Escaping Death

Ace

“How can you be sure it’s him and not someone trying to fuck with you?” Unlike Tate, I’m not one to jump to conclusions. Especially ones involving the notoriously mythical Nightshade.

“These are nightshade berries. This sprig alone is enough to kill every one of us.”

Nightshade. The myth we’ve been hired to hunt down not only threatened one of my pack mates, but also managed to enter my house undetected.

How did the crew watching the house not notice him? How did Tate not notice? Why didn’t I pick up on his foreign scent? Working with someone to cover his scent could explain how he’s been able to flit around like a murderous ghost all these years.

“So this is a message. Why?” I ask Tate, but really I’m telling him he needs to explain why Nightshade is targeting him. I knew Tate would be our best chance at hunting down any clues about Nightshade’s whereabouts, but this guy might be more dangerous than we first thought if he’s able to get inside my house without raising any alarms.

Tate’s expression flashes with guilt for a nanosecond before he replaces it with an unapologetically impish grin. “I might have written down a name for him.”

“I told him he had no business doing that,” Solana mutters under her breath and I whip my head around to look at her so fast I practically spin.

Grey is seething now. It’s one thing for Tate to go rogue and gamble on a mark, it’s another for him to involve my mate in our jobs. Which is exactly what I say to him.

“You want to tell him, Sunshine, or should I?” Tate levels at Sol, serving only to fan the flames of my frustration even more.

“That sometimes I work the bar at Caligo?” She deadpans.

“That you’re either working with him or working for him.” Tate does not make idle threats, so I’m inclined to believe that the truth lies in one of those choices.

“As I said, I make the drinks, I pass on the names.”

“You didn’t think we should have known this sooner, Solana?” I fail to keep the incredulity out of my tone. She should have told us, if not to help us find him then to at least let us do our job and keep her safe.

“No,” she shrugs off my question as if I’ve asked her if she wants eggs for breakfast. “Because me working there is irrelevant to locating him. And as far as keeping me safe,” she pauses and crushes me with a look that penetrates through to my soul, “not only has he not killed me after all these years, nor any employee for that matter, it’s really not in his best interest to kill the Queen’s daughter.”

She has a point. But I’m certainly not going to admit that to her. Plus it raises yet another question for me, a rather unsettling one, and it begins to feel like if I don’t get at least my hands on her I’m going to burn down everything within a ten mile radius.

“Is that why he hasn’t killed you, Sol?” I encroach into her space. Standing behind her I cup her waist delicately and lower my head so my mouth is next to her ear. “Or is it because you’re more than an employee to him?” She shudders in my hands and the rope from which my self restraint hangs begins to fray. I drop my mouth to her neck and brand her skin with my lips causing a hint of her arousal to perfume the air. But I still don’t have my answer.

And now I want to know if she’s aroused by my touch – or the thought of him.

“Does he touch you Sol?” My hands begin to roam over her stomach, feeling how strong her core is but how feminine and soft she is, too. Between kisses to her neck, I watch Tate getting closer and closer to us. It’s not a conscious movement, he looks entranced, mindlessly drawing nearer.

“Does he know what you taste like?” Tate hisses like a snake, coiled and poised to strike. The fire in his eyes is unmistakable, he knows what he wants and right now that’s Solana.

That thought should bother me. It should make me want to pull her tighter to me, claim her, and tell Tate to fuck off.

But my brain and our bond are at war. Images of her writhing beneath Hunter and me come to mind, how much I enjoyed watching her pleasure enhanced beneath two sets of hands. I could never have predicted I’d like it as much as I did.

There’s something oddly arousing about someone wanting what’s yours, and if I was ever going to trust my mate in the hands of another it would only ever be the guys I consider to be my brothers. The ones who would die to protect me and the things that are important to me.

And right now, with the way Tate is feasting on her with his eyes, I know he’d do anything for Sol. That realization has my grip on her loosening, but she doesn’t move. I can tell that her body is in its own war with our bond. Her shallow breathing tells me she wants him to advance on her, but the way she tenses and presses into me tells me she doesn’t know if she should.

I decide to give them both permission. With my hands around her biceps I hold her firmly against my chest then say, “do you know how she tastes, T?”

His pupils blow out wide, like a black flame billowing across his irises, and they both groan lowly at my words. Tate hears the invitation in my tone and quickly captures her mouth with his. I stiffen beneath my pants watching and listening to them pant and moan as their tongues wrestle for dominance.

As if feeling his hand on my own skin, I can feel him skim his fingertips down her body and slip into the waistband of her pants. She throws her head back against my chest when he pushes a finger into her core, feeling her for the first time.

Tate works her slowly, edging her over and over towards release, but just as she’s starting to build again we hear the voice of one of her brothers greeting Eli like an old friend and asking about his baby sister.

Tate lifts a single, inked finger to the sinful smile his lips are curled up into and then both he and Sol disappear from view.

— — —

Solana

For the love of the Gods. Between Ace’s touch sending sparks throughout my body, holding me possessively against him, and Tate occupying my mouth with his wicked tongue and my core with his fingers I’m about ready to combust in the most brutal way.

And then we all hear him, my brother Rhys, asking Eli where I am — which at the moment is on the brink of climax.

Neither Ace nor Tate are deterred by his presence. Tate simply grins at me with wicked eyes and holds a finger to his lips telling me to keep quiet. I nod in understanding and we both slip into the shadows.

Tate backs me up to the couch, relieving me of having to focus on staying quiet and upright, just as my brother walks into my room.

I’m concentrating so hard on not making a sound that I barely register Tate pulling my pants and panties down and off of my legs.

“Welcome to the Grove, I’m Rhys, Sol’s favorite brother.” Rhys says to Ace and I can hear the shit eating grin on his face.

“Ace,” Ace says with a grunt and they clasp hands in greeting.

“Good to meet you. Everyone is very interested to meet the man that managed to bring Sol back home. Where is she, anyway?”

A low, breathy moan escapes me as Tate drops his head between my legs and sucks my clit between his teeth.

“She went to show Dean his room but she should be coming any second now.” Tate smiles against my pussy at Ace’s obvious meaning, then he sucks relentlessly on my clit, lashing his tongue across the sensitive bundle of nerves.

And just like Ace promised, I’m coming on Tate’s tongue with my hands pressed firmly over my mouth to keep the sounds of my euphoria from reaching my brother’s ears.

There’s no time for post-orgasmic affection. Tate helps me get my pants back on, then he sucks my arousal off of his inked fingers with a self-satisfied grin.

Together Tate and I sweep around the other side of the couch and into the hallway while Ace and Rhys begin making small talk. Then, as if he didn’t just have his face between my thighs, we walk into my room to face my brother and Ace.

“Speak of the devil, and she shall come,” Ace barely gets the words out with a straight face when he catches sight of Tate and me.

It’s surreal to me that Ace and the gang are here in the Grove shooting the shit with my brother. It feels so…normal. So easy.

“Hey Rhys,” I greet my brother and he ensnares me in a tight hug.

“Hey Sunflower,” he sighs against my hair. “It’s good to have you home again. The Grove missed you.”

“I was just home like a month ago.”

Rhys laughs quietly to himself and shakes his head, not saying aloud the thoughts that are obviously on his tongue.

“What?” I pry.

“Nothing,” he shrugs with a half smile, “just that you’re the only one who can get away with being away. Sometimes I envy that.”

Wait, what? Rhys envies me?

“But anyway,” he deflects, “you should go have lunch and then if the guys want we can give you the grand tour of the Grove?”

“Mm,” Tate hums. “I’ve heard how much better things taste in the Grove.” He may be looking at my brother but I know he’s directing it at me, which makes my cheeks flush with heat that I hope my brother doesn’t notice.