Chapter 44

This was perfect. Good food, my mates, and my friends. I hadn’t had much of a chance to get to know Calamity in New Eden, but she knew I’d turned Sister Mary Eugene to stone after she had Calamity tortured. I just clicked with Kat. I usually did when I met someone as old as me. And eventually, I was going to get her to tell me about her going to Di’s parties.

“So, my girl Medusa and me had this plan to get drinks if we ever got out of New Eden and do mean things to stupid, drunk boys,” Jezebel said, finishing her salad. “I’m guessing if all of you cook this good, we’ll get our strength back in no time. Is there a pub somewhere we can complete our quest?”

It just meant so much to me that she still wanted to have that drink with me after everything she knew.

“There’s a supernatural pub in our village and a bar with humans at the bottom of the mountain. If you want drunk, stupid boys, you probably want the bar in the town twenty minutes over. It’s the only place to drink in a city where there’s a small college,” Pax said.

“Totally,” Benji said. “They are drunk at the pub in our village and at the bottom of the mountain, but they understand boundaries and most of them aren’t idiots. The Sheriff barely has anything to do except ruin my Pokémon game.”

“I heard a rumor you’ve been pranking the Sheriff, Benji. Does it have to do with Pokémon?” I asked.

“Yes,” Cas groaned. “And don’t get him started. The Pokémon was rare, and he was illegally parked. Sheriff Riddle had every right to ask him to move his bike.”

“Traitor,” Benji hissed, flinging a crouton at his face.

“If you throw one more thing at me tonight, I’m going to take you across my knee and spank you,” Cas growled.

I got a visual and got instantly turned on. Benji once told me Cas had total daddy vibes, and he did. I was picturing Benji across his lap naked while Cas paddled that perfect ass and what I wanted to do after.

Cas’s nostrils flared and Benji’s hand tightened around his fork. Yeah, I was mated to two shifters. They couldn’t totally feel me yet because we hadn’t completed the bond, but they sure as fuck could smell my arousal. And Pax got a few extra senses when the Coalition blinded him.

“I can sense you like that,” Pax moaned.

“I think Medusa should totally get laid, but I don’t want to be here to watch,” Jezebel said.

“Medusa can barely stand up,” Cas pointed out.

“Medusa can speak for herself,” I said.

“We will do whatever you want, little monster,” Benji said. “You can’t control how you react when Cas threatens to spank me and we can’t control how we react when you smell like that. If you just want to go to bed alone, we can do that.”

I wasn’t ready to have sex. I didn’t feel like myself anymore. I didn’t even recognize my reflection. It would probably be a while before I felt like a cursed green witch again, but they were willing to give me space. I also had a ton of questions for Di. Yeah, my curse could turn the entire Coalition to stone, but he’d never ask me to do that. Aside from Sister Mary Eugene, I was usually devastated when I turned someone to stone. Di knew that.

I wanted to sleep in an actual bed tonight, but I didn’t think I wanted to sleep alone. There was still this part of me that was terrified that Athena was going to be furious I was no longer in New Eden Asylum and was here safe with my mates.

She’d never come for me when Di was with me, but he had to travel for work sometimes. Di was working right now, and I didn’t know when he would be back.

I was safe from Hannibal and the fake nuns and priests, but Athena was still a threat, even thousands of years later.