Three months later"And I'm telling you right now, dad, that if you want to ever see these babies, you'll stop sending my mates to the Underworld for a cooling off' period. That shit is getting old," I said as I waddled into the hospital built for gods and demi-gods. He chuckled beside me. "But, bubbles, they deserved it. Crowing like they built Olympus bare handed. They were getting on your Circle's nerves. I could tell." He said as he lifted me into the bed. "Bring them back, dad. Now." I glared at him. Even though, on the inside, I was smiling like a loon. This was the type of relationship I'd always dreamed of having with a father. He sighed, a smirk still pulling at his mouth. With a snap, my three mates stumbled into the room."Damn it, Apollo," Saint said as he flicked his shirt. "Cerberus almost got me that time."My dad's head tipped back as he laughed and laughed. The babies inside me loved that sound. They kicked at my belly. I rubbed at the spot. "Easy
"You could die. You realize that, yeah?" the low husky voice burbled through the phone. It reminded me of a lazy river in the woods. Not that I'd ever seen one in my life. Maybe that will go on the list of things to see when I escape.I straightened my spine. I was going to die way too early either way. I might as well make it on my terms instead of my parents'. "Still there?" I shook the morose thoughts away. "Yes. And yes. But we have to hurry. I'll be summoned for the next ritual any day now. I don't have time to waste. I need this plan in place as soon as I get to the cabin. I also need your reassurance that I won't be found." I shuddered to think what my parents would do if they found me after running away. Imprisonment would seem like a luxury.People moved outside my glass walls. Ordinary lives. They didn't know how lucky they were. "I give you my personal promise of safety." I could hear the sincerity in his voice. "We're ready on this end. We just need final locat
I smiled as the haughty look dissolved from the lovely Kiema's face. I'd been expecting an old, bent woman for the price my parents were giving the Feuers for my healing. Someone who knew what she was doing. Someone who wouldn't fail. Not some woman who looked barely old enough to have a driver's license. And especially not someone with a body I wanted in my bed. Had it not been for the torture ricocheting through my body, I'd have been more than happy to inspect her more thoroughly.I clenched my back teeth as my bones rippled and shifted. It felt like something was trying to escape my skin. From witch doctors to cutting edge medicine, my parents and I had been left to flounder for answers for something no one could explain. A line of sweat beaded on my top lip as my body fought an unknown war. As the recognizable torture rolled through me, I saw Kiema's gaze land on my trembling body. Fascinating. Most couldn't tell when I was having an episode - as my mother liked to call
"Five minutes," the guard called through the apartment's speaker system. "Fuck you," I breathed. I leaned over the vanity and finished putting on my mascara. Mouth hanging open, one eye overly wide, tongue off to one side. "Shit, shit, shit." My eye watered after I stabbed it with the mascara wand. Back to square freaking one. I wiped off the crescent moon of black from under my eye, reapplied my base makeup, and tried again. The sound of the door opening brought my back up the way it had for years. An overly loud, begrudging sigh reached my ears."I have more important things to do than traipse you around the building. Hurry up, Keema." In my reflection, my lip curled as she purposefully butchered my name. Gritting my teeth, I smoothed down my dress. Stepped into my shoes."Coming." I didn't bother raising my voice. I knew she could hear me. I walked out of the bathroom and turned left. There she stood. Ms. Evaline Cartwright. My father's sycophantic PA for most of
And somehow her father thought she was nothing but a puppet. I mirrored her stance as I studied the woman who held my future in her petite hands.Without her high heels, she was average height, average build, a little curvier than I preferred my women, but, fuck, were all her curves were in the right places. Her skin, its honey brown tone at odds with the seemingly almost new-baby surface, had my fingers itching to trace it. Jet black hair and almost silver-gray eyes completed the picture.There wasn't too much resemblance between her and her parents, though. Other than height and mother's and daughter's hair color, there wasn't too much that had been passed down from the older generation. All for the better, in my opinion.She made a noise deep in her throat, pulling my attention back to her face.We'll see who is playing by whose rules, sweetheart.She opened her mouth. I held up a hand. "You can save your breath, Kiema. Your man down at the patrol desk gave me the lay o
Well, there goes the ten days. I hoped my contact could move up the schedule. Of all the contingencies I'd thought through, I hadn't foreseen this happening. Nodding, I emptied the glass once more. Turning, I set the glass in the sink and turned toward my suite. "I'll call the front gate and let them kno - "A feral, pain-filled sound had me whirling around so fast I had to grab the back of a chair to keep from falling over. Ransom was leaning on the kitchen island. Arms locked, muscled rigid and twitching. Head thrown back as pain etched a grimace on his face. His legs shook like limbs on a tree in a tornado. I tried to harden myself against his suffering, his anguish. I turned back to my rooms. He'd chosen to walk away from the ritual. From the healing. I was now free to do the same. I made it two more steps before another yell sounded from behind me. Sneaking a look over my shoulder, the severe angle of his body, arched backwards in torment, clamped its sweaty fist aro
"Shit! Shit! Shit!" The words whispered through my pain-wracked mind, even though I'm pretty sure I wasn't the one who said them. Hell, I was having a hard time focusing on anything outside of my own body. Over the last couple of months, the pain had been building, but this was something I hadn't been prepared for. The pain was incandescent as it washed in and through my body like a nuclear bomb. As I felt my stomach bunch up with the need to vomit, a chilling sensation washed through me. Like a cool breeze swirling through the trees on a bright Fall morning.The cessation of pain was so unexpected, I felt tears build behind my eyes. Fuck. I was almost afraid to trust it. To believe that my pain could just be swept away with a light wind. I pulled a deep breath in through my nose, slowly - so slowly - filling my lungs. When I was able to exhale without pain, I felt like crying like a newborn baby thrust into the cold, hard world. For the first time since this stupid il
Finally, the pulsing black magic of Ransom's spirit was encased in my own. All around me, the brilliant flashes of pain died down to the normal bland stillness of the magical landscape. The myriad of colors faded as if bleached by the sun. I felt my magical essence shudder and waver as if a spectral hand had shifted through my physical form. I stilled. That had never happened to me either. Everything about this stupid ritual was fucked: upward, backward, and sideways. The fading colors flared to life once more. Like the blinding sun had slipped behind a cloud, the colors seeped back into Ransom's spirit. Just as quickly as it started, the colors died away again. The vast field of gray filled my vision once more. If I'd had shoulders in this form, they would've settled down into their normal position. If my heart still beat in this form, it would have slowed. This was familiar. This I could do while sleeping.I inspected the rest of Ransom's body. The same slightly sick
Three months later"And I'm telling you right now, dad, that if you want to ever see these babies, you'll stop sending my mates to the Underworld for a cooling off' period. That shit is getting old," I said as I waddled into the hospital built for gods and demi-gods. He chuckled beside me. "But, bubbles, they deserved it. Crowing like they built Olympus bare handed. They were getting on your Circle's nerves. I could tell." He said as he lifted me into the bed. "Bring them back, dad. Now." I glared at him. Even though, on the inside, I was smiling like a loon. This was the type of relationship I'd always dreamed of having with a father. He sighed, a smirk still pulling at his mouth. With a snap, my three mates stumbled into the room."Damn it, Apollo," Saint said as he flicked his shirt. "Cerberus almost got me that time."My dad's head tipped back as he laughed and laughed. The babies inside me loved that sound. They kicked at my belly. I rubbed at the spot. "Easy
Six months later"Last time, I'll ask. I swear." Kiema swallowed heavily as she moved around behind me. "You promise you're okay not getting your deer back?" Kiema asked me as flicked the fabric of my dress this way and that to get it to lay perfectly.I waited until she looked up at me. That look of slight hesitation on her face tugged at my heart. "I promise. I was never meant to be a deer. A shifter of any kind."She nodded, sniffled quietly. "You ready for the rest of this then?" Kiema asked me as she adjusted the crown of flowers in my hair. "So much more than ready. I've been waiting for this my entire life." I bit back the tears that wanted to flood my throat. Not today. I wouldn't ruin this day with tears.She smiled as she stepped back. "You look beautiful, little sister." Tears gathered in her eyes. I held up a hand, looked at the ceiling. "Don't do that. I told you I wasn't crying today. You start crying, then I'll start crying. Then we'll have to postpone e
The next night"Wake up, Saint," I said softly in our shared consciousness. I could barely contain myself. I had felt the swell of magic. Had felt it when it took root."Saint," I said again. The man slept like a rock at the bottom of a spring. "Mgmgs," he mumbled.Forcing our arm to move, I slapped our face. He shot up, his teeth bared. "Who's there?" he called out. "It's me, you buffoon," I said.Our head cocked to the side. "Ten? Why are you waking me up? Can't whatever it is wait until morning?" He snuggled back down into the comfortable bed in our new home. "No." I shook our head so he would fully wake up. "Wake up!"He sat up, pulling the blankets with him. "I'm awake. What can't wait until the morning, Ten?""Kiema is pregnant.""WHAT THE FUCK!?"I snickered as everyone in the room burst from the bed, fists and knives raised in defense. "What is it?" Ransom's head turned back and forth quickly, visually sweeping the room. With a grunt at its emp
Two weeks later"Are we finally going to try this? We've been prepping for what feels like forever." I licked my way up Saint's neck. He shivered as his fingers curled into the flesh of my ass. "Maybe we should wait one more day. I don't want to hurt you."I rolled my eyes under the cover of my closed lids. This man. So dominant. So caring. So sure I wasn't ready to take one of them in my ass. I guess I'll just have to show him that I was more than ready.I slid down his body. A wave of magic and all of us were naked as the day we were born. As I sucked his cock into my mouth, Kord came up behind me.Curling around my back, he pinched my nipples with one hand. With his other, he slid a hand down my belly and straight over my clit. With a sharp movement, his fingers were deep inside me. I groaned around Saint's dick as waves of pleasure washed over me. Sprinkled with the counterpoints of pain from Kord getting my nipples ready for the clover clamps. I felt my core cream at
The next day"Torture and then straight back to bed. I don't care that your father is the god of healing. This is ridiculous, Kiema," Atlas said as we stood in the elevator on our way to the basement level."Don't get trapped in the dungeons," Apollo had said as he laid his palm against the electronic plate on the wall of the elevator.Right. Dungeons in a god hospital. Gods were freaking weird.I patted his cheek. "I've got my main medical provider right next to me. I'll be fine. Besides I feel like a million bucks."He huffed a laugh as Mason and Lukas came up beside him. I wiggled my eyebrows at Atlas, looked over his shoulder, back to his face.He chuckled and rolled his eyes. "Yes, little sister. We've decided to try being a thruple."I wrinkled my nose. "What kind of word is thruple?""A three-person couple, luv," Lukas answered. I snorted. "And you guys won't let me make up words? That's a heaping load of Berserker shit right there."We were all laughi
I pushed the other two through the doors. I wasn't waiting another minute to see my girl. I'd felt her die. Felt my spirit try to follow her down that long tunnel. My heart had stopped beating when I saw Heppni literally rip her heart from her chest and crush it. But here we were. Alive. Healing. She was pale against the bright white sheets of the hospital bed. Although it was unlike any hospital I'd ever been in. Apollo said something about it being a place for gods and goddesses. I shook my head. It didn't matter to me what it was as long as it made her better. She looked over as we rushed in. Her eyes searched each one of us before returning to me. Tears flooded her eyes as I pulled her into my arms. We all sat on the bed, curled and huddled together while she got it all out. The guys and I had had some truly brutal boxing matches to deal with our own emotions. I was still achy and sore from a couple of well-placed hits from Kord. The man might be a nerdy librarian, b
My chest hurt. I tried to rub it, but my arms were restrained. "Easy there, bubbles. You'll pull your stitches if you do that," a man said. His voice was soft and melodious. Like listening to angels sing. Angels. Something about that word tickled my brain.Angel. Almost. Almost.Ransom. As soon as I thought his name, his face popped into my brain. I tried to sit up. Made it a couple inches before I was pushed back to the bed beneath me. I opened my eyes. Ignoring the stabbing pain that slid into my eyeballs, I blinked to clear my vision. A bright white room greeted me. The only color in it was the man who had a hand against my chest. I looked down at his hand. Looked up at his face. Raised an eyebrow. "Get the fuck off, perv. My mates will rip you to shreds."He huffed a laugh and removed his hand. "I doubt your mates will be doing much more than breathing for a couple more hours, but I'm glad to see that you're back, bubbles. Have a nice nap?" I leaned ba
Everyone Hellion had made me vow to keep alive fell to the ground as if they were puppets and their strings had been cut. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I hurried to the closest one's side. Pushed two fingers to his neck. Gone. I was so fucking dead. I blasted an oncoming human with a burst of magic. He withered where he stood. I sank to my knees next to the small woman with bright white hair. She was gone as well. The woman with the long brown hair threw her blade into an approaching Direct. It sliced through him like he was air. With wild eyes, she didn't even try to gather the particles of his passing. She pushed me aside as she cradled the smaller woman to her chest. "No no no not my baby no no no please no no," she wailed. Her agonized scream was muffled against the smaller woman's head.The rest of the humans who had interrupted our plans were either dead or falling back the way they'd come. Movement drew my eye. I squinted as I tracked it across the street. It wa
I sent another stream of fiery magic at the Direct who thought to protect my mother. Some pansy-assed gifted asshole wasn't going to stop me from hunting my mother down and killing her. With a wave of my hand, a path cleared. With a curl of my fist, humans fell to the ground, their spines crumbled into dust. "I'm coming for you, Herpes," I screamed at the top of my lungs. She scurried away, down the side street towards the fighting arena I'd created for us to use for practice. I picked up my pace and followed her. "You better be fucking careful, honey," Saint said through my head. He was working with Arasne and Felix at the opening of the street where the humans were still grouped. The Faeries had set up a blockade of sorts, forcing the humans into a bottleneck situation. They were taken down one by one as Ransom had his horde of beasts funneled them through the line of magical warriors. "Always, Saint baby. See you in a bit." I rushed down the street Herpes had