marveled at the change. Last time was so serious and intense, as if they'd known it would be many years before they'd come together again. It was nothing like his light mood now. He was different. She was different. And then she realized that even without their previous conflict, a relationship between them would not have worked five years ago.
“We didn't waste all those years. We needed them apart,” she blurted out.
He scowled. The flogger wasn't so soft this time when it contacted her skin.
“Why do you say that?”
Another swish, this one hard enough to sting. She had to suck in a deep breath before she could answer.
“Too young. Neither of us would be who we are now. I might not be paladin, and eventually I'd resent you for it.”
“Maybe.” His answer was distracted, but the strokes of the flogger were focused, coming harder and faster. They left her gasping. Burning.
When he paused, she smiled. “Besides, we wouldn't have met Zach.”
“That would be a real tragedy,” Zach drawled, easily adopting their Southern accents. He stepped closer with a second flogger. “Now, no more talking, kitten.” She couldn't have if she'd wanted to. They both worked her with alternating strokes of the floggers. Sometimes soft, sometimes with a light sting. But building, always building to something more, something more intense until leather strips bit and left her gasping for more.
Caleb continued while Zach removed the nipple clamps, timing them with Caleb's swings so that the biting pleasure/pain merged. When the second clamp came off, she cried out, every muscle tensed as an orgasm overwhelmed her. She gripped the edges of the stool as she rocked with the force of it, panting as the aftershocks shook her.
Zach dropped the flogger and lurched forward. His chest pressed against hers and he gripped the back of her head, stole a hard, ravaging kiss. After urging her to her feet, he backed up to the bed and sat down, pulling her with him. It was instinct to line her body up to his, to kiss him back while her pussy rubbed over his cock. With one decisive thrust, he filled her. Still kissing her, robbing her mind and body of everything but sensation, he urged her down with him so she lay flat against his chest.
She was so consumed by Zach, she didn't even notice when Caleb moved behind her, barely registered the removal of the anal plug or the squeaking sound of the tube of lube. Until the broad head of his cock began to push inside of her. She gasped. Squirmed. She could hear Caleb grinding his teeth while Zach whispered soothing nonsense, hands gently stroking her until she relaxed.
“That's it, baby,” Caleb whispered, his voice almost guttural as he eased into her. Holding still, she took deep breaths through the sensation that was a bit too much pain to be pleasurable.
But then Zach moved, slowly withdrawing from her pussy, each inch rasping over sensitive, inflamed skin, and just like that, the pain was gone. As she tried to move with Zach, to recapture him, she moved against Caleb.
In one smooth surge, he filled her, then slowly withdrew while Caleb filled her. They kept up the maddening, unhurried rhythm until she begged. It was too much. Too much feeling. Too much sensation. She wanted to come, but she also didn't want such sharp pleasure to ever end.
Her body came without her mind's permission, and she fell against Zach's chest, gasping, muscles frozen. He wasn't far behind her. With a low growl, he dug his fingers into her waist hard enough that she knew she'd have bruises in the morning, but who cared? And then there was Caleb, thrusting into her one last time, his roar filling the air, before collapsing onto the bed with them.
Pressed between them, slick with sweat and her body filled with bone-deep satisfaction, she closed her eyes and let the magic fill her. She was learning magic had a different feel, a different taste, from person to person. Each was individual, and hers was changing. Becoming infused with a bit of both of her mates. It felt good. Right.
It made her leery. What if she lost one of them? What if Zach decided he couldn't accept her as she was after all? How would she recover? She fell asleep worried about what the morning would bring.
Chapter Twelve
The call came as she left the house for her office, and she hurried to change directions, Caleb and Zach following. Jonas had the juveniles separated, the fight stopped, but there were angry looks all around. Six teenage boys. Three visiting for training from another pack. All six needed some sense knocked into their thick skulls.
“What's going on, guys?”
No one answered. The ones from her pack had the good sense to look embarrassed.
“Fine. Extra duty until someone cares to explain.” She narrowed her eyes and spoke to Jonas. “Pair them up. Maybe they'll learn to work together that way. The southern fence needs repairs.”
That got Jay's, one of their visitors, interest. “I won't take orders from a witch.”
“You will if you expect to stay here.”
“Oh yeah? What are you going to do? Get your mate to beat me up?” Surprise startled a short laugh out of her. “Puppy, you really are as dumb as you look, aren't you? I can handle any beatings myself.”
Ignoring him, she turned to Jonas. “When you leave, escort anyone who has a problem with my authority out of our territory.”
“You can't do that! My father will…”
She gave him a cruel smile. “What? Ask your father what happened the last time he pushed me too far. Do you honestly think he'd send you to a weak pack for training? You do realize who's in charge of training around here?”
The kid's face took on a mulish expression. She sighed and met Jonas's gaze with a slight nod. “Sometimes a little pain is necessary to hammer home a point.”
She heard shifting behind her, knew it was Zach even though she refused to turn around and look at him. What happened next would probably totally change the way he looked at her.
He hadn't really accepted what she was. Who she was. She hadn't really expected to be confronted with her fears of the previous night so soon. It made her sad to contemplate how this would change things, but it couldn't be helped.
