Undying Hate~ Book Three

“Kitten?”

“Elias?”

“Where are we? And- why are you crying? Sylvie-”

Sylvie screamed and threw herself against him, wrapping her arms so tightly around his neck she thought she heard it creak.

Shouting and shuffling outside the cocoon became a background noise as she coated his face in kisses.

“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” Her Lycan abilities were gone, as was the mind link, but she’d give those up a thousand times to have Elias in her arms. She thought of the Fates and the strange creature in the oasis and sent her thanks as she kissed every inch of his face.

The roots receded as her grief ebbed, and hands tore them away from the pair.

Elias blinked at the intruders wearily as Sylvie poked and squished his face between her hands. She just had to make sure it was real. He was back.

She turned and squinted at Rowan, Kian, Claudine and Rosie.

They could see this, right?

She hadn’t completely lost the plot. But they weren’t speaking.

Why weren’t they speaking?

Her stomach knotted with dread, but when she gazed at Elias’ his confused expression only made her giddy. A laugh bubbled on her lips.

“What the fuck?” Claudine spoke first and reached down, poking Elias in the chest. He grunted and scowled.

“What are you doing, shifter?”

“No fucking way.”

“Sylvie-” Rowan’s voice cut off as Elias sat up, adjusting Sylvie on his lap and wrapping his arms loosely around her hips.

Oh god, his touch. She would never take any of him for granted again.

“What is it?” Elias narrowed his eyes. “I’m still mad at you, kitten. Don’t get too comfortable.”

She laughed and buried her face into his chest as the others talked over one another. Laughing in the face of his annoyance would probably lead to her getting spanked, but that was okay. She’d take each sexually charged smack without complaint. He was back. He was really back.

“Stop talking. All of you.” Elias stood, climbed out of the hole that looked too close to a grave for Sylvie’s comfort, and placed her on the ground.

“Kian.”

Kian looked from Elias to Sylvie and back again. The dark bags under his eyes reminded her of the days after rescuing him from Lazuli. He was hurting. He was probably mad at Sylvie. She knew she deserved it. She’d apologise to him as soon as the shock had worn off.

His lips moved, but nothing came out.

That only made Elias pricklier, his shoulders squaring. “Will someone tell me what the fuck is going on!”

“How?” Rosie asked meekly, her eyes full of wonder. She stared at Sylvie like she held the moon in her palm.

“How what?” Elias asked, his tone getting more grumpy, a hint of concern laced in.

“You were dead,” Claudine said finally—zero tact. Sylvie couldn’t even care. She just hid her face in his side. She wanted to breathe him in, but he sidestepped, moving out of reach.

“What are you talking about?”

Oh boy, this was about to get messy. Did she do something wrong? Besides a few books she’d read, she wasn’t exactly familiar with the rules or customs of necromancy. It was usually frowned upon.

Claudine swallowed and cracked her knuckles, taking a half-step backwards. “You were dead-dead. It’s been days. You were fucking dead.”

Elias’ head whipped to Sylvie, and she shrank back. “I don’t know what I did.”

She cast her eyes on all of them and picked at her cuticles. Why were they staring at her like that? Like she was dangerous. Maybe bringing people back from the dead changed them into something evil, like that horror novel about zombie pets. But one look at Elias crushed that idea, thankfully.

“I think we better go inside and have this conversation,” he said finally, a contemplative look on his perfectly sculpted face. He was perfect. No evil zombie there.

They walked silently, Sylvie separate from the rest as they headed for the main house. She climbed the porch behind Rowan and followed them into the living room.

Claudine and Rosie hung back, looking like they wanted to be as close to Sylvie as possible, while her mates looked like they wanted to be as far away as they could.

They probably hated her after pulling away and swearing at them. She wouldn’t blame them if they didn’t talk to her again.

Kian sat beside Rowan on the giant wall-to-wall couch, careful not to bump his ribs, and Elias sat on the end, steepling his fingers like he were about to review her work productivity in the last six months. Bossy Elias was hot but not what she needed.

She kept gazing over him, fearing he would vanish at any given second like it was all a dream. She wished he would just hold her.

“Explain,” Elias said.

She sat on an ottoman in front of them while Claudine and Rosie sat to the right on the floor. They made her look like a schoolteacher about to start a lesson. Maybe that could be her next job. She blinked. Focus, she needed to focus.

It turned out that days floating in and out of realms and drowning in unbearable grief fucked up a person.

She stood abruptly and walked to the kitchen, grabbing herself a drink of water, her throat so dry she gulped down two tall glasses before refilling and returning to the ottoman.

After clearing the scratchiness from her throat, she explained the cocoon, the realm splicing, the zappy orb fish and the song.

“The same song you hummed when he got sick the first time?” Rowan asked.

“Yes.”

“It shouldn’t work like that, though,” Rosie said.

“Yeah,” Claudine added. “He was like fully dead.”

Elias groaned and rubbed his face. “You may leave now, shifters.”

The women gave one last admiring look to Sylvie and left the house. Now there would be no witnesses.

Sylvie wriggled in front of them as if she were about to get a chastising. She had been horrible to them in her grief; they had to be mad. The things she said to Kian-

“Thank you,” Kian said suddenly. He walked over and knelt in front of her, taking her hands and kissing her knuckles.

“Thank you for saving him.”

She offered a small smile before her hiccups started, and tears fell down her cheeks. “I’m sorry for being so mean to you!”

He kissed her hands again with a small smile. “Insufferable,” he whispered. She pulled his hands to her lips and kissed his knuckles right back. The warmth of his skin sent a thrill across her lips even as she cried.

Rowan came over next, his movements still jerky and pained.

“I left you,” she cried, tentatively reaching towards his cheek. To her relief, he leaned into it and inhaled deeply.

“But you’re here now,” he replied.

“I’m sorry for lying-” she stared at him and Elias. “I should’ve told you-”

“You were just trying to protect him,” Rowan said before she could finish. “I don’t blame you. Especially after what we all just endured. I thought I lost you.”

“I’m so sorry.” She leaned forward and kissed his cheek. He stroked her hair from her face and pressed his nose to hers before sitting back in front of her.

Elias was next, but instead of coming to her, he just stood, his jaw working overtime as if looking for words.

“I thought it was a dream,” he said.

Kian turned to look at him, his expression still pained as if he thought this was all a dream too.

“I could hear you calling me. I felt your pain. I felt your hands around me. And when you held me, you saw me deeper than anyone has ever seen me.”

She swallowed as Elias took one step towards her.

“That was real?” he asked.

“Yes. I held your soul in my hands. It was beautiful.”

He stepped towards her again. “I died.”

“Yes.”

Another step. “You saved me.”

“I- maybe.”

“Is there a cost? A bargain you made?”

“She gave up her shifter magic,” Rowan said softly, running his hands down her shin. “No shifting, no mind link, no children.”

Her belly flipped, and she dropped her eyes to her shifter mate. “What?”

“Your shifter magic from our marking is gone now, love. That means your just a vampire- fae again. Only shifters can reproduce with shifters.”

Her mouth opened and closed. She had talked with him about children before, and he had agreed to whatever she wanted. She thought she probably didn’t, but the fact that the choice was taken from her made her heart hurt.

“It’s okay,” Rowan broke through her thoughts and stroked her cheek again. “I know it’s not what you wanted anyway.”

“But I still had the choice-”

“There’s still Elias and Kian who could- make children with you,” he said with a cheeky smile. There was no sadness behind it, and it brought a smile of her own.

“No thanks,” she said before biting her lip. “I think I’m good.”

Elias hummed and reached down to lift her to her feet. “Perhaps that might be a good thing. Now you won’t smell like a wet dog anymore.”

“Excuse me?” she laughed and pulled her hand back. “Take it back!”

“I will not.”

“You know I always smell like flowers. I’m magical like that.”

He hoisted her into his arms, and his eyes twinkled as he stared into hers.

“Yes. Yes, you are.

There was nothing quite like it. She knew it wasn’t exactly a good time, not with realms worth of vampires recovering in the woods alongside the shifters, but it was also the perfect time. Finally, she was home, they were all safe, and she was forgiven.

She moaned. Make-up sex. Fuck yes.

“Lay still,” Elias breathed in her ear, his body on her left. His fingers skillfully teased and tugged on her nipples as his lips and teeth created little marks along her neck.

She sighed, reaching between her legs and burying her fingers in Rowan’s soft locks. His tongue was lapping at her clit like she was the last drop of water in the desert.

His oasis. He hummed against her, and she whined as the vibration sent her over the edge.

“Not yet,” Kian murmured from her right. His mouth captured hers and sent pure bliss between them. She sighed and squeezed the bedsheets as the pressure built again. Her body tingled head to toe.

“She’s doing it again,” Rowan purred against her pussy.

“I can feel it,” Kian said.

“Yes,” Elias added. “I can feel all of you.”

She stared wide-eyed at the three of them. “What? What am I doing?”

“You’re connecting all of us,” Kian answered.

Rowan growled and slid his tongue up to her navel, biting the soft skin of her belly. “We are one.”

She smiled in recognition. So that was why they always seemed to come at the same time.

An intense thought filled her mind, and she bit her lower lip. “I-” she paused, unsure if she should even suggest it. Would they think she was weird for asking? She had seen porn that had done it, but it was all orchestrated and fake looking. She wasn’t a backdoor virgin or anything, but...

“You what, kitten?” Elias’s eyes drilled into hers like he could picture what she was thinking. Could he? Would he think she was a freak?

Rowan’s chest rumbled, and he sat back on his heels. “Yeah,” he breathed. “What were you gonna say?” With his tattoos and untamed hair, he looked like every sexy book cover she had ever seen.

“Oh, god,” she whispered.

“Sylvie. Say it,” Rowan almost begged.

“I was gonna say I can think of another way we could be one. Connected.”