EPILOGUE || DANIEL
Two months later, I woke up to the sun streaming through the cabin window.
It was the first day of fall and the air still held the heat of summer, though it would cool down soon.
I, on the other hand, was pleasantly warm.
Hunter’s arm was wrapped possessively around me, and Lee was facing me, his hand on my chest, directly above my heart.
His eyes were closed, but I knew he was about to wake up. They both were.
We’d just been having a very—erm, arousing—dream and I was achingly hard as a result.
I heard the change in his breathing a moment before Hunter’s grip on me tightened and he scooted closer, pressing his hardness against my ass. I bit my lower lip and let out a satisfied sigh.
“Morning,” he breathed, right into my ear.
Lee opened his eyes a second later, before I could respond. His gaze was dark with hunger as it met mine.
“Hi,” he said, shifting closer to me and pressing his lips to mine. When he pulled back, he added, “Want to finish what we started?”
“Please,” I said, shifting my bare ass against Hunter’s cock so that the head slipped along the cleft of my cheeks. The three of us had started sleeping naked, which just seemed sensible, since clothing only got in the way of morning sex.
Hunter groaned. “Keep that up and I’m going to have to do something about it.”
“I think you’d better,” I told him, speaking over my shoulder. Then my gaze slid to Lee. “Both of you.”
Lee grinned, his eyes lighting up, and then he reached down and took himself and me in one hand, his palm moving along the shaft of our cocks with gentle, languid strokes.
Behind me, the bed shifted as Hunter rolled over to grab the bottle of lube from the nightstand. There was a snicking sound as he popped the top off the lube. Then his slick fingers began to open me up.
The sensation of Hunter playing with my hole and Lee’s touch around my aching cock was almost too much. Then Lee abruptly pulled his hand away and held it up for Hunter, who poured a generous amount of lube into it.
Lee returned to his ministrations and, at the sensation of his warm hand stroking his cock and mine, I let out a soft gasp that he caught with a kiss.
In the same moment, Hunter pushed inside me, his arm tightening around my torso to pin me in place.
There was a moment of pain, but it was quickly replaced by the pleasure of having him fill me up completely, all the way down to the hilt, the delicious and familiar stretch as my body submitted to him.
He let out a satisfied groan, right into my ear, his hot breath on the back of my neck. “Fuck, you feel so incredible.”
“Don’t be gentle,” I begged.
He gave me what I needed, thrusting into me in earnest, causing me to whimper in pleasure as he started hitting my pleasure spot over and over, going a little rough with it, the way he knew I loved.
I was slowly training them that I wasn’t nearly as breakable as they thought.
Lee’s eyes drank in my expression, a knowing smile on his lips as I held still—with effort, because what I really wanted was to bear down on Hunter and match him stroke for stroke—and let my mate make love to me.
Lee kept the same lazy pace as he stroked us, our faces inches apart.
“You’re so good, Daniel,” he breathed. “You’re being such a good boy for him.
Are you going to be a good boy for me, too? ”
“Yes,” I whimpered.
I moaned again as Hunter pulled almost all the way out and then back in again, one hand locked around my torso and the other gripping my hip to hold me steady.
He started taking me apart with those devastating strokes and I had to bite my lower lip to hold back the sounds of absolute filth that were threatening to spill out of me.
Lee seemed to understand perfectly because he kissed me again, his free hand cupping my face as his other hand still stroked us.
Hunter bucked, his body going rigid, and he made a strangled sound, his grip on my hip tightening. Then he drove back in. Warmth spread through me.
“Fuck,” he whispered.
Lee pulled back, his eyes searching mine. “My turn.”
“Please.” I nodded wildly. Because I wanted him inside of me, too. He was always gentler than Hunter, but even that was its own sort of madness.
“Roll over,” Lee commanded.
Hunter pulled out and then shifted back on the mattress, giving me space to roll over onto my other side, so that I was facing him now.
Hunter’s eyes were filled with absolute devotion, and he planted a kiss on my lips. Then he took hold of my cock with his hand and began stroking me.
Lee settled behind me, gripping me the same way Hunter had, and he slid himself into me. I was already loosened and he was already lubed up, so he didn’t even bother going slowly.
I let out another whimper of sheer pleasure as he picked up his pace, driving into me just as hard as Hunter had, holding me in place and making me take everything he had to give, all while Hunter stroked me, going faster, in time with Lee’s rhythm.
His gaze was locked on mine, hunger and tenderness stamped across his features as he drank in my expression.
Oh fuck, this was going to undo me.
Lee drove in deep, letting out a groan of pleasure. His grip tightened on my hip and around my chest, just like Hunter’s had. “I’m getting close.”
Hunter’s rhythm on my cock turned devastating at the same moment Lee’s thrusts became even more furious, all pretense at gentleness driven away by the pleasure we chased together.
Ecstasy built up at the base of my spine, tightening my balls and my pelvis, as he drew me right to the edge.
“Fuck!” Lee cried out, pinning me close to his chest as warmth flooded through me all over again, his cock buried inside me.
That was enough to send me over the edge.
With a mind-blowing cry of pleasure, I climaxed, shooting rope after rope across Hunter’s hand.
He grinned at me, then pulled me in for another kiss. Lee eased himself out of me and, when Hunter pulled back, he rolled me over and kissed me too.
Hunter got up while Lee’s kiss deepened, becoming tender and consuming.
He returned from the bathroom with towels a few moments later.
After we’d cleaned ourselves up, I lay between my mates while Lee held me, feeling absolutely spent and contented.
“I love you,” Lee murmured.
“Love you, too,” I replied. I searched Hunter’s face with my gaze when I said it, so he’d know it included him, too.
It always included both of them.
Lee pressed a kiss to the back of my neck, and Hunter smiled, his face filled with tenderness. And through the bond connecting us—him to me and me to Lee—I could feel their love for me and for each other.
I only hoped they could feel mine, too, the way I could feel theirs.
“We can,” Hunter said. “You know that—we can always feel it.”
It had been like that more and more lately. The bond had grown stronger, and we were starting to not only sense each other’s emotions, but pick up on even more than that—occasionally even complete thoughts.
All in all, it was another perfect start to the morning. And hopefully it was only the latest of many more perfect mornings to come.
* * *
That night, the pack gathered around a roaring bonfire in honor of the autumn equinox. The pack didn’t celebrate all of the witch holidays, but they did celebrate the seasonal changes, and they had since long before I’d joined.
Rowan was there. As usual, she was sitting next to Lacey on one of the logs we used as makeshift seating. They were deep in conversation, staring longingly into each other’s eyes.
As far as I knew—and given that one of them was my best friend and the other was my sister, I was pretty sure I wasn’t out of the loop—they hadn’t even kissed yet.
Or talked about their definite chemistry.
Or the fact that they were fated to be together.
Neither of them had said that, but I wasn’t dumb.
And the fated mates spell was still working its way through the pack.
Lacey was giving Rowan time to adjust, to make a place for herself here that wasn’t bound up in a relationship. Much to Rowan’s dismay.
But it was only a matter of time before Lacey stopped pumping the brakes.
After all, my sister was carving out a place here. She’d already proven herself useful with research—just as capable as me, maybe even more so. Naturally, she’d be helpful in casting spells as well.
Plus, she’d quickly befriended Sarah and Emma, though for very different reasons.
Sarah, because my sister was even more studious than me, willing to work brutally long hours until she got to the bottom of whatever puzzle she was attempting to solve.
And Emma because Rowan had taken up cooking in my absence from the Henbane household and had evidently become quite good at it. Emma was openly impressed with her.
According to Reed and the other long-timers in the pack, that was a once-in-a-generation occurrence. Emma was impressed with nobody’s cooking.
She was even—albeit cautiously—contemplating the possibility of relaxing her death grip on the pack meals.
We had others joining us as well: Tamrand and Sally had agreed to come. Thankfully, we hadn’t encountered any other monsters since the Mara, but Tamrand was reviewing our lore to make sure it was all accurate and complete.
It was a project he’d created for himself, surprising the rest of us.
I strongly suspected we were starting to grow on him, and he enjoyed our company more than he was letting on. After all, it must’ve been a relief to have someone who wasn’t Sally know him.
I had never once even seen him in the town until he had suddenly shown up at the commune, asking for our help, a few months ago. But given that fae can glamour at will—a type of illusion magic that makes them appear like anything they want, including other people—that wasn’t really so shocking.
I’d probably seen him plenty and hadn’t realized it.