by Holly Gunn
He doesn’t even hear his own words.
“Silence,” a woman as thin as a rail with flowing black and white hair says. She sits on her hastily made throne. While my father may have a mansion, thrones are not at the ready with a week’s notice. The other queens follow.
“Begin.”
Ryn’s word reverberates through the arena, and my father and I begin our shift.
My eagle form flows from me in a mass of feathers in the quickest shift I’ve ever experienced. My wings reach for the sky above and I soar for a moment before propelling my form beak first, talons out toward the man who is still mid-shift.
He has lost his power.
I have gained it.
I cannot cower, nor can I show mercy. I have committed myself to this challenge, and I will fulfill my end of the bargain.
My talons run the length of his front where feathers have not yet formed, and the pain of the swipe forces him to his knees.
Feathers form over his body, covering his skin, but he has no chance. Within the span of seconds, I have swiped twice at his belly and once at his exposed neck, shedding blood he cannot afford to lose mid-shift. We are at our most vulnerable in that form because shifting to one form or the other can heal us, but if we are neither human nor animal, it takes longer to heal our wounds. This is also the reason for my shock that first night when Elizabeth healed me. It was a feat that should have resulted in scars, but because of her and the healers, I am, gratefully, without another mark on my body courtesy of the man who gave seed to my birth but never proved his worth as a true father.
He falls to his back, his blood coating the small area of the arena, and his eyes meet mine.
I dive forward, intent on inflicting the blow that will deliver his death as the challenge calls for. However, I see his eyes and I cannot. For they are my eyes. I change course, shifting to my human form as I land in front of the thirteen queens of the witch families.
“I believe that will suffice.”
Vy fans herself. “Absolutely, your highness.”
Fee smacks her arm but smiles.
Ryn rolls her eyes and says, “Don’t mind them.”
“I shall endeavor not to,” I reply but I also smile. Then I query, before turning to watch the healers work on my father, “You would also be cousins of my queen, one of the five thousand I presume?”
All three sisters look to each other then back to me, smiling.
“Is that what she said?” Vy asks, her own smile mysterious.
“Five thousand isn’t the exact number,” Ryn says, fixing her glasses and leaning forward but there’s a playful grin on her lips.
“I think her count’s a little faulty.” That’s the third sister, the white-blonde haired Fee, who’s quieter but no less vocal when she needs to be. Her presence is almost serene.
“Yes,” Vy continues.
“I mean, there must at least be six thousand by our last count,” Ryn adds, now leaning back. I notice she’s always active in some way, constantly adjusting, whether it’s her glasses or her body’s position.
“At least,” Fee finishes with a slow smile.
“Stop scaring him,” Elizabeth demands from a few feet away.
She reaches me as Vy glances at me with an assessing look.
Ryn’s gaze follows, and so does Fee.
“I have a feeling, Izzy,” Ryn declares, “that your king lost any fear he had the moment he gained his tattoo and then shifted in under a second, taking to the skies and soaring.” Her eyes light on my queen and she adds, “It appears you listened to your mama, Aunt Idania, and you did, in fact, open your eyes.”
Elizabeth’s eyebrows shoot up in that way that says she’s about to use her magic, so I turn toward her and change the subject.
“It’s over.”
She immediately uses her fingertips to lift herself closer and argues back, contrary as she enjoys being, “It’s not over. It’s just begun.”
I prefer her perspective.
“They’re going to kiss again,” Ryn states with what I can hear is false exasperation.
“You don’t have to have a touch of the Judge family’s gift of clairvoyance to know that,” Vy shares sharply.
“I think they’re sweet,” Fee shares.
I don’t hear the rest, because they are correct.
I’m kissing my queen.
Much later, after we’ve sent my healed father packing and the band has razzed me enough to know I am well, I do what I’ve wanted to do all day.
That is, when everyone is gone and the mansion is quiet, I don’t feel the foreboding I once felt in its walls.
Then again, I am not inside its walls.
I am with Elizabeth in the back gardens, her body below mine, my eyes on our couple’s tattoo, the one spanning her chest and even covering the cleavage of her chest. I peel the tank top from my queen’s body, trail my tongue along the slowly beating tattoo of red lines that make up the eagle there.
Her beat. My animal. Our magic.
Her moans are long and pulse through my cock, causing me to clench my teeth as I attempt to hold back from reaching climax outside her body.
I have always been about control, but my queen is a test to that long-earned trait.
She might soar with me, as she claims, but when I am near her, my pride swells, I feel like a new man—or in my case, I feel like a king, one worthy even without my control.
My teeth pull gently at the tender flesh of her breasts where the bottom of the tattoo rests, and I swirl it around the other lines as she presses her covered pussy against my cock that is still encased by trousers.
I can’t wait to take her. I can’t wait to claim more of her body, to sink deep inside her wet heat and warm myself with her clutching limbs.
She doesn’t disappoint. I don’t think it possible she ever could.
Her body unclothed, my trousers removed, I push my cock slowly into her folds, feeling the texture of her pussy as it ripples around me, drawing a groan from my lips, pulling a small amount of cum from me as well.
On that note, I shift our position, separating our bodies for only a moment and sit us face-to-face, me, legs spread, torso upright, and her, leaning forward, knees to my sides, her pussy clutching my cock.
She gains a rhythm quickly.
We have only ever done missionary, but I find I want this. I want a lifetime of her above me or at my side when she so desires. I want a lifetime of her body beneath mine as well, but that is not now.
Now, her thin, dark twists flying around her face, her brown eyes on me, her face flushed with pink, her fingers digging into my shoulders and mine returning the favor against the tender skin of her full hips and thighs, she is a queen.
Her breaths turn to pants which turn to deeper moans as she takes my cock, gliding up and down its length and bringing herself to that edge.
It’s when she’s on that edge that I, too, feel my balls tighten, my body tense, and then, together, we dive off the edge into orgasmic bliss.
I may make her soar, but she gives me wings.
Quite literally it would seem. My wings expand against my still human back as I cry out and come inside her.
She drags my mouth to hers and tongue touching mine, I take back the control I’ve given over.
I grip her thighs tighter, pound my cock one last time inside of her as the last of cum fills her, and kiss my queen with a need I’ve never felt—a need I know I’ll never feel with anyone but Elizabeth.
When her shudders subside, and we are once again two bodies rather than what feels like one, my cock is still inside her, but it’s her eyes I want. It’s that exotic beauty that captivates me. It’s her fingers trailing along the design of our tattoo that beats with our magic, joined as it is. It’s her slowing breaths, her chest rising and falling in tandem with my own that has me glancing toward the tattoo on her chest once more.
A tattoo that seems alive.
It beats like a heart, an eagle outline as it has
always been, only now, the eagle outline is like veins and every color imaginable travels along the trajectory of its lines.
It beats red … for my queen.
And it appears to be flying, soaring above all creation, its wings flapping against the wind like the sails of a ship … and that soaring is for us both.
Because together, we are Haves.
And I intend to prove this fact to her for the rest of our long lives—together.
Dear Reader,
I hope you loved Izzy and Eagle as much as I do. If you want more Shifter Kings, be sure to read the first series, the Shifter Kings of Nashville, available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited!
Stay weird,
Holly
PS - Don’t be shy about leaving reviews ;)
Shifter Kings Nashville:
LION
SPIDER
SHARK
WOLF
POISON
Shifter Kings Nashville:
The Complete Collection featuring
NASHVILLE QUEEN
Mountain Mermaids, Sapphire Lake:
SILVER BELLS