Awakened (Eternal Guardians Book 8)

by Elisabeth Naughton

  His heart swelled. “You do?”

  “Of course I do.” Her voice softened. “You have a choice as well. You don’t have to go through with this ceremony if you don’t want to. I will still love you if you’re not ready or if you’re unsure or—”

  He dragged her close and kissed her. “I am ready. I’m more than sure. I just needed to know that you weren’t being forced into it. I’ve been forced by the gods to do things I didn’t want to do. I’d never put you through that.”

  Her fingers curled into his tunic, holding on tight. “No one’s forcing me, I promise. I love you. I need you. I want us.”

  He closed his mouth over hers again, and as her tongue tangled with his and her hands slid around his neck to draw her succulent body against his, all the doubt and worry drifted away. Yes, some silly soul mate curse might have made him take notice of her, but he loved her because of her spirit and her warmth and her unfailing belief in him. Not because any stupid god was making him love her.

  He drew back and clasped her hand, pulling her with him. “Come on. Let’s finish this so I have plenty of time before the sun rises to show you just how much I love you back.”

  She laughed as he tugged her toward the witches.

  Pushing his way back into the circle, Cerek clasped Elysia’s soft hands in his and looked toward Delia. “Okay, Priestess, we’re set. Let’s do this.”

  Elysia giggled.

  “As I was about to say,” Delia began, holding her hands out wide. “We are here to celebrate the blessed union of these two souls, separated at birth, brought together this night by the will of the Creator.”

  “Blessed be, Dimiourgos,” the witches around the circle chanted, lowering their heads.

  Leaning toward Elysia, Cerek whispered, “They’re not going to start worshiping the gods, are they? Because that won’t go over well with me.”

  “No,” she whispered back. “We don’t worship the gods here. Only give thanks to the Creator of all life.”

  That he could deal with. After all, the gods were nothing more than fallen angels, hell-bent on their own power and pleasure. He wasn’t sure how much of the great Creator he believed in, but he wasn’t about to say so now. Now all he wanted to do was finish this ceremony so he could go about worshiping the female who held his heart.

  “The elements, please.” Delia held out her hand. Juniper shook a small velvet sack over Delia’s palm. Five silver coins dropped free. Delia handed two to Elysia and two to Cerek.

  Cerek turned the coins in his hand. The backs of each were stamped with the Omega symbol. The opposite sides were different. One was a flame, the other a cloud in the shape of a face, blowing air as if to create wind.

  “The classic elements make up all life in the cosmos,” Delia said, “gifted to us by the Creator. Fire and air are inherently male, whereas earth and water are female. She knelt where she stood and placed the fifth coin—blank, it appeared to Cerek—into a slot he hadn’t noticed in the center of the circle. “As the female is the beginning, the male is the end. That which is joined together shall not be undone. Elysia.” The witch looked Elysia’s way. “Place your elements opposite each other and say the great words.”

  Elysia let go of Cerek’s hand and knelt. “May water be here, pure and unmixed. May I live in its presence, and may this union be guided by its spirit.” She placed the coin with the water droplet stamped into one side to the right of the witch’s blank coin. Reaching across the blank coin, she placed the other, this one stamped with a picture of mountains, on the opposite side to form a line. “May earth be here, pure and unmixed. May I live in its presence, and may this union be guided by its spirit.”

  As she pushed to her feet, Delia turned to Cerek. “Argonaut, place your coins above and below, forming a perfect circle, and repeat the words.”

  Cerek really had no clue what he was doing, but Elysia’s nod of assurance urged him on. Kneeling, he placed the fire coin above the witch’s and said, “May fire be here, pure and unmixed. May I live in its presence, and may this union be blessed by its spirit.” Placing the air coin in the last space, he said, “May air be here, pure and unmixed. May I live in its presence and may this union be blessed by its spirit.”

  Elysia grinned and reached for his hands as he pushed to his feet.

  He mouthed the word whew and gripped her warm fingers. That wasn’t nearly as bad as he’d expected.

  Delia held out her hands. “Blessed be water and earth and fire and air. As to all the gifts the Creator has given us, may these elements bind male to female, beginning to end.”

  The ground shook, and Cerek looked down to see two symbols forming on the witch’s blank coin. The first was the Alpha symbol, and over the top of that, entwining with the symbol’s lines, the Omega.

  “Whoa,” he whispered, looking back up at Elysia.

  She grinned wider.

  “Cross hands,” Delia instructed.

  Elysia’s left hand reached for Cerek’s left, and her right for his right, forming an X between them. “This is the binding part,” she whispered.

  Juniper stepped forward from the edge of the circle with several lengths of rope, all in different colors.

  Cerek lifted his brow. “Looks kinky.”

  Elysia laughed and quickly pursed her lips.

  Delia took the purple rope from Juniper. “Will you share each other’s pain and seek to ease it?”

  “Yes,” they responded together.

  Delia wrapped the purple cord around their hands. “Will you share in each other’s laughter?”

  “Yes,” they said again.

  She draped the orange cord over their hands. “Will you share the burdens of life so that your spirits may grow in this union?”

  “Yes.”

  The blue cord wove around their hands. “Will you dream together to create new realities and hopes?”

  “Yes.”

  After tying the red cord around their hands, she said, “Will you use the fire of passion and the heat of anger to strengthen this union?”

  Elysia blushed as they both said, “Yes.”

  Lastly, Delia added the yellow cord. “And will you honor each other from now until the end of time, never giving cause to break that honor?”

  Cerek stared into Elysia’s mesmerizing eyes and said, “Yes,” along with her.

  Delia held out her hands. “The knots of this binding are formed not by these cords but by the vows you make today. May the union of your souls be blessed by the elements and the Creator, and may the warmth of hearth and home, the heat of the heart’s passion, and the light you find in each other guide you on the path of life together.” She lowered her hands. “You are bound.”

  Cerek looked toward the witch. “That’s it?”

  Delia smiled as Juniper rushed over and began untying the cords from their hands. “That’s it.”

  Breathing easier, he grinned down at Elysia. “After the ground shook earlier, I expected something more cataclysmic.”

  “That part comes later.” Delia winked and held out her hand toward the cloaked witches walking away from the circle in two lines. “After you.”

  Elysia pulled Cerek with her and followed the witches.

  “Where are we going?” he asked in a low voice as they stepped out of the circle.

  “To finish the rest of the ceremony.”

  “There’s more? The priestess said that was it.”

  “That was it for her.”

  Cerek had no idea what Elysia meant, but he hoped it meant they were headed someplace where they could be alone. Ever since he’d stopped the ceremony to talk to her about the whole soul mate thing and she’d kissed him in the trees, he’d been itching to kiss her like that again.

  The witches stopped in the middle of a clearing. Turning to face each other, they formed two lines and held their lanterns high, creating an archway of light. Down the path they created, Cerek spotted a tent illuminated by a warm glow from inside.

  “Here we p
art ways,” Delia announced behind them. He and Elysia turned to look her way. Delia held out her hands, her white hair catching the rays of moonlight until it appeared almost silver. “Go forth and complete the binding ritual with the blessing of the classic elements and of the Creator, whose gifts make this union possible.”

  Elysia bowed. Cerek did the same. Turning quickly, Elysia pulled him with her beneath the witches’ lanterns.

  “She didn’t mean what I think she meant, did she?” Cerek asked in a whisper as they passed under the light.

  “She meant exactly that.” Elysia grinned back at him with so much heat he grew hot and hard and achy.

  “In that case…” He swept her up into his arms. “What are we waiting for?”

  Her laughter rang through the meadow as two witches at the far end pulled back the tent flaps. Applause echoed behind him, but the second he stepped into the tent illuminated with dozens of candles of all shapes and sizes, the central space filled with a fur rug and more pillows than he could count, he blocked out the witches, the ceremony, even what was happening back on Olympus and in Argolea. Because all that mattered was this. All he needed until the end of eternity was her.

  Lowering Elysia to her feet, he drew her against him. “Come to me, emmoní.”

  Her whispered, “Yes,” as she lifted to his kiss was the sweetest word he’d ever heard.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Warmth flowed through Elysia’s entire body as she wrapped her arms around Cerek and kissed him.

  His hands slid down her back as his tongue stroked against hers, molded to her curves, and pulled her tight against him. He kissed the corner of her mouth, her jaw, nuzzled against her neck until she trembled. “Gods, I love you.”

  Her heart swelled. Lifting her hands to his face, she drew his mouth back to hers and kissed him again, walking backward and pulling him with her toward the mountain of pillows in the middle of the tent. “Show me,” she said, angling her head the other way. “Show me now.”

  His groan was one of hunger, of need, of desperation…the same desperation bubbling inside her. His tongue swept over hers as he trailed his hands back up her spine and worked the buttons of her gown one by one.

  When the last button slipped free, he drew back from her mouth, shifted his hands to the shoulders of her dress, and pushed the fabric down her arms. The gown fell to her feet in a puddle of silk, and the heat in his eyes as they traveled down her naked flesh made her nipples pebble, made her stomach cave in, made her limbs tremble with need.

  “Mine,” he whispered, raking her body with his lusty gaze. “This is mine.”

  He cupped her right breast with his warm, rough palm, lowered his head, and laved his tongue over the tip. Elysia gasped, gripped his shoulders, and groaned as pleasure arced from her nipple to her sex.

  She’d never wanted to be any male’s. Had always thought the soul mate curse was just that—a curse to the female because she didn’t feel the same draw of the soul mate bond. But this wasn’t a curse. This was a connection. A connection that told her this was exactly where she was supposed to be.

  She grasped his face again, pulled his mouth back up to hers, kissed him crazy while she fumbled with the sash at his waist. Pulling it free, she tugged his shirt up at the hem, drew back from his mouth long enough to jerk it over his head, and tossed it on the ground.

  His arms closed around her waist. Hers circled his shoulders to pull him in tight so her breasts pressed up against his strong bare chest. The swell of his erection pushed against her belly, and she squirmed against it, desperate to give him pleasure, to draw him to release, to join him as he crested the wave.

  He pulled back, breathless, his lips swollen from her kisses. “I need you, emmoní.”

  “Yes.” Heat burned in her veins. She rubbed against him again, looking deep into his fathomless eyes. “Yes.”

  He groaned and claimed her mouth, lifting her feet off the floor so he could kick her dress away, then dragging her to the pillows. His hot, slick tongue traced hers as he pushed between her legs and palmed her breast. Pressure gathered in her nipples, shot straight to her core. She moaned as he kissed her jaw, her throat, as he worked his way down to lick and suck and nip at one swollen breast and then the other.

  Her sex grew wet, hot, achy. She threaded her fingers through his hair and lifted her hips, desperate for friction, for him, for more.

  He trailed his mouth lower, down her abs and across her belly button. She groaned as his hot breath tickled her skin. He kissed the top of her mound and the sensitive line between her torso and leg. She jerked back, moaning in frustration as she tossed her head against the pillows. Just when she was sure he was only interested in teasing, he pushed one leg wide and drew the flat of his tongue up her core.

  “Oh….” She arched up against his mouth. Groaned when his tongue flicked her clit, then slid back down and circled her opening. “…yes.”

  “That’s it.” He licked the length of her slit again. “Say my name, emmoní. Know who you belong to.”

  Him. She belonged to him. Her sex tightened as he drew his tongue over her clit again and again. As he slid one finger down to her opening and pressed inside, stretching her. Groaning, she rocked against his mouth, against his thick digit pumping slowly inside her.

  “Oh, Cerek…” Her hands fell out to the sides to grip the pillows around her. She lifted and lowered her hips, reveling in the erotic sparks growing in her core. “Yes. Oh yes, that feels so good. Don’t stop.”

  He flicked faster with his tongue, drew his finger out, then pressed back in with two. Pleasure gathered deep inside.

  “Tell me,” he said, breathing hot over her mound. “Tell me who you belong to. “

  “Ah…” The orgasm spiraled in like a tornado. She clenched around his fingers. Lifted toward his mouth.

  Just before it hit, he pulled free of her body. Fabric rustled as cool air washed over her. Panting, Elysia opened her eyes to see where he’d gone, then gasped as he knelt between her spread legs, grasped her around the waist, and tugged her upper body from the floor to pull her against him.

  She grappled for his shoulders so she wouldn’t fall. His arms closed tight around her. Then he was there, pressing between her legs, the blunt head of his cock sliding through her wetness to rest at the apex of her body until she groaned.

  “Tell me,” he breathed against her lips. “Tell me who you belong to.”

  Her heart filled with love, with devotion, with purity and an overwhelming sense of completion. “You,” she whispered. “I belong to you, and you belong to me. Always.”

  His mouth captured hers, his tongue thrusting inside just as his cock speared deep inside her body.

  Pleasure streaked through her core. She gripped his shoulders and cried out. Held on as he drew back and drove inside again. Her sex grew tighter, wetter, hotter around his thick length. His strokes came faster with every thrust, harder with every retreat, deeper with every plunge. Sweat slicked her skin. Fire raced along her nerve endings. She braced her knees on each side of his hips, lifted and lowered to his strokes. And just before the orgasm hit, an image flashed in her brain. An image of a cave, stone walls, candles burning, and a female with fire-red hair chanting the words of a spell.

  She gasped because the image came out of nowhere. But before she could process what she’d seen, he drove deep once more and groaned. And when his climax hit, it triggered hers, sending her into a dark orgasmic bliss that consumed every nerve and cell and thought. Blue and silver light filled the tent, spiraling together above them in a conjoined helix until the orgasm faded and the illumination slowly dissipated to nothing more than candlelight.

  Panting, Elysia blinked several times and looked up at the peaked ceiling of the tent. Shadows danced over the walls. Somehow she’d ended up on her back in the pillows with a sweaty Cerek draped over her.

  “I’ll move in a second,” he mumbled against her.

  “You don’t need to move. I like you right
where you are.”

  “Good. Because my brain’s having trouble coming back online.”

  Smiling, she ran her hands down his damp spine. But the smile faded as she thought back to the image she’d drawn from him. An image she knew instinctively was a memory.

  Groaning, he rolled to his back in the pillows, but he dragged her with him, pulling her against his side. “Holy skata. What was that weird light?”

  “The end of the binding ceremony.”

  He glanced down at her with the cutest confused look, his brown hair mussed and damp, his brow wrinkled and lips swollen from her kiss, she couldn’t help but laugh. “Twisting binding souls, Cerek.”

  “Through sex?”

  Perching her elbow on the pillows, she rested her head on her hand. “You’re the one who told me there’s power in sex. It’s amplified in the binding ceremony, which is no different from the Great Rite covens have been practicing for millennia.”

  “Does it happen this way for all who are bound, or just when a witch performs the ceremony?”

  “For all. The ceremony’s the same whether it’s done by a high priestess in nature or high priest in a temple in Tiyrns. So long as the participants involved are in love and committed.”

  He smiled and pulled her closer to his side. “I guess we qualify.”

  They definitely did. She snuggled into him and drew in a deep whiff of his musky scent.

  “Oh!” Pushing away, she sat up and lifted her foot from the floor. “I almost forgot.”

  “What?” He eased up onto his elbows.

  “Proof we’re bound.” She held up her foot so he could see the marking on the inside of her right ankle. The Alpha marking all Argoleans were born with signifying the origin of their race, only now her marking was intertwined with the Omega symbol.

  “It’s the same as the coin Delia put into the ground,” he said, studying the mark.

  “Yep.” She lowered her foot. “The Alpha marking changes after a person is bound. And you have one too. Somewhere.”