Brighde gently poked her older sister in the shoulder. “Martyr.”
She shrugged. “I’m the only true Immortal left from our Triad. Someone has to keep the lights on.”
* * * *
Back at the Lyall ranch, Gigi stepped out of the guest bedroom she shared with her mate and husband, Oscar, and slipped outside into the backyard for a little bit of fresh air so she could clear her mind.
Maybe I’m getting too old for this shit. She’d have to get back to helping Lina figure out how to break the curse in a few minutes. Some of the books were hard to decipher, the old languages rusty even in her brain this many centuries hence.
The warmth of a Florida winter sunset hit her in the face as she looked skyward. She’d never expected to meet a man to settle down with, yet that’s exactly what she’d found in Oscar. The Bengal tiger shifter was more than man enough to keep up with her—in bed and out of it.
He didn’t subscribe to any of that bullshit, macho machismo crap, either. He considered her a partner, not a possession.
Maybe if she’d spent her life as a fragile human she might find that kind of domineering behavior adorable, but as an independent Immortal for the vast majority of her life, she found it insufferable.
“Gi?”
His soft voice spoke from behind her. No one else might have sensed his approach, silent like the cat he was, but as his mate she’d sensed his presence and hadn’t startled.
“Yeah.”
His arms slipped around her as he nuzzled the side of her neck. “You all right?”
She let out a content sigh. She felt badly for her sisters, one cursed, and one alone by choice after having lost love.
I feel damn lucky in comparison.
“Had to go talk to Babs.”
“Anything?”
“No.” She stared out at the woods. “She says she didn’t have anything to do with the curse, or know anything about it until Elain figured it out.”
“You believe her?”
“I do.” She tipped her head back to look into his amber eyes. “We might need your help, and Doug’s, in Yellowstone.”
His lips felt warm against her neck. “Anything. You know that.”
She reached up and slipped her fingers through his black, fine, straight hair. His mocha skin always radiated warmth, as if he’d stepped out of a shaft of sunlight, even in the middle of the night.
Tiger, tiger, burning bright…
“Are you worried?” he asked.
“Unfortunately.” She closed her eyes, basking for a few precious seconds in this oh, so perfect moment.
They might have few and far between of those over the next few months. Another reason she opted to take a mate when she met Oscar. By abdicating her Immortal status, she was now free to fight with her friends and adopted family in a way previously denied her before. Since they were called as Clan Seers, as well as mortal-born, the new Triad didn’t face many of the same restrictions she and her sisters had been bound by for so long.
Now she might actually be able to make a difference in the world in a way she’d never felt she could before now.
He lightly pressed his teeth against her flesh. “Our first Christmas together,” he murmured.
“Yes.”
“I know the first thing I’m unwrapping tomorrow morning.”
She turned in his embrace and draped her arms around his neck. “What?”
He smiled, his voice a rumbling purr. “You.”
Chapter Eleven
Brodey pulled his brothers aside before dinner, while Elain and most of the others were distracted talking or by preparing the meal. He closed the door of Cail’s office to give them a little privacy.
“What’s wrong?” Ain asked without hesitation.
“I just wanted to touch base with you guys. Elain’s really under a lot of stress right now.”
Cail jammed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “That’s an understatement.”
“Not just the Seer stuff, or with Callie’s situation. I mean about the baby business.”
“I don’t think that’s going to be an issue,” Ain quietly said. “Not right now.”
“What do you mean?” Brodey asked.
“The other night she started taking her pill again.”
They stared at Ain for a moment. “How do you know that?” Cail finally asked.
He shrugged. “I looked at the package. I was getting something else out of the medicine cabinet and saw it. It was a brand-new pack last week, and now she’s using it again.”
“Oh,” Brodey and Cail softly said.
They all fell quiet for a moment.
“Well,” Brodey said, “that’s okay. It’s probably for the best. One less worry off her plate.” He felt disappointed, but confirmation that she’d once again taken matters into her own hands without talking to them about it first stung a little.
“I warned you both, I’m not going to edict her to get pregnant,” Ain said. “I also won’t edict her to stay on the pill.”
“Calm down, dude.” Brodey sat in the chair next to Cail’s desk. “That’s not what I want, either.”
Cail nodded his assent.
Brodey looked at his brothers. “Do we just admit we know? Tell her it’s okay?”
Cail finally spoke up. “I think regardless of what we tell her, she’s still going to feel bad about it to a certain extent. She knows we’d like to have kids. I think she honestly does want to have kids, too. At some point. Right now she feels conflicted. Rightfully so. Whether she waits or goes ahead, either way, she’s going to beat herself up about it.”
“I think you’re right.” Brodey laced his fingers behind his head and stretched out in the chair. “She’s still overwhelmed. By us, by the Seer stuff, by Liam returning, everything. I’m surprised she hasn’t bitten our heads off.”
Nodding, Ain slowly turned to Cail. “What’d she say to you the other morning during your ride?” he asked.
“Nothing more than I’ve already told you two.”
“I know I don’t have any special psychic abilities that I’m aware of,” Brodey said, “but I’ve got a nasty feeling at the base of my spine that won’t go away.”
His brothers looked at him.
“You know what I’m talking about. That little warning that something’s not right, and it’s going to get more not right until it’s dealt with.”
“About her?” Ain asked.
“I don’t think so.”
“The cockatrice?” Cail asked.
“Maybe. I don’t know. That’s the problem.”
Silence enveloped them for a moment as they mulled things over. “I trust your instincts,” Ain said. “You know for all the shit I give you about stuff, I trust you. You’ve saved our asses more than once because of that instinct.”
“I think waiting on a baby might be best after all,” Cail quietly said.
Brodey and Ain both focused on him. “I know how much you want kids,” Brodey said. “Maybe even more than we do. It’s all right to be honest about it.”
“I am being honest.” Cail’s voice took on an angry tone. “I’m fucking sick and tired of the feeling that our lives are being jerked around by Baba Yaga or something even bigger than us. All these fucking years we looked for our One. Now we have her and we still can’t catch a fucking break no matter how hard we try.”
“And we haven’t found Marston,” Brodey gently added.
“Damn right!” Cail stood and angrily paced the office. “That fucker killed Mom and Dad. We know that for a fact now.”
“We know it because Lina saw it,” Ain said.
“She didn’t see the accident,” Brodey corrected. He looked from Ain to Cail. “Unless she said she did and told you?”
“No, but it’s a good assumption based on what she saw,” Ain said.
“And that’s as good as proof,” Cail countered. “You know it as well as I do. Maybe her powers were hit and miss in the beginning, but her visions are
always dead on. She saved Brodey’s life out in Yellowstone. Hell, she saw us getting together with Elain. I trust her a hell of a lot more than I trust the damn newspaper, if you want the truth.”
Cail ran his hands through his hair. “I want that fucker dead. For good. And I’ve got news for you. If I happen to run across him, or Abernathy, don’t you dare fucking edict me to back off, because I want their throats.”
Ain slowly nodded. “Okay. I’ll give you that. As long as you promise both of us that you won’t put yourself in danger to do it. That wouldn’t be fair to us or Elain.”
Brodey watched as his younger brother pulled up short, as if surprised by Ain’s request. “What are you talking about?”
“Losing you. Us, or her. You’re our brother. We’ve been a team our whole lives.” His lips curved in a smirk. “Life’s no fun without you here to pick on.” His smirk faded. “And look at what happened to Maureen when she lost Liam, and he wasn’t even dead. What might happen to Elain to lose you, or any of us?”
Cail studied his feet for a moment. “Oh.”
Brodey stood and walked over to his brothers, putting a hand out. “Being selfish and trying to stay safe to keep her safe. Yeah, I’m good with that.”
Ain reached over and gripped Brodey’s hand. Cail followed suit.
“Now it’s our first Christmas Eve we don’t have to spend as bachelors,” Brodey said. “Let’s go find our girl and boink her everlovin’ brains out.”
* * * *
Elain was wiping down the kitchen counters before heading to bed when Cail stepped up behind her, hooked an arm around her waist, and began nibbling on the back of her neck.
She tipped her head to the side to give him better access. “I’m almost done.”
“Correction.” He grabbed the dishtowel and tossed it onto the counter. “You are done.” Effortlessly, he scooped her into his arms and headed out of the kitchen.
Laughing, she held an arm out to catch the edge of the kitchen doorway. “Wait. At least let me turn the light off.”
He turned so she could reach the switch before he continued his determined trek across the living room to their bedroom. Ain waited by the door, holding it open for them.
Ain grinned. “And there’s our girl.
“Am I about to get ravished?”
Ain closed the door behind them. “Ravishing is somewhere on the to-do list.”
“I think,” Brodey said, “it’s just before the good hard fucking, and just after the foreplay.”
“Sounds about right to me,” Cail added, his playful brown eyes twinkling.
All three of them looked happy. Felt happy. This much she knew from the waves of their emotions washing though and over her.
When Cail set her down on her feet, she kept her arms draped around his neck. “This is my best Christmas ever.” She looked at Ain and Brodey. “I mean that. Ever.”
“It’s not Christmas yet,” Cail teased. “Maybe it’s going to get even better.”
She wiggled her hips against him. “I mean in a non-sexy way.”
He kissed her. “Maybe I did, too.” She snorted, earning her a smile. “Okay,” he said, “yes, it’s the best Christmas ever.”
The other two brothers stepped close, once again enveloping her in a warm, loving cocoon of emotions. “Best ever,” Ain said.
“What they said,” Brodey added.
Behind her, Ain slid his hands up her sides, catching the hem of her shirt. She let go of Cail and raised her arms so he could pull her shirt up and off her.
Brodey turned her to face him, kissing her while Cail worked on her bra. “Can you edict her to quit wearing these damn things?” he groused as he fumbled with it for a second.
When he finally freed her from it, he reached around her and cupped her breasts in his warm hands. Ain reached around her and unfastened her jeans. He pushed them and her panties down her legs, helping her step out of them while Brodey kept her mouth occupied in a scorching kiss that had stoked the familiar fire deep inside her. Already, she could feel her juices flowing, soaking her cunt and making her clit throb.
Anticipation. Need. Desire. Love.
This and more flowed around and through her as the men slowly began undressing, until the three of them stood pressed against her, the warmth from their flesh also washing through her.
Sexy as hell. She rested her hands against Brodey’s chest. All three men had the same light dusting of hair across their pecs, ending in a dark treasure trail that led to their generous cocks.
All three cocks that were presently hard and poking against her body in various locations.
For a brief moment, the thought of telling them about having started taking the pill again crossed her mind, but she shoved it away. Tonight wasn’t about serious discussions. Tonight was about celebrating the holiday, the good fortune, being surrounded by family and friends and knowing that, for at least the next day or so, they had no worries other than making sure they didn’t accidentally set fire to the house when they deep fried the turkey tomorrow.
She laid her head back and found herself resting against Ain. His hands replaced Cail’s on her breasts as his grey eyes bored down into hers. “Do we really make you happy?”
Hooking a hand around the back of his neck, she tangled her fingers in his dark hair. “Yeah. Beyond words.”
That earned her a smile. He took his responsibilities to both her and his two brothers seriously. It’s what made him a good Prime Alpha. It was one of the things that she loved about him while simultaneously frustrating the hell out of her sometimes.
Pulling his head down, her lips parted for his as he kissed her. He slowly swept his tongue along her lips before venturing deeper, flicking and tasting and giving her a sinfully sweet preview of other things he wanted to do to her with that same tongue, just in a lower location.
Brodey sank to his knees in front of her and spread her labia with his fingers. Warm breath brushed against her clit before his tongue flicked out and swiped along the length of her clit.
Anticipating it, Ain wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her body tightly against his when her knees threatened to give out from the force of the sensation. Brodey buried his face between her legs, licking and sucking on her clit, his tongue slipping inside her cunt, quickly driving her need toward the stratosphere.
Cail leaned in and took over where Ain had relinquished her breasts so she didn’t hit the floor. He cupped them in his hands, using his mouth to lick and suck first her left nipple, then her right, back and forth, adding to the pleasure building in her core.
She fisted Ain’s hair, moaning into his mouth as his kiss turned into him fucking her mouth with his tongue, possessing her there, too.
It was all she wanted in this moment. Nothing else mattered but these men, the love they felt for her, the love she felt for them. The desire and passion and everything rolled into one meltingly sexy blur she never wanted to end.
Making love with them always felt like this. Like the most perfect thing in the world, whether it was just one or two of them, or all three like right now.
Brodey easily slid two fingers into her dripping cunt, finger-fucking her as he continued licking and sucking on her clit. Knowing Ain wouldn’t let her hit the floor, she gave in to her orgasm, her entire body tensing as pleasure rolled through her from her head to the tip of her curling toes.
Then Brodey stood. “I can’t wait.” Cail moved aside as Brodey nudged her feet apart. She felt him rubbing the head of his engorged cock between the swollen lips of her pussy before he thrust his hips and was inside her.
He grabbed her hips as Ain lifted his head from hers. “That’s the first one, baby,” Ain rumbled in her ear, nipping at the lobe while she reached her other hand over to hang on to Brodey’s shoulder. Along the seam of her ass, she felt his engorged cock rubbing, waiting, eager to be buried inside her next.
Brodey leaned in and kissed her. She tasted her own juices on his lips. Every stroke in this p
osition perfectly hit her sensitive clit and she suspected he might make her come again if he kept it up long enough.
He sensed it and slowed down, jabbing hard at the bottom of every stroke and making her gasp. “That’s it,” he said. “You want to come again for me, don’t you?”
Hell, yeah, she did. She nodded.
“Want us to play dirty, baby?” Ain whispered in her ear.
Another shiver raced through her. “Uh-huh.”
He chuckled. Hell, the sound of that alone could nearly make her come. Ain had a slightly different plan. “Elain, come now,” he edicted, just before he bit down on her shoulder, hard.
It felt like a nuclear explosion went off in her clit. Her back arched and she didn’t even have time to be grateful that Ain was holding her up when Cail turned her face to his and kissed her to swallow her screams.
“Oh, baby!” Brodey’s fingers dug deeper into her hips. Ain didn’t let up, his teeth completing a pleasure-pain circuit straight to her clit as her cunt clamped down on Brodey’s cock. She felt his cock pulse inside her as he buried it deep inside her and fell still.
Still, her orgasm didn’t stop. It echoed and rebounded, every movement keeping it going. When Brodey withdrew and Cail took his place without relinquishing his kiss with her, she let out another cry and shifted her grip from Brodey’s to Cail’s shoulder. Ain never released his bite on her shoulder, white heat now coursing through her veins.
She didn’t know if she could take it, but she’d surely try.
Brodey reached between them and grabbed her chin, immediately replacing Cail’s mouth with his as he turned her face to him. Then he slipped his hands between them and found her nipples. He rolled them between his fingers, making her sob as another wave of pleasure swept through her.
“That’s it,” Cail said, sounding hoarse. “Just like that. Keep coming for us just like that.”