Heart of the Guardians: Adoring Destiny

by Adrianna Adore

  “Why did they kill the king if all they wanted was peaceful entry?” James demanded. “Why start a war?”

  “Did you not hear?” Dimitri asked “You and your ancestors are the only fools who didn’t bury and forget the entrance. We need it to find the breach in our lands. The king must have suspected we would come out of desperation, a team to force entry. Why were you not consulted, esteemed council? Why did you not know of this? Why did the king not help us to close a portal?”

  There were uncomfortable glances around the room. They knew the truth of it. Because the king wanted them dead. He still bore the scars of a werewolf encounter from his youth and still held grudges. There hadn’t been open warfare between the Werewolves and the more civilized shifters for centuries, a fragile truce had been established, but there was no love lost between them. If the wolves were being killed fighting hell spawn creatures prowling their lands, the king didn’t really care.

  “I don’t think my countrymen killed the guards or the safe cracker.” Dimitri said to their disbelieving looks. “If you examine their wounds, they will be from creatures that came out of the portal. If your king had not interfered, you would have found them tied up in the morning.”

  “We have been searching for a hundred years to find the breach.” Dimitri continued over their gasps of outrage. “There are uncharted caves and crevices all along the thousands of miles of mountains. It could be anywhere. We can locate it from the other side, from inside the portal. The writings say the openings glow and pulsates with energy. You have all passed through for your initiation rites, how did you find your way back? You followed the pulse, you searched for the light in the dimness, yes? You are not of that world so this world pulls you back, you feel the draw, correct? The scrolls say it is so, is it true?”

  The council members shifted in their seats and didn’t meet his stare. The lion, the cougar and the tiger had gone through the portal but at the whispered advice of their mentors, they hadn’t strayed far from the door. They prowled the dim world but kept the faint yellowish glow within sight until the hour had passed.

  “Yes.” James said when no one else answered. “I was attacked when I went in for my testing. There were too many to fight so I fled into the forest. I ran blindly but I never felt lost. I always knew the way home.”

  “Exactly.” Dimitri said. “It is written. If you would have traveled farther, you would have felt the pull from another entrance. The world inside the portal is a dark mirror of ours and it is said time is different, too. It is believed that with a large enough force going through, they could fight off any attackers, they could have traveled freely, mapped the other world and found the breach.”

  “If you know all of this, why didn’t you come to us?” Scrimson asked. “If the king wouldn’t listen, you could have approached one of us before you broke in and caused all this destruction.”

  “No one knows who you are.” Dimitri said. “Stigmund would not divulge your identities. You are quick to disparage his name, to throw him under the bus as you say, but he was an honorable man. You hide yourselves in ceremony and secrecy. We asked him to appeal to the king but he was commanded to be silent on the matter, to never mention it in the Kings’ presence again, so he helped us in other ways. He led hundred-man search parties to try to backtrack the creatures that prowled the mountains but we never found anything.”

  “You should have come to me.” James said.

  “You?” Dimitri scoffed. “You were too busy going to parties, bedding beautiful women, racing your fancy cars and getting your picture in the paper. Would you have listened to a lying dog?” he asked, throwing James’ words back in his face.

  “Enough.” Scrimson said when James stood in anger, his chair tipping over behind him. “You bicker like old women. We have funerals and coronations to plan, new council members to bring into the fold and a thousand other duties. You two go down to the portal, see if you can pick up the scents of the unnaturals that came through and try to track them before they start slaughtering our citizens. Succeed and we will weigh the merits of allowing you to enter the portal to find your breach,” he added with a solemn nod to Dimitri.

  “I’m not working with him.” James said.

  “YOU WILL DO AS YOU ARE TOLD!” Scrimson roared and slammed his fist on the table, his fangs showing and the old lions’ hair growing shaggy. “YOU ARE NOT THE KING AND YOU WILL OBEY THE ORDERS OF THE COUNCIL!”

  James bit back his retort and glared at the wolfman. Just a few hours ago he’d been planning a weekend retreat with Claire, he’d been deliriously happy. Now he was dragged back into a world he’d tried to escape, his uncle was dead, the council was useless old men, monsters stalked the city and he was saddled working with one of the dog men who had started this whole mess.

  “Come on, then,” he told Dimitri as he stood, “follow me and don’t steal anything.”

  Scrimson shook his head.

  “Go with them, Frank. Try to keep them from killing each other.”

  2

  Claire

  Claire rubbed at the faint tribal like marks barely visible just under the skin of her belly. They were hard to see, it seemed like they fading away. After the torrid affair with her history teacher, she refused to even think his name, they had started appearing. They were similar to his and covered much of the same areas that his did. His back, chest and upper arms. She didn’t know what had caused them but she was glad they were fading, she didn’t want a body covered with marks that looked like tattoos. She hadn’t told anyone, not even her roommate. Dana had been so angry at the professor. She had raged for days about what a sorry piece of crap he was, breaking up with her by text, telling her he was going back to his wife. Claire had been hollow, not angry. She had never felt what she had with him and thought it had been the same for him. She didn’t understand how he could fake such sincerity, the magic between them had been electric. The marks frightened her and after googling different terms for days, she concluded it was some kind of stigmata. It was the same thing that happened to religious people whose hands bleed like Christ’s. Her mind must have been doing the same thing to her body. She pulled the skin above her breasts taut and they stood up where they belonged. It didn’t take as much effort as it had before, her whole body seemed to be changing. She could easily keep up with Dana on their morning runs, she was losing weight even though she was always hungry and cheated on her diet all the time. She craved honey and slathered it on everything, started adding it to her coffee instead of NutraSweet. Physically, she felt good and as long as she wasn’t thinking about him, which was maybe all of seven minutes a day, she was happy. She was glad it was late fall, it was natural to wear long sleeves. She didn’t have to make excuses to cover up the marks.

  She threw herself into her studies, exhausted herself with training at the gym and refused to let Dana set her up on dates. The few times she’d tried, Claire had simply refused. Once she’d arranged for one of her boyfriends to bring his buddy and show up at Rico’s when they were having dinner. The “surprise” meeting was supposed to turn into an evening of drinks, Friday night trivia and laughter. Claire had tried to be pleasant but the boy was a little too grabby, kept touching her. After a dozen thinly veiled innuendos and casual mentions that his dorm mate was gone for the weekend she told him she was absolutely, positively not interested in anything other than eating then going home. Alone.

  The boy took it well enough but after the third Margarita and losing every round of trivia he got petulant and rude. When she got up to leave, he’d grabbed her arm. She slapped him.

  It was over before she knew what happened, the crack of flesh on flesh loud, the boy was slammed against the back of the booth, a huge red welt on his face. Involuntary tears trickled down his cheek. Everyone in the restaurant gasped and stared, all conversation stopped. Claire was half crouched, a snarl on her face, her fingers curled into claws ready to attack.

  “Claire Bear?” Dana asked uncertainly, calling her b
y the old nickname from their childhood, a shocked expression on her face.

  Claire looked around, at all the eyes on her and realized what she’d done, how she must have looked. Like a crazy woman.

  “I’m sorry.” She mumbled and rushed out, humiliated and embarrassed.

  Dana found her sitting in the dark softly crying, a box of Kleenex beside her on the couch.

  “Don’t worry about it,” she said, sitting and pulling her friend onto her chest, “he was being a jerk.”

  “I miss him so much.” Claire sobbed. “I’m trying, I really am, but it hurts. It hurts so badly.”

  Dana stroked her hair and said comforting words.

  “Every time I look out the window, I see his car and I think he must be coming back someday. Every time I do laundry, I think of talking with him for hours in the basement. Every time I go to class, I hope I’ll walk through the door and see him at the lectern. I can’t stand it anymore, Dana. I can’t stand the hurt.”

  Claire cried herself out and fell asleep on her best friends tear stained lap.

  Dana thought long into the night, long after Claire’s sobs turned to steady breathing. She needed closure, she needed to know once and for all that James Gardner was just a player, that he was a low-life jerk who toyed with a young girls emotions then threw her away like an old sock. She needed to arrange a meeting so she could see once and for all what a scumbag he was and maybe then she could start healing, get rid of the necklace he’d given her and move on.

  Dana had late classes the next day. After they finished their morning run and Claire was off to the library, she went up the stairs to James apartment. If he’d locked the deadbolt when he left, she’d have to think of something else but she had a credit card in her hand to jimmy open the bottom lock if it was the only one engaged. She didn’t need it, the door wasn’t locked and opened easily when she tried it. She stepped inside, looked around and wasn’t surprised that it was mostly bare. The apartment came furnished and he hadn’t really had time to personalize it with pictures or knickknacks. Dinner dishes from two were in the strainer next to the sink, his keys were on the table and some papers from school were stacked on a desk. Other than that, it looked unlived in. She went to the bedroom, saw the rumbled sheets and scowled. The jerk had taken her virginity then ran back to his wife. She wanted to strangle him. She rummaged through his drawers but there were only a few changes of clothes, his closet had a jacket and a pair of slacks. Everything he owned would fit in the single suitcase on the shelf. She found his college ID badge on the dresser and the title to his car in the desk. She checked the date of sale and was surprised it was only a day before he’d arrived. He’d gone to elaborate and expensive lengths to be a teacher at a small school for only a few weeks. She only hesitated for a moment before she grabbed both, snatched the car keys and locked the door behind her. She was going to track him down, show up on his fancy drive way with his fancy car and ask him why he treated Claire so bad, why he had taken advantage of a naïve student. Hopefully in front of his fancy wife. Bastard deserved the fallout he was going to get.

  She googled his name but nothing came up that matched the picture. He wasn’t on Facebook or tik tok or Instagram or twitter or any other social media. She called up a boy she knew from computer sciences class and he was eager to help. Anything to spend time with one of the prettiest girls he knew.

  She gave him the ID badge, asked him to find out anything he could and he told her he’d have it done in a few days.

  She had a date that night with Cody, the boy she’d left at the restaurant a few days ago when his buddy had gotten grabby with Claire. She’d promised to make it up to him and he could be charming when he wanted. He talked too much about football and his high school team, where he was the quarterback and star player, but he was taking her to a movie, he couldn’t talk through it. He was handsome in a rugged way and she loved the way his muscles bunched tight under his shirt that looked about a size too small. It was their fourth or fifth date, depending if she counted the disastrous night at Rico’s, and she was starting to like him more and more. He seemed to like her, too. Maybe he was the one, maybe he wouldn’t lose interest if they slept together. Most of the boys she dated she just had fun with. They took her places, made her laugh, bought her things and most of them were happy to hang out.

  Cody’s hand accidentally drifted down to her breast during the movie and she didn’t push it away, even moved a little so his fingers could feel her nipple grow hard. She heard his intake of breath and smiled to herself. She would have him squirming in his seat in another minute. He’d have to think of some pretense to adjust himself because if she knew boys, she knew he was starting to get hard. It was a school night, the film had been playing for a week and the police drama hadn’t gotten very good reviews. The theater was almost empty, there were only a few older couples down near the front enjoying senior discount night. They sat near the top under the flickering projector so if anyone did happen to look up at them, they would be blinded by the light. Dana had never done it in a theater before and the thought of doing something so forbidden had her almost squirming in her own seat. She tested the armrest, they folded up and she was already trying to figure out if the seats were wide enough to lay down on. It had been weeks since she’d been laid and when Cody wasn’t talking, she could appreciate his rugged good looks, his bleach blonde hair and the hard body of an athlete. He gripped her breast more firmly and she pushed into his hand, giving him the go ahead. She’d worn a knee length skirt and if she tucked her panties in her purse, they could do it. They could really do it and get away with it. Her breathing quickened with her pulse. His hands felt good on her body as the other one found the hem of her shirt and slid under it. They were oily from the popcorn and slicked her nipples with the flavored butter. On the screen, the undercover cop was beating up a suspect and she knew they had at least another half hour before the end of the film. Plenty of time if they didn’t spend too long petting. She flipped up the arm rests and reached under her skirt to pull off her panties. She couldn’t wait to feel him inside her, she needed the release. She ran her lacy red panties under his nose before she tucked them away and hoped he was well endowed. She wanted to be filled up, wanted to know she’d been rode hard when it was over. She ran her hand over his leg to the firmness trapped by his pants. She squeezed and he moaned. Her hand covered most of it but that was okay, it would do if he knew how to use it. She was so horny she squirmed in the seat and tugged at his zipper. She wanted him inside her, needed to grind their pelvises together in the flickering dark while car tires screeched and gunshots blasted through the theater. The danger of getting caught added to the thrill and she hoped there was big gunfight in another ten minutes when she started to climax. They’d have to time it, there better not be a funeral scene or a quiet moment, the people down front would hear them.

  “Give it to me Cody,” she whispered, her voice husky with desire, “give it to me.”

  She slid up her skirt, made sure the four old people down in front were still engrossed in the film and started to pull him down on top so he could mount her, give her what she craved.

  “Here you go, Babe,” he breathed as he unzipped his pants and guided her head to his lap.

  She didn’t resist, she didn’t mind, boys loved it and he would be eager to do whatever she wanted. As soon as her lips touched his throbbing flesh he thrust his hips and a white hot jet exploded into her mouth. She was so surprised she almost pulled away but his hands held her fast as he spasmed and emptied himself.

  “There.” He said when the moment was over and he pulled away to zip up his jeans. “How’d you like that? Here, sit down before someone notices.”

  He patted the seat beside him leaned back with a satisfied smile and started watching the movie. He wasn’t going to reciprocate. He wasn’t going to get on his knees and bury his head under her skirt. He wasn’t going to give her what she needed. He was going to leave her hot and horny.

&
nbsp; He was done, he got his, now he expected her to be a good girl and sit through the rest of the movie in unsatisfied frustration.

  She reached up for the bucket of popcorn and spit his seed into it.

  “Eww. Why’d you do that?” He asked. “Why didn’t you swallow? You ruined it.”

  She stood to leave and he scooted his legs aside for her to get around.

  “Here,” he said and handed her a ten-dollar bill, “extra butter and can you get me a coke?”

  By the time she reached the lobby, the Uber ride was already confirmed.

  She waited for it at the sidewalk.

  Chad from her computer science class called after a few days and asked her to come over to his dorm, he had something to show her. The other boys gathered around the PlayStation just stared as she came through the door. Girls like her didn’t visit guys like them.

  “Can you give us a minute?” he asked them and jerked his head towards the door, “we’ve got some stuff to discuss.”

  There were snickers as they shuffled out but she just smiled and thanked them.

  “Okay, first off, this guy is fake.” Chad said as he turned the monitor so she could see it better. “I went through the school files, everything looks legit but it was all created exactly two days before he arrived. His credentials check out, he’s been a teacher at three different schools, he graduated near the top of his class at Oxford, yadda yadda yadda, but all of the records were created and slipped into the various computers last month. This ID is for a man who doesn’t exist.”