Mitry and Weni (9 page)

Krysta blocked each blow and slash with an ease that surprised even her. She’d never moved so fast or felt so strong and with each minute that passed, her confidence grew.

“Damn but you’re fast,” Zara panted as she swung at Krysta again.

Krysta didn’t acknowledge that the other woman had spoken because she would become distracted and could end up getting hurt or injuring Zara.

“You move with such power and grace,” Nina said.

“Zara’s just as good.”

“I don’t think so.” Zara lowered her scimitar and panted for breath. “The last time I was out of breath and worked up a sweat was before I was changed.”

“There is no way I’m going up against you.” Nina eyed Krysta with awe.

“I will,” Lavinia said with a grin.

“We all should.” Zara straightened, breathing less heavily. “We need to learn to move like Krysta.”

“Agreed.” Lavinia glanced at Nina. “We’ll be able to take out more demonic by the time we’re up to par with her.”

“Okay.” Nina sighed with resignation as she grabbed a sword and
walked toward the floor. “So are you going to cut Wen and Mit some slack?”

“Yeah,” Krysta answered. “I feel so guilty for what I said to them. I’ll apologize as soon as I see them again.”

Nina pointed toward the door and Krysta turned around to see all the men just inside the doorway and along the wall. She felt her face heat with embarrassment and desire. When she met first Weni’s and then Mitry’s gazes she had to look away.

Both men were looking at her as if she was their next meal and she was on the menu.

Wen had at first been enthralled as he watched Krysta training with Zara. Their mate was so natural in the way she wielded the scimitar that she looked as if she had been born with the sword in her hand. What got to him the most was how her firm muscles flexed and moved, the way her peach of an ass wiggled and her breasts bounced slightly. His cock had gone from relaxed to hard within the blink of an eye. He’d moved along the wall, hoping the other men and women wouldn’t notice the hard bulge in his jeans.

The moment her gaze locked with his, his body heated even more and he hoped the others couldn’t see the tinge of desire that was probably tainting his cheeks. Wen glanced at Mit from the corner of his eye and saw his best friend move from one foot to the other. He sighed with relief, glad he wasn’t the only one feeling the sexual tension coming off of Krysta.

She handed her sword to Nina without looking and then walked toward them slowly, her eyes running over their bodies and glazing over with arousal. When she was no more than three feet from them she stopped, met each of their gazes, and licked her lips. As she opened her mouth to speak, Wen took a couple of steps closer and placed his finger over them to keep her silent. She frowned at him as she closed her mouth again, giving him a look of bewilderment. Before she could question him he grabbed hold of her hand and led her from the room. He didn’t need to look back to know that Mit was following.

Wen didn’t stop until they were back in their apartment and he directed her to the sofa before taking a seat on the cushion beside her. Mit perched on the edge of the coffee table in front of her.

Krysta licked her lips again, which made his hard cock pulse, and Wen had to swallow a groan of desire. Each time she did that, he could imagine her licking along his dick and then sucking it into her mouth.

“I’m sorry for being such a bitch earlier. I didn’t mean what I said.”

Mit nodded but he was still frowning. “Why did you act that way?”

“I was…scared.”

“Of what? Us?” Wen asked, surprised that his feisty mate could be frightened of them after fighting the demonic for nearly two years on her own.

“No. Yes. I-I don’t know.”

Wen moved closer, slung an arm around her shoulders, and drew her into his side. He cupped her face in a hand so he could look into her eyes. “Talk to us, Krysta. We can’t fix something unless we know what the problem is.”

“This isn’t something you can fix.”

“What are you talking about?” Mit asked.

“I resigned myself to living my life alone. It was kind of a shock to find out I have two men who want me, who’ve mated me. It’s not that I don’t like you or aren’t attracted to you because I am, but I hardly know you and you hardly know me.”

“We’ve tried to,” Mit stated.

Krysta sighed at the hurt she heard in his voice and cringed. “I never meant to hurt you. I’ve been alone for so long and am used to depending on no one but myself. That’s a hard habit to break.”

“Understandable,” Wen said. “What’s your last name?”

“Black.” Krysta frowned. “I thought I told you?”

“You told one of the women who then told us,” Mit answered.

“Sorry, I didn’t do that on purpose. I wasn’t trying to keep it a secret.”

“Fair enough.”

“What was your childhood like?” Wen asked.

“A living nightmare,” Krysta blurted out and then looked embarrassed as she stared at the floor.

“You know we were slaves, right?” Mit asked. “We aren’t embarrassed by that fact because we had no control back then.”

Wen was glad that Mit was trying to put their mate at ease and from the way she sank back into the seat and leaned against him, he guessed it was working.

“My mom got pregnant when she was just out of her teens, and as soon as her boyfriend found out, he took off. Or that's what she told me, but I don't think she told me the truth." She shrugged. "She was okay for the first few years since her parents were still alive and we were living with them, but after they were killed in a bus accident, things started to go downhill.”

Wen hugged her closer offering his support, hoping she would continue.

“She got into bad crowd and began drinking and taking drugs. I ended up looking after her but no matter what I did, she practically ignored me. She died of an overdose.”

“How old were you when she died?” Mit asked.

“Eight.”

“Fuck!” Wen closed his eyes, horrified at what Krysta had been through. “What did you do? Where did you go?”

“I called the authorities, but after seeing cops regularly because of mom, I was scared of them, so when they came, I hid in the tree house next door. The rental was cordoned off because it became a crime scene for about a week, but I knew I couldn’t stay there anyway, so I took to the streets.”

“Shit! You could have been hurt or killed,” Mit said angrily. “Where did you go?”

“I found an abandoned warehouse where other homeless people lived and met a wonderful girl who taught me how to survive. Cyn was the best thing to ever happen to me, at least then she was. She showed me how to forage for food, where the best places to find it was, and how to stay hidden from the law.”

“She should have taken you to a shelter,” Wen said. “How old was this Cyn?”

“Thirteen or fourteen.”

“Geezus, she was just a baby.” Mit clenched his jaw to hold back his anger.

“Maybe, but she knew a lot. She never told me why she was homeless but from the way she tried to hide from the opposite sex I can guess.”

“You think she was raped?” Wen asked angrily.

Krysta nodded.

“What happened to her?” Mit asked.

“I don’t know.” Krysta blinked rapidly as if trying to hold back tears. “She just disappeared and I never heard from or saw her again.”

“How old were you when she le…disappeared?” Wen rolled his neck and shoulders, trying to ease the tension in his muscles.

“Ten.”

“Why didn’t you go to a shelter, baby?” Mit drew her gaze. “You would have been a lot safer there than on the streets.”

“Maybe, maybe not. I would never have met Giovanni if I had.”

Wen sat up straighter. “That was the man Set was talking about.”

Krysta nodded.

“You were the girl he took in?” Mit asked.

Krysta nodded again. “He died when I was sixteen.”

“No wonder you have a hard time connecting with people and trusting.” Wen could feel surges of pain coming off of Krysta and couldn’t deal with it a moment longer. He removed his arm from around her shoulders and lifted her onto his lap. She gasped and tensed for a moment but she didn’t try to get away from him. “Everybody you’ve ever had in your life ends up leaving, don’t they, kitten?”

Krysta nodded before closing her eyes and leaning against him, nuzzling her cheek against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and his heart nearly broke when he felt a drop of moisture land on his forearm. No wonder she had so many trust issues. The one person who was supposed to have loved and looked after her had been useless and she’d lost the other two people who’d come into her life.

Mit rose and then sat beside them, rubbing his hand up and down Krysta’s back while she silently cried. He hated that she was still keeping part of herself hidden from them but he felt hope that things would work out between them for the first time since meeting her. She was finally beginning to open up with them.

Finally her shoulders stopped shaking and she slumped against him. Wen didn’t move, content to be holding his mate in his arms. He’d pushed his desire to make love to her on the backburner but hoped that she would be ready in the not too distant future. Even though they still had a lot to learn about each other, he was already deeply in love with his mate. He just wished that she could feel how he felt about her through the bond, but he knew it wasn’t strong enough.

Their mating had been ass backward and while he wished he could have done things differently with her, he wouldn’t change what he and Mit had done. They had saved her life and she was theirs to love and protect, if only she’d let them.

* * * *

Krysta felt as if a huge weight had lifted from her shoulders. She had learned not to cry over something that was out of her control at such a young age. Now that she was feeling a lot better, she wondered if maybe she should have let the pain buried down deep inside of her out a lot sooner.

She still felt bad over the way she had treated Wen and Mit even though she had apologized and hoped that one day they would forgive her.

The warmth emanating from Wen made her feel safe and cared for and while she knew she should probably get off of his lap, she didn’t want to. When she became aware of the fact that Mit was sitting behind her and rubbing her back, she sighed with contentment. Being this close to them, enveloped in their body heat and smelling their scents just felt so…right.

For the first time in her life she felt her heart stir with unfamiliar emotions as the empty spaces in the organ began to dissipate.

Krysta felt as if she was in the right place, as if she had finally come home. She didn’t really understand it but didn’t want to analyze what she was feeling. If she did she might just begin to get scared again and end up pushing them away. That would be a travesty to her way of thinking.

For the first time in her life she felt as if she was being accepted for who she was deep down inside. She didn’t need to keep her arms stretched out to keep them away from her. In fact she wanted to get closer to them. The façade she’d encased herself in began to crumble and she didn’t do anything to stop it. She didn’t feel the need to put on a brave face in front of these two men like she had for every other person she’d ever met. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that they would catch her if she fell, pick her up if she stumbled, and love her no matter how grumpy or nasty she became.

The more she thought about how caring they’d been toward her, the more her heart filled with warmth. After wiping the tears from her face with the back of her hands, she sat up. Wen’s head was resting on the back of the sofa and he had his eyes closed.

He was so handsome but he looked tired and forlorn. Krysta reached up to cup his face and rubbed her fingers over his stubble, enjoying the raspy contrast on her fingertips. He opened his eyes, smiled, and looked down at her. The corners of his eyes crinkled and the green of his irises seemed to glow a slight golden hue from behind.

Krysta didn’t remember even thinking about moving, but in the next instant she rose, turned, and then lowered herself back onto his lap, straddling his hips. She was vaguely aware of Mit moving closer to her but kept her gaze locked with Wen as she perused his handsome face and rugged jaw, until her gaze landed on his lips.

Whether he parted them unconsciously or in invitation she wasn’t sure, but they looked too good to resist and she’d been wanting a taste of both Wen and Mit for what seemed like forever.

Both her hands landed on his cheeks and she slowly leaned forward. Wen’s nostrils flared, his pupils dilating, but he didn’t move a muscle. She wondered if she’d damaged his confidence earlier and hoped that wasn’t the case. She had a feeling that when Wen and Mit wanted something they went after it without letting anything get in their way. And Krysta knew they wanted her.

She’d seen the desire in their eyes which they quickly blanked when she met their gazes and the way they shifted sometimes as if they were uncomfortable. It was a heady feeling to realize she was the reason for those reactions but it was also a little scary. She’d never been with one man let alone two, and while she wasn’t naïve she was trepidatious.