Hawk's Nest (Tremble Island)

by Lewis, Lynn Ray

  Flora straightened herself from the strong arms of Lord Hawk, and tried to regain at least a token amount of composure. She had been prepared to find him in the arms of the temptress, but reality and knowledge were two different things. She was entranced by the sight of Hawk in all of his nude glory. His chest was wide, and thickly padded with tight muscles, as were his arms and his hands were huge. He stood a foot taller than she, and as she allowed herself to look downwards, his hips and thighs were as muscled as the rest of him was. His male appendage was a beautiful weapon, standing long, thick, and proud. The sight of his body, made her heart thump hard in her chest. He made a noise in his throat and she forced herself to step back outside of the door, requesting him to join her.

  “Lord Hawk, I have been sent to speak with you by Fern, she says the message is one of great importance, and only for your ears. I apologize for interrupting your sport, but the message cannot wait.”

  He nodded his head and looked over his shoulder at the woman writhing on his bed. She had begun satisfying her needs without him, and he wanted to whimper like a puppy that had lost his mother’s teat. This was the first woman since coming to the Hall so many months ago, that had actively pursued a spot in his bed. Her unashamed attentions in front of the entire populace had been proof enough to him that she must actually be in thrall with him to put on such a display.

  He had been entering the Hall after his morning ritual of an hour’s flight and a quick dip in the lake before starting another frustration laced day attempting to gain the voluntary cooperation from the stubborn citizens of the village. He noticed people were looking at him in a speculative way, and wondered why until he spied the pretty female sitting in his chair at the Lord’s Table. When he approached the table, she stood and went to her knees beside his chair. She kept her eyes on him as he sat, and when he asked her name, her reply was simply “Yours.” His friend, Con, laughed at the situation with open enjoyment at the predicament Hawk found himself in. The woman curled her arms around his calf and proceeded to run her fingertips up and down his thighs. He had tried to ignore her for a short time by talking to Con, but her fingers had found the waistband of his pants and he had to swat her hands to discourage her. His soldiers, both male and female, were sniggering, and some were openly laughing at his halfhearted attempts to stop her progress. By the time he had stood and lifted her over his shoulder to carry her to his room, his cock was so hard, he could barely walk. His progress was hindered as her busy hands continued to torment him by grabbing the cheeks of his ass and squeezing them. He had administered a few swats on her slender ass to make her cease her play until they got to his room, but she acted as if the smacks were a caress. Her moans of pleasure could be heard throughout the Hall as they entered the relative seclusion of his room.

  He barely set her on the bed before she had her hands and lips on him. He stripped the shift from her body and pushed her back on the bed, before burying his face between her thighs. Her screams of ecstasy began almost immediately and he could feel the clench and release of the muscles in her warm wet tunnel as his fingers sawed in and out in a fast paced rhythm. His brain became foggy with sexual need and if not for the knock on the door, his cock would be drenched in her tight depths now. This important message had better be urgent, his head still felt foggy with lust, the taste of warm wet pussy still on his lips, and her scent was still bathing his face.

  “This message had better be important, I am not a man to be led by my carnal needs, but to interrupt at such a time, let me state that your words had better be worth the loss.” He rubbed his hand down his face inhaling deeply as he did so. His moan gave Flora the courage to tell him what Fern had sent her to say.

  She related Fern’s warning. At his stare of disbelief, she continued to elaborate on the plot the women had envisioned. “The Wizard Zurcho and another have their heads fixed on wresting control over the Hall one way or the other. Fern has seen the preparation for today’s visit from this woman. Her name is Willa if you want to know. She is no strumpet. Her husband died mysteriously this past fall. Zurcho has her in thrall and he painted her body with a liquid aphrodisiac to make you ignore any distractions. I do apologize for the interruption, now that you are aware of the circumstances, you can continue with your pleasures.”

  As she turned to go they heard the high pitched scream of ecstasy coming from the closed door. She nodded her head and shrugged a shoulder toward Hawk before walking away. “It is your decision, Lord Hawk, I am only a messenger, you will do what you will.” The man was far too handsome for her liking. He was huge and thickly muscled in all of the spots a man should be gifted with such. The village women were waiting for him to pick a bedmate, even as several of them had told of his eyes lingering on them. None could claim he had made a move to demand one accompany him into his chambers. If those women could see him in his naked glory, they would not be waiting for him to demand their company. Not wishing to think about him any longer in the guise of a sexual partner, she turned her green gaze on Con, now this was a man with secrets. He was taller than Lord Hawk, and darker in coloring. His hair was black like pitch, and those large brown eyes of his made her wish for a cold night with him as her warming fire.

  She could feel his eyes on her as she left the Hall. She needed to gather several herbs for the potion she and her mentor would be invoking later this night. According to Fern, there was a coming disaster, one that Hawk would be more than a match for, but the victory would hold bloodshed for some in the village. It was best they had their medical potions ready to deal with any pains or hurts the witch women of the village could not help. She needed to find a ley line somewhere close to the village for energy draws. That pulling of energy from the very flow of underground rivers and springs had saved her more times than she wished to remember. As a child, she had pulled Echo’s energies without realizing what she was doing. The older she got, the more she paid attention to her body and its natural affinity with energy. The ability was taken seriously when she was twelve years of age, and a band of miscreants had terrorized the surrounding countryside. The old Lord Loris was a pig but he did try to maintain his borders from marauders. If anyone was going to be allowed to harm his people it would be him and his minions, not intruders.

  She had been scouring the woods hunting for fruit and berries for her mother’s cook pot. The sun was high and the air was hot, but she was oblivious to both, all she cared about was finding enough food to take home for the family. One of a band of reaving soldiers had come upon her and tried to molest her. She had been afraid and became uncontrollably mad when the man refused to leave her be. Her small hands had clasped his ears and she sent such a bolt of energy into the man’s brain that he shouted and dropped her. Her palms burned, yet there were no marks to show for her pain. The soldier was on his knees babbling and tearing at his ears. She gathered her bag and ran back to her mother’s hut. That was the day her mother told her of Grandmother Copper.

  Her great grandmother had been the village witch woman, way before she was born, and it seemed her affinity with Echoen powers had skipped her mother’s generation and claimed her instead. She only hoped her death would be much kinder than that of her Grandmother’s. She had been murdered while calling her Echoen powers to aid the original Lord of the Hall during an attempted takeover. She had gotten the story from her mother and aunts. Grandmother Copper had been old when the battle took place. She depleted her energy quickly and called the ley line energy to her, but had waited too long. Her strength to call had gotten too weak, so she had gone to the lake and wadded in, her need for energy was desperate, and she was careless with the fast charging bolts of electric that immediately went into the ground surrounding the water’s edge. The enemy’s hammer cut her temple and the cut immediately began to burn from the deadly poisons that all of the enemy’s weapons were coated with. Grandmother was said to have gathered the very last of her energy to blast the man to the demons in a fiery ball of screaming flames, before sinking into
the lake, never to be seen again.

  The fact the woman who had been sent to seduce a child from Lord Hawk had been painted with an aphrodisiac, smacked of the same tactics that her grandmother’s enemies used, was not lost on her. The other coincidence to that battle and the actions of this day were the original Lord of Gorgile Hall had ordered the dead bodies of the enemy to be stacked in a gory fence-like style at the border of the Hall’s lands and that of the enemy’s. Since that time, dozens, if not hundreds, of carcasses had been added to the macabre border. Any enemy combatant, regardless of where they came from, was laid to join the massive bone yard. The Keep of the Wizard Zurcho lay some distance on the opposite side of the boundary line. The evidence was small, there was only her’s and Fern’s visions to support her theory, but perhaps they could convince the Lord Hawk to exercise caution.

  As she quartered the village, she could feel the flow of the Echo and the liquid sliding through soil. There was a hint of something larger, deeper beneath her feet, but she needed to find a spot where the energy was closer to the surface, or the energy would not flow to her call in a quick enough manner to assist her needs, should a battle or other need of extra power arise. She knew several pairs of eyes followed her steps. The villagers believed she was trying to channel her Grandmother, they had no idea that she appeared to be the more talented witch out of the two of them. She could not only call energy to her from ley lines, she could use the energy to help heal the wounded and most of the time she could foresee future events. Her one stumbling block appeared to be her own future. She was never in any of her visions, she was the storyteller, the observer perhaps. Fern continued to soothe her with the answer the seer never sees their own fate, it would be too unfair for them to. Although she agreed to a point, there were times she wished that rule did not exist. Yet if she saw her future, would she be tempted to change the outcome at the onset so the pain could be avoided? She gave up her search for the time being, the eyes following her made her nervous. Someone, not a villager, was watching her, who that could be would only send her thoughts back to Lord Hawk and the desirable Con. She had seen their birds many times over the past few months flying high above the Hall. They flew across the sky with such beauty and grace that it made her envious of the freedom they must feel as they soared as high as they wished, then rode the air currents for miles. Con was an enormous dark bird with each wing appearing to be as long as he was tall in his human form. His beak was slightly hooked at the end, but was wickedly sharp and thick. A month ago, she witnessed the giant bird of prey bring into the village a wild boar that easily weighed more than she did. The wide span of the bird’s wings folded as he set his burden down in front of the smoke house. He had looked directly at her that day, as if he knew she had admired his graceful landing, and appreciated his beautiful feathers. The large bird plucked one of his own feathers and walked toward her slowly. She was compelled to reach out to run her fingers down the silky feathers on his thick neck, and as she raised her hand, he placed the feather in her hand before moving several fast steps and taking wing. He circled overhead three times, and flew off into the pink and grey clouds. She still had the feather tucked under her pallet on the floor of the hut she shared with Fern.

  She found the fresh herbs and oils they needed for tonight’s spell to take home with her, and made her way to the shared hut. Daylight was fading fast and they had much preparation to complete before the actual ritual began.

  paragraph-definition name=“heading 2” style-number=“s0006” adjust-right=“true” align=“cent” bold=“true” font-size=“16.00” font-style=“Arial” keep-with-next=“true” language=“English United States” left-indent=“0.00” nest-level=“0” right-indent=“21.60” widow-control=“true”> Chapter Three

  Hawk stood by the wall at the entrance to his room. His powerful hands propped his body as he bent at the waist willing his body to calm. He had to concentrate to breathe evenly and deeply. The female Flora had the strangest effect on him, and today was no exception. He certainly was ready and willing to continue what he had started with the woman in his bed, yet she was not the one pictured in his brain any longer. He felt almost guilty about being caught having sex with a strange woman for her to find. The feeling that he had betrayed Flora in some way was ridiculous. This tryst was a simple need to scratch an itch. He had not pursued the female, she had all but raped him in front of the entire Hall. He had to stop this need to show the witchy female that he was a man worth admiring and considering as a desirable mate. She never looked at him with favor, her glances were often blank as today’s had been. He had seen the admiring looks she turned to Con when the hulking man was not looking her way. He wondered what she would think if he was to tell her that if she wished for Con as a mate, she had better be prepared to take him on too.

  Lord Tremble had made Hawk’s best friend, Con, as his second. Most people in the Hall had no idea that Hawk’s mate would be Con’s mate too. The plan was in place to ensure that a loyal man would be in place ready to continue on should one of the men die. It was a sound idea, and he and Con had shared females many times in the past. It was no hardship to sandwich a woman between them. While neither man was a lover of men, the feeling of a man rubbing his prick over his with only a thin membrane of skin between them during shared sessions was unbelievably erotic. Watching a woman take the thick head of Con’s cock into her mouth gave him great pleasure. Con had said the same to him, watching a woman’s body absorbing his best friend’s prick in any opening, was a thing of beauty and excitement. Unfortunately, all of this knowledge did nothing for his present predicament. The woman was still in his bed, and he had no idea what to do about it.

  He saw Con laughing at him from across the room and decided to pull him into the dilemma, after all, once it was made apparent the men would wed themselves to one female, Con would be an object of the same sort of machinations as he was. He beckoned the laughing hulk to him. “We have a problem, my friend, and since you have enough leisure time to stand about laughing at my predicament, I feel it is only a kindness that I pick your pea sized bird brain to help solve the dilemma.”

  Con was not a sluggard when it came to bursting his friend’s stones, but considering Hawk was on the wrong side of the sleeping room door, something was not right. “Alright, you may ask my counsel, but you really need to put away the sword, I swear you will not need it to gain my cooperation.” He couldn’t stop laughing, especially at the pink color creeping alongside the man’s neck and into his cheeks. “Tell me, what has your brain fogged so I may solve the problem, and you can get back to more pleasurable pursuits.”

  By the time he was finished recounting the message that Flora had brought, Con was grim-faced. Gone was the laughing man of moments before, and in his place was the hunter without mercy. Con had many fine qualities, one of them was the ability to kill enemies without mercy. Whereas Hawk would not hesitate to kill an enemy during a fight, Con was an executioner. In his Bird form, he was unmatched in size or grace. He would pluck an enemy from the air and snap his neck without caring that the body count grew as he made his way through the enemy ranks. To Con, it was a merciful death to give his opponents. Much better than to tear the wings off the prey’s body and allow the live carcass to fall to the ground, screaming in pain and terror, before crashing to the ground, sometimes resulting in a lingering death. The knowledge of a new enemy, easily identified, had the executioner’s attention.

  “It is simple really, Hawk, we will find a man of substance that is unmated, and gift him with a beautiful passionate mate. We will simply blindfold her so she has no idea the man fucking her is not you. When she is released from her trance, she will be presented with her mate, the father of her child.” He looked around, considering which man to put to this task. Thankfully the woman was not a co-conspirator. She was a pawn in an ugly bid for power. “What do you say to the mating of Quinlan and your bedmate? He has proven to be a leader, and has treated the female soldiers as he would treat
men.” He grinned at the knowledge that the female soldiers cursed Quinlan for the war training that he put them through four nights each week. They cursed and adored him at the same breath. Con felt sorry for him at first, but changed his mind when he saw the often brutal training the women seemed to excel at. The thirty Amazons under his care could kill without mercy, defend the Hall with loyalty, and break a man’s neck between her well muscled thighs should she choose to.

  Hawk grinned, “That is an excellent idea. I have been wracking my brains for a way to reward the man.” He looked toward his training master who was chatting with three other men as they ate their afternoon meal. “Shall we surprise him with his good fortune?”

  The two men went into the bedroom where Hawk’s would-be mate still writhed on the bedding. When she spied Hawk, she tried to rise to go to him, but Con was behind her with a length of cloth that he quickly dropped over her head, adjusted the material over her eyes, and tied the trailing ends behind her head. All the while Con worked to blind the woman, Hawk soothed her. “It is alright, my sweet, I have brought my friend to assist in your pleasure. Soon you will have all that you need”

  When Lord Hawk and his best friend, Con, appeared on either side of him, Quinlan wondered what the two were up to. He was used to the two men, but normally they were separate when the conversations took place. From the grins on their faces, he wanted to slide out of the Hall and not look back for a few days. They obviously had a plan, and it was apparent that he was involved in their plans.

  “Quinlan, my friend, I have a surprise for you. If you have a few moments I need to talk to you. Con suggested that it was time to reward you for a job well done, and I completely agree with him.”