The Risks

The ride back to the city was nowhere near as pleasurable as the other times we had gone back.

They weren’t ignoring me; Kai had his hand on my thigh, his fingers tracing the inside of it, and Derik was opposite me, his feet stretched out, brushing mine as Brax had his shadows stroking mine in that weird, intensely intimate way.

But it was so quiet.

“So, what now?” I asked, trying to break the silence.

“We have to meet with the council at the Summit and warn them of the sacrifices. We don’t know many rituals that require humans as sacrifices, but they might know something that could help.” Derik sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Kai scoffed. “I don’t want anything from those fuckers. Whatever information they give us will have a price, and I’m not paying them shit.”

“We don’t have a choice!” Derik snarled back, and Kai pursed his lips, his anger radiating through me.

“So, I had a visit from my brother,” I said, trying to distract. All three of them turned their glares toward me.

“When? What happened?” Brax asked.

“And you’re only just telling us now?” Derik snapped.

“Did you hurt him?” Kai smirked, his eyes sparkling at the idea.

I shook my head. “No. He did tell me to meet him at the cemetery alone in two weeks on the full moon though. Was thinking I should probably do that,” I admitted.

I had considered keeping it to myself, but if I wanted them to tell me everything then I needed to do the same.

And I just wasn’t interested in doing anything the way my brother wanted me to, because he wasn’t calling the shots anymore. Not if I could help it.

“You’re not going.” Kai laughed. “I will tie you to the bed and fuck you until you can’t walk if you try to,” he warned, with a threat that made my bitch of a libido spike.

My mouth ran dry at the idea, and I grinned. “You can do that when we get home. But I am going to the cemetery. I have to, or he’ll kill my brother.”

“I guess this is the part where I’m meant to say I give a fuck, but the truth is, Little Human, that I don’t. Your brother, Elias, none of them hold a candle to what I feel for you.

“I’ll be sorry for the pain you feel at the death of your brother, but I will not trade that for your death. Not ever,” he said, running his finger down my jaw before pulling my lips to his.

I kissed him back, my mind turning with his words. I wanted him to care more about my brother’s life, but what he said made me sure that he was never going to care about it like I did, or more than I did.

So I kept kissing him, deepening the way our lips connected, my tongue sliding along his. He hauled me onto his lap, kissing me harder, his hand tangling in my hair, getting carried away like we always did.

I was already desperate for him, more of his touch, his skin on mine, his taste.

Until Derik was behind me, kissing down my neck and slowly pulling me back from Kai, who growled in warning. He glared at Derik who bared his teeth.

“Not the time,” he bit, then put me next to him instead of on his lap like I wanted.

I pouted, and he kissed my cheek, then turned to Kai.

“She won’t be going. Don’t lock her up just yet and throw away the key.”

“That won’t stop me, I know how to pick locks. And I am not staying. I have to go to this meeting. I just need help figuring out how to beat Elias before I get there. I have my shadows, but I’m not as strong as him,” I insisted, and all three wolves shared a look that said I was going the right way for them to do more than just lock me up.

“You will not go alone,” Derik said, and I was expecting Brax to say something, but he was silent.

He looked deep in thought, and I put my hand on his thigh, interrupting them. “Share with the class?” I prompted, and he looked at the other two, then back at me before thinking again.

“There might be a way to keep you safe if you go ‘alone.’”

“I’m listening?” I waited, trying to be patient but not achieving it well.

“That link we mentioned before—”

“No, Brax,” Derik snapped.

“Yes. Do it. We’re heading straight to Tabitha’s.” Kai grinned wickedly.

“It’s the only way. Then she’ll be safe from the vamps; they can’t demand her be there if she is linked to us. We’ll also be with her when she meets at the cemetery. In her mind, but she will be able to pull on our magic,” Brax explained, and I raised a brow at the connection he mentioned.

“This is the same one you mentioned before when we were talking about my brother? Isn’t there a physical distancing issue? Then I couldn’t go alone.”

Brax grimaced. “Kind of. This link is…intense. It’s a bit different to the one we would have done with your brother. This one is more like a forced mating. It can be dangerous though. It’s not meant to be done between races.”

“Which is why we are not doing it,” Derik huffed, but Kai and Brax both ignored him.

So did I. If there was a chance I could avoid the vampires at the Summit and my brother at the cemetery, it was a chance I was going to have to take.

“What will it mean? Being linked to all three of you?” I asked.

“It means you’ll have the same access to all of us that we have to each other,” Derik murmured.

“The mind-link thing? Communicating in your heads?”

Kai nodded. “You’ll give off alpha scent. The pack will kneel before you like they should,” Kai said, dropping to his knees in front of me, separating my legs with a smirk.

“They won’t be able to help it. Neither can I,” he said, his voice low and seductive as he lifted my skirts.

I licked my lips, my mouth running dry as Kai ran his nose along my thigh. I shivered, my body coming to life under his hot breath.

My hands clenched on Brax’s and Derik’s thighs, a fire burning low in my body as Kai pressed his lips against my damp panties. I sucked in a breath as his teeth nipped at the flesh.

“What else?” I trembled.

“You’ll feel us with you. No thought will be your own, you’ll be able to see what we see, even as wolves. It can be overwhelming for a human,” Derik warned, his eyes stuck on me and Kai, his lips parted.

He was trying to sway me, but everything they did to me was overwhelming, so it wasn’t working.

Brax grabbed my hand from his thigh, kissing it. “You’ll be able to draw on my shadows. They’ll feel like an extension of your own.”

I nodded, swallowing hard as Kai massaged my thigh with his huge hand, his lips dragging over the flesh where he had ripped my panties, giving him access to my glistening pussy.

His hot breath was almost as intense as his touch, a tease that made me tremble in his grasp.

“Your soul will be linked to ours. Our genes are stronger, so you’ll live as long as we do.” Kai grinned, stroking along my seam with his rough tongue.

I gasped, fidgeting beneath his hold, trying to get another shock of pleasure to my core, but he grinned wider and went back to teasing me with his lips and breath.

I wanted more friction almost as much as I wanted what he said. Live as long as they did? That was worth it.

“You don’t know that. She’s winter born, has shadows. If her genes are stronger, then we live as long as she does,” Derik warned, and I paused, his fear breaking through the heady passion inside me.

I looked to him, his eyes finding mine.

“How do I make sure that doesn’t happen?” I whispered, needing to know if there was a way I could help so I linked to them, not the other way around.

Kai chuckled between my legs and drew my attention straight back there.

“You are perfect,” he breathed, licking me again.

“What Derik isn’t telling you is that there is a way. It’s magic; all magic can be bent. Especially ours. With a link like the one you ~are~ going to get.” His voice hardened, his eyes narrowing on Derik with the order. “Your will can make the magic do what you want.”

He smiled, and I grinned.

“I can do that.” I sucked in a breath, his tongue pushing inside me.

“I know you can, which is why you are getting it,” he said as Derik growled in warning and looked away.

“I didn’t—” I gasped as Kai made a meal of my pussy, taking my thoughts as I tried to finish them. “Oh geez.”

My head fell back, my hips pushing against the pleasure as he lapped, licked, and bit.

“Why don’t you want me to get it, Derik?” I asked through pants, arching my back as I tried to focus, but Kai was relentless.

Brax was watching, his eyes fixed on my pussy before he leaned in, pressing his lips against my neck.

Derik turned to me again, his eyes filled with a heat that I knew meant he was going to cave.

“Because if we mate after linking you, it will tear you apart. Your soul will have a fissure in it, and with the shadows inside you, that’s dangerous. They could turn.

“Which is exactly why the vampires are going to be infuriated if we do this. It is a risk for a winter born to exist, and we plan on giving it access to a darkness even worse than Elias,” he explained quietly, and I stopped Kai, looking between the alphas, the truth in their eyes.

If we did this, I probably wouldn’t survive if they mated. One maybe, but if all three of them did? I wouldn’t be me anymore.

“And how likely is it that you mate?” I asked, just the idea of it hurting like a bitch already.

I couldn’t imagine another girl, wolf or not, getting to have them like I did. But it was the truth of the situation, and I had to be a big girl about it. Not that I wanted to.

“For usual wolves it happens more, but for alphas? It is rare. And for Brax, we’re not even sure it’s possible,” Kai said, obviously trying to put things back to getting what he wanted.

The carriage came to a stop then, and I took a deep breath, my blood still singing with residual pleasure, but my mind was on the options I had.

Get the link, be safe in the short term with the vampires and possibly Elias, but in the long term, I could turn into something that nothing would be safe from.

There was only one way I could see that not happening.

“So kill me,” I said.

All three of them snarled, but I shushed them.

“Just listen. We do the link, and if the time comes where one of you mates, then kill me before I can go all psycho,” I said, hating the idea but liking it a whole lot more than the other option.

“We’d all have to mate for that to be possible. It would sever the link, but if we did it before then, whoever was still linked would die with you,” Derik said, and I shook my head.

“And if one of you die?” I asked.

“Then so do you. Our link is different. If one of us dies, the others will get sick while they absorb the magic, or until the next heir in that line is brought into the link.”

“Enough!” Kai growled finally, his eyes red, his teeth bared.

We all looked up at him as he controlled himself, staring at me, still kneeling before me between the seats of the stopped carriage.

He grabbed my chin with his clawed fingers. “I could not kill you, Little Human, psycho or not. I would tear my own heart out before I allowed it.

“We are linking you. I am not mating to anyone else, and I will not hand you over to the vampires. I don’t give a fuck about the war that could start, and I don’t give a fuck that I could die if you do. I’d rather be dead if you are,” Kai said, his tone so deep and intense, the look in his eyes even more so.

My lips parted, the confession reaching so far inside me, it had me reaching for him. His lips met mine. My tongue caught on his fangs as he retracted them, and I moaned against him.

Kai yanked me onto his lap between the seats. I pulled away to breathe a moment later, and he buried his face in my neck.

Derik put his hands on either side of my head and tipped it back to look up at him.

“You want this?” he asked, and I nodded.

“Yes,” I breathed.

He leaned down to kiss me, then stood and went to the door. “I’ll go talk to Tabitha then,” he said, and I raised a brow.

“We’re at hers?”

Brax stood up, kissing me. “Our magic is bendable to will. Kai’s will is strong when it comes to you. The carriage went where he wanted it to, Derik didn’t stand a chance.” He smirked.

“If you’d actually helped, I would’ve,” Derik snapped, and Brax shrugged.

“I wanted to see what would happen. Should’ve known Kai’s crazy would win.” Brax laughed, then opened the door, looking back.

“I’m going to stand guard until you two are finished. If we weren’t here, I’d lose myself in you too, Spitfire, but since we are, I’ll wait.

“Before I go though, it’s not just Kai who feels like that with you. You’ll feel that in the link soon, but don’t be surprised by how deep the connection is. Werewolves don’t do anything by halves,” he said, and even though it sounded like a warning, it made me feel so good inside.

I knew without a doubt it wasn’t one-sided; they loved me too. Without saying it, I knew.

I smiled back at him and nodded as he left. Derik did too.

The second they closed the carriage door, Kai was tugging my dress off my body. I had a feeling he would have ripped it if we weren’t planning on going inside to see Tabitha afterward.

I wrapped my arms around his neck as he brought my lips to his, kissing me hard and full. He tasted so good, his tongue moving with mine as I wrapped my legs around him.

We probably should have waited, gone inside and talked through the linking with the other two, but I didn’t want to. I knew as much as Kai did, that we were going through with it.

I was excited to be linked to them. It was a connection I didn’t expect to be allowed with them, and maybe I wasn’t, but they were still going to do it.

That commitment meant so much more to me than anything so far, and with Kai telling me exactly how far his obsession went, I wanted this moment with him. It felt right, ~he~ felt right.

I kissed him back, gripping his hair in my fist, loving the way it made him groan.

He reached between us, undoing the string of his leather pants. I gripped the fabric of his shirt, yanking it over his head, finding his lips again as he sat up, holding me on his waist, positioning my back on the bench seat.

He lifted my hips to his, running his thick length against my entrance, his eyes on mine, where they stayed as he filled me.

I cried out, gripping his arm as it held my waist, the other clutching the seat. I wanted to drop my head back but he held my gaze, driving inside me with precise strokes that had me crying out, crumbling around him so fast.

He reached forward, his big hand holding the back of my neck for leverage as he lifted his leg to hold mine on it, still fucking me with furious strokes that had me gasping and crying out every time his tip hit deep inside me.

Every part of me was alive, burning, breaking with intense pleasure and emotion.

The green in his eyes was bright, almost glowing as he claimed me, his jaw clenched, his body beading with sweat. His abs glistened as I panted through his thrusts, his cock so damn swollen I thought I was going to break in half.

He was so deep, my body so full, I couldn’t get enough breath.

I held his veined forearm as he readjusted his grip on my neck, holding my gaze so I had no choice but to get lost in the connection.

Not that I wanted anything else. It made the feel of his cock filling me so much more than physical.

But I wanted more. I wanted to feel him against me, his groans and pants in my ear as my pussy greedily sucked him in.

With the fire burning, the tension tightening, I moved his arm away from me. His grip breaking on my neck, I reached forward for him and he hauled me up, holding me tight against his body as he slammed me on his cock.

I gasped, my nails digging into his shoulders, crying out as he hit that ache inside me that almost had me collapsing.

I fell into him, moving my hips, gripping his waist with my burning thighs, my body damp with sweat as I bounced on his thighs.

He grunted and moved faster, racing us to that finish line, just as desperate as me to get that tsunami of release.

I needed it; I couldn’t think or breathe, it was overwhelming me.

“Kai!” I cried out against his shoulder, biting down, my eyes clenching shut as my orgasm rose up so high and crashed down so hard and fast with his strokes.

I shook against him, whimpering and gasping as he buried himself inside my clenching pussy, his groan turning into a roar as he emptied himself inside me.

He grabbed my face and brought it to his, kissing me harshly as he fucked the last of our orgasms out before stilling his thrusts, his mouth still moving over mine, his hand gripping my hair so tightly I whimpered against him.

He growled and moved me onto the bench seat, his cock still deep, throbbing as he covered my body with his, bringing my leg up against his body.

I broke the kiss, gasping for air, but he didn’t give up, kissing down my neck, licking over my breasts, a pang of pleasure moving through me as he stroked over my breast.

Then he was back at my mouth, stealing my gasp as he kissed me.

“Kai,” I mumbled against him, the word coming out as a moan.

“I’m not ready to let you go just yet, Little Human.” He smirked, kissing over my jaw, tugging at my lips as I licked his.

He sighed when I did, his eyes going to mine as he held the side of my face.

“We have to go inside.”

“I’ve been trying to convince Derik to do this link since the blood moon. You’ve always been mine,” he said, and I smiled.

“Does that make you mine?” I asked, and he grinned that wide wolfy smile that made him seem so much less dangerous than he was.

“The second you arrived late with a racing heart so full of fear but a tongue so sharp, I was yours.”

I grinned, remembering the ceremony. It seemed so long ago that it had happened, like they had always been mine.

“I’m still scared.”

I whispered the truth. But now I wasn’t scared of them, I was scared of losing them.

“I won’t let anything happen to you, Little Human.”

“It’s not me I’m scared for,” I admitted, and his face softened, his lips falling on mine, a soft, tender kiss that had warmth radiating through me.

“I’m too obsessed with you to ever leave you earlier than the last breath you take. I want to be there for every single one,” he vowed.

It was so intense, but that was Kai. He was the intense one.

Brax was the softer one—eased into things, told me things like I was going to need time to process it, loved me like a beast but made sure to balance it with intimacy.

Derik was the thoughtful one, the one who kept walls up, so worried that his life would bleed too much into mine, but when we were alone, he let me in, and I craved the affection in those times.

Just like I craved the obsession from Kai, the connection with Brax.

“Then let’s go make sure I take more of them,” I said, and Kai grinned, kissing me one last time before pulling out of me and getting up.

I sat up and took my dress from him as he held it out. I slipped it on as he got dressed, then let him help me up. My thighs ached, my core ached, but I was so relaxed I didn’t even care.

Kai opened the carriage door to Brax sitting on the step, picking apart a weed from the swamp, glaring at Ruby.

Kai grinned and used Brax’s shoulder to jump down and pet the thing. I swear Ruby purred, her rows of teeth showing as she panted like a dog, playing with Kai.

I laughed nervously and went to step past Brax, but he grabbed me and held me up bridal style, moving past the swamp and onto the wooden ramp up to Tabitha’s.

He put me down and kissed my cheek, then went to stand in the dark against the cladding of the house.

His face was stone, his glare still bright. I went over to him and cuddled into him. His arm went around me, and he kissed the top of my head.

And then his shadows were reaching for mine, caressing them, making them bright and warm inside me. I closed my eyes and took the comfort, offering him the same, and it seemed to work.

He relaxed a little as my shadows calmed his.

“Are you okay with this? I know Derik and Kai are on opposite sides, but where do you stand with the link thing?” I asked, and he chuckled beside me.

“Derik isn’t on the opposite side, he’s trying to be the voice of reason, but we all know what we can feel coming from him. He’s excited, he wants this.”

“Do you?”

“I want you. If this is how I get that, then we have to,” he said, but there was a hesitation in him; even my shadows paused within him for a second.

“But you don’t like the idea of Tabitha doing another spell?” I assumed, and I felt him nod.

“Everything has a price. I don’t want you paying it,” he said, and I leaned back to look at him.

“Then let’s go inside and find out what it is before we agree,” I said, then stepped away from him and grabbed his hand, leading him inside as Kai jumped onto the porch, just out of the way of Ruby’s playful nip.

She looked like she was almost laughing as she sank back into the water, backing away.

Kai grinned and walked ahead, looking back over his shoulder to make sure we were following. We were, and I led Brax inside, hoping whatever the price was for the link, that I was willing to pay it.