Page 50 of Beltane

I should have been honest. I should have just been out with it.

“Now that you’re at our mercy,” Miri said while she ran her nails down the center of my chest, ducking them under the waistband of my trousers before yanking my hips closer to her, “tell us what the queen said. Do not lie to me, Alexei Fairfax.”

Fuuuccckkk.When Miri used my full name, I turned to butter. It rolled off her lips in such a delicate display of syllables and consonants that the first time she’d ever said it, I almost came in my pants like a goddamned virgin.

“She said I’m the sacrifice,” I mumbled behind Carter’s hand, forcing him to remove it so I could continue. “But I never believed in any of this horseshit. Fate, destiny, fairy tales, none of it is real.”

They went silent for a moment, some kind of telepathic communication happening between them as they looked over my shoulder at each other. Both of them turned to Ivy, who gave a stiff nod, as if they should continue. Miri looked at Carter for one more moment before returning her soft, gentle stare to me.

But I knew better than to believe those pretty doe eyes. Miri had always lived in the frost. Like me, she had a darkness, a side she only brought out when she was trying to match my own. Those eyes glittered with that coldness now.

“It feels pretty real,” Carter said, biting my earlobe hard enough to hurt. I hissed in a breath, but my cock ached for attention. Who knew mutiny would turn me on so much?

“If one of us dies, we all die,” I said. “That’s why it’s bullshit. That’s why it doesn’t matter what the queen says. Because I’m the one keeping us together, so if I go, we all go.” I curled my lips into a cruel smile. “How about it, Princess? You once promised me forever. Ready to die by your word?”

My heart pounded in my chest while I waited for a reaction, but she didn’t give me the one I was looking for. I had hoped she’d haul off and smack me or perhaps call off her guard dog so I could make good on my threat to fuck them all like they belonged to me. Instead, she grabbed the back of my head, twisted her fingers into my hair, and yanked my face forward. Our lips collided, and I took my time to devour her mouth, sucking down anything she gave me. Her tongue explored mine while Carter held me tighter, adjusting his stance so his cock rubbed up against my ass. I arched into him, stifling a laugh when he gasped and clenched his hand harder around my wrists.

Miri reached between us to grab my dick, giving it a squeeze that had me sucking back a sharp inhale. She tightened her fingers against my scalp, tugging my head away from her while she bit down on my lower lip hard enough to hurt before letting it go with a snap.

“How dare you keep that from us, Alexei?” She snarled, shooting daggers at me from behind her brown gaze. She nodded to Carter, who hauled me over to the bed, snickering in my ear as we walked.

“You’re in trouble now,” he murmured, making sure to give me one last kiss before twisting my arms around so they were above my head. Then he pushed me down on the mattress next to Ivy, who eyed me with a tantalizing mix of fiery anger and amused mirth. Her steel eyes sparkled in the candlelight, making her seem ethereal like some archangel of retribution here to smite me for my many crimes. Carter straddled my chest and tied my hands to the headboard the way I’d done to Ivy.

He smirked at my fiancée and went for her pants, unbuttoning them and lowering the zipper before shucking the linen down to her ankles. Without a second’s thought, he yanked her underwear from her body, ripping the sides of them so he could get them off without untying her.

“Open up, DC.” He nodded as he fisted the fabric into a ball, focusing on my mouth until I complied. The delight in his eyes blended with the brilliance of his smile, and I found myself unable to resist.

Diana had said it herself. I was the vortex that had sucked these three phenomenal people into my orbit. It should be me controlling this scene. I had wanted it to be at the start. But leave it to Romeo and Juliet to take the spotlight, even from royal American shitheads such as X and myself.

My lips parted, and Carter stuck Ivy’s expensive silk underwear into my mouth, closing my jaw the same way I’d done to her.

“If you spit those out before I tell you to”—Carter leaned down to whisper the words against my lips—“I’ll turn your dick purple before I even start to get you off. There’s no saying I’ll stop. I’ll suck you all night, DC, and that’s not a promise. That’s a threat.”

19

Carter

When Lex said he was the sacrifice, he cut somewhere deep down inside my chest, and after the words left his lips, I couldn’t hold myself back anymore. Because I knew it wouldn’t come to that. My luck told me it wouldn’t. Unlike him, I did believe in fate. I did believe in destiny. After four years of this fairy gift, how could I not? I’d learned to trust my gut and right now, it said there would be no sacrifice. I knew that in my bones. It was the way my gift worked. It was how I knew which cards to play in poker, or how I’d gotten us to safety with my eyes closed the last time the king attacked. The luck ran in my blood, and if it came to it, I would put myself in the line of fire before I’d let any of them do it.

Aren’t we a bunch of martyrs?

But this was my show now, my scene, and I wanted him to shut the fuck up.

After I dismounted Lex, I walked to stand next to Miri at the foot of the bed, eyeing our two spouses like we’d stumbled on the holy grail of riches. To be fair, we’d come pretty damned close.

Ivy Washington and Lex Fairfax: tied to a bed next to each other, underwear stuffed in their mouths, nearly disrobed and disheveled beyond all reason. It was the stuff of fantasies. It was what I had ached for since I was a freshman in college.

“My, my, what a sight?” Miri tapped her chin as she leaned her head on my shoulder. “Whatever shall we do with such spoils?”

Lex shifted his hips, bucking his arousal forward, clearly indicating what he wanted to happen. Weeds let out a loud sigh, scooting closer to Lex, perhaps so they could talk telepathically.

That shit used to hurt, but not tonight. If they wanted to communicate while I put them in their place, fine. So be it. After Lex tied Ivy up and stuffed Miri’s panties in her mouth, I suggested to Miri that we do the same to him.

“Let’s remind them why they married us,”I’d said. She had agreed.

Now, I turned to Miri, wrapping my arms around her waist while hers came around my neck, relishing in the softness of her lips and the way she molded to me. It reminded me of California, when it had just been her and me and the heartbreak between us. Melancholy tightened in my chest, reiterating that we had no idea what tomorrow would bring.

I kissed Miri deeper, tugging the zipper of her dress down to her waist so I could drag the fabric over her arms and drop it to the floor at her feet. I lowered to my knees, helping her out of her shoes before taking the dress and throwing it on the chair behind me. I looked up at her, this Goddess of delicate energy, such devotion and sincerity radiating out of her gaze. Trembling and trying to hide it, I ran my hands up the sides of her thighs, memorizing how soft her skin was. She truly was so very beautiful, and I loved her as much as I loved the others.

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