspects. They seemed to freak out after the Aries incident, and being legitimately mated to Marcus while half mated to Adrian had its own complications, so a Gemini Eiffel Tower was more than likely off the table. Spending a moon being celibate with my platonic coworker was the best option for everyone involved.

Adrian was still talking, so I determined I should probably listen. Marcus looked utterly bored but was generally avoiding eye contact, and I internally apologized that my hormones hadn’t stopped picturing his half-brother naked.