Page 47 of Beggars, Sin, and Wine

“Traitor,” Benji hissed, flinging a crouton at his face.

“If you throw one more thing at me tonight, I’m going to take you across my knee and spank you,” Cas growled.

I got a visual and got instantly turned on. Benji once told me Cas had total daddy vibes, and he did. I was picturing Benji across his lap naked while Cas paddled that perfect ass and what I wanted to do after.

Cas’s nostrils flared and Benji’s hand tightened around his fork. Yeah, I was mated to two shifters. They couldn’t totally feel me yet because we hadn’t completed the bond, but they sure as fuck could smell my arousal. And Pax got a few extra senses when the Coalition blinded him.

“I can sense you like that,” Pax moaned.

“I think Medusa should totally get laid, but I don’t want to be here to watch,” Jezebel said.

“Medusa can barely stand up,” Cas pointed out.

“Medusa can speak for herself,” I said.

“We will do whatever you want, little monster,” Benji said. “You can’t control how you react when Cas threatens to spank me and we can’t control how we react when you smell like that. If you just want to go to bed alone, we can do that.”

I wasn’t ready to have sex. I didn’t feel like myself anymore. I didn’t even recognize my reflection. It would probably be a while before I felt like a cursed green witch again, but they were willing to give me space. I also had a ton of questions for Di. Yeah, my curse could turn the entire Coalition to stone, but he’d never ask me to do that. Aside from Sister Mary Eugene, I was usually devastated when I turned someone to stone. Di knew that.

I wanted to sleep in an actual bed tonight, but I didn’t think I wanted to sleep alone. There was still this part of me that was terrified that Athena was going to be furious I was no longer in New Eden Asylum and was here safe with my mates.

She’d never come for me when Di was with me, but he had to travel for work sometimes. Di was working right now, and I didn’t know when he would be back.

I was safe from Hannibal and the fake nuns and priests, but Athena was still a threat, even thousands of years later.

We reacted when she got turned on, but we’d never act on it. I didn’t even need to ask my coven. We were going to put her straight to bed and in the morning, we’d call every single healer and green witch in the village to see what kind of damage was done to her from the lack of food.

Kat’s blood could fix a lot of things and I knew she’d offer if it could fix Medusa, but it didn’t do a damned thing for starvation. She left with her mates with the intention to come back for breakfast. She left us alone with her.

This was the first time all of us were together with our mate, but we still didn’t feel complete. I knew the missing person was Di. We all did. I was pretty sure I knew who Di and the rest of them were and it was pretty obvious. Cas was being stubborn. I was pretty sure he could guess who Di and his friends were if he thought hard enough about it.

I never kept secrets from Cas and Benji. I don’t think Benji even gave a shit what they were or what their names were. They were important to Medusa and Di was one of us and that was all he cared about.

Cas cared, but now that I was pretty sure I knew, it was fun watching him try to figure it out. I got why they played this game. And holy shit, this was going to make us unstoppable if Di was who I thought he was.

But right now, we needed to get our mate to bed. Benji put the dishes in the dishwasher and Cas and I were getting ready to guide her toward our extra bedrooms. Cas said he kept both of them comfortable, but generic because our mate would eventually pick one and would have her own taste. Cas would do what she wanted to make her own space and she could do what everyone else did and bed hop when we wanted company.

Cas’s bear was in protective daddy mode. Like, way more than usual. It wasn’t just Medusa. It was Kat’s mates and Benji and me. It was the fact that we had to go back there. We didn’t have it nearly as bad as before and we weren’t there as long, but the Coalition either hadn’t figured out species specific diets or they had and didn’t give a shit.

Mine was much easier than Benji and Cas’s diet, but Cas would worry about me, anyway. His lizard brain was going to be on overdrive figuring out menus for all of us and getting the healers here. But Cas was probably dealing with the effects of not getting what a polar bear shifter needed, too.

We could eat anything we wanted, just like humans did. And just like humans, it affected us if we ate the wrong diet. With us, it wasn’t just physical. It also affected our magic. We had other needs the Coalition wasn’t providing either.

Medusa had been cut off from any type of plant life in the basement, Benji needed the moon. Cas was a marine mammal, so he needed to swim. I was much better off than any of them, but was Cas going to let me take care of him, too? Not without a ton of grumping and stubbornness.

Cas’s dad didn’t like to be pinned down, so he took off and left everything to Cas. Or at least, that was the story. His dad built the original house next to a natural spring and waterfall that was perfect for a polar bear to bathe and hunt fish in. Cas needed to do that, and I was going to have to twist his arm to do it. He wasn’t sick, but his skin was paler than usual. He needed his usual high-caloric diet and a swim just as much as the long-term residents at New Eden Asylum needed their basic needs met.

Cas had wandered off to find sheets for both of the extra bedrooms. He was doing what he needed to do to satisfy his bear, so I was doing what I needed to as a member of his pack. Benji knew what was up, but we needed to clue Medusa in. She needed a lot more help than Cas and Benji did, but I could tell she didn’t want it at their expense.

“I need your help,” I said.

“Anything. Just name it.”

“We weren’t there as long as you, so we don’t need as much or as long to recover. I just need a few walks in the garden and a balanced diet. Benji needs the moon and nighttime for both sides of him and meat. Cas is different. Cas needs massive amounts of calories and to swim in the spring out back.”

“Big bear Daddy,” Medusa said. “Is he going to ignore his needs to take care of all of us?”

“This is why she’s fated to us,” Benji said. “You called it, little monster. Now, Cas is onto me. He mostly knows when I’m manipulating him. He’ll do it anyway unless someone is hurt. I have all these kinky ideas for later, but right now, how effective are you with those big, beautiful, green eyes of yours?”

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