Page 12 of Magic Hunted
Savvas gave a sharp tilt of his head and Ashir and Dias helped him to sit. I shouldn’t watch the way the alpha’s cared for Savvas, but I couldn’t draw my eyes off the miles of male flesh, the interplay of hard, ridged muscle and the flash of their cocks between thick thighs. Their touch was familiar, as most bond-brothers were.
Male shifters found their triads young and most found their fated mates in their teen years. They grew up together, creating a true family who never tasted loneliness. It was the one softness in a world where shifters were no more than slaves made to work for the benefits of humans. Indentured through biology when Fae magic changed the fabric of the earth a Millenia ago for a war that killed millions and should never have started.
My stomach lurched as Savvas’ gaze sought mine. “Our mate. Are you all right?” he rasped.
Ashir turned to pin me with a possessive stare that hooked behind my breastbone and threatened to reel me in. My gaze roamed over his broad chest as he stood and came toward me. His skin was marred with scars which shouldn’t be there.
The act of shifting healed, and yet Ashir was scarred. Some were no more than silvery lines, while others were raised and puckered. He had to have suffered for those. They did nothing to take away from his sheer masculinity and I tried to rip my eyes from his body, but my gaze dipped to his thick thighs and his heavy cock nestled between them. I backed away, my four legs clumsy with fatigue and lack of coordination when he knelt and reached for me.
“You need to Change to recover, little mate,” he said, his hand dropped to his thigh, a line appearing between his brows.
I didn’t know how to Change. Not voluntarily. I’d never shifted before, even though I was a shifter. A lock had been put on my body said to keep me safe, but really to keep the grimoire safe.
My wholeexistencewas to keep the grimoire safe.
I curled into a ball when Dias and Savvas moved next to Ashir, the sheer presence of their bodies tempting me. The urge to lean into their strength, to feel their hands on my body, to let myself be cared for by them was overwhelming, and that would be my downfall.
On my left, the cave entrance was blocked by rubble so deep that no sunlight penetrated the gaps between rocks. To my right, the cave bled into thick darkness leading to a tunnel labyrinth network that it was whispered was so complex that anyone who entered had never returned. Titan had sent many spies over the years to penetrate their secrets. Not one had returned.
I flinched when Ashir plowed his fingers through my fur, the sensation far too comforting. “Please Change to heal.”
A fiery path burned across my shoulders where an arrow had gouged my skin. I scrunched my eyes, willing back my human body, but I stayed a panther. It should be effortless. I’d seen children Change in the streets, their bodies reforming as quick as a thought, but when I willed myself, nothing happened. Sweat dampened my fur and a tremor shook my whole body. I didn’t know my panther. I’d never Changed because she’d been buried under a layer of magic and I didn’t know how. I whined, backing myself into the rocky wall, wishing this would all go away, but it never would.
The line between Ashir’s brows grew deeper. “I’ll have to command you again if you won’t Change.”
“Ashir. You know forcing the Change hurts. There has to be a reason she’s hesitating,” Savvas said.
Regret flashed across Ashir’s face. “You have to heal from your injuries and the only way to do that is to shift forms. And we would also like to talk to you.” I tensed when his mouth firmed into a straight line signaling my imminent pain. “You give me no choice, little mate.Change.”
My body erupted in a flash of agony after he barked his command. Fire exploded and raced along every nerve ending until I lay on the ground, panting, shivering and exhausted. I scrambled from a gentle touch on my shoulder, heels scraping the hard ground until my back struck the wall.
“Keep away from me!” My voice was husky, as though my panther was in my throat. I didn’t have fur padding my body anymore and the jagged edges cut my back. It was also freezing and I was as naked as they were. I wrapped my arms over my torso and brought my legs to my chest to ward off the chill.
“I think we’re past the ‘don’t touch me’ stage,” Dias said, sitting back on his haunches. “And I think we’ve proven you can trust us. We killed for you.”
I winced, knowing that Titan wouldn’t rest until they’d paid. The bond had already tainted them, just in a way I would never have thought.
“If you’d left me alone we wouldn’t be in this mess.” I tried and failed to stop the tremors wracking my body. Savvas flinched, stricken, and Dias’ face clouded. Savvas sent Ashir a confused glance before returning it to me. His distress was ash on my tongue, but I couldn’t give into the urge to comfort him. To tell him I really didn’t mean to be this way because the only way to protect them was to reject them.
“A mess we gladly accept because you’re our fated,” Ashir said.
“We’re not fated. Your reaction is spelled by magic,” I said. The grimoire’s magic surged within me, sending jagged shards skittering beneath my skin, as though it didn’t like me telling half-lies. I clenched my jaw, riding the agonizing wave before the magic settled. Savvas reached toward me. I flinched away before he could touch me. His hand closed into a fist before dropping back to his thigh.
His very naked thigh. I tried so hard not to notice his thick cock nestled between his legs, but my gaze was drawn there. Even flaccid, it was long and heavy, capped with the perfect mushroom tip that begged for my lips. Heat washed through me, a fiery wave that threatened to burn through my resistance to them.
“Despite not being our mate and being spelled, it seems you like what you see.” I ripped my gaze away from Savvas’ lap, but not before I caught the gleam in Dias’ eyes.
Savvas straightened his shoulders. His curls fell over his brow in soft brown waves and my fingers itched to smooth them out. “She can look all she likes. I want her to. We’re made for each other. I can feel her here.” He flattened his hand over his chest where I could feel him pulsing inside me. I swallowed hard, forcing my focus back to his face, which was not such a great idea because his gaze bore into me as though he could see right through my lie. But they would stop caring if I told them the truth.
“Why did you tell us? If this was a trap, why not wait for the cadre to find us, because I know what I saw and that was you fighting the cadre as hard as we were,” Dias said.
Guilt knotted my intestines with gnarled fingers. “I hate the cadre. They make my life a living hell, but I know better than to kill one of them. I was trying to get you away from them before something went wrong, which is too little too late. Titan’s not going to rest until you pay for killing Kalos.”
“Let us worry about that, little mate,” Ashir said.
“Stop calling me that! I’m not your mate.”Stop calling me anything that might make me want it.“My name is Haera. Call me Haera.”
“Did the cadre know Titan made you our fake mate? They seemed surprised to see you as a panther,” Dias said.
