Soul Possessed Read online

  Soul Possessed

  Twin Rivers Possession #3

  September Stone

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Epilogue

  Twin Rivers Captive

  Copyright © 2018 September Stone, LLC

  Cover Art by Amina Black of EightBase Design

  All rights reserved.

  First Edition: May 2019

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. The author holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  For information:

  www.septemberstone.com

  For Ian Somerhalder.

  Listen, I know we would be brilliant together, but we lead two very different lives. You’re incredibly talented, but I’m a workaholic writer with no time for perfectly imperfect beautiful men. There’s just no way to bridge that divide.

  I realize that was harsh, but I promise to be kind as you attempt to get over your undying love for me.

  Chapter One

  Sophie

  There’s a delicious ache everywhere when I wake with the sun. Hagan’s slipped out of me sometime in the night, but I haven’t budged from my home atop his body. Hagan thought things would be wrecked if we made love, yet here we are, content and spent. I could live curled up on his chest. It’s only one of the best feelings in the world.

  Speaking of the best feelings in the world.

  I have to convince myself to get up, but I can’t ignore my need for a shower a moment longer. My slight jostle as I get up on my hands and knees rouses Hagan, whose dick rises between my legs. I shiver at the memory of his massive member stretching me beyond what I thought humanly possible.

  That explains the soreness. I would’ve been achy from Carrigan alone, but one after the other was just plain overkill. Incredible, perfect overkill. I can’t put my finger on what the spark was that made us all decide to take things to the next level, but I’m grateful for the push that brought us here. I feel so very connected to them now.

  I kiss Hagan’s lips, still puffy from sleep. “Go back to bed.” I snigger at his incomprehensible mumbling and carefully dismount my favorite bear.

  “Something’s weird,” Carrigan murmurs, but when I brush my hand over his chest, Carrigan settles back into slumber. His blond hair is tousled, sticking up haphazardly. He’s adorable. That’s best way to describe Cary. With boyish features, a surfer’s body and a mathematician’s brain, it’s incredibly easy to fall in love with him.

  “Not right. Something’s not right. This is bad,” Valor mutters, his eyes still closed. My poor boys. I lean over and stroke Valor’s cheek, relishing the way he too calms the second I make contact. His inky black hair and sharply angled jaw and cheekbones make him look like a male model—too beautiful to be real. Valor’s sculpted presence is intimidating, so I don’t take it lightly that I got to suck down all six inches of him last night.

  When Jonas rouses, a whimper of worry escapes him. “Too much! I can’t…” Jonas and I haven’t had the smoothest of starts, but when I brush my fingers across his, the upset dissipates. His crinkled eyebrows smooth out as if nothing has ever been wrong. I pick up his hand and rest it atop Cary’s chest, uniting the two lifelong friends in case either of them grows anxious while I’m in the shower. Jonas’ dark skin contrasts with Cary’s Caucasian lightness. They’re so sweet together, especially when Cary lets out a little hum of satisfaction.

  I try not to let the giant mattress shift too much when I finally separate myself from my men. When Cary first ordered the new enormous bed, I thought it was absurd anyone would ever need this much space. Now I see his point, and we hadn’t even been counting on Jonas to join us. Standing at the side of the bed, I take in the sight of them, all bundled together like puppies in a litter. I love them, and something in my heart clinches at how perfect it all feels. I’m balanced now, oddly tethered when I’ve been floating in the wake of Mother being ripped from my insides.

  I shake my head at my growling stomach as I move to the bathroom, starting up the hot water. Not Mother. Casek. The force in my gut that dictated so many of my major life choices hadn’t been Mother Nature, but rather the elder mage who got himself banished from Twin Rivers and the entire world long ago. He used me as his vessel, pushing me into situations I had no business being part of, and bloodying my hands more than Nature would have required of her witches.

  Elowen exorcised Casek from me, but now he’s floating in the forest, seeking out a new vessel. Elowen wants to trap his essence so it won’t plague the world anymore, but she needs us to fetch her some old amulet to get the job done.

  My magic hasn’t exactly been winning any prizes, what with how off-balance I’ve felt since Mother—no, Casek—was cut out of me. Jonas practically barks at anyone who suggests I use even the smallest hint of magic. That one is still a shocker to me. Jonas, who hated me just a week ago, is now overly protective of my well-being. Of all the change I’ve been through in the past couple weeks, that one feels the strangest.

  Today I feel stronger than I have in a long time. Maybe it’s the high that comes from really good sex, but as the water sluices over my skin, I wonder if good things really are within my reach. I flex my fingers as I lather up my brown waves, and I’m amazed how much clearer I’m thinking. Suddenly making a locating charm to find the amulet Elowen needs seems like the simplest thing in the world.

  Whole parts of my body are tender to the touch. I snigger to myself over the fact that I’m the first woman to have sex with Hagan in his man form. How I love him. How I love them all—maybe even Jonas.

  I dry off, dress in one of Carrigan’s business shirts and come out to the smell of tea brewing. It’s one of my favorite ways to spend a morning, and the thoughtfulness hits me like a hug to my insides. It’s all I can do not to kiss Valor when bacon greets me with a welcoming sizzle. “Did I ever tell you that I love you?” I snatch a piece from the paper towel, unable to wait until it’s fully cooled. “This is the best way to wake up.”

  Valor keeps his gaze averted, and I wonder if he’s hungover from too much whiskey. I dig through Cary’s cupboards until I find a mild pain reliever. I pour a mug of water and slide two pills to Valor, who pauses stirring the eggs. “What’s that for?”

  “You look like you’ve got a headache.”

  Valor’s neck muscles are taut. His mouth is stuck in a frown. “I’m leaving.”

  I still, unsure what he means. “You’re leaving? Give me a few. I’ll get dressed and go with you.”

  He flicks off the burner and turns to me—his unhappiness the only thing amiss in Carrigan’s pristine green-accented kitchen. “No, young one. You’re staying here and I’m leaving. I’m not coming back. That you’re even looking at me? I don’t understand it, and I can’t stick around to… I’m not good here, and you know it. I only stayed
to make breakfast because…” He shakes his head, either at me or at himself, I’m not sure. “Your stomach rumbled this morning, and before I knew it, I was cracking eggs into a pan.”

  I take a step back, confused at the words tumbling from him like too many horrors to count. “But last night…”

  “Was a mistake. A drunken mistake. I didn’t have my conscience, and then when I did, I didn’t listen to it. I drowned out the angel on my shoulder with whiskey. Now that it’s daylight, I see it all clearly.” He washes his hands in the sink and plates me breakfast, as if that can make anything better.

  In his sadness I see it all clearly. I forced him into a… oh my word, a five-way? I bite down on my lower lip, ashamed of my behavior. It hadn’t occurred to me to regret last night, but in the morning light, I can see the tightness of Valor’s heartbreak. “I’m so sorry, Valor. I thought we were having fun last night. I really thought you were into it, otherwise I wouldn’t have let things go as far as they did.”

  Valor’s jaw tightens as he pulls out my chair for me. The unhappiness is quickly mutating to anger in his lavender irises. My heartbeat quickens as I sit. When he leans in, an arm on either side of me, my lower lip trembles at the revulsion in his quiet voice. “What we did… I can’t be in the same room with you any longer. I won’t be in touch.” His breath tickles my ear, sending sparks of regret and self-loathing through my entire being. “In fact, after I walk out that door, we’ll never have to see each other again.” His lips touch on my cheek, but he doesn’t kiss it. I can feel the fissure of something precious shattering in my hands. I was supposed to be careful with Valor. Though he’s centuries old, there’s still a newness to him as he tries to reconcile this new voice in his heart.

  I gave him a conscience, and then basically told him not to use it.

  Panic quickens my breath when he pulls away. My skin feels cold without him. “Valor, no! Please, stay and talk to me. I shouldn’t have…”

  But he’s gone. He’s out the door before I can say anything to undo it all. I run to the front door, but he’s already in his car, moving down the driveway.

  My heart bursts into pure tears when the wind hits my bare legs at just the right angle. It’s then I realize that at some point in this whole mess, I found it perfectly acceptable to walk around in a man’s shirt with no pants on. I wish for so many things in that moment, but my handsome Valor doesn’t pause, even as I stumble down the porch steps. My bare toe skips on the concrete, but I manage to catch myself before I do an ungraceful faceplant.

  “Sophie!” Valor tears out of his car and trots back to me. “Did you cut yourself? You shouldn’t be outside without shoes.” He scoops me up in his arms like a fireman saving me from my own clumsiness, moving up the steps so he can set me back down on the porch. I don’t understand it—his sudden coldness and now his warmth.

  My scuffed toes tap on the concrete platform, my arms lingering around his neck. “Please, baby doll. Please don’t leave.”

  At my nickname for him, he leans in, softening for just a breath before he stiffens and removes my arms from him with the firmness of outright rejection. “I’m already gone.” His eyes shut tight, as if being this near me pains him. “Part of me wants never to leave your side, but I have to. What I did… Even if you can forgive me, I can’t. So off I go. You’ll carry on as you did before you met me. You have three other distractions in the bed waiting for you. You’ve no need for someone like me.”

  I want to argue that needing isn’t the same as wanting, and I feel both things for him. But the words don’t matter because he’s running—literally running away from me, down the steps and into his car. I cover my mouth to hold in a sob, stunned when Valor’s car leaves our address, leaves our driveway, leaves our life until he vanishes completely

  Everything feels wrong without him. It’s like the five of us are a unit—something stronger than just a team. Teams can form and break under the slightest strain. What we have feels more like we’re one organism, breathing and moving in a rhythm only we can understand. After last night, I’m not sure what, but something’s shifted inside of me. I woke up feeling more balanced and at peace than I have… maybe ever. Now I’m off-kilter, tilting where the wind sways me, standing with my chin up, but horribly broken, missing one very important piece.

  When I turn to go back inside, Hagan wrenches the door open before my fingers touch down on the handle, a confused frown twisting his features. “Sophie? What are you doing out here?”

  I don’t hesitate to crash into his arms. I take what I need, which is warmth and comfort. He’s such a good guy that he doesn’t seem to care that I’m distraught over another man leaving my side. He lets me use him, even going so far as to let out a contented “mmm” that vibrates his chest against mine. I love this man, which is a thought that occurs to me several times a day now.

  “Valor’s gone!” I confess. “Last night messed him up. He’s lost all respect for me and can barely look me in the eye. He left, and he said he’s not coming back.”

  I can feel Hagan’s whole body tightening with a frown. “Gone? No, no. That can’t be true. There’s no way he’d up and leave like that. He’s in deep for you.”

  “Until I invited four men into the same bed.” I cringe at the condemnation in my own words. “Last night was…”

  “Incredible.” His reply comes out stern, but then he softens with sadness, clutching me tighter. “Please, honeycomb. Don’t try to convince me otherwise. That was my first time. Don’t regret me.”

  It’s then that I realize I really don’t regret it—any of it. It’s Valor’s pain I regret causing. If that didn’t exist, life would be pure bliss. Maybe it was too much for Valor, but I’d woken up with a satisfied smile and that rare feeling of being whole. Missing a crucial piece of us hits me hard, but beneath that hollow rattling, I love everything about last night. “I don’t regret you,” I assure Hagan. “But if Valor’s upset, that part doesn’t sit right with me.”

  Hagan pulls back in concern but his hands don’t leave me completely. He lightly cuffs my biceps and looks me in the eye to scrutinize my face. “Did I hurt you? Are you sore? It felt like you were into it, but the whole thing was so overwhelming. Now I’m worried I read it all wrong.” He’s so very big, with his trimmed brown beard and muscles for days. I feel delicate in his grip.

  I point at the concern knitting his eyebrows together. “See? That. That’s the thing I’m feeling. I’m worried I hurt Valor. I don’t regret a thing about last night. I loved it, and want it all over again.”

  That’s all Hagan needs to hear before he’s kissing me, taking my tension down by several notches when he fills my senses with his piney scent. I love the smell and feel of him. He’s so very burly, so ridiculously masculine in the way he presses me up against the wall. My curves mold easily to his form, as if he and I have been carved from the same slab of granite. My breath comes more easily, and everything feels fixable when he holds me like I matter.

  “I smell bacon,” Jonas says from the hallway. “Normally anything polluting the smell of sex should be banned, but bacon might be the one exception.”

  Hagan kisses me a handful more times before setting me down, but his fingers tangle through mine when we move into the kitchen. My hip feels magnetized to his side, and when Jonas meanders in, sleepy-eyed and wearing only his boxer briefs, that same feeling of peace washes over me. That’s a new one, for sure. Jonas and I only recently started being friendly. I guess one good blow-job can repair a myriad of differences.

  Jonas doesn’t kiss me like Hagan. He simply catches my eye and offers me a “yeah, last night totally happened. Wild. Wild and awesome,” kind of smirk. He munches on bacon from the pan, but his smile fades after a few bites. “Huh. What kind of bacon is this?”

  I shrug. “The regular kind? I dunno. Valor made it.”

  “Weird. It smells amazing but it tastes like ash. Try it.”

  Hagan snatches the piece Jonas hands me, sniffing it a few t
imes before tasting it himself. On the outside, maybe the move looks territorial, but I know he’s testing any suspect food meant for me to make sure it’s not poisoned or defective. His face sours, and he puts it back in the pan. “That’s nasty. Don’t eat the bacon, honeycomb. There’s something wrong with it.” Then a shadow of dread crosses his features.

  My gut churns in response to his look of alarm. “What? What’s wrong?”

  Hagan doesn’t answer, but moves over to the skillet with scrambled eggs and takes a bite from the spatula. His eyes close, but it’s not in the “this breakfast tastes amazing” kind of way. He holds onto the edge of the stove, his face a wash of fear and awe. I want to ask more questions but Carrigan moseys out in his boxer briefs, unperturbed by any oddities.

  “Morning, lovers,” he calls out to us, stretching his arms over his head.

  Jonas groans at the term of endearment.

  Cary grins. “What? Too soon? Okay, then good morning, sex partners. Conquests? Is that better?”

  Jonas leans his elbows on the counter and holds his head in his hands. “I can just see our new letterhead now: Jonas and Carrigan—business partners and sex partners.”

  “I love it. I’ll make sure to order you a hundred boxes of the stuff.” Carrigan’s eyes settle on me and his grin widens. “Good morning, Sophie Mae. You feeling alright after last night?”

  I nod, but I don’t have it in me to voice the unrest I can feel brewing in Hagan.