OF WAR Anthology Novels 1-3

by Lisa Beth Darling

  “You’re damn straight I would have…”

  “But if you lost? If you came for me and lost, who would watch over her? Who would take care of Rose?”

  Ares felt his heart sink and then soar to heights it had never known. “My Wife, the Eternal Mother, always watching out for her Children. I understand.”

  “My Children? My Son,” she said mournfully and gave Ares a wan smile, “it’s so hard to believe that he’s a man.” She paused, her eyes darted around the bedroom before they came back to his. “I fear he’s in trouble, that he’s done something terrible.” Shaking her head she bit down on her bottom lip as her brow furrowed. “I saw him in so many people’s dreams,” she whispered in hushed amazement. “Thousands upon thousands of them were dreaming about him, some happily, some women and some men, lustfully, others were afraid of him. Something awful is going on down there, Ares, something vile and wicked. Something that has to do with Raven, I think he’s done something unforgivable. Do you know what it is? Tell me.”

  Maybe it was the fall or her extended time in the Dream World that awoke some distant memories in her, everything was bubbling just below the surface; if she hadn’t already then any day now she would put it altogether. It was all over her face as it danced in the recesses of her stormy eyes. The whole of it had yet to impact upon her and now was not the time to burden her. Brushing strands of wet silver-gray hair away from her cheek to tuck them behind her ear he gave her a warm smile. “Perhaps you shouldn’t concern yourself with that just now,” Ares encouraged, “I’ll take care of it. I promise, my Wife, I will take care of everything.”

  “You always do. Still, I think you know more than you tell me,” Alena whispered, running her fingers over the Willow Medallion Cernunnos laid on her neck so long ago but now gracing Ares’ chest. “Don’t you?”

  “I think I can say the same of you, my Wife. You’ve been keeping secrets of your own.”

  Alena sighed deeply as her face wrinkled. “Maybe,” she finally confessed and touched the side of her head, “I’m really not sure.” She let out a long low sigh and entwined the silver chain nestled on his chest around her fingers until she got to the medallion. Alena picked it up, turned it over in her hands, then turned it back. “It looks good on you,” she whispered, settling the silver willow tree back into its new home, resting her head next to it once more.

  Her words took him by surprise. When she finally realized he was wearing the medallion, Ares expected her to be cross. “Does it? Does that mean you don’t think you’re anything more than my trophy?”

  Alena kissed the medallion that rested just over his heart. “I know you tucked it away there to keep it safe and away from prying eyes.” Slender fingers went to the three tiers of diamonds and rubies surrounding her milky throat. “That you gave me this because you love me, not because you believe you own me. I’m sorry I didn’t see it sooner.”

  Stroking his big mitt over the top of her wet head, he looked at down at her. Ares wondered aloud, “So, how do you know it now?”

  “If there’s one thing I learned from my time with Morpheus it’s that dreams never lie.” Alena tilted her head upward to gaze into his dark eyes. “I saw it in one of your dreams. I saw you hide it and I felt your regret when you found it missing, knowing what I must have thought when I found it. I know you didn’t intend for it to appear the way it did.”

  Ares pulled his head back to narrow his eyes and gauge her closely. “How long were you spying on my dreams?”

  “I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “A while, I came to you once, to make love with you again and to feel the way…”

  Ares lowered his head as he pushed hers upward and kissed her to bring the sensation both of them had been waiting for so long, that burst of sweet fire that lead to the lightheadedness of desire. He put the palm of his hand between her breasts to feel the pulse of her heart as he leaned down to kiss her full on the mouth. The softly beating heart under his hand began to race as she pressed into him, her wet hardening nipples firm against the hair on his chest. Alena wrapped her arm around his neck to pull him into her and explore the tip of his tongue with hers, making the lonely cock between his legs howl to life, sensing its mate was finally here and she was aroused. Ares broke the embrace. “What about you? Are you still mine or do you still plan to leave me, taking my Children with you?”

  “I’m not leaving.” Alena cast her eyes down to the swirling water in the tub in shame. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know what else to do. I never wanted to go. I never want to be without you.”

  “I know.” Ares picked up both of her hands and held them tightly in his. Soon her wrists grew warm and an odd red light glowed between them. When Alena tried to pull her hands away he held them firm and let the energy pass from him to her. It sunk in deep and then the light faded. “There,” Ares said with satisfaction as he leaned back against the wall of the whirling tub.

  “There what?” Alena asked looking at her hands in bewilderment feeling them tingle.

  “Now you can open the Gates of Olympus whenever you want, you come and go as you please. My Wife is a free woman, not my captive.”

  Alena was so happy she nearly burst into tears as she threw her arms around his neck reveling in the warmth of him. The weight of him and just the sheer reality of the silkiness of his flesh against hers after being so long in the Dream World where nothing was substantial filled her with desire, letting her know she was still alive and she was home.

  Holding her close and saying a reverent little prayer to have her back in his arms, he kissed the top of her head, “I should have done that long ago.”

  Ares took her hand in his and held it tight. “No more secrets between us, agreed? No matter how ugly the truth we will always tell it to each other.”

  “Yes, I’d like that.” Alena tilted her head upward for another kiss. “No more secrets. No more lies. No more talk tonight.”

  Instead of giving in to the kiss and the embrace offered to him, Ares picked up Alena and climbed out of the whirling warm water with her in his arms. Dripping wet he carried her out to the bedroom and the large bed they once shared. “Are you still afraid of me?”

  Alena’s arms looped around his neck and her fingers twirling his wet hair she gazed into his eyes. “I was never afraid of you and I never will be.” She glanced toward the bed with sparkling eyes.

  For Ares, there was no mistaking the sweet devilish glint; it was the one that said she wanted him. Only him, and she wanted him now, right now. He laid her down on the bed but remained standing so that he could gaze down at her. With passion and desire swiftly growing within him, he found it hard to keep his place. “Are you sure that you’re up for such things?” She was still very fragile and he’d been away from her so long, Ares was afraid of losing control and of doing more harm than good when their bodies came together as one in the heat of fever long denied. Way deep down, Ares felt it may be exactly what she needed to ensure her good health and bring her strength back to full. In the aftermath of Morpheus and the wake of the Ritual Hera performed so long ago, it was clear to him that they needed each other. He’d felt lost and helpless without her but now that she was near he felt himself growing strong again and saw the same in her hungry eyes. Although now she proclaimed her faith in him, long ago she’d been leaving him because she lost it. Now he had to show her that need never happen again.

  “Quite sure, my Lord,” she moaned in a husky voice. “Please, don’t make me wait for your touch, make love to me. Take the past away. Show me you’re my future.”

  Dripping wet, Ares slicked his hair away from his face with the palm of his hand as he let out a rush of air, feeling the hot cresting wave of desire crash over him. He climbed onto the bed to take her up in his arms. “I am your future and you are mine. No other men. No other women. Only you and me until the end of time.” His brawny arms tightened bringing her up and close as his lips descended in the kiss she was begging for. “My woman,” he crooned as his lip
s parted hers for but a moment, then they covered hers again in a blanket of longing. Ares’ eyes rolled back in his head when her lips answered his call. Her arms wrapped around him, pushing her firm breasts into the soft mat of fur at his chest and then she stiffened, held her place like a statue, just before she melted in his arms, surrendering to him and the heat between them. It consumed the entire world turning it to ash around them even as it grew higher and hotter.

  Alena’s lips locked to his, her arms began trying to lead him to mount her even as her hips rocked in anticipation of his entry. Her milky thighs ground against the tip of his full-blown hard on making him moan and grunt as he kissed her. “Now? Please now?” she whispered without breaking the kiss.

  Ares clamped a hand over a heaving breast to push her down to the soft mattress and lay her flat below him. “My Wife, she’s always in such a hurry. It’s been four long lonely years since I last entered you and I’ve no desire to rush this, but to savor it.”

  Alena could scarcely argue, it seemed every touch of his hand and kiss of his lips brought strength to her ailing body as it made her head fly higher and higher. Her body and soul drank in Ares’ heat like a parched woman grabbing her first drops of water. As Ares’ lips moved away from hers, over her cheek, past her ear to search out that sweet spot on her neck, Alena offered it up to him, surrendered to his will and all he had to offer. His teeth clamped down just below her right ear, Alena saw shooting stars as her hips rose from the bed and twisted toward him. His hand clamped down over her hipbone, pulled her to him and then pushed her away to hold her flat on the bed. The soft fur on his chest moved to lie down over her heaving breasts. When she reached up to run her hands along the muscular ripples of his back, Ares grabbed her hand and pinned it to the mattress in a firm grip, holding her down, keeping her where he wanted her. Alena moaned and quivered as his teeth sank deeper into her waiting wanton flesh of her throat where he let out guttural snarling sounds like a wolf in heat. They filled her ears, calling to the wild side of her Fey nature. With his brawny body half over her, his hard cock still poked and prodded her outer thigh, every time she tried to twist her body to answer its call he tightened his grip forcing her willful surrender. “Give it to me,” she whispered.

  The agile tongue swirling on the delicate flesh of her neck lapped the salty-sweet taste of her as the scent of honeysuckle began to fill the room. “Oh, I will,” he grunted before drawing another chunk of skin to his teeth and feeling her shudder below him. Breaking away from her neck, his soft beard slid along her cheek as his lips searched for hers, hovering over her with gleaming onyx eyes he promised, “All night, until well past dawn, I’m going to give it to you over and over again.”

  Looking up into those eyes after so long, seeing the desire and the heat there just waiting for her to reach out and take it, Alena thought she’d drift away. Whatever tethered her to this Earth would simply snap and she would fly away into the cosmos, up, up, up, and away in an endless sea of love. Everything around her started to haze as though a white fog were rising then she realized it was steam, it was coming off the droplets of water heating up on his olive skin. “Kiss me?”

  “That’s better,” he teased as he let go of her hand to cup her face and kiss her long and deep, reveling in the sensation of her hands roaming all over him. Velvety hands slid over his shoulders, down his back, then zoomed up again to grab handfuls of thick graying midnight hair and push his mouth further into hers. His hands busy in her hair, he didn’t have time to stop her when Alena swung that ever searching hip toward him, wrapped her leg around his knee and yanked him fully over her. Taken by surprise, she almost reached her goal before he put a stop to it. Ares sat up on her, grabbed both hands and pushed them down by her head. “Are you going to make me tie you down?”

  The thought gave Alena no fear, she only smirked and let out a long coo as her stormy eyes sparkled at him.

  “Oh, I see, it’s going to be that way is it?” he teased. “Ok,” he agreed as he called a long strip of black velvet to his hand. Holding her wrists secure with one hand, he looped the strand through a knot in the ornate headboard then made a loop at each end that he cuffed around her wrists in two slipknots. “You know the rules, you struggle, they tighten, so be a good girl and lay still.”

  Alena licked her lips and let out another long sigh. “What are you waiting for?”

  “If you had my view right now you wouldn’t want to rush this either,” he returned in a smoky voice as he reached out to touch her, letting his hands roam from the curve of her throat over her shoulders and then come together again as they met over her breasts with their hard pink nipples. Everywhere he put his hands the skin below prickled with electricity as it broke out in goose bumps until she was shuddering again. It had been a very long time since he’d had a taste of those perky tits, long since he’d cupped them in his hands feeling the softness of their perfect mounds. As he lowered his head to get that taste, he breathed in deep to take in the scent of a field of honeysuckle on a warm summer day. “My woman, I love you.” His lips descended over a waiting nipple and heartily greeted it when her back arched off the mattress and her hands reached for his head only to have the soft length of velvet hold her back.

  “I love you, my Lord, my Love,” Alena whispered, trying not to fight against the restraints but her hands had a mind of their own and they were set on touching him. They reached out endlessly, straining against the restraints holding her so lovingly in place. He stayed just out of her grasp as his moist mouth worked her sensitive nipple and the flesh below it.

  Never one to discriminate, Ares moved to the other breast to pay it a long bout of attention before making his way over her ribs and down her stomach to the musky scented place between her legs that had been calling to his hard cock. When he touched the hip that had been searching out its prey her legs didn’t part. I nstead, they closed and she jerked away from him. At first, he thought she was teasing him but then she curled up in a ball in the vain attempt to protect herself from him. Rather than give in to the desire to force her back to a prone position, he ran his hand over the curve of her waist and over that of her thigh. Leaning over her he whispered in her ear, “It’s all right, Alena, it’s me, it’s all right.” Her eyes rolled open and she looked at him with uncertainty that made his heart ache. “Shhh, it’s all right.” She gave him a cautious smile and turned back toward him. “I’m not angry, don’t be afraid, I love you. I would never hurt you…” his voice trailed off as he left the unspoken word hanging between them; ‘again’. The sound of her screaming on top of the parapet raced through his mind along with Morpheus’ ghostly words; Jaakim, Cernunnos, Apollo, let’s not forget you.

  Of course he wouldn’t, she knew that. For one horrible second she forgot as the nightmare skipped through her mind. “Tell me again that you love me.”

  “I love you, Magdalena MacLeod, I love you and no other woman. I will never give up on you and I will never let you go.”

  Alena’s eyes welled with tears as relief washed over her and she turned her body back to him. “I thought I’d never hear you say that again. Home. I’m home.”

  “Right where you belong,” he whispered heatedly and continued his descent without further interruption. When he made his way back to her hips, her legs parted like the Red Sea and he settled between them as a starving man with a steak dinner laid out before him. He dove in greedily lapping up every drop of nectar she had to give him until his thick beard was drenched with her juices. Every sigh, every moan, every soft coo that rose from her throat brought him higher, giving him more command over her as her body shuddered and quivered with the thrust of his hand and the deep probing of his tongue. Until she lay panting and breathless with the blanket below them soaked through to the mattress, begging him to stop because she couldn’t take any more ecstasy.

  Ready to sink his throbbing cock deep into her slick hole Ares pushed her knees up as he settled between them. “No,” she whispered sweetly, “not yet
.” Alena licked her lips and opened her mouth slightly. “Please? It’s been so long since I tasted you.”

  Ordinarily on a night such as this Ares wouldn’t be selfish with her but since she asked so nicely he crawled up her body with his eyes locked to hers watching the storm grow in those gray eyes. If he let her do this for him then when he finally penetrated her it would last longer. Grabbing hold of the base of his massive cock, he rubbed the tip along her lips. “You want this?”

  “Oh, yes, please, my Lord.” Her mouth opened as her neck strained forward.

  He thought of the little Nymph who’d tried to seduce him and then fled screaming into the night and smirked as he chuckled. “No other woman,” he promised once more as he rose up to dip his cock into her waiting mouth and slip it down her throat with ease. Just as his eyes started to close and roll back in his head he saw her hands reaching out for the shaft ,wanting to pump it and grab hold of his heavy balls but they were only able to graze over the happy trail between his taunt stomach and the hot tool sliding in and out of her mouth. Forcing a thick finger into one loop, he freed one hand. Like a magnet to a hunk of steel, it clamped down over his shaft and began working with expert fervor. Although she could free herself now, without permission from her Lord and Husband, Alena left the other wrist straining in its binds scratching and kneading the happy trail she loved so much.

  The touch of his own hand while he watched Onya masturbate having been the closest contact he’d had with a woman these last four years, just as he anticipated it didn’t take long before the smoldering fire in his belly turned to a full inferno, sweat breaking out on his brow. The part of him that was afraid of hurting her was beaten down by his animal lust as Ares grabbed the headboard, driving his tool further down her throat. Opening the eyes swimming in his head he looked down to see her greedily worshiping his cock, sucking, yanking, pulling on it and lapping her tongue all around until he couldn’t hold back any longer and the God of War howled from the tips of his toes to the top of his head. His entire body stiffened and his cock throbbed so hard he thought it would explode, and it did. It exploded with a long stream of a black cherry cum that Alena gobbled up as fast as she could, her hand pumping every drop out while her mouth sucked and her body heaved below him.