OF WAR Anthology Novels 1-3

by Lisa Beth Darling

  Raven couldn’t stop looking at the last item once it met his eye. He fought harder, straining every muscle to capacity in his attempt to free himself and he only grew weak for the effort. Finally realizing she was telling the truth and he couldn’t get out of the shackles, Raven gave up the struggle but not the fight. “What are you gonna do?”

  Aphrodite closed her eyes and took in a deep breath to smell the fear rising from his pores. “Feels good, doesn’t it? Being helpless, vulnerable…afraid.” When she opened them again she felt as calm, peaceful, and serene as she appeared. “Is that how my Trinity felt before you killed her?” Raven opened his mouth to protest and Aphrodite sent the gag ball flying into it, the strap wrapped around his head and clasped itself in the back. “We don’t want you disturbing the neighbors,” she cooed as she picked up the leather whip and cracked it hard enough to make Raven jerk in the chains. “Keep struggling, it’s exciting me.” Dragging the whip behind her, Aphrodite swaggered in a circle around Raven and on each pass she got a little closer so she could evaluate his young body better. “She was a good girl, you know, a very good girl. All she ever wanted from you was for you to like her, she did everything she could to get you to be nice to her and what did it get her? Pushed off mountain top by a Brother who should have loved and protected her.”

  Raven tried to talk but the rubber ball between his teeth prevented it, each time he tried he found he choked on his tongue. Instead, he shook his head vigorously trying to tell the woman with the whip and the angry stare that wasn’t how it happened.

  “No?” she cooed sweetly as she pulled her arm back and let the whip fly at him. The tip met Raven’s flesh lashing from his left shoulder, across his chest to just below his rib cage. Raven winced, grunted, tried to scream but it only made her laugh. “Don’t lie to me, you killed my baby and if you had your way you’d kill Hunter too.”

  Raven didn’t bother to protest that one. His Brother was an evil little shit and Raven would choke the life out of him with a wide grin if he ever got the chance.

  “What? No answer!” Cocking her arm back, she lashed him again harder. This time the whip tore open the tender skin just above that patch of dark hair between his legs. Raven tried to bring his knee up to cover that most sensitive area but the chains wouldn’t allow it. Feeling a rush of excitement as the well-defined muscles in his abs tightened with the sting of pain, Aphrodite brushed an errant strand of hair behind her ear. “That looks painful, here, let me help,” she huffed as she grabbed up a handful of fine grained salt and rubbed it in the open wound. Grinding it in deep she let her finger tips with their long pink nails sink into the quivering velvety skin below. “Better?” she asked as she looked up at him with wide blue eyes.

  To hold back the shriek of agony rising within him, Raven bit down on the ball between his teeth as hard as he could. Taking in a deep breath through his nose he grunted, “Ich!”

  “A bitch am I? Honey we’re just getting started.” She let her hands wander up his lithe frame to his jawline. “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” She winked at him and then slowly wandered around behind him. He had a great ass, firm, tight, perfectly slapable, she understood exactly why Apollo was grooming him all these years. Poor Apollo failed to realize that Raven really was very much like his Father so Apollo had no chance in hell of ever sinking his golden cock deep into that virgin hole.

  But she did.

  Chained up this way, with those long muscular legs spread apart, Raven had no choice but to let her do whatever she wanted. Since he was at her disposal, there was no need to rush. They had an hour or more to kill. With a snap of her fingers, the cart of toys zipped over to where she stood behind him whip in one hand and the other running wild from his shoulders to his ass and back again taking in each bump and rippled muscle. “You really are quite the specimen my dear boy, you’re very…healthy.” Letting the whip fall to the floor, she clasped one hand to each cheek with a loud smack. The firm muscle in her palms tightened as he rose up on his tiptoes. “I really like that in a man.” Letting her nails rip into her flesh she pried his cheeks apart to have a better look. Raven started struggling again. The sight of him dancing in the chains made her shudder, it made her mouth water and her nipples hard. With much thought, she chose her next weapon from the cart. Keeping it hidden in her hand behind his back, she twisted around Raven’s body like a snake until her head was level with his navel and those running rivers of Ichor. “I can see why Apollo wants you, why he’s always wanted you.” Aphrodite licked the Ichor off Raven’s taut stomach in a long slow lap. She let the salty taste roll around her tongue as her eyes gleamed up at him. “Very tasty.” She let her eyes drop down to his half-flaccid cock. “Wonder what that tastes like, I suppose I’ll find out soon enough.” Cupping the weapon in her hand behind his back she tittered and smiled sweetly as two fingers began exploring that unused crack.

  Raven felt her icy fingers between his cheeks, shook his head violently, he grunted and growled but the heavy rubber ball in his mouth kept him quiet. The chains kept him in place. He tried to tell himself it wasn’t going to be so bad when she jammed those fingers into him, it would be like taking a hard shit in reverse. It was those nails of hers he was worried about shredding him from the inside out. But that turned out not to be a problem as he felt something hard and frigid slid up the hole that previously only had things slide down. His whole body ran cold as it broke out in goose bumps and he looked down at her smiling up at him with her eyes rolling back in her head in bliss.

  “Surprisingly painful, isn’t it? The cold,” she asked nicely as she slid the large cube of ice into him until that pucker hole swallowed it up, all six inches of it. “That’s all right soon you’ll be numb and when it melts we’ll really get started.” She looked down at his young cock again to see it was completely flaccid. “Oh, you’re too young for such a problem, but no worries, dear boy, none at all.” Aphrodite slid down Raven’s body to her knees then she crawled around in front of him put her nose and mouth right up close and personal with his quivering member and took in a deep breath. Unlike his Father who smelled of Earth, Wood, and Fire, Raven smelled like spice. He smelled like cinnamon and nutmeg, all warm and inviting, tempting and alluring. Letting out the breath she held in her lungs in a long slow stream of air from her lips she blew across his cock making it prickle, twitch, swell, grow and then stand to full attention even as she watched him struggle to keep it down. “Ooooo, my, look at that,” she whispered in a heavy pant feeling her heart begin to pulse and sweat break out on her brow. That young firm cock just kept swelling until it popped up over his belly button to touch upon the second set of that rock hard eight-pack. On her knees before him, the Goddess of Love struggled to contain herself and not give over to the urge to ride him like a bull. “You are like your Father, the very best part of him.” Letting her breath continue to blow over him in a warm gentle breeze, she lapped out with the flat of her tongue to get her first taste and found it pleasing.

  With the large chunk of ice melting in his ass and her hot tongue lapping along the shaft of his cock, Raven’s knees went weak but soon recovered when gravity took over forcing the melting ice deeper into him. It was painful with its blistering cold and unyielding bite but, under that there was the tingling sensation of pleasure as it tickled something deep inside him making his breath hitch in chest. Then the gentle wisp of breath on his shaft disappeared. Raven opened his eyes just in time to see her mouth open wide as her long neck craned out and she took half of him down in one swallow. His toes curled on the hard marble floor when her nimble tongue began licking and dancing over the tip and down the burgeoning shaft. Rising up on her knees, Aphrodite arched her back, planted both hands on his slender hips, and took him down the rest of the way. Raven let out a grunt but this time it was full of pleasure with a tinge of pain heightening the sensation all the more. Caught in the grip of the chains, she used her hands to push him away and pull him back to her while she remained stationary before
him. Sweat broke out on his upper lip as his eyes rolled back in his head and this time when his knees gave out from under him forcing that spike of ice in deeper Raven didn’t fight against it. Instead, he thought he’d died and gone to heaven as he surrendered, gave over to the Goddess of Love and the exotic gifts she had to offer. Her nails sinking deep into his hips and her tongue lapping over him like a stripper after a fifty-dollar tip he felt the heat rise in his belly, felt it grow, swell, and begin its rush from his toes, up his legs, to his balls, and then…

  Aphrodite stopped. She pushed him away and sat on the floor in front of him as she spat on the floor.

  Raven railed in the chains at the unjust sudden stoppage of his pleasure. She brought him right to the edge and left him there. “‘Ich!” He bit down on the ball so hard his sharp teeth sank far into the hard plastic, he heard it let out a pitiful little squeal just before his jaws clamped tighter and bit it in half. One end of the orange ball dropped to the floor at Aphrodite’s feet. Raven opened his mouth wider, the other half fell off the leather strap into his mouth. He thought he’d return the favor and spat it out at her. “You bitch!”

  Letting her tongue flick out to run along her bottom lip and let the taste of cinnamon his clear juices brought her, she tilted her head to the side. “Well, aren’t you the determined one?” she marveled looking at the split halves of the solid rubber.

  “Why don’t you let me out of these chains? I’ll show you how determined I am, I told that bastard of yours I’d make you scream my name and I will. Let me go.”

  “You’re not going anywhere, pretty boy,” she hissed and slithered to her feet letting her sheer gown drop from her shoulders to reveal her heftier but still damn sexy frame. “You’re mine and you’re going to pay for what you did to my Daughter, right here, right now.” Sauntering up to him, keeping his gaze fixed to hers, she got close enough to heat the air between them. Without warning, she grabbed hold of his balls and squeezed hard. Raven screamed, shrieked in agony and she laughed but that laugh was cut short when he threw his head back and then tossed his body forward as hard as he could. Their heads collided and she was driven to her knees. Her head reeled as stars burst in the air before her eyes.

  “I didn’t kill her,” Raven spat.

  “Liar!”

  “No, I didn’t kill her, you did.”

  “How dare you?!” Aphrodite struggled to her feet on unsteady knees and a head that was still swimming.

  “You did it,” he asserted, “you kept her prisoner here, you never let her see the Mortal World, hell you hardly ever let her out of this pretty jail cell of yours. Yeah, maybe she wanted me to be a better Brother but she damn sure wanted you to be a better Mother.”

  With a banshee’s shout of rage, Aphrodite drove her knee up into his groin. “You bastard!”

  Raven’s legs threatened to give out from under him and he grabbed for the short chains holding the shackles on his wrists to keep him upright but slumped forward into the next shot anyway.

  Aphrodite took it, the next drive of her knee smashed into Raven’s lower jaw throwing his head back on his shoulders as his teeth shredded his cheeks and lower lip. The taste of his Ichor coating his throat, Raven looked down at her in defiance. “You know I’m right. How do you think I got her to the cliff? All I had to do was show her the world below, just once. Tell her about it, just once, and it was all she wanted; to live a life, a free life but you wouldn’t let her.”

  “She didn’t belong down there.”

  “Yes, she did, we all do. But, besides, that wasn’t the day she died. I told you, I didn’t kill her. I wasn’t anywhere near her when she fell off Olympus.”

  “You’re lying, I see it in your eyes, those weird fucked up eyes of yours. You’re telling the truth but you’re lying.” Aphrodite flew at him, she jumped up, landed high on his torso, clamped her strong thighs around him lacing her feet together for added leverage even as her hand wound around the back of his neck. “I don’t like them, you know, your eyes. Too much like your Mother,” she whispered as she wrapped a handful hair at the back of his head around her wrist and gave it a good yank. With the other hand, she called forth a small metal poker and brandished it in front of him. “What do you say we take care of that problem?”

  “Get off me!” Raven bucked, he thrashed, he dodged, and writhed in the chains that wouldn’t let go and neither would she. That hold Aphrodite had in his hair was ruthless and though her legs were old those thighs were still firm and strong as they secured to his flanks like a vice. “No!” The poker just kept coming closer and closer and the look on her face grew more determined. “All right! All right! I had Spirit Walker scare her into falling off the cliff! I told him to attack her!”

  With the sharp metal poker mere millimeters away from its goal Aphrodite stopped, every muscle in her body went ridged, seizing him like a boa with a jackrabbit, cutting off the air to his lungs as her knees pushed into his sides. “Cunning. Sneaky little shit. That’s your Mother in you, isn’t it? Ares wouldn’t be so sly but she would.”

  “My Mother had nothing to do with it, she loved Trinity,” Raven gasped still trying to pull away from the poker. “I didn’t kill her.”

  Aphrodite let out a dry chuckle. “Yes, I see. In reality, the wolf did it and they won’t hold you responsible for her death. When it comes to Apollo, you’ve been counting on that, haven’t you? He holds it over your head and you go along letting him believe he has power over you but knowing in the end you’ll walk away unscathed.”

  “As far as Zeus is concerned, I’m not even one of you. There’s no death penalty for a mongrel like me who kills an Olympian.”

  Aphrodite lowered the poker from his eye to his heart. “You are good, I have to give you that. Very well done, Raven. It seems, at least at heart, you’re one of us after all. Or maybe Zeus is right, that Dark Fae Whore Mother of yours trapped Ares in an illusion of love so she could come here, have you, and the two of you could take us out.”

  “That Old Man is out of his mind,” Raven croaked. “You know she loves him; you’d only like to believe otherwise.” Alena did love Ares, even Aphrodite couldn’t bring herself to disagree, it was all over the woman every time she looked at him. Alena just lit up with this wonderful warm glow and so did Ares. “Go on and exact your pound of flesh from me but the others will never punish me for her death. Even Trinity’s forgiven me; she told me so in the Underworld.”

  “She would, she was a good girl,” Aphrodite’s voice trembled.

  “Yes, she was but she’s gone and you have to let her go.”

  Aphrodite didn’t want to listen to that. “I can’t.” Her grip on him began to loosen.

  Finding it a bit easier to breathe, Raven’s thundering heart began slowing down as he held her stare. “You can, she misses you, she loves you. She wanted me to tell you that.”

  “What else does she want me to know?”

  “That she’s happy in the Elysian Fields, she’s not sad or lonely.” Raven spoke softly looking deeply into her dewy eyes, knowing he was telling her everything she wanted to hear. His words were melting her heart faster than the ice in his ass. “She doesn’t want you to be sad or lonely, she doesn’t want you to mourn her anymore. She wants you to be happy.”

  Aphrodite sighed sorrowfully and frowned as she let the poker fall out of her hand and to the floor as her grip on his hair softened and she let her fingers feel the silkiness of his dark tresses.

  “I can make you happy if you let me. A woman like you should never be sad and lonely.”

  The hand that, moments ago, threatened to pierce his eyes and then his heart wandered gently along the nape of his neck. “I want to believe you.”

  “So do it,” Raven dared. “Take a chance.” Her face was close, so close, Raven leaned forward and kissed her, she nearly melted against him. Those lovely thighs loosened further and she slid down him until his hard cock was resting against the crack of her fine ass making him kiss her deeper before
he pulled away. “Let me go, take these chains off me, I’ll make it all go away, all the pain, the sorrow, the loneliness, I’ll give you pleasure, I’ll fill you with the bliss and passion you’re so longing for.”

  With the tangy taste of his Ichor on her tongue and her ample breasts pressed against his chest, Aphrodite looked deep into Raven’s strangely haunting eyes. “No,” she whispered and started to rock her hips, brushing that waiting space between her lower cheeks over the his throbbing cock. “Silver tongued devil.” She breathed deep to catch his scent again letting it fill her head with wicked thoughts of desire. “I won’t let you go.” Pushing her thighs together again she rose up on his torso to loom over him before bending to kiss him again, gnashing her lips to his and forcing his mouth open with her tongue as she slid down him until his cock pressed against the folds of flesh between her legs. Keeping her body hugged tightly against his she bit his lip and then nibbled her way, in hard little bites, down the nape of his neck as she took him inside, inch by excruciatingly slow inch until he was buried to the hilt inside her wet swollen walls.

  Raven let out a long low grunt of pleasure as his eyes rolled back in his head.

  “That’s what it feels like to be inside a Goddess,” she whispered in his ear, “so much better than that little Nymph of yours, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” Raven moaned, wishing he could wrap his arms around her and pump her up and down on him. But there was no need, soon she was pumping away, using the strength in those legs fastened around him to pull herself up and down on his hard shaft with growing ferocity. “Go on, do it, you sexy bitch. Come on, fuck me, show me what’cha got.”