Chapter 35
EMME
While Kellan’s tattoo took a little less than two hours, I sat in Finley’s chair for ten very long, very painful hours. Constantine cancelled magic training to keep working on his tracking, and I had to cancel on Slade and Talon, as I was in no condition to spar mid-tattoo.
“You didn’t even flinch,” Kellan rasped, squeezing my hand. “Feeling your pain through the bond, even if only in the brief moments your control slipped, almost broke me.”
His skin had a pallor to it that hadn’t been there during his session, so was clearly all about what he felt from me. The worst pain had been when Finley tattooed over my scar; I’d had to tighten up the bond to prevent Hunter from storming home and killing our bear mate.
“I flinched,” I said softly, “but a little pain is nothing when I get to wear our quintet on my skin.”
Kellan rubbed a hand over his bare chest, gliding his fingers across the very lifelike depiction of my white wolf. “I will admit, it hurt like a bitch, but I love her.”
I loved him. “You helped distract me,” I said shooting him a cheeky smile, “and I think we’re both lucky Finley works so fast.”
His gun had glided over my skin with the lightest touch, and it was only the magic cutting through our natural healing that caused the pain. After he’d finished, he rubbed a cool gel across my shoulders and upper back, until it mostly felt stiff and tender.
“You’re incredibly talented,” I told my bear, and he closed the distance between us for a kiss. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he replied, his smile tired but satisfied. “You were the perfect canvas to create art on. It turned out even better than I expected.”
I’d seen bits of it in the mirror, and it was spectacular. My mate was insanely skilled.
“Come on, Shortcake,” Kellan said, holding his hand out for me to take. “We can wait for Fin in the theatre room while he cleans up.”
When I offered to help, our bear waved me off, so I followed Kellan downstairs. In the theatre, he nudged me forward so he could take in the quintet tattoo visible above my tank top.
“It really is perfect,” he said, and I felt the ghost of his touch, though he never made contact.
A shiver traced down my spine, and his scent deepened as he pressed his lips to my shoulder. “You have no idea how fucking obsessed I am with seeing our quintet represented on your skin.”
His nose brushed closer to the bend of my neck as he inhaled deeply.
My pulse raced from his tender touches, though both of us knew we were in no condition to do more than cuddle. At least my period was long finished, and I wouldn’t have to worry about it for another six weeks or so.
I felt the tugging on my bonds with the twins moments before Slade and Talon entered the room.
“You’re in pain,” Slade declared as he briskly climbed the stairs toward me.
My nod was brief, so I didn’t jar my back. “Yes, it’s a big tattoo. It will take a few days to settle.”
He responded by gently hauling me up out of my seat, and I found myself holding my breath as he turned to examine the whole piece.
For a moment, I panicked that I’d made the wrong decision in having the dragons represented by a single green and black beast. “It’s the essence of our quintet,” I quickly explained when the silence extended on.
Talon moved closer, his scent adding a deeper smokiness to Slade’s.
A hand ran down my spine, just under the weird numb pain across my upper back.
“It’s perfect,” Slade murmured, the deep timbre of his dragon in that statement.
“This is our how energy looks to me in our bond. A powerful quintet. Fin even used your scar in the design, as part of the tethers between us.”
Talon grunted, and it sounded very much like an agreement. “I never understood the tattoo thing,” he admitted, voice so close I knew he stood beside his brother. “But this is sexy against all of your tanned skin.”
Two hands stroked me now, and it was soothing enough that I sighed in relief. “You’re both helping with the pain,” I told them. “And I agree. Finley created a masterpiece, and I’m genuinely in love with it.”
The clank of Slade’s teeth had me chuckling. “Can’t be jealous of me loving a tattoo, mate.”
“Watch me,” he muttered.
Finley entered the room soon after, and he joined the dragons in a few long strides. “I’ve got a different cream to rub over it,” he said, leaning in to spread a cool liquid over my skin. “This has tendrils of magic in it, to give you some numbing relief.”
In hindsight, getting myself tattooed in the middle of crisis probably wasn’t my smartest move. But we also had no idea how much longer we’d have our autonomy and freedom.
I would be in control of my own actions, and choose my own path, for as long as I had the ability.
“As you should, baby girl.” Hunter stepped into the room, and I was glad he’d heard that declaration. Since easing up my hold on the bond, I’d allowed more natural thoughts to flow between all of us.
Hunter had already ditched the jacket and rolled up his sleeves, his forearms flexing as he ran a hand over his face. I hated the fatigue in his features. I could have killed Jewels just for the stress she was adding to his life alone.
“You’re home late,” Slade noted, and without even glancing at his watch, said, “It’s twelve twenty-five.” Somehow he always knew the exact time.
Hunter huffed out a long breath as he reached the bar in the back corner, pouring himself a generous shot of whiskey.
He gulped it down in one hit and then went back for a second.
“Yeah, there was a massive fuck-up with a large shipment of armored vests and weapons. At first I thought it was human interference, but it turned out magic was involved. We lost ten good shifters, and about a million dollars in stock.”
That had the others on alert, except for Slade, who wore a resigned look on his face.
“Did Jewels interfere?” I asked.
Hunter shrugged, the second glass of whiskey almost gone now. “Looks that way, though she wasn’t out of her protective shield long enough for us to get a reading on her location.”
“She’s trying to stop us from arming shifters with anything that can interfere with magic or hurt witches,” Finley said, his scowl deepening. “Why does she even care if she thinks she’s just going to hide out until she completely controls us?”
Another shrug from Hunter. “Maybe she’s hedging all bets in case we manage to stop her. Whatever the reason, she’s either watching our movements or there’s another spy here in Golden Claw.”
“Or in Reeves Industries,” Talon suggested.
Hunter exchanged a glance with Slade. “Yeah, we’ve already considered that,” he said. “Slade is doing a deep dive into our employees again, but it’s hard when most of his time and bandwidth is being used to trace the excessive power usage around the shifter cities.”
“I’ve already found three possible locations from my search,” he said. “Talon and I plan on checking them out tomorrow, even though the program will take at least another day or so to finish. Longer if I have to expand the search parameters.”
My first instinct was to reach out and grasp on to both dragons, preventing them from leaving my side. Not that I could physically restrain them, but I was confident they wouldn’t fight my hold. The thought of them going out there, to possibly encounter Jewels on their own, was terrifying.
“We should go with you,” I said, when no one else voiced concerns. “If she’s keeping tabs on us anyway, there’s no point hiding our actions from her.”
“In our dragon form, we can cloak our movements,” Talon reminded me. “We should go first, like I did with Fletcher’s compound, and then we can reassess our movements as a pack.”
Hunter looked unhappy as he continued to hammer whiskey like he was training for a drinking competition.
Slade waved off my concern. “She’s no match for us. I hope she finds us so I can be the one to personally tear her to shreds.” I had zero issue with that plan, providing none of my alphas were collateral damage in her death.
Needing some normalcy, we settled in after that to watch a movie. I curled up on Hunter’s chest, as our entitled alpha needed the most comfort tonight. When my stomach rumbled, Talon headed into the kitchen, returning in twenty minutes with toasted sandwiches.
“Florence prepped ahead again,” he said. “These were in the fridge, ready and waiting to be popped under the grill.”
He offered me the tray first as I said, “Yeah, we all missed dinner so she would have been stressed about us starving.”
Between taking bites of my Reuben sandwich, I leaned back to get comfortable, ignoring the twinge in my back. Hunter adjusted me against his side, taking my weight.
“Eat, little omega,” he murmured, his voice steady.
In our quintet, his wolf paced, in what appeared to be a manic back and forth motion.
Shoving half the bread and meat into my mouth, I chewed quickly, wanting all of them to eat too. Once I was done, they finished their food in record time, and I proceeded to fall asleep halfway through the movie.
I drowsily woke as someone carried me up the stairs and placed me on my stomach in the middle of Slade and Talon’s bed, their scents strong around me. My other alphas pressed kisses on my cheeks and shoulders as they left.
“Sweet dream, Shortcake,” Kellan whispered, followed by Finley, who spread another layer of cream over my tattoo, called me darlin’, and left me swooning. Half asleep or not, I enjoyed every second of their pampering.
Hunter’s wolf surged against mine, nuzzling down her side, while in the bedroom the alpha kissed my lips. “Sleep well, baby girl,” he murmured. “I love you. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Love you,” I mumbled, sleep already dragging me under again now that Finley’s magic cream was numbing my pain.
When the dragons slid in on either side of me, their naked, muscled lengths took away the last of my discomfort. It was blissfully silent and pain free in this bed, and the comfort of having my mates so close took me into a deep, uninterrupted sleep.