Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
L iam wasn’t in bed when Kade woke. Probably a good thing. Kade would rather not have a repeat of yesterday. He didn’t have the self-control necessary to routinely deny himself. Too many mornings like that, and he’d do something he wouldn’t regret nearly as much as he should.
The quiet noises of a morning routine drifted from the bathroom. In Kade’s head, Liam was a fuzzy presence, a shimmering lightness that floated like a feather on the breeze. Kade lay in bed, feeling almost weightless from the sensation, and realized Liam was amused. Something had him downright giddy.
Being able to identify a new emotion signaled their bond was deepening. That should have worried him, but he couldn’t bring himself to care, not when mirth threaded between them, tickling his mind.
This had to be the end of it though. They couldn’t let it get deeper than this.
Kade rolled out of bed and stretched. That had been the best night’s sleep he’d had in ages. He grabbed clothes for the day as he waited for Liam.
When Liam emerged, there was a devilish gleam in his eyes, though he tried to hide it with a bright smile.
Yeah, right. Kade wasn’t buying it, but Liam could keep his secrets, even if he was terrible at feigning innocence.
Kade slipped into the bathroom and got ready for what promised to be another long day of research, then stared at himself in the mirror.
“You don’t need to scent him. He isn’t yours to scent.”
His wolf huffed. It didn’t care what the human side of Kade thought, but that was the bond talking. It was natural for his wolf to feel possessive over whoever they were bonded to. Liam was theirs as far as it was concerned, and they should act accordingly.
But his intentions to behave shattered when he stepped back into the room and Liam turned toward him, holding his arms out away from his sides.
“Do you need to do the scent thing?”
Before Kade could process his actions, he’d closed the distance between them, crowding into Liam’s personal space. His hands stroked over Liam’s neck and his arms. Magic moved under his touch, drawn like a tide to the moon, tingling against Kade’s palms.
Liam’s eyelids slid shut, his lower lip caught between his teeth. He inhaled, his chest swelling with the extent of his breath, looking for all the world like he was enjoying this as much as Kade’s wolf was.
Damn, he was gorgeous. His strong jaw and those high cheekbones, the dark sweep of his eyelashes and the warm brown of his skin.
Kade’s hands had stopped moving, resting on Liam’s shoulders, but he didn’t notice until Liam opened his eyes, his gaze hooded.
“Finished?” he asked, his voice rough with arousal that blazed in Kade’s mind.
Kade hadn’t even begun. There were so many ways he could cover Liam with his scent, and this was far from the most enjoyable. But he took a step back, the movement knocking Liam out of the daze he’d fallen into.
Emotions played across his face and through their bond, though Kade never could have read the latter without the former—sheepish embarrassment, a sudden realization, and then the return of that curious amusement.
“We should grab breakfast so we can get going!” Liam spun on his heel and bounded out the door, a spring in his step as he descended the stairs.
Kade trailed after him, bemused.
It wasn’t much past six, and most of the pack was asleep, with the two notable exceptions of Victor and Elijah. Victor had always been a late riser, but Elijah’s early-bird tendencies had rubbed off on him. That didn’t mean they were normally out of their room quite yet, though. They had other things to rub off on each other first.
When Elijah saw them, mischief lit up his expression too. The mages had to be up to something, but Kade had no idea what. He shot Victor a glance, but if Victor knew, he was keeping a straight face.
How did Elijah feel in Victor’s head? Was he shimmering like Liam was? How much stronger could Victor sense it?
Liam ate so fast that Kade wasn’t sure he breathed between bites. He should slow down. Using magic took a lot out of a mage. If they practiced, he would need to keep up his strength. But it was hard to insist he eat properly when Liam was practically bundling him up and carrying him out of the house. Elijah’s laughter sounded as Liam herded Kade to his car.
The drive to the shop went quicker than the day before, like Liam’s anticipation had a magic of its own, making the road fly by under the tires.
They passed Aran and Miles driving in the opposite direction out to the pack land. Kade honked in greeting and caught a glimpse of Aran cackling as they sped past. Liam’s presence grew brighter.
The moment they were inside the apartment, Kade discovered why. His eyes landed on the books, and he laughed. Liam’s amusement echoed back, dazzling and effervescent as Kade approached the table. Liam’s entire body was shaking with barely contained snickers.
In the last fifteen hours, someone had turned a dozen of Richard Knotz’s most famous porn posters into makeshift book covers, printing them out and folding them around the tomes. They’d included a few of his bonding series: Bonding the Incubus , Bonding the Fox Shifter , and Bonding the Coyote Shifter . Bonding the Human —the first of many scenes Richard had filmed with his mate, Hunter Savage—had been given a place of honor in front of Kade’s chair. The rest were more of their scenes, including Hunting Down Hunter , the brand new My Naughty Roommate Switched Places with My Sex Toy and I Didn’t Notice until I Was Knot Deep! , and the classic A Mage Summoned My Knot and then Fell on It!
It was glorious . Liam had arranged this for him?
“Is this what you were giggling over yesterday afternoon?”
“After you mentioned the manchest covers, I had to. Aran agreed to help. I have no clue where he got these though. I told him romance novels, but apparently this is his idea of romance.”
“Hey, there’s romance here. Have you seen this?” Kade held up Bonding the Human . “These two ended up staying together after their initial contract. It’s actually really sweet, and their videos are scorchingly hot. They even have one where Hunter pretends to be a mage.” Kade pointed to the knot-summoning scene.
Liam squinted at the cover. On it, Richard Knotz was laid out on his back, his mate riding him. “Are his tattoos magical sperm?”
“Yep.”
“Well, if that’s not romance right there, I don’t know what is.”
“You’ve never performed a ritual to summon a shifter’s knot?” He should get bonus points for not adding, ‘Would you care to dance around almost naked, then slip and fall and land ass-first on mine?’
Liam side-eyed Kade like he’d heard that unspoken question. “Let’s get to work.”
“Any chance there’s a spell to make the contents of these books as interesting as their new covers?”
When Liam didn’t bother answering, Kade sat and opened A Mage Summoned My Knot , then blinked. This was not one of Liam’s books.
Liam looked up and raised an eyebrow, registering Kade’s surprise and reacting to it like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Kade pulled off the paper cover and held it up for Liam to see, its actual title proclaiming it to be Sex Magic and Rituals .
Liam groaned. “That was all Aran.”
“Does that mean I don’t get to read it? Because it seems more fun than everything else I’ve read so far.”
“Sorry. We absolutely will not be needing that.”
That was a shame. With a sigh, Kade placed it on the discard pile and grabbed another book, but in his mind, an idea took root. Other people could set up surprises too, and researching wasn’t nearly as boring when Kade got to reward himself by brainstorming his plans between books.
When it came time for him to grab lunch, he might have stopped to put in an order that had nothing to do with food. He wasn’t even bothered by paying the extra forty dollars for overnight shipping.
It provided a distraction from his wolf’s smugness over bringing Liam food, providing for their mate. Kade blamed the upcoming full moon, but knowing that didn’t make his instincts easier to ignore.
Being alone with Liam in the apartment helped soothe his wolf. This wasn’t what it wanted; this wasn’t how they were supposed to spend their first few days with their mate. But if this was all it’d get, it’d take it. If they couldn’t fuck their mate until he was so boneless he couldn’t walk—for whatever stupid reason Kade was claiming—they could have him to themselves. There was no one around who might get too close to him, who might touch him.
With his plans already in motion, Kade grew restless again after lunch. Every book was another dead end. They should have been tracking and trapping spirits, not sitting there, wasting time. At least Liam was in contact with his friends, pausing occasionally to make a sigil or two. He had something useful to do; Kade could only methodically flip through books that needed goddamn indexes.
Liam took mercy on him an hour later, closing his book and asking, “Practice?”
“Yes, please.” Kade didn’t add, ‘for the rest of the day.’ Liam would never go for that. He followed Liam to the workroom.
Liam’s magic pushing into him was such a strange sensation, but fuck, it felt amazing. Even if it was a gigantic tease—an hour of making out with no prospect of a climax in sight, leaving him aching for release.
Liam might not be his mate, but Kade hoped whoever he bonded would be willing to do this to him. This and so much more. He needed to get fucked while he was full of magic. It had to be beyond pleasurable.
That wasn’t all he wanted, and he wasn’t the only one who wanted it. He sensed Liam’s desires. Magic sparked in his veins, rushing through him, exhilarating and provocative. His imagination ran wild with the idea of pinning Liam down and fucking him in the workroom.
But he was being good. It was a new thing he was trying. He couldn’t say he recommended it though.
They settled into a rhythm tossing the fireball back and forth, but concentrating on that was difficult with the buzz of arousal in his system. He tried to distract himself by thinking of the least sexy things possible, and one in particular kept popping into his head.
“So, you’re planning to do research in between your research?”
Liam nodded.
That sounded like pure torture to Kade, but everyone had their kinks, so he shouldn’t judge. “About mage history?”
“Yeah. Even before this started, I wanted to create a comprehensive record of mage knowledge. The library itself isn’t truly comprehensive. It’s mainly books that have been donated, often from family lines that have died out, but it’s the largest collection we have. However, you have to physically go there to read the books. Not everyone can do that, but they should still have access to that information.”
“The archiving project you mentioned?”
“Yes. Our knowledge is compartmentalized, with each mage family or apprentice line specializing in something and keeping their own records.”
“Wards. Our pack mages frequently excelled at wards.”
That made Liam grin. “As if we needed another sign pointing to how Elijah was meant to be here.”
Kade agreed. Elijah was perfect for their pack. Perfect for Victor. There was no denying that.
“Just so you know,” he said, unable to help himself. “Shifters prefer oral.”
Whenever Liam gave him that flat look, all it did was make Kade want to poke at him more.
“Lengthy, deep, thorough oral.”
Liam stared at him blankly as he plucked the fireball out of the air and tossed it back, but there was a soft brush of amusement against Kade’s mind.
“Seriously, though. Shifter history tends to be passed from one generation to another through oral storytelling, but our pack has quite a bit written down. I’m guessing thanks to our mages, because we’re a total outlier.”
Interest glittered in Liam’s eyes. “I bet your pack mages had knowledge about wards that no one else did. That they had grimoires and books that were one of a kind, just like any other family of mages has spells only they know. That’s why I wanted to archive the library. When knowledge is fragmented, when it’s not shared, it’s easily lost. Yes, the library has a massive amount of books, but what if something happens to it? All that information, all that learning, might be lost.”
A thought hit Kade. “Alexandria. You named your dog after the Library of Alexandria?”
The way Liam beamed at him for making that connection felt like a victory, like a reward. “I found her right after I’d heard the horror story of the Great Library being burned to the ground. I know that’s not what happened now, but at the time, my seven-year-old self was very traumatized by it, and it’s stuck with me over the years. My parents are big on family trips, and around that time, they took me to the mage library. It was the coolest place I’d ever been, but I kept thinking, ‘What would happen if there was a fire?’ A librarian assured me they had safeguards in place, but still.”
“That’s the inspiration for your project?”
“More or less. Long story short, we visited there again when I was older, and I started corresponding with the head librarian. I think he was happy someone younger was interested in the minutia of how the library runs and how they preserve the books. He offered me a job after I completed my apprenticeship. I pitched archiving the library so more mages could access its information, and he helped me secure funding from the mage council for the project.”
“It’ll go online?”
“Yes, but it’s just a start. I’ve always hoped to get the other mage libraries around the world to join the project after it’s established. What’s happening here has reaffirmed how important that is. Take finding information on these damn spirits, for example. It has to be out there. Some mage somewhere has to know what they are, but we’ve been so insular and fragmented for so long, finding those answers seems almost impossible. That was excusable before modern technology made the world so interconnected, but now? The current state of things is untenable.”
“And that led you to research mage and shifter history?”
“No, that rabbit hole started with Elijah and Victor’s situation. Like I was saying in the forest, I believe true bonds were more common than our records show, so I’ve been searching for references, and I’m hoping I can fill in the blanks in our shared history and make it available via the archive.”
“But you said the books from that time are missing pages.”
“They are, so I’ve had to get creative. Even if the direct references to true bonds were removed, there must be some remaining traces, right? Like that warning about compatible couples and sex rituals. I’ve found a few other hints too. Nothing direct, but inferences can be made.”
“You think there’s more in older texts?”
“Older texts or things derived from older sources.”
Kade frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Specifically? I’m looking into mythology.”
“ Oh .”
Liam pointed to his head. “I felt that. You lit up in my mind. Light-bulb moment?”
Kade nodded.
“Tell me. What did you come up with?”
“Shifters and myths. There are a bunch of legends that likely came from humans stumbling across something they shouldn’t, or hearing about it and not understanding it, and then incorporating it into their belief system. Like Romulus and Remus might have been inspired by some human seeing pre-shifting age kids playing with their pack. Or some horny swan shifter got caught boning someone’s wife, and suddenly he’s a god because, obviously, what else would explain it?”
“Exactly! It’s the same for us. I’m under the impression that mages, shifters, and other supernatural creatures weren’t as careful in those days. They didn’t have to be. So many things weren’t explained, and there were no photographs or videos.”
“We’ve definitely had to become more careful as technology has progressed. It’s harder to keep our existence secret when everyone has a camera and the internet in their pocket. You can’t escape a pissed-off husband by shifting into a large bird and flying off the way you used to.”
Liam snorted. “Speaking from personal experience?”
“Nah, man. My dick isn’t getting anywhere near a cheater. They can fuck right off.”
People had called him a fuckboy, but he did have standards.
“So,” Kade continued, “there are stories about true bonds in myths?”
“Maybe? They’re some of our oldest records. Plus there are a ton of powerful magic users in mythology, and quite a few of them have familiars or an association with animals of some sort. Hecate had her pack of dogs, for example.”
“True bonds between shifters and mages are literally the things myths and legends are made of?”
“The one fact we know for absolute certain is that mages who are true-bonded to shifters are the strongest, and what I’ve seen of Elijah and Victor confirms it. I don’t know the full extent of what Elijah can do with his magic now; I honestly doubt he knows, and it’s just starting. To some human unaware of magic, even to the average mage, he has godlike power.”
That made a hell of a lot of sense. Increased power and access to shifter energy were part of the reason transactional bonds appealed to some mages, and that new level of magic didn’t begin to compare to what came from a true bond.
Kade caught the fireball and blinked. He’d completely forgotten they’d been tossing it between them.
“I… was not paying attention to throwing this the entire time we were talking. Were you?” He tossed the ball.
Liam looked surprised, then grinned as he snagged it. “I was not. Okay. I think that’s a good sign. Enough messing around.”
“I feel obligated to point out that we haven’t messed around at all.”
“ Anyway , I should try to use your energy directly again.”
“I will do my best to keep my hands to myself. Or, well, as much to myself as I can while touching you.”
Shaking his head, Liam scooted forward, and Kade met him halfway.
Liam held out his hand. “At least we know what to expect, so we should be able to control ourselves.”
That was easier said than done.
Once Kade’s palm pressed against Liam’s, once Liam channeled his energy, their bond blazed to life, hotter than the fire they’d been throwing, more alive, burning brighter. A delicious heat spiraled out from his heart, along the lines of the magical tattoos on his chest, matching the patterns lighting up on Liam’s arms and the ember glow of his eyes. Awareness of Liam filled him—his racing pulse, his shuddering breaths.
No, if they wanted to talk about easy, denying this wasn’t it. But covering Liam with his body, rocking against him, fucking him senseless? Now that would be easy. Effortless. What Kade was made to do.
Even without the ability to smell, Kade sensed how turned on Liam was, how arousing he found the rush of Kade’s energy, how he wanted to open himself up to it and let Kade fill him, stretch him.
Kade shivered at the thought. It had only been two days. How was he going to survive another three weeks of this?
The instinctual need to breathe in Liam’s scent was too strong to deny. He inhaled. Nothing registered to him, but his wolf rumbled its pleasure.
He had to focus and get himself under control. He should also consider constantly wearing sweats around Liam, because his jeans were too tight too often when they were together.
Liam channeled the faintest trickle of energy from Kade to light the candles. There was still a fireball larger than he’d meant to create, but it wasn’t massive. It lit three in the middle and didn’t leave them in a puddle of wax.
That was progress.
Liam let out a shaky exhale and dropped Kade’s hand, swaying slightly as the orange glow faded from his tattoos.
“As long as that’s the worst of it,” he said, “I’m getting the hang of it.”
Kade chuckled darkly. “The full moon is coming.” He already felt her call, and his energy would swell with her.
Liam froze, his eyes widening. “Well, fuck.”
“Unfortunately not.”
“Okay,” Liam said, trying to regroup. “After that. If the guys haven’t trapped all the spirits, we’ll get back out there.”
Kade refrained from sighing. Four days of research as his wolf grew more restless, more in need of fucking their mate.
Yeah. This was going to be fun.
They stood, adjusting themselves, and headed upstairs.
Kade stared at the table of books. “Any chance we could keep tossing the ball around as we research?”
The sheer horror that washed through him was staggering. He glanced at Liam and found his mouth hanging open, his expression one of complete betrayal.
“Ah. Never mind. No throwing fire around the priceless magical books.”
Liam nodded solemnly.
Kade did sigh as they got back to their research.
They worked for several more hours, supervised by Lady’s judgmental glare and chaperoning presence, before heading home with no answers to show for it and another awkward dinner to face. The previous night, the pack had been holding themselves back from commenting so hard they’d seemed ready to choke on their own tongues. When anyone neared a breaking point, Victor would clear his throat and give them a stern look, and they’d snap their mouths shut, but that didn’t stop their unspoken opinions from hovering over the table, palpable and oppressive. But what did he expect? Subtlety was not a trait their pack had ever embraced. It was a miracle no one had told him how badly he’d fucked up yet, but the chances of that lasting until the new moon were nonexistent.
As they walked into the pack house, he braced himself for the sideways glances that would be served during the meal. This was not how he’d pictured spending his third night bonded, not even close.