Page 175 of Mama Si's Paradise

I was afraid. I was aroused. I wasburning.

And I needed Grey to be touching me again, so I reached for him with all my strength. He was kneeling on the left by my head, with Romin on the right. Tristian and Emil were next to them, and Valentine was by my feet.

They were all on my bed, half naked, fangs in full display, looking at me like I was their salvation as well as their doom. Like they both loved me and wanted to eat me at the same time. And I understood deep in my bones that all of those things were true, but that still didn’t stop me from burning.

Grey’s hand wrapped around mine, cooling me down a little, but it was nothing compared to what I needed.

“Please,” I breathed, looking at the brothers, begging them to save me from this internal hell. They looked like angels of death, and I’d die any day at their hands—or their fangs—ifonly it stopped hurting so much. If only I could start breathing properly again.

“Oh, our beautiful bride,” Romin said, running his fingertips down my chest, stopping at the lacy neckline of my nightgown, but even that small touch cooled me down. Even that small touch helped me focus.

“We can hear your blood singing,” Tristian said.

“It sings so beautifully,” said Emil with his eyes closed, throwing his head back for a moment as if he was lost in ecstasy.

Please, please, please,I begged them in my mind, pulling at Grey’s hand with all my strength. He squeezed my fingers between his but didn’t touch me anywhere else, and the others were all waiting, too. They were fuckingwaiting,when they could see how much it hurt, how I was writhing in between them. How desperately I needed them.

And the heat kept on climbing.

“Almost there,” Romin said. “We’re going to give you release soon, young one.”

A scream ripped from my throat before he’d even finished speaking.

The sun must have decided to hide under my skin tonight. It was scorching every single cell in my body, yet somehow, I was still there. I was still lying on the bed with all the Evernight brothers looking down on me, listening to me pleading as their fangs extended lower and lower.

“Just a little longer,” Grey whispered, so slowly I barely caught it.Just a little longer.

I held onto his hand still—he was the only one touching me, and I suspect it was because I refused to let go of his hand. Fuck that—Ineededhim. He was my only source of cold. He was my lifeline right now and when I screamed at the top of my lungs with the second heat wave that crashed inside of me, I held onto him with everything I had.

The Blood Call. The fucking Blood Call had caught me right in the castle, in the Whispering Woods, on the night I least expected it. When I’d already convinced myself that it wouldn’t happen, that it wasn’tmy destiny, that I’d be long gone by the time my blood decided to fucking call for the Evernights.

And now here I was.

When the third heatwave hit me, there was no longer any voice in me to scream with. My muscles locked and my eyes rolled in my skull and I thought,this is it. This is how I die.My life had finally come to an end.

But then Romin was close, his lips right next to my ear when he whispered, “Erchin vinna meio.”

Before I could blink, he bit the side of my neck lightning fast, and I felt his fangs clearly as they slid inside me.

Cold.He sucked my blood into his mouth, and I felt it, and in return, my body was filled with blissful, heavenly cold.

I moved.

Instinct took over and I wrapped a hand around the back of his neck to keep him there. He felt so good, I needed him to be biting me forever. So fucking relieving…

But a second in, he let go.

The frustrated scream that left my lips this time was different, and as soon as Romin’s fangs were no longer inside me, I felt the heat doubling,triplingat an incredible speed.

Fuck, they couldn’t do this to me. They had to help me—I was dying!How could they not care?!

But before I could plead with them again, the silhouette of a man came over me, and I could barely see at that point, so all I was able to make out were the eyes—Emil’s eyes. He leaned closer and closer, and I held perfectly still, knowing exactly what he was going to do.

“Erchin vinna meio, setie,”he whispered, and he bit me on the other side of my neck.

I had never felt a more satisfying release in my whole life. Cold slipped from the tips of his fangs and reached deep inside me, cooling down the rushing blood in my veins, lowering the intensity of the heat that was going to drive me fucking insane. I breathed, trying to reach up to hold him there, but Emil moved away much too soon. His eyes were squeezed shut, his mouth and fangs a deep red, and he threw his head back, growling.

“Do—” I started to say, but before I could finish spitting a single word, Grey was there, right in front of my face.

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