Page 38 of Accidental Blood Lust
“I can’t remember,” Mac admits, “but my dragon feels sure that we took something from a fae prince a while back.”
“That’s the other thing about fae—how can theyallbe princes?” Drax asks.
“Can we stop fucking joking around?” I growl through clenched teeth. “Lochlan is in danger.”
Roman nudges my hand with his nose and then gently laps at my fingertips to reassure me, even though he’sstillin wolf form, stress panting.
“I know he doesn’t have the best track record so far, but you’re still thinking of him as the fragile human he used to be. Lochlan isa vampire now, with fangs and super speed and near indestructibility. When his back is against the wall, his survival instincts will come out.”
I take a deep breath and try to let Cassius’s words sink in. He’s right; in spite of everything, in my head Loch is still a helpless human, but that’s not who he is anymore.
“We’ll go to the hoard and look around for anything that might have come from the fae,” Drax says, wrapping his arms around his mate. Mac nods and leans into the demon.
“Everybody have a snack, take a nap, and we’ll be back.” Mac winks and then the two of them vanish.
“Mac’s right, everyone should take some time to regroup and recharge so we can be ready when they get back to head into the fae realm and get your man back.” Rune’s looking at Roman as he speaks.
“I’ll go fill Auri in, you two rest up.” Cassius pats me on the shoulder before leaving the room.
“You sticking with wolf form?” I ask Roman. He whines again and I scratch behind his ears. “Come find us the second they’re back?”
Rune is already engrossed in reading again, but Atlas nods and gives me a reassuring smile. I tangle my fingers in Roman’s fur, and he leads me out of the room and through the hallways back to his quarters. I’m not sure if I’m in shock or if I’ve just reached my mental limit for stress, but by the time we get to his room, I feel like I could sleep for hours.
We step inside and I close the door, kicking off my shoes and nudging them off to the side so they won’t be in the way.
“I really need you human right now, Rome,” I say quietly, sounding every bit as tired as I feel. The realization that I haven’tslept in the last couple of nights washes over me, not to mention that I’ve cast several energy-draining spells back-to-back.
Roman pants and grunts, and slowly his fur ripples and his body trembles and contorts until there’s a naked man kneeling in front of me instead of a giant wolf. He doesn’t bother trying to cover his nudity. Something I learned from years of living with wolf shifters is that body shame is a very human concept.
My mind is a chaotic mess of worry over Lochlan and jealousy that I’m sure I have no right to. Neither of them aremine, even if I love them both. And he still hasn’t confirmed my suspicions, but somehow I know. There’s something between them. He wouldn’t have gone wolf like that if there wasn’t.
“Do you want to take a nap?” he asks, getting to his feet and dragging his fingers through his wild hair to tame it.
I nod and start to shuffle towards the bed. He snags a pair of shorts from a drawer and then joins me, pulling the blankets back so we can crawl in together. Neither of us have to say anything, we just instinctively scoot into the center of the large bed and wrap our arms around each other.
“The spell to get to the underworld and that one I just helped Rune with to locate Loch were both much stronger magic than I usually do, and I’m sure the one to get us into the fae realm won’t be as easy as he made it sound either.”
A worried look crosses Roman’s face, and he gently cards his fingers through my hair.
“Rest. That will help,” he says.
“It will. But just to be safe, maybe…”
I lick my lips and weigh my words. I don’tneedit. He’s right—rest will help and I can already feel my power recharging just from his touch and the immense energy in the compound. But I want it. I want comfort and reassurance, and I want to pretend for a few more hours that I’m not about to lose the two men who hold my heart. Even if Cassius is right and Loch is completelyfine when we get to him, whatever is going on between him and Roman is going to change things, and I’ve learned enough lessons in my life to know that things rarely change for the better.
“Tell me, Jare.”
“Kiss me?” I whisper.
Roman’s breath catches and I’m close enough to see his pupils dilate instantly. I open my mouth to keep talking, prepared to give him my whole spiel about how mage magic works and how much innate energy and power shifters hold, but before I can say any of that, his lips slam into mine.
I moan and melt into him instantly. Sparks of energy crackle between our lips as he slides his tongue into my mouth, tangling it with mine. My cock stiffens against his belly even though I already know that we won’t go further than a kiss. I would if he wanted me, but we played this scenario out more than once when we were younger and it always ended the same way; with both of us hard and panting and Roman painfully explaining to me that sex would only make this more difficult.
His needy grunt vibrates around my tongue and his erection notches against mine, both of us hard and throbbing. My magic buzzes in my core and hums along the surface of my skin, recharging to full power within a few seconds.
Roman wrenches his lips away from mine and I let out an embarrassing whimper. His breathing is fast and heavy, and even without super senses, I swear I can smell the lust on him. He rests his forehead against mine and presses a peck to the tip of my nose.
“Rest, beautiful. We need to be at full strength to go into the fae realm and get our—” he clears his throat. “Lochlanback.”
