Three Queens of Cerberus

Chapter 9

Three Queens of Cerberus

Chapter 9

Ulysses’s POV

“So good, kitten.”, his hot breath brushes past my ear as he grunts into my neck. My tears rolling into his firm cold grip on my jaw stings, as he thrusts painfully into me.

He finishes inside me, sitting up and dragging his sharp nails down my chest, over my sternum. He leans down to lick the wound closed, and I partially shift, swiping at his neck and face. He yanks away from me, stumbling back. I leap from the bed and hit the ground hard. Jolting myself awake.

“f**k, Sissy.”, Ray holds is jaw, his blood spilling between his fingers. “Are you okay? Are you awake?”, he asks, leaning down to me.

“Ray… I’m sorry, I’m … sorry.”, I grab his hand, pulling him toward me so I can see the wound. “Is it bad?”, he lets me pull his hand away to see beneath. It’s already sealing back up.

“I’m alright. Are you?”, he asks, more concerned with me.

“I… had a nightmare. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”, I stammer, trying to shake that from my memory. I grab for Tie’s medallion, feeling that it’s gone. I freeze, “Ray, I lost it!”

“Lost what, Sissy?”, Ray looks around the floor with me.

“My medallion… necklace… chain thingy.”, I try to explain, hopping up off the floor, and ripping the blanket from my bed.

Ray stands, moving the pillows to help me. “Okay… when did you last see the medallion necklace chain thingy?”, he asks, seeming very uncertain of how this is relevant to my issue.

“It’s Tie’s… I don’t know. I had it in the medical wing.”, I look under the bed.

Ray stops searching. “What did you do with it when we shifted?”

I stop with him, realization dawning on me. “I didn’t take it off. By the rock landing, it must be there.”, I grab my shoes from the closet, slipping them on.

“Hold on, wait a second. I’m coming.”, Ray goes back to his room.

I pace in the hall, waiting for him to come out. It doesn’t take long, he just added shoes and a shirt to the joggers he was already wearing. We walk out of the cabin, and head back up the trail. As we reach the path crossing for the dock, I feel Baxter. He sits on the dock, watching the water. He doesn’t turn to face us, he just sits. “Where are you off to?”, he asks curiously.

“I lost Tie’s medallion when I shifted.”, I explain. He has to know what a medallion is, right? Luka gave that one to me.

He turns to look back at me, “How long ago?”

“This morning… shortly before lunch.”, I answer.

Baxter rises, turning and crossing the dock to us. “You won’t find it, little one. Medallions vanish if they’re not kept in an enchanted case, or against the skin. His power has already returned to him.” He searches over me, then Ray. “Is something wrong? Do you need Tie?”, he asks.

“I… I just… realized it was gone.”, I don’t know how to use the medallion, Luka said I couldn’t. It shouldn’t bother me that it’s gone, but I want it back.

Baxter tilts his head, the slight yellow glow to his eyes make him seem so wicked in the moonlight. It’s oddly reassuring, having the Heads of Cerberus so near. “Do you need me to summon Tie, or just in need of his medallion, little one?”

“You don’t need to summon him. I just… realized it was gone and needed to find it.”, I answer, not really wanting to tell Baxter.

He furrows his brows, “At 2am…”

“You’re out here.”, Ray defends, causing Baxter to smirk widely, as his gaze shifts from me to Ray. “I’m not the one with anxiety dripping from my pores though, am I?” He returns his gaze to me. “I wish to help you, little one. You have to tell me what you need. Do you need Tie's medallion?”

I nod. Denying my need for it won’t do any good. The only way out is to lie, and he’d know something was off when my words rang true but didn’t match what he already senses. Father had warned Ray and I many times not to let shifters find conflict there. They focus more intently when things don’t line up right.

“Here.”, he pulls a chain from his shirt, removing one as Luka had. He conjures another chain on it as quickly as he removed it from his own. “Take it. I will get another from him when he returns.”

I accept the medallion from him, allowing him to place it around my neck. I tuck it beneath my shirt.

“I appreciate it.”, I hold it against my chest, feeling the power in it, and absorbing the calm it offers.

He bows his head slightly. “You need rest. Go, sleep. You’ll have to bring Ray to training with you in just a few hours.”

Baxter reminds me of father so much, I can’t help but smile. I nod and agree to do as he’s instructing.

Tiberius’s POV

We return to the docks around 4:30am. Bax sits on the side, watching us rise from the water.

“Your mate ventured out a few hours ago. Lost your medallion in her shift. Had her brother out trying to help her find it.”, Bax links as I shift and conjure clothes.

“Is she okay?”, I ask him. Nothing here would hurt her, but something had her up in the middle of the night.

“Anxious… but seemed alright otherwise. She’s sitting on your front porch. Has been for about an hour now. I gave her your medallion, but it only served to have her go rest a short period.”, he answers, standing from the dock. I conjure another medallion, tossing it to him. He attaches it to his chain, while I rush back up to my cabin to find out what’s upset my mate.

I see her sitting on the porch swing, fiddling with the corner of the cushion. She sits up and looks back, seeing me makes her smile. “Hey, beauty. You’re up early.”, I call to her as I climb my front stairs.

She stands to meet me, “I wanted to see you.”

“I’m glad you did. Are you alright? Did something upset you?”, I search over her, finding nothing concerning.

“Just a bad dream. I’d lost your medallion; Ray was going to help me find it. I saw Baxter at the dock. He said the medallion would be gone by then. He gave me the one he carries for you.”, she states, showing me my medallion around her neck. “It came off when I shifted, I think. How do you keep them on?”, she asks, touching the pair beneath my shirt.

If she’s still up, the medallion isn’t enough. She isn’t finding peace in that. My power can’t be contained in the medallion. She needs an enchantment.

Ulysses’s POV

“When we shift, our conjured chains keep our medallions to us. They become a part of our scales. That won’t work for you. I can enchant a band and attach it to you. Only I can remove it though.”, Tie explains.

“I can shift with it?”, I ask.

“Yes. It becomes one with your flesh.” He trails his fingertips up my inner forearm.

“You’d take it off, if I asked?”

“If you wanted it off, I’d remove it.”, he confirms. I nod, agreeing that I want it. “Words, beauty.”, he prompts.

“Yes. I want the enchanted band.”, I answer him. He grins at me, nipping at my lower lip; sending a wave of lust through me when he kisses me. He grips the back of my neck, pulling me to him when I kiss him back.

He lifts me, making me feel small, when he sets me on the porch railing, standing between my thighs. I slip my hand under his shirt, grabbing his waist to pull him closer.

A moan spills from me when he fists my hair, tilting my head back to expose my throat. His cool mouth moves down my jaw, then across my collarbone.

I hear someone clear their throat, barely audible over the blood racing in my ears. Tie releases a long soft hiss, as he tucks his face into my neck, inhaling my scent deeply. His hands drop to my thighs around his waist, squeezing and pulling me more firmly against him. “Uhm… Tie… we’re going to begin serving breakfast soon… at the manor.”, Sena calls to him in that fake sweet voice. I can hear her jealousy and anger hiding beneath it. I don’t know whether he can.

I feel his lips move against my collarbone as he mumbles something, but I can’t make out what it was. It didn’t sound like any language I’m familiar with. “I’ll feed him, Sena. We appreciate it.”, I answer for him, feeling how annoyed he is right this second. Plus, I get the benefit of rubbing it in a little.

“I really don’t mind…”, she starts to argue. Tie cuts her off, “I’ll eat with Ulysses, Sena. I appreciate it.”

I can hear the hatred in her words when she accepts his answer and walks away. “That’s right. He wants me, devil pixie. Go back to whatever it is you do.”, I think to myself. Recapturing his mouth when he looks up at me.

“Are you hungry?”, I pull back just enough to ask.

“Starving.”, he answers, nipping at my jaw. His tone, and the solid rod he grinds against my core, don’t imply food. I know he can scent what he does to me. My underwear are soaked, clinging to my lips when he steps back; pulling me down off the rail to stand in front of him. “Have you eaten breakfast?”, he asks.

I shake my head, searching his bright eyes. He grins, pinching my chin lightly when he tilts my head up to him, taking another soft kiss. “Come, I’ll feed you.”, he takes my hand, pulling me into his cabin with him.

He pulls diced potatoes, sausage, eggs, and some bell peppers from the refrigerator. I watch him start the meat in the skillet. He walks into his living room, grabbing a glass case from the far shelf. It has varying colors and sized bands, and vials of some type of oil. I watch him pull a long smooth black band from the box, setting the box on the counter. He pours oil into his hand, smearing it over the flat surface, speaking something into it, in that strange language. His voice is a deep breathy sound, his whispered chanting is the sexiest thing I think I’ve ever heard.

“Your arm, beauty.”, he holds his hand out to me. I turn toward him, offering my left arm readily. He wraps the band up my bicep. “Contact with the artery strengthens it.”, he comments, adjusting it to sit smoothly over my skin. When he releases the band, it shrinks snuggly against my bicep; then becomes a part of my skin. A solid black snake, makes three complete coils around my arm: its head resting just beneath my shoulder. I feel Tie, more intensely than I had with just the medallion. He lifts the medallion from my shirt and waves it away.

“There. Now you can’t lose it. My power is a part of your flesh.”, he kisses my shoulder before releasing me. He places the box back on the shelf and returns to the kitchen to wash his hands.

I run my fingertips over the snake, staring into its yellow gold eyes. It looks so real. “This is like a battery? It just holds your power?”, I ask, watching as he continues making breakfast.

He answers without looking up from the peppers he’s slicing. “I feel it when you touch it like that. It holds my power, and calls to my blood. I’ll know if you’re hurt. The band will become raised, more tangible, if I’m hurt severely.”

“Will it hurt? When you take it off, I mean.”, I ask, touching it again.

“No, beauty. No more than it did being put on. It isn’t a curse, it’s an enchantment.”, He returns, adding the potatoes to the skillet. He finally looks up at me again, but he asks what I’ve avoided with even Ray. “Do you want to tell me about these dreams?”

“My parents’ murder… and being back in the coven.”, I don’t want to tell him either. It makes me feel dirty. I don’t want him to see me that way.

He searches my eyes, “You can tell me anything, Ulysses. I want to make you feel safe.”

I smile, touching the band again. “You do. This will help.”

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you, beauty. Neither will Luka or Baxter.”, he assures.

“Baxter reminds me of my father.”, I recall that dark look, the quick responses that silence argument. The slow way he talks, like he has all the answers, even as he questions.

Tie’s mouth twitches, then the smile breaks free. “I can see that. Bax is less inclined to play games.”

“Father said it was you… that enjoys games.”, I add, causing Tie to laugh. “Games are not in my nature. I am very good at them though and enjoy winning.”

I smile as he places a cup of coffee in front of me. “What kind of games do you play, Tie?”

He begins serving breakfast into three bowls. He must feel Ray coming too. “None that I would ever play with you, beauty. Your father was talking about mental warfare. I’m gifted in curses and enchantments. I can make people see, feel, or even hear what I want them to.”

That would explain the reverence father had toward Tie’s game playing. Father was also very good at mental manipulation, being gifted as Ray and I are. Ray knocks on the door, and Tie crosses the kitchen to push it open; allowing Ray to pass through to join us.

Ray sits alongside me, “I thought this is where you might be. Do you feel any better?”, he asks. I don’t miss the way Tie studies our conversation. He wants to know what happened; I haven’t answered.

“Yes. I’m fine now.”, I assure Ray.

He touches my shoulder, tracing the snake. “What’s this, Cain?”, he looks up at Tie.

“A more effective way for her to carry my power. She can’t lose it when she shifts.”, he answers, placing the bowls on the counter, and gesturing toward the coffee pot for Ray.

Ray nods slowly, touching it again before looking up at Tie. He has more questions, I see it. He doesn’t speak them aloud though; he stands and makes his coffee.

Tiberius’s POV

Tomorrow we destroy Louise-Borne. My mate and I have spent nearly every waking moment together, since my rotation ended. I’ve even joined her at the foundling sections a few times.

I stand from her sofa, kissing her forehead. “It’s late, beauty. You need to rest.”

She tucks her damp hair behind her ears, still wet from her shower when Ray and I were making dinner. “Would you stay?”

Of course, I will, my brain immediately overexcited by the thought of being in her bed with her. I tame that, and answer, “Come.”, offering her my hand. She pulls against me to stand but doesn’t release me. She’s in pajamas already. I conjure joggers and a t-shirt, settling in bed alongside her. She cuddles into my side, tracing over my t-shirt covered abdomen with her thigh draped over mine. I slip my hand under the back of her shirt, stroking her soft creamy skin.

Despite this being a very tame cuddling session, my c**k is painfully swollen by the time she falls asleep in my arms. I haven’t experienced this type of discomfort since I was just a teen boy; even then, cuddling like this never caused it. ‘She never even touched you, calm down!’, I scold my raging system.

***

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