by Cooke, CJ
He walked his own circle in the same way I had. I couldn’t help but watch him as he did. He was my mate; I was allowed to perv on him.
“Maybe,” he said glaring at the compass like it was holding out on him. “They could have given us some more information about all of this,” he sighed, his hands falling to his sides in defeat.
I was right there with him. It was such an impossible task, and right now, I didn’t see we had any chance of getting it done, let alone on the clock we had.
“Come on,” Sykes said, slapping Kyle on the back and slinging an arm around my shoulders. “Let’s walk for a bit. See if it gets any stronger.”
“I wish I could turn into a wolf,” I said randomly as we walked through the forest. Liam looked over at me in question. “Or a panther. That would be cool too,” I said, smiling at him.
“What makes you say that, sweetheart?” Kyle asked as he walked along on my other side.
“It just seems like it would be nice. To be able to run free through the forest, not a care in the world.” I daydreamed about the freedom of just running through the trees. Life had gotten so complicated recently. Some of those complications, like my mates, were welcomed ones and I wouldn’t trade them in for anything in the world. But, everything else just seemed so fucked up at the moment.
“It is pretty cool,” Sykes admitted.
“Something on your mind, Kitten?” Liam asked.
I kept walking for a bit in silence, I hated the whole, let's talk about our feelings part. It was a whole new experience for me. I didn’t grow up in an environment where anyone gave a crap about my feelings.
“I don’t want you ever to think I’m not happy I met you guys,” I said, looking around them all. “I truly mean it when I say finding you is the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“We feel the same way,” Sykes said, giving me a smile and a squeeze. I slipped my arm around his waist, and I leant my head against his side. I’d love to say I put it on his shoulder, but that boy was tall!
“Well … it would just be nice, to just be free for a bit. Doesn’t all of this get to any or you? There’s just … all of this pressure … I’m not used to the expectations … I’m not explaining this well,” I sighed. I looked around them to try and gauge the look on their faces. I wasn’t explaining it well. I think because I didn’t know how I was feeling, let alone how to put it into words.
Sykes took his arm off my shoulder, and I panicked for a moment I’d managed to hurt his feelings. But when he stepped to my other side and gently pushed me across to Kyle, I was even more confused, until he added. “Kyle is the best person to talk to about this. He’s had the weight of the entire pack on his shoulders since he was born. He’ll be able to explain it to you better.” Then he laughed. “You know if you’d asked me, I’d have said the same thing. I wish I could have wings.”
The other guys laughed, and Liam agreed. “Totally! You can fly Aria!”
They were right; flying was pretty cool.
“The trick is to remind yourself of the simpler things,” Kyle said, looking down at the compass still in his hand.
“What trick? To flying?”
“No,” he laughed. “With the pressure. You need to just let go every so often.”
“Right, let go. Shall we do that before or after we hunt us down an army?” I replied sarcastically.
Sykes’ arm slipped around my waist, and he pulled me closer to him as he whispered into my ear. “I can think of a way we could let go for a bit.”
It was like a shiver ran straight down from my ear to my clit, and I was instantly wet at the suggestion. I saw Sykes take a deep breath in as he scented the air.
“I get the impression you like the sound of that idea, sweetheart.”
We’d given up walking, and Sykes just held me in his arms now as he ran his nose up the side of my neck.
“Your scent is irresistible when you’re turned on, my beautiful mate.”
“Well, Kyle did say we needed to let go, and as he is the Alpha of our little pack, it would just be rude not to listen to his advice,” I said leaning up on tiptoes intending to kiss my sexy mate.
I don’t know if I felt the rising magic first or heard the swoosh, but I quickly spun in Sykes’ arms and thankfully was able to catch the arrow flying through the air and straight towards Kyle’s head, before it could do any harm. Just as I did so, Kyle screamed "Take cover!"’, and Sykes slammed me to the ground in a totally unswoonworthy way. It was more of a ‘brace yourself and try to avoid a concussion’ kind of way. My way would have been way more fun.
“State your purpose.” Shouted an unfamiliar male voice.
“Kicking ass and taking names,” I shouted back automatically. Kyle looked at me with an annoyed scowl, and I just shrugged. He asked!
There was silence from across the way and then a confused, “What?” was shouted back to us.
Sykes just started silently laughing at our confused attacker. Liam gave the signal he would circle behind them, and we all nodded in understanding.
“I said … “ I started shouting back.
“I heard what you said,” he snapped back. “You just didn’t make sense.” Oooo, he was getting annoyed.
“It totally makes sense,” I shouted back. I was good at this distraction technique. “I’m definitely going to kick your ass.”
There was the sound of a scuffle over in the direction of our confused attacker. Unfortunately, it was followed by his laughter, and he asked, “Is that before or after I skin your friend over here?”
I immediately saw red when I heard the threat made against my mate. If it weren’t for Sykes holding me down on the ground, I would be launching myself at the owner of that voice as he spoke.
Kyle spoke up from next to us. “Okay, we’re going to stand up, and I think we should talk about this face to face,” he reasoned.
“Very well,” the voice shouted back. “You stand up first.”
I looked at Kyle in panic. If we just blindly stood up, he could shoot us where we stood. Or at least one of us, I was pretty sure I could take him down before he got a second arrow off. We didn’t have a choice, though. He had Liam, and we had to save him.
Kyle was the first to stand up with his hands raised to shoulder level. Sykes stood next with his hands in the same position, and I reluctantly followed. I kept my hands raised, although, in this form, I could pull a knife to my hand without having to move them, so it wasn’t really the gesture it was supposed to be.
After a few moments, the man who belonged to the disembodied voice stood. He had Liam’s unconscious body held against him, effectively using him as a shield. There was a thin trickle of blood running down Liam’s face from somewhere in his hairline. Whilst he was doing a fairly good job of using Liam as a shield, most of his face was uncovered. It would be easy for me to land one of my blades straight into his eye.
The knife he held against Liam’s throat was the only thing that stayed my hand. It was dug into his skin enough to make a bead of blood appear at the tip. If I took out our attacker, and they fell the wrong way, that knife could slide into Liam’s throat, and we’d have no way to save him before he bled out on the forest floor. I’d never risk my mate, so my hands, for now, remained blade free.
“What are you doing here?” our attacker asked.
He was kind of hot if you liked your men with long hair. Apparently, I did, this was a weird and confusing feeling to be having right now. He had silver hair that hung past his shoulders and fell in a series of braids. From what I could see, he had leather trousers and a leather vest on. Similar to our own. He wasn’t wearing a jacket, so his broad shoulders and muscles were on display. I didn’t miss him flexing them when he realised I was looking.
I just rolled my eyes. He was currently holding a knife to my mate’s throat. I was more likely going to gut him before the hour was through, even if I enjoyed looking at what he had on display.
“We’re looking for a portal,”
Kyle answered a bit more honestly than I’d thought he would.
“What’s your name?” I asked him.
“Virion,” he said with a frown. That was weird. He was either lying or had assumed we’d known.
“We’re not here to harm you,” I simply said.
“Most people who say that generally are.” What type of life did this guy lead?
“Well, you just looked confused when you said your name. Either you’re not sure if that’s your name or you thought we should know. You look smart enough to remember your own name, so I’m going to assume you thought we should know who you are and, I don’t know, you look like a guy that has people out ready to kill him. Maybe because … you know … you fire arrows at people unprovoked,” I reasoned and perhaps slightly snarked at him. I couldn’t help it. I was pissed! Who goes around shooting arrows at people? “Which is incredibly rude by the way, in case you hadn’t realised.”
Fuck holding my hands in the air. I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. My left hand was hidden beneath my arm, and I pulled a blade into it. It would be a shame to mess up that pretty face, but needs must.
“Should have raised you better,” I muttered more to myself than anyone else.
“My apologies,” he smirked at me. “We’re currently days away from anywhere, the only reason you would be here is if you were looking for what I’m currently protecting. And I will kill you before I allow you to find it.”
“So that we’re all clear on this. Are you protecting the portal we’re looking for?”
It seemed like this standoff in the forest was going to end in bloodshed. I had no intention of that belonging to my mates or me.
“I suppose that depends on what portal you’re looking for,” he said evasively.
I looked at Kyle in exasperation. “You talk to him. He’s infuriating.”
I angled my body with my right foot in front and my weight on my left leg. It looked like I was dismissing him, but I was getting ready to launch into an attack in reality. Now I just needed Kyle to distract him enough for me to make my move.
“What my mate is trying to say,” Kyle said, giving me a look I couldn’t decipher, “is that my brother there would not have attacked you had you not fired first. We apologise if we entered your territory uninvited.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” Virion said. He narrowed his eyes at me. He might have been talking to Kyle, but he obviously knew what I was thinking. “What portal are you looking for?”
Kyle looked at me in question. Do we tell him? I just shrugged at him. I had no idea what species this guy was or anything about the politics of this world. I couldn’t make this decision. I didn’t have the necessary facts to do so.
In the end, Sykes decided for us. “We are looking for a portal to Valhalla, my Fae friend,” he smirked. And I just about dropped the knife in my hand as my mouth dropped open in surprise.
“Aren’t they supposed to be locked in a different realm?” I asked, turning to Sykes.
“Yeah, that’s what the history books say.”
“How do you know he’s a Fae? You’re just shitting me, aren’t you?” I laughed.
“Nah, it’s obvious,” Sykes said, turning back to Virion who just cleared his throat with an annoyed expression on his face.
“And you call me irritating,” he accused. “Do you care nothing for your brother here?” he said, annoyed with us for ignoring him.
“Sure we do,” Sykes grinned. “We’re just distracting you.”
And that was when Liam made his move. With a swift elbow to the gut, he twisted Virion’s wrist away with his free arm and slipped out from under it. Then he ruthlessly followed it through and twisted Virion’s arm behind him, placing pressure behind the elbow, bending it painfully the wrong way. I was so proud. I taught him that.
Virion dropped the knife in his hand and laughed loudly. “Well played,” he said. Then six more people stepped out of the trees with arrows aimed at all of us. “But not quite good enough.”
Liam dropped Virion’s arm and raised his hands similar to the other guys. I was still arms crossed, holding my knife. Yes, I could take Virion down now, but I wasn’t about to risk the others killing us all.
I looked over my shoulder, and I could see one of them was directly behind me with a clear view of my blade. I pulled it under my arm and out of sight before letting it fade out—no point in giving all of my secrets away. Grinning at the guy behind me, I turned my attention back to Virion.
“We’re taking them through the portal,” he said, addressing the soldiers who had surrounded us. “They will be questioned in Galvinae.”
I cocked my head to the side. That was weird. It had also been the name of the war which ultimately caused them to leave this realm, or so we had thought.
The soldiers surrounded us, and they harshly pushed us in the same direction we’d previously been travelling in. The woman behind me was quite enthusiastic in her pushing, and it was taking everything in me not to turn around and just punch her in the throat.
We only walked for a few minutes before we came to the base of the most enormous tree I’d ever seen in my life. The base was wider than the Academy building had been. When I looked up and craned my neck back, I couldn’t even see any branches, let alone the top. The trunk just disappeared up through the clouds.
It was impossible. Like actually impossible. I should have been able to see this from the air. Shit, I think you should probably have been able to see it from anywhere in the realm. Except I hadn’t seen a thing until we were standing right at the base next to it.
I tried to take a few steps back to see what would happen, but I walked straight into the overly aggressive female who’d taken great delight in pushing me all the way here. She just laughed and shoved me forwards. I could see it was starting to grate on the guys' nerves, but I just subtly shook my head at them. We couldn’t start any fights until we knew what situation we’d gotten ourselves into.
Virion walked up to the tree's base and laid his hand against the bark, whispering some words to it. I strained to listen, but I got absolutely nothing. A thin line of light started at the roots and then moved its way up the trunk about eight feet before arching back down to the ground. It was the outline of a doorway, big enough for us to walk five abreast through it. The bark in the centre of the doorway shimmered, and then a portal covered the area, shining with silver light. Virion stepped through the portal, and the soldiers pushed us forward to follow.
“I fucking hate portals,” I grumbled, and Liam looked over to me, giving me a small smile.
I shuddered as we walked through. It seriously felt like walking through wet curtains. It was horrible. Then it was like you were sucked through a tube at light speed until you suddenly just stopped when you stepped onto the other side.
I staggered a few steps forwards before I bent over and braced my hands in my knees. Do not throw up, do not throw up, do not throw up. Liam, who was the closest to me, rubbed my back gently.
“What’s wrong with her?” I heard Virion ask. I might have been mistaken, but he sounded ever so slightly concerned.
“She’s not used to portal travel,” Liam answered him. “You doing okay there, Kitten?” he said, squatting down next to me to try and look at my face.
“You’re going to want to move,” I groaned as I straightened up. “You're definitely in the splash zone there.” Liam laughed, and I was surprised to hear Virion join him. When I arched a brow at our kidnapper, he quickly quieted, probably remembering the situation we were now in.
“Take their weapons and put them in the cells,” he instructed the soldiers behind us. They moved up behind us and quickly stripped the guys of their blades. I felt a set of hands pat me down, then they grabbed my shoulders and spun me around.
“Dude, what about me being about to barf did you not understand?” I grumbled clutching my stomach.
When my vision finally caught up, and I’d managed to swallow down the vo
mit that desperately seemed to want to come up, I realised it had been the guy who’d been stood behind me in the forest who had spun me around.
“Where is it?” he barked in my face.
“Where’s what?” I replied overly sweetly at him, giving him my best innocent look.
He ran his hands down my sides and across my stomach. I could hear the guys growling behind me. It wouldn’t be long before they lost it because this douche wouldn’t stop pawing at me.
“The blade, I saw it in your hand. Where is it?”
“I must have dropped it,” I said, smiling at him.
He glanced over my shoulder at where Virion had been stood before in question.
“Restrain the shifters.” I heard Virion sigh behind me.
I heard the scuffle, and when I looked over my shoulder, I saw the Fae had my guys pinned to the ground, with two Fae holding each of them down.
“You’re going to regret doing that,” I said lowly.
“We have them controlled,” the Fae soldier in front of me said with a shrug.
“Who said I was talking about them?” I replied coldly.
I heard them step closer to me before I felt someone kick out the back of my knee, and I fell to the ground, on my knees. My arms were twisted behind me, at the shoulder, and I was held bent slightly forward, kneeling on the ground. My shoulders were screaming in pain. I couldn’t straighten up without popping my shoulders out of their sockets. For now, I was restrained where I was.
The Fae soldier dropped to his knees, grabbed my hair and craned my head back. “Where is it?” he repeated.
“I can honestly tell you there is not one single blade on my body,” I calmly replied.
Inside I was seething with rage. I could hear the guys snarling and struggling behind me. If they hurt them, I didn’t care if I had to wrench one of my arms out of its socket, I’d kill them all.
“Strip her if you have to,” I heard Virion say.
I saw a flicker of unease go across the soldier’s face. “Just tell me where it is,” he murmured to me.