“What’s going through your head right now, sweetness?” he rumbled, touching my chin with his fingertips.
“That I want you, and that it feels ridiculous to wait any longer now that I’m sure, but . . . ” I gave him an apologetic look and glanced at the door.
“But it is neither the time nor place. We have to save ourselves for another ritual.”
“Yes,” I said. “And we’ll make sure we get it right this time.”
His gaze intensified and he reached for me. I let him haul me into his lap, my breath catching when he cupped the back of my head and pressed his full lips against mine. We groaned in unison, the heat of our kiss reigniting a barely banked fire inside us both. The memory of that first time with him barreled back, only this time I knew I was not innocent, and I had no intention of pretending otherwise.
Gasping for breath, he pulled away, his jaw clenched and his fingers tightening in the hair at the back of my skull. “Gaia fucking save me, but I’m ready to drift to the nearest Haven portal right now. I need you so fucking bad.”
“Me too, but we should at least say goodbye. And we can’t exactly leave without the others. They’d be pretty pissed.”
He exhaled a long sigh and lifted me off his lap, standing beside me and adjusting his erection in his pants. “Let’s not waste time—and this time if any of your fathers take issue, I’m not hesitating to strike back.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be telling everyone the truth as soon as we get there.”
We pushed out the door, and I was surprised to see the crowd of fans still present despite the early morning light beginning to brighten the interior of the club. The hounds were seated on stage now as though overseeing everything in my absence, tails thumping in time with the music playing over the stereo.
When we reached the bar, Nadia slipped off her stool and came to me with an excited bounce in her step. “I told them they were safe to go, but nobody wanted to leave yet. They all want to know when you guys are playing next so they can bring their relatives and other friends.”
“Other bloodline friends?” I asked.
“Naturally. Not that we don’t have normal friends, but we’ve all come to the conclusion that our kind tends to gravitate to each other. And now we realize we’re all gravitating toward our soul mates, at least when you guys are up on stage. Will you play one more song before we close the place down?”
“We have somewhere to be,” Llyr groused. I pressed a hand to his chest.
“We can play one more song, but I’ll have to get back to you on our tour dates. We need to track down Ozzie before we do anything else.”
“Fair enough,” Nadia said, then headed toward the stage.
“You guys ready for one more?” I asked the others.
“As ready as ever,” Bodhi said, kissing me on the cheek.
“Somewhere to be huh?” Rohan asked, his lips hinting at a hopeful smile. “This mean you two worked things out finally? Because your auras are all kinds of tangled up right now.”
“It means I want to get through this song and get the fuck out of here,” Llyr said, falling into step next to me.
“Careful, dude,” Keagan said. “I think you’ve been channeling the Maestro a bit too much tonight. You’re starting to sound like Ozzie.”
“Trust me,” Llyr said, “this song will be the last time you’ll ever hear me sound like him.”
22
Llyr
I didn’t bother with the Ozzie ruse for the last song. The crowd had already seen me shift; it would have been disingenuous to continue pretending.
Dozens of dragons, ursa, and turul had been among the crowd, and by the end of the song, I don’t think any of them were left without a soul mate—or two or three, for that matter. Whether it was our music, the hounds, or Deva’s presence that drew them together, I couldn’t be sure. Likely, it was a combination of the three. All I cared about by the end was that I was still the odd man out, and I was tired as hell of waiting my turn.
It definitely didn’t help that I had to stare at Deva’s round, full ass in those leather pants for the entire song. I’d had her plenty since chasing her to Malibu, but only on her terms, and only small samples or locked in the wild abandon of my primal beast.
I wanted to make love to her slowly for a change, to feel her come apart around me while I stared into her eyes and gave her my soul. That want had eaten at me for weeks since she left the Haven, and I’d managed to suppress it for a while, but it was back with a vengeance now that she’d admitted she was ready. It was all I could think about.
But she insisted on seeing everyone off, until the club was a wasteland with no one but Pete, Nadia, Neal, and Callie left, along with a handful of staff who were cleaning up.
“Impatience doesn’t suit you, man,” Rohan said, slipping onto a barstool beside me while I gritted my teeth waiting for final goodbyes to be done.
“Today’s going to be enough of a test after we arrive in the Haven. I’d just as soon get going now.”
“You’re sure being with her is what will give her the power to track down a mate for Chaos? Why not do it now?”
I took a deep breath, willing my agitation to subside before I looked at Rohan. Given my mood, my eyes were likely to make even a dragon seasick.
“My vision last night suggested that we need the Source to magnify the power. When we shared the ritual to reach the bloodline, it took immense energy, not just from the Source, but from the entire Haven collectively participating in a fertility rite. That allowed Deva to extend her power out to all the souls of the bloodline linked to her, to communicate with them. I don’t think we’ll need as much—it’s just one mate we need to find—but focusing her magic to find the right individual will require a lot of power too.”
“I get it. But we can help—it isn’t all on you two alone.”
I shot a surprised look at him and frowned. I didn’t know why it hadn’t occurred to me that her other mates would be there too. Of course we wouldn’t be alone, though that was how I’d pictured it—a repeat of our first time.
“Or we can leave you alone, if that’s what you want,” he added.
“Thank you, but I think she’ll want you there. She isn’t the only one I’ll be joining with, after all. But I’m not worried about the ritual itself. Today is Beltane, so there will be festivities going on in the Haven whether we like it or not, and plenty of magic infusing the water. But her nymphaea fever hasn’t entirely run its course. Even if Callie’s remedy survives the drift into the Haven, the atmosphere won’t help Deva’s grip remain tight on her sanity. I fear my soul-gift won’t be enough to cure her.”
“You don’t know that,” Rohan said. “It could be exactly what she needs.”
“I wish it were that easy. Ozzie’s disappearance was what triggered the fever in her. A bond with me could alleviate it, but the process will also fully awaken her nymphaea nature. With that power comes an even greater risk of madness, which will be even more difficult to contain, since she’ll be able to achieve her primal shift.”
Bodhi leaned in behind Rohan. “Is that like her dragon shape? What do you guys shift into, anyway? Fauns?”
I’d forgotten that he’d only heard me in my primal form, not seen me. “In a sense, yes. If you have an image of a satyr in your mind, that’s what the males look like. Twice my current size, half human, half beast with hooves and horns. The females have a similar shape, but theirs is more human. They keep their feet rather than grow hooves. They grow larger, their skin tone changes, and they sprout multi-pronged antlers like a stag’s that can kill if you get in their way. They also have insatiable sexual appetites and often need to be restrained while the madness has hold of them.”
He shot a curious look at Deva, who said a final farewell to Nadia and Callie before turning to us. Bodhi licked his lips and twisted on his seat to shift the uncomfortable-looking bulge in his pants. “Yeah that sounds . . . dangerous.”
My meld with him had fa
ded too much for me to read his mind, but I was still fairly certain he’d just imagined tying her up. I also knew without a doubt that she’d had a similar fantasy, only with myself and Ozzie as the submissives, and I suddenly looked forward to instigating even more adventures with the group and encouraging them to explore all their deeper desires with one another.
All I cared about at the moment was one thing, however, and when Deva met my gaze, my heartbeat sped up. She rested a hand on my arm when she reached me and stared up into my eyes. “Are you ready?”
It was all I could do not to take her in my arms and disappear, leaving everyone else behind, but that wasn’t what she wanted. I restrained myself, aware that I’d have several more hours of self-control to endure before we could truly be together. I couldn’t exactly bring her home to the Haven without stopping in to visit her Dionarch father, Neph. And chances were that more of her parents would want to see her too.
“There’s a Haven portal hidden at a nearby beach,” I said. “Pete assures me we can leave the tour bus here. When we’re ready to return, he’ll have our keys, so we can drift straight to the portal from here.”
“Then let’s go,” she said, squeezing my arm.
I stood and slipped a hand around her waist, turning her toward me. She gave me a questioning look, her pulse fluttering rapidly at her throat. She was as excited as I was to get going.
“Today’s Beltane, Deva. We’ll be expected at the palace when we arrive. I just want to make sure you’re prepared.”
Her face fell and she cursed. “You’re right. Okay, I guess we’ll just have to be patient for a little longer. Let’s get it over with.”
She turned in my embrace, reaching toward the other guys. Bodhi took her hand and Keagan and Rohan completed the circle, linking hands with each other and with me.
“So . . . a palace, huh?” Bodhi asked. “Am I going to be seriously underdressed when we get there?”
“We’re a race of creatures who spend most of our days fucking,” I said, smirking at his jeans and T-shirt. “If anything, you’re overdressed.”
He opened his mouth to reply, but I pulled them into the drift before he could utter another word. He’d find out soon enough what it meant to be mated to a woman who was part nymph. So far, he’d only had a small taste.
23
Llyr
We landed on an empty, sunlit beach a moment later, the shoreline covered in debris washed up from the storm the night before. But the object I sought had been uncovered by that same storm.
A circle of flat stones was just visible at the edge of the tide, the waves already starting to push fresh sand up over the carved glyphs. Every waterway on the planet had its own set of portals warded to be invisible to human eyes, and were also often obscured to the higher races. They’d all been locked for ages until the end of the recent war, when Nyx and Neph had agreed to open the Haven up again to allow the nymphs passage to the human world.
Only a handful of individuals had access to get back in, however, and I was one of them.
“Step inside,” I said, tugging Deva close to me while the other three collected around us, resting their hands on our shoulders. Then I began the second drift, calling on the water of the tide as it rushed up around our feet. I quickly connected to the River itself, requesting it transport us to my beloved home.
The water pulled us under swiftly, this drift a stronger current than the prior one, and longer than the first as well. I should have warned Bodhi to hold his breath, but hopefully he’d gotten the hang of drifting by now and would be able to endure this as easily as the other trips we’d taken.
Several minutes later, we emerged from the sea that bordered the Haven, the other three men sputtering and coughing as they crawled up onto the sand.
Deva seemed unaffected as she stood up, brushing her hands down over her wet clothing. Her regular outfit dissipated, giving me a pleasing glimpse of her naked curves in the morning sun before she covered them with a flowing white gown reminiscent of the one she’d worn the day of the ritual. It had only been a little more than a month ago, yet it seemed like eons.
The difference in her now was striking. Though she was every bit as beautiful, and the picture of innocence in her white gown, her power was unmistakable, as was her poise and confidence as she took a deep breath and cast her gaze toward the path leading into the verdant forest and the Haven’s center.
“Do we get new duds?” Bodhi asked, standing up and brushing caked sand off his wet T-shirt and jeans.
“Yeah, princess. We’re meeting more of the parents today, so I hope you want us to make a good impression,” Keagan said, already pulling his own wet shirt off over his head and shaking sand out of his hair.
Rohan looked as shell-shocked as Bodhi at that prospect, but a nudge from Keagan spurred the dragon into action, and between him and Deva we were all cleaned up and garbed in the short sarongs appropriate for male guests in the Haven.
“This is it?” Bodhi asked, tugging gently at the hem of what probably amounted to a mini-skirt for him. Keagan looked on with amusement.
“Easy access, brother. That’s what they’re all about here.”
“Why does she get actual clothes?” Bodhi asked, pointing at Deva.
She had started toward the path and grinned back over her shoulder. “No panties here, either.”
“Christ, how the hell do I hide a fucking boner in this?”
I clapped Bodhi on the shoulder. “The idea is to indulge those urges when you have them. When you’re as oversexed as we are, they don’t come on quite so out of the blue.”
“Easy for you to say—you’ve had practice,” Bodhi grumbled.
“You’ve had her for the past week,” I retorted. “I’ve had to subsist vicariously through hearing you all fuck nonstop.
“It doesn’t make it easier,” he said, hanging back beside me. “Wanting her is like wanting to breathe.”
“I am not a stranger to that emotion. But if you don’t have methods to deal with rogue erections, you’ll just have to meet her parents as-is. I’m sure they won’t judge you. Much.” I patted him on the shoulder and moved ahead of him on the path.
“Well, that worked!” he called after me, trotting along at my back.
We’d only trekked a little ways in along the banks of one of the many clear, trickling streams flowing like life’s blood through the Haven when about half a dozen lithe, scantily clad nymphs seemed to materialize out of the shadows. They slunk around us, tittering to each other before seeing me and letting out soft exclamations.
“Back so soon, Llyr Xanthos? We thought you’d left us forever to be with your human female,” one of the nymphs said.
“But you brought us gifts!” another added. “Does this mean you really missed us? That you’re here to give us many satyr babies? I would happily bear your babies.”
“Oh, this one is nice!” a third nymph said, and I turned in time to see a bewildered Bodhi struggling to fend off a pair of groping females. “He’s human, but he’s hung like an ursa. A cock like this might even give us male children.” She had her hand under his sarong, and the poor guy was so flushed even his deeply tanned complexion looked sunburned.
“Little help here, guys!” he called, twisting away from the handsy nymphs and trying to hide behind me.
Deva was out of sight, but the other two paused on the path, only to be surrounded by more nymphs too excited by the new visitors to care about their objections. Then the nymphs fell to kissing each other, and I was fairly certain an orgy was likely to happen regardless of our participation or not.
“Just keep walking,” I said, though that was easier said than done as a pair of nymphs now blocked my path, already tangled up together, kissing and grinding while Bodhi gaped. I grabbed him by the upper arm, peeled a nymph off him, and picked up the pace, brushing off more eager nymphs as we caught up to the others.
“What the actual fuck?” he muttered, shooting a worried but curious look behind u
s.
“They were just saying hello,” I said. “Most of the nymphs here have never interacted with the human world, and our typical greeting involves a good screw. It’s the nymphaea equivalent of a handshake.”
“Ah, then I should say thank you for actually shaking my hand when we met.”
I chuckled. “You’re welcome.”
A little farther up the path, we reached an impatient-looking Deva. “What the hell is taking you guys so long? I thought you were as eager as I was to get on with this.”
“The perils of bringing new male flesh into a world that’s ninety percent horny females who haven’t seen a dick in thousands of years,” Keagan said. “There’s a reason I chose to stay on my pilgrimage rather than come home when they announced the breeding agreement. One woman’s more than enough for me.”
We pushed through a curtain of vines that led to a clearing, and Bodhi stopped in his tracks with a surprised grunt. “Holy shit, you weren’t kidding when you said palace, were you?”
He stood staring at the Haven’s central palace, the pale aqua spires of sand-worn glass twinkling in the sunlight giving the illusion of falling water. The sight never failed to amaze me, and after only seeing it in my dreams for several thousand years, it made my heart swell to look upon it every time I came home.
To the rear of the tallest spire was a sight yet more impressive. What we called the Silas Tree rose up behind the palace, its trunk as wide around as the tallest spire of the castle and its branches even higher, reaching all the way up to the limits of our realm and beyond, pushing through to the ursa’s sacred home above us.
We weren’t beneath the ursa Sanctuary so much as bordered by it, yet the connection of the waterfalls and the tree gave the illusion that they were above us. The Haven and the Sanctuary shared power from the Source, and the Silas Tree had been added just before the war to ensure that the Sanctuary would never again lose its connection to that power, as it briefly had when our female Dionarch, Nyx, went mad with the need to protect our home.
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