Why did I have to be a monster…?
My nails bit crescent shaped moons into my palms, as I forced myself not to break and dirty the picture of love in front of me.
How could I resist it?
Dragons and dwarfs, I’d brought down punishment on them. I didn’t deserve their comfort.
Fox crawled over Bask, caging him between his arms. Bask’s eyes glittered, and his chest rose and fell rapidly. Fox trailed his fingers up and down Bask’s ribs, bunching the silk of his top and revealing his taut stomach and the light trail of hair down to where his pants were slipping off his hips. Fox pressed harder with his fingers, until Bask squirmed. His breath started to hitch, and Fox’s sped up.
To my surprise, Fox launched a tickle attack on Bask, and he giggled, thrashing underneath him. Then Bask accidentally caught my balls with a flailing kick.
Odin’s cock…
I hissed, rolling onto my side and cradling my poor balls. My eyes shot wide open like I’d drunk a triple espresso. That was one way to put an end to my playing Sleeping Beauty.
Nile’s toothy mouth appeared to be laughing.
Asshole.
My gaze darted between Bask and Fox, who glanced back sheepishly. “Would you call down Ragnarök with your flirting? Screw, suck each other off, or get up because this Liberator of Dragons has earned us a Discipline Run.”
When I dragged Fox into the grounds, as Bask bounced around like a hyperactive bunny (hyped on the yummy combination of pleasing Fox and pleasing himself), I broke yet another rule by bundling him into my coat again. Whipping boys were forbidden from wearing anything more than their uniform of black shirt and trousers with an embroidered letter of their patron: I.
I wrinkled my nose. It was kind of like a mark of ownership. Only, Fox was a human mage, and as much as the sexy image of licking him like a Popsicle made me flush, I wasn’t letting him freeze on his first day under my protection.
Was it wrong that I loved the way Fox burrowed into my long woolen coat, sniffing the collar kind of like my scent made him feel safe? I brushed a stray curl behind his ear, and he shot me a cocky grin, before setting off at a sprint like that’d impress me.
I gave him ten minutes before he was a gasping mess on the snowy floor…okay five minutes…wait, it looked more like one minute.
Bask shook his head in fond exasperation, before darting after the wheezing mage, and I jogged to join them. The morning’s breeze was like life across my cheeks. I took deep breaths; its freeze forced new clarity on me. I was imprisoned in these grounds, but right now, I chose to be free.
Discipline Runs were always around the frozen lake. Bask wound his arm around Fox who was rubbing his numb hands together. Next time, I’d better bring him gloves…and a scarf and…
Hey, when had I become his nanny?
With a growl, I put on a burst of speed, passing Bask and Fox. My blood pumped with sudden adrenaline at being in the grounds; the fresh air burned my lungs. Pink fireflies hung in glowing mists over the lake, lighting my way with an eerie beauty.
In the distance, the spires of non-magical Oxford hung like a mirage.
I could almost make myself believe that I could just keep running and reach it without the wards stopping me, but that dream wasn’t real. There didn’t need to be bars, locks, or walls to trap me.
Trust me, I’d been raised to fear witches because they were skilled in their cruelties. It kind of made me wonder what magic the Ghost Immortal had cast that I hungered for her the same as Bask did. I couldn’t help smirking as I glanced over my shoulder at the sexy incubus.
I didn’t love her in the same romantically obsessive way as Bask. I craved to consume her…
Loki had always told me that I had to stay away from witches and perhaps, I wanted to taste the forbidden.
When the forest glowed with a sudden burst of magenta magic, I took a step towards it like I’d been drawn that way. My breath stuttered. The magic from the forest was dark and ancient like Ghost Immortal was reaching out to me. My magic feathered within me, straining to join her.
She was seriously powerful.
I clenched my jaw. I could sense her pain and loneliness. I had to free her.
Except, it was our Ghost Immortal that I was feeling, right?
Without thinking, I took another step towards the throbbing magic, which pulsed in time to my own heartbeat. I could feel it behind my eyes, pressing on my skull, and in the twitching of my hard dick. I hadn’t come in my pants yet, and I wasn’t breaking that record, even for some sexy spook who had me by the balls in more ways than one.
Then there was a crack underneath me, and I froze.
I’d stepped onto the thin ice at the edge of the lake without even realizing it, which now spiderwebbed out. I drew in my breath, carefully lifting my foot off the lake, before it could plunge through.
Shove Mjolnir up my ass, that’d been close.
Why had I forgotten that this place was cursed? It wasn’t like a witch could love me back. If she wanted to play games, then I’d learned from the god of mischief.
You didn’t screw with a god raised on mayhem.
I touched the silver plectrum at my neck, which Loki had gifted to me; it was cool and sleek. Just like dad.
I grinned. I loved the academy’s grounds, but Loki would’ve hated them. He’d have moaned about the quiet, the cold, and the lack of prank opportunities. Honestly, he’d have been bouncing off the walls for something to fight against. Yet when my brothers and I had been young, we’d spent years camping in America in places as wild as this because it was the best way that Loki could keep us safe and he’d borne it…for us. Although, he’d still moaned, of course. He’d also shown my brothers and me how to fish on the Great Lakes buried in the forests of Michigan. We’d never known when we’d had to forage for our own food or make a run for it.
If Ambrose thought that he’d break me with early mornings and two-hour runs in the cold, then he had no idea what I’d endured. He’d need to get a hell of a lot more creative. Wait, maybe hold off on the whole more creative part.
When I caught sight of the way that Fox swayed, and his legs buckled, my guts squirmed. Was I hungry already? Wait, it felt more like…guilt.
I blinked. Screw the runes, how long had it been since I’d felt…that? I shuffled my feet almost like this guilt wanted to burst out of my ass. The messed-up thing was that the two-hour run in the early morning cold was nothing but an invigorating start to my day, but it was hell for my whipping boy, and hadn’t that been the point? To punish me through the one who could be hurt…?
Fae were fiendish, and when magic was banned on these runs, so that Fox hadn’t even been able to transform and run it in animal form, watching him struggle was the true punishment.
This was why I didn’t have friends: I broke them.
The only human who’d ever played with me when I’d been younger…well, he hadn’t played, he’d sat with his hands tied with rope. I’d found him hiking through the woods. I’d tried to talk to him, but when he’d screamed like I’d been a monster, I’d pulled off my top and stuffed it in his mouth.
Then I’d sat clutching my arms over my cold chest and rocked, until all of a sudden, Loki had been there, waving his hand with his magic in front of human’s eyes to make him sleep, before cradling me in his arms. I’d laid my head on Loki’s shoulder, and he’d rubbed my nape in the way that’d always calmed me.