Luka crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the wall with a smirk like he knew something I didn’t. “You forget I’ve been training at this academy for years. I know how things work around here.”
Long seconds stretched as the men kept kissing my stomach, and I tried to decipher his cryptic words.
I realized what he’d done.
My stomach sank.
“Why would you do that?” I smacked at him with my two empty bottles.
He ripped them out of my hands and narrowed his eyes as he looked into them and confirmed they were empty.
I scoffed. “Get your own.” Poking him in the chest again, I went to do something, but my brain went fuzzy. “What were we talking about again?”
His lips formed a thin line.
“Are all humans way better looking than other species?” I asked him as I gestured to the facially challenged men at my feet. “Because you would win a beauty pageant hands down, and they would lose.”
I mouthed, “Last place.” So Luka knew what I was saying.
He rubbed at his forehead like he had a migraine.
“Pageants aren’t for everyone,” I said seriously as I narrowed my eyes at him. “It’s a hard lifestyle.”
His right eye twitched.
A cruel voice sneered, “You called for Corvus?”
The crowd of dancers parted, and three towering devil kings invaded the corner where I was trying to make destructive life decisions in peace.
“Who are you?” I asked as I pretended to not know Scorpius.
I chuckled at my joke.
Why was I actually hilarious?
Scorpius gnashed his teeth, and the muscle in his jaw jumped.
Annoying him was too easy.
Fingers gripped my ass, and I jolted at the contact. For a second, I’d forgotten about the two men kneeling and touching me intimately. Awkward.
Two kings glanced down.
One king cocked his head to the side in confusion.
Malum erupted in angry red flames, while Orion scowled as he whispered in Scorpius’s ear.
All three of them fisted their hands.
The temperature in the corner increased about a million degrees, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up at the danger in the air.
It was volatile.
Malum spoke, and his voice was the deepest I’d ever heard it. “Get your hands off our girl.”
I gaped. Our girl? He probably meant it in a slave sense.
Before anyone could move, Orion and Scorpius grabbed the men at my feet and threw them backward into the crowd.
Partygoers yelled as bodies smashed into them.
The kings didn’t bother to turn around to see the destruction they’d caused.
Luka smirked beside me.
Even drunk…
I knew I was doomed.
Chapter 31
Scorpius
THE PARTY
Metamorphosis—Day 42, hour 4
A few hours earlier
The party was boring.
I wanted to kill someone just to spice it up.
Females clung to my arms, and overly large breasts were squished against me. Lips trailed down my neck.
I felt nothing.
Next to me, gurgling noises let me know a woman was sucking on Corvus’s cock. She choked.
I’m sure his eyes were closed and his head tipped back.
To other partygoers, I bet it looked like he was enjoying himself.
Every few seconds, Corvus’s teeth clicked. He was grinding his jaw and breathing roughly through his nose.
He was trying not to lose control.
He was miserable.
Similarly, Orion was quiet on the other side of the chair. He didn’t moan with pleasure or make any sounds of enjoyment while women were breathily calling his name and touching him.
All three of us were screwed.
The pleasure we got from the academy students wasn’t a lot, but it had always been enough to take the edge off. It distracted us from the wanting we felt from one another.
Recently something had changed.
The willing students weren’t a distraction anymore. Touching other people was a chore.
I trailed my hands over the bodies worshipping me.
My fingers tangled in short hair, then explored a jaw covered in stubble. I was startled because a man was on his knees before me, and I hadn’t even noticed.
I should have been horrified.
A decade ago, when we’d realized we were missing our fourth, we’d made a pact to never touch another man. Only women. It had felt too much like I was cheating on my mates.
Now I felt nothing.
No guilt.
No disgust.
Just emptiness.
All three of us were bisexual, so we’d never found much of a difference between men and women. It was the fact that only devil males wielded flames that made us choose women over men.
Now I saw that our logic was flawed.
It didn’t matter what they were.
The students were all just pathetic substitutes.
They weren’t what I wanted.
I zipped up my pants and pushed the man off me roughly. His body slammed against the floor, and he moaned in pain.
I smiled.
A glimmer of enjoyment shuddered through me. It disappeared just as quickly as it arrived.
I dragged my nails against the back of my neck, and the pinpricks of pain helped me focus.
The floor shook beneath my feet, and vibrations pulsed all around. Students and competitors breathed heavily as they danced. Moaned as they fucked. Screamed along with the lyrics.
I missed the quiet.
Leaning against the chair, I put my hand on Corvus’s warm shoulder and rested my head against the wall.
My mate sighed with relief at my touch.
We both knew my fingers kneading his muscles was the most pleasure he’d feel tonight.
“I can’t do this,” Orion whispered, and there was a squelching noise as he pulled himself out of a woman and pushed her away.
She swore and yelped.
I smiled.
Orion walked over and leaned his broad back against my chest. I slung an arm over my Revered’s strong shoulder and kept my other hand massaging Corvus.
My shoulders slumped with relief.
We were together.
I was supporting my Revered. I was touching my Ignis.
As a Protector, this was the closest I’d ever get to perfection.
An ache burned my chest, and an intense longing—to possess what I couldn’t have—almost brought me to my knees.
Orion whimpered.
We rarely touched one another for this very reason. It was too perfect. It was nothing but a reminder of the ecstasy we couldn’t have.
A cruel joke.
My cock swelled beneath Orion until it was harder than it had ever been. I swallowed thickly and couldn’t stop myself from grinding against his perfect, firm ass.
We were tiptoeing across a line we swore we’d never cross.
Despair awaited us on the other side.
Orion moved his hips to the music, and I pressed my groin harder. We swayed together.
He was so warm.
So right against me.
From the fact that he didn’t move away, we’d arrived at the same conclusion: we needed this.
I clutched the most precious man in all the realms. As I breathed in deeply, his rich, sweet scent filled my senses.
Fuck.
Orion was perfect.
No Revered had ever been so intoxicating: formidable, affectionate, tenacious.
Corvus’s arms snaked between us, so he was wrapped around Orion with his head resting on his washboard abs.
The three of us clung to one another.
Hours passed.
The party raged.