“It cannot stop, girl. It cannot. It will kill you if it stops too soon. Let our souls be woven together! You will be strong again!”
The pain intensified, and she buried her face even deeper in the wolf’s chest. She hurt so much. And he was warm and strong and solid around her. His arms held her as if he would protect her from the entirety of every threat. For a moment, she wanted to just let him. The yellow and pink light that dominated the room began to meld into an orange then to dim. Kennera closed her eyes and struggled to pull more air into her aching lungs.
“It is almost over for her now, wolf.”
Kennera struggled to recognize the voice that spoke then. The demon? Dhar Rydere? The Wolf god’s cousin, the Druid? It could have been any of the three.
“Just hold her tightly until the binding is complete.”
“What binding?” Kennera whispered the words against the Wolf god’s neck.
He pulled away and looked down at her. His eyes burned with emotions that she was just too tired to even begin to identify.
“Our souls. Bound together... forever...”
Chapter Forty
Eiophon
The horror in her eyes was hard for him to miss. So she still feared him. Should it surprise him? Probably not. He had been so cruel to her. He was the cause of her current dilemma — would either of them ever forget that?
“Do not look so frightened, my love. You will live. Your people should now prosper. Is that not what you want? You have sacrificed for them so greatly, after all. To the point where you are almost dead. I have found a way to save you and them.”
“I will live, then? It feels like not.” Her words were so soft that he knew, even in a room of other deities, that only he probably heard her. Her arm had slipped under his, and her small feminine fingers clutched the fabric covering his back. “It burns, wolf. More than the fires of Evelanedea when the rebels tried to throw me and Nelci in. Please... make it stop. I will do what you want if you will just make the burning stop.”
Eiophon reared back slightly though he kept her tight in his arms. Was that why she and the family goddess had traveled to Gaia in the first place? For safety? And he had done nothing but harm her? Done nothing to protect his mate?
She deserved so much more than what he had given her, yet he couldst not even grant this one request. “Just rest against me. The healer promises it will be only a few moments more...”
He looked up, focus training immediately on the demon and the demon’s consort. The expression on their faces had his blood freezing within his skin. His eyes locked on the demon’s.
The other male shook his head then motioned for
Eiophon to join him and the healer. Eiophon looked down at the female in his arms. Her eyes were closed and shivers raked her body. Her soul shimmered around her.
Was she even aware it was he who held her? He did not believe so. The demon said his name, his tone so insistent Eiophon knew he had no choice but to speak with the demon and the healer.
“I will hold her.”
The family goddess. Eiophon looked at her, seeing her fear for her friend and the blame she held toward him in her amethyst eyes. Tears covered the pale cheeks of the family goddess. Lothonos stood at her shoulder. Eiophon locked gazes with his cousin. The smaller male nodded.
Eiophon knew his cousin understood and would monitor the girl goddess closely. Eiophon slipped his female back to the mattress and stood. The family goddess took his place.
“What is it?” He demanded the answer from the demon and would settle for nothing less than the truth. “What is wrong?”
Chapter Forty-One
Kennera
Something still wasn’t right. She could feel it in her soul. Some vital part of her was missing now. Had it slipped into him while she’d been feeding? What had she lost, given to him?
Panic started anew. “Wolf?”
He must have heard her whispered word from clear across the room where he stood in discussion with Kindara and her demon. His head jerked toward her and he was at her side within an instant. “Girl, you should be resting, not speaking.”
“Tell me what is wrong. I know something is.” Kennera tried to shift on the bed, but it was still too taxing. “Will I die this day?”
“No!” His word was emphatic, a decree that a lesser deity would never begin to defy. “You shall live. Soon, you will feel my strength spreading through your body.”
“Then what frets Kindara and the demon so?”
He hesitated, and she stared up at him. “Something foreign has prevented the binding to set between your soul and mine.”
“From the demon? He is completely foreign to my Kind.”
The wolf shook his head, much like the animal she knew him to be. “No. This is an unfamiliar something. We are unsure of its origins... and its implications.”
“But my people? They all still live?” Nothing else mattered. She could see several of her people — the healer, her daughter, the Dhar and Dahn — all looked healthy, though pale and worried.
“Yes. Though threats still exist to them.” The wolf’s face was grave.
Before she realized what she was doing, Kennera wrapped shaky fingers around his wrist. “Tell me, wolf.”
He used his free hand to push sweaty hair off her forehead. “The bonding... between our souls... it should have created unbreakable ties between us and between our Kinds.”
Kennera tried to understand, but pain and fatigue prevented her from fully comprehending his words. “So? We have existed for millennia separately...”
Chapter Forty-Two
Eiophon
“Separate?” Eiophon wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and squeezed gently. Her gaze was steady on his, firm and strong. The way a goddess’s should be. Was his blood starting to work upon her, then? Despite the strangeness of what the demon and the healer had seen? “You and I shall never be separate again.”
“Wolf, I do not believe now is the time for such declarations,” the demon said. He stood behind Eiophon, his female at his side. “We needs decide how to meld this... difference... within your souls.”
“Do what you must, demon. And if it needs to be melded to either of us, it shall be me. Nothing so foreign is to touch her.”
The demon nodded and looked at his own female. Eiophon knew the other male understood completely. It was Eiophon’s place to stand between the girl goddess and the threat.
And stand between them he would.
He needed to hold her. Closer than just a hand upon her skin. He slid his arms beneath her and lifted her, ignoring her startled exclamations and the family goddess’s protests. But it was the healer’s admonishment that he heeded. “Relax, healer. I am just holding my mate close while the melding commences.”
He could feel the strings of the ties that would bind them weaving their way through the parts of his soul. Could feel the connections between him and her.
Only the foreign strands were the least bit dark... His arms tightened around her. He knew the foreign strands were evil, and it didn’t take a gift of precognition to see that.
But whatever the evil was, it was never touching her...
Chapter Forty-Three
Kennera
It seemed like hours had passed since she’d drank from the wolf and the changes had begun within her, but Kennera doubted it had been more than three. She could breathe more freely and she had lost the chill that had permeated her bones. She still felt slightly weak, but it was the weakness of a recuperating chronic invalid, not the weakness of someone on her deathbed.
The Wolf god lay at her side, his arm strong around her waist. He’d refused to leave her side since the moment the threads between their souls had bound them. She sensed the thought of being away from her actually frightened him.
She wondered if he realized the ties that bound them now had given her a path into his innermost feelings. She knew the same wasn’t true for him; he could not sense how she felt, and t
hat pleased her. But the tenderness she now held for him both frightened her and had her wanting to stroke him, to hold him. Even to kiss him softly.
Dear deities… had those feelings she’d had for him thousands of years ago returned with the strange magic he and the others had performed upon her?
She couldn’t go through his rejection again. She tried to slip out of his embrace, but he tightened his arm around her. Her gaze flew to his face. Black eyes watched her closely.
“Girl. How are you feeling?”
She had to clear her throat slightly before she could answer him. “Better. A little stronger. You?”
She knew the binding had worn him out. She’d felt it long before the rest of the room’s occupants had left to give them time to rest together.
“I will live.” He shifted his large body then pulled her closer still. Kennera fought a shiver. His body felt hot and strong, and deities-help-her, right, against her. “It is you I worry for.”
“Strange, that worry. Before I was certain you would like nothing better than to see me frail, or dead.” Kennera knew her words were bold, but she could also sense his regret at his actions toward her over the years.
He winced but did not release her from his embrace. “At one time, yes. But had I known you were my mate…”
Kennera pulled back to look at the large wolf holding her. “If you remember, I told you. But you chose not to believe me. It does not matter, I was foolish then. Just because some mate-ties exist between us does not mean we are obligated to act upon them.”
“Obligated? No. But act upon them we will. I have long dreamt of the day when I had my mate at my side.”
“Yet the history between us means nothing to you?” What did this mean for her? Kennera had long believed she would die when freed from Levia, or shortly thereafter. She had not planned on waking to find herself held so intimately by the one she feared most.
“The history between us is the stuff of legends from this moment on. I will spend the next several thousand years making up to you for my actions.” His hands were tight on her waist, his leg thrown over both of hers to hold her still when she would have scooted away.
“Together? You were serious about that?” She only hoped the nerves were not detectable in her words.
“You are my mate and I will have you as such!”
Kennera released a small squeak when he rolled them both and loomed over her. The Lupoiux god had always been strong. “What are you doing?”
“Making it clear to you that our mate bond is real, with all the associated heat with it.” His lips captured hers.
Chapter Forty-Four
Eiophon
He held her close while their heartbeats returned to normal. Her face was nuzzled against his chest, and he laughed when tiny fangs sank deep into the muscle over his heart. “Yes, you can be fierce when you want something, can you not?”
She pulled back and looked up at him. “I did not hurt you.”
Her words had a sultry tone that had his body hardening again. He forced himself to relax — his female had been through much in the last evening. She didst not need him pawing at her like an animal again. Once was enough. Enough to cement the mate bond between them, as well. His hand dropped to cover her stomach, his fingers spreading to touch both edges of her pelvic bone.
Concern filled him briefly. She was so damned narrow. Small. Fragile beneath his hand. He had to be so damned careful to prevent hurting her. Would she be able to safely carry his pups? And what of the darkness he could feel encroaching upon his soul? How was that to influence their new bond?
“Of course you did not hurt me. I am a god. You are but a small female, and even at your fiercest, you could not hurt me.”
“If you threatened my people again, I could.”
She’d dropped the sultry tone and replaced it with one of utter seriousness. She still did not trust him fully, but she would with time. And they now had plenty of time to be together.
Eiophon shifted her on the bed beside him. Her naked flesh pressed against his, and he marveled at the time they had lost. They could have been spending that time together...
Had it not been for his foolishness...
“I will never hurt you or your people again. In fact, I will spend the entirety of my days protecting you from any and all that would harm you.”
“Do you think someone will?”
She shivered against him and he pulled the silk blankets around her shoulders. She was clean and the color had long since returned to her cheeks. She was still too thin, but he had made that his next goal. He would see to it that she returned to her once glowing health and vitality.
“Do you sense a threat?”
“Hmm. The darkness seeks to grow. But I will not allow it. I will keep you and the pups safe. This I vow to you.”
“You seem very certain that there will be pups.”
“Of course there will. I am Lupoiux, after all.” He laughed and rolled her beneath him again. “But if you wish, I can do my best to make sure...”
After several long moments of loving between them, she finally slept, curled against him. He held her through the night until the sun peeked through the windows and illuminated the room.
A cloud formed at the foot of the bed, and Eiophon bit back a curse when his cousin Lothonos materialized.
“So, it is done, then? The girl goddess lives and you and she have unbalanced the universe.”
“Dammit, Lotho! A little privacy!”
“Hmm. You have never wished for privacy before.”
“I’ve never had my female beside me before.” Eiophon straightened the blankets around her, ensuring that no naked flesh was revealed to his cousin. “What is it you want? And what are you rambling about?”
“The pups you’ve created. In order for this realm to be balanced, there must be four new deities birthed by the winter solstice. You have created only two.” Lothonos sniffed then turned away from staring at the sleeping form of the goddess. “This must be rectified if we are to keep Gaia from fracturing.”
“And how do you suggest I do that? We’ve created two pups. It’s not like I can double my offspring with a thought!”
“Of course not. That would be illogical.”
Eiophon looked for something to throw at the cousin he had grown up with. Sometimes Lothonos could be maddening with that infernal calm Logic of his. “So why are you here?”
“Just confirming that I must do what I must.”
“And what must you do?”
“Someone needs to rectify this. Two more deities must be birthed. I intend the offspring to be mine.”
Eiophon laughed. His logically guided cousin spent little time with the female deities, choosing only occasional liaisons with the semi-mortal women, usually scientists or other intelligent females. “With whom?”
“There is now only one female suitable. I must go to her. Good day, cousin. And be warned, the darkness inside of you was put there by one of our own. Yet I do not know who... protect your female and children well. The time is coming when all of us must guard ourselves... or all of Gaia will be lost...”
Eiophon’s arms tightened around Kennera, as Lothonos’ words struck a cold chord within him. What exactly was to happen? What had Lothonos seen, and how were they to stop it?
“Do you believe him?” Kennera asked.
He’d known she’d wakened partway through his conversation with his cousin. “Lothonos has never been wrong. It’s really quite irritating. I wonder who the female he’s deemed as suitable is? Or what is going to happen if he doesn’t succeed? I cannot imagine Gaia fracturing...”
“So Lothonos knows how to stop it from happening? He sounded like he did.”
“Hmmm. Perhaps. I will speak with him on this again. But for now, I have only the plans to spend the next little while loving my female. As I should have three thousand years ago.”
“You had best get started. You have millennia to make up for...”
; And Eiophon would do exactly that...
Also Available from
Lost River Lit Publishing L.L.C.
& Calle J. Brookes
Jason and Anna in…
Once Wolf Bitten
Chapter One
The car smelled like woman, but it wasn't his daughter's scent that clung to the upholstery. This woman's scent was much more recent. And one he'd been introduced to just the day before. Jason Taniss held the woman's jacket to his face and inhaled. Lab chemicals and gardenias were dominant; it made sense, the woman worked with his daughter in the lab at Taniss Industries.
He'd met her when he'd toured the new facility being built in Dardanos, CO. Annabelle something-or-other. He tried, but couldn't bring her features to mind. Just long, nondescript brown hair, thick glasses, and a bulky lab coat.
He'd been introduced, she'd blinked up at him, then looked away. She’d dismissed him and he'd dismissed her just as quickly. He'd been there to check on his eldest daughter Josey and the Dardaptoan bloodsucker who claimed to be her mate. The Dardaptoans—inspiration for the vampire legends—owned and ran Dardanos, and since they'd recently converted both his daughters, he'd be overseeing the new Taniss Industries building.
He pulled his cell free and dialed the blood-sucker. It took less than two minutes to have him shifting into wolf form and loping toward the woods after the scientist's scent. He just prayed he'd find her in time.
****
Her trail grew stronger half a mile into the dense woods, now joined with the metallic tang of fear and adrenaline. And something else that drew him, but that he couldn't identify. His paws pounded over the rocks and weeds, his muzzle lifted to the wind. She was close—but now there were several other scents on the night air.
Captive By Night: A Dardanos, Co. Taken Collection Page 65
