Chapter 55
Chapter Fifty-Five
Ilyas
The night before we went back on shift again, there was a knock on the door. Shoulders stiffened, everyone went on alert, and Otis pulled his phone from his pocket to check the cameras.
“It’s a bicycle courier. The mage company that operates out of the city,” he rumbled, and Eric stood, heading to the door. I stood too, standing at his back as he swung it open to face a small female mage with two long braids and freckles across her nose.
“I have a registered letter for Ilyas Nightson.”
Tilting his head to the side, Eric stared at the little mage. “Did you ride all the way out here?”
She grinned. “The tip was really good. So, are you Ilyas Nightson?”
I stepped forward, holding out a hand. “I am.”
She handed me a clipboard. “Sign at the bottom.” I stroked the pen across the bottom of the paperwork and exchanged it for a small envelope.
“Have a good night,” she chirped and climbed back onto her bike, heading out into the darkness once more.
The letter was on expensive stationery, and I knew what it was before we even opened it.
“Who sends a courier out on country roads at night? That’s a death wish,” Hailey grumbled while Otis stared at his phone, his fingers flying across the screen.
Eric frowned. “What’s he doing?”
Louis laughed, dragging Hailey into his lap.
He always seemed to be touching her, kissing her, or whispering things in her ear.
My werewolf friend was smitten. “Big O doesn’t like that a mage could walk up to the front door and knock before his cameras picked up her existence. He’s ordering more cameras.”
I had a feeling that it was less to do with gaps in our security and more to do with the little mage herself. I set the envelope down on the table, and Hailey eyed it like it was a bomb.
“What is it?”
“An invitation, I imagine.” I flipped it over and lifted the wax seal. Pulling out the heavy cardstock, I gave it an annoyed look. It was indeed an invitation.
An invitation to my bonding party. Fucking Adrik.
Eric read it over my shoulder, his eyebrows climbing high. “Seriously?”
Hailey was leaning over the back of the couch now, somehow still on Louis’s lap, and his face was buried in her boobs. He seemed happy to be suffocated. “What is it?”
“A celebration of our bonding. For next week.”
She slumped onto Louis’s lap, but her eyes still held mine. “Can they do that? You left the flight.”
I shrugged. “They can do whatever they like. We aren’t obligated to attend. Let them throw their party without us.”
Eric’s eyes traced over my face. “What’s the catch?” This was why he was a good lawyer.
“The catch is that I would be forever excluded from my kind in this city. They take social etiquette seriously, and not attending a party thrown in my honor would be like spitting in their eye.”
“You could never go home,” he said softly, and I reached out, squeezing his shoulder.
“This is home.”
Syke took the invitation from my hand. “Not yet, it isn’t. You need to bond first.” He looked over the invitation, his nose curled up in disapproval. “No time like the present. What’s the procedure for gargoyles?”
Syke’s eyes swirled wildly, and he was barely hiding his smirk, so I had a feeling he already knew the procedure for bonding. I gave him a glare.
“It depends.”
He’d piqued Hailey’s interest now. “On?”
“On the level of connection you want. For direct mental links or a close, romantic bond, you bond during sex, much like weres. That would also bond me with the others who also share a bond with that person. We call that person the lodestar of a familial flight. A lodestar is the nexus of a series of groups within a family.”
“But there’s no limit to how many close bonds you can have, right? Say, if you wanted a direct mental link to both Eric and Hailey?”
“No. No limit.”
A wide grin split Syke’s face. He went to the high cupboard and used his shadows to pull down a bottle of whiskey we’d found up there yesterday, obviously forgotten by the previous owners. “You know what that means?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, because I knew exactly what he was going to say.
“What’s that?” Hailey asked innocently.
“Orgy bonding time,” he crowed, and Hailey’s eyes went wide.
Otis shot from his seat on the other side of the room, his ears flicking wildly. “Uh—” He cleared his throat. “I’ll just be in my room. Early night. Work tomorrow, you know. Night.” I’d never seen the big minotaur move that fast.
Hailey gave Syke a stern look. “You embarrassed Otis.”
Whatever would happen, this conversation was going to need some thirty-year-old whiskey. This whiskey was older than my future bond mate. Fuck, what was I doing?
“Otis could use a little shake up, and we both know it.” Syke placed some glasses in front of me, and I dutifully played bartender. “Do you still want to bond?” he asked me softly.
I looked between Hailey and Eric, and I nodded. “Yes.”
“And do you, Eric and Hailey, take him to be your lawfully, bonded wife?” he said in a faux British accent.
Hailey laughed. “I do.”
“We do,” Eric added.
“Then I now pronounce you curmudgeonly gargoyle and flight. You may now fuck your future partners.”
Louis threw his head back against the headrest of the couch. “Jesus fucking Christ, Syke.”
I handed one of the cut crystal glasses to Eric. “Are you both sure?”
Hailey whispered something in Louis’s ear, and he squeezed her ass but let her go.
She walked over to the counter, and I sipped my whiskey, my eyes locked on her face.
She stopped in front of me and took the glass from my hand.
Hailey took a large sip and winced as it burned on the way down, then she handed the glass back, standing on her tiptoes. “Would you like to kiss me, Ilyas?”
Fuck. I did. I wanted to fuck her until she was undone. I wanted to fuck her until both sets of cheeks were flushed like bitten cherries. “I am not a gentle lover,” I growled, leaning forward until my lips were close to hers.
“I’m not breakable.” She was wrong, but I wasn’t about to argue.
I brushed my lips against hers, testing their softness and tasting her.
When I knew the shape of them and the sensation of her little gasps against my lips, I deepened the kiss.
I slid my hand into her hair and gave her my wildness.
She met my tongue in her mouth, her soft body curling around mine.
She tasted like aged whiskey, but it tasted better on her tongue than in any glass.
By the time she pulled back to breathe, her eyes were wild.
I continued to hold her close as I moved my mouth to Eric’s.
I’d never kissed an orc before, though I’d had my fair share of male lovers throughout the years, mostly innately sexual creatures like the shifters and weres.
Most creatures were fluid with their sexual partners, with the exception of a few—orcs being one of them.
Feeling the press of his tusks and the battle for control of the kiss was wildly arousing.
With Hailey pressed between us, it felt right.
Louis cleared his throat, and I pulled back.
I expected him to be mad that I was manhandling his newly minted mate, but he was watching her with a hot expression and a half hard cock.
“Don’t look at me like that, Ilyas. I’ve seen your cock, and I’m more of a top kind of wolf.
” He threw me a wink. “But we should definitely take this upstairs to the bedroom. Whatever Syke has planned needs a really big bed.”
Hailey chuckled against my chest. I realized I still had her lifted in my arms. Her legs straddled my waist, and her hot little core pressed against my abs.
This was out of control. Her hand came up to cup my jaw, her eyebrows pulled tight enough that there was a little crease between them.
“Are you sure this is what you want, Ilyas? We’ll make you happy?
” She kept her voice soft and her eyes locked on mine like she could find the answer in my eyes.
The certainty that flowed through me in that moment chased away any doubt.
This was meant to be. I’d fought being mated for so long, yet I’d rolled over in an instant when these two had come into my life.
It was because deep down, my beast knew they were his, and that this odd assortment of creatures were his to covet and cherish.
I tilted my head down and touched my forehead to hers. “Yes, and I promise to the old gods, upon the moon goddess in the sky, and the sun goddess asleep beyond the horizon that I’ll make you happy too.”
The smile she gave me made me think perhaps the sun goddess had risen early.