Earth: A Reverse Harem Romance (The Elements Book 1)

by Ava Hardy

  Blake nodded his head and Chris gave me a bleak look. I pressed my lips together and sat back in my seat. Not really knowing what I was expecting, I knew that this wasn’t going to be a cake walk. But invisible Defenders? How would we be able to compete with that? Chris reached out and gently put his hand on top of mine. He told me not to worry; everything was going to work out fine. I wanted to believe him. I really did, but we didn’t exactly train for invisible bad guys.

  It took both of them at least thirty minutes to gather enough supplies to fill both of their backpacks. The villagers wanted to offer words of advice and encouragement. By the time they had reached me, I was ready to go and standing near the front window watching Chris and Blake. Excitement was in the air. This could be the moment where we finally found our first element. At the same time, it was going to be extremely dangerous. One or more of us could be injured or worse. Even though I knew we had healing qualities, nobody was immortal.

  Before we left the village on foot, Nan pulled me aside and gave me a big hug. She whispered softly in my ear that I needed to watch out for the boys, they needed my guidance, and then she disappeared back inside the store. I had no idea what she meant but tried not to worry about it. I didn’t have the time to dwell on things that couldn’t be changed or get my stomach twisted in knots over words an old woman said in code.

  I don’t know how long we walked along the trail, but the sun had shifted in the sky. The beams of light filtered through the trees and, at times, would hit us right in the eyes. I hadn’t thought to bring sunglasses so I was constantly putting my hand up to block the sun. Chris offered me his pair but I had to decline. They needed to see better than myself since they knew what we were looking for. I still wasn’t clear.

  Was it a big shiny box? Or was there an illuminated arrow that says, “element here” as it flashed where to go? I doubted it. It could be as small as a ring box or large enough for two people to carry. The assumptions that we were going on were the urban legends Chris and Blake had both heard growing up. Every time an element is to be found, it’s different in shape and size. No two are ever alike. If I ever saw Gaia again, I would have several questions regarding the difficulty of locating something when nobody knows what it looks like. We couldn’t be set up to fail. Right?

  “Do you want to stop and take a break?” Blake asked me, turning around to look at me as he walked.

  I shook my head. I was good. This trip I didn’t wear as many layers now that I knew if I got cold, I could snuggle up to one of my boys. And if either of them got wet and cold, well...I just had to give them a heated kiss. The thought put a smile on my face as I continued behind Blake. Chris must have noticed because he asked what I was grinning at.

  “Oh nothing,” I said in a singsong voice, my smile growing.

  “I don’t believe you,” he said as he glanced back at me.We both laughed.

  The narrow dirt trail led us up half a mountain and then back down on the other side. We went around sharp curves and alongside deep ravines. With all the terrain we saw, I would have guessed that we hiked for days, but it had only been hours. As the sun shifted a little more, I started to wonder if we were going to get stuck out in the wilderness all over again. The last time had been too stressful, and I didn’t want to experience that feeling of loss again.

  I turned my head to ask Chris what he thought about it when something moved across the trail behind him. It was quick, too quick. I couldn’t make out what it was, other than a dark shadowy blur.

  “Defenders,” I muttered softly. I had stopped in my tracks, Chris stopping right next to me. He turned his head to look in the same direction, but his eyebrows furrowed a bit.

  “Where?” His voice matched mine in softness, his eyes searching over the tall grass on the left side of the trail and the trees that lined the right.

  Another shadowy figure ran out of the grass and paused in the middle of the trail. This wasn’t like the others that I remembered seeing. On all fours, this Defender was the size of a bear with longer teeth and claws. My eyes went wide as I stayed behind Chris, assuming he was watching the same thing. Blake had walked ahead of us, not realizing that we had stopped. He came back, asked why we stopped. I could only stare at him. Didn’t he hear me? Or was he mentally singing another one of his songs again?

  “Kiera saw a Defender,” Chris whispered, looking over his shoulder at Blake.

  “He’s right there!” I hissed as quietly as I could, motioning towards the trail a good fifty feet in front of us.

  “There’s nothing there.” Blake’s tone made me want to punch him. I wasn’t seeing things. There was a big ass Defender right in front of us.

  “Look! He’s coming right at us!” I realized the figure was starting to charge at us. Realizing that neither of them were going to help, I pushed Chris out of my way and conjured up the ball of feelings I needed in my stomach. Raising my hand, I pointed at the bear-like shadow and let the light soar out of my fingertips. Within seconds, black pieces of the Defender floated through the air as it exploded. They slowly started to disappear but not before the boys could see it.

  “Fuck...” Blake groaned, flicking one of the fading pieces off of his shoulder.

  “She can see invisible Defenders,” Chris stated, his eyes staring at where the creature was last seen. There was some grass that had been blown to the side by the blast, but other remnants had disappeared.

  “I didn’t even hear it,” Blake said running his fingers through his hair.

  “You didn’t hear me say Defender either,” I pointed out, taking a deep breath. “I can’t believe...” I took a step back and leaned against one of the trees near the trail. “I can’t believe that actually worked.” Leaning forward, I put my hands on my knees so I could keep taking deep breaths and relax my nerves.

  “You did amazing.” Chris was whispering to me, his hand rubbing my back. “You okay?”

  I nodded my head and stood back up straight. “I just...I don’t know. I’m shocked, surprised, jazzed up on energy. I feel all sorts of things right now. I think I might puke.”

  Blake wrinkled his nose when I mentioned my queasiness but I ignored him for the moment. Chris took out his water bottle and handed it to me, telling me to drink as much as I need.

  “We have to be getting closer,” Chris stated, his hand still rubbing my back. “I.D.s don’t hang around just for the hell of it.”

  “So what do we do if I can see them and you can’t? Your hearing didn’t pick up on that one and let me tell you...he was huge. I’m talking like grizzly bear size. It had claws this long.” I tucked the water in my arm and used my free hands to show them several inches. “And fangs for teeth. Not like those ones we saw along the side of the road.”

  “Defenders come in all shapes and sizes,” Chris explained after taking a deep breath. His hand ran over his beard as he thought. After a moment, he glanced over at Blake as if asking him what he wanted to do.

  “I...” Blake started to stutter, not really having an answer. He looked back at Chris and for the first time since I met him, it seemed like his confidence was draining.

  “Let’s keep heading down the trail and see what happens,” Chris suggested with a bit of question in his tone. He received a nod from both me and Blake.

  As we made our way down the trail, we moved more into the forest and things grew much darker. The shadows were longer, the patches of sunlight were few and far between. Both men tucked their sunglasses into their backpacks and kept listening for the threat of Defenders. My eyes struggled to adjust. Every time I thought I saw something, I would turn quickly and it would be nothing. I was getting frustrated because I was the only one who could see these things and yet they were hiding in actual dark patches in the forest. I knew they were there. It was like I could sense them.

  Blake stopped walking and turned towards me just as Chris walked up behind me.

  “Just breathe,” Blake told me softly, his hands on my arms. Chris wrapped his arms arou
nd my waist and tried to relax me. As nice as it felt to have them both close, it wasn’t really working. I needed to be able to protect them. Nan’s words rang in the back of my head without me noticing it.

  “If you stop fighting it, your eyes will adjust. Your vision has to be as good as ours, especially in the dark. You just have to relax.” Chris’s voice filtered into my head, his lips brushing over my ear.

  I took a deep breath and nodded, giving my promise that I was going to try and relax. They were right. Damn it, weren’t they always right? But there was no sense in getting all worked up when I needed to be focused. I took a moment to lean back against Chris’s body and closed my eyes. Blake took a step closer and I could feel him lightly pressing against my front. Their combined warmth washed over me and I felt a wave of relaxation hit me. Smiling, I opened my eyes a little and then turned my head to kiss Chris softly before I gave Blake a kiss of his own.

  “I feel better. We need to remember that the next time I’m stressed out.” I smiled at them. I wanted to tease them about it but the look on my face made it too obvious how much I enjoyed it.

  “Good,” Chris smiled, kissing my cheek before we started to walk down the dirt path. Snow was unable to reach this far into the dense forest, the trees blowing out pretty much everything. My eyes started to adjust and I could see the ferns and fallen logs. There were bushes here and there, but eventually the trail opened up to a large clearing. Pine needles littered the ground, ferns grew large in different patches around us, but it was the monstrous tree that was halfway fallen to the ground that caught my eye. It was being held by other trees or else it would have hit the dirt below a long time ago. It was so big around that it would take at least half a dozen men with stretched out arms to go around it. I had never seen a tree that big before and couldn’t imagine the strain that the other trees felt by keeping it upright.

  A loud screech to my right caused me to jump, and I looked over to see four shadowy figures coming towards us. They were different sizes and had different shades of black. Taking a deep breath, I stepped back a little and asked if the guys could see them.

  Neither of them answered so I glanced back to see them standing side by side with their backs to me. They were facing their own sets of Defenders. My eyes scanned around us and all I saw were the eyes of Defenders in every direction. We were surrounded. My heart was thumping hard against my chest, sweat already on my forehead, but as I stepped back to feel the heat of my boys, I reminded myself what we had to do.

  “Ready?” I asked them, filling my voice with every ounce of confidence I had.

  “Ready,” they answered in unison.

  The three of us all moved forward towards the Defenders at the same time and the shadows converged on us, some letting out a shriek. As I focused on keeping my energy flowing, all I could hear was the pounding of my heart in my ears. It felt like everything was slowing down and moving in slow motion. I saw a Defender and my hand automatically moved towards it, shooting a flash of white at it. Over and over, I tried to get as many as I could. I didn’t know how many there were but I wasn’t going to stop. I couldn’t, even if I wanted to.

  Chapter 16

  Every once in a while, I would hear one of the guys call out or shout to the other, but I knew I couldn’t lose focus. There was too much risk for me to even look away from the Defenders in front of me. I kept blasting them with energy, not even noticing if I was keeping up with the ball of emotions in the pit of my stomach. At this point, I think everything was going automatically. It felt like second nature.

  I moved my hand to point at a large Defender that was coming towards me when I felt a sharp pain in my calf. It forced me to look down, and I saw a small cat-sized shadow with its teeth sinking into my flesh through my layers. I tried to kick it away but his claws only tightened on my leg. Screaming in pain, I made the quick decision to hit the larger Defender with energy, then deal with the pain in the ass mini chewing at my flesh. The dark fragments flew by me and I shielded my face before looking down at my leg. The redness of my blood was coating its teeth and I tried to push it off but had to stop quickly. Teeth and claws sunk in deeper. Panic was starting to set in and I reminded myself to breathe. Maybe I could blast it off of me without hurting myself.

  Gathering up some more emotions, I went to try when suddenly it was gone. Chris’s face was near mine, looking into my eyes. His voice sounded muffled against all the screeches of the Defenders but I nodded my head, letting him know I was okay. My leg was sore but I knew it would heal soon.

  He was about to head back to where he had been, fighting with a pack of Defenders when we both heard the muffled cry come from Blake. Our heads turned in an instant and my heart dropped. There were a dozen or so Defenders of all sizes pulling him to the ground, biting at him, and before I could move, he disappeared under the shadows enveloping his body.

  “Blake!” I screamed, running the best I could on my injured leg.

  Chris shifted in a matter of seconds and was at Blake’s side before I could get there. The long fangs of my wolf’s mouth was ripping and tearing the shadow figures off of Blake. As each one was thrown off, I pointed my hand and fired a ball of energy. Working together, we were able to get all the Defenders off of Blake but when my eyes landed on him, I knew it wasn’t good. His clothes were ripped to shreds, bite marks all over his torso and that handsome face of his. His hands were mangled, blood covering him.

  “He needs to shift so he can heal!” I shouted at Chris who was heading in the opposite direction. He shifted quickly and threw his clothes on. It took him mere seconds but felt like a lifetime before he was back at Blake’s side.

  “He can’t!” he snapped at me. I knew he didn’t mean it. He was as scared as I was. It didn’t mean it didn’t sting. “Help me,” Chris ordered as he stood up with his arms hooked around Blake’s torso. I grabbed the man’s legs and carried him down the path, away from the clearing.

  “The Defenders are gone for now but they’ll be back any second. We need to get him out of the circle that is surrounding the element. It’s around here somewhere,” Chris explained, out of breath and sweaty as he sped up so we could get Blake under a secluded tree.

  “Is he dead?” I asked after we propped him up. I didn’t mean for my voice to be so full of fear, I wanted to sound like I was holding it together, but I was scared to death that we just lost one of the few people that I felt close to.

  Chris pulled me into a bear hug, my face against his chest. “No. He’s alive; just unconscious. Hopefully he’ll be safe here and when he wakes up...if he has enough energy, he can shift and he’ll be as good as new. You’ll see.”

  I tightened my arms around Chris and I pressed my face into his chest a little more. Doubt was starting to hit me again. My leg was screaming in pain, Blake was injured and we didn’t know how much yet, and we had yet to see the element. The Dark Defender still hadn’t showed up. I didn’t know how much more of this I could handle. Tears formed in my eyes and, one by one, they started to slip down my cheeks. I didn’t want to disappoint anyone, but Gaia, Chris, Blake, Nan...everyone, they expected me to do things that I would never be able to do. I couldn’t save the world. I was just a former data entry clerk.

  He must have heard the faint sound of my sniffle because Chris pulled back to look at my face. He gently wiped his fingertips over my cheek to collect my tears. My stomach felt like it was twisted in knots. Lead weighed it down and I was so frightened I didn’t think I could fight any more.

  Pulling me back to his chest, Chris let out a soft cooing sound. He was trying to relax me and I could appreciate his effort but it wasn’t working. Then he started to sing softly and I was transported far away from the middle of the dark woods. I went to a place where Defenders didn’t exist. Blake was happy and healthy. Nothing needed to be saved. Relaxing against Chris’s body, his warmth added to my comfort, and I didn’t want anything more than to stay in that moment.

  “You slipped to your beach fantasy
again, didn’t you?” Chris asked with a smile, kissing the top of my head. “Blake and I are not going to wear speedos and serve you drinks. Well...on second thought, Blake might.”

  I smiled and kept my hold on him. I knew that I had to let go soon but I just couldn’t. Not right then.

  I finally nodded against his chest and took a deep, shaky breath. As I inhaled Chris’s scent, it helped calm me down and center me. We had some more Defenders coming. As I pulled my head off his chest, I looked up at Chris and told him I needed his backpack.

  “We don’t have time for that...”

  “Tell me where your fucking backpack is!” I shouted, my frustration spilling out. I didn’t have time for him to second-guess me or tell me what I did or did not need.

  Chris paused for a moment, looking at me before he turned and jogged further down the trail to where they had stashed their bags. He brought it back and handed it to me. After thanking him, I put it down on the ground. I opened the large pouch and reached in, searching for a small package I had hidden inside when neither of them were looking.

  “What are you loo....” Chris stopped talking when I pulled out a little disk. “What is that?”