Onyx at Home

ZAYDA

Returning home from the Dusk Mountains hadn't been an easy decision, especially with Summer trying so hard to convince me to stay.

When I brought our son into Xythor’s room, I still held onto the hope that it would enliven him—as if somehow our child could entice him back to the world of the living.

But Xythor just stared ahead blankly, hardly able to move his hands or arms.

When I placed the child on his lap, our baby cried.

The baby had hardly ~stopped~ crying since it was born, so its response to its father wasn’t out of the ordinary.

My last hopeful wish had failed to come true.

I knew I shouldn’t be surprised by the depressing events of my life. For almost a year now, my reality had been a downward spiral.

~But a baby makes everyone optimistic, right? Even me.~

As our child cried on his catatonic father’s lap, I decided it was time to name the little boy.

I couldn’t be sure about his future…but I was sure about his past.

He had been conceived from love.

“Thor,” I said to myself softly.

For an instant, my baby stopped crying and stared at me with clear blue, snakelike eyes.

Though Thor still had scales, a tail, and little wings, I saw just then a glimpse of the child he could be.

A child who wasn’t cursed. Who had a future ahead of him.

***

I spent that night—our first night as the most dysfunctional family in the history of the world—cooing at a wailing Thor while using the breast pump that Summer had given.

How could I express how tired I was? Between mothering Thor and caring for Xythor, there was no time to sleep.

Time was already looping and confusing in the lab, with no natural light. But now, I had completely lost track of what day it was.

I was in Xythor’s room, having just completed a round of blood work to revive him, when I heard a knock on the outside door.

~Summer.~

I carried my child down the hall of flickering lights. Thor began to cry when I opened the door and the sun streamed in.

Summer rushed into the lab. She didn’t say anything, and she kept looking at me, which made me nervous.

I started back down the hall to the nursery as Summer followed close behind.

“How are you?” Summer asked.

“Good,” I replied, which was a lie, obviously, but I didn’t want her to worry. “Let me show you the nursery.”

I led her into the linoleum-tiled room with a crib in the middle.

I knew it wasn’t the lap of luxury, but having Summer there made me realize just how sad the whole situation was.

Summer touched my arm.

“Zayda, will you please move to Dusk? Bring your baby. And Xythor.”

“I named him Thor,” I said, managing a smile.

“How adorable,” she replied. “So, what do you think?”

Her face was so hopeful, and her eyes so concerned…that it hurt to turn down her offer. But I knew the lab was the only place I could perform the blood magic Xythor needed.

“I can’t,” I told her, “but thank you.”

She nodded her acceptance.

“Okay. But I promise to help you here, okay? In every way I can. I’ll come every day.”

I tried to smile, hoping Summer couldn’t see my anxiety. If she came every day, she would know just how dire my situation was.

I wouldn’t be able to hide behind my privacy anymore.

I nodded and thanked her again.

Suddenly, Thor felt very heavy in my arms. I brought him to his crib and then I sat down on the floor.

How could I tell Summer that even though she was the most talented healer I knew, I didn’t think anyone could help me now?

HARRY

“Annnnnd…here we are!”

Onyx turned his red Ferrari into a driveway concealed by trees and protected with a huge gate.

“Uhhh…damn,” was all I could say.

I’d figured Onyx had money because of the nice suits and the, you know, ~Ferrari~, but this house was already looking like next-level rich.

He pressed a button near the rearview mirror, and the massive metal gate swung open.

I was speechless as a huge white mansion appeared before us, surrounded by a perfectly manicured garden.

He pulled up the circular drive and stopped the car near the beautiful main entrance.

“Welcome to my humble abode,” he said with a smile as he powered off the engine.

My astonished expression made him laugh, and he gave me a quick kiss before opening the driver’s side door, which hinged from the top, fanning out like the wings of a dragon.

“Humble?!” I asked.

As I stood on Onyx’s driveway, I heard something I hadn’t heard in a long time: silence.

We were just outside the city center, but I felt like I was a world away from all the filth and noise pollution.

Onyx held the front door open for me.

“After you,” he said.

As I stepped through, he smacked my ass.

If the outside of Onyx’s house was luxurious, the inside was even more glamorous.

The floors were sleek black-and-white marble. The furniture was chrome and leather. It was the most elegant building I had ever set foot inside…and it was also the sexiest.

“What the fuck?” I asked. Onyx had continued through the entryway, and I followed him into a state-of-the-art kitchen. “Do you, like, have servants and shit?”

He laughed as he pulled a bottle of red from the wine rack and filled two crystal glasses.

“Oh, no. Privacy is too important to me.”

I nodded as I took a seat on a high stool by the kitchen island. He passed me a glass of wine and we cheersed with a satisfying ~clink~.

The wine tasted delicious and began to warm my insides.

Onyx smiled at me mischievously.

“So, you like my house?” he asked playfully.

“Are you kidding?” I replied. “It’s insane.”

“It’s my pride and joy. I’ve had quite a lot of time to make it exactly what I wanted.”

For the first time since I’d met Onyx, something in his tone made him seem…vulnerable. He had been alone for a long time.

I knew Onyx was thinking the same thing I was. It was so crazy that we’d found each other.

I gazed out through the window to an expansive deck.

“What is that?” I asked, pointing to a large, covered object.

“Let me show you,” he replied proudly as he pulled open the sliding door. “It’s almost the full moon…”

I was wondering if there was some ~other~ kind of magic I didn’t know about yet…but then Onyx pulled the cover off and revealed a telescope.

He immediately got down on one knee and peered through the viewfinder, moving it and then twisting the fine adjustment knobs.

Then Onyx stood up and smiled at me.

I closed one eye…and I was looking at the gorgeous night sky.

“Orion’s Belt,” Onyx informed me.

“You know about stars?” I asked.

“It’s one of my hobbies.”

Every new thing I learned about him just made me more excited to be his mate.

I had never thought about the possibility of having a mate—of being with one person forever. But if that person was Onyx, I was more than happy with my fate.

We went back to the kitchen, and Onyx refilled our wine glasses then stood up.

“Alright, now it’s time for the rest of the tour.”

Feeling pleasantly light-headed from the booze, I followed him across the shining marble.

When he ducked into a dark wooden doorway, I waltzed in behind him.

The library featured floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, massive brown leather couches, and a stone fireplace with dragonfire crackling inside.

“I didn’t know you like to read,” I said, marveling at yet another new sexy fact about Onyx.

“Sometimes,” he replied mysteriously. “But mostly I like to watch TV in here.”

He snapped his fingers, and a massive screen and high-tech projector descended from the ceiling.

“Sick.”

Onyx took my hand and led me through the rest of the giant house. The dining room, the sun room, the outdoor pool and jacuzzi—“for later,” he whispered—and finally, upstairs to his bedroom.

The room was minimally decorated, but it felt cozy and warm…

The walls were white with red trim, and another fireplace burned across from the bed.

I closed the space between myself and my mate, grabbing him by his belt loops and leaning in to smell the smoky cologne on his neck.

“There’s one more place I want to show you,” he said.

And then he led me through the large bathroom and knocked twice on a full-length mirror. The mirror slid to the side, revealing a hidden corridor.

“After you.”

~What the hell?~

I stepped through the secret doorway into a very different kind of room. The walls and floor were cement, and the whole space was lit by hundreds of candles.

As my eyes adjusted, I noticed all the black leather…all the chrome…all the instruments of delightful torture.

Onyx had a fucking ~sex dungeon~.

“This is my favorite room,” Onyx said with a relaxed sigh.

Funny that Onyx was so calm, because I was starting to sweat.

Of course, I knew that Onyx was a dom. But I didn’t realize he was, like…~dungeon-level~ dom.

“You have everything you need, huh?” I asked, trying to make light of the floggers, whips, and St. Andrew’s cross.

“Now that you’re here, yes.”

I met his eyes for a moment, and Onyx winked before he took my hand. He led me back through the mirror and into the bedroom.

Finally, we collapsed onto his bed.

I felt drunk on wine and all the new information about this captivating man…who was all mine.

“What did you think of the tour?” he asked.

“I can’t believe you live here,” I replied.

I looked into my mate’s mischievous and sincere eyes.

“You better believe it,” he replied. “Because ~you~ live here now too.”

MADDIE

I strode into the penthouse kitchen, my bunny slippers slapping against the marble floor.

Loch and Hael were cooking steak for dinner, which meant searing the meat for one second per side and eating it dripping with blood.

But I was in the mood for ice cream.

“Sugar for dinner, mouse?” Loch clicked his tongue as I pulled out the Rocky Road. I put the hot fudge in the microwave and turned it on.

“I think you’re forgetting,” I paused to blast whipped cream in my mouth, “that I can do whatever I want.”

Hael smiled like I was telling him a joke. But I was actually fucking pissed at both of them for cutting me out of my own business.

I was planning to eat my dinner by the TV and forget I ever met the two greedy snakes.

Well, that, and I was going to get my ~revenge~.

Just like my frozen treat, it was a dish best served cold.

Loch passed his brother a steak as I scooped myself a massive bowl of ice cream.

When the hot fudge was ready, I constructed my sundae.

I turned around to find my mates chomping on steak at the table, smiling at me like I was…another savory piece of meat.

~Well, I’ll show them.~

“You don’t take me seriously, do you?” I asked.

They shrugged.

“I’ll make you a promise, then, boys.”

With a flourish, I added a cherry on top of my dinner.

“You think you beat me at my own game, but just you wait. Remember all that money we had sex on?”

They glanced at one another and I glared at them with all the rage in my cold heart. “I’m going to steal every last bit of it. And you won’t even see me coming.”