13

IVY

WHAT was one meant to do when they were horny as all hell and trapped between two of their mates?

Sit awkwardly and quietly for the next impossibly long hour, was what. At least that was my plan. Sit quietly and hope I could survive the waves of lust overtaking my body. Not even pressing my thighs together was enough to alleviate any of the pressure building within me. Nope, not even trying to subtly shift would be enough, not when Maeve and Elias were impossible boulders keeping me trapped in place.

And if Elias moved his hand any higher...

“Are you struggling with something, Angel?” Elias asked, barely looking as he inched his hand high up my leg. I gasped as he paused at the apex of my thigh. “You seem awfully quiet.”

I cleared my throat and tried to ignore the throbbing between my legs. “I’m just really glad you’re all okay. And I’m so happy to see you again.”

From the front seat, Adrian snorted. “Your shields aren’t working, Sweetheart. And you’re forgetting: Elias and Maeve have enhanced senses, so they can scent your arousal.”

I closed my eyes and begged for the universe to swallow me whole. When I’d teased Adrian about sharing, this hadn ’t been what I’d meant.

Beside me, Elias chuckled. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do,” he said, giving my thigh a reassuring squeeze. “But you’ll probably feel better if you use this time wisely.”

I glared at him from the corner of my eye. “Can’t I just...deal with it later? Isn’t being in your presence enough?”

He met my side glare with a half-smile. “You’ll be uncomfortable for longer if you treat it like that.” He moved his hand an inch higher and swiped his thumb over me. “You would be better off relieving some of that pressure now before we reach the ferry.”

My breathing turned ragged as I looked between him, the rearview mirror, and Maeve on my other side. My newest mate looked the most uncomfortable, and guilt swirled within me.

Are you okay? I asked down our bond. Maeve met my eye, and I couldn’t tell if her discomfort was coming from the sexual tension filling the car, or the changes happening within her.

She rested her hand on my other thigh. I’m coming to terms with this...shift. Within me and between us.

I swallowed thickly and glanced down at her hand, at the small scattering of scars along her knuckles. In the short time we’d spent in the back of the SUV, we hadn’t done anything but hold one another. Not like we’d really had the privacy to do anything else, considering the fighting and the whole poison cloud. Guilt ate at me knowing there was so much we hadn’t been able to discuss.

But the ache within me intensified. My magic thrummed beneath my skin and yearned to take our fourth mate completely.

You need to expel the magic building within you, Maeve continued, trailing her hand down to cup my knee. Elias is right. You will feel better once you’ve done that. And you shouldn’t feel awkward on our behalf.

But you don’t seem okay, I replied, gently placing my hand over hers. I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable with any of this.

Maeve offered me a half-smile before leaning in and pressing a kiss to my lips. Nothing extreme, just a soft kiss that fought to prove that everything was alright. When she pulled back, I sighed and closed my eyes.

Goddess save me , I thought, prying my eyes open again to look out the window. The sky had since cleared after the epic storm I’d conjured, and now as the sun peeked through the clouds, I took that as my sign that maybe we’d be okay after this.

“Alright. I’m horny, is that what you guys want to hear?”

Elias chuckled. “Are you finally giving me permission to take the ache away?”

I gave him a sharp look. “Permission granted. Sir. ”

His eyes darkened with a fiery heat that sent a shiver down my spine. Before I could blink, I was being shifted onto his lap, with his cock pressed against my aching core. Elias claimed my mouth with a searing kiss, sweeping his tongue against my bottom lip, gaining entrance to my mouth without much fight from me. I tangled my hands in his hair, feeling the soft strands of honey-streaked brown hair between my fingers.

Elias cupped my ass with his large hands and guided me into a gentle rocking motion against his crotch. I groaned against his mouth as the pressure built up, but the ache wasn’t going to go away with some simple grinding.

My magic flared, and cold air bit at my suddenly very naked flesh. I tore away from Elias’s mouth and stared down at my bare chest, stomach, and thighs. “Where the hell did my clothes go?”

“You,” Elias said, voice filled with so much heat and love it made my heart stutter. “You willed them away with magic.”

I swallowed thickly. “So, Adrian didn’t do that?”

My mage chuckled from the front seat. “Not me, Sweetheart. That was all you.”

“But, I—”

“You picked it up naturally from Adrian, which we knew would happen,” Maeve said. I glanced over at her and noticed a hunger filling her eyes. She met my stare, fangs poking down from her bottom lip.

“That’s definitely something,” I muttered.

Elias nipped at my breast and sucked my nipple into his mouth. I arched into him as he swirled his tongue around the nub. Wetness gathered between my thighs where I so badly needed him to be.

“Do you want me to fuck you in your tight little cunt, Ivy?” he growled, dropping my tit from his mouth. “Want to be dripping with my cum?”

I nodded, moaning as he took my other nipple into his mouth.

Use your words, Angel , he whispered into my mind, massaging the globes of my ass.

“I want you to fuck me,” I breathed, throwing my head back as he bit down on my nipple. “I-I need to be filled with your cum.”

“Take my cock out of my pants,” Elias instructed.

I did as I was told, trailing my hands down his chest to the waistline of his pants. The gear he wore was tight, but as I fumbled around with the belt, I found the zipper and brought it down. Biting down on my bottom lip, I reached in and cupped his hard length.

“You don’t wear boxers under your gear?” I asked, peeking up at him through my lashes.

Elias grunted, and his cock twitched in my palm. “I have to be prepared for anything, and that includes servicing you whenever you need it, Angel.”

My cheeks warmed as I pulled him out of his pants and wrapped my fingers around his girth. Elias guided me up so I wetted his cock, rubbing me against the length. A groan fell past my lips as he rubbed himself against my throbbing clit, eliciting a spark of pleasure. My breath hitched, the pressure building until it burned like an inferno within me.

The head of his cock nudged against my opening. I bit down on my tongue as Elias inched me down his thick length. “You’re so tight, Angel. So absolutely perfect. Your other mates have no idea what they’re missing out on.” I made a sound in the back of my throat as he filled me entirely, the size of him almost too much.

I buried my face into the crook of his neck, adjusting to his size. The smell of pine and forest filled my nose. My magic reacted to it and rose beneath my skin, though not in a dangerous way. It purred as he filled me completely, as we joined together in a way that left me feeling every part of him.

Fuck, I was glad to be back in his arms again. It was more than just sex; it was the proximity to him that made it better.

I feel it too, he said, hands tightening on my ass. I fucking missed you.

Elias guided me into a slow rocking motion, and with each gentle thrust, I took him deeper. There was a tenderness to the moment, not ravenous like our previous encounters, but not sweet, either.

Elias is right , Adrian said through our bond, we are missing out. He proceeded to push his own desire down the bond, flooding me with graphic images of what he wanted to do to my body if it were him in the backseat and not Elias.

I closed my eyes, and flashes of his intentions flooded the bond. A snapshot of his head between my thighs with my hands fisted in his golden hair. His tongue diving into my wet heat, lapping at my arousal, pushing me closer to the edge of pleasure.

Maeve caressed the bond between us, demonstrating how she’d toy with me and play me like a violin. There was a promise in the way she reached out through our bond, one that said she’d make me scream.

The combined sensations of Adrian and Maeve’s intentions and Elias’s swelling cock buried deep inside me, the pressure to finish built.

I cried out as my climax shuddered through me; I clamped around Elias’s dick and scraped my nails down his chest, but he continued to guide me through the orgasm. His fingers became brands on my ass, digging into the soft flesh of each globe, and I rode him from one orgasm and into another. He gave a guttural growl as he came, pumping his cum deep inside me until there was nothing left but our sharp breaths.

Magic prickled my skin, dancing down my arms and over my chest. It ignited in an array of purples over my body. As I slumped into Elias’s chest, the magic dimmed and finally flooded out of my system, likely into the three mates gathered around me.

The relief hit me instantly. I sighed, exhaustion weighing heavily in the back of my mind. My magic finally settled, resting in my chest.

Elias wrapped his arms around me, cradling me against his chest, as he murmured something to Adrian.

I drifted off into sleep, guided by their soft, murmured voices, enveloped in warmth, and fully sated.

~

I awoke to cool fingers tracing gentle circles on my cheeks and a deep sense of peace.

My back and neck ached from whatever awkward sleeping position I’d found myself in. But I felt more rested than I had in weeks, likely from being surrounded by my bonded mates.

I could get used to this, I thought with a yawn, finally sitting up. I tried to stretch my arms up over my head, but found myself still trapped in the car.

“How much longer until we reach the ferry?” I asked, running a hand through my messy hair. I glanced down at myself and frowned, realising I wasn’t naked anymore. “How do I have clothes on?”

Maeve, who had been stroking my cheek, reached into some sort of pouch in her gear and pulled out a hair tie. “Turn around and I’ll braid it,” she offered quietly. I shifted so she had my back, and tilted my head when she ran her fingers through the messy length. “You slept for about a half hour, but our location changed twenty minutes ago.”

I frowned, catching Elias’s stare as he captured my knee in his large hand and pulled my leg over his lap. “What do you mean, our location changed?” I asked, tensing.

“Safety precaution for you,” Elias explained, rubbing slow circles up my leg. “We have a half-hour until we reach the new ferry crossing.”

I looked between him and Adrian in the front seat. The navigation system gave nothing away. “I thought the reason we were split up and all over the place was because we were hiding the location?”

Maeve’s long nails scraped my scalp as she braided my hair back from my face; I forced down a groan, though my eyes fluttered shut at the feeling. “That’s what we believed, too,” Maeve replied. “But it seems the crash and your magic triggered what Sir Ya’Dahir believes to be a fail-safe switch in the magic of the ferry. We were close enough that it recognised your magic and the danger you were in. So, it moved to accommodate that.”

I blew out a long breath and Maeve tied off the ends. “Sounds overly...complicated.”

“It is, but it’s a good thing if it protects you,” Elias grunted, pulling me in closer to him. “I don’t care what we have to do so long as you’re safe.”

My cheeks warmed under the intensity of his stare, but he made a good point. At least, I thought it did.

“How are the others? The kids, Thea? Rowan?” I looked between Maeve and Elias, before directing my stare to the front seat where Adrian still sat. “Have you heard anything from them?”

My heart rate picked up with a wave of panic. Guilt gnawed at me, a feeling I was becoming far too accustomed with. My stomach clenched as I realised how little I’d thought about them since...everything. God, I was the worst. They were probably terrified, and I wasn’t there to comfort them or to at least care for them in the way I’d promised I would.

“They’re still the same as when we left them at the crash,” Maeve said, “though the kids are tired of driving. And I’m sure they don’t think you’re the worst.”

I spared Maeve a look before putting up imaginary blocks inside my mind to keep my more self-deprecating thoughts to myself.

“Nice try, Sweetheart, but we can still feel how you’re feeling,” Adrian piped up from the front seat, glancing at me through the rearview mirror. “Seems you need more lessons with Hawk.”

Grumbling under my breath about nosy mates, I settled in for the last leg of the drive. The sky turned shades of purple and gold as twilight came down upon us. My mind felt hazy about everything that’d happened today, and it only grew more confusing as we finally pulled onto a long strip of road curving the beach.

Reaching over Elias, I turned the window down an inch and sucked in a deep breath; salty, briny air hit my face, dredging up old, long-since forgotten memories of days at the beach with Kerry and Andrew when Eloise had been a toddler. I closed my eyes as the sound of waves crashing against the shoreline and the screams of seagulls hit me.

“Look,” Elias murmured in my ear.

I opened my eyes and startled at the heads bobbing in the water. There were maybe twenty, peering at our car through the waves. As we passed, they dipped below the surface once more, disappearing from sight.

“Were they...” I trailed off and swallowed hard.

“Mermaids,” Adrian finished, glancing back. “Distantly related to your sisters.”

My stomach dipped, and I quickly sat back from the window and turned away from it.

The road continued along the coastline for maybe another mile, winding with no end in sight. At some point, my stomach grumbled, and I was reminded sadly of not having a coffee this morning, and nothing for lunch thanks to the crash. Apparently, magic and sex kicked up an appetite.

More promises of soon followed that obvious revelation . I crossed my arms and checked behind us every so often for the SUV carrying my sisters.

“It’s camouflaged, so we won’t see it,” Maeve said after my third check. “They’re close by, though. Don’t worry.”

“It’s hard not to,” I grumbled, resting my head back against the seat. “This situation is just so…complicated.”

Maeve gave my knee a hesitant squeeze. “You’ll be reunited with them in minutes.”

I frowned, and turned to Maeve, who watched the ocean. I followed her stare. My heart skipped a beat as I took in the sight.

The ferry, I thought, would be like the ones in Seattle or New York. I’d been on one once, years ago. We’d driven on, gotten out to take photos, and it’d been a fun experience ending with Thea puking everywhere because her motion sickness had kicked in. Too much rocking, and horrible weather.

But the one I spotted sitting alone at the end of an old, wooden dock was not that .

“It looks like a pirate ship,” I said, sitting up a little straighter as I took in the three large masts and sails billowing in the breeze. “Why are we getting on a pirate ship?”

Adrian snorted a laugh as he followed the winding road down to the small parking lot in front of the ship. “It’s a ferry.”

“Nooooo,” I drawled, as he pulled into one of the spaces, though left the car running. “ That is the Jolly Rodger from Peter Pan . Look! I think I see Captain Hook up on the starboard aft!”

Elias sighed, and Maeve sent me a look. “That is nowhere near correct, and the Captain is Vale. He’s Fae.”

That would have landed with Thea , I thought with a disgruntled look at all three of my mates. She would have gotten it.

Suddenly, another SUV pulled up beside us, and a lone figure dropped from the sky. My skin prickled at the sight of Hawk; he ran a hand through his shoulder length hair, pushing it back from his face.

But I clambered over Elias’s lap, earning a warning growl from him, and threw open his door. I heard screams as soon as I was out, familiar, excited screams that brought tears to my eyes. The doors to the other SUV flew open and soon enough, I was on my knees with Maisie in my arms first, her little body trembling and tears rolling down her plump cheeks.

My throat tightened with emotion, and tears burned the corners of my eyes. I bit my tongue to hold them back.

Ginny wound her arms around my neck and buried her face in my hair. She shook with sobs, and I tried to reassure them that they were okay—we were okay—but I wasn’t even sure if I believed myself.

Eloise hesitantly exited the SUV with wide, tearful eyes, and only ran up to hug me when I motioned for her to do so. She curled in on herself as soon as I pulled her into my arms, reminding me of when she was a child and would seek me out after a bad dream.

A hand touched my head, and when I looked up, I met Thea’s stare. “Thank you,” I whispered, “for taking care of them when I couldn’t.”

Thea smiled, though lines of stress formed around her mouth, and her tired eyes drifted from me towards the ship-ferry thing. “Can’t believe we’re ditching this place and catching a ride with Captain Hook.”

“I fucking knew you’d think the same thing,” I said, grinning.

“Look kids, it’s a real-life pirate ship!” Thea pointed at the boat, rolling her eyes when not one—but all five supes—sighed. “Shut it, we have to make this magical. For the kids.”

I snorted. “Sure. Not for your own enjoyment.”

“Shut it you,” she growled, before pulling me into a crushing hug. My bones ached at the force of her hold, but I melted into her anyway and wrapped my arms around her. “Don’t ever leave me again. As a matter of fact, I’ll even come to that stupid academy with you.”

I chuckled. “I missed you, too.”

“Sure, you did. While you were getting dicked down, I’m certain you were thinking about me.”

“Always,” I murmured. “Now, stop crushing me to death. I didn’t survive being attacked three times to die by cuddles.”

Thea groaned but she finally released me. It didn’t matter, because I had three sets of arms around me as soon as she did, and I was pulled into a giant cuddle pile.

“If you’re almost done, we have a very limited amount of time left to get on this damned boat,” Hawk called.

Ugh. Him and his arrogance. Could have left that behind . I barely held back from giving him the middle finger, but Thea didn’t bother hiding it as she sent him a glare and gave him two. The half-Fae only rolled his eyes at that.

I sighed, running my hands over Maisie’s hair. “You guys ready?”

Eloise glanced back at the ferry-pirate ship. “Do we have much of a choice?”

No, you don’t . I didn’t say that aloud, and only motioned for them to start walking down the pier. As everyone fell in around us, I chanced a glance out at sea.

There were no bobbing heads to see us off, no mermaids to promise us safe travels.

Just us, the team, and a pirate ship.

What could go wrong?