I wiggled under him, trying to angle up. Trying to find purchase.

He sucked in my bottom lip and pushed forward again, skimming me maddeningly. We breathed the same harried breath, his control about to give out, his teasing undoing him as much as it was me.

Unable to help it, I reached between us and took his base in my hand. I directed him where I needed it and gripped him with my thighs.

“Fuck me,” I commanded, desperate. Drowning in desire.

He met my gaze, fire and love smoldering within his eyes, and shoved forward, filling me to bursting. Color exploded behind my eyes, pleasure within my body.

I groaned and held on as he pulled back before crashing into me again, the sensations almost unbearably good. I rocked up to meet his thrusts, mindless, mad with passion. My body wound tighter and tighter. I dug my fingertips into his solid muscle, holding on for dear life as my body moved of its own accord, control utterly lost. The sound of skin meeting skin filled the room as we strove harder, headed for release. Relishing in each other.

“Oh!” An orgasm tore through me, blindingly good, and pleasure vibrated through every inch of my body.

“Hmm, Lexi,” Kieran exalted, shaking over me.

Fire sizzled across my skin and passion exploded in our kiss as we climaxed together.

Afterward, my body melted into the mattress. Kieran made no move to get off me. The stress of what was to come throbbed just out of reach, but in this moment, I felt utterly relaxed.

“I love you,” I said softly, feeling his ring encircling my finger. Feeling the promise of our life to come.

“You are my forever,” he said against my lips, as though he’d heard my thoughts.

I let my eyes droop. I’d relish these quiet minutes with him. I’d take these moments for the godsend they were. And then, when we entered the magical battlefield beyond these doors, I’d turn on Beast Mode.

It was time to show the magical world what I was capable of.

3

Alexis

“Just like we practiced,” Zorn said to Daisy as the limo came to a stop in front of a walkway leading up to a nondescript door in the absolutely enormous Magical Summit building that reached five stories into the sky and sprawled across the land. Plenty of room for the inner courtyards, plus the lethal maze of hallways lined with rooms people could use to hide or lie in wait so they could pop out like a deranged jack-in-the-box when their chosen prey happened by.

“Waste of resources, all of this,” I murmured as we waited for the driver to come around and open the door. “It’s like a nightmare fun house, full of serial killers on the loose. Why can’t people just talk things out, like non-magical people?”

“When non-magical people don’t get their way, they engage in expensive, destructive wars that kill thousands.” Kieran held my hand as Zorn left the car. “At least here innocents don’t get hurt.”

“Stop making sense.”

Daisy stepped out beside Zorn, followed by me and then Kieran. Mordecai got out last, this party small and intended to be as nondescript as the door we were about to enter.

“Has a non-magical person ever attended the Summit?” Mordecai asked quietly.

“Not in recorded memory.” Kieran dropped to the back of the group. “Some magical people have non-magical pets, but they leave those at home.”

I scrunched up my face as Zorn reached the door. He opened it, pausing for a moment as Daisy and Mordecai lined up at his back. They entered together.

“Pets? Is this the part where you adopt the gross lingo other Demigods use?” I asked, lowering my voice so the strangers waiting inside—three souls clustered in close proximity—didn’t hear.

“Yup.” Kieran held the door for me and then followed me in. It was like the guys expected us to be attacked at any moment.

A woman as old as the hills waited behind the counter across from us, seated in a tall chair. Half-moon glasses clung to the edge of her nose, and a non-living helper stood at her side, a man in his mid-forties with an annoyed expression. I couldn’t tell if the woman knew she had company or not. A brown door closed off what had to be another office, holding the third soul I’d felt when approaching.

Not one piece of paper existed in the whole office. A printer sat against the wall, but there was no evidence anything had ever been printed. Instead, there were two tablets on the counter, one in front of us and another at the empty station next to us. Other machines sat near or next to the computers, including what looked like a thumbprint scanner.

The woman looked over from her computer, peering down her slightly raised nose through her glasses.

“Yes?” the woman asked, gruff and uninterested.

“Demigod Kieran, unofficial leader of magical San Francisco, here to check in two minors.” Kieran stepped up next to Daisy, and Zorn filed in behind him, blocking us off from anyone who might walk in the door.

The woman turned back to her computer. Her fingers flew across the keys.

“That’s that Chester we were told about,” the non-living man said with a sneer. “What has the world come to that they are allowing Chesters into a strictly magically sanctioned area, the filthy animals—”

“That’s enough,” I said, unable to help it.

The woman’s fingers paused and she slowly turned her head to me, her dull eyes showing no reaction to my interruption.