Page 21 of Renegade Kings
Tank dipped down, his hands moving to Dean’s stomach as he gently examined him. “This is more than just your shifter healing, which you shouldn’t even have access to right now,” he pointed out.
I reached for Dean’s hand then, entwining my fingers with his. “May I?” I asked.
He had no way of knowing what I meant, but he nodded his head in agreement anyway.
I closed my eyes. Concentrating on the magic inside me and all the parts of Nymeria that were linked with me. I could feel the Court, the magic that still moved within these walls and how it was slowly moving out across the landscape once more. Then there was the wild Nymerian magic that I’d also had such a close kinship with. The magic that made up everything around us, that let me do things I wasn’t supposed to. It invaded the forest, moving the trees as it exerted its will across the landscape. The edges blurred where it rubbed against the magic of spring, but not in an aggressive way. It was a melding, the beginning of something new.
It took effort to turn my mind away from the outside. Away from the intrigue of what was happening in this place. But that wasn’t my aim right now. So, instead, I concentrated on myself, on the small part of my body that met with Dean’s before I sought the thread of magic that should have contained inside him. The magic all shifters had that allowed them to access the beast that lived inside.
Except it wasn’t a thread.
It wasn’t the fragile power that had to be called upon to allow them to change form.
This was a vast ocean of potential that hit me like a physical blow as I reached out for it.
How was this possible? How had I not noticed that this was the magic that Dean had access to?
I pulled my hand away as I frowned in confusion. Opening my eyes, I looked at the others surrounding me.
“That’s… Do you mind?” I asked, turning to Maddox next.
He shook his head, reaching his hand out for mine before I could even ask. And I found exactly the same thing inside him as I had in Dean.
I didn’t even have to ask Ryder or Tank for permission because they were already waiting to take my hands next.
“This isn’t… I don’t understand.” I was so confused. Had I done this? Tank had never felt like this to me before, so when did it change? It wasn’t like I checked in on something like this on a daily basis, just in case. It was impossible. Magic didn’t change. You were born with it or you weren’t, and it didn’t get stronger, nevermind to the extent that the guys currently had.
“What don’t you understand? We need you to explain,” Tank said gently, not letting go of my hand, now he had it in his once more.
“I think I might have done this to you.” My eyes widened in panic as they locked with Tank. Even the calm look on his face wasn’t helping.
How was he ever going to forgive me for this? I’d done something to the very core of him, to all of them.
Maddox pulled me away from Tank, taking me by the hand and leading me through the sitting room. He opened the door next to the bathroom and stuck his head inside. Seeing that it was my father’s library, he closed it again and moved to the next one. Finding the bedroom on the other side, he pulled me through the doors and guided me over to the bed. I had no idea what was happening as he pushed me down to sit on the edge of the bed before he knelt at my feet. With gentle hands, he lifted each of my feet and unfastened my boots before pulling them off.
The bed dipped behind me, and I turned my head to see Ryder climbing on. He reached around me, untying the fastenings on my leather tunic before dropping it off the side of the bed.
Maddox slowly stood, guiding me back to my feet as he loosened the shirt from my pants and then gently unfastened the cords on them as well. Pulling them down my legs, he slipped them off each foot without a word.
There should have been something erotic about this. To have these two men slowly strip the clothes from my body. But I was just numb to it all. I didn’t even feel the guilt that I probably should.
I glanced over my shoulder in search of the others, only to find Tank tying off a bandage around Dean’s middle that I was pretty sure he didn’t need. From the look on his face, it didn’t seem like Dean thought it was needed, either. It was kind of sweet that he was humouring the big bear, though. Even if he was reluctant to do so.
A tug on my hand had me looking back to the bed, only to find Ryder pulling me onto the mattress at his side.
I probably should have been panicking right about now. I wasn’t ready to take this to whatever the next level was for us. There was too much happening, too many thoughts swarming my mind for me to enjoy anything the way it deserved to be.
Ryder pulled me down to the bed, placing my head on the pillow as he snuggled into my side. When he pulled the covers up over the two of us, the relief I felt had that guilt finally swimming to the surface.
They deserved so much more than me. They deserved someone who would worship them in all the ways I wouldn’t be able to if I took them all as mates.
“Sleep,” Maddox whispered as he slipped beneath the covers on my other side. “There’s nothing here that needs to be dealt with now. You’re safe. You’re whole. We’re all here with you. Just close your eyes and sleep, Alyssa. Everything else can wait until the morning.”
His hands came to my back as he gently kneaded the tense muscles there. Maddox was careful and his hands never once strayed anywhere that could have been inappropriate. This was him caring for me and as the tension leaked from my muscles, it was exactly what I needed right now.
Dean and Tank climbed onto the enormous canopy bed as well, and my eyes closed as I soaked in the reassurance of having them all close by. It didn’t take long for my breaths to slowly even out as I hovered on the edge of sleep.
A feeling that I wasn’t completely familiar itched at the centre of my being and for the briefest of seconds, I nearly reached for it. But then sleep overcame me and I drifted off into a dreamless sea of darkness. My mind and my body finally giving in to the exhaustion of everything we’d been through.