Wintertide Read online

  Chapter Sixteen

  We stayed naked together on the roof for as long as we could. Eventually, it got to the point we would really be pushing it if we didn’t head back in for my tutoring session. He grabbed me for one last mind-blowing kiss before he pulled me through the rickety door, I had no clue how it was even standing on its hinges, and we headed back to his classroom.

  I couldn’t have asked for a better way to lose my virginity. I knew it sounded cliché, but I felt myself falling for Sebastian. Who wouldn’t fall for a guy that took them for a dragon ride and followed it up by the most amazing lovemaking session a woman could have asked for? One that sure, ended with me being fully bonded to him, but I didn’t mind it so much, even though he hadn’t asked.

  I could tell he was telling me the truth as clear as if what he felt were my own emotions. He felt guilty for taking my choice away, but in reality I liked it. I loved feeling his love for me through the cord that connected us and it made me feel not so lonely anymore. I hadn’t felt as lonely since I arrived but this was a new feeling. One that was full and made me feel part of something. It was like having a piece of love that was always with me, one that I could never question.

  It was special to me and I didn’t want to hurt him. It was one of the reasons I was so hesitant about wanting to be with other guys. He told me he was okay with me possibly having feelings toward the others even though we had bonded. And there was truth in what he said, but I couldn’t help but question it still. I had a lifetime of love with conditions from my family to get past.

  I would have to figure out my growing feelings for Calex and my strange attraction to Blade that I didn’t understand. Other than the fact that he made my panties wet and made me ache in places I was quickly learning I liked to have pleased. There was even some level of attraction to Jaxon that I had no clue what to make of. It wasn’t strong, but it was definitely there. He was a tough asshole on the outside, there was no doubt about that, but there was something more beneath that tough exterior. Something that made me want to see the hints of pride he held when I understood something he was teaching, or amusement at my antics that crossed his face. Maybe I was just crazy-starved for attention and this sudden influx of people actually talking to me had my ovaries on overload.

  I was saved from my wandering thoughts and worry as my makeshift tutor entered the room. “Let’s get this party started,” he said dryly.

  His white hair was haphazard and dark circles shone below his eyes, a stark contrast to his pale skin. It certainly looked like he hadn’t slept well, and I was concerned.

  “Jaxon, thanks for joining us,” Sebastian said, overly chipper. I was sure he was giving Jaxon a hard time for looking so rough that morning. Of course, it also could have been the amazing sex we just had. I knew I was flying after that.

  “No choice, did I?” Jaxon grumbled.

  “None at all. Well, let’s see if we can make this go a bit better than yesterday, shall we?”

  “I’m not a fucking teacher,” he snapped out and I cringed. He seemed different today than the last time we met where he actually showed some concern for me after he had accidently said the wrong thing that set me off.

  “Lucky for us,” Sebastian replied good humoredly. “That’s why I’m here now, isn’t it?”

  “Whatever,” Jaxon rolled his eyes at him.

  “For what it’s worth, thank you,” I told Jaxon in an attempt to placate him and make him a bit less grumpy. If we were going to be stuck together, we might as well make the best of it. It seemed to work as he looked at me curiously, and I thought I saw a brief moment of kindness dance behind those stern eyes of his, but it came and went before I could be sure.

  “It’s nothing,” he replied, his voice a little less gruff this time, yet he looked at me curiously, his eyes seeming to burn through me as if he knew what Sebastian and I had done.

  “So where do we get started?” I asked as I turned my hands over and studied them as if they were foreign and I would learn something new.

  “Do you have any control over your powers? Have you ever thought to yourself snow and it snowed? Or whatever power you have?” Jaxon asked.

  I shook my head meekly, embarrassed that I had never controlled even one facet of my magic. Jaxon scoffed and muttered under his breath, “Figures.”

  His statement had me flushing and my skin tingling in that all too familiar way of me about to lose control. I took a deep breath and willed myself to control it as Sebastian stepped behind me and ran his warm hands down my arms. The contact was enough to make the tingles recede and the room remained ice free thankfully.

  “It appears you tend to lose control most when your emotions are involved. Is that a correct assumption?” Sebastian asked formally from behind me as his hands dropped away. I nodded, not trusting myself enough to speak.

  “Jaxon?” he asked.

  Jaxon let out a sigh. “It seems you have to learn to channel your emotions in order to channel your power. From what happened yesterday it would seem you have a shit ton of magic, but you need to be able to direct it in a way that you can make it useful and not just destructive. Unless that’s what you intend, that is.”

  His words were nothing new to me. I knew they were connected to my feelings because every time I got overly emotional some shit happened. “How?” I asked at last.

  “What do you feel when you lose control?”

  “Everything. Panic, fear, anger. I don’t know how to make those go away,” I admitted.

  “Do you ever lose control when you feel something positive?” he asked.

  I looked at Sebastian who leaned against his desk watching us and again my cheeks heated. That had been the most positive thing I had ever felt and I hadn’t lost control. The same thing with Calex. There was that first time I kissed Sebastian in his classroom and my hands iced up, but looking back, I knew I had been feeling fear at that moment. This morning I felt none of that, not even on the dragon because I knew that Sebastian would keep me safe. I thought about the other times of immense feelings of desire, belonging, friendship and nothing happened. At last I shook my head, “Never.”

  “Isn’t that interesting?” Jaxon mused out loud to Sebastian.

  “Indeed it is,” he agreed.

  “What is interesting about it?” I asked, confused what they were referring to.

  “Well, Calex seems to be able to help you in your moments when you lose control. I had no idea why until now. It would seem the emotions that he is able to detect in others- hate, fear, anger- are the same emotions that trigger your powers at the moment, so it could be why his presence affects your magic the way it does,” Sebastian explained.

  “Okay, but how do I control it?”

  “Let’s try something,” Jaxon stepped forward. “I want you to center yourself and pick one of those emotions, just one. Think of a time when someone angered you, or you felt panicked and out of control. Just one though, we don’t want a repeat of yesterday.”

  I nodded as the room fell quiet while I attempted to single out a thought. The first thing that came to my mind was anger toward my sister. She was supposed to be family and yet she was determined to push me away, to make our own parents loathe me.

  “Looks like she has it,” Sebastian said as he pointed to my fingertips. Ice crystals had begun to form along my fingers, their familiar shapes beginning to crawl up my hand. I saw them creeping up and fought the panic that I would lose control again.

  “Don’t let the panic in, Eva,” Jax said quietly, somehow reading my thoughts. “Focus on that one emotion, the one you picked. Breathe.” I took a deep breath and felt the tingling settle to a steady hum under my skin rather than a force that was building, ready to explode. “That’s it,” he coaxed gently. “Now, think of something you want your magic to do, something happy and fun.”

  I thought about it for a moment; something fun. Snow was fun when it didn’t turn to deadly ice shards and attack everyone around me. The tingling increased
and I took a deep breath as I willed myself to not think of what happened in the past when I made this attempt.

  “Breath and let your magic flow,” Jax said soothingly, letting me see a whole new side of him I had never witnessed before.

  I did as he instructed and took a deep breath. I pictured the soft flakes falling gently above us and then felt the cold hit my skin as the delicate crystals fluttered down. I realized that I had closed my eyes and opened them to see the snow falling gently just as I had imagined. Both Jaxon and Sebastian looked at me with wide grins on their faces.

  An equal grin split across my face. I had done it! Without thinking, I jumped on Jaxon and hugged him, unable to help myself. His arms wrapped cautiously around my waist as he returned my embrace. Quickly, I realized what I was doing and backed off, “I’m so sorry, I just- I was just excited and-” I stopped speaking as the snow began to blow across the room.

  “I liked it,” he admitted quietly. “Take a deep breath Eva, you did nothing wrong and there is no reason to panic. Focus and gently pull your magic back into you. You control it, not the other way around.”

  Again, I did as he told me and focused. Slowly, the flakes stopped blowing around and started their gentle drift down to us again. I concentrated on them stopping. They slowed before they stopped falling down until there was nothing; not even evidence that they had once been blowing around the room.

  “Well done,” Sebastian said proudly from the front of the room, still maintaining his professionalism in front of Jaxon, though I could sense his level of excitement through our link.

  “Can I do something else?” I asked enthusiastically.

  “One more, and then I think it’s best if we call it for the day. We don’t want you exhausted like yesterday.”

  I nodded my agreement and closed my eyes again. This was something I had always wanted to do since I was a little girl. Now that I had some control, I was hoping it would work. I concentrated on the little snowflakes, rolling them into a ball in my mind and stacking them on one another. I added some final details and opened my eyes cautiously to see if I had succeeded.

  I let out a shout of excitement as a small snowman stood in front of me, a goofy grin across his face.

  “Really? A snowman?” Jaxon asked amusedly.

  I shrugged, “Why not? My power has been negative for far too long. It was time to have some fun.” More confident now, I waved my hand across the snowman and he vanished, the magic it had taken to create him returning to me. I had never felt better.

  “Why not indeed,” Sebastian laughed. “I think that’s enough for the day. Why don’t you two get off to breakfast and we will talk more later.” He said that last part directly to me and a thrill ran through me as I knew exactly what he meant with his cryptic words.

  I bounded from the room, Jaxon on my heels as we headed for breakfast, excitement rolling from me in waves now that I had finally managed to control a small part of my magic. I wasn’t sure what was more thrilling, this or orgasms. I grinned to myself; orgasms. Definitely orgasms.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Damn it, where the hell was she? I had sat in the cafeteria for fifteen fucking minutes waiting for her to show and still nothing. Sure, there was still a half an hour before she had to check in, but from what I’d seen so far, she always showed up early. I hadn’t made it a point to notice, but my damn cat picked up on her scent no matter how hard I tried to ignore it. Right now he was pacing back and forth, ready to tear the place apart to find her.

  I needed to do something to appease the beast, so I got up to pace the halls while I waited. I wandered aimlessly down one of the halls, needing to pace and get rid of some of this pent-up anxiety over not seeing her yet.

  I passed the open class doors and I recalled her scent from the day before, one coupled with her arousal that had almost crippled me. I’d barely restrained myself from taking her right where she stood against the wall. Teaching her exactly what kind of beasts lurked within these halls, yet she still flaunted her scent around like it was fucking nothing.

  The only thing that stopped me was knowing that she had just been with the druid. He was one that I absolutely didn’t want to fuck with, and though his scent was all over her. Jealousy like I had never experienced before surged through me but I pushed it aside. I had absolutely nothing to be fucking jealous of. I would make sure she was aching for me as I suddenly was for her. I drew in her intoxicating scent, the one that made my dick throb and ache, wanting to bury myself deep inside of her.

  I released her and told her to go shower. If I could barely restrain myself, I knew the other perverted assholes here wouldn’t be able to with that scent enveloping her. To keep myself from doing anything else stupid, I left her standing there, sure she would follow my instructions while I made my way to the cafeteria.

  That night, I thought I would miss my roommate since he had been sent to solitary. He was one of the only people I could trust here and the one that kept me sane. Instead, I found myself silently grateful that Calex wasn’t there as I lay in bed and images of the stunning girl with passion-filled turquoise eyes flashed through my mind. Ones that watched me intently while her breath shuddered out in excitement rather than fear.

  I was certain that was what first attracted me to her, she was one of the few that didn’t immediately fear me, though everything in her should. Her desire and curiosity excited me like none other had before her. Something about her stirred my beast, and he roared with need when I was around her.

  I shifted on the bed as I slid my hand over my stiff cock and stroked the length, imagining what it would be like when I pinned her down and made her moan out my name as she covered my dick while I made her cum for me. Her white-blonde hair tumbled around her shoulders as she arched her back for me and I buried myself deep inside her pussy.

  My dick twitched at the very thought and I pumped my hand in time as my imagination increased my pace along with my growing need for her. I gripped the base of my cock as the need to finish overwhelmed me. I wanted to hold out, draw out my pleasure as I would for the sorceress. My imagination got the better of me, though, as I stroked the length again, picturing her writhing beneath me as she shuddered out her climax and I was helpless as I did the same.

  The intensity of my finish had me letting out a low groan and I was even more grateful Calex hadn’t been there, even considering the circumstances. I would have never lived that one down.

  Just thinking about it had my dick growing hard again and I stalked further down the hall. Suddenly, the very vixen that had been running through my mind bounced cheerfully out of an open classroom, Jaxon right on her heels while she babbled something over her shoulder to him. A small smile crossed his face, one that I had never seen there before, and my inner beast snarled. It looked like she had quite the effect on many of us in this hellhole.

  I watched them approach and she looked up at me, glee dancing behind those stunning eyes of hers. “What are you two doing back here?” I snapped out before I could stop myself.

  “Lessons,” she beamed, her enthusiasm infectious and for some reason arousing at the same time. “Very successful ones at that,” she added as she gave Jaxon an appreciative look.

  “What kind of lessons?” I growled at Jaxon.

  “I don’t think that would be any of your concern,” he replied, any trace of the smile gone from his face.

  “Don’t fuck with me fae. You know my task, and I intend to follow through. I will make you regret it if you try to stop me,” I threatened.

  “Yeah, yeah.” he rolled his eyes. “Gonna let your pussy out to play?” he chided. I lunged for him, surprised when Evangeline stepped between us and slapped a hand against each of our chests.

  My breath came out raggedly as I fought to control my anger. Her delicate fingers pressed against my flesh beneath my open shirt and the firm yet gentle way she touched me had me drawing back despite the smartass smirk on Jaxon’s face.

  “Look, he was just he
lping me with my magic. That’s all. Chill the fuck out,” she demanded. I turned heated eyes to her as her cool scent reached me and my cat purred, happy to be so close to her again. “Jaxon, thank you for your help this morning. I’ll catch up with you later?” her tone pled with him to leave and I was certain she wanted to avoid any confrontation.

  He watched me for a second before he dragged his eyes away and looked back at her, “You sure?”

  “Yeah, he won’t hurt me,” she stated as she made eye contact with me. Little did she realize exactly what I would do to her given the chance.

  “Alright, I’ll catch up with you later then. Good job this morning,” he added shyly before he headed toward the cafeteria.

  “What the fuck, Blade?” she rounded on me when he was out of earshot.

  I frowned, “What are you talking about?”

  “You’re going to chase off the one person that can help me with my magic. Stop being a dick,” she shoved against my chest.

  “That wasn’t my intent. I was told to protect you, and that’s exactly what I plan on doing,” I told her. I could feel my arousal growing as she shoved against me again.

  “Don’t. Do. It. Again,” she emphasized each word with a poke in my chest. I caught her hand on the last word.

  “I wouldn’t if I were you, Evangeline,” I warned heatedly, her hand still held tightly against me.

  “Or what? You’ll let your pussy out to play?” she mocked, using Jaxon’s words from earlier. In an instant, I was on her and had her pinned against the wall, her hands above her head and her toes barely hitting the floor. A snarl escaped me as my body pressed against her and I let her feel exactly what I meant. I filled her with my scent that would mark her as mine even though it wouldn’t cover up the enticing aroma of sex. At least it would stay on her for a while, unlike her current smell.