by Setta Jay
That’ll cost you later, he said in her mind with a sexy growl. Then she heard him talking through another mental link she could hear. Bastian, I need you to take these assholes in. My hands are currently full.
She saw the mental image he shared with his brother Guardian. It was a visual of the males he’d shown her.
On my way.
She stilled, shaken. It wasn’t just him in her head. She saw the flurry of light lines leading to the other Guardians. Her vision blurred at the sheer enormity of her actions.
*****
Jax heard a pop of rock under someone’s foot down the same path he’d just come up. Soft voices followed and he watched as the Kairos’ head turned, hearing the newcomers approach as well. The Kairos dragged the Mageia further into the shadows with his eyes on the path just as Bastian appeared a few feet shy of his marks. Jax watched both males’ eyes widen at his brother a split second before they were gone.
Fuck!
Bastian stood in the empty spot with his hands on his hips. Jax knew his brother was trying to track the teleport.
“You lost them?” she snapped.
“How did you know this was going down?” he demanded. Who the hell was she? He’d been listening to her mental thoughts since the moment she’d touched him, and was thankful as shit that his mated brothers had shared how mentally wide open you were the minute you touched your mate for the first time. He’d formed a shield to his thoughts as she rubbed her hands and arms all over him; it was the panic and urgency in her mind that had stopped him from porting her sexy ass away and claiming her.
His muscles shook with the need to take her now. He couldn’t. Not yet.
She’d categorically started their mating frenzy and had all kinds of ideas about not fucking finishing it.
“It doesn’t matter. Can you track them?” Her breath was sawing out, her pussy wet and probably aching for him as much as his dick was hurting for her, yet she still focused on the meeting.
He tried to piece together the thoughts he’d heard.
She’d wanted to hide him. How? Why?
“Why are you here?” Why had she rubbed herself on him? A spell to hide them? He hoped to hell not. Nothing made sense and she was glaring at him mutinously.
“To find out what was said,” she bit out with her hands on her hips. Her face had too much makeup and he could feel the spell changing her hair.
“Who are you?” he demanded.
The frenzy was riding them both hard, but he was thankful as fuck that he’d kept her there. His mate had been readying to watch something very important and potentially dangerous. She seemed to know that too. Why hadn’t she just fucking told him? He was a damned Guardian. If Elizabeth’s Kairos was having a covert meeting, his mate should have damned well said so. It had taken him a second to even recognize the Kairos as one of the ones who’d abducted Rain and Alyssa a few months ago.
She spun, readying to run, and he caught her at the waist. He was furious, confused and his dick hurt from needing her. He carried her to stand by Bastian.
“Can you trace it?” Jax asked his brother as he set his squirming mate on the ground. He wanted her tight curves back in his arms. His cat roared that he’d set her down, but there were questions to answer and touching her only made the frenzy harder to fight.
Jax could tell Bastian was pissed by his glittering eyes; otherwise his goateed face appeared calm. He didn’t speak out loud; instead his brother growled into their mental link, No, it’s the same weird camouflage that Elizabeth used when she took Apollo. Who is the female?
His mate jolted, drawing his eyes. She gasped, her eyes went wide and then narrowed as she growled low. She’d heard Bastian mention the God in the Guardian mental link. Son of a bitch. That information snapped her into a fury; she hated the God and was furious he was in Elizabeth’s hands, but it was more. She hated having him in her head, and having the Guardian link was upsetting her. It was somehow painful having them in her mind. She’d thought of her parents and having him in the place that only they had been. It was an invasion. There were too many thoughts, turning into rage at him for losing the Kairos.
Before the little cat could snarl and snap at them, telling whoever was on the path exactly what she’d learned, he put his hand over her mouth. He turned his head as the couple on the path finally made it to the greenhouse. Their eyes grew wide, halting as if paralyzed when they caught sight of the Guardians and his female, who was fighting his hold.
“Find somewhere else to be,” Jax growled. The young couple paled, but their eyes darted to his angry mate. They’d screwed up something big and he wasn’t fucking happy. It was their presence that had fucked up everything.
His arm was forcefully ripped from her lips and twisted behind his back. His little Kitten was furious now. He countered her movements as she practically flew through the air. Enraged.
He heard Bastian speaking to the young mortals as he and his female sparred. Bastian had always been the diplomatic Guardian; he would take care of it.
He grunted as he missed fully dodging a kick she spun into his knee. She was right. She was no kitten. She fought dirty and was strong and fast as shit. Each kick and graceful spin was a jolt to his dick. She was fucking incredible and he couldn’t help from grinning through the need driving him. He countered with caution so as not to harm his little hellcat. She was only making them both hotter than hell and then he heard the rip of material as the slit in her long gold dress opened all the way to her hip, revealing a long stretch of smooth thigh. He growled at the smell of her slick pussy. He’d never had foreplay as hot as what they were doing.
He gritted out, “Much as I want inside that cream, there isn’t time.”
More angry expletives roared through his head.
He loved every minute of her wildness, but, damn it, he really needed to keep his head for a second. His dick had always ruled his life. He was used to that. He needed to find out what his little hellcat was about. Her mind was lost in furious expletives when he finally flung her over his shoulder. He used his arm to secure her legs as her round little ass lifted to the sky. Fuck. He ran his face over her curved hip and wondered why the dress smelled of Mageia.
Drake, I’ve found my mate and some shit just went down. War room?
Yes.
Jax caught Bastian’s raised eyebrow. His brother spoke quietly. “I’ll go check Conn and the wolves.”
Jax nodded his thanks even though his focus was on the flailing bundle over his shoulder.
He teleported his female to the dark balcony closest to the war room of the manor and cursed that he’d forgotten the warning of teleporting a mate while in the mating frenzy. Fucking hell! It was erotic torture as their bodies blended together before slipping apart to reform. They both moaned when they gained form and her hands started tracing his ass and then he felt her sharp claws digging into the spelled material. Spelled against hell beast venom and their acidic blood, not his damned mate’s sharp claws.
It was all so damned intense it took a minute before he could walk. His dick was in agony.
He groaned and it took every ounce of will to lock down the arousal for just a few minutes longer. Having her supple sweet-smelling body in his arms was too much. “Female, we’re about to have company and you need to answer questions before I can fix this.”
She stiffened, and then a mixed moan and snarl came out all at once. “Put me down!” The sound was fucking adorable.
Chapter 6
Guardian Manor, Tetartos Realm
“Another mate?” Drake’s voice boomed and snapped Jax out of the moment. He was fighting through the lust eating at his gut and pulsing in his dick as he and his mate moved into the war room.
Jax set his bundle down and snarled low, “Be nice, hellcat.” The last thing he wanted to do was pull her claws out of Drake. He wasn’t sure exactly what she was capable of and she was furious enough to have engaged him.
“Stop with the nicknames,” she snarled.
Without taking his eyes from his mate, he spoke to Drake. “Bastian couldn’t trace the teleport, but from what we heard, the Mageia that was taken had information on an Immortal that could do what Elizabeth was looking for. I’ll give you the image of the Mageia he took. Someone needs to track down everything about him, and maybe we’ll get lucky and find a clue as to what information Elizabeth is likely sucking out of the bastard right now.” Jax sent the image.
“Fuck!” Drake snarled. Bastian, I want to know what information the Mageia had for Elizabeth. Something to do with an Immortal.
Jax watched his female. She intrigued and challenged him as no other female ever had and fuck if that wasn’t an added aphrodisiac his cock didn’t need.
He watched as her chest rose and fell hard, pushing her tight nipples against the fabric of the dress. Her cheeks were flushed even through the heavy makeup he couldn’t wait to get off her face.
She pushed the dark hair from her face, the shoulder-length mass framed and fit her gorgeous slightly rounded cheeks and pouty lips. He wanted her to lose the spell on her hair. Wanted to see what his mate truly looked like. He didn’t even know who she was.
“How about giving me a name?” He cocked a brow at her flashing eyes. She was at least a foot shorter than him even in her sexy strappy heels.
She growled. “We have more important things to do than chat. Or is this what you Guardians have been doing? Chatting and twirling your dicks while Elizabeth made off with Apollo?”
Drake growled this time and the fierce noise was enough to set Jax’s beast on edge. He pushed his female behind him and squared off with Drake. Smoke filtered from the male’s lips. The fact that they’d lost a God had kept him in a fucked-up mood for a month, and getting called out by Jax’s furious, mouthy mate wasn’t helping shit.
“Well?” She was apparently on a fucking roll. Getting her stray thoughts and emotions was distracting as shit, her arousal making his dick pulse when it was near painful for her already. He clenched his teeth and focused on getting them through this damned meeting in one piece so he could concentrate on easing her.
“Muzzle your damned female or I will,” Drake growled.
“You need to calm down now,” he growled at his mate as his eyes narrowed on his leader.
Drake’s eyes flashed. “Jax, I’m being fucking nice because I get that you’re in the frenzy.”
Before Jax could get shit straight, his mate was spouting off, making demands. “I want to know what the hell is going on. I’m guessing Apollo is contained. At least for now, or he’d be loose and imprisoning Immortals right now.”
Jax saw a fucking ball gag in her future. He glared down at her. His damned female didn’t have an ounce of self-preservation and fuck if her fearlessness tightened his balls.
“Shut. It. Down,” he demanded.
She eyed him mutinously but breathed through the rage. She was smart, knew her anger was getting her nowhere, but he still felt furious. She decided that the frenzy was screwing with her emotions and concentration, turning her into a raging fiend. He got that. Felt the same as his dick pulsed at him to end this. He eyed her before moving on. “Apollo’s contained. Now, you wanna explain what you were doing watching that meeting?” Jax ground out, wanting nothing more than to get her the fuck out of there and into his bed, but he couldn’t. Not until they finished with Drake. The meeting she’d been spying on was bad, and he needed to know how she’d known about it and why she hadn’t told them.
“What the fuck meeting, and why doesn’t she have any damned scent?” Drake snarled, smoke emitting from his lips indicating just how furious he was. Logically Jax knew Drake would never harm his mate, but that didn’t stop his cat’s primal instinct to protect her.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jax bit out in irritation, his beast too close to the surface. How could Drake not smell her? Jax was losing his mind at her intoxicating scent.
He felt her stiffen. “You can smell me?” she asked, her mind filling with questions and memories of his calling her kitten when they were in the bushes.
He tried to make sense of her disjointed thoughts while filtering through his memories of her hands moving over him. Trying to mask him…
He felt her shock at the situation that he’d scented her and not the Mageia’s scent from her stolen dress.
Jax turned to see her confused eyes. “You smell fucking edible, kitten. I followed it right to you. Are you using some kind of spell to mask it?” He hoped to hell that wasn’t the case; the Guardians counted on their senses everywhere, but especially around Immortals in Tetartos Realm. An Immortal masking their scent could be dangerous, especially if Elizabeth had her people use it.
She hadn’t answered the question and he looked at her. Her mind was still locked on the memories of meeting him, her first sight of him on the path by the greenhouse. She’d never imagined he’d been there because of her. She remembered his reaction when she’d rubbed her small hands over his face. A cute wrinkle formed above her pert little nose. That sweet confused look made his dick throb even more. Fuck, all the female had to do was breathe and he was hard and hurting. His chest was starting to heave and his eyes tracked to her tits rising and falling with just as much intensity. She was fighting through it. His mate was strong and that alone turned him on; the cat in him couldn’t wait to figure her out.
“Is it a spell?” Drake growled, and Jax gritted his teeth to stop from carrying her out of there.
She surprised him and took a second to answer, not finding a way to keep it hidden from them. “I was born with no scent.”
“How?” Drake demanded.
“How the hell would I know? It was a birth thing,” she said, eyes flashing in annoyance.
“Sirena will figure it out when she takes tests for the mating,” his leader announced, and Jax felt his female tense at Drake’s command. His kitten didn’t take orders well.
“That’s not happening,” she gritted out. As if she had a choice. At least she’d banked her anger. Some. Her eyes were flashing back and forth to her cat, but that was from the frenzy, not Drake’s order. His own cat was furiously pacing his mind.
“I didn’t ask,” Drake said and continued before she started up again. “What were you spying on?”
He watched as she forced back anger at the dragon with several mental expletives that would have made him laugh any other time, but right then he just wanted this the fuck over. He heard her considering what to share; she realized that working with the Guardians could actually get better results than she’d had in several millennia. She also figured Elizabeth’s Kairos wouldn’t be acting so carelessly in the future. “I’d heard that a meeting was about to go on with one of Elizabeth’s people. I’d hoped to get information and intercept the Mageia as he left.”
“Why intercept the Mageia?” Drake demanded.
“To find a way to get to Elizabeth and kill her,” she bit out.
Vengeance. It was strong in the link.
“Why?” Drake narrowed his eyes at Jax’s female.
Her mind was alternately fighting the lust, furious that Elizabeth had Apollo, spinning from the fact that he’d scented her, and wanting to snap at Drake for being a dick. The only odd word he caught was “ghost.” She was a ghost? He had no fucking clue what she was thinking, because his concentration was affected as well.
“I’d been trying to track Cyril for millennia and had never gotten close. Then you announced that he was dead.” She narrowed her eyes as anger radiated from her. She was filled with it.
“Yes. He is,” Jax admitted, feeling her hatred for the dead male.
“But his body wasn’t seen?” she snapped. “And finally after all the years of searching, I had a lead to Elizabeth. I didn’t get to kill Cyril, but I plan to kill Elizabeth. Now Apollo as well.” He could almost taste the bloodlust.
“Why?” Drake asked again.
Images spun in Jax’s mind. A couple looking down with love in thei
r eyes made it obvious what she was doing. This was about avenging them. Her parents?
“I have my reasons.”
“Your reasons are not your own anymore. You’re mated to one of my Guardians. Speak,” Drake demanded, looking down at Jax’s mate, arms crossed over his chest.
She didn’t cower, she challenged. “I’m not mated to anyone, yet, and I expect no one to know anything about this or me. I have my own life and agenda.”
“Not anymore,” Drake growled.
He heard her mentally fighting not to argue with Drake. Her mental struggle was a violent one, but she managed to stay silent, knowing she’d get nowhere with the dragon.
He pieced things together from all the thoughts he’d intercepted. Cyril had killed or been responsible for killing her parents. Jax just wasn’t sure how, only that the mental links were gone. That meant death. Her memories had to be ugly if the blood bonding made her panic so hard. The refusal in her mind was cemented.
None of that mattered now. The lust was building uncontrollably and he battled it back, clenching his teeth at his pulsing cock. He saw the first twitch in her shoulders, felt the tension in her body and a sharp jolt of pain.
Pain hit if the lust wasn’t sated after starting the frenzy. Fire lit her eyes and he knew that they needed to get the hell out of there, now.
“We’re done,” Jax announced and lifted his mate back into his arms. He felt her body tighten and then relax, eased from his touch and momentarily shocked into silence. He growled. His cat not liking that she’d hurt at all, but it fucking loved her slight weight and roared with pride that his touch soothed her. He cuddled her against his chest.
“I can walk,” she groused before wiggling in his hold.
“Stay still,” he demanded.
She glared, but he listened to her mind whirling until it clicked that this was going to happen. He was taking her to have sex and she needed it.
He raised a brow at her mental word choice. She was his damned mate, and she was about to figure out that this was a hell of a lot more than a fuck.