Chapter 55: Forged in Blood: Chapter 53

Axl grins at me, and his fangs glisten in the moonlight. His shirt is soaked with blood, much like mine. The Hunt is over, but the spell blocking our bonds will remain in place until we leave the woods.

“Where is Malachi?”

“Here.” He steps out from a thick crop of trees, shirtless and caked in mud and dried blood. His green eyes sparkle. Ordinarily I would share their post-Hunt high, but Ophelia is still on my mind. “How many of ours made it?”

“Just seven,” Axl replies.

“Malone and Jensen made it, right?” Malachi asks.

Axl shakes his head. “Both dead.”

Damn. They were by far our best candidates this year, and we were all sure they’d make it.

“You okay?” Malachi asks, likely sensing my somber mood. I jerk my head, signaling we should leave, and they follow me out of the woods and away from anyone who might overhear. “I hate to bring the party down, but I need to tell you both what happened during the Hunt.” As I relay the events of the evening, their fear and helpless frustration and agitation perfectly mimic what I felt earlier. And by the time we get back to the house, they are every bit as eager to punish her as I am.

We get close enough to the house to see Alexandros sitting on the porch in the dark, alarmingly still.

“Is she inside? Is she okay?” Malachi asks, an edge of panic in his tone.

Axl must read something in Alexandros’s expression that Kai and I can’t see because he chuckles. “She’s not gonna be for long.”

The professor stares at us, a frown furrowing his brow. “I do not think she intended to disobey you.”

I fold my arms over my chest. “What do you mean?”

He runs his fingertips through his beard. “I think something or someone compelled her to go to the woods tonight.”

“With magic?” I ask. “Who is powerful enough to do that? Does it mean they can get inside her head and make her do stuff?”

“A number of witches can cast such a spell. But no, they cannot get inside her head. I would ordinarily be able to detect such a spell within these grounds, but I was not able to sense it with all the magic in the air this night.”

“So we could all be compelled? In theory?” That would fucking suck.

He shakes his head. “Vampires and demons cannot be compelled, at least not by witches. And the magic draws on the subject’s individual fears and desires. Ophelia was led to believe you were all in danger.”

Malachi sighs and drops his head.

“The tiny pink-haired cupcake was coming to save us?” I shake my head in disbelief. Ophelia is going to be the death of my sanity. She’s the most fearless person I’ve ever met in my long life, and that’s what led me to fall in love with her to begin with, but it also makes me want to tie her to my bed and keep her safe. I’d happily tie her to my bed for other reasons too …

“Fuck!” Axl scrubs a hand over his face. “What was she thinking?”

“I think you all know that she was not thinking, only acting in a foolish desire to save you three,” Alexandros says, his voice stuffier than usual, before standing and briskly straightening his clothes. “So do not force yourselves to endure unnecessary pain by being overly harsh on her. She has been through enough already this night.”

My hands ball into fists. “Who had her? Did they hurt her?”

“Two of our own pledges. I believe they intended to use her as bait. But she was unharmed.”

“You killed them?” I ask.

He scowls. “Of course.”

“I bet it was Malone and Jensen,” Malachi says.

Using a girl half their size as bait sure sounds like their deal. They would have been ideal candidates for turning. Still, the desire to tear them both limb from limb for laying a finger on my girl burns hot inside me. Lucky for them the professor beat me to it.

Alexandros makes his way down the porch steps and heads out across the lawn.

Where are you going? I ask.

Away from here is his only reply.

We stare after him until he disappears into the darkness.

Ophelia is sitting up in Malachi’s bed when we find her, the covers pulled up to her chin.

“I’m sorry. I thought you were all in trouble,” she blurts out as soon as we walk into the room.

Her eyes are red, and there are tear tracks streaked down her cheeks. Malachi crawls onto the bed and slowly pulls the comforter off her, revealing her body inch by delicious inch. She’s wearing panties and a tank top, and dammit, my cock is already hard. Whatever punishment I had in mind is pushed out of my head by thoughts of covering her sexy little body in bites and kisses so that I can remind myself that she’s mine.

He stops when he gets past her thighs and reveals a blood-stained strip of white fabric tied around her right knee. He presses a tender kiss on it, and she sucks in a deep breath that makes her juicy tits jiggle. I pull off my shirt.

“What happened, sweet girl?” he asks.

“I fell on a rock,” she says, a distinct tremor in her voice.

Axl growls. “Did anyone hurt you, princess?”

She shakes her head. “The professor found me before they could.”

I take off my jeans. “You know, Cupcake, we should put you on a leash after what happened tonight.”

Her eyes go wide.

“It’s the least we should do,” Axl agrees, pulling off his clothes now too.

Malachi peels off her tank top, and I crawl onto the bed, spreading her legs wide and running my nose up the inside of her thigh. I snap my teeth, feral to taste her.

“I won’t do it again,” she whimpers.

Axl joins us now too, his hand snaking up our girl’s thigh. “I was gonna take a shower, but I think we need to get Ophelia a little dirty first.”

Malachi nuzzles her neck. “Yeah, who needs a party when we can have so much more fun here?”

“There’s a party?”

Axl palms her pussy through her panties. “For all the pledges who made it.”

I flick my tongue over her skin and brush my nose over Axl’s hand. Ophelia’s head tips back. “Can we go?” she asks.

“Nuh-uh. Naughty girls don’t get to go to parties, princess.”

I press my lips against her sweet skin and murmur my agreement. When Axl pulls her panties aside, the scent of her pussy has me growling with need. I watch him sink a finger inside her, stretching her tight wet heat around him.

“Does being a naughty cupcake make our girl wet?” I ask him.

He slides his finger out of her, and it’s thick with her arousal. “What do you think, bro?” I suck his digit into my mouth and groan as her taste floods my senses.

Malachi sucks on one of her stiff nipples, and Ophelia looks down at the three of us, our hands and mouths all over her hot body. When I sink my fangs into the supple skin of her thigh, her eyes roll back in her head.

Axl tears her panties in half and laughs darkly when she whimpers a feeble protest. “Oh, princess, you’re going to be fucked so hard you won’t be capable of walking anywhere for the next week.”

And for the next few blissful hours, we take turns eating and fucking our girl until she’s begging us to let her come. When we finally take pity on her, she comes so hard I swear the earth shakes.

Alexandros stares at me over the rim of his coffee mug while I chug my protein shake. I place the glass on the counter when I’m done and smack my lips together.

A muscle in his jaw tics. “Now that the pledges are turned and under their sire’s protection, what are your plans for the day?”

Not let Ophelia out of my sight. Fuck her as many times as possible. Give her a few more lessons in the art of sucking cock. Not that she’s not already good at it, but practice makes perfect, right? I think those things but don’t dare say them aloud, and fortunately he’s got better things to do with his mind than listen to what’s in mine. Instead, I shrug.

“Maybe you should all start taking classes again,” he suggests.

Was he listening to me after all? I frown. “Classes?”

He nods. “College classes. With Ophelia.”

Nobody on campus asks questions about why the society commanders don’t attend class. It’s kind of an unwritten rule, and I can’t recall the last time I actually went to one. Obviously I am not here for an education. But classes with my girl could be a ton of fun. “I’m down for that, but any particular reason why?”

“What happened at the Hunt was no accident. While Ophelia is curious, she is not inherently stupid. Something or someone compelled her to go there. Although I am confident nobody knows what she is, she is also growing closer to the witches, and that is a concern in and of itself. Her new friend Cadence comes from a powerful family, and now all of the other witches are paying more attention to her, probably picking up on her energy. Not to mention the vampires who will start sniffing around her soon enough.”

I growl at the thought of anyone sniffing anywhere near her. She’s mine.

He places a hand on the back of my neck, and I lean into his touch like a pet desperate to be stroked by his master. “Do you feel her powers growing?”

“Yes.”

He stares into my eyes. “You will need to monitor her more closely. All of you. I fear we can only hide what she is for so long, but the longer we can do that, the safer it will be for all of us.”

Anxiety balls in my throat like a wadded-up tissue. It’s not a feeling I’m overly familiar with, and I don’t fucking like it. “You truly think people would hurt her if they found out what she is?”

“I know that they would, Xavier.”

His words cut through me like a knife. For a moment, his eyes soften and he looks at me the way I’ve wanted him to from the moment he turned me. Like he fucking cares. “I warned you not to bind yourself to her.”

“I know.” I clear my throat. “But I would still do it again a million times over.”

He drops his hand from my neck and shakes his head. “Then you are a fool.”