Chapter 14 Winter #3
Evira had given up her title because of me.
And, yes, with her creating Exalt, I had seen that it had worked out well for her.
She had another purpose now, and without the Crown Heir title weighing her down, she could be free, explore, and push boundaries with Exalt, something she’d been working on for the last couple of weeks, and getting really wonderfully into.
But the dangerous aspect concerning her abdication, was that she was prepared to challenge the Dracoryn Realm because of me.
A fierce, protective dragon warrior like her wielding intense power while in that state of mind…
fuck, all it would take would be the slightest provocation against me and all hell could break loose for her.
Vaxan had violated a law of his kingdom to activate his vibrational tracking in order to locate me when Ruxnoth had taken me.
That was no small thing. And I knew him so well at this point—he wouldn’t back down, he wouldn’t apologize, he would stand his ground.
And it worried me as to what form that would take.
I was on tenterhooks waiting for when he’d be called back into the Basilisk Dominion by his ruling parents to answer for what he’d done.
The fact he hadn’t already been didn’t exactly bode well.
There had just been a lot of texting and calls with his parents so far, and he’d told us, “everything is as it needs to be”. That was it.
And Zayn… I was becoming increasingly concerned about what he might do—or reveal—where my feeding habits were concerned.
Yes, I’d had it out with the three of them, and Vax was drawing on his resources to help me, but it would take time.
And, honestly, I highly doubted a solution would be found from any amount of resources.
Because what Ruxnoth had done to me was a unique creation from his warped magic.
It was something that had never existed before.
In the meantime, I’d been feeding from Zayn, but I’d even been needing that more and more, and I’d had to deny myself to avoid him noticing my desperation—not that I’d always been successful with it.
Because if he thought things were going too far, Zayn might try to bring in outside help, like my parents, in the name of helping me.
I couldn’t have that.
I couldn’t have anything risking my training with my dad.
I couldn’t have anything risking me being ready.
I ground my jaw—this fucking feeding issue… all because of what Ruxnoth had done to me with that… heat.
“It feels amazing.”
“It does, hmm?”
“Yeah. Vibrant. Sparkling. Warm.”
“That is what I intended to gift you.”
I grimaced at the memory of the first time he’d done it.
I couldn’t… replicate that with anything since he’d let me go free.
Not any spell.
Not lovemaking with my loves.
Not the fucking feeding, which had worked before. The only thing that had worked.
Now, though, the sensation, what it did for me, had been diluted or something similar. I could no longer get the same satisfaction. It barely scratched the surface of making me feel almost-alive.
I’d never thought the day would come where Zayn becoming attentive to other people’s needs would come back around to bite me. Or the fact that he’d become so self-aware at the same time of his emotions, his actions, so much.
Yet here we were.
I shoved my hand through my hair. At least with Ruxnoth providing that living warmth for longer this time, I could keep away from the feeding, calm things down where Zayn was concerned.
Because if he told anyone, I suspected it would be Dad.
He’d reason that the great Sylas Morgrave would have the means to fix it.
He didn’t, though. And he couldn’t. This was outside everyone’s wheelhouse.
Except Ruxnoth’s.
And now mine. Now I had that living equation captured.
My phone buzzed on my nightstand with an alert reminding me to get to breakfast with my loves before classes.
If it was breakfast with anybody else, I would skip it, so I could work on the equation—and my training exercises for my next session with my dad.
But my loves… I couldn’t not be with them.
Last night we’d all slept separately in our own dorm rooms as it was, because we’d had to study. The intensiveness of the curriculum here could really have readings and assignments building up if you missed even a couple of days’ worth of studying and seeing to things.
Just like the four of us becoming too immersed in each other to come up for air. We would come together after our final classes of the day then spend the rest of the day together all the way to morning. Over and over.
And now I also had my necromantic training on top of this, I’d definitely fallen behind.
And I couldn’t fall behind there either—I was also learning a lot here at Loxley.
Especially in my Grimoire Creation class and the deep spellwork involved which I’d been running by Dad too.
And the classes where I interacted with so many different power sets…
all not just expanding my knowledge base as a means to learn and grow, but helpful from the point of Ruxnoth being made of warped power that didn’t function predictably.
Another buzz from my phone had me walking over there and snatching it up.
It was a text this time.
I tensed when I opened it.
Zayn: Win, thought you were coming by before breakfast?
Oh, right. I eyed the clock on my screen. Ten minutes late.
Winter: Don’t need it. XOXO.
Zayn: Seriously?
Winter: Yeah. Unless you need it on your end?
Zayn: I’ll take a hand job if you’re offering up needs and all that.
Winter: You? A hand job, not a blow job? Are you well this morning, Z?
Zayn: Oof, if you hadn’t been all rude about it, I was gonna lick my own cum off your fingers and make a sexy fucking show out of it for you. We all know what a dirty bastard you love to be when things get carnal.
Winter: Being rude? That was an expression of concern.
Zayn: Change my mind.
Winter: You make me beg and you’ll be doing more than eating your own cum.
Zayn: Ooh, shaking in my tight pink studded pants.
Winter: How tight?
Zayn: Someone’s extra horny this morning.
I was.
Fuck.
Winter: Says the guy yearning for a hand job.
Zayn: I’m telling our mouthwatering snake prince. Maybe he’ll do that thing he does to me when I get all horny-wild.
The next thing I knew, before I could even respond, he opened up the Group Chat.
And pasted that last line in.
Little fucking fireball.
Zayn: Vax, check this text out that I just sent to Win about his horniness this morning: ‘I’m telling our mouthwatering snake prince. Maybe he’ll do that thing he does to me when I get all horny-wild.’
Evira: Wow. I was just about to send a text asking if you two were heading down. Vaxan and me are already here in the Cafeteria. But now I see you’re distracted sexting.
Zayn: Oh, icicle. If you think that qualifies as sexting, there’s a lot I have to teach you. Prepare for some real sexting coming your way later today. Because I’m so considerate, I’ll wait until after our Apex Magic class so you’re not distracted and all worked up.
Winter: Jeez, fireball.
Vax: You don’t need to plead through texts, Zayn. Any time you want a firm hand on your weeping cock, just ask.
Zayn: Seriously? It was Win, not me.
Winter: LMAO. He’s already got you pegged, Z.
Zayn: Motherfucking bullshit this is.
Vax: Come to breakfast. Winter, I picked you up some oatmeal. Anything else? Zayn, Evira has your honeyed churros. With you clearly worked up, I’ll get your Chamomile tea as well.
Zayn: Worked up? It’s not me.
Evira: He’s just messing with you, hellion. Kisses.
Zayn: Messing? Really?
Vax: Can I not amuse once in a while, smoldering beauty?
Zayn: You really had me going. Nice. And, yeah, I’m here for more of that from you. And your text kisses, Evira.
Winter: I’m loving it.
Zayn: Fuck you, Win.
Winter: There you go again begging for a cock rub.
Zayn: You motherfucking—I know what you’re doing.
Winter: LOL. Best stop stalling and get to breakfast.
Zayn: Fine. You know I adore you, right?
Winter: Never in doubt.
I smiled to myself, then grabbed my hoodie, and I was out the door.
Zayn was staring again.
Just like he’d done throughout breakfast earlier.
And not in that I’m-desperate-for-you-to-shove-me-to-my-knees-and-make-me-choke-on-your-delicious-cock way I was used to from him. Especially lately, since he’d accepted that about himself and gone all in with his sexuality with our foursome, no regrets.
Jeez, get a hold of yourself.
So the horny thing was very real.
Some sort of reaction to the Ruxnoth dreamscape thing from earlier.
Not to him. Never to him.
It was a trauma response, I was concluding.
Touch was a way for me to… connect.
I’d always been touchy-feely, something Zayn, of all people, could attest to. And when sex was involved, it could be intense. Far from being just during. In fact, more so afterward. And now I was with the three of them, the immersion of it was all-consuming.
A connection like this was something I’d always wanted.
They’d even all acknowledged me in the proverbial daylight.
There was no more of me being kept as a dirty little secret like there had been on Zayn and Evira’s end before.
They accepted me, they were with me through everything, and they weren’t even pulling away with this nightmare hanging over me.
They were drawing me closer and lavishing me with support—and love.
Love.
And I guess, because I had to mediate my emotions and what I put out there, my appreciation and reciprocating love for them was coming out sexually. It seemed safer. I’d already shown vulnerability, instability to them, and this feeding situation was making it difficult to temper that.
And I had to. I fucking had to.
When I’d told Ruxnoth the reason behind me taking off my mom’s necklace, it hadn’t really been a lie to appease him.