by Scott, Helen
“Oh, little mate, where do you think you’re going?” Darius purred as he stepped to the forefront of my men.
“Is there something you wanted, Mate?” I asked, feeling my pursang rise in response to his own.
“I can think of a few things,” he growled, as his eyes flashed silver. “Put her on the bed, Barc.”
Barclay did as Darius ordered and tossed me on to the huge bed. I bounced on the mattress and when I landed again, Darius was there on top of me, stripping my clothes. This time when I wriggled, it was to help him undress me.
Hands, I wasn’t sure whose, were on my skin, tracing lines and plucking at my nipples as soon as they were exposed. A mouth was on mine and it took me a second to realize it was Cade. He wasn’t usually much of a kisser, but when he did... it was like the heavens moved. His pouty lips maneuvered over mine and his tongue danced with my own until I was a panting, writhing mess on the bed.
There were even more hands a second later, lifting me and positioning me where they wanted, and when I was settled, mouths joined the hands and it was all I could do not to beg them to fuck me. Whatever they had in mind, though, whatever filthy, nasty ideas they had dreamt up between the six of them, I was willing to try it.
A cock nudged at my entrance, but I couldn’t see whom it belonged to because there were too many people between me and whoever was fucking me. Not that I was complaining. What the numerous hands and mouths on my body were doing was hurtling me toward my first climax.
Part of me wanted to try and hold out, to make them work for my pleasure, but I knew as soon as I had the thought that it was impossible. I couldn’t deny them anything, let alone proof of how well they knew and loved me.
When my first orgasm hit, I bit down on whoever was closest, my fangs sinking into a muscular part of their body, possibly their shoulder. It was hard to tell since my eyes were rolled back in pleasure as my orgasm surged through me and blood flowed into me. The taste of what could only be Barclay’s blood, with its earthy undertones and pine aftertaste, almost sent me over the edge once more.
The bodies parted for a moment, and I saw Darius’s fiery gaze locked onto my face while he pounded into me. As soon as there was enough room, he flipped us so I was on top of him, but I still didn’t have to do the work. Hands supported me, and moved me up and down on his cock for a moment, before his pursang took over and began pumping into me from below.
When he pulled out of me and spun me around, I let out a whine of protest, which contorted itself into a moan as fingers circled my clit and mouths devoured my breasts. Darius was pushing back into me a moment later, only this time he was in my ass, stretching the tiny hole with his cock while Cade moved beneath me so I was riding his dick.
“I remember when this tight little pussy was still a virgin, now look at you, stuffed in both holes,” he rumbled, as he thrust into me in one, long stroke. “Fuck, Chella, your pussy is still just as heavenly as the day I deflowered you. I think you can handle more cock though.” Cade’s eyes were hungry on my own, taking and devouring everything I could give him.
Gideon was there, turning my head toward his cock, and I opened my mouth greedily and sucked him in as far as I could without gagging. The salty taste of his precum coated my mouth as I breathed and took him even deeper. He couldn’t help but rock his hips toward my face, the need in him as great and demanding as the need in me.
When he hit the back of my throat, I was worried I might not be able to take any more, but with a swallow and a few deep breaths, I had him fully sheathed in my mouth. His hands came around, cupping my head and holding it in place as he began to fuck me there.
“Fuck, yeah, Chella, suck on his cock. Maker, that’s so fucking sexy,” Cade growled. I wasn’t sure whether it was minutes or an hour later when Cade roared his climax while I worked Gideon’s cock like I was a porn star.
After Gideon moved out of the way to take Cade’s position, I was surprised to see Keiran take Gid’s place, my dream walker wasn’t as big on group sex or blow jobs, but I guess we all needed attention tonight. Before I took his cock into mouth, I leaned over and bit his thigh, sinking my teeth into the muscular flesh and drinking from him like he was a fountain.
The light, breezy taste of his blood was such a contrast to Barclay’s—a dream walker and a shifter. The two men could hardly be more different. I didn’t care though. I loved the taste of all my men, and before this night was through, I was going to feed from them all, and they would all feed from me. We had to ensure that we were ready for the coming fight, and I wasn’t about to not take pleasure from it as well.
We gorged that night, and reveled and enjoyed what we had as a unit.
The connection between us had never been more powerful, and as I sated myself on their blood, I knew they did too. At some point in our lives, we’d all known hunger. I did not know every single aspect of Darius’s life, but he was too old, had come from an era of bloodshed and strife, and had been a soldier, and I knew he, too, had felt the bone-deep ache of hunger. My mates were Stained, the lowest of the low, and dumped at the salsang Academy, Eastbrook. I did not doubt that their need for sustenance had been denied as punishment.
That night, we fed until such an ache was a thing of the past.
For us, it was. Hunger was no more. As a unit, we need never know it again, and I felt that celebration of life like I’d never felt it before.
Why tonight was different, I wasn’t sure. Of course, it could have something to do with the battle looming over us, and it may have had something to do with the fact that, somehow, I had just created a new moon. Be they the reasons or not, I’d never felt so connected to each of my mates.
Each droplet of their blood winged its way around my veins, filling me in a way that no other could ever imagine. With each swallow of their lifeblood, I was empowered, charged in ways I’d never tapped into until now.
After what I’d seen that evening, after the dragon born of my shadow and light had given life to a new moon, there was no hiding from the fact that we were no ordinary group. Even if, to people like the pursang council, my mates were nothing but Stained, they were now made extraordinary by my lineage, by our connection.
They filled me with their love, showed me with their bodies how they worshipped me, and I’d never been more grateful or more in love with any of them.
We weren’t perfect.
Darius could be an asshole, and Raven and Cade weren’t much better. Keiran had a habit of being despondent, Barclay was too trusting, and Gideon had an overwhelming sense of responsibility and duty. He was like our Atlas, with the weight of the world on his shoulders, because he was connected to the earth in a way that few would ever understand.
That was just my mates.
I was erratic and irate, capable of too much I didn’t understand, and prone to allowing my pursang too much power over me.
If anything, I was both the strongest and weakest link in our bond, but for whatever reason, I was a Descendant. For good or ill, the fates of too many rested with us.
As I sucked my mate’s cock, as I was fucked by two others, I didn’t realize that it was the beginning of the end. How could I?
Merlin had said it was close, that the end truly was nigh, but I never anticipated just how close. I’d hoped, in thanks for what we’d done for him, he’d warn us. But I should have known that he was as dishonorable as the Lady.
When I awoke the following morning, my mates slept on. I sensed their fatigue, the energy drop from how I feasted last night, but they were well, and after a few more hours of rest, they would be ready for whatever was barreling our way.
From the ache in my eyes, and the yawn that cracked my jaw in two, I should have carried on sleeping with them. But something was different, something had woken me, and even though they were my protectors, my guardians, it was also my duty to protect them.
The air… it was strange. It was impossible to describe, impossible to explain how, but it was just peculiar enough to aw
aken me. To stir me from my restful sleep.
My eyes popped open and I stared at the ceiling for endless moments, trying to discern why the air tasted differently than it had before. I tilted my head to the side, taking in the varying nuances that I recognized were different than yesterday. But the more I studied it, the less sense it made. Everything about it felt alien, like a new vibration was carried along in the airwaves that were impossible to study with the naked eye—even if my senses were so much more than another of my kind.
Slowly and carefully, I lifted myself up and out of the tangle of arms and legs on the mattress, my senses on red alert as I tried to determine what was happening.
When I managed to sit up and focus on the room itself, I tensed, then grimaced at the sight of Merlin—I should have known he was the culprit. The reason why tension throbbed through me at a molecular level.
He was seated in an armchair, appearing as comfortable and as relaxed as if he was sitting in a bar, waiting on the waiter to serve him his drink. His gaze drifted over me and my nakedness, touching every part of me in a way that made me want to pluck out his eyes, before lingering on my mates. I wasn’t sure what sight appealed to him the most, which raised a whole host of questions I had no desire to learn the answers to. Mostly, I was just pissed that he’d breached our privacy.
Then, I had to shake my head, more at my own naiveté than anything else. Sure, Merlin was out of order, there was no hiding from that, but he was the Maker. It wasn’t like I could tell him off, was it? Chastise him as I would a little boy.
Although…
“Did you at least knock?” I asked, aware there was a bite to my tone, and equally aware that Merlin wasn’t perturbed at all by my irritation. I guessed he was used to irritating people, and though I hated to admit it, when the Lady was just as bad as him, I could almost understand why she had imprisoned him in a tree. At least when he was in the tree, she’d have known where the pest was.
Too much more of this, and I’d understand the urge more and more.
“There are no doors for me,” Merlin stated, his tone ridiculously cheerful. If I’d had a dagger in my hand, I would have enjoyed hurling it at him. Not that I expected it to make its mark, but it would at least show him I was annoyed at his rudeness.
“If there are no doors, then there are no boundaries.” I shook my head. “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”
Merlin’s top lip curled. At first, I thought it was in displeasure, but it wasn’t. I noted with some irritation of my own that it was more like amusement. “Feel free to lecture, child, but not today. Today we are busy.”
Warily, I mumbled, “We are?”
He nodded. “Yes, indeed. It is time you learned the truth.”
“The truth? About what in particular?”
“Oh, many things.”
“Helpful as always,” I groused, reaching up to rub my eyes. The only information he could impart was bound to be distressing, but I was already reeling from what I’d learned. I didn’t need any more information piling on, adding pressure to an already tense situation, but this was Merlin. And I was a Descendant.
R & R was not for people like us. Brotherhoods didn’t get vacations, nor did the child of a Maker.
With a sigh, I blurted out, “Do I need a shower? Or can you just ping some clothes on me?”
Merlin huffed, and with that, I found myself dressed. I lifted my arm, tilted my head so I could sniff my armpits, and nodded when I realized I smelled clean and fresh. Newly deodorized too. “If everyone could do that, the world wouldn’t have a water shortage,” I muttered.
“A three-minute shower is more than ample. That would be enough to end the shortage,” he mused.
I huffed. “You had a forty-minute shower at the hotel in England.”
“I’ve been stuck in a tree for thousands of years. That is the kind of stench not even magic can cure,” he replied, amused again.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Are you going to tell me what happened last night? Why the dragon gave birth to the moon?”
“Your place is not to question why—”
“My place is definitely not do or die,” I retorted with a snarl.
“Perhaps it is, perhaps it isn’t.” He sniffed. “I dispatched with the Sires.”
My eyes flashed. “But they don’t die, do they?”
“I said ‘dispatched,’” he chided. “They’re powering the second moon.”
My breath stuttered in my chest. “Wait. What?” Shaking my head, I carried on, “That’s why my dragon gave birth to the moon?”
“Indeed.” His lips pursed. “I granted them too much power, now, they shall channel light into the shadows for an eternity.” Before I could do little more than squawk, he groused, “Come, it is time we leave.”
Though I was pissed at his limited answer, I gestured at my mates. “Shouldn’t we awaken them?”
He cut them a look, then said, “There is no need to disturb them. They shall need their rest.”
I wasn’t particularly happy about how he said that. It did, in fact, make me wonder if my mates had a part to play in whatever was about to go down with the Lady at all. I guessed this was how they felt about me putting myself into danger, into harm’s way. I didn’t like that their safety might be compromised while I crafted the triangle that, according to Merlin, was somehow supposed to contain one of the creators of the world itself.
Shit, if ever there was a thought that would blow someone’s mind, that was it.
How was somebody like me, somebody so small and insignificant, supposed to do something like that?
As the pressure mounted, Merlin seemed to sense it and he tutted, then murmured, “So little faith in oneself, Marcella.” Shaking his head, he raised his hands to press his fingertips together. In that thoughtful pose, he carried on, “And so little faith in me.” Another tut that had me eying him uneasily.
Merlin had a habit of disguising himself. And I wasn’t talking about clothes. Right now, he wore a pair of jeans and a Henley T-shirt. With shitkicker boots on his feet, he could have blended in with the Reapers. But he wasn’t a Reaper. His hair was tied back in a ponytail, and his face, though always handsome, appeared starker than usual.
It took me a while, but I realized that whatever was charging the air was powering him too...
It was like some kind of perverse USB charger. Except, as far as I was aware, if I stuck my finger in a socket, I’d get a shock. Not a pleasant one at that. Regardless of my heritage, I assumed that electricity could still hurt me. Whatever power was in the air at this moment, it was not having a harmful effect on the Maker.
“It is the moon, child. Catch up,” he chided. “Even though it rests at the moment, it is still there. The Earth shall feel the effects until the end of time itself. You did that, child. We did that.”
“Why?” I inquired, finally deigning to climb over my mates so I could stand. Something about this conversation had me on edge, and being in bed wasn’t making me feel any better.
When his gaze returned to my mates, that sense of unease returned. He was looking at them in a way that was far too satisfied, and when I recognized that emotion, I whispered, “Do they sleep naturally? Have you done something to them?”
He tilted his head to the side, and replied, “What on earth would I do to them? I need them.”
His words didn’t exactly put me at ease. I placed my hand on Barclay’s leg. He was the nearest to me, the closest to the edge of the bed. His skin was warm to the touch, though, so I knew they lived, and it was a relief to feel it too. I gained strength from touching him. Squeezing him slightly, I felt the rough hair covering his calves abrade my palm, grounding me.
“What’s going on?” I demanded, aware that something was happening. Something I didn’t understand.
Something Merlin didn’t want me to understand.
“Why do you need them?” I demanded when he remained silent.
“Because through them, I can cont
rol you.”
“I’m already on the path you set,” I whispered, my voice was strained with a tension that the Maker himself was causing with his odd behavior. Merlin was always a little bizarre, but the way he was looking at me? How he was acting? It put me on edge to the point where I couldn’t settle. I gently squeezed Barclay’s leg again, trying to find the comfort I had just a few minutes earlier, but now, as I tried to connect with him through our link, I realized it was dull. Dampened by something. Like a signal blocker was in the way, muting our bond, making it so I couldn’t connect with him—in fact, any of them.
It was only then when I realized how vital the link between us all was. It was only then I felt just how full my life was now with them in it. Panic began to set in, my lungs began to bellow but no air seemed to enter them, and my heart raced like a pigeon in flight.
“Calm down, child,” Merlin ordered, his tone far too reasonable, far too chiding like he was reprimanding a child. To him, I was a child, and though I knew that, I didn’t appreciate him making me feel that way. Especially not at this moment, when it felt like my universe was caving in. “You’ll get the link back.”
Was that his attempt to reassure me? It failed. Utterly.
But his words proved I wasn’t wrong. He had hijacked my union with my mates somehow. He clapped his hands together, making me shudder at the sudden noise, but this time, the link between my mates grew even fainter. When I twisted to look at them, I saw they were no longer there. No longer slumbering.
I was alone.
Fuck, I was utterly alone.
Where were they? What had he done with them?
My mouth trembled, making the words quiver as all I managed to get out was, “What have you done?”
His shrug was casual, so casual that had I been in my right mind, I’d have probably wanted to smack him for it. His calm in the face of my distress was something I’d never forget, was something I’d hold against him for an eternity.
Merlin, did he but know it, had just made an enemy.
I’d been tolerating him thus far, and despite his ruthless inability to explain anything, I had been content to follow him because he didn’t want to wear me like I was a human suit. He seemed to have some reason while the Lady hadn’t. But there was no mistaking just how evil he was at the moment as he stared at me with such a lack of compassion, that I knew what a rat felt like when it was being experimented on by a scientist. There was no misunderstanding why the Cavalry chose to believe in the Lady.