I stood, walking towards the door, pulling it open. “You two might as well come in here so we can finish up this conversation.”They both nodded silently, following me into the office. I motioned for them both to sit down as I sunk into the third armchair next to the fireplace. “Nathaniel, are you following so far?” I asked. “You need to know what you’re getting involved in.”He nodded.“Good. Luke, you can continue.”“Yes, alpha,” he nodded in my direction, before turning back to Nathaniel. “The original Serene not only created werewolves, but is the mother of The First Ones, the first vampires. Our Serene, Ophelia, has the same abilities that the original had, but has more than enough power to do the opposite. Really, she is a descendant of the original, but so much more.”He paused, eyes closing. “She is the heir to both worlds. If the powers that be find out that she could easily turn their worlds upside down, Ophelia will be in a lot of trouble. That is why the name change was n
Luke stepped back towards me, face uneasy as his gaze flicked between my eyes and Nathaniel’s. “Luke, please, I need you here. I need you to hold me.”Nathaniel tensed up besides me. “Effie, what do you need? What can we do to get you through this?”“Now I’ve let my guard down, I don’t know how to describe it, but Artemis needs you, Nathaniel, and Athena needs you, Luke.”“Effie, your eyes. Your left is red, your right is black.”“Swap sides,” I growled. “Nathaniel on my right. Luke, please, my left.”“We’re here, Effie. We’re here. Tell us what you need,” Luke’s voice was pleading.I nodded, eyes falling closed. I don’t know what I needed, but even just the two of them with me helped calm Athena and Artemis.I sighed in relief; Artemis was calm. She still radiated power, so much raw power, but she was calm. We were content. I opened my eyes again, glancing up at Nathaniel and Luke.Their eyes were wide. “Artemis… her eyes are glowing, they’re closer to green than your usual black,” N
“I’ll give you two some privacy,” Nathaniel whispered, kissing my forehead before turning and heading back out of the room. “I’ll keep everyone away from you.”“Nathaniel?” Luke called after him. “Thank you.”Nathaniel gave him a small smile. “As long as you do the same for me from time to time, we’ll be golden.”The second the door shut behind Nathaniel, Luke’s hands were all over me. Athena purred. He felt like home.Luke dropped to his knees in front of me, his mouth crashed down on mine, hard. I gasped as his hands squeezed my breasts through the fabric of my dress and bra. My back arched, pushing them harder into his hands. His mouth swallowed my moans as he pinched my nipples, my hands digging into his shoulders.He slipped his arms underneath me, standing up and wrapping my legs around his waist. I groaned as I felt his very firm erection pressing against me, the pressure increasing as he flexed his hips.He’d hardly touched me and yet I could already feel my orgasm approaching
Well, that was unequivocal.Luke and I were still laying on the table, neither of us having the strength or desire to get up yet. Luke was still giggling, and when I met Nathaniel’s gaze, he was still smirking.It took more than an hour for us all to come down from that power high. The world could have been ending in the background, and none of us would have cared. It was possible none of us would have noticed.“Right, people. We can’t lay here all night. Things to do, problems to solve, coups to plan.”Luke’s hand teased along my stomach, dancing along the underside of my breasts. “Who says we can’t?”I heard movement, looked up, and suddenly Nathaniel was standing over me. He’d even lost his shirt and jacket.“I have to say I agree with Luke, Effie. Who says we can’t?” Nathaniel’s voice was low, gravely. I sat up, leaning back on my hands, my back arched, breasts pushed forward, my gaze flittering between Nathaniel and Luke. “Well then, what do you two propose?”Their response was
If I’d known just how much of a power boost we’d experience, the noise would have been the least of my concerns.Once we’d all stopped panting, had cleaned up and gotten dressed again, I noticed something was wrong in my office. Very wrong.Every single item of glass had smashed. Furniture had fallen over. There was even a hole in one of the walls with the sculpture that used to be on the coffee table sticking out of it.I turned on my heel, eyes wide. What the hell happened?!“Was there somehow an explosion that we didn’t notice?” Nathaniel whispered. Luke chuckled, but that chuckle was just covering up concern.“Did you two feel it? The power boost?”They looked at each other, as if unsure of what to say. “It came from you, Effie. When you orgasmed and dragged Luke and I under with you,” Nathaniel paused, holding his hands up, in response to my less than impressed expression. “That’s not a complaint, Effie, I promise. But either way… the power exploded out of you. I don’t know how e
I sent Luke and Nathaniel straight down to the gym and shooting range when we hit HQ, before calling the rest of Sierra and Dr Bauer up to meet me. “Okay people. So, sierra one, two, three and alpha six are all staking out the centre of the territory. We’re trying to find out what the hell Edward and Maximillian are up to, and what we can do to fix it. Two members of the team are incapacitated and currently MIA. At the moment, we don’t know if they’ve been killed or are under Maximillian’s control, both are possible. All we know at the moment is Lyla has lost contact with two of her people. I need you all to head out there as backup for Lyla. Dr Bauer, can you please brief these guys on the samples you need?”I called Lyla back on the radio whilst Dr Bauer was briefing the team. “Sierra one, how are we doing?”“No change, alpha one.”“Roger that. Sierra four through six are currently being briefed and will be out of the door in a couple of minutes. Let me know if anything changes.” I
Hours passed and still no updates from Lyla. Whether that was good news or not depended on who you were talking to.I was sceptical; Lyla has always been very good at checking in, and I expected she would have done once reinforcements reached her. We’d heard from the reinforcements once they reached the forest, but that had been nearly two hours ago.Luke and Nathaniel, however, believed it was good. If they were in trouble, we’d know about it already, so they probably just wanted to get the job done and come home.Out loud, Luke may have been agreeing with Nathaniel, but I could feel through the mate bond that he didn’t believe that for a second. My usually stubborn, strong-willed and confident head of security was nervous, and it took a lot for him to be nervous. He’d worked with Lyla for years, so he agreed that normally, she would have checked in by now.I was going to have to try to reach her, that was all there is for it. “Sierra one, how are we doing?”Radio silence. Not even a
On the way to the garage, I rounded up Fives and Chris. Both were nearly ready to go, as they always were, Fives even had a bag in the garage with spare clothes. No birthday suit adventures for Fives.Credit where it’s due, Nathaniel and Luke were actually there ready to go when Fives, Chris and I reached the garage. The four of them nodded their greetings, jumping into the passenger seats whilst I settled in the driver’s side. There was a fight for the front passenger, because apparently both Luke and Nathaniel wanted it.“We don’t have time for this!” The power was crackling in the air again, Fives and Chris both winced against it. “Fives, you’re up front. The rest of you in the back.”I parked up a mile away from the packhouse. “We’re on foot from here. Nathaniel, Luke and Fives, go through the tunnel under the packhouse. Wait for my signal before coming through into the basement. Chris, you’re with me. We’re going in the front door.”“You can’t go in the front door, Effie.”“I ca