The Hidden (Shadowed Wings Book 1)

by Ivy Asher

  I bite him again and pull back, my furious gaze matching the fire I see in his molten honey stare. “I am no one’s. I belong to no one!” I growl in his face, and then I kiss him hard, stealing back my control. I claim his lips and guide his tongue with my own. I drive the kiss the way I want it and grind against him the way that feels good to me, not giving a fuck if he likes it or not.

  He grabs my ass and lifts me up on his body and slams my back against a pillar. His “mine” fills my kiss, and he kneads my ass, driving more heat to pulse through my body.

  “Not in a million fucking years,” I argue back between deep tongue strokes that feel so fucking good and make me so fucking wet that it pisses me off.

  I don’t want to like what he’s doing to me. I want to be pissed and outraged over the audacity and arrogance he’s displayed. But his hands feel right on my body, his tongue was made to play with mine. I need to ride his cock and claim his body. And if I have to wait any longer to do any of that, I feel like it will be the end of me.

  I know Pigeon is at play here, that she’s somehow overriding logic with some serious fucking hormones, but I’m so wet and so fucking needy, I just don’t care. I grab the V of Zeph’s red shirt, where the laces start, and pull at the fabric. It rips down his front, and he growls into my mouth with approval. He grabs the straps of my top and tugs at them, popping them off with no effort. The triangles of fabric covering my boobs fold down like they’re bowing to Zeph and his sexual prowess.

  My irritation over that is lost when Zeph pulls his mouth from mine and bends over to suck on my hard, sensitive nipple. I moan and grind against him, but the delicious zings he’s sending straight to my clit are suddenly replaced by pain as he bites down too hard on my breast. I slap his head away and try to push him off me.

  “Ow, you fucker, what the hell was that for?” I don’t miss the twinkle of amusement in his eyes as he ignores my question and tries to suck on me again. I push against him and get just enough room between us to land a knee in his side. Zeph gasps and grabs his stomach. I slide down the pillar, no longer pinned by his massive body, and I wiggle away from him, making a beeline for the door.

  Fuck this, asshole!

  His massive hand snakes out and clamps around my arm, pulling me back to him. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “To find a less annoying cock to fuck!” I snarl at him and try to peel his fingers off my arm.

  “You are mine!” His yell fills the room, and we start to wrestle.

  I poke his eye, and he lets me go. I make it a step away from him before he trips me and then pounces. I pinch his nipple, and he bites at my neck. I moan and then go still, wondering why the fuck that made me moan. Zeph releases a knowing chuckle which results in me punching him in the throat and making him choke on it. I scramble out from underneath him as he’s trying to recover, but he grabs my ass flap of fabric and yanks me back down on top of him. I land, all elbows, and try to get away, but his fist in the last remnants of my dress are making it difficult.

  Pigeon is fucking loving this, and I give her the side-eye as I roll on top of Zeph until we’re chest to chest, and then I lean down and bite down hard on his nipple. His groan is all gravel and need, and he thrusts his hips up, his pants-clad erection rubbing against my ass.

  “I need to be inside of you, now!” Zeph demands, and then he rips off the rest of my dress.

  “Take your fucking pants off then,” I order, and then I seize possession of his mouth again.

  I straddle his chiseled abs and grind down on them, moaning at the friction of my clit on his hard muscles. We mouth fuck as he struggles with the laces of his pants, and we both practically cheer when he finally gets them off. He tries to flip me on my back, but I slam him back down. We both go a little wide-eyed at my sudden strength, and I internally high five Pigeon for her help. It’s about time she got on board with the take what we want plan.

  I reach back between my thighs for Zeph’s cock, stroking it once as I line him up with me. I’m practically dripping and in no need of foreplay, but I rub the head of his cock through my folds and revel in the look on Zeph’s face as I do. He lifts his hips off the ground in an effort to hurry me, but I avoid letting him take control.

  I glare at him, and he growls at me, digging his demanding fingers into my hips. I clench down as I fit the tip of him inside of me, eager to be full of him and on my way to an orgasm. I watch Zeph’s face as I slowly lower myself on top of him and smile when he groans and throws his head back as the inside of my thighs press against his hips. Zeph encourages me to move right away, but I take a minute to appreciate how deep he is and how full I feel before rising up and then dropping back down on him.

  I set a hurried pace, not interested in anything but a mind-blowing orgasm on Zeph’s massive cock. I lean forward, my hands on his chest for leverage, and fuck him until the rage in my chest starts to dissipate and I’m lost to the sensation of riding him. Zeph sits up and captures a nipple in his mouth, sucking hard and moaning. We’re both panting, and he squeezes my ass every time I rise up, and lets go when I drop my hips back down so that he spears deep inside of me.

  I squeal when Zeph suddenly stands up and steals my fucking reins. He holds me tightly to him so that he’s deep inside of me as he moves us to the bed. He’s surprisingly gentle as he lays me down on my back and presses into me. He brushes a few white strands of hair from my face and then sears his lips to mine in a desperately hungry and perfectly bruising kiss. I unhook my legs from around his waist and let my thighs fall open, giving him as much room as he needs to fuck me hard.

  Our tongues swirl together, as he pinches a nipple between his fingers, and then he starts pounding into me, hard and relentless. I break the kiss so I can shout out my approval, and Zeph growls into my ear and nips at my lobe.

  “You. Are. Mine,” he snarls into my ear, each word punctuated by a deep punishing thrust.

  I moan and gasp and beg for more, harder, faster, and the fucking asshole gives it to me. My whole body lights up with tingles, and I can feel that the impending orgasm is going to be so fucking good. Each hard thrust moves me higher up on the bed until we’re both pushing off against the headboard. I use it as leverage to angle my hips just a little bit higher, and it takes everything to a whole new level for me. I clench around Zeph, so close to falling over the best fucking orgasm cliff.

  “Come for me, little sparrow,” Zeph commands.

  My eyes fly open, and I glare at him. “Make me, asshole.”

  Zeph smiles and eagerly accepts my challenge. He drops his head and sucks on my nipple and then pinches the other one hard. He fucks me hard and fast, and in no time, I’m falling over the edge as an incredible orgasm explodes through my body. I reach between us and rub at my clit, trying to milk this sensation for all it’s worth. Zeph watches me for a minute as I writhe underneath him, riding the wave of tingles and heat. He slaps my hand away and pulls out of me, crawling down my body until his mouth is latched onto my clit.

  My still orgasming pussy clenches around nothing, but I stop caring as Zeph sucks on me, and I grind up into his mouth. A purring sound fills the room. I sit up trying to figure out what the hell is going on, when an intense vibration presses against my clit. I give a surprised shout and watch Zeph’s face between my thighs.

  I moan as another orgasm quickly builds and shove my hand in his hair. “Fuck! Right there,” I command as Zeph rotates his head, and the vibration hits an even sweeter spot right at the top of my clit. “Oh fuck! How are you doing that? Yes, stay right fucking there! Oh fuck yes!” I scream out as I fall into another orgasm. I roll my hips and try to remove my sensitive bundle of nerves from Zeph’s still vibrating mouth, but he pins me down and forces me into a third screaming orgasm.

  I’m not normally a screamer, so the fact that I am now is blowing my mind. I barely have time to even process that before Zeph’s massive cock is moving in and out of me again, and I’m reduced to a moaning, mewling, incoherent m
ess. He feels so fucking good, and when he demands that I say I am his, I don’t even pause before telling him exactly what he wants to hear.

  On the word yours, he presses as deeply inside of me as he can get and roars out his release. He nips at my neck as he rides out his orgasm and then rolls us over so that I’m once again on top of him. Neither of us say a word as our panting slows into deep measured breaths. Zeph’s quiet snores vibrate through my chest, and I don’t even care that he’s still inside of me as I close my eyes and quickly fall into the deep darkness of satisfied sleep.

  18

  An echo of my dad’s voice floats around my head. He and my mom are talking, but I can’t make out about what. Gentle fingers smooth hair away from my face, and I squeeze tighter around my mother’s neck. I’m crying, and they’re arguing.

  “She didn’t mean to, Awlon. You can’t get mad at her for doing something she doesn’t understand. She’s only four.”

  “I’m not mad at her, Noor, but if any of my kind feel what she just did, they will come looking, and we both know that will not end well for anyone.”

  My dad’s voice is laced with worry. I feel bad even though my mom is trying to soothe it away with gentle touches and cuddles.

  “We need to move, and not to another city. If her abilities are manifesting already, then we need to keep to ourselves as much as possible until we can find another cladding stone.”

  “I’m sorry, daddy, I was just trying to play princess like they do in the movie.” I sob into my mother’s neck, and my dad pulls me out of her arms and hugs me.

  “Shhh, don’t cry, my heart. Don’t cry. We’ll make it okay.” My dad pulls back and wipes at my cheeks. I look into his bright green eyes and feel the love and concern spilling out of them. “Falon, my heart, you have to promise me not to make anything other than yourself obey you again. Do you understand?”

  I just stare at him.

  “Maybe you should have never taught her the language,” Gran snaps at dad.

  Mom silences her with a look, and my gran stomps away, mumbling angrily under her breath.

  “Tamod is a bad word?” I ask, and my dad’s eyes bounce back and forth between mine.

  “A word is never bad, but bad things can be done with words, and we must make sure that we keep ourselves and others from doing that.”

  I nod at him, and he wraps me in a tight hug.

  “We will both have to do better,” he tells me as he kisses my cheek, and I hug him harder.

  Loss sears through me, and I whimper at its icy touch. Sadness burns coldly through my veins, and I thrash uncomfortably. I slowly wake up from sleep. By the time I get my eyes open, the strange feeling has almost receded, and the memory I’ve never looked back on before is an echo in my chest. I’m tangled in my sheets, sweating my ass off, and feeling achy like I worked out way too hard the day before. I sit up and look around the room. There’s no sign of Zeph, other than his dry cum on my thigh. I wrinkle my nose at that realization and untangle myself from the sheets.

  I feel better after a long bath. I wash all evidence of last night’s exploits from my body and don’t feel nearly as sore and ragged when I’m done as I did when I first woke up. I check my body for marks or bruising, but there’s nothing there that needs to be hidden. Strangely my skin looks almost glowy, my hair is shinier than I ever remember seeing it, and my lavender-colored eyes look downright radiant. Either the food here has some nutrients that my body has been lacking, or sex seriously does my body good.

  As mind-blowing as last night with Zeph was, I don’t think it would be good for me or for Pigeon to tap that ass anymore in the future. Besides, if that purring tongue thing is something all gryphons can do, then we can get plenty of good sex elsewhere. My first order of business today is to talk to Sutton and find out what the hell happened last night. I tie the laces to my bra and pull up my pants just as Ami comes flying in through my balcony.

  “Knock much?” I chastise as I reach for my shirt.

  “Rut much?” he snarks back, sniffing at the room and wagging his eyebrows.

  “Touché,” I offer as I pull my shirt over my head.

  When I pop my head through the neck, I notice that Ami is doing his whole white-eye thing at me.

  “Interesting,” he observes and then shields his eyes with his hand like he’s staring at something bright.

  I just stare at him and wait for him to explain what the hell he’s talking about. His brown eyes flash into place, and he nods speculatively at me.

  “You’re still silver, but like blinding silver now. I figured your color would blend now that you’ve…” Ami gestures toward the bed. “But it’s still one color. I’ll have to look at Zeph and see what—”

  “Ami, what do you know about Bonding Magic?” I ask, suddenly cutting him off.

  Ami’s eyes narrow ever so slightly. “Not much. What do you know about Bonding Magic?” he fires back at me.

  I shrug. “I guess it was used to form the vow that created so many issues between the Ouphe and the Gryphons.”

  “Yeah, that’s pretty common knowledge,” Ami deadpans. “So common in fact that Gryphons hunted down possessors of that branch of magic and tried to force them to break the bond. You can see how well that worked out for them.”

  “Yeah, I guess that explains why most of them are dead now,” I admit.

  “Oh, you can’t lay all of that at the feet of the Gryphons. The Ouphe in power also killed off a good portion of that branch of magic, making sure no one could reverse the power dynamic they were thriving off of,” Ami explains.

  “So it’s pretty safe to say that anyone with Bonding Magic should keep it on the down low because they aren’t the most popular around these parts?” I ask, without trying to sound like I’m asking.

  Ami looks at me for a beat before answering. “Yeah, that would be an accurate conclusion to come to,” he agrees with a snort. Ami pauses. “Why are we talking about this again?”

  “No reason in particular. I’m just trying to understand the history here,” I tell him nonchalantly as I step into my boots and lace them up. “What’s the training plan for today?”

  “I’m not sure. We should check in with Sutton and find out. I think you’ve got a better grasp on your gryphon, and your transitions will get better with time. You know better how to defend yourself, and it’s time she did too,” Ami tells me as we walk out to the balcony.

  Wings press out of my back as we both climb up on the railing. Wind pushes at me, sending strands of my white hair dancing back from my face. Green trees and rocks surround me, and I glimpse the market far below me as I jump off the balcony. I dive down, chasing the adrenaline rush it invites before I flap my wings, bringing me up to crest the cliff. I hitchhike on a current, and a beaming smile takes over my face as I think about how far I’ve come. Pride fills me, and I wonder if I’ll ever get used to my ability to do this. Ami leads me toward the training fields, where we both land with ease. I pull my wings back in and walk toward the gathering crowd. I make my way to the side and start to scan the group of people, looking for Sutton.

  “Nice of you to join us, highblood,” Loa sneers, and my searching gaze snaps to her.

  “Where’s Sutton?” I blurt, and Loa’s eyes narrow at me.

  “Unavailable,” she snaps and turns back to the group of trainees. “Now, where was I before I was interrupted by the dirty blood? Ah, that’s right... There are those of us that believe we should learn to fight in this form in the event that we can’t shift and fight as we were meant to.” Loa looks around the trainees, her stare intense and unblinking. “But when the Syta and Altern lead us to victory against the Avowed scum, we will be fighting as gryphons, as our true selves. Which is why I’ll be taking over your battle training. The day of our liberation is fast approaching, and each and every one of us needs to be ready.” Loa pauses dramatically and allows her words to sink in. “Now, I will demonstrate what skills are to be expected. Who would like to volunteer?”<
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  No one is quick to raise their hands, and with one look at Loa’s massive size, I don’t blame them. She looks around the crowd innocently, and before her eyes even land on me, I know exactly what she’s going to do.

  “Highblood, let’s see what superior skills your tainted insides have blessed you with.” She waves me forward, and I shake my head at her obvious efforts to get under my skin.

  I could try to explain to her that I don’t have any skills when it comes to fighting in my gryphon form, but I can tell she knows that. She wants to hurt me, get back at me for not listening to her in the bathroom and embarrassing her in front of her leaders. The punishing glint in her eyes speaks volumes, and I nudge at a sleeping Pigeon inside of me.

  “Um, Pidge, I’m pretty sure this bitch is about to slaughter us, so if you don’t want that to happen, then now would be a good time to wake the fuck up.” Pigeon doesn’t even stir.

  Perfect.

  I return my focus to Loa just in time to see her boulder of a fist coming for my head. There’s absolutely nothing I can do to stop it, and my head explodes with pain as her knuckles connect to my cheek without warning. I twist and slam to the ground from the force of the blow, and full on fucking stars twinkle in my vision.

  “Now, your first lesson of the day, and one every single one of you should already know, is to always be ready for an attack. We have to stay vigilant and be prepared for anything,” Loa advises, and then she walks over and kicks me in the stomach.

  Tears fill my eyes, and I feel a rib crack from her armored shit kickers. I grunt against the pain and spit out the blood pooling in my mouth from her sucker punch to my face. Loa bends over me and whispers.

  “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay down and you’ll stay away from Ryn.”