I started to fall into a blanketed haze of lust and kama.

I don’t know how long had passed or how many times he had taken me before I noticed the eyes watching us. The golden gaze that prowled from the corner of the room. Allistair stepped out of the shadows and the crisp cut of winter was joined by something sickly smooth as honey. It wrapped around my limbs, holding me in place while Julian fucked me from behind.

Not that I would have been able to move anyway with my face pressed into the mattress and him holding my arms behind my back. Julian had more of a fetish than Allistair when it came down to not letting me move. Demons and their kicks.

I felt it the moment Julian noticed who’d walked in on us. The slightly possessive tinge to him as he pounded me relentlessly. One hand held my wrists and the other gripped my hip, guiding me into him how he saw fit.

Allistair stood on the sidelines, his body relaxed, his gaze anything but.

Let it be known, I had never considered myself an exhibitionist. Until the transition, I’d never taken to watching others or letting them watch me. There was something so raw, but so intimate about it. Me watching him, while he watched Julian take me.

His hands moved to slip off his suit jacket, leaving it on the floor where he stood. My heart quickened.

Was he going to join us?

“Would you like me to join you?” he asked aloud.

I felt behind me, waiting for the intense jealousy that filled Julian before. While I was in no way his exclusively, I was theirs, and I needed to consider how they felt.

The beast reached forward tentatively, pushing me to encourage Allistair. While the blood magic Julian had done prevented her from coming forward until this was over, she was very much still there.

And she very much wanted him too.

Julian released his grip on my wrists, my arms falling to my sides, his hand reaching down and pressing against my hardened nub. He pinched the pinnacle nerve bundle, drawing a low moan from my lips. Golden particles wet my tongue, inciting another bout of sex driven cravings. I couldn’t get enough of this stuff. I needed more.

“Ruby, do you want this?” Julian asked.

“Allistair…” I groaned, unable to reach for him or say more.

He raised his golden eyes to meet Julian’s, asking his permission. He must have agreed, judging by the rip of fabric as Allistair tore his shirt away. The sound of a zipper caused another wave of euphoria to wash over me and I pushed myself up, supporting my weight while Julian’s rhythm never ceased. My lips hung slightly ajar and my eyes closed when I felt him before me.

I didn’t wait for his instructions. I knew what he wanted.

Opening my mouth wider, I tasted the white drop of liquid on his tip as he pushed it in. A groan reverberated from him as I skated my tongue along the underside of his shaft, sucking him deeper. Julian was pushing me closer to the edge, literally and figuratively, my body shifting forward, slowly inching into Allistair with the pounding I was taking from behind.

“Are you going to roar for me, Ruby?” Allistair asked.

The hair lifted off the back of my neck as Allistair wrapped it around his hand, using his grip to pull my head back and widen my mouth. I wasn’t prepared for the brutal assault of him slamming to the hilt in one go. I gagged once, trying to breathe through my nose, the orgasm creeping up on me slipping through my grasp because of it. I growled around him and his cock twitched at the back of my throat.

Bastard.

“I want to hear you roar for me like you did for him,” Allistair’s voice infiltrated my mind. He wasn’t backing off.

I sucked hard and it drew a low hiss from his lips. He was close. Enough so that I could push it. I felt it as the pressure within him began to build.

The fingers on my clit stopped and I felt another sharp smack on my ass.

I groaned at the heat that quickly followed in its place. My body was becoming rapidly addicted to the little bouts of pain Julian liked to inflict. The way it shattered all rational thought, forcing me to succumb.

“He asked you a question, Ruby,” Death commanded behind me. He pulled out entirely, his tip just sitting at my entrance, waiting for me to comply.

“Fuck you,” I snarled internally at Allistair for pushing, and Julian for pulling away.

The second blow that smacked my ass had me gagging and my abdominal muscles clenched. There was nothing hard or heavy inside me to tip me just over the edge into oblivion. I groaned in frustration, Allistair still in my mouth, his breaths becoming labored as a fine sheen of sweat trickled down his lower abs.

They were going to draw it out of me, one way or another.

Fire licked inside my veins, crackling to life around me.

“Put it away, Ruby,” Julian demanded.

I swallowed hard as Allistair was pulled from my lips and the next smack reverberated through me. I could hear the air whoosh before another followed, hitting my upper thighs this time. So close to where I wanted to feel him. Heat blossomed in my skin as I tried to rein it in, to pull the fire back.

“I said, put it away Ruby. Now.”

His power slithered over me as he rained down blows on my ass. It hurt like hell, but I didn’t want him to stop. In a backwards way, it wasn’t him that held the power in this. But me. In pushing him, I was also pulling. I encouraged the slaps. I relished in the stinging bite of his palm, knowing that some depraved part of my soul had guided us both here, and in the fire within, I found silence.

I tentatively reached out towards the flames as if they were an extension of myself, similar to the beast in that way. The banter and thoughts flowed between us quite easily, maybe the flames could too. Far too exhausted to fight his command, I pulled on my link with the flames and the beast, urging them to retreat.

No one was more surprised than me when it worked.

The beast wore the slightest of grins, something akin to pride coming from her.

I blinked through the tear-stained haze, only just realizing that the blows had stopped. My ass was going to be so fucking sore—

The bed shifted as Julian moved away, leaving me rather deprived of attention. That was not what I wanted out of this.

I groaned as I pushed myself up to a sitting position, sweat and tears plastered my hair to my face, and I raked a hand through my tangled locks. Out of the corner of my eye, Julian moved around the bed, coming from behind me to stand off to the side. His body was massive and gleaming in the pale moonlight coming from the windows. On his chest, over his right peck, a silver skull glowed. His brand, I realized.

Was he going to—

“No, I am not the one who gets to brand you first,” he responded.

From the shadows, another fair-haired demon stepped out, but this one gleamed like gold. Shirtless, in nothing but a pair of well-worn jeans, Rysten walked up to the edge of the bed.

“Hello, love,” he whispered softly. Leaning forward, he gently took my face between his hands and kissed me. I reached out, wrapping my arms around his shoulders. The kiss deepened as our tongues intertwined. The beast growled in approval.

Behind me, the bed sank. I pulled back slightly, trying to see who it was, but Rysten held me firm. Strong hands and an aura like honey touched mine as Allistair’s hands roamed down my bare back.

Was he going to—

“No,” Rysten answered my silent question.

His lips left mine to trail down my neck, two sharp points dragging against it. His fangs, I realized with a startle. I’d never seen his fangs.

Rysten stepped aside and Allistair pushed between my shoulder blades, guiding me down to my hands and knees. He rubbed his palm over the warm red skin on my ass and his fingers deftly spread my cheeks. I tried to clench them shut from shock, but it was already too late for that. Something wet and slippery slathered over my rim as Allistair’s breath fanned the sensitive patch of skin just below my ear.

“Laran got to be branded first,” Allistair said.

My breath hitched as something pressed against me, sliding in and stretching me; too small to be his cock, but too insistent to leave even a shred of doubt about how this was going to go.

“Julian got to fuck you first, and repeatedly,” he continued, pushing and twisting two fingers in and out of me. The feeling turned from uncomfortable to downright pleasurable just as Allistair stopped his ministrations and pulled away.

“Rysten will get to brand you first, after you accept him.”

The smooth tip of him pressed against me, and that scream from earlier…the one I hadn’t been willing to let loose…it was starting to form again as he slowly pushed his way in. I made no move to stop him as a burning sensation filled me, and it wasn’t fire. Rysten’s dexterous fingers grounded me as they trailed across my hips and slowly skated between my already wet folds.

“I get to claim your mouth and your ass before the others, just to keep it fair.”

My lungs were going to be bloody shreds by the time they finished with me. Fuck, I might have loved and hated them at the same time in that very moment. Allistair grunted as he settled inside me. I scolded myself to not pass out as he began slowly moving.

Too full. I breathed heavy. In. Out. In. Out.

There was too much sensation. I wanted it all, but it brought me to the teetering edge of madness with how they touched me, and broke me, and pieced me back together again. A scream ripped from my throat as Allistair thrust into me once. Twice.

“There is my roar,” he groaned in satisfaction.

His cock stilled inside me again, giving me a chance to adjust. I leaned forward wanting to pull away, but not wanting it to end. Allistair made the choice for me, pulling halfway out before thrusting back in. The painful feeling mingled with a sliver of pleasure.

I had been on the brink of release, and all the pent-up frustration from Julian’s hand had been torn from me, so I was left behind a trembling mass of limbs that shook with exhaustion, and I had no choice but to want and take what they were giving me.

Allistair scooped his arm under my torso, lifting me to my knees, my hands coming to rest on Rysten’s chest. My watering eyes met his while he silently pried apart my swollen flesh, filling me with his fingers just as Allistair picked up his pace. He placed one hand on the curve of my neck as he kissed me. I moaned deeply, pleasure sinking its claws into my body further.

He tasted of wine and blood, a strangely erotic combination. His tongue slipped past my lips, entwining with mine as he drew me deeper into the cloudy haze where words would no longer suffice. On my knees before them both, I gave myself over, arching my back for Allistair while leaning into Rysten. One hand went up to rest on the curve of his chest where it dipped just below his throat.

The beast nodded in approval, guiding me as fire kindled beneath my palm. Rysten wrapped his hand around my throat, applying pressure and his fingers twisted around my clit as my orgasm rapidly tore through me, Allistair cursing as my muscles spasmed and tightened around him. He slammed his cock into my ass once more, finding his own release.

Kama filled the air, pressing into my skin. I relished in the feeling of Allistair behind me and Rysten in front of me as I branded fire and magic into his skin, claiming him as my mate.

The hand on my throat tightened as an unfamiliar energy washed over me. It filled my blood with darkness and shadow, infusing my very soul with a raw energy that grounded me. It was the calm after the storm. The midnight breeze that called. Whereas I filled him with fire and life, he filled me with peace and darkness.

And deep within, the beast and the flames settled as she sighed happily. Truly content for the first time in twenty-three years, in the arms of our mates.