Magical Midlife Battle （Leveling Up, #8）(43)

“Yes, alpha,” I said in a silky voice, clutching his shoulders as he plunged into my depths and filled up my world. “I love you so much, Austin,” I murmured, tilting my head back to soak in the exquisite feelings. “I love that we complement each other so effortlessly, and that you like public displays of affection.”

He moved faster, and heat blistered through me, so delicious and heartfelt. Consuming.

“I love you, too,” he said, reaching between us to work what I needed.

I fell into his touch. Into the emotion coursing through our bonds. I felt limitless with him, like anything was possible. Nothing would stand in our way.

An explosion of pleasure tore me apart. I cried out, digging my fingers into his back as he shuddered out his release. Our breathing was harried and my heart knocked against my chest as a lovely euphoria set in.

I smiled, my eyes growing heavy, sighing softly at the welcome feeling of his weight on me.

“That better have been good to compensate for how loud it was,” we heard through the wall.

Clearly Nessa had stayed in this evening.

“I forgot how thin these walls are here,” Austin whispered, the bed shaking with his laughter.

“Why are the sheets fresh?” I asked. “This place doesn’t seem like it was shut up for fifteen years.”

“They said my mom was looking after it, but I wonder if my niece or nephew used it from time to time. When I left, I said in my note that they could.”

“Hmm.” I kissed his cheek and snuggled a little deeper into the mattress, tightening my arms to keep him put.

“One more time,” he murmured, lifting to kiss me again, already hardening. He was never sated for long.

“No way. We can’t do a marathon tonight. For one, Ulric and Jasper always embarrass me about it, two, we have a lot of stuff to do tomorrow, and while I can heal, that doesn’t totally compensate for zero sleep, and three, when you really get going, there’s no way I’m going to keep the volume down, and the whole house will be up all night.”

“Okay, okay. Just one more, though.” He started moving slowly. “I’ll stop at the one, I promise.”

I laughed because I could never say no to him. Then I kissed him again, loving the feel of his lips.

It was my favorite thing about us, our kiss. It felt like we poured our souls into each and every one. If

it was the last thing I did on this earth, it would be enough. And a small, scared part of me wondered if the end would be soon.

ELEVEN

Jessie

“OKAY, WHAT’S THE STATUS?” I walked through the grass in the square downtown. My purple muumuu flowed around my legs and my flip-flops clapped against my heels. Nessa kept pace with a walkie-talkie, a little behind me, and Tristan waited in front of us on the sidewalk at the edge of the grass.

“The plants are—”

“No, Edgar.” I put out my finger to stop him. He was loping beside me to keep up even though walking should’ve been perfectly fine. “We still need to ask Kingsley about the flowers. We’ll get to that after the gargoyles do some mapping of the territory, okay?”

“Yes, Jessie.” He fell away again.

We wouldn’t need him right now. We weren’t doing any training until the rest of our team arrived later in the day, and we couldn’t come up with a strategy until we had a full rundown on Kingsley’s defense capabilities while looking at a big, 3D map of the territory. Right now, we were getting our bearings in the sky, looking for any interlopers. I was done with letting the enemy sneak around the perimeter and getting away with it. We had to cut off Momar’s information.

“The potion of those at the perimeter has been consumed, and we’re just waiting for them to disappear,” Nessa said.

I nodded and stopped in front of Tristan, noticing the walkie-talkie in his hand and the purple muumuu plastered to his body.

“That doesn’t exactly fit you,” I told him, trying to contain my humor. Non-battle-hardened shifters waited all around, watching our operation. I didn’t need any challenges at the moment, and smiling tended to give people here the green light if they felt so inclined.

With our crew, we had a feeling they’d definitely feel so inclined. It was just a matter of time.

“Cyra supplied it, thinking she was helping me out,” he replied, his grin saying he dared someone to make his day. “I didn’t want to be rude.”

“No one in their right mind is going to challenge you, you know,” Nessa said.

“They will.” He stepped away a little so that I could sit on a little bench, facing the grass.

“Someone will convince themselves that gargoyles are lesser and aim for the largest one they can find to prove how big their balls are.”

“Just don’t chop those balls off. Jessie is strictly against that,” Nessa said.

“We’re trying to get along here, guys,” I said. “This is Austin’s family.”

“They’re not his family,” Tristan growled, his eyes sparking. “At least not the people I’ve heard talking about him around town. A great many have poor things to say about him, and not much better things to say about the shifters who left here to live in our territory.”

“He just needs a chance to show them that he’s changed.” I looked up at the sky, blocking the sun with my hand. Various colored specks dotted the frigid blue. “If the mages look up, they’ll see us. If they have binoculars, they’ll be able to sketch us.” I puffed out a breath, putting my hand back down.