Dying in Flames by M. Sinclair
Sai
The soundof Maya’s soft laughter from the top of the staircase instantly had my entire body hardening, her happiness somehow managing to turn me on almost immediately. Because that was so extremely normal, right? Still, her rose and ash scent invaded my space and had me snapping my head up to find the gorgeous vision of my mate making her way towards me, down the steps.
Fuck. Me.
My gaze traveled up the delicate heels she was balancing on gracefully, the short skirt she was wearing, the light pink material swishing right under her ass only enhancing how long her legs looked covered in sheer thigh-high stockings. Holy hell, she looked like she’d walked out of a goddamn fantasy. Specifically, my own personal fantasy. I swear, I was so fucked when it came to this woman.
I did have to give her credit—she looked like a kitten, down to the diamond choker she was wearing. Fuck, I did not want to examine why that turned me on so much, but it was clear where my head had been when I’d purchased it for her. The way she smiled at her friend as they walked down the steps, seemingly unaware of the effect she had on anyone with eyes, only made it that much harder to control myself.
I wanted to make her all too aware of what she did to me. To all of us.
I did think Maya was starting to catch on to the hold she had over us, though. Did I think she understood the trouble she was courting? No. But I did think she got off on teasing us and wearing outfits like this one that made my knees feel fucking weak. It was tempting to kneel in front of her and smooth my hands up her legs until I could bury myself between her thighs…
I pulled myself from those thoughts, not trusting what I would do considering how on edge I was from everything that had happened recently.
Although, I had come to the conclusion that after everything I’d endured on this planet, this tiny woman was going to be the one thing to absolutely destroy me. My kitten already had my heart, and I knew she would do her best to protect it, but she really had no idea how much power she wielded. It made me want to lay the world at her feet just to prove that I was worthy of her attention.
“Fuck.” Anani let out a choked sound as Marco released a low growl from where he was standing with him, causing me to tense. I had no idea what was going on with the bastard. I mean, I did… He was obviously on edge because of the situation with Malcolm, but it was more than that. His entire disposition was almost uncontrolled, and even now, his normal reserved mannerisms seemed completely absent.
That was dangerous for most people, but with Marco, it was absolutely lethal.
As Anani mumbled something and drew a hand over his face, I kept Maya’s gaze as she looked down at me, offering a big smile. I seriously considered tackling her at that moment, just to keep her against and under me, so that no one outside of our flight and Croy could see her. I didn’t want anyone else to have the pleasure of looking over a single inch of her golden skin.
I barely noticed her friend Jordan slipping past to go to Marcellus and his brothers, her mates, as I reached out to grab Maya. She did a little twirl, showing off her outfit, and causing a rumble to catch in my throat.
“What do you think?” she asked, her eyes lit up with a teasing flash that was quickly replaced with warmth and affection that was sweet and almost innocent… Almost, because I think she knew I was fighting the very present urge to bend her over on the stairs and rail into her.
It was going to be a losing battle if she continued to look at me like that, and before she knew it, I would have her entire body covered in my bite marks. That damn outfit just provided far too many opportunities that my cock was practically begging me to take advantage of. My dragon was begging as well, for the record, and he was convinced that she was showing so much skin because she wanted exactly that and that I was somehow in the wrong for not giving in to her…
This was going to be a very long night.
“You’re a kitten,” I mumbled intelligently. Clearly, the sight of her had fried my brain cells.
She nodded and took Bella off her shoulder, presenting her to the three of us happily. I broke into a bark of laughter as the small kitten flashed a pair of phoenix wings. Alright, that was adorable—there was no denying that.
“That’s what you call me, so I thought it was fitting,” she pointed out, her smile small but filled with a coy sweetness to it that had my cock hardening even further against my pants. “Plus, how often is it that Bella and I get to trade places like this? I couldn’t tell her no to the idea once I brought it up.”
My mate’s gaze flitted around the room as she noticed the others staring at her from the kitchen, her smile growing. I was glad she didn’t notice Jordan’s mates, because I wasn’t positive I could deal with her eyes on anyone else but us right now. The group of them seemed preoccupied anyway, arguing about something that I frankly couldn’t care less about. It wasn’t personal, not really, it was just that my entire attention was on my mate, who was looking like a fucking cupcake right now.
“Oh!” She looked at us curiously. “Did the boys get to the pack lands alright? I was worried about that, and I didn’t even get a chance to tell them to be safe tonight.”
So fucking sweet.
“Perfectly safe. Atlas personally made sure they arrived without incident,” I assured her. She seemed to relax, happy with that notion.
“I know they aren’t really kids, at least not after everything they’ve been through…” She sighed and then frowned. “I just hate the idea of them thinking no one cares about them. No one should feel that way; it’s the most isolating and lonely feeling in the world.”
“We will make sure they know they have us, even if they do decide to take up Alpha Creed on his offer.”
“Offer?” She arched a brow.
“To live on the pack lands with some of the other shifter children. They have an entire community because shifters abandon their children fairly often, so he’s made sure to have a massive house that can take in anyone in that situation.”
“They abandon their children?” Maya looked like she was about to cry.
“Goddamnit,” Anani growled, appearing next to me. “Why does she look like she’s about to fucking cry?”
I pulled her forward and kissed her cheek gently as she sniffed and seemed to shake herself.
“Sorry, I know it’s a good thing they have a place, but I just can’t understand anyone wanting to leave their children behind,” she mumbled and blinked the tears away. “Maybe this is part of the weird nesting thing. I feel way more emotional than normal.”
“Possibly,” I agreed softly and squeezed her waist. “Don’t think too much on it. They have a safe space to be if they choose it, or if not, we can figure something out. We have even offered for them to stay here. Unfortunately, I don’t think they will take us up on that because despite Clive being young, having two alpha dragon shifters together is a horrible idea.”
“We would try to make it work, though,” Anani assured.
“It’s their decision, of course.” Maya sniffed and then shrugged. “We can talk about it later, I am upsetting Bella—” She broke into a soft laugh as Bella licked her cheek in a gesture that had me smiling. I knew Maya understood the situation, and the level of empathy she experienced towards others always absolutely blew me away. For someone who had the background she did, she was really in touch with her emotions, and it was actually beautiful.
“Angel,” Atlas called out from where he was sitting with Croy and Ledger. The first looked like he was in shock, most likely over her outfit choice.
Croy was a great guy, but it was hard to remember sometimes that he was an old bastard, and I could practically feel his wolf freaking the fuck out about her being dressed like that and in the vicinity of other males. I had a feeling that tonight was going to be interesting…for many reasons. In fact, the only one who didn’t seem fazed by her outfit was Ledger, and I knew that was absolute bullshit. That relaxed attitude was all an act, but it would be funny to see how long he could maintain it.
Maya let Bella down, and she practically sprinted across the wood floor, sliding on her paws into Atlas’s legs in excitement. Maya leaned against me and let out a small laugh at how excited she was before frowning in concern at her collision. She relaxed the moment Atlas picked the kitten up.
“Baby girl.” Marco’s voice was filled with tension and warning as he walked over, finally seeming to get his shit together enough to interact with our mate. His tone had her looking over with an innocent, confused expression.
“What?” The little head tilt she offered had me nearly groaning.
“This fucking dress,” Marco growled, motioning to it. “That is what.”
“Do you not like it?” Her eyes went wide, actual concern filtering through them. I narrowed my eyes at Marco, whose face filled with instant guilt. Maya may have enjoyed our reactions when they were positive, but I knew she was still hyper-sensitive about negative things, and the last thing I ever wanted to do was make her feel rejected or like she was doing something wrong. Our mate looked fucking fantastic, we were just being bastards about it.
“No, I do,” he muttered, seeming to struggle with what to say, as Anani offered me a smirk. “It’s just…very short.”
Maya instantly brightened up. “No, Marco. I promise, it’s the perfect length.”
I couldn’t help but smile as she turned around to offer us a view of the skirt from behind, the material brushing right against the top of her thighs. I mean, she wasn’t wrong. It covered everything and fit her perfectly. Maya was just too fucking sexy for it.
Turning around again with a ‘see’ expression, she jolted as Anani cursed and strode away towards the kitchen. I pulled Maya close to me again and kissed her neck as she offered me a secret smile that was a bit too amused to be innocent. It probably didn’t help that Marco was currently staring down at the floor, his hands in his pockets, clearly trying to collect himself.
“I told you,” she offered to Marco.
The man looked up and nodded towards the kitchen. “Go into the kitchen, Maya.”
“Why?” She blinked, looking confused.
“Because if you don’t get away from these stairs, I am going to have you in my bedroom in the next second—”
And she was gone. I watched as she escaped towards Croy, who was watching the entire interaction in amusement. Maya looked back at us while sitting on his lap, clearly enjoying this game, as my eyes narrowed on the way she moved her hair, highlighting the diamond collar.
Sorry, not a collar, a choker. My bad.
“You’re part of the problem.”
I looked at Marco and smiled. “How?”
He motioned, shaking his head. “You bought her that fucking necklace, and it just makes it so much worse. I don’t know if I can let her go out like that. I may end up slaughtering everyone.”
So fucking dramatic.
“It will be fine,” I assured him before shrugging. “Plus, I think the necklace looks hot on her.”
“Yeah, that’s the fucking problem,” he grunted.
“Hey, where is Henry?” I asked. Marco nodded towards upstairs.
I hadn’t seen a lot of him today, but he’d been on the phone a fair amount of the time, and considering everything going on, I couldn’t really blame him. A lot of the planning for stuff like this—except for security, which was handled by Atlas—fell on Henry. Maya didn’t know, but the amount of preparation it took for us to safely attend events like this, especially with the increased threats recently, was extensive.
None of that, though, changed the fact that I wanted to sock him in the goddamn jaw for how loud he’d been with Maya the other night. None of us had gotten sleep, and he damn well knew it. It was why he was walking around with a fucking smile on his face, looking like the king of the world.
“Wait!” Maya hopped up, looking towards where Jordan and her mates were now talking outside. Marcellus looked stressed, and I couldn’t help but find it a bit amusing that the group of them seemed to be in the same situation that we found ourselves in. It didn’t matter how many times you had killed or fought…being in love was a far more dangerous situation.
“What’s wrong?” Atlas looked concerned.
“None of you are dressed up yet,” Maya explained, looking both concerned and upset.
Shit. I looked at Marco, who looked suddenly unsure on how to handle this, and I didn’t fucking blame him. We never did shit like this. Hell, the only reason we were celebrating Halloween was because of her. Why had none of us considered the fact that she would want us to dress up with her?
The back door opened back up as Jordan walked in and grabbed a bag off the kitchen counter, ignoring the frustration her mates seemed to still be expressing outside.
“Don’t worry!” She had clearly heard the conversation and dumped the bag on the kitchen counter, spilling out an assortment of things that had my eyes widening. “I totally thought ahead, especially because the group of them didn’t even know people dressed up for Halloween. Ridiculous.”
Marcellus and his brothers walked in, and I smirked. Yeah, right. They fucking knew people dressed up. My bet? They didn’t want their mate dressing up. Honestly, it wasn’t a bad move, and now I was wondering if we should have acted dumb about the holiday to Maya. Although watching her smile grow as she looked through the items scattered on the counter, I realized how much I loved seeing her this excited and happy.
Fuck it. I didn’t even care that we were about to be dressed up in something ridiculous. Honestly, we probably deserved this for being so insane over her costume choice.
“Oh, these are so cute!” Maya turned towards all of us, enthusiastically holding up a pair of cat ears that were fuzzy and pink. “You guys are going to be kittens just like me!”
Fuck me.
* * *
Lesson learned—Ididn’t look half bad in pink fuzzy cat ears. In fact, my own mate told me that they were ‘purrfect’ on me, before breaking into giggles at her pun. After hearing that sound, I probably would have dressed up in just about anything if she asked. It helped that she was sitting sideways on my lap, adjusting the ears while she had me hold up a mirror so I could see what they looked like.
I put down the mirror, finding Henry glaring at me from where he sat on the leather bench of the dark SUV stretch limo across from me, looking pissed. Something that was made only funnier by the ears he was currently wearing. Honestly, his reaction to Maya’s outfit had been as amusing as I’d expected, made only better by the fact that he hadn’t seen it until we were leaving the house.
Then Marco had to literally ordered him to ‘get into the fucking car’ so that he would stop trying to take our mate upstairs to either get her to change or cover up. He had finally convinced her to put on his suit jacket, but it had just made her look hotter, like she had nothing on besides that and heels. It didn’t matter, though, because the jacket was now back on Henry’s lap as Maya moved around the limo, everyone pretending to not be staring at her as we made our way downtown.
Honestly, I fucking loved that she was going mate to mate to help us with the ears because it meant that I got to watch her sweet ass bend over a bunch, revealing the pink lace boyshorts she had on under her skirt. I was pretty sure I was the only one finding it funny, because everyone else looked like they were about to lose their minds. I was just glad that Marcellus and all of them had taken a secondary car, because we didn’t need any possessiveness thrown into this situation right now.
Plus, I liked to be able to lock Maya onto my lap and run my hands along her thighs without having to worry about anyone outside of our flight seeing it. There was a partition between us and the driver, so it was literally just the group of us, and that was why I didn’t feel bad about not letting Maya get out of my lap when she finished my ears. After all, there had been a reason I’d waited to go last.
Tugging on her waist, I pulled her towards me so her legs came down on either side of my hips in a straddle, her eyes going wide in surprise at the sudden move. When she relaxed into me, I let my fingers slide further up her thighs to rest on her ass, her eyes following my hands. Her cheeks flushed as she nibbled her lip but wiggled against my cock, her eyes flaring with heat at just how hard I was underneath her.
“Sai,” Anani bit out, drawing my attention.
“I’m not doing anything!” I insisted, resting my head against Maya’s cleavage. She strung her hands through my hair in a soothing motion.
“He’s not,” Maya insisted, rocking against my cock, contrasting her words as my dragon let out a sound from my throat. I turned my head slightly, my lips brushing over her breasts, which were pushed up, the slight contact with the scar from my bite causing her to jolt as surprise coated her features. I groaned as I smelled her desire saturating the air.
“Sai.” Her voice was a bit breathy, the music changing over the speakers to a beat that was slightly louder as one of the guys started talking. Instead of joining the conversation, I moved one hand to her leg so that my thumb rested on the inside of her thigh, her pupils expanding at the tight grip of my other hand on her perfect ass.
“Stay quiet, kitten.” I brushed my lips against my mark again as a small moan came from her throat. “We don’t want the others hearing.”
I honestly couldn’t give a fuck if they did, but I could tell the idea had her growing wetter.
“What are you doing?” she whimpered as my thumb edged closer, brushing over her wet lace panties. I nearly groaned at the scent of her wrapping around me. Holy hell, the woman was like fucking kryptonite.
“Just petting this pretty pussy, nothing else,” I promised her as I circled her clit with my thumb, keeping the pressure light and teasing. I had a feeling Maya’s body was pretty keyed up, and with the way her face was flushing, I also knew that it wouldn’t take long for her to come. I wanted her to go into this night feeling absolutely fucking amazing, and I knew exactly how to do that.
My gaze met hers as I continued to circle the nerve ending, and her fingers dug into my shoulder like little claws before she emitted a small whining noise that had Henry looking over in my peripheral. I wish I could say that I gave a shit. I didn’t though. I was way too fucking focused on meeting her lips in a teasing kiss that she tried to deepen. When I quickened my pace, she let out a moan against my lips, and I felt her entire body lock up.
Her climax rushed over her body and caused her to jolt, her magic sparking in a hot flash…before she completely relaxed against me with a satisfied and content sigh.
I smirked, looking up to find Henry narrowing his eyes at me, and I offered him a bright smile in return. What?We were supposed to make our mate feel good! No one could blame me, even if I was being an antagonistic asshole.
Maya curled into me, and I pulled my finger away from her panties. Her wetness had soaked through, and I popped it in my mouth. Fucking hell. I nearly moaned at the taste of her.
“Sai,” Marco warned as I smirked, absolutely thrilled that they were pissy. It wasn’t my fault they hadn’t thought about putting Maya in their own laps.
Unfortunately, before we knew it, we were pulling up to the massive club that was hosting the party. My jaw clenched, realizing that the absurd amount of media here meant that someone had notified them we would be coming. It was a goddamn circus.
Maya tensed, looking suddenly nervous, and I kissed her shoulder in what I hoped was a comforting gesture.
“Atlas, keep Bella in your coat? I am worried the camera flashes will hurt her eyes.”
Good call, kitten.
“We can try to go in a back way,” Marco pointed out.
Her gaze moved to the limo ahead, containing Jordan and her mates, which had rounded the bend. She shook her head and put on a brave face, making me appreciate—not for the first time—how brave our little mate was.
I helped her out of the limo when we came to a stop, and the cameras immediately began flashing as we walked down the small black carpet, Maya in the space between myself and Marco, all of us forced into a single-file line. It was such bullshit.
When some asshole reached out to touch Maya, I caught his hand easily, and his cry was lost in the crowd as I snapped his wrist and quickly let go, urging Maya forward as if nothing had happened. I had no doubt she had seen it, but she didn’t seem upset in the least. Ledger chuckled behind me, making me know he’d seen the interaction.
As we finally stepped inside, he offered me a look. “You good, man?”
“Oh, absolutely.” I smirked and then went serious. “I want this to be an amazing night for Maya.”
Even if I had to snap a few wrists to make it happen.