Chapter 16
Wesson
Words couldn’t describe what happened to us out there in the woods. Once the blood bond had been sealed, I couldn’t stop myself from taking them. Over and over and over again. Atlas wasn’t the only one who came while going down on Marta. I was nearly spitting dust by the end of it.
When we could finally breathe, we cleaned ourselves up as best as we could. Marta reopened the circle while we gathered our supplies. And then we went back to the estate.
It was tempting to return to my room alone, but after what we’d done together, it didn’t seem right.
I was still riding the high of magic and endorphins, soaring through bliss like I had a first-class ticket.
Thankfully, both Atlas and Marta were thinking the same thing.
She grabbed our hands and guided us to her room, taking us to the bathroom with no argument from either my brother or me.
When I glanced in the mirror, I wasn’t even startled to find gleaming crimson eyes staring back at me.
Atlas and Marta were still sporting the same thing, too.
We shared a shower, laughing as we took turns scrubbing the dirt, blood, and sex from each other’s skin.
“I still feel high,” Atlas said while he dried himself off. “I’m fucking giddy.”
Marta hummed her agreement. “That’s the magic. It’ll wear off eventually.”
“What if I don’t want it to?” Atlas raised his eyebrows as she giggled and pushed up onto her toes to kiss him.
“It’ll still be there in the morning,” Marta said, walking her cute little ass into her bedroom to leave my brother and me in the bathroom alone.
“That was the best fucking sex I’ve ever had,” he admitted. “And we didn’t even fuck her.”
“It looked like you were fucking her pretty good with your face,” I said, shivering as the image of his head between her thighs floated to the top of my mind.
Atlas was certainly more experienced in this department than I was, but even with my limited encounters, nothing had ever topped the energy we created together tonight.
Was it because of the magic? Was it because of Marta and Atlas?
Or was it something else, something more sinister than we could have anticipated?
I didn’t know, and with the lingering effects of the ritual tingling through my veins, I didn’t care.
I kissed Atlas and followed Marta out to the room, swatting her ass playfully as she crawled into bed naked.
I walked around to the other side and scooted in next to her, sighing in contentment as the smell of her sweet aroma plumed around me.
I grabbed her waist and dragged her closer, tucking her ass against my pelvis, which got my cock’s attention.
It reluctantly jerked at the contact as if asking to go again, both exhilarated and annoyed that the answer might be yes.
Marta giggled and teased me by rubbing the soft swell over my dick again, which made me bite her shoulder in response.
“Careful, sweet girl,” I said. “Brats who tease get spanked.”
“Hmm.” She settled in against my chest and hummed. “Any other time, I’d be on board with that. But I’m too tired. You both wrung me out.”
I glanced over her shoulder to see Atlas standing at the edge of the bed, his hands on his hips, seemingly unsure about whether he should climb in on the other side of her.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Nothing, I just…” He rubbed a hand over the back of his head.
Marta pushed up on an arm and pulled the blankets back, nodding into the space next to her. “C’mon, then.”
He furrowed his brows like he was trying to solve a complicated math problem, and a sense of unease shimmied down my sternum. It wasn’t mine. He wondered if he was intruding, like maybe he should leave Marta and me alone.
“Atlas Colt,” Marta demanded. “Get in this bed right now.”
He laughed, and I focused on the way he squinted when he smiled. Had he always done that? Fuck, he was gorgeous when he was happy. He scooted into the spot next to Marta and wrapped an arm over her waist, his heavy hand landing on my hip. Together, we drifted off to the best sleep I’d had in years.
The nightmare didn’t come that night. I wasn’t alone in the woods with demonic smoke trying to claw its way out of my chest. Instead, I dreamt of crescent moons and dark hair glittering in the firelight and crimson eyes sparkling from the feel of my kiss.
A sharp slice of pain between my eyes woke me the next morning, and I squinted against the trickle of sunlight creeping in through the crack in the blinds. But I wasn’t in my bed. I wasn’t in my room.
I glanced around and quickly realized I was in Marta’s bed. Alone. The lingering scent of her shampoo and soap assaulted my nose, and I licked my lips. The bitter aftertaste of blood mixed with sex and a long night coated my tongue, but an ache in my chest had me looking down.
The sharp red lines of a triangle marked my skin right over my heart. I rubbed a hand over the cuts and winced when my palm twinged. I had matching lines on the fleshy part near my thumbs.
The ritual.
Suddenly, memories from the night before raced through my mind.
Marta cutting a triangle into my hand
Me slicing the same into Atlas.
All of us marking each other’s chests.
And then…
Oh God.
A fiery brand of shame squeezed my lungs and twisted around my heart, made even more intense by how I’d woken up alone.
They left me.
Of course they left me.
I’m no good for them. I don’t deserve them.
I closed my eyes and sensed something else inside me…something that wasn’t me. Two somethings. Almost like a homing beacon pointing me downstairs. My instincts said whatever it was would lead me to the kitchen.
Them.
Us.
Ours.
I remembered that, too. Last night, we’d nudged open a door between our sensations. When one of them came, I felt it. When Marta sucked Atlas off, it was almost like she was doing it to me.
Christ, what did we do?
I slowly sat up, grimacing as my headache protested the movement.
My muscles twinged like I’d run four marathons yesterday, and I swung my legs to the side of the bed, preparing myself before I stood.
Even taking it as lightly as I did, I still got lightheaded and had to hold on to the banister of her four-poster bed to stabilize myself.
I wrapped a damp towel around my hips and limped down the hallway to the stairs, taking them one at a time until I got to the first-floor landing, gingerly making my way to my room at the far end of the house.
I went to the bathroom, and when I glanced at myself in the mirror, I had to blink at the person staring out at me.
Despite feeling like shit, I looked amazing.
My skin glowed with a healthy radiance like I’d been on a week-long juice cleanse, and my torso had gotten bigger.
Stronger. I figured it must have been the magic and went to get dressed.
At least the red eyes were back to my normal mahogany.
When I walked into the kitchen, Marta and Atlas sat at the breakfast table, whispering to each other over two cups of coffee. They stopped when I came in.
I would have been worried about that except they, too, had experienced changes overnight. Marta’s hair was shinier and fuller, her complexion just as magnificent as mine. And Atlas had gotten bigger as well. His shirt was tight around his biceps, his chest broad and more defined.
“Morning,” I grumbled as I took the seat between them.
“Good morning,” Marta said, pouring me a cup of coffee before handing it to me black, the way I liked it. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I drank an entire liquor store last night,” I said, taking a sip.
Ahhh, caffeine.
“Same,” Atlas said in his gravely, just-woke-up tenor.
It sent chills down my spine, and I tried to ignore the images of him biting into my neck as I came.
Or the way our tongues had tangled while we dined on Marta’s delicious cunt.
Their combined tastes had done something irrevocable to me, and I feared I would never be able to go on without it.
When this was over, when we got out and they realized I was not worth their energy, how would I ever get over it?
But last night was part of a ritual, right? Surely, we wouldn’t repeat it outside of that magical space. We couldn’t. We shouldn’t. If this much damage had already been done, what would it be like once we completed the other two?
“It’s the magic hangover,” Marta explained, rubbing her temples. “It’ll pass.”
We fell silent as we drank our coffee, the awkward tension of this new pull between us tightening my chest.
“What were you two talking about?” I glanced between them as they avoided my gaze, distinctly avoiding each other as well.
“It’s just…” Atlas cleared his throat. “Last night was a lot.”
“Understatement,” I said. “But we agreed. What happens in the liminal stays in the liminal.”
My brother shifted his hips as Marta pulled her lips between her teeth.
“And I was reminding Atlas that we still have two more rituals to do,” she explained. “I can sense you two inside. It’s almost as strong as the bond was before, but…I think we should continue. The next ritual has to be done soon, within a week if we can manage it. We’re running out of time.”
“As much as I want to get out of here, and I do… I think we need some space to think about things,” Atlas said. “To reassess where we stand now.”
“And where do we stand?” I raised an eyebrow at him, taking a big swig of coffee.
It burned on the way down, and Atlas coughed while Marta cleared her throat.
That, too, came roaring back. I felt them.
I knew Atlas was uncomfortable with how far we’d pushed ourselves.
Anxiety raged through his chest like a sledgehammer, beating away at his lungs.
For him, this was dabbling in something we didn’t understand.
One wrong move, one wrong decision, could push someone into something we liked to hunt.