Searing Ecstasy

by Setta Jay

  Just because he understood the Phoenix’s situation didn’t mean he wanted to deal with Sander’s attitude. Drake wasn’t in the frenzy because he hadn’t touched Delia, but knowing his own mate was suffering in a damned cell had more than destroyed his ability to handle the slightest bullshit from anyone.

  Drake snapped, “I’ll deal with Hades.” And then he glared at the male and ordered, “You will do nothing until you’ve claimed your mate.” The frenzy was too distracting for a warrior. Until the bond was completed, Sander’s focus would be on feeding the need. Once Nastia was healed, it would add another level to the Phoenix’s torment. A primal need to ease her desire. To claim her.

  Sander growled back, his beast riding him, while reacting to being ordered to mate his female.

  Drake slammed his hands on the table. “Enough!” He watched as a muscle in Sander’s jaw ticked. The frenzy had started when Sander carried Nastia out of battle, taking hits to protect her from more damage. The fact that those weapons hadn’t affected the Phoenix meant his immunity would transfer when the two finished their mating bond. That was just one more reason for the two to stop dicking around and finish what they’d started, no matter how prickly Nastia had been about completing the bond.

  They were all looking at an unknown enemy who could arrive on their doorstep again at any minute.

  He gave the warrior a hard look, communicating that fact without having to voice the words. Sander gave a sharp nod of understanding.

  Every one of his mated Guardians, aside from maybe Uri, had held out and attempted to complete the bond on their own terms. Each suffering through the frenzy longer in order to court their females in some way or, in Dorian’s case, avoid the bond at all costs. Sander wouldn’t have the luxury of taking either route.

  Only three Guardians were left unmated at this point, not counting his own particularly fucked-up situation.

  More smoke filled the air as his irritation festered and the beast pushed for control. His mind’s eye slid to the bright link to his mate.

  Conn’s voice brought him back. “Do you want us there when you wake Hades?” Both the wolf and Brianne had once been high up in the God’s ranks. They knew him well.

  The female Guardian sat across from the wolf. “I wouldn’t mind seeing Hades.” Brianne’s tone seemingly held a little too much fondness for the God, because Vane growled low at her side. All eyes went to the Demi-God who’d mated with Brianne. The two had formed a hybrid mating that was once thought impossible. So now he had a powerful Guardian Geraki, half bird of prey, and the Demi-God, half-lion son of Athena, as a mated pair.

  Brianne shot her mate a brilliant smile and Drake was caught by how happy the female Guardian was. She was a brutal warrior and full of smart-assed comments and known for her attitude, yet now the beautiful redhead was smiling up at her mate like he was fucking perfect and she couldn’t be happier. It was good, his warriors deserved some fucking happiness.

  Especially Brianne, they’d almost lost her and Vane during their mating. Their beasts had nearly taken them both over and the power they held was fucking intense. But Drake had tested them and their control over their two beasts had proven solid.

  They’d all thought the two would end up finding the same fate as the ancient Gryphons had. Those beasts had started as Immortals that Apollo had tried to infuse with two animals. The creatures who were half lion, half bird had been vicious and feral. The Immortal inside had never been able to resurface and the God ended up destroying the creatures when he had been unable to control them.

  In the millennia since, there had never been any hybrid matings. Sirena hadn’t thought it possible. Now they weren’t as sure. It had taken all of the Guardians and Vane’s sister and twin brother to help ground the two, but Vane and Brianne had gained control of the animals eventually.

  His thoughts went to his would-be mate. She also held two beasts after Cyril’s fucking experimentation. Delia had been feral and deadly when he’d found her. The dragon roared in his head and Drake felt his control slip even more.

  “Should I be in the room when you wake Hades?” Drake felt Sirena use the power in her voice to calm the dragon. That drew his attention back, but didn’t take the rage that constantly boiled under the surface when he thought of all his mate had suffered.

  He stilled when Delia somehow caressed his mind.

  Fuck.

  Suddenly the dragon went from rage to undiluted pleasure. She hadn’t spoken, but if she’d somehow felt Drake’s lack of control through his mental shielding, then they were bonding closer, faster.

  He breathed through the new sensation while his Guardians eyed him, waiting for an answer.

  Are you okay? Sirena asked through their telepathic Guardian bond.

  Yes.

  Drake shook off the beast’s pleasure at feeling Delia’s mental touch and ground out, “P and I will wake Hades.”

  Sirena’s violet eyes assessed him. They were lined and smudged with dark circles because she hadn’t been taking enough time to fuel her energy levels, and he was bastard enough to keep her working. Too much was at stake right now and she was the only one who could do most of the tasks. The others helped, but in the end she was their only damned healer and Sacha and Delia both needed her.

  More smoke slipped from his lips as Delia’s telepathic touch seemed to drop away.

  That loss pissed off the dragon, and Drake was forced to fight it back again.

  He needed to get the fuck out of there. Check on Delia, he ground out through his mental link to the healer.

  Sirena nodded and quickly left. I will.

  His eyes set on Alyssa, Gregoire’s pregnant mate. The small Hippeus, half warhorse, had given them their first warning that something was coming. Her babe had formed a shield for the female that blew a hole through one wall of the manor. Alyssa was currently sitting on Gregoire’s lap in a chair far from the others. Her mate was the only person who could touch her through the new protection.

  Drake forced his beast to calm, needing to know how she was feeling now. How is Alyssa?

  The big Guardian’s muscles were tense as he kept a tight hold on his much smaller female. Drake watched the way Alyssa massaged her male’s forearm and leaned into his touch, soothing Gregoire’s out of control protective instincts.

  Gregoire growled into the mental link, She hasn’t felt anything new. Sirena just examined Alyssa and the babe and swears to me that they’re both in perfect health. My young is still shielding them both. The male rested a hand on Alyssa’s still-flat stomach and Drake saw how the female’s pale green eyes softened.

  Good. Continue to stay with her, Drake ordered. Immortal birth rates were incredibly low and young were only possible with mated pairs, starting about a decade after the pair bonded. It was all due to a spell cast by the Immortal Charybdis in Apollo’s labs right before the Creators were called back to contain the Gods. Charybdis used a portion of her life force in the spell, preventing Apollo from continuing to breed Immortals only to rip away their children to be trained in the warrior camps. It had been a noble sacrifice then, but now made for long centuries of very few young.

  Alyssa and Gregoire’s babe had been conceived during their mating ceremony and would be the first Guardian child. Gregoire needed to be with his female while things played out with Hades.

  He issued more orders to his warriors. Patrols would be cut short. Sander was off; Gregoire was to stay with Alyssa. The rest had blood samples to help Sirena with or other duties that still needed to be performed while he awakened Hades.

  “Be ready.” He hoped they’d have a location for Apollo soon.

  He didn’t have time to check on Delia through the cameras in her cell, and that riled beast and male. Keeping her caged was a hell of its own, but since she’d formed the telepathic link, he felt things changing. As soon as he dealt with Hades and got Apollo back, he would see her, talk with her as face to face as was possible. After all that had been done to her, his scent alon
e caused her agony so that wasn’t a fucking option. He rubbed the back of his neck.

  Conn, I want a laptop or something for my mate so that we can see each other. Make it work with my computer and see that Sirena gets it to her. He could see her from the camera in her room, but she couldn’t see him, though she always seemed to know when he was watching.

  Got it. The wolf nodded calmly before leaving along with the rest of the Guardians.

  Drake’s shoulders were tight and he was riding a fine line of control when P stepped up beside him.

  “You good, man?” P asked, his bright blue eyes assessing Drake closely.

  “Yes.” This was as good as it would get.

  P had been his shadow for over a month since Drake first found his mate feral from Cyril’s experimentation. His cousin had stayed by his side because P was one of two people with a chance of leashing the dragon if Drake lost control.

  At the moment the male looked like he was about to face a firing line.

  “Let’s go wake your father,” Drake snarled.

  Chapter 2

  Mountain Range, Tetartos Realm

  Drake and P reformed outside the cavern where he’d secreted Hades away after moving all of the Gods’ sleeping units from Earth Realm. He hadn’t wanted to take a chance that Apollo had any idea where they were hidden. Not when the bastard was in unknown hands, divulging who knows what. He lifted the extensive spells and they silently stepped inside.

  As Drake slipped through the cavern tunnels, his mind was on his mate. Using their new telepathic connection was too fucking dangerous. The sensation of her voice in his head or even that subtle touch of her mind felt too damned good to both him and the dragon. If the beast decided Delia was ready to be claimed, then the animal would only fight him harder. That left him grinding his teeth as he impatiently waited for Sirena to check on her.

  Delia’s fine. There was a pause, likely as Sirena checked the camera feed to Delia’s room. It looks as if she finally fell asleep about half an hour ago.

  Son of a bitch, had his mate actually unconsciously slid her mind over their mental link in her sleep? Had she caressed the link in some completely instinctive effort to soothe his dragon? He slipped a palm under his hair to try to ease some of the tension in his neck. It wasn’t working. He growled low. Tell me the minute you know more from the tests. Sirena had a tendency to get so focused and consumed by her work that reports were the last thing on her mind. He wanted every fucking detail she learned, the second she knew it. They were getting too close to the edge now.

  I will. Let me know if you need me down there. Sirena was aware that Delia had linked their minds and it was adding to the already fucked situation. Letting the dragon loose to hunt hell beasts hadn’t been easing the animal nearly enough as it was, but it was the only release Drake could give. And he’d need to do it again. Soon. After he released Hades and knew what they were dealing with where Apollo was concerned.

  His cousin was quiet as they maneuvered the tunnels toward Hades’ sleeping unit.

  “I can’t believe we’re doing this,” P finally said, shaking his head before running a hand through his short black hair. The black tee shirt pulled tight over his shoulders. Tattoos trailed over the male’s arms, and the mix of Goth and biker separated him from looking just like his damned father.

  Drake nodded. “I know.”

  He’d discussed it with P before gathering the others. Drake didn’t defer to anyone, but if he did, it would be to P, who was far more a brother than a cousin. A brother who’d been forced to watch Drake’s back as he lived his worst nightmare.

  He was leader of the Guardians, protector of all the fucking Realms, and he hadn’t been able to safeguard the one small female who was his. He hadn’t even known she existed, yet she’d been the one who’d needed him the most. His dragon had roared for blood every single day since they’d found her a month ago.

  Massaging the tension in his neck wasn’t working. Every night his mind pulled up all the ways he’d failed her. She’d been kidnapped, raped…

  The dragon roared and then slammed inside his skull, tinting his vision red. The beast wanted out.

  She’d been terrorized, abused and then lost to a feral beast because he’d failed to kill Cyril before the bastard had taken her. He slammed a fist into nearby rock, letting the dust filter into the cool air like the smoke coming from his lips.

  P snarled. “You need to let the dragon out again, don’t you?”

  “Yes,” he growled, not bothering to deny it. “I’ll deal with it after we wake Hades.”

  “Fuck. Let’s get this done, then,” P ground out.

  They were going to have their fucking hands full with another God awakened, but Hades was the best of his three options. Probably their only one. Mainly because Aphrodite or Athena came with their mates. One arrogant God was fine. One with a fucking mate who felt just as superior would have added another complication. And in the end Hades was the most powerful of the three.

  The other advantage was that he loved his son, so P had a chance at reasoning with him. Hades was a God, but he was also smart. Mostly.

  Hades would likely have to get over the fact that P and Drake went behind his back to call the Creators, which had ended with the God being sent to sleep with his siblings. There hadn’t been another option; temples of the world had been running with the blood of humans sacrificed to the Gods who’d succumbed to taking dark energies. Once Hades’ brothers and sisters started feeding off death and destruction instead of clean elemental energies, there was no going back. They’d become twisted, dangerous beings set on destroying humanity or, in Apollo’s case, creating slaves of the Immortals to war with his siblings.

  Hades had arrogantly thought that he, Athena and Aphrodite would win whatever war came, but the God couldn’t have won. Drake doubted he’d see it that way.

  He didn’t fucking care what Hades thought, all Drake wanted was to get Apollo back before he lost his mind. The entire walk through the tunnels was a fight with the dragon, yanking it away from the connection to Delia while it snapped or roared in fury or pushed to get free of his skin. He clenched his teeth down hard.

  “Do you need to get it together before we do this?” P’s words pulled him from his thoughts, but just barely. He growled deep, on the cusp of losing it.

  “What’s happening?” his cousin demanded.

  “The fucking dragon won’t leave Delia’s link alone,” Drake bit out. He’d already informed P and Sirena about the connection. “When she was in pain, it raged. Now that she’s connected us, it’s like a fucking invitation.” The animal wanted to claim her more than it ever had, that link was like a damned beacon to his beast, but according to Sirena, Delia might not survive a mating to him. His mate already held two beasts, from Cyril’s fucking mating experiments, and if she bonded with Drake, she’d manifest a dragon to match his. That was why Immortal races didn’t blend.

  He fought the beast away from the link, but he had a feeling the animal would soon rip the manor apart to get to her.

  P grew silent. They had a new enemy, a God was taken, and they were releasing Hades. They couldn’t afford to have the dragon loose too.

  “What do we do if it takes over?”

  “It won’t come to that.” At least not yet. Drake would fight the instincts and the dragon for as long as he had to, but if it somehow got worse, P would be the one to deal with it. Fuck. He shook his head and ground out, “You’ll have to lock me up to keep my mate safe.” Drake hated that it might come to that. “Vane and Brianne can help you deal with Hades and get Apollo back.” Vane and Brianne were the next strongest, aside from Sirena, but the healer had her hands full. It would be up to P, and the rest would go to his cousin and do what needed to be done. His Guardians had worked together for millennia, he knew they’d make shit happen if he was caged.

  “Fuck,” P snapped and ran a hand over his head.

  “Once I set Hades free and we have our pissing match, y
ou’ll need to deal with him. Keep him on a leash while we find Apollo.”

  P eyed him and nodded.

  They both stilled at the sight of Hades lying in a clear case covered in the powerful blue-tinted spell made by the Creators themselves. He wore only black silk pants, and looking at the male, it hit him again how much Pothos looked like his father. Black hair, the same hard jaw and powerful frame. The God’s hair was longer; his midnight waves would hit mid back when he stood, unlike P’s. Hades also didn’t have gauges in his ears or tattoos like his son.

  Drake tried to rub all that tension out of the back of his neck, but it wasn’t working. He was suddenly exhausted.

  A moment later he was hit with a blast of anxiety so strong his hand stilled. He mentally touched the link to his mate as his beast roared. The anxiety was hers. No words, just so much fear and pain it was like ice chilling his soul.

  Sirena, get to Delia!

  A second later Sirena reported, I’m there. She’s still asleep.

  Fucking wake her up! he snarled as his eyes flashed crimson. The dragon roared, shaking the walls around them. His tee shirt shredded from the force of his wings ripping free of his back. His wings twitched and he felt P’s surge of power hitting him hard enough to jolt the animal from a complete transformation.

  Delia! he snarled in their mental link as he felt P confusing the beast out of a full rage. Something had to be wrong with her. And he couldn’t go to her, couldn’t be in the same room with her to find out what the fuck it was.

  Smoke filtered from his lips, filling the cavern in the haze as he fought for calm.

  The agitation and fear coming through the link finally eased, but his dragon only curled so tight around the connection he wasn’t sure what the hell to do.

  She’s starting to wake up, Sirena said in a kind of relieved rush.