Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Lila
When we return to the ship, I am the one who opens the split in the space-time continuum or whatever it is that gets us from one plane to another.
I’m brimming with power after our joining, and I hope that it will settle, because at the moment, I’m feeling a little like I could become the galaxy overlord with how much power thrums through me.
Xavier’s marks buzz and twirl around my body, not content to settle into one spot, but thankfully the minute I step through the gap and back into Xavier’s old room on the ship, that power instantly dulls, and my whole body sags. Xavier reaches out and catches me.
“Holy crap,” I mutter, feeling drained, and he nods as we drop down onto his bed together, exhausted.
“Yeah, it’s a lot to take the change in power.” He sounds as weary as I feel.
“You’ve felt it before?” I ask him, confused. “I thought it was an intimate bonding thing?”
“No, the royal family of Westalin can access the power of the motherland whenever they need a power boost. My parents taught me how to do it when I was younger, which means if either of us need a power boost, we can open a gate and the power will channel through to us.”
“Well, that’s good to know, but right now, I think I need a nap.
I’m exhausted all of a sudden.” I flop back on his bed, and he follows me down.
I curl around him, and he uses his magic to pull the covers up over us.
“I wonder what day it is or how long we’ve been gone.
We must be getting close to the space station. ”
“It’s actually about an hour after we left. Time runs differently on the other plane, so what felt like multiple hours wasn’t. We definitely have time for a nap before we get to station Z68.”
“Thank fuck,” I mumble. “I don’t think I could mimic an ant, let alone a whole host of new creatures at the moment.”
Now that I can feel Xavier’s emotions, his smugness at fucking me stupid reverberates through my body, and I roll my eyes.
He wasn’t the only one dishing out orgasms, but I’m too tired to play the orgasm count game.
I’m going to let him have the win, though I vividly remember him calling me a goddess and the best fuck he has ever had.
I think that was sometime around when I allowed a few tentacles to come out to play.
It’s strange that I can still retain the bottom half of my body, but a couple of tentacles can also appear and fuck his ass and mouth while I ride him like a cowgirl.
That’s when I was able to gather his tears for the cup.
“I can feel how smug you are,” he mutters, and I giggle.
“I guess my sexual prowess is as impressive as the mighty warlock prince’s.” Okay, I’m not letting him have the win. I’m not that magnanimous. “What was it you called me? Goddess of sex and love?”
There’s a twinge of embarrassment, and he puts an arm over his eyes.
“Don’t make me spell your mouth shut, Lila,” he threatens, and I giggle again.
Even if he does, I can project my thoughts into the rest of my mates’ brains.
I’m sure Saxon would love to see our warlock begging and pleading like he did a few times.
Lethargy drags me under, and I fall asleep wrapped in the arms of my newest husband, content and satisfied with only a small thought to what I’m going to do about Nikos and Tirrian, but those are future Lila’s problems.
“Mama.” A little voice and a small hand patting me on the cheek has me cracking open an eye, seeing Cordy peering down at me with a small amount of worry in her eyes.
Panic rushes through me. Shit, are we still naked?
When I look down at my body, I find that Xavier clothed us sometime during our nap. “Wake up, Mama, I miss you.”
A wide smile crosses my lips as I drag Cordy down to snuggle with me. Her giggles are music to my ears, and it’s not long before I feel Jack and Cally bounce up and down on the bed.
“Daddy X!” Jack shouts with excitement, and when I turn to look, I watch our son launch himself at his still sleeping father, landing with his knees right in Xavier’s happy place. Xavier’s eyes pop open, and he groans, curling in on himself and wrapping his arms around Jack.
“Holy sh… shocking wake-up call,” Xavier corrects himself as he nuzzles Jack’s neck before pulling Cally closer for her own snuggle. We lie back down with the three toddlers between us. Thankfully they haven’t turned into small children while we’ve been gone. I’m not sure I could have handled that.
“Hello, my beautiful babies. What have you been doing while Daddy and I have been away?” I ask them, and all three start to talk at once. They tell us about playing with Silac and then meeting Poppi and ZeZe, which I’m assuming are Xavier’s parents.
“They wanted to give us candy, Mama, but Daddy Sax yelled at them,” Cally tells me, her bottom lip jutting out in a pout. I chuckle and exchange a glance with Xavier, who looks horrified at the prospect.
God, I hope Saxon didn’t tell my father what candy does to the children. He’ll go out of his way to give it to them just for the chaos, he says inside my head.
I’ll kill him, I mutter, and his eyes widen. Okay, maybe just maim him a bit.
“I didn’t yell, I just explained calmly that candy wasn’t good for a young shifter’s metabolism,” Saxon says dryly, and when we both sit up, we find him, Link, and Cas all leaning against the wall, watching us.
“I see the bonding went well,” Cas says, smiling. “You two are brimming with power. It kind of makes my jaw ache.” He clutches his jaw with his hand and gives it a squeeze.
“Can you tell me a little bit about the process now please?” Link looks between us, desperation in his gaze.
I know he nagged Xavier to explain the process to him, his thirst for knowledge eager for information he couldn’t find anywhere, but Xavier is an ass and wouldn’t tell him about it, claiming it’s a sacred ritual that only the warlocks are allowed to know about.
I’ll tell you about it later, I promise him inside his mind as Xavier shakes his head.
“Nope. No can do, man. It’s a trade secret.” Link fakes disappointment for Xavier’s sake, while I hear his internal glee at my promise.
“Your parents felt your return a couple of hours ago, and we’ve been busy organizing a huge meal with everyone to celebrate your bonding.
Come on, get changed into something a little fancier, and we can get this party started,” Saxon tells us, coming over to grab Cordy from me as Link and Cas do the same for the other two.
He leans in and gives me a kiss on the cheek.
“Was the warlock good to you?” he whispers in my ear so our babies don’t hear.
I project some of my memories into his mind, especially the one of me making him beg and cry. Saxon’s eyes flash red before he shakes his head and steps away.
Fuck, he mutters inside my mind. I want to play that game too.
“One day,” I promise out loud and throw the blankets off me.
I need a shower. We cleaned up magically when we returned, but I still feel like I’m covered in blood, tears, and cum—so much cum.
At one stage, he painted my body with it, and I feel the lingering stickiness, even if it’s all in my mind.
“Give us half an hour to clean up, and we will be there.”
“We’re getting pretty dresses, Mama. Zeze said we could,” Cally announces before sticking her thumb into her mouth and snuggling into Link’s side.
“I get a warlock robe,” Jack declares, puffing his chest out, proud as punch. “Poppi says Daddy X wore it when he was young.”
I look at Xavier and see him smiling, his eyes shining with unshed tears, and his emotions pulse with love.
I know this man loves me, I can feel it, but he would burn the galaxy for our children.
All of them would. Thankfully before we returned, Xavier taught me how to block out everyone’s emotions, but my control isn’t great yet, and stuff still flits through, but I don’t have the urge to devour the feelings.
He explained that’s how it felt before we cemented the bond.
He said he was ravenous all the time, desperate to feed on anything he could, but they are taught that consent is critical from a young age, so they are disciplined at keeping those urges controlled, especially warlocks as powerful as Xavier.
It’s why he needed so many in his harem.
Most only have one or two and it’s a reciprocal relationship.
“Come on then, let’s go and let Poppi and ZeZe dress you, and we’ll meet Mama and Daddy X at the table with all our other guests.
” Cas bounces Jack on his hip, and he giggles before changing form and scooting out of the room, his little tentacles moving across the floor rapidly.
“Hey,” Caspian shouts, hurrying after him.
“What have I said about running in hallways?” Link and Saxon follow him out of the bedroom, and I look around the room.
“I guess we can repurpose this room now that you’re living with me.” I bite my lip, worried that he’s going to want to keep it, but he’s quick to jump out of bed, his sweatpants hanging low on his sharp hips and distracting me from my worries.
“No, phoeall. Do what you want with them. I’m sure there will be some new performers who may want a new space.”
“Ugh. That’s if everyone comes back to the show. What if our performers are mad about all this time we’re taking to settle our affairs?” I’ve been worrying about it for a while, but Xavier scoffs like I just said the funniest thing in the world.
“One, this circus makes them superstars, so that’s not something most of them will give up easily, and two, they are being paid to take a break. I assure you, not many of them are complaining.”
He takes my hand and leads me into his bathroom. He turns on the big, overhead waterfall shower before snapping his fingers and divesting us of our clothes. He tugs me under the water and proceeds to gently wash me.
“I am happy to help you with the administration side of the circus. It’s my job as your husband to make sure you are getting everything you need.
It’s not like I have a huge role with the show anyway.
I’m just hanging out in case something goes wrong, and I have to spin some untruths or remove memories or control unruly dinosaurs. ”
“Why are you with the circus?” I ask, knowing that he’s probably way too important to be playing circus security, and he spins me around, smirking.
“Well, I always wondered why my parents insisted I needed to be here, but in light of everything we’ve recently learned, I’m going to guess that they wanted me here for when you finally reappeared.”
I think about that for a moment. “Yeah, you are probably right. I can’t believe we’ve known each other since we were children.
” Warmth flows through me as I have brief, fleeting flashes of our childhood interactions.
“You were so kind to me, and I loved you fiercely,” I tell him, thinking about young Lila’s crush on her best friend.
“My mom used to tell me that I was lucky to have someone who would love me as fiercely as my daddy loved her.” I can’t help but feel sad at that particular memory.
They were dancing, and I wanted to dance too, and they scooped me up, sandwiching me between them as they continued dancing.
Mama told me that one day, Xavier would be big enough to dance with me like Daddy danced with her. I don’t tell him this though.
“Phoeall, I have loved you from the moment I knew you were my intimate, but now it’s different from the love I felt back then.
There is a reason most warlocks don’t discover their intimate bond until they are in their late teens, but what I felt for you then was the need to protect you and keep you safe. ”
“And now?” I ask, knowing full well how he feels. I just want to hear him say it out loud.
“Oh, I still feel the need to protect and cherish you, but I also want to do dirty, filthy things to all your holes.”
Laughter bubbles out of my mouth, and I shake with amusement. There’s my dirty as fuck warlock. “I can’t say I’m disappointed, because I want to do nasty things to you too.”
We hurry through our shower, both happy to keep our hands to ourselves after our epic marathon fuck-fest on the warlock home world.
Once we dry off, Xavier snaps his fingers, and I’m draped in the dress he picked for me for our bonding. “Where did this come from? I thought it was left on the home world?”
He shrugs. “It was, but I pulled it to us. Seems my powers have grown,” he says modestly before clothing himself in his traditional warlock wide-legged pants and tunic that I love so much.
His marks shine against the black fabric he’s chosen.
Those marks were mine, but now they are his.
I feel a wave of possession and satisfaction from seeing my marks all over him.
It’s like he’s been stamped with “Property of Lila,” and it makes all of my alternate forms and inner animals purr with pride.
“Come on. How about you transport us to the dining room? That’s where Saxon says this shindig is being held.” He taps his temple, telling me that he asked telepathically.
“Come here then.” I wrap my arms around his waist, pulling him into my body so we’re pressed tightly together. “Hang on, buttercup, this may be bumpy,” I tell him, not entirely comfortable with my teleporting skills, but no one has ever accused me of being scared to try.