Suho was feeling very amorous.

Not that he wasn’t always feeling that way when it came to his sweet little wife but today, he just couldn’t seem to keep his hands off her.

She giggled when he pulled her down, again, as she tried to get up.

‘Suho…’ she half whined, half laughed. ‘Let me go.’

He grunted, rolling himself over her to peck her cheeks. She turned her face obligingly, letting him trail kisses all over before finding her lips.

The kiss started sweetly but then, Suho felt a bolt of desire, nearly foreign in its intensity, go through him. His eyes turned red and he deepened the kiss, swallowing Angel’s gasp at the sudden intensity.

‘Suho!’ she panted, trying to push him back so she could get her bearings. He growled, feeling nearly blinded with desire, and kissed roughly down her neck, nipping as he went. Her fingers came up to bury in his hair and she tilted her head to the side, giving him access to her neck, so he could mark her up.

He inhaled deeply at the junction of her neck, at the skin before softly tracing his teeth along the column, chuckling when Angel whined, more with desire than anything else.

He was about to say something, to tease his wife a little and see her blush – heavens knew how he loved to do that – when another bolt of desire, almost paralyzing, shot through him again, and he gasped, momentarily overwhelmed.

Angel grabbed his face, turning it towards herself. ‘Are you okay?’

Suho nodded, still unsure what was going on. Another bolt shot through him and he realized that it wasn’t  coming from him or his mate. That only meant…

‘Xiumin?’ he whispered, trying to trace the source. But why-?

 He wished he hadn’t tried to open his link with his Shadow because now, he was having trouble closing it again.

Generally, he and Xiumin kept their link quite private and both were content to keep it that way. However, now it wasn’t that Suho wasn’t trying to keep it closed. It was more like Xiumin had let loose completely and he wasn’t letting Suho close the link. Like the energy rolling out of him needed some escape.

And quite frankly, Suho understood. He’d been going through similar circumstances before he’d claimed Angel and even afterwards, until they’d consummated their relationship. No, it wasn’t that.

He just wished he could get rid of the images Xiumin was unintentionally relaying because that, he could frankly do without.

Talk about a mood killer.

Angel felt the drop in his mood and leaned in, capturing his lips in an intense kiss that made him forget his own name.

‘How about,’ she whispered, curling her fingers into his hair, ‘we continue what you started?’

Suho stared at her dumbly for a few moments before diving in enthusiastically.

…………………………………………….

Xiumin could say with absolute surety that he didn’t have any nefarious intentions when he’d agreed to have Lily in his bed last night. In fact, he would argue that his intentions had been pure. Or as pure as they could be with one’s mate, unclaimed and marked, reeking of arousal and pheromones meant to drive him insane, lying a mere foot away.

That did not mean he was ready to deal with an armful of said mate at the crack of dawn, mind clouded with sleep and unfinished fantasies. He was only a man, cut him some slack.

It didn’t help that she thought burying her head into his chest was somehow the perfect position for sleeping (it was). It was torturous (deliciously so) and he was overwhelmed.

So, she couldn’t blame him for having the perfectly natural response to such a situation and popping a .

He’d tried to discreetly pull away but she was practically clinging to him and there was only so much movement he could make without jostling her. And predictably, the movements ended up waking her.

Her sleep clouded brain was still slow enough that instinct took over and instead of putting distance between them, her body pressed closer.

Pleasure shot through him, electrifying and intense, and he couldn’t help but respond instinctively, pressing back. She sighed into his neck, her breath making him shudder.  

With herculean effort, he rolled away, gasping for breath.

‘Xiumin?’ she muttered, voice husky with sleep and arousing him further.

‘I’m here,’ he whispered back, ‘Go to sleep.’

‘Can’t,’ she muttered, kicking the covers off herself. ‘Hot.’

He knew it wasn’t a good idea but he still turned to look at her.

And the sight that met him made things a hundred times worse.

Her face was flushed, sweat dotting her forehead and her skin, pooling in the crevices of her collarbones, and lower, in the valley between her curves. She was wearing his shirt, having borrowed it from him last night and the sight was enough to undo him.

He tried not to breath too much because each inhale brought her scent with it and his mind was just clouded enough to take it as the invitation it obviously wasn’t.

It was driving him insane, having her laid out like a feast waiting to be devoured, his mark acting like a siren’s call, driving the beast inside him insane.

She moaned, sounding pained. ‘Xiumin…’

Her hand scrabbled, seeking purchase before finding his arm and latching on to it, nails digging in. ‘Hurts…’

Now that he knew that his mark was probably the reason for her ‘hurt’, he knew that there was basically only one thing to do. She needed relief.

The question was could he do it, when she’d expressly asked him to not claim her?  

She didn’t wait for him, using her grip on his arm to leverage herself so that they were nose to nose, her breaths coming in heavy pants.

‘Touch me,’ she commanded, voice laden with lust.

His body reacted of its own accord, the beast more than willing to play with its mate. He could sense its satisfaction at seeing the mark, proof of their claim on her. His hand clasped her leg, pulling it over his thigh, pressing her close intimately.

She gasped when he tightened his hold, keeping her in place as he ground against her, deliberate, slow and sensuous.

She responded, pressing even closer, holding his gaze. It was filled with want, so much of it and it went fueled his own desire.

With a growl, he rolled them over so that he was hovering on top of her, the desire to kiss her, hold her captive while he ravished her, nearly overwhelming.

Conversely, their position seemed to bring her back to her senses. Her eyes cleared.  

‘Stop!’

He stilled, meeting her eyes, pupils blown out with desire.  

‘Let me help,’ he whispered, fingers curling when she shuddered beneath him.

She shook her head. ‘I don’t want-‘

He agreed, disappointed but not surprised. ‘Of course not.’

She nodded but her fingers were still tightened around his arm, nails digging, still clearly in pain, still writhing and struggling to stay still. She needed relief.

And he could – would – give it to her, without claiming her.  

‘Let me take care of you,’ he whispered, leaning down.  

Her breath hitched when he nuzzled, breathing deliberately over her neck, lips brushing against her skin, stopping by her ear. ‘I can take care of you. I made you suffer all this time. Let me do this for you.’

She let out an uneven breath, her lips before opening her eyes to look at him.

‘Fine,’ she whispered.

He internally cheered but stopped as she continued, a glint in her eyes. ‘On one condition.’

He had a feeling he wasn’t going to like this. He swallowed.

……………………………………………

Raina was fast asleep, like any decent human being would be this early.

Like, she was an early bird and everything. But even she had some humanity and she slept, like every other normal human being at o clock in the morning.

But the hand shaking her was insistent.

It was unfair because instead of being gentle, it was poking her, hard and sharp and making it impossible to ignore. If one was going to wake someone up this early, they could at least have the courtesy to be gentle about it.

She pouted, hugging whatever it was that she’d been hugging tighter and rolled over.

Of course, The Terrible Hand followed her, continuing its pokes until she’d squirmed all the way to the edge of the bed and fell down with a plop.

‘Ow…’ she groaned, rubbing her shoulder where she’d landed and turned to glare at the owner of the hand.

Tao smirked down at her. ‘Rise and shine, sweetheart.’

‘I just went to sleep,’ she whined.

‘Your fault. I told you we were starting today.’

‘But-‘ She pouted.

He stared at her critically for a moment before shaking his head. ‘Sehun can pout better than that. It’s like you’re not even trying to be cute,’ he muttered.

She glared at him. ‘I literally just woke up. Forgive a girl for being sleepy.’

‘A girl can be forgiven after she’s done her training. Get up.’

Not even bothering to offer her a hand, he turned and busied himself with whatever he was doing. Raina pouted intensely at his back, trying to will him to change his mind.

Sadly, her mind powers were just as weak as ever, and she grumbled, muttering under her breath as she changed into workout clothes.

Of course, her workout clothes were as far from stylish as possible and she felt like a potato – a sleepy, grumpy potato – next to Tao, who looked great in his sleeveless muscle tee and sweats, sporting a beautiful golden sheen, looking like a sports model.

With her mind half asleep and her usual tendency to lose coherence around beauty, she stayed mute as he chattered away, grabbing her hand to lead her outside.

It wasn’t even fully light yet. Raina felt like crying, but also like, crying because he was holding her hand and that was sweet.

Or not. He dropped it as soon as they entered what he’d designated the training area.

‘Take your position.’

Raina went to stand in front of him, having seen enough of his martial arts training to know what he was talking about.

Her shoulders were slumped and she was practically slouching. So, of course, Tao came closer to straighten her posture.

‘Chin up, shoulders straight – straighten your back!’ He prodded her until he was satisfied.

She slumped back the moment he stepped away, barely stifling a yawn.

He stopped, seemingly looking at her for the first time since he’d woken her up. ‘Oh, you look smashed.’

‘Thanks,’ Raina replied around another yawn. ‘It’s the sleep deprivation.’

He giggled, high pitched, before leaning close to peck her cheek. ‘I’m sorry for waking you up so early.’

‘Mmm,’ she mumbled, closing her eyes and leaning towards him.

By now, she should have expected it. In fact, she did expect it. Which was why she only whined a little when she fell face first on the ground, Tao having moved away.

‘Why?’ she wailed, nursing her wrist which had taken the brunt of her fall.

Tao loomed over her, arms crossed over his chest as he stared her down. ‘Never take your eyes off your enemy. That’s lesson number one.’

She glared at him as much as possible through her tears. ‘You’re my mate!’

‘Trust no one.’ He leaned down, pecking her nose and smirking. ‘That’s lesson number two.’

Sometimes she wondered why she loved him. This was one of those times.

She sniffed, standing up and shaking out her legs and arms, her feet and hands to loosen up the joints. He wanted to train her? He’d better get ready to be beaten because she was not going to take this lying down. She took the stance she’d taken Tao take every time he faced an opponent.

‘Come at me,’ she called out, irritated.

Tao smiled at her, looking genuinely proud, before schooling his features into the smug, teaching face he’d been wearing since this had started.

He stepped closer slowly and she kept her gaze on him, following his every move. He didn’t say anything, just repositioned her arms before demonstrating the correct posture. ‘Put your back into it,’ he told her, holding her arms to feel the strength she was putting in.

She couldn’t help but feel a little flustered at their proximity but he didn’t show any signs of being affected. Instead, he just kept guiding her as their lesson began in earnest.

It wasn’t until their sparring began that he commented. ‘You’re a natural at this.’

She couldn’t help but smile, because through the lesson, her anger had faded into drive. It didn’t hurt that she found his focused demeanor quite y and he looked very good. Felt even better when he touched her, even if it was for brief moments.

‘Thanks, I-‘

Of course, he had to ruin it. Hooking a foot around her ankle, he pulled and she fell down on her , plopping ungracefully.

‘Don’t let the calm fool you.’ He smiled at her, offering her a hand. ‘Lesson number three.’

She glared at him before knocking his arm away and getting up herself.

…………………………………………...