Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 121324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Standing, Wynter glanced outside to see a well-built male in the backyard beginning to straighten, a football in hand. “I take it the lycans are playing soccer again.” They often accidentally kicked the ball over the fence.
“Anabel, dear, I have no clue why you ran Diego off. That very delicious Alpha has one spectacular behind,” Hattie told her.
“And that’s what’s important,” Anabel deadpanned.
“Is he still leaving you alone?” Xavier asked the blonde.
Anabel perked up slightly, a self-satisfied smile shaping her mouth. “Oh yeah, he has definitely given up on trying to make me his bed-buddy. I think the time I answered the door smelling like fish guts was what finally did the trick. He almost vomited right there. It was fantastic.”
Thankfully that particular scent-changing potion had worn off within minutes or the cottage would have smelled like that for days.
“You know, most people don’t try to repel their admirers,” Delilah told Anabel. “They just say ‘thanks, I’m not interested.’”
The blonde’s brow pinched. “I did tell him—repeatedly, I might add—that I’d prefer we kept things at a one-night stand. But he wasn’t really hearing me. Like he thought I was simply playing hard to get. I had to do something.”
To be fair, Diego had been unreasonably persistent. In fact, so had the Alpha of the other lycan pack that lived on their street—his attention had been on Xavier. Had been, she realized. That wasn’t the case anymore, for some reason.
Wynter looked at him. “It only just occurred to me that Elias is no longer trying to provoke you and stuff. What happened there?”
“I took your advice and just paid him no attention,” replied Xavier with a quick shrug. “He got bored of me ignoring him, I guess.”
Wynter gave him a warm smile. “I’m so proud of you.”
He blinked. “You are?”
“Incredibly. You handled the situation like a grown-up.” Which didn’t sound like Xavier at all. Suspiciousness settled over her, making her eyes narrow. “Or did you?”
He shifted slightly in his seat and cleared his throat. “I might have also done some itsy, bitsy magick to . . . you know . . . spook him.”
Wynter stiffened. “What kind of magick?”
“Not forbidden stuff. Just . . .”
“Just, what?”
“A little sex magick, that’s all.”
“Sex magick?”
“Oh, God,” muttered Anabel, shrinking in her seat.
Oh, God, indeed. Such practices were neither good nor bad—the result all depended on the intentions of the user—but they could be incredibly intense, especially for non-witches.
“He and his boyfriend wanted a threesome, remember?” Xavier raised his shoulders, all innocence. “I just gave them what they asked for. And then some.”
Wynter leaned forward, planting a hand on the table. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
He scratched his head. “That’s the thing, I’m not entirely sure.”
Delilah’s brow puckered. “How can you not be sure?”
He tugged at his collar. “I maybe-sort-of-might-have invoked a hell-dwelling demon.”
“What?” Wynter burst out.
“I don’t know what I do when I’m possessed,” he added. “It’s like I lose time.”
Wynter slumped back into her chair. “You summoned Asmodeus again, didn’t you?” Unbelievable.
Not all demons walked the Earth. Some were bound to hell and could only leave it in cases where they’d possessed a person. Dabbling in summoning demons was something that Xavier had done regularly before leaving his coven, who did that sort of stuff willy-fucking-nilly. They weren’t deterred by things like danger, ethics, or the wrongs of misusing magick.
“He’s good at getting me out of difficult situations,” said Xavier. “I really can’t give you a rundown of what happened because I genuinely have no clue. One minute I was close to coming, then Az took over—”
“Az?” Like the freaking thing was his pal or something?
“When I came back to myself, both lycans had their backs plastered to the wall and were staring at me all wide-eyed.” He smiled brightly. “But no blood was shed, so it’s all good.”
All good? Christ, he was gonna be the death of her. He truly was. There were no two ways about it. “Putting aside for a moment that there’s nothing ‘good’ about inviting a demon into your body, you said you’d stop doing it. No, you promised you’d stop.”
“He didn’t kill anyone this time.”
“That’s really not the point, Xavier.”
“You said I could do it in an emergency situation.”
Wynter frowned. “How, pray tell, does a threesome constitute an emergency?”
“Hey, you weren’t there, you don’t know.”
A low growl crawled up her throat.
“I needed to get the lycans off my back, and you wouldn’t let me kill them. This seemed like a good solution. And hey, it worked. Asmodeus didn’t hurt them, he just freaked them out somehow. They say a simple hi to me now, they don’t try to poke at me, and they definitely don’t suggest threesomes anymore.”
“Oh, I wonder why.” Wynter scrubbed a hand down her face. “I genuinely have no clue how I’m going to keep you all alive in the long-run.”