Page 63 of Seven is Swell

I fuck into her body just a little more, feeling the warmth of Zac now coating me as I work in and out, and then I go rigid, pardon the pun, as I release myself within her as well.

That crack I thought I was feeling dissipates in a violent outburst, making all of my skin crackle and immediately soften, little flakes of rock falling to the ground around me due to the violent nature of the shift.

When I set down the duo in front of me, I know I’m weeping, because I can feel within my chest that my heart is working. Ican’t feel the pull of anything else telling me I must return to the perch.

“I…am free. I’m free, Delaney. You saved me.”

I give myself the luxury of pulling my mate inside with me, removing Zac from her body in the process, but he follows right behind her as I enter her room and I close the damn window.

Just that act alone has my knees buckling, falling to the ground and cradling my mate to my body. I’m still inside her, but I have no desire to change that.

“You’re so soft, but you still look like stone. Is this what you used to look like? Rock texture, but soft?”

“I…do not know. I cannot recall much about who I was before. I think…I think that I have been cursed for too long. I don’t know who I am or where I come from, I only know that I’m yours and you have freed me, and I vow to you to spend the rest of our lives trying to make it up to you.”

“Shh, you’re okay. Just be still and feel.”

But I’m sobbing now, waves washing over me at how incredibly my life just shifted. “I do not have to sleep outside tonight, nor ever, Delaney. Do you truly understand the magnitude of what you’ve done for me? I may have been rock, but I could still feel the cold.”

She begins to sob with me, wrapping her arms tighter around my neck, and it’s not long before the rest of her mates gather close, draping a soft blanket around us as they embrace the two of us.

“You’re never going to be cold again, Leo. You’re hers, and therefore you’re ours. Whatever you need, you’ve got yourself a whole family now.” One of the twins presses a kiss to my forehead, which only sends me over the edge farther.

“You have nothing to make up to me,” Delaney says. “Freeing you was akin to freeing me, and I feel so much more whole. I’ve got all seven of you with me, and it feels incredible. Look at my arm now, they’ve all gotten filled in. Every mark I have is full. Did you see your mark, Zac?”

He crawls over, not saying anything, shaking slightly as he leans down to kiss her. This kiss means something, though. I watch as he runs a finger over her entire arm of marks, enjoying how she shivers in response and arches her back. “I’m too high to properly appreciate it just now, but I love seeing my representation on you— incredible how the goddess works.”

I study the snake head poised to strike, super-imposed over a greenish blue snake skin imprint. “Look at how stunning you are, leaking all over me and full of the marks of your mates. Is this where you thought you’d find yourself a few months ago?”

Delaney shakes her head and looks around all of us crowding her. “No. Without August and Jackson there to teach me how to actually control my magic, none of this would have even been possible. I don’t know what comes next, or if there’s any more of you out there I need to find, but whether this is everything we’re meant to be or the goddess wants to test out my ability to keep as many mates happy as possible, I hope you all know that—”

The door kicks in and in stomps the same angry lady that was out on the balcony earlier. Now she’s got sticks and leaves tangled in her hair, and the red light that carried her up to the balcony is now an aura that glows around her as she takes one or two menacing steps inside the room, eyes stuck on the light of my life.

Though, now that I consider that Delaney is my mate and I’m free, there’s something in my chest that still feels hollow, and I don’t know what to do about it.

“Stand aside and let me reverse what you just undid. I don’t think you understand the hell you unleased on this campus by freeing him. Do you have any idea what this creature is capable of?”

I’m assuming she’s screeching about me.

“This is not the time, Shelly,” Zac says in an exasperated tone of voice. “You think you’re right, but you need to listen to—"

“I don’t need to do anything!” She screams, attempting to take one step further, but then she turns a strange shade of blue and freezes.

“Pardon for interrupting,” a deep voice says before appearing in the doorway behind her. He’s shrouded in shadows, but his voice has my freshly beating heart racing and my foot moving.

Delaney looks to me, then to whoever is standing in her doorway. “You know them?” She whispers to me.

I shake my head, fighting a weird fuzzy sense of confusion.

“Could you kindly invite me in, my love?”

Delaney sucks in a breath, staring down at a sparkly ring she’s wearing before taking a few steps back. “Show yourself, please.”

The deep voice chuckles. “I can’t do that unless you invite me in. My shadows are protecting me, and I can’t get them to run off unless they know I’m safe here. Safeguard from dear old dad. I assure you; they’re annoying as fuck and I’d dispel them if I had the power.”

“We can’t guarantee that you’re safe here,” Adam says before stepping in front of Delaney. “You’re the demon we’ve been trying to track down?”

“You were trying to track me down? That’s sweet. I’ve been right outside your balcony all this time.”

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