Chapter Twenty
Salizar
Benji was out to kill me.
There simply was no other reason as to why he was being so damn cute, blushing and smiling shyly like I was the best thing that had ever happened to him.
Even Chris seemed awestruck when Benji held onto his fur before we left him in the car.
We had to pick up some clothes for him to wear from the hotel room and we couldn’t just walk in there with a wolf by our side.
And now, my hand was in Benji’s, because Benji had taken my hand.
To hold. Like I said, he wanted to kill me. With cuteness.
“Do you think Chris will be okay in the car?” Benji asked, looking worried as we rode the elevator.
“Of course he is,” I assured my human, smiling lovingly down at him because I was pretty much a goner for him. I loved my feisty human, but him with his walls down all cute and open? It was the most wonderful thing I’d ever experienced.
Benji smiled back, a genuinely happy smile, free of any worry and fear. A real smile. The first one I’d ever truly seen on his face. He was breathtakingly gorgeous when he shone like that, my Benji.
“I doubt he’ll be able to fit into my last pair of joggers,” he mused to himself. “Maybe he can borrow one of yours?”
I simply nodded. “I have plenty he can borrow.” I kept it at that, not wanting to get into how I’d ordered more clothes while we worked in Chris’ office yesterday. It had all been delivered and brought up to the hotel room while we were gone.
Benji stepped to the side as I unlocked the room, allowing him to enter first and spot the many brown paper bags filled with clothes and shoes. And some other things I thought we’d need.
“Really?” Benji drawled, his feisty side returning in full force as he grabbed the purple dildo from the bag, showing it off lazily. “You bought a dildo.”
I nodded, hiding my amused smile. “I thought it would come in handy.” I wasn’t about to tell him it was mostly for fun. Like hell if I would ever allow anything other than my cock or Chris’ to fuck our human.
“Har har,” Benji drawled, letting the dildo fall back into the bag. He then scouted for Chris’ clothes and together we took the elevator back down to the basement.
Chris was right where we’d left him, this time in his human form. There were tinted windows on all the coven cars so no one would be able to see him shift in there.
“Hey sexy,” I greeted, handing him the bag.
Chris just smiled and accepted it, wiggling into the grey joggers that did absolutely nothing to hide his perfect cock.
Next, he put on the sneakers and then he was out of the car, grinning widely when he spotted Benji who acted awfully shy all of a sudden, blushing and not meeting any of our gazes.
I could sense he was happy, nervous, and a tad embarrassed.
“Sweetheart?” I asked, stepping closer to our human. “What’s wrong?”
He fidgeted with his hands, still not lifting his head to look at us.
I was beginning to worry, but then our alpha stepped in front of him and tilted his head up.
As their eyes met, I felt Benji’s relief and longing.
I felt it clearer than before. Either Benji had finally accepted us, or the claiming had helped solidify our bond further.
“Alpha,” Benji breathed and then they kissed.
It was tender, soft, loving and I wanted in on it.
I stepped closer, hugging them both tight as they continued to kiss.
Their kiss ended and they both looked at me, their lips wet and their eyes hungry.
I claimed Chris’ lips first, needing the reassurance that he was truly okay after his shift.
Then I kissed Benji, tasting his sweetness as I pulled them further into me.
Chris’ lips were on my neck, licking and tasting.
Benji’s hands were on my waist, firm and strong.
We just stood there, exchanging kisses and touches, allowing ourselves this moment of privacy.
Then my phone rang and our little bubble of peace was broken.
We all sighed and walked to the elevator holding hands, like we couldn’t bear not to touch.
Perhaps I needed it more than them at the moment, but I didn’t care.
It had been a scary fight and I kept fearing I would fail my men.
They would soon learn all about it and help me carry this burden of knowledge.
Even if I wished they could remain oblivious to it, they needed to know. For their safety. For our future.
Once we were back inside the hotel room, I finally called Altaur back. He wasn’t very happy to be left waiting. However, my master also knew this wasn’t a matter to be discussed out in the open.
“Master,” I greeted once he’d picked up.
“I’m trusting that your inability to reply to my call was simply a matter of bad timing, and not because of your lack of loyalty,” he drawled. From his tone alone I could tell something was off. This was Altaur from before he’d bonded to his Yanus.
“We were in the hotel’s parking garage,” I hurried to explain, then dared to ask, “Has something else happened?”
He sighed long and loud. “Because of the spectacle yesterday, the news of the book has reached the Greenwren Coven.”
I blinked and then felt a rush of something.
Fear. It was fear I felt, because the Greenwren Coven was the most powerful vampire coven in the world.
They held the eldest and strongest vampires.
The coven never interfered with us, never bothered, really.
They kept to themselves on the other side of the globe and dealt with their own matters.
They didn’t follow any laws except their own.
The fact no one dared to go against them proved just how much power they held.
“They want the book?” I asked, my voice strangely even.
“What do you think?”
I tried not to let his anger bother me, but I’d done nothing wrong.
“It wasn’t my fault Beatrice got hurt,” I reminded him.
“I’m doing my best out here, Master.” Beatrice had been hit by a bullet which had left her in pain until the fight had been over.
There had been a lot of witches and they’d used weapons against us that had made the fight that more real.
He sighed. “I apologize. Yanus is extremely affected by this and hasn’t left our rooms since I told him the news.”
That explained his bad mood. No Yanus meant a bitchy Altaur. I ignored his apology, like I knew he would prefer. “What do you wish for me to do, Master?”
“They haven’t contacted me yet. I don’t know if they want the book for themselves or if they wish to destroy it. For now, we keep it safe while you three find the source. I have more allies coming in a few hours to help out, even some witches who believe the book is best kept hidden.”
“You got witches to help?” I couldn’t help but blurt out.
“I did. Now, find the source so we can be done with this.”
“Yes, Master.”
He hung up and I felt my men eyeing me with worry.
“So,” I said, putting on a fake smile. “We have witches controlling rogue vampires.” Their eyes widened.
“Oh, and the Greenwren Coven knows of the book and its location.” If possible, their eyes widened even further.
“We don’t know if they want the book or not, so my master ordered us to find the source so we can end this now. ”
“Um, what?” Benji asked after an uncomfortable long silence where the three of us just stared at one another. “Witches who can control rogues? How is that even possible?”
“They had these red glowing gemstones around their necks and used voice commands to make them do their bidding. It made fighting them hell because of the control they had,” I explained. “The witches and the rogues all wore them.”
“Did killing the witches affect the rogues?” Chris asked, thinking strategically like the alpha he was.
“No, they just seemed to return to their blood lusty stage and attacked randomly,” I replied, then remembered. “There’s a lot of witches involved in this and we saw different witch covens at the fight, which means they’ve all banded together to fight us.”
“Fun,” Benji muttered, looking resigned.
“We’ll eat and shower and then go track down the source, this time without being attacked like last time,” I said, grabbing the phone to order.
They ate in silence after having showered separately.
I could feel their unease over this looming fight.
Even though Benji seemed to have his walls down around us, it was still hard to work through his feelings.
He was simply feeling too much all at once and I couldn’t grasp just one feeling and go with it.
I would need to actually ask him what I could do to help, but I feared he wouldn’t even have an answer for that himself.
Chris was torn between his loyalty to the pack and his need to keep us safe.
I was with him on the staying safe part, but his pack could live or die for all I cared.
It was only his love for them and his sense of duty that made me want them to stay alive through this.
With the dreadful mood in the room, I decided to lighten it up a bit before we headed out. “You two were fucking hot, by the way, would love to watch you again like that without my attention being split between fighting and watching you.”
Chris smirked like he knew what I was trying to do while Benji blushed. “I can’t believe we had sex in front of witches, vampires, and werewolves,” he whispered, eating one of his fries with unseeing eyes.
“My pack won’t say anything and I doubt the vampires got close enough to really get a good peek, not with Sal there.”
I nodded, “and the witches who did get close all died, so…”
Benji’s tired eyes met mine. “Can we just get this over with? I’m so tired of fighting.” His tone was so low and sad it broke something in me. Chris looked like he too felt his heart breaking over our mate’s words.
“We will find the source today and have them eliminated,” I vowed, determined to fight whoever I had to, to make my Benji happy again.