Infuse (Infernal Council Book 1): A Reverse Harem Romance Read online

  Infuse

  Infernal Council Book One

  Maya Nicole

  Copyright 2020 © Maya Nicole

  All rights reserved.

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

  For permissions contact: [email protected]

  This book is currently available exclusively through Amazon.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real people, living or dead, businesses, or locales are coincidental.

  Cover design by Avdal Designs

  Edited by Karen Sanders Editing

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Author’s Note

  Prologue

  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

  Social Media

  Other Books by Maya Nicole

  Author’s Note

  Infuse is a reverse harem romance. That means the main character will have a happily ever after with three or more men. This book also contains a gay relationship, as well as several romantic encounters together as a group. Recommended for readers 18+ for adult content and language.

  Prologue

  My mother liked to tell me that idle hands made idle minds. I wasn’t sure I one-hundred percent believed that, but on a night like tonight, I needed something to do.

  "They would kill you before you even had the crown upon your head."

  I held the bar of soap in my left hand and slowly worked the small carving knife through the buttery smooth bar with my right. I'd decided to carve what my throne would look like if I were the queen of Inferna.

  My father was much too traditional for my tastes. He refused to let me go away to boarding school, picked my suitor, and thought I’d make a horrible queen.

  I heard a rumble of thunder in the distance and stood up from my workstation, the bar of soap and knife still working together in harmony.

  Soap carving at first started as a joke. My brother Taylor was home for a short visit and had mentioned that I should get a hobby instead of annoying him on his time off from boarding school. The servants were making a batch of soap bars, and he suggested I start carving soap.

  So I did. I fell in love with it. There was something about the glide of the knife across the smooth texture that made me get a tingly feeling inside.

  It could very well have meant I was crazy.

  I moved the heavy drapes aside to look out at the approaching storm. I shivered as another crack of lightning and rumble of thunder happened. The thought of being stuck out in the storm and the lightning striking all around frightened me to the core.

  It was beautiful and deadly. Everything a queen would need to be. I had the beauty part down but was far from deadly.

  My door swung open suddenly with so much force that it hit the wall. I jumped and messed up one of the arms of my throne. I was lucky I didn't cut off a finger.

  "What the hell, Reve? Haven't you heard of knocking? What if I would've been naked?" I pointed the knife at him.

  He looked frantic and out of sorts. As he stormed across the room, I backed up into the wall.

  His dark hair was disheveled, and his clothes looked like he had been rolling around on the forest floor. He snatched the knife out of my hands and threw it on the bed.

  My oldest brother was one of the mellowest demons I knew. My heart nearly beat out of my chest as he grabbed my hands in his.

  "You have to run. Now." His voice was strained and frantic. He was usually calm under pressure, easily keeping his emotions in check. He had to be since he was heir to the throne.

  "What? Why?" I tried to pull my hands from his, but his grip tightened.

  "Run and go find Taylor. Someone is coming to kill us all. You have to hurry, Samara." He finally let my hands go and rushed to my closet. He disappeared inside and grabbed a bag.

  The bag came flying out of the closet and landed at my feet. Next, a pair of boots, several pairs of pants, and some shirts flew at me.

  "But what about you? And Mom and Dad?" I bent down and started shoving the items into the bag. I didn’t understand what was happening, but knew if Reve was freaking out, I should take it seriously.

  He was at the doorway of the closet. Tears lined his face, more spilling out as he shook his head. He choked back a sob and brought his fist to his mouth as if biting down on it would stop the strained sound.

  "Reve... you're scaring me."

  Screams came from somewhere in the castle. Reve rushed to the door and slammed it shut, turning the lock. He came back toward me and took the bag out of my hands, zipping it closed.

  "We're out of time. You'll sneak out the window, go to the stables, and take Buttercup." He pulled the drapes aside and opened the window.

  I looked down at my nightgown and my bare feet. "What's going on?"

  He took the bag from me and threw it out the window. "There’s someone more powerful than Father. Go, Sammy. Ride fast and don't look back."

  I tried to protest, but he pushed me towards the window. I wouldn't have put it past him to shove me out of it if I refused to go.

  I could hear loud footsteps on the stairs, and my eyes went wide.

  I threw my arms around my brother, squeezing tightly. He hugged me back and then pushed me towards the window again. He went to the bed and picked up my knife.

  "I love you, baby sister."

  Before I could return the sentiment, he was at the door and rushed into the hall, knife in hand.

  I bit my lip and considered my options. I could defy my brother, or I could climb out the window and do as he asked. I heard my father shouting and my mother screaming, and my decision was made.

  I threw my leg over the windowsill and dropped to the ground. The impact nearly caused me to fall to the ground. I grabbed the bag, slung it over my shoulder, and sprinted towards the stables. Rocks and sticks dug into my bare feet, but I didn't stop until I was inside.

  No one seemed to be around. What the fuck was going on?

  I approached Buttercup’s stall and pulled open the door. He let out a puff of smoke and moved his giant hoof on the dirt floor.

  "Hey there, Buttercup. Reve said I can take you." Yes, I was talking to the horse, but this horse was special. If I didn’t tell him Reve had given me permission, he’d shoot flames at me faster than I could high-tail it out of there.

  I grabbed his saddle, but then I heard the stable doors creak open. As if knowing what was going on, Buttercup got down on his front two legs to allow me to get on. I climbed on quickly, and he took off out of the stall.

  Two guards waited with their swords drawn. They were familiar guards, but they didn't seem to be on our side as they stepped in Buttercup’s path.

  Buttercup put his head down and barreled towards them. As we got closer, flames shot out of his nostrils and sent the men scrambling out of the way. We burst through the stable doors and took off towards the forest.

  I held onto the horse’s mane as tightly as possible. I had ridden bareback before, but not on a hell horse and not at such speeds. He seemed to be limiting the heat he emitted because the warmth was tolerable.
>
  We were headed straight in the direction of the storm I had watched out of my window. I wanted him to turn around and go back to the village to get some help, but without reins, I had little control.

  Reve might have been able to control him bareback, but he wasn’t my horse. My heart ached as my hair whipped across my face. My brother didn’t have his full capabilities at his age, and I wasn’t reassured he could protect my mother and father.

  I heard hooves behind us and turned to look. The two guards were chasing us. We were lucky they weren't shifters and were just on their horses.

  Buttercup veered to the right, taking us in the direct path of the lightning.

  "Not this way. Left!" I dug in with the heel of my foot and pulled his mane in the direction I wanted him to go.

  The stupid horse was going to get us killed. I turned my head again, and the guards had given up their chase. They were smart enough to know not to go into a storm. The damn horse wasn’t.

  "Whoa." I pulled back on his neck, trying to get him to stop. He continued to run for another minute and then abruptly stopped, rearing up on his hind legs. I fell backward off him just as lightning struck in front of us.

  Pain shot up my spine as I hit the ground. I lay flat on my back, staring up at the black leaves of the trees. The moon was barely visible where we were.

  Buttercup took off into the trees and left me lying on the ground. As soon as the shock of being thrown off ebbed, I brought myself onto my forearms.

  The burst of light made my heart sputter to a stop. It was as if time slowed. I watched in horror as the tendril of lightning snaked down towards me. It seemed like it was taking its sweet time, and I should have been able to move out of the way.

  In reality, it was only a fraction of a second, and then the bolt hit me square in the chest.

  A silent scream left my lips as heat ripped through my body. My mind flashed with light, and then my world went black.

  Chapter 1

  "Tell me again what they look like." I turned to my best friend, Nico, and raised my eyebrows.

  We had been out foraging for thirty minutes, and he hadn't found a single nut to show me as an example. I wasn't a squirrel; I didn't know what we were looking for.

  "It's about half an inch, black, with specks of gray." He moved some leaves with his boot and sniffed the air. What exactly did he think he was going to be able to smell while in his demon form?

  I rolled my eyes. "Why don't you just shift, and I’ll stand watch. If there's any danger, I'll just stab them."

  He shook his head and let out a frustrated sigh. "Too many predators are in this forest. They've probably already sniffed me out and are ready to eat me the second I shift."

  I loved Nico to death, but sometimes his nut obsession was a little much. Especially when we could be back at camp enjoying the campfire, the alcohol, and the dancing.

  I understood, though. It was something he enjoyed and was excited about. It was something to keep his mind off all he’d lost.

  "I found one!" His voice held so much excitement that the annoyance I had felt vanished. "It's spectacular, look."

  Nico hadn’t exactly been the luckiest of demons. He was a rare squirrel shifter and when everything in Inferna was bigger than you, it was difficult to stay alive.

  He had beat those odds, instead running from what threatened him the most and working out to build muscle like a fiend.

  He walked over to me and held out his hand. I plucked the small nut from it and held it up. It was smaller than I thought. How he had spotted it among the leaves was a miracle.

  "This is what we’re looking for?" I handed it back to him, and he put it in a small pouch at his hip. "Seems a little monotonous for such a tiny thing."

  He brought his tattooed hand up to his jaw and rubbed at his beard. "If you didn't want to come, you should've just told me."

  "I did want to come. I just didn't know I would be looking for a nut that was so small I needed a magnifying glass to find it. Kind of like your dick." I tried to hide my grin, but it was impossible when looking for nuts with your squirrel shifter best friend.

  "Peanut, you and I both know there's nothing small about my dick." He smirked and winked at me.

  He was right; there was nothing small about what he was packing. My face flushed with heat, and I turned back to looking for the ultra-rare nut he was after.

  Nico and his dick had continuously been on my mind lately. Anytime I caught sight of the bulge in his pants or closed my eyes at night, there it was.

  We headed back to camp after finding ten nuts, a great accomplishment considering I wasn’t gifted with superb animal senses. There was a bounce to Nico's step as we walked back to camp.

  As we approached the campsite, a man on a horse came into view. He was talking to Henry, one of our elders. In a way, most of us were elders, alive for centuries and centuries. Some had been around since Inferna was conceived.

  Conceived and then abandoned like a cheap, knocked up whore.

  Henry saw us and waved us over. The man on the horse turned to look at us, and I lowered my head and adjusted the hood on my head.

  Not many people would recognize me with my purple hair, but I was always cautious. There had been a few close calls where Lilith's soldiers had infiltrated our camp. Luckily, we had quite a few magic users and ferocious shifters, and I hadn't had to fight.

  The man on the horse took off before we could even get to them. Crisis averted.

  "What was that about?" Nico was walking in front of me, shielding me still. He was the only one who knew my true identity.

  Water splashed onto my face, and I bolted up. There was no pain in my body, which was surprising since I was just hit with lightning and fell off a horse.

  A large tattooed man was standing over me, his canteen tipped upside down.

  I swiped the water off my face and rubbed my eyes.

  "How am I still alive?" I asked no one in particular and looked down at my legs.

  They were glowing faintly, and I rubbed my hands over them. They felt normal; they just didn’t look normal. They looked electrically charged.

  "You've been out for a solid ten minutes. I was in that tree there when the lightning hit you." He pointed to a tree not far from where we were.

  What was he that he was in a tree? I narrowed my eyes in consideration. He was a big man, with thick legs, wide shoulders, and a narrow waist. He didn’t live in a village close to the castle. I would have recognized him with his long sandy blond hair that sat in a knot on the top of his head, and his bearded face.

  He could be a cat of some sort, or possibly a large carnivorous bird.

  "I'm Nicolas." He held out his hand, and I took it. He pulled me to my feet as if I weighed nothing. "Nicolas Beech."

  I bit my lip and didn't answer. If there were men after me, I couldn't trust him. I couldn't trust anyone.

  "I've never seen anyone take a hit of lightning before and live to tell about it. The storm seemed to end right after it struck you. That's very strange." He cocked his head slightly to the side and examined my face more closely. "It should have taken all your light, but you aren't vacant."

  I pulled my hand, which he still had in his massive one, away and looked around for my bag. I spotted it and snatched it up.

  "Well, thanks. I should-"

  "Your hair turned purple when the lightning hit you." He crossed his arms over his chest, drawing my eyes to his pecs. He must be glorious without his shirt on. "It's going to be hard not to draw attention to yourself with it."

  I grabbed a handful of my hair and brought it around to look at. My eyes widened at the sight of light purple locks instead of my usual brown ones.

  "I have to go."

  "There have been reports of angels in the Black Forest. There is a rumor that Prince Reve is with them." Henry shook his head. "After all this time, he's come back? With angels? I don't believe it."

  My heart nearly stopped in my chest. The last I'd heard of a
bout the fate of my brother, he'd been a prisoner of Lilith's and then of Lucifer's.

  "What does this mean for us?" Nico was still standing in front of me. I was grateful because I'm sure my face was as pale as a ghost.

  Henry made a noise in his throat. "Prince Reve was much more progressive than his father. This is our chance to get a spot on the council. We can finally stop being treated like shit. Hopefully, he's back to claim his throne. He's the only one powerful enough to take it back from Lilith."

  I wasn't sure if it was possible to defeat Lilith. Not only could she control the weaker of the demon races, but she had a lot of support from the higher-ranking demons. They wanted to go to Earth and make it their own, which was what she was offering them in return for their loyalty.

  "You should send Sammy and me." Henry snorted as if it was some kind of joke. "I know what you're thinking. We don't have what it takes to convince the council to give us a seat."

  "We can't send a woman."

  The initial shock of my brother being back had passed. I stepped around Nico and glared at Henry. One of the reasons we had stayed with this group of gypsies for so long was because they appreciated women. They saw women as more than just a warm hole to stuff their dicks.

  He held up his hands in defense. "The council is stuck in their ways. If we send a woman in there to try to get a council seat, do you think they would give us one? Especially if they just had a crazed woman at the helm?"