I make it up to my room without running into anyone, which surprises me. I shower and change into some cotton shorts and a loose, slouchy top that likes to slide off my shoulder. My right hand is sore, and my knuckles are bruised from the punch I threw. I dry my hair with magic and head down in search of a healer.

I spot Lila in the kitchen, and she tells me Evrin’s out, but Ryker and the boys are playing pool downstairs. She hands me an ice cream cone I thought she was making for herself and I give her a quick hug before I clomp down the stairs.

I crack open the door to the billiards room, just as someone breaks and the grouping of balls scatter all over the felt tabletop. Five sets of eyes shoot over to me, and I smile at them self-consciously. Knox leans over to take a shot, and I take the opportunity to stare at his ass and the muscles in his back. I shake away my lusty thoughts and take a lick of my ice cream cone as I make my way over to where the other guys are sitting on a set of sofas.

Valen grabs me and pulls me into his lap shoving his face into my hair and the crook of my neck. I laugh as he starts inhaling deep breaths and gives me a playful bite that sends a shiver down my spine. I love how assertive the twins are. They both exude this confidence and comfort with who they are, and they don’t hesitate to take what they want.

Bastien takes my feet in his lap and grabs my hand that’s holding the ice cream cone so that he can steal a taste. These sneaky twins are always jacking my food, I grumble to myself and yank my cone away from him. He laughs and winks at me.

“I thought you said you weren’t going to avoid us anymore,” Bastien asks, his playful smile turning a little sad.

“I’m not," I reassure him, feeling confused by his question and reaction. I run the back of my hand along his jaw, and he leans into to the caress.

“Where have you been all day then?”

Ahhh, that’s what’s going on.

“I went and hung out with Mave. I met her the other day, and she invited me out.”

After explaining who Mave is and how we met, in exacting detail, my answer seems to appease him. Bastien twines his fingers with mine, rubbing his other hand over my shins, his smile happy and carefree again.

“Where’d you and Mave go?” Sabin inquires, watching Bastien and Valen keenly.

Sabin stands in the corner holding a cue stick, waiting for Knox to finish his shot. He gives me a gentle smile, and his dimples make an appearance. I give him a small smile back and then wince in pain when Bastien unknowingly squeezes my bruised knuckles.

Sabin catches my pained look and rushes over. I hiss and try to pull my hand free which makes everyone else take notice. Bastien brings my hand closer to his face and narrows his gaze at me when he takes in the fucked up state of my knuckles.

“Bruiser, what’s with the bruises?”

I laugh at the Dr. Seuss sounding questions. “It’s not a big deal. I came down here to see if Ryker can work his magic, pun intended, before you two started distracting me," I chuckle again at my own joke, but apparently I’m the only one who sees the humor.

“How’d that happen?” Knox asks me, a tick in his jaw.

“We were hanging at this lake, and this other group showed up and started harassing Mave’s friends. I just pointed out some reasons why they shouldn’t do that," I finish, pointing to my bruised knuckles.

Sabin runs a hand over his face. “Vinna, shifters are more than capable of defending themselves. You should know this after seeing what they can do at the fights. Don’t get involved in their feuds.”

I stare at Sabin, irritated, and wish I could take the smile I gave him earlier, back. “Thank you for that useless opinion, but they can’t retaliate against this coven. Mave’s alpha doesn’t want them to do anything that could mess with his relationship with the Elders Council, so they have to just take what’s done to them. But seriously, even if that weren’t the case, I’m perfectly capable of judging for myself what I should and shouldn’t be involved in.”

I pull myself free from Valen and Bastien’s laps and sit on the arm of the sofa on the opposite side of them. Bastien and Valen shoot a warning look at Sabin. A twinge of regret snakes through me, and I realize that I can’t punish the others every time Sabin pisses me off. I can’t withdraw from them just because I want to withdraw from him.

“Wait, it was a coven that was starting shit, not other shifters?” Sabin asks confused.

“It’s kind of complicated," I tell him “The dudes that are actually in the coven didn’t really do anything other than watch, but the group of casters that hang out with them started everything. I only got involved when they hit one of the shifters.”

“But what does that have to do with the Elders Council?” Sabin asks me.

“I guess two of the guys in the coven have dads that are elders.”

Understanding dawns on all of the guy’s faces.

“What did Enoch do when you fucked up the two guys?” Bastien asks.

“Who’s Enoch?”

“Tall, blonde hair, blue eyes," Sabin describes to me.

“Yeah, that guy was interesting. He just watched me. He didn’t say a word. He didn’t try to stop anything. He just nodded at me when I told him they wouldn’t touch the shifters anymore, like some pretty boy Godfather.”

Knox cracks up and walks over to press a kiss to the top of my head. He swipes my ice cream cone but I’m too focused on the other guys and the look they’re giving each other, to object. I’m about to ask them what’s going on when Ryker pushes my knees apart and steps in between my legs.

He takes my bruised hand in his, and the heat of his magic banishes the pain away. He brings my knuckles to his lips and kisses them softly. Flutters fly low in my belly.

“You know the way you do that, it’s not exactly a deterrent for getting injured," I explain, as I squeeze my thighs against the sides of Ryker’s legs.

“Anything else need my attention?” he asks dropping his gaze to my lips.

I put my hands on the backs of his denim-clad thighs and tilt my head back in invitation. A throat clears loudly in the room, unnecessarily reminding us that we’re not alone.

“Captain Cockblock to the rescue," I chant.

I scoot back on the arm of the sofa, away from Ryker. I give a mock salute to Sabin that morphs into the bird, and the other guys chuckle. Not to be deterred, Ryker drops his weight onto the sofa and snakes an arm around my waist. He sends a challenging look to Sabin and pulls me down between his legs. I lean into him and press my back against his chest. Sabin watches for a second more and then moves to the table for his shot.

I can feel the hardness in Ryker’s jeans against my lower back, and I can’t lie, I like this reaction to me. I let out a deep breath and relax into him. One of his strong hands rests on my thigh, and he absently starts to run his fingertips over my skin. Goosebumps spring up all over my body. Ryker notices and breathily chuckles in my ear.

“So tell me about your magic," I prompt the room in an effort to distract myself from how good Ryker feels against me.

“Do you have an idea of what kind of magic you think you have?” Ryker asks with excitement in his voice.

“I have no idea. The books describe how different magic is supposed to feel to a caster, but it’s confusing the fuck out of me. I must not understand it properly, because I feel a jumble of what the books describe and not just one specific thing.”

They all nod their heads in understanding, which makes me feel a little better. The books make it sound so easy to figure out what your magic is, and I’ve been feeling like an idiot.

“For most of us calling our magic and directing it is a visual thing. We picture what we want to accomplish, and we weave that intent with the magic itself and then send it out to do what we want. All the branches have limitations and possibilities, and you learn what they are over time,” Valen explains.

“Spell magic, however, works very differently than the other branches,” Knox tells me. “I have to know about the potential and the properties for anything in the world that could be used as an ingredient. I have to know how to combine those things to get what I want, and I shape the intent of the spell through words and processes, not visualization. Kind of like baking, you have to add things in a specific order to get the end result that you want. With Spell magic the words you speak into a spell matter, too.”

“That sounds real fucking complicated,” I tell Knox, and he laughs.

“Yeah I was a little freaked out when I found out I had Spell magic, but what can you do.”

He shrugs, and I smile. I don’t know if I’ll be as laid back as he is if I have Spell magic.

“So, Ryker heals, and Knox spells, what do you guys have?”

“I have elemental magic,” Sabin tells me.

Valen raises his hand slightly. “I have offensive magic.”

“And I have defensive magic,” Bastien finishes with a wink.

I rest my head back against Ryker’s shoulder and think about what Valen said about visualization and weaving that with magic in order to direct it. That’s kind of what I do with my runes, I suppose. I think about which weapon I want and the runes that create that weapon. Then I feed magic into those images, and the weapon I want pops into my hand. I smile feeling like I finally understand that part of things.

Lila calls down to us for dinner, and everyone but Ryker and me rush out at the promise of food. I’m slow to get moving, due to the hypnotic state I’m in from Ryker playing with my hair while I’m lost in my thoughts. I head to the door, but when I pass the pool table Ryker tugs on my hips, stopping me and then he turns me around.

He grabs on to my waist and lifts me to sit on the edge of the pool table. I squeak in surprise, and he chuckles. His eyes are filled with laughter, and his smile is devastatingly gorgeous. Ryker cups my face gently in both of his hands and leans into me. His lips are centimeters away, and I close my eyes and feel his breath against my lips.

“Vinna, I’m dying to kiss you.”

He runs the tip of his nose in a circle around the tip of mine but still doesn’t close the distance.

“Then why aren’t you?” I ask wantonly.

In the next breath, he gives me exactly what I want, and I finally feel his mouth against mine. I sneak my hands under the hem of his shirt and run them up his sides. He guides my head back with his hands and deepens the kiss.

His tongue guides mine expertly, fusing us together and coaxing my soul out to dance with his. I swallow his moan when I bring my hands to his chest and run my fingers over his hard nipples. Ryker sucks on my bottom lip flicking it with his tongue, and it sends bolts of yearning straight between my thighs.

He takes hold of my top lip and then returns to my bottom lip, the tips of our tongues teasing and testing, before he breaks away. Ryker tilts my face to the side to give himself better access to my neck. He starts a trail of kisses and gentle nips, from the lobe of my ear to the runes on my shoulder.

He lightly runs his tongue over my runes, and I moan at the sensation it creates. I’m so wet it’s probably visible through my dark shorts, but his tongue on my runes has my magic reacting in that strange way that happens whenever I get intimate with any of them.

Ryker runs the tip of his nose up the side of my neck.

“I just wanted a kiss, but now I don’t want to stop."

He nips my earlobe and then sucks where it connects to my neck. I moan again, and he moves his hands under the hem of my shirt caressing up my back. He brings his face in front of mine, and I lean in for another kiss.

“No one’s asking you to stop," I surprise myself by saying.

I feel his smile against my mouth, and it coaxes the corners of mine up too. He steps back from me, doing the exact opposite of what his words and eyes are telling me he wants to do. His strong hands and arms leave my skin, and I groan at the loss.

“Don’t tempt me more than you already are, Vinna,” he chuckles.

“Why not?” I whine.

Ryker laughs and threads his fingers with mine. He pulls me from the edge of the pool table, and I look back, surprised that I haven’t left a puddle behind. I climb achingly up the stairs and find the other guys waiting for us.

No one, including Sabin, says anything. Bastien gives me a quick wink, and that’s the only acknowledgment I get from any of them about what Ryker and I were obviously doing downstairs. Their lack of reaction feels natural and complicated all at the same time.