Cimmerian Shade: A Limited Edition Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy Collection

by Kiki Howell

  Spotting my chiton on the ground, I untie the himation and slip on the garment. Before Damon has a chance to speak, I thank him for delivering the letter and dismiss him. He leaves without question but I know this conversation is far from over.

  I summon one of my servants and demand that he brings me wine. Sauntering back into my courtyard, I stand in the middle of the private space. I gaze up into the night sky, filled with stars and a radiant full moon. Taking a deep breath, I know what I must do for my kingdom. My father always did what was best for everyone, and I must do the same. I always knew what to do as a general, but as a king, I don’t have a clue. I know my reign has just began but I feel like this is not where I belong.

  Nevertheless, I will rule to the best of my abilities because it’s my rightful place. My father fought to make Elis powerful. I will not allow my kingdom to slip through my fingers but I cannot help feeling like there’s more to my life.

  “King Endymion,” the male servant says from behind me and I swivel on my heel. He goes to pour the wine into a glass and I tell him I want the entire bottle. Obeying my request, he hands me the bottle and I dismiss him.

  Looking into the sky, I bring the bottle to my lips and swallow back the wine.

  Chapter Three

  SELENE

  Tonight the mortal sky is enticing with all the bright stars and massive full moon.

  I twirl while standing in middle of the ocean not caring that my chiton is now soaked from my knees down. Above me, the moonlight glistens on the surface and I sway my hand in the water.

  Next, I extend it in the air and watch as a small fraction of the water follows my hand as it ascends up. I have the ability to manipulate water. It only happened when I started to visit the mortal realm more frequently.

  A smile parts my lips, as I twist my wrist and the water flies off to the side. I continue to play with the ocean, shaping it to my will and I become absorbed, losing myself. Before you know it, I hear a voice behind me. Startled the water drops from the sky and splashes back into the ocean. I get soaked in the process and turning to the voice, I wipe my wet face.

  When my eyes are able to focus I see a man. A mortal male to be exact and I don’t move or say a thing. I have never seen a mortal before because I am a moon goddess, and I don’t live on earth.

  I’m here because the earth has captivated me and I’m helpless when it comes to this place. I do not understand the foreign desires or the pull that tugs on something inside of me. I had never wanted anything, needed anything, craved anything or yearned for not a thing. I was content until Gaea showed my siblings and me the mortal realm. But once I saw it, my mind became consumed with this magnificent place full of life.

  The mortal speaks again, “What are you doing?”

  He’s a mortal. Is all my mind can think, a real human being.

  The man continues to talk to me, “Whatever you were doing was exquisite.”

  He was talking about me moving the water to my will.

  The mortal liked that but I do not know what I was doing exactly. I was only having fun.

  I push aside more damp hair from out of my face and I am unsure of what to say. When the silence lasts for far too long, the male speaks again.

  “Tonight is chilly for you to be out in the water,” and I notice that he’s holding a rein, connected to a horse. “You might get sick,” is all he says before reaching into a sack, attached to his animal and pulls out some kind of colored fabric.

  When I don’t budge he promises, “I won’t hurt you.”

  “Why would you hurt me?” I ask cautiously while staring at him from the small distance and I can’t stop myself from staring. I know I should turn away and return home, but my body won’t allow me to leave. His green eye’s hold me still and I begin to feel warm and tingly.

  The mortal corrects, “I said I won’t,”

  I ask looking at what he’s holding within his grasp, “What is that for?”

  “It’s a blanket,” he informs.

  “For what?”

  “Aren’t you cold?”

  I shake my head and answer. “I do not get cold.”

  Heeding my words, the mortal drops his arms but he doesn’t put the blanket away. “If you don’t mind me asking, what are you doing in the water?”

  “I don’t know,” I answer. “But I find it delightful,” and a smile parts my lips thinking about my abilities and how much fun it is. I sway my hand above the water and it rises. “Can you not do this?” I ask.

  “Humans do not have your abilities,” Lifting my hand the water rises higher and higher and then I let it drop. It falls back down, splashing into the ocean.

  My eyes find his gaze, and I look away almost immediately. In the short moment that our eyes touched, I had felt something other than warmth. It was like I knew him since forever and something just clicked. But how is that possible, when we had just met?

  Instead of looking back at his eyes, I focus on his full lips and I have this scary desire to kiss the human. I close my eyes completely shocked with my thoughts and I blame Pan for the feelings.

  It’s been a few days since I asked Pan to take me to earth but a lot happened within those days. I know I have changed in the short time of visiting the mortal realm. The fact that I can now control water is a definite change. Also my emotions are all over the place. Like how nervous I am with this human when I never used to get nervous, or scared. Before Pan, my life used to be a lot simpler.

  The mortal asks, “How long are you going to stay in the water?”

  He wants you to come out, my thoughts whisper and I raise my eyes, still unsure about the human. Go home, I warn myself.

  I frown at him, “Is this wrong?”

  The mortal chuckles shaking his head, “I must be the one in the wrong, because a beautiful woman like yourself is actually enjoying the ocean.” His laugh was a surprising pleasing sound. It was deep and calming.

  The sky is beautiful. A flower is beautiful, how can I be beautiful?

  Staring at the male, I ask. “Why did you call me that?”

  “What?”

  “You said I was beautiful,”

  “Because you are as radiant as the moon that shines above you. Are you going to come out of the water now?”

  Contemplating his request, my eyes stay on the human. When too long of a silence as stretched on, I sigh and take a small step toward the mortal.

  Leave, urges a small voice in the back of my head. I know I should return but I don’t with each step that brings me closer to the human. This world intrigues me, the mortal intrigues me

  Reaching the shore he says, “Forgive me, but I cannot ignore the fact that you are soaking wet. And despite that you tell me you do not feel the cold, may I?” he asks glancing on the blanket in his grasp. I nod my head, giving him the approval.

  Eyes locked, the mortal closes in the space between us and behind me, he extends out his arms. He covers my damp shoulders with the thick blanket and when I inhale, I take him in. I hadn’t meant to breathe in his scent but it happened. My eyes close, now wanting to remember his smell.

  Do all humans smell this incredible?

  Opening my eyes, the human withdraws and I falter forward with his lack of presence. Quickly, I regain back my composure and I hope that he hadn’t noticed. I look away and hold onto the edges of the blanket that’s hanging in the front of my chest. I cling to it, trying to comprehend what this mortal is doing to me.

  The human questions, “What is your name?”

  “Selene,” I answer timidly and I hate my tone. I glance back at him, looking into his emerald eyes. “What’s your name?” His eyes are as green and luscious as the trees and grass. Such a vibrant color.

  “Endymion.” He answers, staring at me and this time I don’t look away, I challenge myself. “I come here quite frequently, and I have never seen you here before,”

  “I was passing through,” I tell him, which was the truth. I was exploring earth when I stumbled
upon the ocean.

  “Just passing through,” he repeats like he didn’t believe me. “What are you?”

  “I am a goddess,” I tell him. “What are you?” I counter, already knowing that he is human but I wanted to continue to speak with him.

  Endymion responds, “I’m a king.”

  “What is the meaning of a king?”

  “I rule this land, that you have happened to pass through.”

  Like Zeus who is the ruler of Olympus and the god of all gods. “You are the ruler of earth and humans?”

  His lips hint at a smile. “The kingdom of Elis,” and his eyes glisten wildly while staring at me.

  Did I amuse him?

  Elis must be like Olympus, “Elis is your kingdom?”

  Endymion nods his head, “Elis is not the entire earth,”

  “Can you show me?”

  “Elis?” he asks.

  “Yes,”

  Endymion doesn’t answer me right away, instead, he diverts his gaze and takes a few steps back. “We are in Elis and this is my kingdom. If you mean my home, then perhaps another time when I’m not trying to escape it, will I take you to my castle.” Endymion focuses on stroking his horse and I notice that the human’s mood has shifted.

  I ask, “Why are you trying to escape?”

  He doesn’t look at me when he responds. “What is a goddess doing passing through the earth?”

  “I was curious,”

  “And I needed some time to think.”

  “Think about what?”

  Moments go by before he answers and when I assume that he won’t reply, Endymion says. “I will answer that question tomorrow,”

  “Why tomorrow?”

  “I need to return before my guards come out looking for me and I would like to see you again.”

  “Tomorrow?” I confirm.

  “If the goddess wishes to see me again,” and he climbs up on his horse. “I will wait until sunrise,” and with those final words, he rides off into the night.

  Chapter Four

  I WATCH AS the human rides off into the night and all I can think about is tomorrow. I don’t understand why I want to see him again, or why my mind can't think of anything else. It doesn’t make sense, the light sensations and the fact that I can’t stop staring at the man riding off in the distance.

  I inhale a cool ocean breeze and Endymion’s scent is still present, when I realize it’s the blanket wrapped around me. I clutch it tighter within my grasp and bring it up to my face and take a deep whiff. My eyes closed, taking in the aroma when abruptly I begin to hear a soft melody. It’s music that I know all too well. I turn toward the sound and see a forest up ahead. The forest is in the opposite direction of Endymion and it’s there the soothing melody emanates from.

  My body sways unconsciously to the sound and I begin to walk toward the forest. Once inside I’m surrounded by the tall, dense tree’s and I don’t stop treading through the woodland. I keep going, following the entrancing aria, until I see a figure hiding within the dark shades of the forest. I pause knowing exactly who that it is.

  I catch sight of Pan when he steps out from obscurity and into the light of the moon. He is the god of everything wild and eccentric.

  Pan is massive with thick, bare brown shoulders and arms. Hairy hindquarters and he has a cloth covering his loins. On the top of his head are two massive bronze horns that curve backward and they look rough. He has wild black hair that reaches down to his collarbone and long, pointed ears.

  Pan looks threatening and it doesn’t help with the scowl of a mask that is his face. He has such sad, pale blue eyes that are intense and hard. More hard, than sad. But still, I see his misery although he tries to hide it from me and everyone else. Maybe I’m the only one who sees’s the sadness.

  Pan takes another step toward me. He continues to play his flute and he’s swallowed back within the shadows of the overbearing trees. Another step, and the moonlight has embraced his return. The music stops when Pan removes the flute from his thin lips and drops it. It swings low around his neck.

  The flute is the one thing that Pan refuses to talk to me about. Anything else he will answer, but that flute is off limits.

  His eyes narrow on me, and this time it’s the hardness that I see. They hold such dark intent and my stomach tightens with mild panic—a feeling I have gotten accustomed to.

  Whenever I’m around Pan, feelings of dread try to overtake me. But I’ve learned not to let it get the better of me. I learned to control the rising emotions that threaten to unravel me.

  I felt familiar sensations when I was with Endymion but minus the fear. Despite that he is mortal and I do not know him, I had felt safe. I could have spoken to him all night.

  “Calista, you disappeared.” Pan’s deep voice resonates inside of me and raises the hairs on my forearm. I can feel the slight tremble of my heart.

  Calista means most beautiful.

  “I got distracted,” I admit to him, I was to stay in Arkadia but my mind took me away and I meant that literally. As gods, all we have to do is think of a location and with a blink of an eye, we can be there. I saw the ocean when Gaea had showed my siblings and I visions of the earth. I have never been to use that ability when on earth, only in Olympus. The Olympian gods can come and go as they please.

  For the first time ever, I thought of the ocean that I saw in the vision and it brought me to it.

  “How did you know where to find me?” I ask Pan because I don’t think where he found me and where Arkadia is located, they are near each other. Arkadia is Pan’s home and unlike the other gods, he doesn’t live on Mount Olympus.

  I have been to Arkadia and have never seen a body of water that huge. There are many smaller rivers and waterfalls but not an ocean.

  A coldness sweeps across my bare arms as Pan studies me. “Calista, you are mine.” One simple word has my blood stirring. “You belong to me,” His voice is fierce, deep and aggressive.

  His gaze lowers, lingering on my mouth. The intensity of his stare tricks my brain into thinking that I can feel the ghost of him pressed up against my lips. The taste of him forever branded on my tongue. I draw my thighs together, not liking how he awakens parts of me with only a wicked look. If it weren’t for Pan, I would not know what my body is capable of feeling. The sensations that he manages to haul from the deepest parts of me is exciting and chilling all at the same time.

  Pan drops his gaze further walking toward me, “I got a present for you.” Cerulean eyes hungrily search my body before finally settling back on my face.

  I don’t understand how I can feel so many conflicting emotions. I feel both excited and fearful of the god. With the human, I was nervous but curious.

  My ears perk at his words and I can’t help the flurry of excitement. “What is it?”

  His gaze cages me in and one look and my body is a slave to his eyes. One look and I can feel my nipples perk and the pulsating between my thighs. I need it and crave it. One look and I swear my body temperature has spiked to new levels. One look and I'm weak in the knees.

  Pan’s one dominating word whispers through my mind, mine.

  The god stops a few inches in front of me and his body is much more massive up close, and dangerous. His bare upper body is burnished with many scars. Pan is not slim with well-pampered tendons, like most of the gods in Olympus. He is thick everywhere, utterly treacherous, yet enticing.

  Pan questions with a grave tone, “Why are you covering yourself?” His rough hands reach out and yank the blanket from off of me. It brushes against my perk nipples with the sudden pull and I breathe in an aroused breath. Endymion’s scent invades my lungs one last time before the blanket falls to the forest ground and I'm left in my wet chiton.

  Pan notices my arousal and with a beastly growl, he grabs one of my nipples and pinches. A moan escapes me and closing in the remaining space between us, huge hands clutch my face. He pulls me up easily, holding nothing but my cheeks and forces me to stand on the t
ip of my toes.

  His embrace is feverish, “The mortal gave you that, why were you with the mortal?” He demands, with his lips a breath away from my own. Pan nudges his nose against my face, taking me in. Smelling me, remembering my scent. But it’s simply another imprint because his scent surges into my nostrils and fills my chest. Like the many invisible scars Pan has scattered across his body, Pan has marked me just the same.

  I hate it and love it.

  A chill takes its time to pin down the ridge of my back, and goosebumps scatter across my bare flesh. “I just met him,”

  “Calista, are you lying to me?”

  “I’m speaking the truth,”

  “Calista...” Pan whispers against my cheek. His hand works their way over my ears and entangling possessively through my long, black hair. “I do not like how close he was to you,” and he rests his forehead against mine.

  Pan was watching me.

  Was he watching me while I was playing with the water? Like how Endymion had been watching? Or did he only see when Endymion and I started talking? Either way, why would he watch in silence? Why not make his presence known?

  Pan curls his fingers into his palm, tightening the grip and stretching my neck.

  My heart pounds as if trying to break free from the hold. I shake my head, “You do not need to worry. He was only a mortal.”

  I want to believe my words.

  “Prove it to me,” he commands with a bite to right ear and I suck in a sharp breath. "Give yourself to me," is his request and it's the one part of myself that I haven't given to Pan. He hates it but I'm afraid to give him full control.

  He sucks on the earlobe, soothing the ache and I falter into the god. The feeling is automatic; my body drums to a rhythm that Pan has mastered.

  Pan whispers against my flesh, “Calista, I want to be absorbed in your cunt.” With his other hand, he grabs the bottom of my damp dress and slips a hand under it. I feel his huge hand against my thighs moving up and closer to my sex.