by J. B. Miller
"You had to let go of that last tether holding you, and today you did," he smiled triumphantly. "Do you know what that means, my heart?"
"What," I nearly cried from the overwhelming pleasure he was causing, Desperate for him to continue to give me more still.
"It means, Dianthe, that today you become mine. That your very being has joined with mine and eternally we are bound. In body and soul," he growled roughly, pulling his fingers from me and coming abruptly to his knees.
With ease, he lifted my hips and spread me wider while at the same time pulling me onto his lap.
"Tell me, Dianthe," he commanded. "Tell me that you are mine and I am yours. Swear to me your heart and soul and finish the binding between us."
"The others," I managed, holding back the words that were screaming within me to be released.
"Are part and parcel of our bond. They are as much part of you as I am." His words released something inside of me and I screamed.
"Yes, God, yes! I'm yours, Cernunnos. I bind you to me and me to you. Forever and a day until the sun shall rise no more!"
The last was a sob and a plea. However, it was drowned out with his roar as he threw his head back and bellowed to the heavens in the voice of the god he was.
"I accept your bond. I am yours and you are mine. We are bound forever and a day until the sun shall rise no more and the very stars fall from the heaven." He finished his proclamation by spearing into me.
"Witnessed," a multitude of voices rang out.
He gave no time to look for the speaker. He sank so deep I thought he would bottom out and keep on going. The pain was perfect though, so fucking good and real.
He began thrusting into me and I came. Over and over, I came until I thought I would die. In desperation, I grasped his horns, working them as I would his cock.
His measured thrusts became erratic and even harder.
"You are treading on dangerous ground, my heart," he purred.
I smirked up at him, "Bring it, deer boy,"
"With pleasure, my heart. Just remember, you asked for it."
Cernunnos pulled out and flipped me onto all fours. Once more, he dove back in, pounding into me with a focused determination.
One hand grasping my hip as he bent over me to whisper in my ear.
"Look around you, Dianthe. See what we have wrought."
Eyes glazed, I looked beyond our flames to see the Hunt before us.
All around us coupling took place. Some in twos and threes while others were just piled in a mesh of bodies that any seventies porn would have been proud of.
In that moment, it felt natural. This was how it should be outside of human nature.
My friends were there before me taking their pleasure from ours.
Our sexual energies bled into them and spilled over into the expressions of passions I was witnessing.
My gaze took in Brónach sandwiched between two brothers. Oh, there was definitely going to be words later. You just did not hold out on a bestie those kind of details.
Cernunnos laughed. "She can share her secrets with you later; right now we have more pressing matters to attend." His hips twisted and rotated deeper into me. Brónach and her lovers faded from my mind and I fell into the passion of my newest mate.
"Last," he gasped. "Last mate."
"Yeah, last mate," I moaned and came hard as with one last intense thrust Cernunnos filled me with his seed.
"Four is a good round number," I sighed.
"Five is even better," he whispered. "Count yourself, my love, for you are the center of our hearts. Without you, they would cease to exist.”
"Five then," I sighed.
'Five,' Cernunnos thoughts reached me as he put a hand on my stomach, 'For now.' Then I fell asleep.
Chapter Eleven
Bean, Kent…
Robin
The oak chair shattering against the wall was loud in the silence. A large dent in the plaster and falling bits of now kindling was all that remained of what had once been an antique piece of furnishing.
The enraged howl that followed was all down to my wolf.
"It's been a gods-be-damned week, Puck! Where in the hell is she?" Kale turned on me, madness playing behind his feral gaze.
I wanted to howl with him, but knew if I broke we would all be lost. Daniel hung his head in the corner looking as if the weight of the world was upon his shoulders, and he was failing under the pressure.
My mates were falling apart and if we did not find our Dianthe soon, then perhaps it would be better if she stayed in Fae. There would be nothing for her to come back to.
"You said you could find her, faery. Where is she," Kale sobbed and fell to his knees.
He tore at his hair as he bent over in pain. The withdrawal was crippling and it was affecting all of us.
Most do not understand the bond between true mates. Once mated, they could not be separated for long periods of times.
Physically, it was possible, but they needed the emotional and psychic connection or they began to weaken and wither until they delved into madness and either lay down to die or went feral. Then it was up to the pack to put them down mercifully and quickly. No shifter had ever survived the loss of a true mate.
The fact Kale could not touch Dianthe was trebled by the effect of her being with the Hunt. He could not sense her other than knowing she was alive. It was only by the mother's grace that we had mated in Fae or we would have lost him by now.
Our bond was all that held him in place. Yet, each day I could see his wolf becoming more dominate. It would not be but a few more weeks at most before we completely lost him to the wolf.
Daniel must have been reading my mind...the perceptive godling...
"Speak of the devil," he murmured.
I looked up sharply to see that Kale had taken a back seat and the wolf spirit had taken over.
His voice more growl and snarl than man could naturally make, he spoke to me.
"My male mate, where is our female? I do not feel her or see her. We are alone and the pain is great."
I carefully walked forward and knelt in front of my wolf. Our eyes met and stayed on one another, neither willing to look away first. My hand reached up and cupped his bristled cheek and I gently nuzzled his lips.
"Dear wolf, she is not gone, she is only far away."
"How far," he snarled.
"How long is a piece of string?" I questioned back.
"I want none of your riddles, mate... Where is our female? She may be lost and hurt and we are not there to protect her! It is our right to be with her. The three of us together can protect her from those who want to do her harm." Kale suddenly stood and began to pace, his wolf still in control. It was swift and controlled motions and it was easy to envision the animal walking nervously back and forth with hackles raised.
"What do you know, mate?"
I sighed, I knew this was coming and I had held off as long as I could. I had wanted more information and hopefully to have met with Cernunnos by now. But he was refusing my requests for a meeting.
"She is alive and well, my wolf." I sighed before continuing, "Sit, both of you, and I will tell you what I know."
Kale's wolf strode over to Daniel and cuddled into the other male with an ease the man still struggled with. Daniel's arm went around him and pulled him close. They both needed the comfort and I did not begrudge them, even if I were slightly envious that I was not with them at this moment.
I ran a quick hand through my hair, a show of my nerves.
"First of all, let me assure you that Dianthe is safe and well. She is still with the Hunt and I have been informed that Cernunnos has no plans to hand her over to whoever it was that called the Hunt. He is in fact searching for the one who called for her capture as he believes it was a false Hunt."
My eyes gleamed with intent when I told them the next.
"When he discovers who called an unjust Hunt, it will be retribution."
"And do we get to be part o
f that retribution," Daniel asked softly.
Kales growl was a low accompaniment to the query.
"Yes," I said simply.
"Why can you not get her back if you know so much, faery? You seem to be able to converse with the creature that took our mate, but not able to get her back where she belongs. We need our mate," Kale bellowed.
Daniel soothed him as best he could, rubbing his back, and nuzzling into his neck. The whole time though his eyes amber with his wolf, he stared at me.
"It is a slow process, my wolf," I sighed.
"Try to understand. At the moment, she is safe. Safer even than we could make her." I quickly held up a beseeching hand as I knew he would disagree with that remark.
"Cernunnos and the Hunt have claimed her as their own to protect. She is in a place none would dare to go without invite and she has a horde to keep her safe. At the same time, she is being trained to protect herself and use her gifts. Something we would struggle with at best. While only a week has passed here, months have possibly gone by there."
"Months, don't you think that things can change over the course of months," Daniel asked.
"We have only been together for a short time in the scheme of things. If she has been gone months for her, perhaps she has left us behind..." he trailed off.
"NO!" Kale surged to his feet. "She is mine!" he paused before adding with a sweeping gesture. "Ours."
"Kale is right, my godling, you have become accustomed to human relationships which are fleeting and immaterial. More than attraction bonds us together. In this case, absence does indeed make the heart grow fonder."
"What do you mean?" Daniel asked. This infant immortal had more patience and calm than I would have expected in one so young. I glanced at our hotheaded alpha. Infinitely more so than our wolf. Perhaps it would rub off on him, I pondered.
"It means, Daniel, that she is bonded to us on a metaphysical level. When we say she is our mate, it means just that. Our lives are entwined. All of us. She is our loadstone, the center of us all," I finished simply.
Daniel snorted, and it was the first hint of his true frustration. He stood and stretched before walking across the room leaving Kale to stare after him warily.
Oh, I knew this was coming, and the outcome would be interesting. The trickster part of my nature was coming to the fore and I wanted to see how this would play out.
I leaned against the dressing table and crossed my arms negligently with a smirk lifting the corner of my mouth.
"Something you want to share, godling?"
A look of pure condensation crossed his face before being replaced with a calm facade.
"What do you mean, Robin?" he asked softly.
My brow rose to join the smirk, "Nothing, Daniel. You just seemed to doubt our bond, that is all. I mean it's hard to dispute what is there for the eye to see. Kale's mark," I tilted my neck so he could see.
"Dianthe's binding," my bare arm glistened with silvery runic markings.
"What could there possibly be to doubt?"
"Your bloody markings," he swore under his breath.
Ahh and here comes the explosion.
Daniel flashed with godly light for a moment and the trousers he had been wearing vanished. He spread his thickly muscled arms out wide and turned in a slow circle.
"I don't have a fucking mark on me, MATE," he tilted his head for emphases
"No bite, no pretty tattoo's... Nadda. It's all well and fine to say we have a bond with Dia. You two do. Not me," he bit out. He ran a hand through his short dark hair.
"Hell, I don't even have a bond with you two. I'm so fucking sick and tired of being the odd man out. At least when I was in the Ops we were a unit. I can't even say that about us. It's you two and Dia. Yeah, its fine being there to be your fuck buddy...but man, that shit is getting old."
From the corner of my eye, I had kept a watch on our wolf. He had almost doubled in size from pure bristling. His animal was so close to the surface. Daniel was about to get more than he had bargained for if he only pushed a bit more.
My smirk turned into a malicious grin.
"So, what you are telling us is that you feel left out? That you do not belong to us? Or we you?"
Daniel laughed bitterly and turned to walk away.
"You know what, fuck this, and fuck you both. I will go look for her myself. I don't need this shit. You two can play happy families together. I'm not ready to sit down and wait for her to come home when the damned Lord of the Hunt is done playing with her.
"When I find her, I'm going to ask her to marry me and have babies with me. You know, normal things. Not this twisted mind games shit and always playing third wheel!"
Daniel's calm had finally broken and he made the mistake of completely turning his back on Kale and storming toward the door to leave.
I shook my head in amusement. He still had so much to learn.
One, you should never turn your back and run away from a predator. It makes you prey. And two, do not challenge an alpha unless you are ready to take the consequences.
Before Daniel could take two steps, Kale was on him.
He had him up against the door face first, his whole body against Daniel's back, pushing him forward.
"Mine," he growled.
"Oh goody, let the fun begin," I chuckled.
*****
~Daniel~
I was finally fed up with this tripe. How much could they expect a man to take before he snapped?
Yeah, it fucking hurt, but I wasn't going to let them see that.
Playing second string to their trio was fine for a while. I was ready to wait until we could all gel. Hell, I knew better than most how hard it was for a new unit to bond. I was usually a lot more patient, but when the men came back from fairyland and you could see the steam coming from their looks... Well hell...it felt like a slap in the face.
When Dia was grabbed and they turned to each other, letting me in but still feeling like the proverbial third wheel...it was a bitter pill to swallow.
The final slap in the face was Robin showing off his marks. It was like rubbing a wedding ring in my face and saying, "Ha-ha, look here, boy. I have the girl and boy. They choose me not you."
I was done. Damn, it felt like my heart was crumbling into dust, but even a solider can only stand alone for so long. So, I did what any man would do and told them to fuck off.
"You know what, fuck this, and fuck you both. I will go look for her myself. I don't need this shit. You two can play happy families together. I'm not ready to sit down and wait for her to come home when the damned Lord of the Hunt is done playing with her.
"When I find her, I'm going to ask her to marry me and have babies with me. You know, normal things. Not this twisted mind games shit and always playing third wheel!"
They could take that any way they wanted...I just didn't give a damn. It was a lie, I cared more than I wanted to ever admit but I stiffened my shoulders and turned my back on them and headed toward the door.
I hadn't made it a step before I was pushed face first into said door and a couple hundred pounds of pissed off wolf was all over me.
"Mine," I heard before my neck was wrenched to the side and savaged.
He bit deep and motherfucker did that hurt.
At the same time, my dick went rock hard and pressed between me and the doorknob.
Kale never let go of my shoulder as one arm snaked around me to take my hard-on into a tight fist.
I moaned, "Oh fuck me."
Robin laughed from behind us, "I do not believe you will have to wait long for that, Daniel. From the look of our wolf, he is going to ride you hard." His voice hardened and I felt the whisper of breath against my cheek before his words fluttered against my ear.
"And when he has finished marking you, it will be my turn. By the time we are done with you, my young godling, there will be no doubt in your mind that you are forever bound to us," he paused.
"Once Dianthe is back in our fold, we will lock our
mating into place and only death will part us. If that cruel bitch can get past me that is."
I could barely concentrate on his words since Kale was still jacking me while he sucked the mother of all hickeys on my neck. Still, a chill skittered down my spine.
Finally, Kale pulled his fangs from my flesh and growled as he licked the wound he left behind.
"We can't let you feel left out, mate," he snarled.
"You will never attempt to leave us again, do you understand? I am alpha and you will obey me. I will not lose another mate, even temporarily. You will know your place and it is under me."
Kale let go of my cock and turned me around, crowding me against the door. Physically, he was smaller than me, but he dominated easily.
"Strip and get on the bed, Daniel," he commanded. The flashing amber eyes had me moving. After all, I was a soldier and damn, I knew when to follow an order.
I removed the remainder of my clothing that wolfman hadn't destroyed getting to my dick, and made it to the bed in three steps and sat down on it my legs spread wide. I figured Kale would flip me, lube me, and spear me hard in that order.
I was shocked when he went down on his knees between my spread thighs, pushing my legs open wider.
I didn't know it was possible but I hardened further.
Robin had wondered over and sat on the bed beside me, his hand gently teasing over my chest, dipping to run a finger over a hardened nipple.
"You were not expecting that, were you?"
I kept my eyes on Kale and just shook my head, no.
Kale glanced up at me then over to Robin.
"I have learned in my travels that it is quite easy to top from the bottom. You do not need to take to be in control." He cupped my balls and ran his tongue up the vein leading to the flare of my crown.
I closed my eyes and bit my lip to keep from begging for more.
He sucked the tip into his mouth before letting it go with a pop.
"For example, I can make you beg me to come and withhold your pleasure until I decide when you can have it.”
Kale looked to Robin and some sort of silent communication passed between them because a moment later I was on my back, legs spread wide with Kale leaning over my dick and Robin's cock at my face.
