Chapter 25
Emmy enjoyed having her parents close a few days. They hiked together, they went to a museum, Toby took them to the big telescope a little north of the city one clear night, and they ate. A lot.
And talked. So much going on with her siblings that she had no idea about. And yeah, she has a lot of siblings, but she needed to keep up with her favorites more. She’d talked to them some, and texted them a lot — but sending funny memes isn’t the same as a conversation.
She rode with them to the airport to say goodbye, and then focused on her next big adventure on the way home.
“I am so excited about tomorrow night,” she told Delaney.
Her guard shook her head. “Security is scrambling. We have people in place to check out the boat, to look for ambush spots along the route. The fact the three of you will be on the top deck has our logistics people in a tizzy.”
Emmy hadn’t considered that. The big boss going on a cruise, and Spence springing it only a few days before they left, had probably created all kinds of security headaches.
But their boy had basically chartered an entire boat for just the three of them — and their security, and the boat’s crew — to replicate the cruise the flock had taken the year before.
Only, it would be a midnight cruise. Well, technically, the boat was leaving at ten, but they’d still be cruising at midnight, since it’s a five-hour cruise.
Also, they’d actually be leaving around two in the morning that night, and staying in a vampire-safe cabin outside Seward, so they could get to the boat by ten, since the sun didn’t set until a little after nine this time of year.
And her always-cool vampire was actually excited about the prospect of seeing whales. He’d seen them before, of course, but it’d been many, many decades, apparently.
She spent the day packing and reading. She also managed several quickies with Spence, fully aware he was a little disappointed when she got him off at the end, every time. She’d need to talk to Zander about that. Their boy was really craving denial.
It was fun to get him off simply because he wanted to suffer for them, but they should probably implement something long-term. No more orgasms until the first ball at Mordnik, maybe. Not quite yet though — she was having entirely too much fun making him come for her.
The drive to Seward took a little over two hours, and she managed to stay awake for the entire trip, despite only sleeping two and a half hours before they left.
She fell into bed and crashed as soon as they got to the cabin, though.
When she woke shortly before noon, Spence was still asleep. She snuck out of bed and headed to the kitchen. Supposedly, the cabin was stocked with a grocery list Spence had submitted.
She was pleased to see plenty of eggs, bacon, cheese, and sausage in the fridge, and got to work on breakfast. The bedroom was soundproof with the door closed, which was what had let her sleep in, probably. That and the total blackout shutters.
Zander was underground, but the cabin was made so vampires could sleep in the upstairs bedrooms, too.
She was out on the deck watching the wildlife in the inlet when Spence finally woke around three.
“You should’ve gotten me up earlier.”
“You needed a long sleep. I’ve already eaten breakfast, but I’m not opposed to second breakfast. We still have plenty of everything — what do you have a taste for?”
“French toast, I think. The bread isn’t stale, but it’ll have to do. Lots of bacon and sausage, too.”
The two stayed out on the deck a good part of the day, pointing out seals, otters, sea lions, porpoises, and so many birds.
When Zander awoke around five, they went underground to spend time with him until the sun went down.
And, since there was a Saint Andrews Cross on the wall, complete with steel wrist and ankle shackles, they stripped their boy and mounted him on the device with his back to it, his cock easily accessible, and then roamed the cabin looking for makeshift torture implements.
Emmy found some wooden spoons in the kitchen, along with some scary-strong potato chip clips that hurt like fuck when she tried them on her pinky finger.
Zander had his belt and her hairbrush laid out on the bed when she returned.
He looked her items over and asked, “Is there a tilt rod on the blinds upstairs?”
Emmy went back up and unhooked one, then sampled it on a sofa cushion. Perfect .
And because it felt so good in her hands, she used it on the vulnerable front of Spence’s thighs as soon as she returned. It landed with the whistle-crack sound that made her clit throb, and she stepped back to watch the crimson line form.
“Lovely,” Zander said, and then he layered belt stripes over their boy’s thighs, each lash landing with a meaty, thudding snap .
They worked him over methodically — stripes across the front of his thighs, pretty bruises from the spoons on his thighs and his cock, and great big potato chip clips weighing his cherry-red nipples down.
Occasionally, they moved the clips to his cock. One on each side vertically. It was quite a sight.
And through it all, Spence trembled in his restraints, cock granite hard and leaking. His hips wanted to pump, but Zander ordered them still.
Which of course made her decide he should come, so she went down on him and drank him down. Then went at his thighs with her hairbrush before he’d fully recovered.
Eventually, Emmy decided his balls needed attention, so she wrapped her hair tie around them — once, twice, three times. More . The pans in the kitchen had been hanging above the island, and she ran up to get one, then ran back down.
“Let’s see how this works,” she murmured, attaching it carefully.
Spence’s groan was beautiful.
“Since those hips of yours keep wanting to pump, let’s see what happens when you do,” Emmy told him.
And oh, how it swung.
“Permission to pump them often,” Zander said with a chuckle.
They played with him for hours, taking only a few breaks to fuck each other, to give their boy a short pause in the action.
Emmy made him come five times with her hands and mouth, often while Zander applied the cane or hairbrush, or swung the pan still hanging from his balls, dragging them down without mercy.
She loved watching him fight the pain and the pleasure from it, loved the way his hips rolled helplessly when she wrapped her hand around him and stroked just enough to edge him toward the brink, only to pull away and let the pan’s weight drag more strained groans and gasps from him.
But today wasn’t just edging, though that was absolutely part of it, but about making him orgasm until he was empty.
And for Spence, each release was more desperate than the last, until he was sobbing with overstimulation and too much pleasure.
When Emmy didn’t think she could get another orgasm out of him, Zander sank his fangs into their boy, forced another orgasm right off the bat, and then he drank.
When their vampire was sated, he used his venom to get Spence hard one more time and then wrung yet another orgasm from their boy, this one completely dry.
Spence hung limp in the restraints, and Emmy left Zander to take care of him while she ran upstairs to pop the potato dish she’d assembled earlier into the oven — mushroom soup made from scratch and thickened, stirred into sour cream, tons of cheese, and diced potatoes she’d pre-fried.
It only needed to stay in the oven long enough to melt the cheese and brown a little, perfect for the time it took to sear and cook a dozen steaks.
Zander was cradling their boy in bed when she checked in on them, the platter of food on the little dining table in the underground living area. “You need me to hand-feed these steaks to you, or are you up to sitting at the table?”
It was a ridiculous question, of course. Werewolves have to be half-dead to not make it to the table for steaks seared on the outside and super-rare on the inside.
By the time they left for the boat, Spence had his full strength back. A half-dozen huge steaks and gooey potatoes do a lot to revive a wolf.
They’d traveled to Seward with three SUVs, since they needed three shifts of guards.
A unit had stayed outside the cabin while they were inside, and off-shift units had slept in a nearby cabin.
One of the vehicles was already at the boat, so they only traveled with two cars for the ten-minute ride to the piers.
She wore silk long-johns, with a layer of thermal-tech ones over the top, and then wool-blend pants, and a super-thick microfleece shirt. So, three layers on top and bottom, plus a heavy coat that came down to her calves. Also, super-tech socks, with wool ones layered over the top, and warm boots.
And a thick wool hat.
Late August in Alaska is warm during the day, but the low was supposed to be fifty-two, which wouldn’t be bad, but the winds on the water would make it feel colder.
Dragons and wolves are naturally warm, but if they wanted to stay on the top deck for most of the five hours, it meant dressing warmly.
She figured she’d only need the coat when they got up-close-and-personal with the glaciers.
Spence was dressed similarly, while Zander was just wearing cargo pants and a fleece shirt. Vampires .
“Excited?” Zander asked.
“So excited,” Spence told him. “I really, really hope we see whales. They’re supposed to be just as active at night as they are in the day.”
“The daytime trip was beyond spectacular,” Emmy told him. “And I know you won’t get to see all the birds, but I think most everything else will be active.”
The boat was smaller than the one they’d been on before, but still sizable. Spence informed them it was a fifty-foot vessel, and Emmy was pleasantly surprised to scent some kind of shifter, when they met the crew.
What am I scenting? What are they? She asked her men.
Porpoise shifters, Zander answered with amusement in his voice. This bodes well, since they’ll know we have excellent night vision. He gave Spence a quick kiss on the forehead. Well done.
The ship had an enclosed cabin, with an upper deck on its roof, and Emmy was relieved to discover the cabin was heated. If they could go down to get warm for ten minutes at a time, every hour or so, she’d probably be fine to leave the coat downstairs.
Also, they were supposed to be fed halfway through the cruise, with warm soup and cold sandwiches.
The captain greeted them professionally, and two of the crew introduced themselves and asked if they wanted the wildlife pointed out.
“We do,” Spence told them. “We all have good hearing, so you can just say it from the lower outside deck. No need for the loudspeaker.”
The threesome went to the top level, to a bench near the front of the boat, and got comfortable as the boat pulled away from the pier.
And Emmy soaked in how her men felt, what she could sense through the blood bond — anticipation, excitement, and wonder as Resurrection Bay opened up before them.
Stars scattered across the sky in a density impossible to see near Anchorage’s light pollution. The water was black glass, reflecting constellations, and the mountains rose on either side like ancient sentinels.
“Oh,” Zander said softly.
Emmy glanced at him and saw genuine wonder. She could feel his appreciation for this wildness, this raw beauty.
“Wait until we see the glaciers,” she promised.
He shook his head. “I’ve lived in Scandinavia, in many places with similar scenery, but it’s been lifetimes.”
While still in the bay, they saw harbor seals and some Stellar sea lions lounging on a boulder sticking out of the water. One of the crew pointed out a wolverine on the land. Another found a fox.
They motored out into deeper water, the boat’s running lights the only illumination besides stars. Emmy’s enhanced vision picked out details — the texture of distant mountainsides, the way water moved around rocks, a bald eagle roosting in a tree along the shore.
“There,” Spence said suddenly, pointing.
A pod of sea otters floated on their backs in a tight group, paws held up against their chests. Emmy counted seven, all completely unbothered by the boat’s passage.
“They sleep like that,” Emmy told them, remembering what Maren had told them the year before. “Holding hands so they don’t drift apart.”
Twenty minutes out, the first glacier came into view.
Even in darkness, it glowed, the blue-white ice catching starlight and throwing it back in a cold fire that made Emmy’s breath catch. The face rose at least fifty feet above the waterline, and the crew explained that meant another hundred or more below.
Zander’s cool hand found Emmy’s, and she felt his pleasure at being included in something she and Spence had enjoyed, and had wanted to share with him.
“Thank you for bringing me,” he said quietly. “Both of you.”
“Spence gets all the thanks for this one,” Emmy told him.
“He put it together, but having both of you so pleased to show me what you loved experiencing…” He breathed in. “I smell moose.”
The threesome scanned the banks, and Spence pointed. “There.”
They all saw it then, foraging on a hillside.
Later, they looked to try to figure out a splashing noise, and the crew explained, “Salmon. Near the shore.”
“I smell bear,” Spence said. And as soon as he said it, Emmy did too — and then saw the bear eyeing the salmon.
“I didn’t know bears were active at night.”
“Bears are drawn to the sound and scent of the salmon,” a crew member said. “Sleep isn’t as important as yummy fish.”
She wondered if he was speaking from experience but decided not to ask.
They moved from glacier to glacier, each one unique. The boat’s spotlight illuminated them when they got close, turning blue ice into sapphire, making the textures and crevasses visible in sharp detail.
Then Spence gripped Emmy’s arm. “Look. Three o’clock.”