Why do they even make coffee mugs this small? Who drinks so little coffee? I had reached the bottom of my cup, again, and stood to refill it. As helpful as that quick makeout with Wesley had been, it hadn’t been anywhere near enough to fully recharge me after healing myself and the two boys from near fatal wounds. No two ways about it, I was wrecked.

Jonathan didn’t seem like he was in any great hurry to leave, either, so I was trucking along on a solid-caffeine fuel system. Until now. How the fuck was the coffee pot empty?

“Don’t give me that look,” Caleb chuckled, having followed me over to the kitchen. “You’re the only one that has been drinking it.”

He had been waiting out in the living room when I’d finally redressed myself and come to join everyone and he was being... weird. To say the least. My only guess was that he was freaking out about what my healing him might have done, and that was understandable. I was freaking out, too.

Shaking the coffee pot a couple more times, just in case I’d missed some, I pouted and gave Caleb my very best please caffeinate me face. He rolled his eyes at me but did dig around in the fridge and pass me out a bottled Starbucks Iced Latte.

“Better than nothing,” he told me as I read the label and wrinkled my nose.

“Pumpkin Spice Latte? Blergh. Pumpkins are vegetables and don’t belong in coffee, Cal.” My exhaustion was making me bitchy, but that was an opinion I’d stick by.

“Oh, well, if you don’t want it...” He reached out to take it from me, and I snatched it away with a decidedly Gollum-sounding noise.

“It’s caffeinated; I’ll take it.” I grumbled my way back to the living area and took my seat on the couch between Cole and River once again. The two of them had been maintaining as much skin to skin contact with me as they’d been able to without it turning into a dirty makeout session in front of my adopted dad, who was also their boss. It was definitely helping, but it was also making me edgy and fidgety waiting for Jonathan to leave already.

To my disappointment, the weirdness I’d been getting from him after Vali’s near death, and my subsequent rescue from what could have ended up as a life of sex slavery, was not all in my head. If anything, it was worse now.

“All right, I think I have all the relevant information now,” Dad finally said as I twisted the lid from my gross pumpkin coffee thing and Cole slipped his hand under my T-shirt to rest on my lower back.

“Finally,” I grumbled, and he gave me a look. A typical parent type of look.

“Do you have any leads on who might have been responsible for this crash today?” Jonathan continued, turning his attention back to River, who shook his head.

“No, sir. Not the crash or the car bomb. But whoever it is, we’ll find them sooner or later,” River stated confidently, and Jonathan raised his silver eyebrows.

“But you have no leads?” my Dad clarified, and River shrugged.

“We’re the best for a reason, Director. After all, we did catch the notorious Fox, didn’t we?” River’s knee bumped mine, and I snorted. Technically yes, they had caught me. But if we were being technical about it, they were also going to let me go.

“Mm, and now that brings us to you, darling daughter.” Jonathan turned his business face toward me, and I just grinned at him. Maybe if I acted like nothing was wrong, he’d stop being a damn weirdo.

“Yes, Father dear?” I teased back, and he grimaced. Our relationship had really never settled into a true parent/child situation, so the titles made us both cringe a bit.

“Tell me what you learned from this Vic character? Did he give you any insight into your powers? Or your history?” He leaned forward with his forearms resting on his knees, and I caught the guys glancing at me.

“Um, a bit, yeah.” Ugh, this is hard. I had no idea how much I was really prepared to tell him about all of this. Yes, he was the closest thing I had to family, other than Lucy, but he was also the owner and director of a secret intelligence organization. Did I really trust that he wouldn’t try and utilize my abilities to further his own agenda?

“Well? Are you going to fill me in, kiddo?” Jonathan frowned, and I knew he thought I was being cagey. Which I absolutely was.

“Maybe later? I’m still processing all the information. It was a lot to take in. Oh, but apparently I’m already twenty-one! My name and age that I thought I knew when social services took me in was apparently planted information. So... there’s that.” I shrugged uncomfortably as his brows shot up in surprise.

“ All right, maybe tomorrow you might tell me more?” Jonathan suggested gently, and I nodded. “For now, let’s sort out what is to happen here. Kit, the new recruit class already started two weeks ago, so you’ll need to do a bit of extra work to catch up. You’ll be assigned a room in the girls’ dorms, and someone can come by later this afternoon to show you the way. Alpha team, I understand that Kit is taking responsibility for your insubordination, but I am assigning you office duties for a month regardless. You can stay here in this apartment for the duration, until your next assignment.”

“Wait.” I sat forward. “You mean I can’t stay here with them?”

“You’re a new recruit, not a member of their team,” Jonathan explained. “Regardless of our personal connection, it simply doesn’t make sense to have you up here in the apartment tower when the rest of your class will be in the dorms.”

“That’s not going to work for us, Director,” River interjected, taking one of my hands with his non-injured one. “Respectfully, Kit is not like your other recruits. We’d prefer she remain up here with us, and one of us will need to sit in on her classes. Someone has tried to kill her, I can’t even count how many times, and I know I speak for the whole team when I say I’m simply not comfortable letting her out of our sight at the moment.”

Jonathan opened his mouth to respond, but Cole cut him off. “As her father, I don’t imagine you have an issue with this request. Right, Director?”

For a split second, Jonathan looked almost annoyed, then a very brittle smile pasted across his face. “Of course not. I simply thought it would be better for Kit to fit in if she were in the dorms with the other new recruits. But you’re absolutely right that her safety is my top priority. Which would you prefer, kiddo?”

“Uh.” I frowned at Jonathan, considering his reasoning. But I wasn’t a new high school kid trying to fit in, and I really couldn’t care less if the other recruits didn’t like me over something as stupid as where my bedroom was. “I’d prefer to stay with the guys, thanks.”

My foster-father narrowed his eyes at me briefly, then pasted his fake smile back on. “Very well then. River, I trust you can make necessary room arrangements with housekeeping? Perhaps the twins can share so that Kit will have her own room.”

Caleb snorted, then covered it with a cough when Jonathan speared him with a glare. “Gentlemen, let me remind you that I am still the Director of Omega, and despite me allowing you certain liberties when they pertain to my daughter, I will not tolerate insubordination. Is that perfectly clear?”

A chorus of “Yes, sir” came from all four guys, and Jonathan nodded his approval.

“Right then. Caleb, please show Kit where her classes will be held starting tomorrow morning; the instructors are waiting to meet her. Then report to my office.” Jonathan stayed seated, and it became pretty clear we’d just been dismissed.

Shit. Looked like I was going to need more coffee until we could get back to the apartment and, um, recharge.

“C’mon, Kitty Kat.” Caleb held out a hand to pull me up from the couch. “I’ll buy you a coffee on the way.”

“So long as it’s not this vegetable flavored crap,” I muttered, placing the empty bottle of pumpkin spice latte down and taking his hand. The sooner we could get this meeting over and done with, the sooner we could get back. Maybe even work out what effects my magic might have had on Caleb and Wesley.

Meeting with the Omega instructors was nothing short of painful. They all seemed to be making a less than subtle point that they didn’t care whose daughter I was and that I would have a lot of work to do to catch up. They made it sound like I’d missed months, not two weeks, but I did as was expected and nodded, smiled, and shook their hands politely.

“See,” I whispered to Caleb as we walked out of another classroom. “I can be tactful when needed.”

He snorted a laugh and slid a hand around my waist. “Sure you can, Kitty Kat. Let’s see how long that lasts, huh?”

“I’m not that bad. I’m just irritable when I’m exhausted. Are we almost done? You promised me coffee, remember?” I pouted up at him in my very best sad-puppy face.

“I did. We have one last stop to make, but I have a better idea than coffee.” He gave me a mischievous wink, then looked around to make sure no one was watching before steering me through an unmarked door.

“Cal... what are we doing in a janitor’s closet?” I raised an eyebrow at him as he closed the door behind us and flicked a light on.

“Kitty Kat, you’re exhausted, and we both know it’s from low magic, not lack of sleep. Coffee is not going to fix it, and this next instructor is known for his chatter. Will you let me help you? If I can, that is...” He ducked my gaze and inspected his shoes in a rare display of shyness.

“What do you mean, if you can?” My brain never did work particularly well when I was tired, so I was missing the point.

“Well, your dianoch are a choice, not fate. I don’t want to assume that you’ve chosen me or even if you’ve chosen at all. You know?” He shrugged his broad shoulders but still dodged my eye contact.

“Oh my God, Caleb King...” I cupped his cheek in my palm and brought his face back up to meet my gaze. “You’re freaking adorable.”

Pulling him closer, I caught the small smile on his lips right before they met mine in a searing hot kiss. My hands wrapped around his neck while his circled my waist, his body pushing me back until I was pressed into the door. His mouth slanted over mine in a possessive kiss, his tongue slipping between my lips and meeting mine while little lightning bolts of excitement shot through me.

Are we seriously doing this in the janitor’s closet at what was turning out to be my new school?

Obviously. It wasn’t school. But it was Spy School, and the whole layout of the classes, campus, and teachers—sorry, instructors—made it very much seem like school. Which made what I was doing with Caleb all that much hotter.

“How far does this need to go?” Caleb asked, a little short of breath as his hand slipped under the fabric of my T-shirt and caressed my waist.

“Um, usually just depends on how much magic needs replacing? But... this is sort of the first time I’ve known that is what’s happening so... I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Why? How far did you want to go?”

Caleb pulled back from me an inch or so and cocked a brow. “Seriously, Kitty Kat?”

A smile crept across my face at his expression, and he ducked forward to kiss me once more. Hard. He pulled back and peered at me in the dim light.

“Okay, Instructor Green is still expecting us, so we need to be quick, but... Kitty you used a lot of magic. Judging by these bags under your eyes, you didn’t get far with Wes before you got interrupted, huh?” He stroked a gentle thumb under my eye, and I nodded. “So we’d better be quick? But... thorough.”

“Sounds perfect,” I grinned and met him halfway as he leaned back in to kiss me again. This time, it was with a little more urgency, given our time constraints.

The need to rush was actually making me all the more excited, and my breath was coming in short gasps as we quickly stripped each other of our clothes. One of the guys had left a bag of clothes in the bedroom for me, so I’d been able to dress in fresh clothes before speaking to Jonathan, but they were just standard issue Omega sweats, and took no effort at all to remove.

“Fucking Christ, Kitty Kat,” Caleb whispered, running his hands down my body, cupping my breasts and rolling my nipples between his fingers before continuing on. Over my belly then circling my waist, the feeling of his rough palms on my skin made me want to moan, or purr, or something.

“Don’t tease, Cal,” I replied, giving him a taste of his own medicine by trailing my nails slowly down the muscles of his broad back. “Quick but thorough, right?”

“Who am I to argue?” he gasped as I circled one hand around to his front and grasped a hold of his rock hard shaft. “What was that about teasing, Kitty?”

I grinned and shifted my grip back to his shoulders. No words were necessary as he slid his palms under my butt, lifting me and slamming my back against the door at the same time as he slammed his cock home into me.

“Oh, fuck,” I groaned, the stinging pain of his abrupt entry fading into an almost overwhelming pleasure as he pumped into me a couple of times, only pulling back the slightest fraction before crashing back in.

“Kitty...” he panted as my mouth found his neck. “Babe, you feel... incredible. Like you were made for me. Us. Fuck, why is the idea of sharing you such a goddamn turn on?”

“I blame the magic,” I joked, kissing up the side of his neck while he thrust long, hard strokes into my aching pussy.

“That’s so not it, but I’ll take it.” He snickered, tilting his head down to grab my lips once more in a scalding kiss. With my legs crossed behind him, I tried to pull him closer with every thrust, even though he had total control over our pace.

Fuck meeting teachers; this is a way better use of time.

“Gotta be quick right?” Caleb murmured in my ear as he broke from our kiss, then gently tugged my earlobe with his teeth.

“I guess,” I gasped, rolling in waves on waves of pleasure as he nailed me against the door with his solid frame.

“Remember that time when we were escaping Blood Moon?” he whispered into my ear, and I frowned, confused why he’d be asking about our past brushes with death at a time like this. “And we hid in a janitor’s closet, just like this?” Okay, I possibly see where this is going... “You were pressed in between me and Austin?”

Oh fuck. Yes, I damn well did remember that moment. Vividly. Not only had the twins just saved my ass in a big way, Caleb had made some joke about a Kit sandwich. Before I could stop it, my orgasm crashed over me, and my sheath clenched Caleb’s cock hard while I came, coaxing him over the cliff with me until we both ended up limp and panting. The only things holding me up were Caleb’s still-pulsing dick inside me and his hips pinning my body to the door.

“I knew it,” Caleb whispered, giving me a small smile of victory. “You’re into him, too.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I lied, slowly peeling my legs from around his waist and finding my feet. Of course I knew what he was talking about. I’d just come hard picturing myself sandwiched between the King twins. Naked.

“Sure, Kitty Kat.” Caleb almost reluctantly stepped back from me and looked around the small closet. “Here,” he grabbed a roll of toilet tissue from one of the shelves and handed it to me.

“Thanks.” I laughed, taking the paper and doing a speedy cleanup before pulling my clothes back on.

“Feeling better?” he asked, running a hand through his messy top section of hair, and I bit back a sarcastic response. My natural reaction was to poke fun at him for being a cocky male, but in this case it really had been to make me feel better. And I did. Unbelievably so.

“Thank you,” I told him sincerely, leaning up to kiss him softly.

“Anytime, Kitty Kat.” He grinned, opening the door for me and winking. “And I do mean any time.”

Biting my lip to hide the giddy, lovestruck smile, I linked my fingers with his and let him lead me down the hall to our next meeting. My skin was buzzing with fresh energy, and I felt like I could climb a mountain, wrestle a bear, or run a marathon.

The world was my oyster when I had my guardians by my side.