Noah stiffened beside me, but Alek beat him to the protest. Curling his hand around my cheek, eyes warm with an emotion I was too scared to name, he shook his head. “No, Sunday. You are perfect. I’ve felt the power pouring through you. It consumes me. You’re a lot of things. Exquisite. Unique. Untamed. But damaged is not one of them.”
There he went, being a swoony bastard again. This was why I couldn’t stay mad at him. He did shit like that. “I don’t want to choose.”
“So don’t. Take us both,” Alek suggested.
“Both?” I snorted. “And what is Madame Moody going to say when she sees me walking in sandwiched between the two of you?”
“Do you really think a deity is going to care how many men you have at your side? Have you ever read mythology? The gods take new lovers as often as they change clothes. She wouldn’t bat an eye at you arriving with both of us.”
That gave me pause. Here it was again. More proof that polyamory wasn’t just accepted in our society; in some instances, it was encouraged.
“You both really want to go with me?”
“You know there’s no other choice for me, little wolf,” Noah said, eyes blazing hot.
“Nor I,” Alek admitted, his voice tender.
Slow clapping filled the air, and like a snake slithering from his hiding place, Kingston appeared out of the shadows. “Well done, Sunshine. You got them both to hand you their balls.” He stepped closer and inhaled. “You must really have a magical cunt. I wasn’t aware the Viking had gotten a taste too.”
Anger curled in my belly, calling my wolf to the surface. “Don’t be a little bitch because they have what you want.”
“Who says I still want you? I don’t like sloppy seconds.”
“The way you always seem to pop up and metaphorically pull on my pigtails like a stupid schoolyard bully.”
A wicked glint flashed in his eyes. “The only time I’ll be pulling your hair is when I’m deep inside you, fucking you so hard you forget all about these two.”
I wasn’t even going to point out that he was contradicting himself. “In your dreams.”
“Are you sure you don’t mean in yours?”
A bolt of arousal hit me, merging with my anger and sending my wolf howling with need. I hated that I wanted him, but there was no ignoring my body’s reaction to his promise. Even if I had no intention of acting on it.
Noah stepped in front of me, shoulders tense. “The difference between us and you, dog, is that we are giving her what she wants. I’d rather share her and be given a place in her heart than spend my life on the outside looking in. You’re too bloody selfish to do that, which means you’ll never be hers.”
Kingston scowled, but I caught the hint of pain Noah’s words caused before he quickly covered the emotion with more posturing. “Keep her. I’m done fighting for a mate who doesn’t want me.”
Guilt and something that tasted a lot like sorrow tore at me. As childish as he could be, I never meant to hurt Kingston. Everything he’d done since the day of our mating ceremony had been a direct result of my rejection. It didn’t forgive his awful behavior, but it put it in a new light.
Kingston stormed off, leaving me torn between wanting to punch him, hug him, and fuck him all at the same time. I hated it.
My shoulders slumped, and I turned away from the path he’d headed down. I needed to let go of him, but I couldn’t. It hurt. Even though I had two strong, protective, gorgeous men at my side, Kingston’s anger physically hurt me. My wolf mourned every second he was away from us.
Almost in unison, Alek and Noah took my hands, infusing me with their strength and comforting me with their silent support.
“We’re here with you. We always will be, Sunny. And one day, he’ll realize what he did.” Alek’s deep voice soothed the ache in my chest, filling the wound Kingston’s callous words had carved into my heart.
“And he’ll regret not choosing you over himself,” Noah added.
I hoped it was true. Lord knew a part of me regretted the moment I’d rejected him. And that part grew a little larger every single day.
That night I was restless,indecision and worry warring for top billing in my mind. Despite Alek and Noah’s assurances, I couldn’t help but feel that choosing someone would devastate those I left behind. The thought of hurting any of them was killing me inside. I needed someone to talk to, someone who wasn’t going to just tell me to let the world burn, keep them all, and ride them to the finish line, like Moira.
A chill seeped into my bones as I stalked across the grounds in search of the only person I wanted to bare my soul to tonight. Rain hit me in icy drops, freezing my skin and raising goosebumps everywhere it touched. Normally I liked the rain, but not now. It only added to the melancholy in my heart.
I hesitated only for a moment as I stood outside the abandoned church Caleb had claimed as his classroom. It stood on the edge of the property, complete with a creepy graveyard. I shuddered as my focus landed on the spectral figure floating just above one of the tombstones. He was dressed in what appeared to be wedding clothes, now tattered and moth-eaten. The skeletal man doffed his moldering top hat.
“Oh hell no,” I muttered, throwing open the door as I noped straight inside the church. A cranky vampire priest was much better than Skeletor out there. Better the devil you know, and all that.