by Setta Jay
Fuck.
It wasn’t his mate that seemed to have the mental skills, it was her damned twin. He just needed more information.
His cock was throbbing. She was thinking of him again. He sucked in a breath at the thoughts filling her mind. How his cock felt inside her, how she was wet and didn’t want to shower him from her skin.
He clenched his teeth as his cock pulsed hard into his zipper.
She was setting off every trigger his beast fucking had. Calm logic was dissolving to nothingness as the wild animal inside itched to claim her, give her exactly what she was thinking about. His hard cock, his young inside her womb.
His vision blurred at the edges.
She had thought she was with child and left him with every expectation that he would never remember her.
He slammed his fist into the bar.
“Son of a bitch! What the fuck, Bastian?” Uri said. His brother was directly in front of him. In his face. “Talk to me, or I’m getting in your fucking head.”
He bit out, “She thought she was pregnant.”
“She’s not,” Uri said slowly. They both knew she wasn’t, but that wasn’t the point. Logic was gone; a primal animal was setting up residence in his head and screwing with his whole way of thinking. She should have come to him immediately and she hadn’t. Punishments were racking up and his beautiful mate had no idea what she’d done.
“Man, get it together.”
He ignored his brother, still fixating on his mate. She couldn’t get pregnant until they actually completed the mating bond, and it generally took a decade or more after that. Except in Gregoire and Alyssa’s case, where his brother had impregnated his female right after the ceremony.
“I know.” He ran a hand over his face and tried to shake it off. “It’s making me insane.”
“Fuck. Just try to rein it in,” Uri said and ran a hand over the back of his short dark hair as he stared at him. “The cameras were already down. Let’s get to the manor and figure out how we’re going to bring them in.”
Bastian grinded his teeth one last time before Uri spoke. “Am I going to have to knock you on your ass to take you in, or are you coming on your own?” Swirling silver eyes pinned him. His brother would do it.
He ran a shaking hand over the back of his neck. “I’ll go to the manor.” He needed to plan. That’s what he did. Strategy. Logic. Those were his strengths. Ones that were being tested beyond their limits now.
Are you in her head? And did you set up a block? Fuck, we’re going to stay away from mental communication because she’ll start to get your links to us if she hasn’t already, Uri asked in a mental link.
“I’m in her head and she hasn’t heard anything yet. They know another Guardian is here, that’s it. I can feel where she is. She can probably feel me too if she thinks about it. She just doesn’t understand the connection right now.”
“We need to go. Sirena needs to check you the fuck out.”
His beast clawed for him to go to her, but he wouldn’t. The compulsion was intense, more intense than he’d ever imagined. He needed to chase her, stalk her, and more than anything he wanted her tied to his bed for all eternity.
Chapter 10
Hell Realm, Tetartos Realm
Drake wanted to slam his fist into the monitor, but then he’d be fucking deprived of the only sight he had of the female who was supposed to be his. He didn’t know a damned thing about her, but the one small scent he’d gotten had kept his cock hard for days. It still wanted her, because the mating curse was at its best when it was fucking with Immortals.
He’d never wanted a mate. He wasn’t suited for that shit. He lived by his own rules and those set forth for the Guardians he led. A female complicated things and he was set in his ways. His fist slammed into the desk, the wood cracked down through the drawer below, and he didn’t give a shit. Better than the monitor.
He ran a hand over his head. This was the calmest he’d been in weeks and he still wanted to kill. Sirena had informed him that Delia’s pain had passed, but it had still taken him time to look at the video feeds. The dragon couldn’t handle her suffering, and seeing her covered in spelled mud wasn’t making the beast any happier. It needed to be loose more and more to vent its rage at all his female had suffered.
The pain she’d felt had been caused from fucking scenting him and knowing he was hers. A side effect of the mating frenzy, but they weren’t even in it yet. He growled. They hadn’t touched, so she shouldn’t have hurt.
His shoulders pulled tight. He was sitting there watching her sleeping form when he had a fucking God loose somewhere in the four Realms and he needed to check on the other Gods’ locations every five damned minutes. He wouldn’t take a chance that Apollo might find his siblings and try to free them, but he couldn’t leave yet.
He’d need to loose the beast soon. He could already feel the animal roaring for freedom, not liking how fitfully his mate was sleeping. He tracked her face and his jaw clenched, hating that she was still covered in that fucking mud. It was the only protection she had against unmated males who might be drawn to her, who’d try to claim her as if she belonged to them.
Smoke lifted to the exhaust fans above at the thought of anyone getting near her. His muddy wraith of a female looked so damned small, so fucking fragile, but it was an illusion. She’d single-handedly annihilated an enemy camp, but in the process Apollo had been freed. He’d wring her neck if he could, but his beast had already laid claim to the female.
He ripped the tie from his hair and watched her breathe. He hated everything about the way she looked. Wanted to raise Cyril from the dead and kill him again for what he’d done to her. For the drugs he’d pumped into her that created the need for Drake to cage her. For her own damned good. She’d attempted to kill herself once, and when she’d failed, she sought vengeance.
Drake was responsible for everyone in the Realms, but this failure was so much harder to swallow. She was young, damaged, and needed something he couldn’t give her. Sirena kept telling him that she worried whether Delia would survive mating him. She’d also made it clear that the small female didn’t want him.
He didn’t care. She was his whether they wanted each other or not.
She rolled to her side, with her hand in a fist at her stomach. She hated him for keeping her locked up, and she could fucking continue to hate him. Sirena would find a way to fix her, to make it so she didn’t have to hide her skin. He growled low. No male would ever lay a hand on her again; he’d rip the limbs off any who thought to touch her.
She started shaking and he snarled. Sirena was in there before he even had a chance to demand it. He watched Delia spring up to fight, and the sound on the computer lifted Sirena’s voice to his ears. The healer was using her power to calm the feral female.
How often does she wake like this? he demanded from Sirena. More smoke, and the exhaust fans were on high.
He watched Sirena’s shoulders tighten under the lab coat. Every time.
He sent the chair flying into the wall with a resounding crash. He couldn’t deal with what had been done to her. No female should have gone through what she had.
Delia’s eyes lifted to the camera and narrowed, and he wondered if she knew he was watching.
“How are you feeling?” Sirena asked his mate.
“Like a prisoner,” Delia bit out with her eyes still focused on him, on the camera. Her voice perked the beast up. It was a husky tone that went straight to his cock and shouldn’t.
Sirena sighed in frustration. “What would you do if you left?”
Drake watched as her eyes flickered and she looked down at Sirena again. She didn’t answer, but Drake had seen the raw pain in her eyes. He’d never watched the feeds because of this shit. The computer flew straight through the window.
He felt his shoulders pull, his wings breaking from the skin and shredding his tee shirt. He needed to fly. The beast needed out and hell creatures needed to die.
Conn, ge
t another computer for my office by tonight. He snarled and was gone.
Chapter 11
The Guardian Manor, Tetartos Realm
“Sirena’s on her fucking way,” Uri snarled when they walked into the empty war room at the manor.
Bastian nodded. “Only her for now,” he bit out, not ready to handle any others. He was still fighting the raw need to track that link in his mind. To get to his mate and claim her all over again. She was his. Only his and fuck if that didn’t awaken the beast inside him. Immortal females weren’t attracted to males who were less powerful than them, and fuck if the beast inside him didn’t get off on the fact that his mate was his alone.
“Drake needs to know,” Uri pointed out, and it would have been a given just a few months ago, but now their leader was on the edge and he wasn’t thinking clearly.
“He will.” Bastian nodded. “When I have answers to give him.”
Sirena stepped in the door a few moments later. “What happened?”
“I found my mate and you need to check my blood. I don’t know what she is.” He hadn’t been thinking during the frenzy; he was surprised he’d even thought of the mind block. For her twin to get into his mind, they had to be something other than Kairos, but that could be very bad for the both of them.
If it was another hybrid situation, his blood could already be mutating.
He closed his eyes for a moment to rein in the throbbing of his cock.
Sirena’s warm power slid inside his body, examining him as she ground out, “What do you mean you don’t know what she is?”
“She looks like a Kairos, and she and her twin teleported away,” Bastian answered; Natasha’s thoughts confirmed her sibling was a twin. “But her sister was able to mess with my mind.” A power that Kairos didn’t have. The teleporting race had some minor close range telepathy and the ability to port. Not the power to screw with someone’s mind and definitely not a Guardian’s.
Sirena gave a hard nod and slipped from the door a moment later. Bastian paced, knowing his sister was probably getting something to take his blood.
“Call Sander.” Bastian rubbed his neck, trying to focus, to think as he fought the painful ache in his dick. “Alex too.” Uri’s mate could help with the mental work that would be needed.
Uri eyed him, “What’s going on in her head?”
“She’s in the frenzy, but she doesn’t understand it. She’s also considering killing Apollo. She and her twin think they can lure the bastard to them. They also think they’re strong enough to kill him.”
“Maybe she’s a Demi-God,” Uri offered. That would be fine if she was a Demi-Goddess like Alex, but if she had an animal, they could be in for hell. Apollo’s having given the Immortals animal DNA made Immortal matings complicated. Brianne and Vane were hybrids, each holding two beasts.
Bastian might be of a non-shifting race, but he still had animalistic needs when it came to his mate.
Sirena was back a second later, and he offered his arm as he continued to listen to his Natasha’s thoughts. He didn’t feel the needle, nothing existed beyond his mate. She was hoping to stall her twin from killing Apollo until she had answers to whether she was pregnant. He gritted his teeth. Her thoughts were all over the fucking place. But the thoughts of young were only making him itch to fill her full of come until that fucking happened.
“I’ll be back,” Sirena snapped and was out the door with a vial of his blood.
“What the fuck is going on?” Sander asked when he arrived.
Bastian barely heard Uri explaining what had happened. His brother was telling the Phoenix about Bastian’s mate and what her twin had done to his mind.
Sander eyed them while snapping, “Son of a bitch.”
Bastian gritted out, “Uri’s going to have to check your head. We both felt something in that club and you said something about déjà vu. We need to know if your mind was screwed with too. It’s not a coincidence. If my mate’s thoughts are of killing Apollo, then they have to know he’s in Earth Realm somehow. I’m betting they followed us from the club.”
Sander’s eyes flashed and his muscles tensed before he narrowed his eyes at Uri.
Uri blew out a breath before telling the male, “I should see it right away.”
No one liked having anyone in their head. It didn’t matter that Uri was their brother Guardian. He could see that Sander wanted to tell them to fuck off, but at the same time the male wanted to know if someone screwed with his mind.
Sander growled. “Do it.”
Uri just stood there as Alex ported in beside him. She may have added her power to Uri’s, because the task was done in moments.
“He had identical shit fogging his memories. I’d say it was the twin’s handiwork,” Uri eyed Bastian.
Sander snarled, “Fucking bitch!”
“What did she hide?” Bastian bit out. His mate’s twin was making shit difficult.
“He never saw either of the twins.” Uri ran his fingers through his hair as the Phoenix threw a raging fit. Heat radiated in the room as Uri continued. “She was in his house. He felt her presence and then the memory was gone. She also altered his memories of the club, multiple times. He kept going back and she altered things so he’d want to leave.”
“Tell me where the fuck she is?” Sander demanded, and Bastian got in his face, fury riding him hard.
“You will not touch either of them,” Bastian snarled with inches between them. His muscles were pulled tight and he was in no fucking mood. His mate was having pangs in her stomach. She fucking needed him and he was there trying to be fucking logical when he wanted to roar in fury and take what was his. Protect what was his.
“Sander, it’s not the time,” Uri’s mercury eyes swirled in annoyance.
Silence filled the room for long minutes while Bastian tried to calm his wild pulse.
Sanders eyes flashed and then he finally narrowed them. “You get one week with your mate. After that I go after the twin for fucking with my head.”
Bastian snarled, but Sirena was there in front of them and pissed. She turned to Sander. “You don’t know that she won’t just mess with your head again.”
Bastian wasn’t even sure how long the healer had been back in the room, but she’d obviously heard what they said.
“Can you do anything to stop that shit from happening?” Sander snarled at Uri and Alex.
It was Alex who spoke. “I think we can add a block for that mist because your mind would recognize it. I don’t know that we can do it for everyone. But we can try with you and Bastian.”
“Fucking do it,” Sander growled.
Uri growled. “Tone it down or you don’t get shit.”
Sander and Uri faced off until Sirena stepped in again. “We don’t have time for this.” His sister Guardian looked ready to beat the shit out of them both and Bastian felt the same.
His mate kept conjuring up memories of him fucking her and torturing him with the images. He was trying not to pant through the fucking pain when Uri and Alex stood in front of him.
He built a block to his mate’s thoughts so that he wasn’t hearing them while Alex and Uri were in his head. A second later he nodded for them to do it. He hated having them in his mind, but he needed all the added protection he could get.
“I can’t guarantee this will work, but it’s better than nothing. The problem is that we don’t know the scope of her power. What else can she do with a mind? She created memories, so who’s to say she can’t plant memories and turn us against each other.” Uri’s words sent a chill through Bastian.
“They could have done that already,” Bastian bit out.
Sirena blew out a breath and faced Bastian. “You’re definitely in the frenzy, and the good news is that there’s no mutation.”
He breathed out, relieved that he wasn’t about to go through the hell of a potential hybrid mating.
The healer gave him a hard look. “We need to tell Drake and we need to find a way to bring them in.�
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He wouldn’t cage his damned mate, not unless there wasn’t any other option, and he said as much.
“Uri’s right. We don’t know what they can do,” Sirena pointed out.
“Exactly,” Bastian ground out. “We don’t. So far all they’ve done is mess with our minds to get us to go away. How many times did she screw with Sander’s head?”
The Phoenix’s jaw clenched as Uri answered, “At least ten.”
He could tell how furious the Phoenix was, but he was fucking glad his mate and her twin hadn’t done something more dangerous. “She never did anything except spy on us.”
Uri shook his head, “If she can fuck with a Guardian’s head, what else are they doing?”
“What’s to say we could even cage them? How would we do that?” Bastian snarled. “I’ll stay in her mind and test the mental block you put in my mind.”
“Fuck no,” Uri snapped.
“I am in her head. I’ll know if they’re planning something,” he growled at his brother. They wouldn’t keep him away from his mate and they wouldn’t put her in a cell without a good damned reason.
“Drake won’t let you take that risk,” Sirena said, pacing.
“It’s not Drake’s choice. We aren’t taking chances with anyone else. It’s my fucking mate, my fucking risk to take. The only way you’ll keep me from her is if you toss my ass in a cell too,” he growled.
They all looked at him. Sander unclenched his jaw. “I’ll be backup.”
“No,” Bastian snarled. “You won’t go anywhere near them for a fucking week.”
Sander narrowed his eyes at the reminder of what the Phoenix promised. His brother was a lot of things, but he wouldn’t go against his word.
“I’m the only other one with a potential mind block,” the Phoenix pointed out through gritted teeth.
