Chapter Twenty-Three

Ares

I run my hand down her body. She moans and arches her hips up. Her puffy lips call to me, so I kiss her passionately. She whimpers in my mouth and pushes closer to me.

"Oh, Cassie! You are so sweet!" I whisper and let myself go.

I grab onto her hair and bring her closer to me. I kiss her neck passionately as I keep fucking her hard and fast like a depraved man. I feel my climax coming, so I extract my canines and bite into her neck, marking her as mine.

She screams in both pleasure and pain as my knot holds on firmly to her pussy, and I come inside her.

I jerk up from sleep, leaving my hot dream behind. I was reliving last night's events. It had felt so good. I don't mind still being in the dream. But something had woken me up abruptly.

I turn to my side to see Cassie and the brothers naked on the bed with me. Cassie is cuddled up between the Jackson brothers. A chord of bafflement strikes me in my chest.

I shared my bed with two men!

I have never shared my bed like this with anyone… not even previous lovers… much less with men.

I'm not sure how that makes me feel. So I try to keep my mind off it.

Cassie had tired us out after ten hours of marathon sex. She had been amazing, taking mine and Jeremiah's knot so well. There is still so much we have yet to do with her.

I reach out to Cassie and caress her cheeks. She moans at my touch and snuggles closer to the guys.

My perfect Omega!

The other two are snoring lightly. Cassie did a number on us. I should still be sleeping, as I did a majority of the work towards the end. But I am up.

Why is that?

I am still caressing Cassie's cheek when Jeremiah stirs and opens his eyes suddenly. I freeze when his eyes catch mine. He stays still, just staring at me. Just when I think it can't get any more awkward, Eric wakes up too.

The silence in the room is so deafening that it adds to the awkwardness. I take my hands off Cassie's cheek and give them a tight smile. This is all new and different, but I am certain that after a while, we will get used to it.

Cassie whimpers and we look down on her.

She is so beautiful !

Cassie has brought us all together. If someone had told me I'd make a family unit with two other guys, I might have disagreed immediately.

But here we are.

Cassie is the core of this new relationship. We will protect and love her as much as she deserves and more.

"Um. Morning." Eric grunts and sits up.

Jeremiah does the same and grunts a reply, "Yeah. Good morning. Something woke me."

I open my mouth to speak but stop when I remember Jeremiah is right. Yes, something woke me, too.

It is then that catch a familiar scent. My blood boils with anger.

This is why I woke up!

I get up and rush to put on the pants I wore the previous day. Taking angry strides, I walk downstairs, heading for the door.

Jeremiah must also have perceived the unwelcome scent. He jumps out of bed and follows me downstairs.

What the fuck is she doing here?

I open the door, and with great speed, I yank Leila Kaye by the throat. She stumbles into the apartment against her will, and tries to push my hand off her.

"Why the fuck are you here?" I shout at her. "Did you come here to finish the job your mom started?"

"What the fuck are you talking about? Unhand me!" she screeches, bringing her hand up as though to hit me in the face.

I release my hold on her, and she jumps back, nursing her neck and clearing her throat. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"Leila," Jeremiah says softly. "What are you doing here?"

He's a lot less violent than I am.

I turn to him with a raised eyebrow, and he shrugs. In my anger, I had forgotten that he had come down with me.

"I am here for my sister. Not you or you," she says vehemently.

Hearing Leila call Cassie her sister is shocking, and it reduces my rage. It doesn't sound like she's opposed to admitting that.

"What do you want from her?" I ask calmly.

"Nothing! I just want to help!" she says, her face flushed. "And what do you mean to finish the job? I didn't do anything to her."

I scrunch up my face. "First of all, Leila, I don't trust you with my Omega. You have several reasons to want to hurt her," I spit at her.

Leila's blue eyes flash at me. "Shut the fuck up. You don't get to decide if I see her or not. I'll speak to her myself."

I take a step forward in anger, but Jeremiah slides between us quickly. "Hey! Hey! Wait… we don't have to be so hostile…" I know he's mostly saying that to me.

He turns to Leila. "Why do you want to help Cassie now?"

Leila looks embarrassed. "I found out the whole thing from my mom. She made her take the blockers because Cassie was very powerful, and she felt threatened. It made me feel guilty and I just… I want to help her gain the strength she was born to have… after everything she's been through."

Unimpressed, I growl at her, "You mean, what your mom put her through?"

I don't trust her.

"I know what my mom did was wrong. I hate it as much as you do. But, you cannot fault me for my mother's crime. I'm trying to do the right thing here." She glares at me.

Jeremiah holds up his hands between us again. "Wait, you know that Cassie is the White Wolf?"

Leila's expression softens as she looks back at him. "Yeah… my mom confessed it to me. She was there when Cassie's mom had her… and she said her hair was white and her pheromones were strong even as a baby… making everyone want to take care of her. So she used the blockers because she didn't want Cassie to… overshadow me."

In her defense, Leila does look like she is being sincere. I'm not taking any chances though. Not after last night.

"That's a great story, but you're not welcome here." I shift one hand, letting my claws out, and Leila crouches into a defensive position.

"Get out before I make you," I growl.

"Stop it, Ares!" Cassie shouts from the stairway, stopping my action.

I turn to look at her, and my heart soars. She is wearing one of the guys' black shirts. Her beautiful, full white hair halos her face as she stares angrily at me.

What did I do?

I am trying to protect her, and she is mad at me?

I let go of Leila as Cassie walked down the remaining steps. Eric comes into view. His hair is rumpled like they were up to something before coming down.

Leila leaves my side and rushes to Cassie. "Are you okay?" she asks tenderly and holds Cassie's left hand.

When did they get close enough for all this? I muse.

Cassie smiles sweetly at Leila. "Yes, I am okay. More than okay even," she admits.

"I'm glad," Leila replies and lets go of her hand. "I came to help you, but your Alpha won't let me."

Leila scowls at me.

"I don't trust you," I growl back at her.

"Ares, please!" Cassie begs. "I trust her. She has helped me before. I'm sure she didn't come here with bad intentions." She tells me what Leila did for her in the past.

I mull over what she has said, and nod. "Fine! She can help out. But any suspicious actions, and she'll curse the day she was born."

"Thank you." Cassie smiles and hugs me.

I hold her to my side and focus on Leila. Jeremiah comes back into the living room and passes a bottle of water to Cassie. She collects it and gulps it down.

"I came because I wanted to find out what's going on with you, Cassie. It was easy to locate the apartment. It is the only one so choked with strong pheromones. All I did was knock and Ares drug me in by my throat." She growls the last statement.

I sit on the sofa and place Cassie on my lap. Jeremiah and Eric join us, leaving Leila standing.

She seems nervous with the attention. She starts playing with her hair as she continues speaking. "As I said, I want to help you, Cassie. You are very strong but you don't how to make use of your strength. I feel guilty that you don't know how to be a proper Omega. I want that to change."

"Nice pitch," Eric jokes dryly, earning a small laugh from Jeremiah and Cassie.

I am hardly in the mood to laugh. Cassie was nearly murdered yesterday, and my top suspect is Mrs. Kaye. I want to be sure something like that doesn't happen again.

"Sit, Leila," I order her.

She rolls her eyes but sits on the single chair by our side.

"Cassie was attacked yesterday," I start.

Leila gasps in surprise. "Are you okay?" she asks Cassie.

Cassie nods at her. "The guys were there to protect me," she tells her.

"How did it happen?" Leila asks, concerned.

"We took Cassie running in the forest. As we were there, enjoying the run, eight assassins appeared and tried to kill Cassie," Eric provides.

"Eight assassins?" Leila gasps.

"They were a bunch of warlocks, werewolves, and werepanthers. It's clear that they come from an organization. They were quite strong, but we won," Jeremiah says.

"I killed someone," Cassie mumbles.

I hate that she has that on her. But she did good, and I was proud to see her take action.

"Don't let that get to you." I kiss her cheek and stroke her hair. "You did what you had to do."

She nods at this.

"Oh my God! I am so sorry, Cassie. I didn't know anything about it. Why would someone want you killed?" Leila asks.

"There are several reasons for that. For starters, someone jealous of her could want her dead." I level my gaze on Leila.

She doesn't flinch. Instead, she shakes her head. "I don't want to hurt Cassie!" she cries.

"Yes, so you say. But what about your mom?" I ask.

I watch as her expression falls. She covers her face and then runs her hand through her hair. She doesn't say anything for a while.

She can't respond because we all know that the chances of it being Mrs. Kaye are quite high.

Finally, she sighs heavily and sadly says, "To be honest, I wouldn't put it past her."