Page 66 of Great Falls Protector
Tye picks the hissing Minion up by the scruff of his neck, the kitten clawing the air in indignation. One set of green eyes locks on another, and Tye lets loose a low feline growl of his own.
Minion goes limp and cute at once, licking his little nose piously with a pink tongue.
“River is proposing Princess Katita for the post,” Tye says, dropping the cat onto a pile of my lacy underwear. Of course. “Given that it’s her vision, after all—which goes to show the importance of keeping your mouth shut, lest you get tagged with extra work.”
“Katita?” I frown. “Isn’t she a bit—well, young?”
“She’ll have plenty of old arses around her to make things appropriately stuffy. With the Academy on Ckridel lands, the humans see it as fair, and she does have more experience driving immortals out of their minds than anyone else. She’ll have things sorted out here quickly enough. Or not. It will be amusing either way.”
Arisha makes a small choking sound, turning away quickly when Tye and I twist toward her.
“What are you hiding, braids?” Tye asks. “I don’t think it’s hair ribbons.”
“Autumn asked Uncle Gavriel and me to stay in the Academy,” Arisha mumbles.
“My condolences.” Tye leans back on his heels, his hands going to his pockets. “Though I am not clear as to why you find that uncomfortable, given your odd sense of humor. Plus, weren’t you always going to stay?”
“Not just as a student.” Arisha cringes. “River’s sister wants me to liaise between the fae faculty and human students. She thinks surviving sharing quarters with Lera counts as qualification. She’d not mentioned the Katita factor before I agreed.”
Tye throws back his head to laugh. “Don’t worry. I’ll get you something to help.”
“What’s that?” I ask, frowning at the male.
“Wine, of course,” Tye says seriously. “A great deal of wine.”
* * *
“What are we doing here?”I ask, following River through the once-more regal Great Hall up to the mezzanine balcony where we danced on Ostera. As if in reminder of those times, the Academy bell strikes midnight, the sleeping grounds drawing a collective breath of cool night wind. Under the full moon, the balcony looks like something new altogether, vases of flowers and silk ribbons in the blue and gold of the Slait kingdom now filling the space.
Stepping up to the rail, I see the beautiful mortal world sprawled lazily for miles in every direction, the sheep fields once more free of soldiers’ tents, the rolling hills disappearing into the darkness. Somewhere far away, the Great Falls waterfall cascades down through the silent night, an echo to the phantom violins that once played an intoxicating waltz.
“Saying goodbye to the place where we fell in love with you all over again,” River says. The other males step out of the shadows to stand with us, their stunning moonlit faces stealing my breath.
“Isn’t that what the farewell feast tomorrow is for?” I ask, curling my hands around the smooth banister, my voice light despite a lump forming in my throat. Deep inside my abdomen, a tiny body shifts and yawns. The twins are no more than three months along, but I feel them already.
“I wanted a night with just us here.” River’s hands brush my shoulders, sending ripples of warmth over my bare arms. “Us and our memories. Before our lives change forever.” His palm slides gently over my midsection, my fingers closing over his.
“If you’ve not noticed, River, our lives have been changing forever every few months since the lass walked into them,” Tye says, snatching me from River’s arms.
Now that I look closer, I see the males are all dressed differently. Tye wears the red-and-gold colors of the Prowess team uniform, Shade the soft gray cashmere he wore as the Academy healer. River’s tailored coat is as regal as all his clothing, but the garment he chose for tonight is the deep red one he wore the most during our time here. And Coal… Well…
He is in black fighting leathers, though his blond hair is loose to his shoulders. I grin. “I see that nothing so small as lost memories and freed magic can get you out of these.”
“Oh, I imagine something that can,” Tye murmurs loudly enough to make Coal glower. Tye flashes him an impertinent grin before tracing a thumb along my cheek. “Or someone. Unless you are shy now that you are with cubs?” The last is said with enough of a challenge to have me striding up to Coal to unbutton his leather jerkin one brass clasp at a time.
Click. Click. Click.
The male stands rock still as I slide the leather vest off him, the hardness building inside his breeches the only sign of my effect on him. The only outward sign, that is. Inside me, my magic wakes to Coal’s rousing purple power, the two forces pulsating with the need to connect with their mate.
Swallowing, I brush my hand down Coal’s muscled chest, resting my palm on the hard squares of his chiseled abdomen.
Coal shudders. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he whispers, his hands opening and closing at his sides without ever touching me. “When we… Things tend to break when we couple, mortal. A lot. I don’t want to add you and the cubs to the list.”
“Good thing we’ve three other males to keep us in line,” I say. The male inhales sharply when my hand drops to his waistband. Lower. My heart quickens, my body already warming with a need that makes every details of the male’s face stand out in sex-clenching clarity. The powerful square jaw. The sculpted muscles that shift like liquid silver in the moonlight. The musky metallic scent that makes my toes curl.
“One problem of toying with your food, lass,” Tye says as his sensual drawl caresses my back, “is that you miss the predator behind you.” The male’s hands deftly undo the little hooks along my dress, theclick click clickan invitation for Shade and River to help ease the fabric off my shoulder until it spreads on the balcony floor like a pool of midnight. Until it is me who stands naked before the four males, the barely noticeable bump on my taut belly drawing the starlight to itself.
Dropping to his knees, River runs his lips across my abdomen, my sensitive skin caught between his heat and the chill of the night. When I opened my mouth to draw breath, Shade is there with a low growl, pressing his full lips over mine, his tongue stroking the inside of my mouth in deep possessive strokes that have heat spreading through my entire core.
