No amount of alpha muscle or fae magical encouragement could budge them. There was a walkway around the outside, and so we split up into pairs to see if we could find another way inside.
“This place is enormous. I didn’t think phoenixes were that large,” I mused aloud as Lucien and I strolled around the first corner.
“I don’t think they were, but based on when and where this was built… grand design was the style.”
I nodded, thinking of the Egyptian pyramids so many people traveled to see each year. My mind wandered a bit as we walked, studying each nook and cranny, but finding nothing yet that would give a clue as to how to get inside.
We stopped at an archway, feeling around the cracks to see if there were any hidden levers or buttons. “I sense more plants in there, but nothing else. It would be nice if that could extend to other things, wouldn’t it?”
Lucien gave me a sideways glance. “Your herbalist powers have grown a lot lately. I’ve never seen anything like what you did for Gael.”
I paused my search, studying him. “Does that bother you? I know it’s strange for a wolf. Granted…” I held up my palm, not glowing this far from Kane and Brielle. “It’s not that things are particularly normal for us on any level.”
He shook his head, giving up his own search to wrap me in a hug. “I think it’s part of who you are, and that’s perfect. It does make me nervous that we don’t understand it all, though. Reed told me that you exhausted yourself to the point you passed out.”
“Fiona ratted me out.” I squinted off into the distance, as if she could feel my displeasure from another continent.
“I’m more wondering why you didn’t tell me.”
Guilt reared up at the words, even though they weren’t accusing. “I didn’t want you to worry. I also had no idea I could do that. I was just desperate to save a pack mate.”
He brushed my hair away from my forehead, shaking his head slightly at me. “You’re the most selfless person I’ve ever met. And while I don’t want to change a single thing about you, I worry sometimes that you’ll give too much one day at your own expense. And I can’t bear to see you hurt again.”
I pondered his words, stroking his back as I listened to his heartbeat under my cheek.
“I can’t promise you that I’ll stop helping people. But I will try not to hurt myself in the process.”
He nodded, seeming satisfied with that. “Ready to keep going?”
I groaned. “It’s so hot. Would it be terrible if we took a break?”
His lips twisted in a devious smirk. “The kind of break where we hydrate, or the kind where I press you up against this wall and make you coat my chin with your sweet honey?”
I gasped as he stepped forward and pressed me up against the archway, nuzzling his face into the crook of my neck and peppering the area with teasing nips.
When I arched and moaned under his touch, they quickly got less teasing. He moved to pull away, but I dragged him back in against my chest, heart pounding as I considered what to say.
I wasn’t good at any of this, not yet. But I wanted to learn.
I want him to teach me.
“Yes.”
He arched one eyebrow, cupping the back of my neck with his hand, making me shudder as he leaned in close, his breath brushing against my ear. “Be a good girl and keep your hands against the wall. Don’t move unless I tell you to.”
“Okay,” I answered breathlessly, pressing my palms back against the smooth stones at my sides.
He knelt in front of me, and before I knew it, my pants were sliding down to my ankles, and his warm hands were skimming my outer thighs. My underwear was quick to follow, and his mouth was on my skin, warm and teasing, as he urged my legs wider, trailing kisses up my inner thigh.
It felt vulnerable, exposed, but when he gazed up at me with molten heat in his amber eyes and latched on to my pussy, all thoughts of anything but pleasure fled.
Lucien was a master with his tongue, driving me to the edge in record time with skillful strokes and swirls, and when he inserted first one finger, then another, I fell over the edge, clamping around his fingers as I muffled my cries against my palm.
He stood, slowly easing his fingers out of me as he leaned in, bracketing me against the wall as I caught my breath. “You come apart like a masterpiece. I’ll never get tired of watching you, hellcat.” He wove his fingers into my hair, tilting my head back for a kiss, tinged with the taste of myself on his lips.
I wrapped myself around him, enjoying the feel of his hard muscles and wanting more, but we both froze at the sound of stones scraping behind us.
And then he was in motion, moving me back, helping me put my pants and panties back in place.
Because somehow, we’d accidentally opened a door into the phoenix temple.
Lucien
As soon as Olivia was put back together-like fuck was I sharing a single glimpse of her looking like that with anyone but me-we called Shay and Dirge. They came jogging around the corner nearly ten minutes later, due to the sheer size of the temple.
Dirge slapped me on the back with a grin. “How’d you two get it open?”
“Don’t ask.”
He laughed, his keen eyes not missing Olivia’s rosy cheeks and slightly mussed ponytail. “Wouldn’t dream of it.” The wink he shot me would have made my hackles rise, except he walked around and slid his arm around his own mate, dropping a kiss on top of her head.
Dirge was a wolf content, whole, and I craved that feeling with every fiber of my being.
But at the same time, I didn’t hate where we were either. It was nice to learn her slowly, in waves. To take our time and wait for the moon. For the first time in my life, it felt like time was on my side. And after getting captured and tortured, that was a luxury I thought I’d never experience again.
Time with my mate, time to grow this fledgling relationship into something sturdier, something lasting.
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