by Setta Jay
“It’s going to take a while to check all the rooms. Drake said you didn’t find any scent around the bodies. Nothing to indicate who left the prizes for Elizabeth.”
“No. The tracks we found were murky. Nothing recent and the path up to this entrance was overgrown. Rains probably fucked up any clues out there,” Jax said.
There were two tunnels ahead. “We’ll take the left,” Jax said, and the two nodded and headed down the right. Brianne winked at Ileana, and she couldn’t help but like the Guardian.
A few feet in she had a bad feeling they were at a dead end. Everything was fairly clean.
“Do you want to take the left and I’ll take the right, so we can get through the rooms faster?” she asked. He looked at her, seeming to assess something before finally nodding.
“Yeah,” he agreed and kissed the back of her hand before letting it go to enter a room on his side. She stood there still feeling his lips on her skin before she made her legs move, shaking her head at how easy he got to her. She berated herself for lagging and headed into the next area. The cold stone didn’t bring back the usual anxiety even though she was on her own. She smiled to herself that the memories weren’t affecting her as strongly. Her mate had helped ease it away.
Chapter 28
Jax’s Home, Tetartos Realm
Jax lay with his mate in his arms. He grinned down at her beautiful sleeping face. He’d knocked her out again, and damn, but he got off on that particular ability.
The search in the caves had been useless. They had more questions than answers. Sacha and Bastian were still tracking down Kairos. His brethren were probably out searching other areas of the Realm. He felt a twinge of guilt that he wasn’t out there, but the frenzy had needed to be fed. Drake sent their asses packing after hours spent going through every inch of the tunnels. The only clue they had were some dried leaves in one of the areas Elizabeth would have used for porting. Drake now had the Guardians searching islands and more tropical areas.
Ileana stirred, her cheek rubbed on his chest, tweaking his nipple ring; then he felt the warm swipe of her tongue on the barbell. It shot sensation to his dick and made him growl low.
“How long was I out?” she asked on a yawn.
He shook his head and smiled down at her. “Not long.”
“Then why’d you wake me up?” she grumbled cutely.
“I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did. Your cat was purring in my dreams.”
He frowned. How was that happening?
“Doesn’t matter,” she grumbled. “We need to talk.” She sat up with the blanket over her lap. Her bare tits were a distraction.
“Up here, big guy,” she said, shaking her head and grinning wide when his eyes lifted to her beautiful face. He grinned back. She’d been so slow to smile and now it happened often.
“What do you want to talk about, kitten?” he asked and pulled her back down so they lay facing each other. His hand fell to her hip and his thumb circled the soft skin as he listened to her. He was enthralled by his female. She had no idea. She had him and his cat by the balls. Their time in the river had shifted things for her. She’d stopped distancing herself completely, and he enjoyed how open she was with him. Every day since had been better than the last. The cats had finally had their time and that had relaxed the bastard some. He still remembered the wild, feral coupling under the bright moon.
“We need to finish this.”
He looked at her. “Do we, kitten?”
“Yes.”
“We’ll have to talk to Sirena. It would be a fast ceremony.”
“We don’t need the ceremony.”
He frowned at her. Didn’t all females want a mating ceremony, like the human females wanted their wedding? No. He searched her eyes. His female was different.
“What about the marking?” The symbol that all mated males took on their chests. The twined serpents in double figure-eights would show that he was hers for eternity. The marks were done in the mountain temple using Sirena’s power to ensure the marks were permanent. That even if the skin had to regenerate, it would always come back marked the same.
“Sirena can do that at any time if you choose to accept it,” she said with a shrug. “That’s not what truly completes the bond.”
“No, it’s not. And, yes, I want the mark. We can call Sirena now. Or we can wait for it. All that matters to me is making you mine. Completely.” He saw her face soften. She loved him as much as he loved her, but they’d yet to say it. Love seemed a weak description of what they had, so the words didn’t matter to him.
“And I want the same. No fanfare. No fancy ceremony and traditions I don’t even care to know about. My parents never needed it, and I don’t either,” she said softly.
He brought her close and kissed her slowly. He tasted her lips and delved his tongue so it could sample her mouth. It was a temptation he couldn’t resist.
Her cheeks were pink, her eyes glassy, and he knew his grin was cocky as shit when she finally chuckled.
“You want to do this now? In our home when I have no gift, nothing here to make it special for you?” he asked. He needed her to be sure. He couldn’t care less about the pomp and circumstance of a ceremony, but it was something completely geared for the female. For her pleasure and to show the male’s devotion to giving it to her any way she desired. Sometimes with a good deal of kink. Funny that he’d spent his entire existence delving into all levels of sexual excess and it held no appeal for him anymore.
“Yes, I’d like to do it here. Tonight.” She grinned for a second before it faded some. “I’d like to say it’s because we need the added power for when we find Elizabeth and Apollo, but it’s more than that.”
“Is it, kitten?”
“Yes, and I need to explain some things first.”
He eyed her. Was she finally going to tell him about her past? “I think I know.”
She shook her head. “No. I told you about my parents. I didn’t tell you that they sacrificed themselves for me.”
He waited, not realizing this particular part. “I was a child when Cyril’s warriors found us. Well, they found my parents. They couldn’t scent me, and my parents had instilled the need to hide my gift. Their word, not mine.” She sucked in some air and continued. “My parents went out and fought, to the death. I realized later they had to have known they were going up against suicidal odds. My father collapsed the cave behind them so I couldn’t follow, and they went to die. Dead blood tells no tales, right?” she said derisively. “He said I was his warrior and I tried to be, as best as any child could. I kept my ‘gift’ secret, but I hunted instead of going directly to Astrid, as they’d told me to do if anything ever happened to them. I spent my life using the cold and loneliness as fuel, a constant reminder.” She smiled sadly. “It wasn’t pretty in my earlier years. I was a dirty, feral mess, and you’ll see the pathetic creature I was. I have nightmares from it.” It was obvious how much that admission cost his proud, strong mate.
He ran his fingers through her hair. “Ileana, you were a child. An incredibly brave child who became a warrior without becoming a hardened shell of a female. Not many would have survived or fought to avenge their family as you have. None would have become such a perfect female.”
Her lips tilted, her eyes were soft. “We’ll see what you think after you see the memories.”
Damn it. He was going to have to tell her. “I’ve seen some of it already,” he admitted, and she frowned at him. “You’ve been broadcasting your dreams.”
“What? For how long?” she demanded as she tried to pull from his hold.
He shook his head. “No, you don’t run from me. You lie here and talk. This is why I didn’t tell you.”
“How long?”
“Since our first night together.” He hated the humiliation in her eyes.
“Don’t!” he snarled. “I didn’t tell you because there wasn’t a chance in hell I’d let you freak out and try not to sleep, or to run from
me hoping that distance would make it stop. We live this together.” He glared into her fiery eyes.
“Let me up. I need air,” she said, and after long minutes he let her get up. They would both get some air while she came to terms.
Chapter 29
Jax’s Home, Tetartos Realm
They stood out on the balcony. She needed to think, and being in his arms made it too damned hard.
A chill ran through her at the thought of him seeing her nightmares since the first night they’d been together. The bastard should have told her. She fumed as humiliation sank into her gut like a blade. It felt like such a long time ago with the way things had progressed, but it really wasn’t. She shook her head in disgust. The amount of time didn’t matter.
Damn him.
She’d been prepared for him to see it now, after they’d gotten close, not then. “So all the sweet things you did were because you pitied the poor pathetic female? Were concerned I was too weak to handle anything more?”
He growled low and spun her around to face him. She was lifted and planted with her ass on the wood railing with his hips firmly between her spread thighs. “You are not doing this shit. I didn’t do anything out of pity. I was proud of you and fucking furious that I hadn’t been there to damned well fix it.”
She shook her head as she furrowed her brow in annoyance. “Fix it?”
“Yes! Fix it,” he gritted out. “I was alive, kitten. Had been alive for hundreds of years before you were even born. I was a warrior whose mate was left to fend for herself as a damned child. If I’d known you were out there, I would have found you and made sure you were cared for. You wouldn’t have been covered in the fucking blood of the only family you had. No, kitten, it sure as hell wasn’t pity I was feeling. I was too fixated on the fact that I’d failed you and yet you still turned into the beautiful, fiery hellcat who was smart and brave as shit.”
She stared at him. Was that really how he’d seen it? She looked off, thinking about him coming home with her blankets. How she kept waking up warm, cuddled in all her blankets on those days he’d spent hunting with his brother. She closed her eyes. “The cave?” His hand in hers, his beast bumping her, relaxing her… he’d known. He’d done all of that to make up for how he felt he’d failed her.
“Yes,” he answered. “I knew you hated feeding and I wanted you to have good memories, but mark my words, kitten, I would have had you there whether you needed good memories or not. I’m a selfish bastard that way,” he said stiffly.
“I don’t need you to fix everything.”
He growled low. “I need it. Let me have that. You may not have dreamt of having a mate, but I did, and I imagined caring for and spoiling the fuck out of the female I was lucky enough to get. I didn’t expect her to be everything I needed.”
“What are you talking about?” This was the second time he’d mentioned something she did for him. What was it?
He grinded his teeth as he paused for long moments. “You know I always had females on hand.”
She narrowed her eyes. This had better be good. “Yes.”
“For almost all of my existence, especially after becoming a Guardian, I wasn’t able to get all the energies I needed from sex.”
She growled at the idea of him being with others. She didn’t want to hear this.
“Males need energies from sex as much as they feed from the world’s energies. I understand it’s not the same for females, but Immortal males are led by their dicks, kitten,” he said derisively.
She never really thought about why the males were such man whores when she’d never found many males that sexually intriguing. “Okay.”
“No matter how many I had or how hard I was with them, I never leveled out. I thought I was flawed, that I’d still need more than even my mate could provide.”
She growled low. “Not happening!” she snarled.
He smiled after a second and sucked in some air before continuing. “No, kitten. There won’t be others. You level me out. Even with the frenzy driving us, I’ve never been so strong and eased. Ever.”
Her chest beat harder as she looked at him. He was dead serious. She gave him something a house full of Immortal females hadn’t. Her stomach clenched even though it was just sex, but she guessed for him it was more, it was something he needed for strength. She’d eased her Guardian when he’d never had that… The knowledge made her feel lighter, happy, and beyond pleased with herself.
He searched her eyes and seemed to see the moment she understood. “You freed me, kitten. I could live on the taste of your pussy alone,” he growled.
She moaned, imagining his tongue on her. Her arms wrapped around him and she rested her cheek against his chest, enjoying his warmth and the pulsing beat of his heart. Her male couldn’t seem to get enough of her, and that was a good damned thing because no female was allowed to touch her male.
“In fact, I’m feeling hungry now.” His voice rumbled against her cheek and her eyes closed as anticipation slid along her nerves.
Chapter 30
Elizabeth’s Compound, Tetartos Realm
“The new hell beasts have arrived, but I have a report of one more dead.” Reve hesitated, looking pale. “Caro.”
Elizabeth threw a vial against the wall. The two scientists in the room shrank away and she barely noticed. Her ranks were dwindling to nothing and now one of her Kairos were dead? Without Caro she now had two.
They’d already taken packs of hellhounds and three of the deadliest creatures the Tria had to offer.
The new serpents had better hold the hunters off for a few more days.
Reve continued. “I’ve found another cave system, though. The terrain surrounding it would be harsh if they found us again.”
She paced. “Start preparing it. Spells. Traps. If I risk the move, I want the place impenetrable if we’re somehow followed again.”
Reve bowed his head and quickly left.
She would take her best warriors and Apollo. She hated making the move with her lover when they were so close to potentially freeing him, but what if the Lykos’ spell didn’t work? What if it took longer to get him free?
The idea of having her ranks split during a move was risky. It would make them vulnerable for a time.
“How much longer?” she demanded of Fahim. His dark eyes were wide with fear, but instead of amusing her, it infuriated her that he was still silent. His mouth gaped as his eyes darted back and forth between her and the agitated hounds that were sniffing the vial she’d destroyed against the wall.
“Speak!”
“Four days.”
She narrowed her eyes at the male. Sweat beaded on his bronzed forehead and she was disgusted to have to count on the inferior being. The Mageia better be right. Four days and the drug had better be out of the Lykos’ blood. She would have Fahim test the blood twice a day until then.
She turned on her heel and left the room. She’d torture the male again. As long as she didn’t do anything to mentally break him, she could access his blood memories the minute he was clear of the drug.
He had been silent for the last few days. She took that to mean he was capable of saying the damned spell. She’d make him suffer until the answer came.
Chapter 31
Jax’s Home, Tetartos Realm
His lips curved as Ileana rubbed her soft cheek against his chest, making sure to roll over his nipple. He planned to pierce his dick next; she enjoyed the nipple ones so much he’d give her something else to play with.
She was still half asleep when she climbed over him to get more access to his skin. Her eyes were still closed as soft purrs vibrated against his chest. Sweet warm breath and gentle kisses followed as her breasts and thighs started sliding over him before his hellcat finally straddled one of his thighs. She’d been doing this more and more every day, her cat needing to mark him with her scent. It drove his dick to painful heights, but he allowed her beast to indulge. When kisses turned to nips, he palmed her neck in one han
d and fisted her hair in the other, giving light tugs that made the noises come louder. It was fucking sexy as hell.
“Are you ready?” She’d finally awoken completely and looked up at him with contented eyes.
“For you to straddle my dick the way you’re doing with my leg? Yeah,” he answered while pushing the golden strands off her face.
She grinned wickedly. “You know what I mean.”
“Yes, kitten, I’m ready to make you mine.” He saw her eyes flash in pleasure. Soon she’d be screaming his name.
He regretted having to add, “I’m not sure what you’ll see, but I’ll hazard a guess that it’ll be some bad shit from my search for the box to call the Creator back.”
She nodded.
“Be prepared, kitten. I’ve been luckier than most of my brothers, but that doesn’t mean my strongest memories will be pleasant.”
“I understand.”
He paused, looking down at his gorgeous mate. She was absolutely perfect for him and he couldn’t wait to start this, but he had to do one thing.
Drake, Ileana and I are completing our bond now.
Ceremony?
No.
Who’s watching your back? Drake growled.
Who can you spare?
Pause. Where are you? Drake demanded.
Jax sent the image.
“What was that about?” Ileana asked, her brow sweetly furrowed.
“It’s the one tradition we’re adhering to. It’s my duty to ask one of my brothers or sisters to guard us during the blood bonding. Guarding a couple is an honor.” Jax would be happy with any of his brothers or sisters watching their backs, even the asshole Sander would guard them with his life. It was who they were. “It’s safe here, kitten, but I don’t do vulnerable. We’ll be out for the count for who knows how long.”
Dorian, get your ass to Jax. The image went through the link.