Magic Trials (Half-Blood Academy #1)(53)

I kind of hated rich people.

The vampires bowed at Lorcan as we stepped out of the car. “High Lord.”

The striking beauty stepped toward Lorcan, her gray gaze glued to his face, greedily taking in his every line.

A sudden jealousy stabbed me. I wanted to slap her.

“Welcome home, my lord,” the beauty said, her gaze flicking to me for a nanosecond before returning to Lorcan. Her world had only him.

“Who are you?” I stepped forward, refusing to let anyone dismiss me.

The beauty glared at me with icy hostility. Vampires were the most unfriendly creatures anyway.

“This is Mistress Selena, dulcis,” Lorcan said.

Selena’s eyes widened at Lorcan’s endearment.

“Mistress?” I narrowed my eyes at Lorcan, anger and humiliation sizzling in me. “Like she’s your concubine? Why wasn’t I informed?”

And how dare he take my blood and claim me when he already had a woman at home!

“Selena administers my realm when I’m away,” Lorcan said. “I trust her to care for my land. She’s loyal and excels in all things, but she doesn’t share my bed.”

“Then who shares your bed?” I demanded, black fire twirling in my eyes.

“You, dulcis, only you,” he said, amusement sparkling in his gray eyes at my tone.

“Oh,” I said, feeling my face flaming. I stepped back. One had to know when to fight and when to withdraw.

“Don’t retreat yet,” Lorcan said, pulling me to him, his hand circling my waist. “I haven’t introduced you. These are my most trusted inner circle. You’ll get to know them.” He then turned to Selena and his inner circle vampires. “High Lady Cass Saélihn is my chosen mate. You’ll treat her as such.”

All the vampires’ eyes widened before they covered up their astonishment in the nick of time. Have I mentioned that I have super eyesight and reflexes? I didn’t miss anything, nor did I miss the pure hatred in Selena’s eyes.

Being her High Lord’s mate had made me her number one enemy. As long as she didn’t act on it, I’d let it slide.

“Cass is not only my mate, but the mate to all of my bonded brothers,” Lorcan added, sweeping a hand toward Alaric, Pyrder, and Reysalor, who maintained steely cold expressions.

They knew how to deal with bloodsuckers.

I should have used the same look in front of the vampires rather than my customary sneer, but it was too late to wipe my sneer off now, so I turned it to a smirk.

The vampires remained still and didn’t even blink naturally.

“My mate and my brothers need to settle in,” Lorcan said sternly. “We’ll hold a meeting in an hour.”

“Yes, High Lord.” The vampires bowed again.

A vampire butler led us into the mansion, which was the finest in every way. I looked left and right and up at the ceilings, awed, before I grinned at Lorcan.

“I hope my home is up to your standards,” Lorcan said, his arm never leaving my waist.

“It’s above average,” I said.

“It’s your home now,” he said.

“In that case, I hope the cuisine is up to par too, at least better than the mediocre food in ShadesStar court.”

Lorcan shook his head, a smile ghosting his sensual lips. “Dulcis is hard to impress.”

Then I was in Alaric’s arms.

All the males had long legs, and Alaric was sparing me from sprinting. I enjoyed pressing my breasts against his cut chest anyway, so I let him carry me all the way until we entered a vast suite that had connected five rooms and one large common room.

The sleeping quarters were perfect for us.

The guards stayed outside the door, so only the five of us were in the common room.

“I built this suite to honor the pact a millennium ago,” Lorcan said, his heated eyes on me before he swept a glance at Reys, Alaric, and Pyrder. “Only now, finally, it’s put to its full use.”

“I want the largest room that has a full-window view,” I said before anyone else could stake a claim.

The males chuckled.

“You don’t need your own room, Cass baby,” Pyrder said. “All the rooms are yours. You’ll just pick a different bed to sleep on every night.”

My face flamed as blood heated in me.

“Since we’re all your mates,” Alaric drawled, “you’ll learn to balance us and treat us equally if you don’t want fights to break out among us.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. If it got too hard, I’d just quit!

“No, no,” Alaric said, as if he read my thought. “You’ll never quit on us, sweetheart.”

Before I could stand up for myself and fight back against his dominance, he grabbed me and crushed me to his hard chest. Wasting no time, he dipped his head and slanted his mouth against mine.

His scent of pine, leather, and oil painting wrapped around me, both gentle and harsh. His kiss was raw, hard, and tender. Only the demigod could administer such contradictory kisses.

My mates were so different from one another. Even the twin fae didn’t share many traits, though they had the same features and turquoise eyes. And yet Pyrder’s eyes were a shade darker, and he had a tattoo of a golden panther on his forearm and half of his chest. One day, hopefully soon, I’d get a chance to explore him as well and get a good look at the entire panther.