Bertholde squeezed hard. Lina’s eyes widened as it felt like a shockwave washed through her. She knew Brodey felt it, because his fingers tightened on her shoulders.
Then the Seer let go and smiled. “The wolf and his Clan are, from here on, considered part of us and ours. Goddess, take your mates.”
Brodey stepped back. Zack released Lina’s hand and she turned to face Rick and Jan. Both men smiled. “I love you guys.”
“I love you, too,” the men echoed, frowning a little at each other before smiling again.
She laughed and squeezed their hands. She kissed Jan, then Rick, then closed her eyes and enjoyed the feel of both of them tightly wrapping their arms around her and hugging her.
Her men. This was where she belonged, no doubt about it.
Old Faithful erupted, sending a burst of boiling water and steam high into the air. With an arm draped around each man’s waist, they watched it together until it finished.
“What now?” she softly asked.
Rick nuzzled the top of her head. “Want lunch? Or we can do something else. We’ve got over six hours before dinner.”
“Yeah,” Jan joked. “We can go see what you make erupt.”
She laughed, blushing. “Well, let’s go then.” She hugged the other men. “We’ll see you at dinner.”
Brodey smiled. “It’s a date.”
Zack and Kael were going to do a little sightseeing. “We’ll catch up to you later, kiddo,” Zack said as he hugged her.
Uncle Andel stepped in to offer his congratulations.
“You are beautiful,” he said, smiling. “I feel honored you are our Goddess.”
Lina blushed. “Um, yeah, okay.”
Bertholde softly laughed. “Don’t put her on the spot, Andel.” The old woman hugged her tightly. “I pass the torch to you, love,” she whispered in Lina’s ear. “You are more than worthy. Trust your instincts, trust your heart, and trust your men.”
“Pass what torch?”
Bertholde stepped back. “Time for a younger generation to untangle the convoluted skeins of the past.”
As she walked away, Zack snarked, “I knew it was too good to be true, that she couldn’t just leave without getting the final word.”
* * * *
Lina opted to skip lunch and go straight for dessert—her men. They would leave for the airport in the morning, arriving in Florida the next evening. Lina finally had time to enjoy her men and relax alone with them. In their room, Jan undressed and lay back on the bed. She knelt over him, kissing him while Rick carefully unlaced her corset.
“Fucking thing,” he muttered. “I should cut the damn laces.”
“Don’t you dare,” she warned.
“I’m just sayin’. Shouldn’t take an engineering degree to get you naked.” He mumbled something under his breath in a foreign language that she suspected was a few choice epithets directed at Zack for picking the garment. He finally figured it out and loosened it enough to slide it up and over her head. She rolled off Jan and the men rid her of her skirt and underwear. Then she straddled Jan again, with Rick kneeling behind her, playing with her breasts. His warm hands cupped and massaged them, his thumbs grazing her nipples and turning them into hard peaks.
His hot, stiff cock rubbed against her ass as he nibbled on her neck. “Beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous.”
“And absolutely ours,” Jan murmured. Passion darkened his eyes to the deep blue of Yellowstone Lake.
“Get the lube,” she softly said. “I want both of you again.”
Rick needed no further urging. He scrambled off the bed, found the lube, and quickly returned.
Lina kissed Jan as she teased him, rubbing herself against his hard, cool shaft. He splayed his hands around her hips and lifted her, impaling her pussy on his cock, sighing when she’d engulfed him to the hilt.
“Jesus, baby, that’s the best feeling in the world right there,” he said. His hands skimmed up her back until he fisted one in her hair and took a few slow, deep thrusts into her while he kissed her. “I could spend all day with my cock inside you.”
“Until I make you share her,” Rick snarked. He slowly worked lube into her ass with one finger, then two, feeling her body respond to his attention as he loosened her tight hole.
A low, pleasant tingle started somewhere around the base of her spine, spreading, different than the way an orgasm normally took her. She ground her hips against Jan as his tongue plunged deeply into her mouth, fucking her there the way his shaft possessed her sex.
Lina lifted her head. “Now, dammit, Rick!”
He pressed the thick head of his cock against her rim and she thrust back, hard, impaling herself to the root as her muscles tightly sheathed his shaft.
Rick leaned forward, feathering his lips up her spine and across her shoulders as she took over and found the motion that worked for her. Jan’s hands slipped between them and found her nipples.
She buried her face against his neck. “Pinch them harder,” she gasped, wanting it, needing it.
He did, and she let out a low moan as the sensation at the base of her spine thickened, coalesced, like a supernova building in strength and size. This didn’t feel like any other orgasm she’d had. And with the two brothers, she’d had plenty of them. She felt the men give up trying to help, simply there for her to use as she rode their twin cocks, fucking them hard, driving them as deeply inside her body as she could.
Lina closed her eyes and arched her back against Rick, biting down on Jan’s shoulder to stifle her scream as the first explosion ripped loose and engulfed her body. White heat and icy cold spiraled through her, slicing nerves and sending her somewhere she’d never been.
She opened her eyes. A deep blue light shadowed everything around her. It felt like time had slowed, stopped. Unsure what happened, it seemed like she was now floating with the stars somewhere, not fucking her brains out and having the absolute best orgasm she’d ever had in her life.
She watched as a dark, cloaked figure wielding a knife crossed her field of vision and disappeared through a door that suddenly materialized before her. A door that looked like a door to one of the Yellowstone cabins—
A second orgasm hit her, slamming her back into her body and leaving her gasping for air. She imagined the ground trembled as her muscles clenched around the large twin cocks buried within her pussy and ass.
“Now!” she gasped. Both men thrust, trying to come with her. As they did she felt them together, hot and cool, joining her. She threw her head back against Rick’s shoulder and moaned at the exquisite, nearly painful climax robbing her of coherent thought.
As her body recovered, she melted against her men. They rolled to their sides, Lina still safely sandwiched between them and their softening cocks still buried inside her body, as she sank into a deep, sated sleep.
* * * *
Brodey lay in bed, arms crossed behind his head. He occasionally heard passionate noises from next door, but it was okay.
He felt calm, that’s all he cared about.
He heard Lina cry out as slight tremor rumbled through the campground area. In the distance, he heard several of the geysers simultaneously erupt.
He closed his eyes and snickered. There she blows. Lucky bastards.
Jealous? Honestly? No. He knew, and accepted, she was taken. Law of the Ancients of their Clan, you don’t take someone else’s mate. Period.
While she was cute and all, and, yes, he did love her, and, yes, under other circumstances he might feel differently about her, he had to live in the here and now.
Next to him, the young waitress he’d spent the afternoon boinking smiled and stretched, then leaned over and kissed him. “I’ve got to go,” she said. “I need to set out the dinner buffet.”
He smiled and rolled on top of her for one last kiss. “Thanks for a fun afternoon.” They’d locked eyes in the lodge after the Ceremony, when he’d gone looking for a cup of coffee. A few minutes of flirting later, and she said she wasn’t l
ooking for anything more than fun because she despised long distance relationships.
He’d felt nothing more than a rock hard boner when he looked at her.
She grinned. “Have a safe trip back to Florida.” She pecked him on the nose. He watched her dress and leave.
Brodey sighed and closed his eyes, content. Maybe not totally happy, but feeling better, a little more relaxed. He raised his hand and rested his fingers on the wall behind him, letting the calm wash over him.
* * * *
They all met outside the cabin at seven to walk to the lodge for dinner. Halfway there, they heard a scream from another cabin. As one, they all turned and ran toward the source. One of Bertholde’s handlers, the woman, stood sobbing outside the cabin door.
Jan, Rick, and Brodey pushed in while Zack pulled Lina back.
The man usually with the Seer looked up from where he stood over the bed. “Someone murdered her! We came to wake her, and she didn’t answer.” The ornate ornamental knife sticking out of her chest was a clear indication of the manner of death.
Brodey reached over and touched her arm, lifting it. “She’s been dead for a while. Her body’s already cool, and she’s getting stiff.”
Rick looked at him quizzically.
Brodey shrugged. “I watch CSI.” He looked closer. “Wait a minute. That knife looks like the one I took from Chicken Little’s tent.”
Jan and Rick exchanged a glance. “Where did you leave it?”
“It was in the bag with the book and other shit I gave to Zack.” The three men raced out.
“Zack, where’s the bag Brodey gave you?” Jan called out.
Zack had his arm around Lina’s shoulder. She looked shell-shocked over the turn of events. He pointed at her with his free hand and made a not right now, hellooo, what the fuck? face at Jan.
Rick looked at Kael. “We need to get to your room. Now.”
At a run, they followed Kael and retrieved the knapsack Brodey toted out of the woods. Jan dumped it onto the bed. Rick found the knife and they bolted from the room.
“This isn’t the one that killed her,” Rick said. “That clears Zack.”
The men raced back to the Seer’s cabin, where Uncle Andel had showed up. The news had been broken to Lina, who cried on Zack’s shoulder.
Rick, Jan, and Brodey pushed into the cabin. Rick held the knife up to the one sticking out of the elderly woman.
The ornate handles were a perfect match.
Andel shoved his way into the tiny room and stared at the two knives. “What does this mean?” he quietly asked.
Brodey looked at him. “It means you got a serious fucking problem.”
* * * *
Zack kept his arm around Lina for the walk to the lodge while Brodey protectively flanked her other side and Cail and Micah followed close behind them. Many of the shifters had already left that afternoon. It would be nearly impossible to tell who had committed the murder.
Lina trembled, grieving the Seer’s death. Rick, Jan, and Kael were busy with Andel and his gang of enforcers, trying to narrow down exactly when the murder happened and cleaning up the aftermath. They couldn’t call the Park Police into it, not for a shifter matter.
Brodey and Zack settled on either side of Lina, their arms around her shoulders, on the large sofa in front of the windows overlooking Old Faithful. Cail and Micah sat nearby, on edge, keeping watch, their guard up.
“She knew,” Lina whispered. “Remember what she said to us earlier? ‘I won’t be here much longer.’” She cried again. “Then after the Ceremony, when she hugged me, she said she was passing the torch to me.” Lina gasped. “Oh my God, she knew she would die!” Memories of what she experienced while making love to Rick and Jan came back with full clarity. “I think I saw her killer!”
The men stared at her. “What?”
She blushed deep red, then lowered her voice so only Brodey and Zack could hear. “Earlier, when…the guys and I…” Okay, maybe she couldn’t say it.
“The earth moved, didn’t it, baby girl?” Zack softly teased.
Brodey snickered. “I wasn’t the only one who noticed, huh?”
She glared at them. “All right, fine.” She took a deep breath. “When I really felt it, it’s like I had a vision or something. I saw someone in a cloak enter a cabin door. They carried knife.”
Zack frowned. “But you didn’t see their face?”
“No. I couldn’t tell you if it was a man or a woman.”
Brodey nervously glanced around. No one else heard except Cail and Micah. He directed his next comment at Zack. “Dude, we’re on the same flights home tomorrow. Do not let anyone else but Rick and Jan and Kael hear her talk about that shit, okay?”
“We’ve got to tell Andel.”
Cail stood, stepped forward, and gravely shook his head. “Brodey’s right. Whoever it is, it could be someone close to Andel. If they think they’re in danger of exposure, her life could be at risk. As it is, you should seriously consider extra security for her.”
“Three dragons at home aren’t enough?”
“Were they enough for your Seer?” Brodey shot back.
Zack clenched his jaw. “You’re telling me there’s a traitor?”
“I’m not saying anything you haven’t already thought of. Tell me I’m wrong.”
Lina looked up at him. “Zack?”
He stroked her chin. “I didn’t want to worry you. When we found out about Kael’s family and the book… Sugar, I won’t lie to you. It could get bad. Really bad. You’ve seen the prophecies.”
“How many people know about Lina?” Brodey asked.
“Well, fuck me. Andel introduced her all over the place this week.”
“But how many people know about her powers?”
Zack stared at him for a while. “Bertholde knew some of it. Most people don’t.”
Brodey nodded. “Safer for her if you keep it that way. I strongly suggest working with her and helping her figure out her powers. As in, it should be your first priority as soon as you get her home. The sooner she can use them, the sooner she can help protect herself.” He stood. “Let’s eat. After dinner we’ll talk about setting up a guard for tonight.” Zack nodded his agreement.
“I don’t need a guard!” Lina protested.
“I have to agree with him,” Cail spoke up. “One of Brodey’s specialties in battle is strategy.”
“We’re not at war!” she protested, then thought about it. “Are we?”
“Yeah, sweetie,” Zack sadly said as he stroked her chin. “We are.”
* * * *
After a mostly sleepless night for everyone, they caravanned out of Yellowstone’s east entrance and back to the airport in Cody. Rick and Jan insisted Brodey ride with them, agreeing with Brodey’s assessment of the situation and wanting more back-up to protect Lina.
They even stood guard outside the ladies room when she ducked inside before boarding the flight. When she turned from the mirror, she nearly screamed at the sight of Baba Yaga standing there, in her crone form.
“Well played, Goddess. Nicely done.”
“I could have used a little help!”
She shrugged. “No, you did fine. Keep your wolf and his kin close.”
“What the hell is going on? Who killed Bertholde?”
The crone’s eyes narrowed. “The prophecies will be fulfilled. How is yet to be determined. Even I cannot influence some things. There are those who are set on eliminating all others. They have made enemies of people who do not yet know they are in harm’s way. If you are to survive, you must form strong, trusted allies now.”
“And Brodey and his brothers are important?”
Baba Yaga nodded. “In a manner of speaking. In the future especially. You shall be as important to them as they are now to you. Follow the path you have chosen, Zaria. Stay true to yourself, and those you love and who love you, and you shall prevail.” She disappeared in a cloud of grey smoke.
Fuck. I reeeally hate fortu
ne cookies.
During the flight to Denver on the smaller plane, Zack sat next to her and Brodey sat across the aisle, reaching over to hold her hand as necessary. For the flight to Tampa, Jan talked to the gate agent and got his seat switched so Brodey and Zack could sit on either side of Lina on the larger plane. Jan and Rick sat behind, while Cail, Kael, and Micah sat a row ahead.
“I feel like I’ve got bodyguards,” she griped.
Zack smiled. “Duh. Precious cargo, kiddo.”
Safely arriving in Tampa, they parted ways after claiming their luggage. The men made arrangements to get together at the Lyall ranch in Arcadia. Brodey stepped aside with Lina for one last hug.
“Be careful,” he whispered. “Let them protect you.”
“Remember your promise,” she said.
He looked down at her and smiled. “Don’t worry, Goddess Girl. You’ve helped me see the sunrise. The world doesn’t look as dark as it did before.” He kissed the top of her head and hugged her one last time. “I’ll be patient,” he whispered.
Rick and Jan also said their goodbyes, hugging the wolf shifters and waving when their cab departed. Kael wrangled their luggage and got a minivan cab to take them home.
Inside, Zack made way for Rick and Jan to sit next to Lina. Nearly ten at night, she was exhausted and wanted to go to sleep. As she tipped her head onto Rick’s shoulder, she closed her eyes and felt her mind slip.
The scene changed. She stood on a cold, chilly moor, watching two groups of kilt-clad Highlanders gathered around a raging fire and discussing a woman standing to the side.
Ysimel.
The image ended and Lina’s eyes popped open. Oh, fucking fantastic. This was like having funky cable that blipped in and out without a channel guide.
She stared out the window and watched I-75 slip past in the darkness. She hoped Brodey could hold onto his newly found peace until he and his brothers met their One.
* * * *
Brodey stared out the cab window. They’d spend the night at Micah’s. He’d drive them home tomorrow and spend a few days on the ranch with them, going over this latest round of bullshit. If there was trouble ahead with these cockatrice assholes, they needed to be ready. Lina and the dragons would drive down in two days. They’d bring the book and other artifacts with them. Maybe Ain’s Clan contacts could help them decipher the writing and give them some clues to who these fucks were.