She pulled her torso off the ground, eyed him with the pale orange eyes of a Dardaptoan. Fear, sadness, and determination were clear on her feminine face. She fell back to the ground.
She was so frightened. Of him.
Blood stains were visible on the blue silken tunic and trousers she wore, mud streaks dissected the blue in multiple intervals. Her hair was matted and filthy.
She looked nothing like the powerful deity he knew her to be. “Well, girl. Have you given up your ridiculous attempt of escape?”
“I will not let you harm my people!” Her spirit had not dimmed though her strength certainly had.
“I have no fight with your people, and will not harm them, provided you cooperate.”
“Why? Why cannot you go to another corner of the world and rule your people as you see fit? Let me do the same?”
“Because of three thousand years that were stolen from me. Years that you took.”
“Damn you! I did not mean to! I was stupid, foolish, and ignorant of your true nature! Had I known you, I never would have ever imagined being with you!” She had scrambled to her feet, but it was clear to him how the task had cost her.
Her weakness wasn’t just because she was Dardaptoan. Now he understood Erasophomus’ sadness when he spoke of her. Eiophon let out a howl of mixed anguish and anger when the truth finally settled.
The Dardaptoan girl goddess was dying.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Kennera
She knew he carried her, but now she could not fight him. Even if she fed from him again, it would not be enough. He had won. Taken from her everything that had ever mattered.
This time she wept from grief instead of physical pain. She felt no fear, no hope, no dread. Just emptiness.
Her only prayer was that Nelciana could find some solution for her people before the Wolf god killed them all. Maybe the Dardanos clan would survive, maybe Rydere and his family and friends would find a way to defeat the Lupoiux that even now populated the woods and hills around the Dardaptoan town.
“Shh, girl. You are wasting your strength.” His voice was hot at her ear and she shivered. “You will need it.”
“For what? When you torture me?” Bitterness was all she could feel now. “I would rather die right now. If the other deities were not such bastards, they would grant me this request.”
He jerked to a stop, and Kennera wrapped her fingers in the material of his shirt as she jerked with him.
“Do not ask such a thing of the others.” The reprove was harsh in his voice. “You will not be dying.”
“Until you take my powers and gifts, you mean. Then you will discard me like trash. I am not stupid, wolf. I know exactly what you have planned for me.”
“Do you, now?”
“I will never grant you my strengths. Nelciana will meet me and she will take over for me and take on my people. They will be saved. You cannot stop that. Can your filthy animals fight the Dardaptoans and the witches? I think not!”
His black eyes stared into hers, but he began walking again. Kennera thought about trying to fight, to escape, but his hold was so tight she doubted any attempt would succeed.
“It is not fighting that will happen between you and I, little girl. Something far hotter, instead…”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Eiophon
He inhaled his female’s scent and his gut tighten. He would have her; he must. His window of time was down to a mere thirty hours. After that he could consult with the other deities and with the top healers of her people. Determine how to return this little goddess to the vital, healthy life she once was.
She still trembled, but some of the spirit was returning to her body. He far preferred her fighting to her lying against him with only paleness and weakness on her body, within her skin.
He looked for the perfect spot as the sun continued to rise. They would spend the day hours within a cave if he could find the place to create one, loving and planning their lives for the next three millennia.
Finally, he found an outcropping of rocks that would suit his needs, and with only a word, a small cave entrance appeared. He carried her in and sealed the entrance behind them.
She squealed in his arms as the darkness enveloped them both. Her fingers dug into his flesh.
She was frightened, then. Of the dark.
A smile of satisfaction stretched his mouth. “Relax, girl. There are no bats or monsters within this magic cave. Only the stream with fishes for our dinner and a hot spring for you to bathe in. Not quite the comforts of our Levian home, but it will do for tonight. I have lined a bed with soft furs for you to lie upon. We will be quite comfortable there together.”
“Together? Are you planning to… No! I will never!”
“You will. You owe me. And I will have what I am owed.”
“I owe you nothing! Nothing!” She struggled as he carried her to the pallet he knew would be in the corner. It was his magic den, one he had carried within his soul for the entire ten thousand years of his existence. He knew every pes or roman foot of the cave; he had carved it from his own wants and memories long ago.
His mate would be safe, warm, and comfortable in his cave. He would vow it.
“What are you doing?”
“We have no choice, girl!”
“What? Why not?”
“Because you are my mate, and I have less than thirty hours to have you.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Kennera
“Have three thousand years in Levia fried your mind?” Kennera pushed against the hard male chest above her.
“You know better than anyone that a Lupoiux always recognizes his mate when he scents her when he… touches… her.”
He ran a hot hand over her hair, and Kennera shivered. A warm brush of air surrounded her; the dirt and blood matting her hair disappeared.
With a single brush of the male god’s hand, her vestis and pardus melted away, leaving her completely naked beneath him. She squealed, outraged, and tried unsuccessfully to cover her body.
“You cannot do this!”
“Then you should not have whispered our names together.”
“I did not!”
“Not even before we were imprisoned in that damned castle at Levia?” He leaned over her, his face so close to hers she felt his breath against her cheek. “Be honest, my mate.”
Had she? Had she whispered his name and hers like a foolish girl would do with a crush? “I do not remember…”
“If you did, you know what it means, girl.” His hand burned her skin as it traveled down her ribs.
“That we are meant to…” Oh dear deities, she probably had! Why else would she have felt as she had about him so long ago? She had been convinced that they were destined to be together; it was why she had developed such feelings for him. Had she forgotten that over the past three thousand years? Or had she forced that knowledge from her mind?
“No…”
“Yes.” He smiled before brushing his lips over hers.
“Then why did you not know I was your mate three thousand years ago?” Kennera tried to pull back from him, but the furs behind her prevented that. “Why did you hate me so?”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Eiophon
Why had he not recognized her for what she was so long ago? Had he ever touched her back then? Had he gone within fifteen paces of her at the gatherings of their deities?
He never had. He had disdained the girl goddess and her friend the family goddess from the moment of their existences when they had entered the Gaian realm into the area now known as Greenland. They had appeared so young and foolish back then. So girlish when he had far preferred the more earthy female deities he had known for millennia.
He had spoken to this girl not even once. Had not gotten close enough to take her scent.
Eiophon had learned of her interest in him from Iastucia and had shunned her, ridiculed her without even speaking to her. He had not spoken one word to h
er until the day the curses between them had begun. And he had been so angry then… was it any wonder he had failed to recognize his own mate?
Eiophon had been a fool. Now he had less than thirty hours to convince her of that. She was staring up at him with wary orange eyes, trembling beneath his hands. Frightened of him. Did she honestly think he still meant to kill her when he was finished with her?
His hands were gentle when they settled on her shoulders. “Girl. I will not harm you, but we must do this. I will not be made a eunuch because of your refusal.”
A lifetime with no hope of offspring was not something he wanted to contemplate; any more than one of his subjects could contemplate it. A god such as himself was supposed to procreate when the time was right.
He had twenty-six hours to convince her of the rightness of it all. He could not fail.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Kennera
She would not be so weak. Would not give him what he so obviously wanted. She might be untutored in the ways of flesh, but she was far from ignorant. Had she caused this? Besides the physicality of it, had her curses so long ago created this hunger he so obviously felt?
He stared down at her, and Kennera could not look away from him. Would he force her? Did she have the strength to prevent it? She held up a hand between them. “Please, do not. We are deities, we have no need for such a thing between us.”
“In here, girl, we are not deities, we are mates. That is all that can matter between us.”
He brushed a hand down her now naked side. Kennera fought the instinctive shiver that his warm touch sent through her. He was far more seductive than anything the goddess of lust Iastucia could concoct. And far more determined than any god of tenacity like Lothonos. Her skin tingled beneath his touch.
“You made us this way. Should we not do what we must?”
“And make a child? How will that better serve either of our Kinds?” She tried scooting out of his arms. He countered her move with a wolven growl that had her shaking increasing. And not from fear. She wanted to touch him, to taste him again.
Oh gods, why?
“Two. Or more. You know we Lupoiux have litters.”
“Even worse. I do not want your babes!” That thought terrified her. Babes? With the god of wolves? Why would he want that from her? Was he truly insane? Or was his words not a jest? She stared into his eyes, studied the intensity he aimed directly at her.
Oh, gods. He meant it!
The Wolf god believed she was his mate. And he was about to cement that belief in the most binding way of all!
She held up a hand between them. He touched it, the gesture softer, more reverent than she ever would have expected. The contact was exactly what she needed. With just a whispered trio of words, taught to her by her witch best friend, she froze the other deity.
She stared at him for several long moments, surprised it actually worked.
She scrambled out from under him then pulled her clothing out from beneath his knees. They were not in the best of conditions, but all of her power was going to keeping him inert. She had nothing to spare for vanity. With jerking movements, she pulled the clothing on as quickly as she could.
Now it was even more imperative that she reach the hotel in the center of Dardanos. It was her only hope of escaping the Wolf god.
She needed to get away, to rethink what she must do. If he was not to kill her, or to take what little powers she still possessed, her plan must change.
Or was this sudden desire for her after thousands of years of enmity just another of his tricks?
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Eiophon
His mate was cleverer than he could ever have thought. As he sat frozen, he watched her take inventory of his den. She was panicked but still clearly thinking of what she must do. She began rifling through his things, discarding that which most likely could not help her in her escape.
She could go; he would be free from her little trick soon. And there was no place on Gaia she could hide from him. She was his; they belonged together. She would eventually understand that.
And he still had twenty-seven hours to claim his mate. He would have her in that time, regardless of what she was plotting.
She scurried from his den like a little rabbit frightened of the wolf, and he smiled within his head at the analogy. He would catch and devour her again.
He was the strongest of all the Lupoiux, and the Lupoiux lived for the hunt. Did it not stand to reason that catching his own mate would prove the most difficult? Would require the greatest hunt of all time?
Eiophon was more than willing to meet that challenge.
But first he had to undo whatever it was she had done to him. The little goddess could only have learned such a trick from that witch companion of hers. And whatever a witch could do, there was always a perfectly logical reversal spell.
And for Logic, he would need his cousin Lothonos.
With only a mental call, he summoned the other male to his den.
Lothonos looked around, clear annoyance on his face. “What do you need? I am in the midst of something.” Lothonos stared at him for a long moment. “What has happened to you?”
His cousin touched his hand to Eiophon’s forehead, and the paralysis holding Eiophon in place dissolved. “I must go. My mate awaits.”
Lothonos blocked the exit for a moment. “Is that all I am given in gratitude for my help?”
“No time to explain.”
“And your recent condition?”
“Something I suspect the witch goddess taught Kennera. They are cleverer than I ever gave them credit for,” Eiophon said over his shoulder as he bounded out of the cave.
Lothonos kept pace with him though he seemed to float rather than run. “They are indeed. Beautifully so. So, where are we going?”
“To Dardanos. My mate seeks to escape me by hiding there.”
“That is what I thought I heard. You had best hurry, then. You have less than twenty-seven hours, after all.” Lothonos’ tone remained even as he floated beside Eiophon.
“You are watching?” Eiophon wondered briefly if the rest of the deities were observing him and Kennera. He hoped not. He’d had more than enough of their interference in the last three millennia.
“It has become clear to me that my own future is tied in with the success of yours. Do not disappoint me, cousin. Now I must go. I still have much planning that is to be done.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Kennera
The lights of the hotel beckoned, and Kennera nearly wept to see them. Inside those walls lay her only safety. Her people would help and protect her; it was their duty and her right. The insane wolf would not have her. Would not mate her. The whole idea of it was preposterous.
Her strength returned when she got closer to her people, to the heart of the city. With only a whisper, she had her clothing replaced with more dignified garments. She was their goddess, and she must always appear so.
The lobby doors slid open as she entered. It truly was a beautiful place, not as opulent as Levia, but it felt nothing like that prison where she had spent so many long years.
A woman in pale yellow, a servant of the Dardanos family, approached. “Mistress, may I help you this evening?”
Kennera knew her, as she knew all of her people. “Amaia, child, please take me to Dhar Rydere.”
She doubted the girl recognized her as the deity of the Kind, but the servant was well-trained. “Yes, mistress. He is having council now. If you will follow me?”
The Dhar presided over a room with a dozen of his people surrounding him. His once-human Dahn was next to him, looking so small but strong. His advisors and their own Rajnis were also present, as was the healer Kindara and her demon of a consort. There were even a few Lupoiux in the room, and they made Kennera wary on an instinctive level.
Even the home of her favorite Dhar was not entirely safe for her. If these Lupoiux granted their god access — and she would not fault them for
obeying their deity — she would be back in Eiophon’s clutches with nary a breath.
She felt her skin warm as she gained strength from being in the presence of so many of her people. Her body began to glow, just faintly, as it was intended. They would take one look at her and know her exactly.
Dhar Rydere stopped speaking and his eyes — the same shade as Kennera’s, as they shared a very distant common gene — widened. He stood and bowed. “Dahnna Kennera…”
The rest of the Dardaptoans in the room bowed, save for the confused once-human Rajnis. Kennera understood and forgave their confusion. She would leave it to their mates to explain her presence.
“Dhar Rydere.” Kennera nodded. “I have come to you this night in need of assistance.”
“Of course, Dahnna.” Rydere approached her then bowed again, quickly. “My people and I shall help you in any way we can.”
The tension holding her erect lessened at his words and trembling she had been suppressing started anew. The weakness returned full strength. Kennera’s eyes locked onto those of the tribe’s Chief Healer. Kindara, the woman who had suffered so greatly these past thirty years. Kennera’s one hope.
“I am in dire need of your healer, then.”
Kennera fell to her knees and succumbed to the darkness, feeling only the hands of the Dhar as he caught her before she could hit the tiled floor.
Chapter Thirty
Eiophon
Eiophon’s breath caught as sudden and terrifying weakness hit him. He fell to his knees in the mud and weeds. Kennera. She needed him. He transformed into his wolf form — he moved faster as beast than man. He put on a burst of speed, moved so fast that even to him he was a blur. He was only vaguely aware of his cousin Lothonos keeping pace in that maddeningly floating way.
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