31. Gwyneira

31

GWYNEIRA

W ith one hand, Ozias pulled me around, giving a brief glance to Dex. Though not a single word was spoken, the former soldier seemed to immediately understand my mate. “Roan, guard them.” Dex twitched his head at the rest of my men.

Roan nodded.

Holding me between them, Ozias and Dex started away from the giants, striding fast for the safety of the forest. Casimir stalked after us, his eyes trained on us all like a predator stalking prey.

Willing prey, but prey nonetheless.

The mere thought sent shudders of need radiating through me.

“Where are they going?” the duke called behind us.

I threw a worried look back. If he followed…

My vampire side growled with the urge to remove the man from being a problem.

“Not your concern,” Roan replied, crossing his arms and placing himself in the duke’s path. Byron, Niko, and the twins all joined in, forming a barricade of silent support on either side of Roan.

“If this is some kind of trick,” the duke snarled, motioning for his henchmen, ”I’m warning you, I will?—”

Roan shifted fast, the demon surging to the surface and stopping the giants in their tracks. “You will stay put. ”

Anger flushed the duke’s face while his henchmen just backed away. Nearby, Ignatius watched us go, saying nothing. I couldn’t read the look in his eyes.

“Focus, little mate,” Ozias murmured, pulling my attention back to him. “They won’t disturb us.”

I bit back another whimper. The vampire inside me didn’t care about disturbances. It needed blood and didn’t care whose it took.

But I did. Gods help me, staying in control wasn’t the half of it. Feeding was so intimate. I didn’t want to share that with anyone but my men.

“Please…” I begged Ozias as the forest continued on, unrelenting. “Are we…”

“Just a little farther.”

I clung to the words like a rope to save me from being pulled beneath a bloody, ravenous sea.

The trees came to an end in an open space of snow and leafless bushes. The remains of a massive fallen tree lay across the middle, its gray and weathered trunk split as if by a lightning strike. It must have been hundreds of feet high when it was alive, so large it blocked enough light that nothing much could grow around it, and when it fell, it left a clearing.

But suddenly, the clearing started to change. Vines twisted up through the snow, weaving together at high speed. Each tendril moved with a will of its own, darting between its neighbors in an intricate dance that spread around the clearing, climbing higher and higher until they formed a green and luscious wall that surrounded us completely, shutting us away from any giants who might have tried to follow.

A ripple spread through the snow like something beneath it was moving. Blades of grass appeared, pushing against the white blanket covering them in a wave, like the forest itself was shrugging off its carpet of snow.

“What—” I spun, searching for the source of this magic. It didn’t look like something my stepmother would have done.

It wasn’t trying to kill us yet, for one thing.

Tiny pink blossoms suddenly peeked out from between the vines, and I froze. I recognized those. Niko had grown them for me when I first came to the giants’ cabin.

Dex smiled. “I take it Niko’s making sure we stay safe.” He gave Ozias a brief questioning look, and the other man twitched his head in silent agreement.

“Good.” Dex turned. “Casimir?”

The vampire was on him in an instant, bearing him to the ground with his fangs buried in the side of Dex’s throat. Beneath him, Dex groaned, pain and desire in the sound.

Paying them no mind, Ozias turned me to face him. Moving his hair and then his beard aside, he bared the side of his neck. “Feed, little mate.”

My eyes locked on his throat, my vampire side surging up to fracture my control. But memories suddenly flashed through my mind too.

The forest past the Wild Lands. The cave where I’d run. Ozias’s body on the ground, his chest going still because I’d taken too much.

“I-I don’t want to hurt you like I did before,” I whispered.

“You won’t.”

He couldn’t know that.

“You are my mate. My life is yours.”

I whimpered.

He took a step closer to me. His hand came up to unfasten the collar of my coat and blouse, drawing them aside.

Cold air bit at my skin. I barely felt it. Every bit of my focus was taken up by the effort of not attacking him. “What…” Gods, words were difficult. “What are you?—”

His fingers brushed the four thin lines above my breast where his claws had cut me to form our mate bond.

Pleasure shuddered through me in a hot, molten wave, making my knees weak and scattering my concentration.

The vampire in me seized the opening.

My fangs were in him before I realized what was happening. The heat of his blood flooded my mouth and throat, rushing straight into my veins and making my pussy flutter to life. Gulping him down, I moaned as his hands slid around me, holding me in place, supporting me as I clutched his shoulders and drew deeper on his veins.

“That’s it, little mate,” he murmured. “That’s it.”

Carefully, he eased us both down to the earth. Never releasing his throat, I crawled on top of him, pinning him. While I dragged on his veins, he lay beneath me, stroking my sides, my back, continuing to murmur encouragements.

Fuck, I… I wanted him. Needed him. Needed?—

His fingers brushed the scars again. My pussy spasmed instantly, making my hips rock into him, seeking release. But the surge of that different need also brought me back to myself. Quickly, I pulled away, sealing the wound.

Ozias smiled up at me. “Good girl.” His eyes went to the four little scars above my breast. “Come here.”

That smile never fading, he helped me extract myself from the rest of my coat and blouse, and then he pulled me closer. His lips sealed over the scars.

My eyes rolled back in my head. “Holy…” Pleasure coursed through me like he was stoking a fire that would consume my soul. “H-how is this?—”

“Mating mark.” He drew back again. “Proof of our bond.”

I wasn’t sure how that was an answer, but I also didn’t have time to ask. Desperate sounds came from my left. Casimir had finished feeding, but the men were by no means done. Dex lay on his back, Casimir on top of him. Their clothes were gone, tossed aside in their hurry. Pressed together, they kissed passionately while their cocks ground against each other.

My core throbbed. Oh gods, that was arousing. How had it never occurred to me how enticing it could be to watch as well as join in?

Dex gasped, his head tilting back and his hips jerking as his release overtook him. Gripping his shoulders hard, Casimir buried his head against the giant’s chest and groaned out his own orgasm.

I shuddered, wet as hell, my gaze riveted on them both.

Ozias made a pleased noise and then took my chin, drawing my eyes to his. “Your men will be with us momentarily, little mate.” Hunger rumbled through his voice. “Shall we get you warmed up for them?”

I’d no sooner nodded than he flipped me so that I was on all fours with him poised above me. His hands made quick work of my breeches, and in only a moment I was bare, my wet core exposed for the three of them to see.

Rock melted around my hands, pulling me several inches down into the earth and then reforming. Eyes wide, I looked back at Ozias, questioning.

“You’ve been testing us, little mate.” He stripped down and tossed his clothes to the side. Hard as stone, his cock stood ready. “Risking yourself over and over, when it’s our purpose to protect you.”

My mouth opened to protest.

His palm struck my ass, and I choked on a startled cry. Pain blossomed, hot and sharp.

But impossibly, my breasts and pussy tingled too.

What the?—

His palm connected again, making me gasp. “Are you done challenging our need to keep you safe?”

I couldn’t find words. Intoxicating arousal coursed through my body at the hot, dark, and desperate look in his eyes. I could stop this. Easily. He knew that. But that also wasn’t the point.

My mate’s dominant streak craved this claim over me. Casimir and Dex did too. All three men were alpha predators in their own right, in charge of their domains.

And each was secretly terrified of losing me.

My vampire and my soldier stalked closer, their gazes fixed on my naked body. Already, their cocks were getting hard again. Dex’s hand flexed like he couldn’t wait to turn my flesh a darker pink, while Casimir gave a low growl, the sound wild and hungry.

They needed this dominance. This submission from me, even if only in this moment.

But that didn’t mean I had to make this easy on them.

Shuddering with anticipation, I turned back to Ozias. “No.”

His growl turned my insides molten. His palm collided with my ass again. Once, twice, a third time, making my flesh burn and my hands jerk in the stone restraints.

But my hips rocked back on instinct too, my core seeking just the right impact to send me over the edge.

“I feel how much you’re enjoying this, little mate.” His hand struck again. “I think your soldier should have a turn, don’t you?”

Dex circled behind me. He drew his rough palm over my ass, cupping my soft flesh and making my skin tingle in a new way. “You remember the night you gave me your virginity? How you begged me to fuck you? How you called me sir?”

Oh gods…

I quaked with need, breathless. “Yes?”

He leaned in close. “Your sir wants to hear you beg again.”

Holy—

His palm struck my ass. Hard.

I gasped, my hands lurching in the stone restraints. But he didn’t stop, and as his hand kept going, tears welled in my eyes. The pain was real, but it was doing strange things to my body.

And between my legs, my core was on fire.

Casimir bent down in front of me. “Are you going to be good, my little fucktoy?”

I shook my head, too overcome to form words.

His brow arched. “Is that so?” Reaching down, he caressed my breasts.

My awareness scattered between the alternating sensations of his hands massaging my breasts and Dex’s palm striking my ass. What was he doing? Why?—

A grin flashed across Casimir’s face. He glanced up at Ozias and Dex, and at whatever he saw, he nodded.

His fingers pinched my nipples like twin clamps.

The fresh spike of pain unleashed my orgasm like a chain reaction of lightning. I convulsed, my vision blacking out. I lost all awareness of where I was or why. I was nothing but the tangle of pleasure and pain, the combination so overwhelming, I couldn’t do anything but feel.

I returned to my senses on the ground, my restraints gone and my body throbbing where it pressed to the earth. Footsteps sounded behind me, and when I opened my eyes, I saw my men striding across the clearing, visibly surprised.

Ozias reached me first. Gathering me into his arms, he brushed the soil from my skin. His release clung to him, wet and sticky, but he paid it no mind as he sat on the ground and held me close.

I nestled against the dark hair of his chest, my body still thrumming with the aftershocks of what they’d done. “You… you came just from what we were doing?”

A low rumble carried through his chest, the sound radiating satisfaction. “When your pleasure overtook you like that, it was…”

“Exquisite,” Casimir filled in, brushing a strand of my hair away from my face.

Dex nodded, his eyes locked on me. “Beautiful.”

I quivered. “Thank you…” A smile tugged at my lips. “Sir.”

His gaze heated. Bending down, he kissed me deeply while Ozias held me in his arms. Casimir sank to the ground beside us, stroking his fingers along my ass and sending little tingles of residual pleasure-pain through my veins.

My mind was spinning when Dex leaned back again. “Do you think anyone, um…” I glanced in the direction where we’d left the giants. “Anyone heard?”

“You shifted before you made any sound, my precious little fucktoy,” Casimir assured me. “There was nothing to hear.”

Relieved, I sighed. The last thing we needed was the duke, Norbert, or any of their buddies knowing I’d just had the orgasm of my life. As it was, we’d probably already left Niko and the others for too long.

Though, on that topic…

“Casimir?”

“Yes, lovely?”

“What’s going on between you and Byron?”

His pleased expression went still.

“I know something is wrong. You’ve been… strange about him for a while.” I hesitated. “And me.”

Sighing, he sank back onto the grass. “I take it you haven’t noticed.” At my silence, he continued. “Your magic.”

Oh.

He read my expression. “Or perhaps you did know?”

I could feel Dex’s and Ozias’s eyes on me. “It’s okay. It’s just?—”

“It is not okay,” Casimir cut in. “Your magic and Byron’s have merged somehow. You are connected, and if any harm should befall to him, you could die.”

I froze.

“What?” Dex shoved up from the grass. “How the hell did that happen?”

Rage and dread flooded my link to Ozias.

“Gwyneira’s a vampire,” Dex continued. “Aren’t you both essentially…”

“Immortal?” Casimir filled in.

Dex nodded.

“Vampires can still be killed, my friend. Her life and Byron’s are tied through their magic. It is a different connection than a mate bond.” He nodded to Ozias in acknowledgement. “It is life force. And near-immortality or not, if his life ends, hers will as well.” He turned to me, his expression becoming apologetic. “I have been searching for a means to break that bond without killing either of you, but until I discover a safe path forward, it is imperative you both exercise caution.” Tension flashed across his face. “Please.”

I couldn’t find words.

“I will find a way to fix this,” Casimir assured me. “I swear it on my life. And until then, I will protect you both.”

“We all will,” Dex added.

Ozias just pulled me to him, his body warm amid the cold air. A low rumble carried through his chest, a growl for the thought that I could be taken from him.

I squeezed my eyes shut, praying Casimir’s efforts would be enough.

“We should get back,” Dex said. “We can’t leave the others for too long. Especially if Byron…” He left the rest unsaid.

“Agreed.” Casimir rose to his feet.

Ozias’s arms tightened on me, his worry more than clear through our connection.

Why couldn’t the link between Byron and me have been like this?

Except, of course it wouldn’t have been.

I scowled at myself. Byron wasn’t interested in me sexually. He admitted I was his treluria, yes. But his vows came first. I had to respect that. And for him to be able to feel how I stupidly still wanted him even when I knew we could never be…

I pushed the thought aside, climbing to my feet and collecting my clothes. What happened between Byron’s magic and mine was a mistake, and one that, with Casimir’s help, we’d fix. That was all.

The men made short work of the vine wall, and together, the four of us headed back through the forest. Apprehension hung in the air like a heavy cloak, and when we neared the clearing, voices carried through the trees, just on the edge of hearing.

The giants were arguing.

But so were my men.

“What is it?” Dex asked.

“Something’s wrong,” Casimir said, hearing the same thing I did.

“Fuck.” Dex took off.

I tore after him, my vampire speed more than making up for my shorter stature. We broke past the trees to see a crowd gathered in the distance at the base of the wall. Past the giants, I couldn’t see my men, though Roan still stood by the edge of the forest as if to keep anyone from heading our way.

“—and now you’re going to fucking do this ?” Clay’s furious voice carried over the crowd.

Alarm joined my dread. My feet sped up as I hurried toward Roan. “What’s happened?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Short version, then,” Dex demanded.

Roan’s jaw muscles clenched. “Duke Ensid has forbidden us from entering Erenelle.”