“Oh yes. Quite a party we’re having here without you.” Gardelle knocked away the vulture currently trying to kill him and shot Keonae a hard look.
The man laughed. “Aww, someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Or would that be nest?”
Aeson snorted and shook his head. “Gardelle, I fear my brother is in rare form on this day.”
Keonae withdrew his sword and twisted, ramming it through one of the enemies. He grinned as he stepped back. “I have missed this so much!”
Rossi groaned. “Only Keonae would be this excited to kill.”
Keonae puffed out his chest, which, much like Gardelle’s, held many scars from battles of old. And like Gardelle, Keonae also had facial scars, permanent reminders of how brutal their lives could be.
Gardelle had never really thought much of his own battle scars. He knew they were the marks of a great warrior, one who had seen many battles. And he also knew that, while the women of the bird realm saw them as something of honor, human females did not.
The vulture snarled and came at Gardelle once more, tearing him from his thoughts on his scars. The vulture shifter sneered as if drawing blood meant he had the upper hand and was the better fighter. All it meant was that the man had gotten lucky. The chances of providence remaining with the man were slim, especially with the caliber of warrior Gardelle was.
“Have you nothing to say?” demanded the vulture, evidently unaccustomed to fighting someone who found no need for words or idle threats. “Or do you already know your kind will all kneel before us? You will call us master.”
“Perhaps the vultures will be victorious, but I am certain none of us will call you master.” Gardelle delivered a killing blow with his sword. He rammed it deep, slicing through flesh, muscle, and bone.
His opponent’s eyes widened in shock a second before they glossed over—vacant of life. The man fell off the end of the sword and lay there, motionless on the ground.
Gardelle felt nothing.
No remorse.
No sense of victory.
Killing had long since lost its wear on him. It was part of the job. Part of his sworn duty to his king and his people. He would do anything to protect them all. And this was hardly the first man he’d killed. Truth be told, he’d long ago lost count of his death total.
He turned and killed yet another of the enemy.
Standing to his full height, Gardelle surveyed the carnage surrounding him. This battle had been bloody. Roughly sixty vulture warriors lay dead. One of his own kind, the Buteos Regalis, or Royal Hawks, had lost their lives as well.
He had been a fine soldier.
Loyal and fierce.
He had fought with honor.
The fallen hawk was not mated and had no children, as children were still rare for their kind. He did have a mother who still lived, and who would need to be notified that her son would not be returning. Since he had died in battle, the woman would be seen to for the remainder of her life. That would be little comfort to her. He was sure she’d rather have her son than money.
Gardelle had delivered more than his fair share of unwelcome news to mothers and fathers over the centuries. The task never got easier.
Sachin, head advisor to the king and famed warrior, eased up alongside Gardelle, looking around at the scene as well. “They grow bolder in their attacks.”
Nodding, Gardelle eyed his fallen man. “He was a good soldier.”
Sachin clasped a hand on Gardelle’s shoulder. “His loss will be felt, and he will be honored. I will notify his family.”
“His mother lives still. She is the only family he had,” offered Gardelle.
Sachin nodded.
Lazar grunted as he approached, his sword bloodied from battle as well. “It is as if their numbers are endless. Did we not just kill this many or more two days back?”
Rossi groaned as he cleaned blood from his sword. “Yes. And just as many a few days prior to that. You’d think making a run for the portals here would get old and they’d get sick of losing men.”
Aeson sighed as he joined them. “It is evident they more than have the men to spare. And we already know they hold little regard for life.”
Keonae kicked one of the dead vultures’ bodies lightly with his booted foot. “My worry is, how many made it through the portals before we became aware of what they were up to?”
Chapter Four
All the men fell silent for a moment as they thought on what Keonae had said.
Alok and Rydel neared, their swords bloodied, their expressions hard. Alok caught Gardelle’s attention. “I can send the rest of my men to scout the area to be sure none of the enemy escaped.”
“Thank you,” returned Gardelle, noting the man’s posture and expression.
Alok glanced around at the battle’s aftermath. “Their numbers never lessen.”
Rydel put his hand on his brother’s back. “They will. We are making a difference.”
“Are we?” questioned Alok. “And is it too late? For well over twenty full cycles, we have shouted to all who would listen that the vultures must be stopped. That their numbers were growing. None listened.”
Aeson stepped closer to the brothers. “Was it your village that was left burning by them years ago?”
The twins nodded at the same time.
Rydel cleared his throat. “They took a day that should have been glorious, a time for celebration, and turned it into the worst day in the history of the village. Some lines were totally wiped out.”
Alok stared with a blank expression at a dead vulture. “How could they kill innocent women and children?”
Rydel stiffened.
Keonae sucked in a deep breath. “Children? There have been no children in the eagle villages for centuries. No live births to speak of that I heard of. There are no children in the entire Eagle Kingdom. Birth rates are still incredibly low there, as in most of the kingdoms in the realm.”
The twins shared a look before Alok nodded to his brother, as if granting him permission to speak.
Rydel lowered his gaze. “That day, there was to be an announcement. Our king was to be told the glorious news. The eagles had been blessed with a child.”
Alok averted his gaze, his jaw hardening. “These animals butchered everyone and everything. They are a plague.”
Keonae and Aeson lowered their heads, grieving the loss of a young life. Children were so rare. Each was a gift. To harm one was unthinkable.
Lazar exhaled slowly and bent near a fallen vulture. He touched the man’s chin and surveyed him. “I have seen this one before. He is, as many of them were, a mercenary. My brother used to hire them to avoid dirtying his own hands in some matters. This man was exceptionally ruthless. His like of violent sex, with or without the woman’s consent, was well-known. To the point even my brother banned him from setting foot near a female falcon.”
Gardelle shook his head. “How any man could ever harm women and children is beyond me. They are gifts to be treasured and protected at all costs.”
Keonae rammed his sword through the dead vulture’s groin area, and then glanced up at the rest of the men. He shrugged. “What? I’m only doing what each of you secretly wanted to.”
“True,” said Aeson. “We should have left him alive and gifted him to our mates to torture. The moment they heard of what he did, their tempers would flare.”
Rossi’s eyes widened. “Mine would have passed out at the idea of hurting him.”
“Right up until Lucy learned of his past and then I’m guessing she’d have led the charge,” added Aeson. “Shelby, who is not a lover of violence, would have seen fit to kill this man for his sins against women.”
Keonae pulled his sword free of the man. “My mate would have taken his head without blinking. She wouldn’t need to know his past.”
Rossi grinned. “I’ve seen Lark in action. She would have cut off the guy’s cock first and then his head and not even broken a sweat.”
The rest of the
men laughed.
Gardelle could see Lark doing as Rossi suggested. While she was technically of the vulture clans, she was nothing like them. Her father had been a monster. One she’d killed herself after he’d murdered her twin sister long ago.
“Bottom feeders,” spat Rossi as he glared at the dead vultures.
The vultures’ numbers were far superior to those of the hawk shifters. Cursed Magaious, there was more of them than other bird-shifter kingdoms. And the vultures were ruthless. They scavenged the lands, decimating them, plucking them clean of all they had to offer, and then moved on to the next.
Their own kingdom was proof of as much.
Now barren, the Vulture Kingdom was a shell of its former glory. It was like one massive ghost town. If they had their way, they would do the same to not only the kingdom of the hawks, but all others within the bird-shifter realm.
Sachin patted Gardelle’s shoulder once more. “I will see to it this is handled. I will also assure your fallen man is taken care of. Go now and clear your head. You did well, Gardelle. You kept them from gaining access to the human realm.”
Gardelle thought on what Keonae had said earlier. The bit about wondering how many of the vultures were already in the human realm. He paled as he thought of what they could be doing there. They were ruthless when it came to bird-shifter women. He could not even imagine how they might treat human women.
Worry for one human woman, in particular, came over him, and his body heated. For a moment, he thought he might be sick as the idea of the vultures ever getting their hands on Lisa filled his head.
He’d always thought Lisa to be something of a bad influence on his niece. She was loud, opinionated, had no qualms about expressing her desire for the opposite sex and was quick to tell Gardelle to stuff it.
Now pushing twenty-five, she had grown into an even greater beauty—with a foul mouth, a quick temper, and a body that could bring any man to his knees. Try as he might, he could not ignore her or the pull he seemed to have toward her.
Lazar nudged him. “Go to her.”
“W-what?” asked Gardelle, his attention returning to the here and now. “Go to who?”
Lazar gave him a knowing look. “Really? You wish to play this game with me of all people? You forget, I have seen you with her.”
“With who?” asked Rossi.
“No one,” snapped Gardelle, wanting off the subject.
Aeson grinned. “Gardelle has a woman? Tell us more. Most of us are mated, and while we are very happy and content, we are still very male and openly welcome talk of the bedroom kind.”
Alok’s eyes widened. “My brother and I are not mated. And we’ve no wish to be.”
“You say that now,” offered Rossi. “Just wait.”
Rydel took a step back, looking afraid of the idea of mating when he’d shown no fear during battle.
Keonae snorted. “What Mr. Lot-of-Words-Aeson is saying is, give us the dish on the chick you’re banging. What village is she from, Gardelle? Do we know her? Tell me we didn’t sleep with her back in our pre-mated days.”
“Chick he’s banging?” asked Aeson. “Brother, you spent far too long living among humans. You have adopted their slang and speech manners.”
Gardelle’s nostrils flared as he glared at Keonae. “You do not know her, and you better not even so much as look upon her or I will claw the eyes from your head!”
Keonae smirked. “So, it’s like that with her, huh?”
“Sounds like it.” Rossi laughed. “Now we have to know who she is.”
Sachin cleared his throat. “This would not be the same woman Lazar had guards dispatched to watch over while you were in a healing-induced sleep, would it?”
Gardelle glanced at Lazar. “You sent men to watch over Lisa when I was healing?”
“Oh, she has a name,” added Keonae.
Lazar nodded and then grinned. “Yes. I had her guarded while you healed. She is my mate’s best friend, and even if you try to deny as much, she is important to you. I have seen it with my own eyes. You watch her with the look of a man who desires something. And she makes no bones about how attractive she finds you.”
Gardelle had to fight off a blush. Warriors did not blush. “She only pretends to find me passable. I believe she does so to annoy me and get a rise out of me. I do not think for a moment she genuinely wants me. I am not a prize to human women.”
He touched his scarred face.
Keonae, who had similar scars on his face, grunted. “I was where you are. I thought Lark could never find me attractive. That she could never see past my scars.”
Rossi rolled his eyes. “All women find you attractive. I swear, they think you’re hotter with the scars than without. I mean, come on, Kabril and Aeson look exactly like you minus the scars, and while they have women fawning over them, it’s nowhere near the amount you do.”
Keonae’s face reddened. “I only have eyes for my mate.”
Apparently, warriors did blush.
Gardelle rubbed his chin, noticing it had been a few days since he’d shaved. “Enough talk of women.”
Aeson reached down and blatantly adjusted himself through his trews. “All this killing and fighting made me horny. I plan to seek out my mate and spend endless hours pleasuring her. I suggest you all do the same. And, Gardelle, if this woman is important enough for you to threaten Keonae over, then mayhap you should find her and pleasure her as well.”
“Lisa is not important to me,” he said, the words feeling wrong. So much so that he took a step back and touched his chest, at odds with himself over his feelings for her. “Well, she is not that important to me. Okay, she is somewhat important to me. Mayhap, slightly more than somewhat, even.”
Lazar cleared his throat. “Give him a moment, everyone. I believe he is only now realizing just how important she is to him. Why else would he continue to make so many trips back to the human realm now that his niece, the excuse he had for being there, resides here full time?”
“I have a successful business there, a corporation that is quite profitable, and an estate that requires my attention,” said Gardelle defensively. “And the king himself said it is no longer against his rules to go to the human realm. He just prefers we do not make a habit of it.”
Lazar snorted. “Your business runs itself and your estate does not need you to be present as much as you are. And I was not aware taking Lisa to dinner one night each month was how you ran your business and checked up on your home.”
“How do you know I take her to dinner?” demanded Gardelle.
Sachin laughed softly. “I am guessing his wife learned it from the female if they are friends. Women share much with one another.”
Lazar winked. “Sabrina is beside herself. She greatly dislikes lying to Lisa about all of us, and all of this. More than once she has considered telling Lisa the truth.”
“Humans are not to know of us,” said Gardelle with all seriousness.
Aeson laughed. “Our queen is human; Rossi’s wife is as well. Not to mention Paige, Sachin’s wife. She too is human. I believe the feline is out of the sack.”
Gardelle tipped his head at Aeson’s expression.
Alok and Rydel also looked lost.
Keonae snickered. “The saying is ‘the cat is out of the bag.’”
“Right. That,” said Aeson.
Sachin tipped his head, appearing perplexed. “What does a feline in a bag have to do with anything?”
Rossi laughed. “We have really got to start having mandatory human realm visits and classes.”
“That would please our wives,” said Sachin. “But how does any of this have anything to do with cats in sacks?”
Lazar grinned. “I shall explain it to you later. For now, let us return to putting Gardelle on the spot over his infatuation with his niece’s best friend. Before you judge him, know that I have seen her. She is quite a beauty.”
Rossi’s attention went to another of the hawk shifters, who was in the process
of cleaning up the battle aftermath. The man appeared troubled. “Nulsa, what is it?”
Nulsa, a guard who was only a hundred cycles (a mere fledgling in their eyes), was bent over a vulture male. “This one is not dead. He mocks us, saying we are too late.”
“Too late for what?” asked Sachin, stealing Gardelle’s question.
Aeson walked in the direction of the fallen vulture. “Bring him. We will question him later. For now, I wish to be in my mate.”
Chapter Five
Human Realm…
Lisa Redsun poured over the books for the nightclub she’d recently taken over running. They were way over their projected earnings and the month had only just begun. The owner would be very pleased.
The club was private, high-end, and more than it appeared to be from the outside. It was a sex club. While she’d never imagined herself visiting a sex club, let alone working in one, she had to admit she loved every second of it. The career change was new, so there were a few kinks she was still working out (pun intended), but they were minor.
Her first visit to the club had been on a date. She’d met a guy on a singles app and she’d swiped in the direction that left them meeting up. He’d picked the place, and since both she and the male in question had been very clear up front that they were looking for sex, nothing more, that was what had happened.
Some might consider her a slut. Lisa didn’t care. A lot of men behaved the same way she did, but they weren’t looked at as whores. The double standard always infuriated her. She saw herself as sexually liberated. She always practiced safe sex. So what if she enjoyed the act of having sex but didn’t want more?
Well, she hadn’t wanted more than random hookups until a few months back.
For the last few months, she’d found her sleep filled with bizarre dreams. Ones that made little sense to her. Many of the dreams had her holding the hands of twin little girls, both with heads of dark hair and wide green eyes. She’d never fancied herself as good with children, but in the dreams, she was fantastic with them and so very happy. A man with large, powerful arms would come up from behind, wrap his arms around her waist, and kiss her neck. Deep down, she knew he was part of the family dynamic, the children’s father. That she was in love with him—not that she’d ever been in love before to know the difference.
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