by Raven Dark
He sighed, looking like he wanted to say something, but nodded. He took my hand, and we walked down the pathway toward Hawk’s personal bath.
“Master?” I asked after a long moment of silence. “Where is Hawk? Did Sheriff forbid him to celebrate with us for coming after me?”
Pretty Boy’s hand tightened in mine. “No. Sheriff didn’t forbid Hawk to celebrate. Hawk forbidded—forbode? Forbade?—Hawk forbade Hawk to celebrate.”
I glanced at him. “What? Why?”
“‘Cause Hawk is weird.” When I cocked my head at him, he shrugged. “I don’t pretend to totally get him. He’s closer to Sheriff than anyone else here, and
even Sheriff only sort of understands what he does half the time. But it’s all to do with that hardened warrior isolationist crap he practices.”
“His Yantu training.”
He nodded, then stopped me a short distance from the tunnel that led to the bathing chamber. He pointed up toward a high mountain rise in the darkening distance, at the edge of the Grotto. “You see that mountain peak?”
I nodded.
“He’s in a cave up there. Sometimes he just disappears for a while. When he does, he always goes there.”
I stared. Memories tickled my consciousness, but they were only half-formed. I wished I’d read a lot more about the Yantu way of life now. I was pretty sure he was punishing himself, but for what violation? “When will he return?”
“When he’s ready, I guess.”
I looked at Pretty Boy again, but I couldn’t tell by his expression if that was a deliberate non-answer or if he didn’t know. Sadness pulled at me for Hawk, wishing I could be with him.
At the entrance to the bathing tunnel, Pretty Boy stopped me, putting out a hand, and making his way in ahead of me.
“I need to check the place out,” he said. “I’ll stay with you.”
“There’s only one entrance. You don’t have to watch over me, Master.” I barely kept the irritation out of my voice.
Pretty Boy turned and took my chin in his hand. “Hey. I’ll decide what you need. We almost lost you once. It won’t happen again.”
I hated the heat that fluttered in my chest, replacing my annoyance with his over-protectiveness. “Yes, Master.”
He nodded and led me the rest of the way into the cavern.
The familiar beauty of the place greeted me, and I couldn’t help a small smile. Night had all-but come, casting pale moonbeams on the ankle-high pool gathered in the center of the cave and making the white stone walls look like ivory. Diamonds glinted in the rock like tiny stars. As before, a waterfall gushed from a high crevice in the wall across the cave, creating a curtain of flowing white.
Here I felt safe, secluded. Then I caught sight of someone standing in the waterfall. Muscle and tanned skin made a blurry image on the other side of the falls.
Hawk. My heart gave a lurch. I hadn’t seen him since leaving Sheriff’s office. I’d been so worried his absence had been the result of some punishment doled out by the General, it was a relief to see him. But for some reason, nervousness at the idea of approaching him also ate at me. Would he still be as distant as he had been after the inn?
“Master.” I turned to Pretty Boy, keeping my voice pitched low. He no longer looked worried for my safety, but he was watching Hawk with a look of surprise. “Can I have a minute with him?”
“Sure. But don’t get upset if he doesn’t let you in, Princess.” He kissed my forehead and left the cavern, leaving me with nothing to do but turn my attention on Hawk.
My dark-haired master was still washing in the falls, rinsing his short, thick raven hair and soaping up a body that was a work of well-trained, warrior art. He had his back to me and obviously hadn’t realized I was there. Good. I had a feeling I needed to catch him off guard if I was going to get him to talk to me.
I folded my cadris pants to my calves to keep them from getting wet and waded into the pool. “Hawk?”
His back rippled, shoulders tense, but he didn’t turn to me.
“Master, may we speak?”
He said nothing, only finished rinsing off and stepped out of the falls, then dressed, taking his leather pants and cut from a rock nearby. My heart plummeted, feeling his silence all the way to my toes. It weighed on me like a dark cloud.
Crossing to the rock where he dressed, I moved in front of it and touched his arm gently. “Master. Did I do something wrong?”
Again, nothing, but his amber eyes closed, and his harsh features softened. He moved his arm away as if my touch burned him.
I looked up into his face, risking eye-contact long enough to take in the dark circles under his eyes, the fatigue etched into his features. Hawk had night terrors, and the one night we’d been together, he’d slept nightmare-free with me in his arms. It looked like the nightmares had returned.
A sudden need to hold him hit me, but I pushed it down. Thinking about what was going to happen to Patch filled me with emptiness and guilt I could barely comprehend, but I wouldn’t let myself forget I wasn’t Hawk’s equal because I wasn’t thinking straight.
“Master, are you alright? You haven’t been yourself since the inn. Please tell me what I did.”
“You did nothing wrong, slave.”
Slave. Oh, Maker. I was used to that word; I was what I was, but hearing a man use it as Hawk used it now had never cut so deep. He’d used my name more often than anyone else. I’d just gotten used to it. Now I wasn’t even Kitten. I was just a slave, someone a man couldn’t care about or feel for.
Over the days I’d been at the Grotto, I’d grown to feel a certain connection to each of my four masters. I didn’t understand exactly what I felt when it came to the General, but there was something that drew me to him. Hawk brought a sense of connectedness that felt both solid and yet undefined, mysterious as he was. I’d hoped he felt the same. Now it seemed I was wrong. I meant nothing to him.
“If I didn’t do anything wrong, why are you pushing me away, Master?”
Silent, he finished dressing, then made to head for the exit. I was probably pushing too hard, but I couldn’t let him leave without understanding. I grabbed his arm.
“Master.”
He jerked his hand away almost harshly. “Forget about me, Kitten. You’re safer that way.”
“This again? Hawk….Master…I can handle the danger, but give me a chance to prove it.“
“Enough.” His voice was a deadly warning. “I am Yantu. No more questions.”
With that, he walked out of the cavern.
Loneliness and guilt wrought new havoc on my thoughts, and I put my head back, my eyes closing. It did nothing to drive away the emptiness hollowing me out.
Pretty Boy returned, and I was at once glad he was there. Moments ago, I’d wanted only to be alone, but now that was the last thing I needed.
“That bad, huh?” He looked over his shoulder in the direction Hawk had gone. “I don’t know what’s gotten into him.”
I sighed. “I think it’s my fault, Master,” I said softly. “I just wish I had a clue what I did.”
Chapter 7
Letting Go
A few hours later, back at Pretty Boy’s place, he pulled me onto one of the thick, plush couches in his living room.
“Come here, Princess. It’s our first night back home since Steel and I left last week. Feels fucking good to be home.”
I let him pull me across his lap and laid my head on his shoulder. I’d never get over how safe, how warm he now made me feel as his arms closed around me. Men of the Dark Legion were dangerous and deadly, and yet I’d never felt so cared for as I did in the Grotto. I would never have believed I could feel this way this time last week. Sometimes it seemed Pretty Boy was the wildest and craziest of all my masters, but when the situation called for it, he showed a commanding, compassionate side I could barely wrap my head around.
Here, I could forget about the horror of what almost happened with Talak’s men and tomorrow’s execution.
About Hawk’s iciness and the fear that crept in on me even now, that he didn’t want me. I could forget Sheriff’s deep dislike of me, and above all, the awareness that, out there somewhere, Damien was still searching for me. I didn’t want to talk, I wanted to just be.
“Master, thank you for saving me. For bringing me back home. I know I was given a choice, but it meant so much to me to be able to have one. You didn’t stand in my way. I’m glad to be home”
His eyes locked with mine. For an instant, self-consciousness flickered there, but then a slow smile curved his mouth up. Surprise flickered in his eyes, and I knew he was absorbing my calling the Grotto home. He looked pleased, but then he shook his head.
“Don’t change the subject, Princess. I want inside that pretty head of yours. Let me in.”
“I don’t want to talk about it, Master. Please?”
He took my chin between his fingers with just the right hint of firmness. “I don’t care what you want. You need to talk about it, or it will eat a hole in you. Now, what’s wrong?”
I sighed. “I just don’t think executions are right. There has to be a better way.”
“And that would be?” His eyes were full of challenge.
“I… Well…” I put my head back, unable to come up with an answer. “I don’t know.”
“Here’s the thing.” He stroked my hair in long, soothing strokes. “Sheriff has to maintain order. We have to set examples and show the men that justice is done. Without strict laws, the Dark Legion and the Grotto we call home would fall apart. Sometimes the things we do here will suck, but it’s the only way.”
I didn’t like it, but I certainly didn’t see an alternative, so I just nodded.
Pretty Boy brushed his lips to my forehead. “I know you’re worried about Hawk and Sheriff, too. But both of them will get their heads out of their asses eventually. Just give them time.”
And yet I couldn’t stop my thoughts from spinning, my imagination running wild when I thought about Patch and what would happen to him. Pretty Boy would inevitably expect intimacy, and the idea of getting close to anyone made me feel tearful. I started to get up from his lap.
“Whoa, where do you think you’re going?” Pretty Boy’s hand snagged my arm.
“Master, I don’t think I’d be any good to you tonight. I’d like to be alone. Could I stay with Cherry tonight?”
“No.” His tone was so matter-of-fact. I assumed he simply denied me the night away from him because he wanted me to please him. Halfway out of his lap, I deflated and dropped my shoulders, remaining where I was.
As Hawk had so eloquently reminded me, I was a slave.
So much for compassion. A feeling of hollowness settled on me, painful in its intensity. “What do you wish of me, Master?”
He turned my face to his. “Do you think I want to keep you here because I want to get my dick wet?”
It hit me how different these men were from the kind of masters Damien expected me to end up with. I almost smiled at his blunt language. “I wouldn’t have put it quite like that, but…”
“Listen to me—"
“There you are, PB” Steel entered the cavern, mug of beer in hand, lazy, laid-back smile in place. He crossed the room when Pretty Boy waved him over. “Ooh. Serious talk.” He cleared his throat and took a seat beside his friend. “You okay, Petal?”
“Please don’t worry about me, Masters. I’ll be—"
“Princess wants to spend the night alone,” Pretty Boy said, giving Steel a meaningful look.
“Oh. Uh uh. No way.” They both shook their heads at me.
“Why not?”
“‘Cause we said so.” But Steel’s eyes were teasing.
“Look, I just don’t want to be a burden—"
“You’re not,” they both said at once.
“I will—"
“Listen to me,” Pretty Boy said again. “Aside from—"
“But—"
“Petal.”
I looked at Steel.
“Shut your mouth.”
I sighed but closed my mouth.
“Better.” Pretty Boy squeezed my hip possessively. “Aside from the fact that Cherry is going to be with Crash, and I don’t think you want to hear them getting it on all night, being alone won’t do shit for you tonight.”
“If we leave you alone,” Steel said, “you’ll lie awake tearing yourself to pieces over everything you think you did wrong. With Hawk, with Sheriff, with this thing with Patch. You’ll spend the entire night trying to figure out how to change something that can’t be changed.”
“We will make sure you’re too focused on other things to worry about any of that shit,” Pretty Boy added.
“That’s right.” Steel traced my mouth with his thumb. “And by the time we’re done with you, you’ll sleep like the dead. Too tired for that gorgeous brain of yours to work overtime.”
Before I could argue, Steel stood and pulled me up into his huge arms. The moment he held me against his chest, wrapped in his warmth and power, it felt so right, I couldn’t think of a single valid argument. I hated it, but they were right. Cursed with a need to fix any injustice and mend any broken heart, were I left alone tonight, I would spend the entire night tossing and turning. And secretly, I loved that they didn’t hesitate to do what was best for me, for us. Not to mention, nightmares would come, the same ones I always had whenever I knew someone was being executed, and I had no doubt, whatever these men did to me would have me sleeping so deeply there would be no room for nightmares.
Expecting to be carted off to Pretty Boy’s lavish room, I put my arms around Steel’s neck and succumbed to my fate, being taken by these powerful Dark Legion men.
But instead of heading for the bedroom, Steel went to the carpet in the middle of the room and laid me across it. Pretty Boy followed, already undoing his belt. He freed it with a flick of his wrist, and somehow the sight of it alone made my sex already clench in anticipation.
“You need to let go, Petal.” Steel knelt beside me and stripped off his cut, baring that magnificent chest, twice as wide as mine. “Lift your pretty head.” He set his cut down on the floor like a pillow, letting my lay my head on it. Then he began to remove all the jewelry around my wrists, ankles, and neck.
Pretty Boy knelt between my legs, spreading my knees and running his fingers over my sex, right through the crotch of my cadris pants. His slow strokes stimulated and soothed the ache there all at once, and I squirmed into his touch before I could stop myself.
“So fucking beautiful.” He started undoing the silk sash fastened at my waist and jerking off my pants.
Steel cradled my chin, pulling it up, his eyes locked on mine. “I want your mouth.” His head dove, and he plundered my mouth exactly as he had in that alley in Zone 2. He nibbled at my lips and licked, groaning into the kiss.
“Let go, Princess. Don’t think about anything else but this.” Pretty Boy ran his fingers slowly through my wet sex, skin on skin.
A groan escaped me, and I rocked into Pretty Boy’s strokes, mouth open wide, letting Steel explore what was his. Loving every hot, wet stroke of his tongue, every slick glide of Pretty Boy’s fingers.
Pretty Boy’s fingers paused. “Princess, you have a star next to your pussy,” he said almost in awe. I jerked up. All three of us looked at my inner thigh where a purple outline of a star, no bigger then Pretty Boy’s thumb print, marked my white skin.
Knowing there was nothing I could do about it now, I laid back down. “Yes. I was born with it.”
“Fuck, Petal. That’s sexy as hell. You thinking what I’m thinking, brother?”
“Sure as hell am.” Pretty Boy’s sexy grin made his eyes light up like their own bright stars.
“Master?” I wasn’t sure which one I was asking.
“You’re going to wear our mark, Princess. This time next week, we’re marking you.” Before I could process his words, Pretty Boy slid his fingers through my wetness and dragged them up to my star. “Yes, we’l
l put it right on your back. I can see it now. White satin skin, marked in ink, with my cock coming all over it.”
I moaned as he played with my clit, swirling wet circles with his fingers. Maker, his words. Like living things, they ignited heat in my veins.
Steel claimed my mouth, a hot, passionate kiss, and I could hardly form a coherent thought. I panted while he undid the front snaps of my tight-fitting top, slowly pulling each panel of fabric aside to expose my breasts. He lifted his head and thumbed my nipples, his eyes watching them harden under his touch.
“Fuck, I missed these.” He palmed my breasts, pinching and tweaking each of my nipples until I mewled and arched my back for him. The heat of his palms went through me, branding me.
At the same time, Pretty Boy kept up his attention on my sex until I was rutting into his touch. He slid two fingers into me, and I wished they were that magnificent cock I remembered. He slid them in and out, slow, measured strokes that had me longing to be filled.
Meanwhile, Steel leaned forward and sucked one of my nipples into his mouth, lapping at it with his tongue and pulling hard until I gripped his head and cried out.
He kissed my throat. “Did you miss us, Petal?” he rasped against my neck.
I nodded, meaning it. “Yes, Master.”
He growled and bit the side of my neck. I moaned as he sucked on the sensitive skin. The faint stubble on his chin scraped my skin. I wanted it rubbing between my thighs. When he lifted his head, I looked down longingly at Pretty Boy.
“What?” He smirked. “What do you want, Princess?” His thumb teased my clit.
“I…I want you inside me, Master.”
“Do you now?” But instead, he spread my knees further apart and lowered himself to the floor, then dove his head between my legs.
Oh, Maker. He didn’t give me a moment to acclimate; his tongue was everywhere. Lapping and flicking, sending ripples of pleasure through me with every burning hot touch.
Need mounted quickly and I hissed, lifting my head to watch him feast on me like a man starved. His tongue speared out and lashed my clit, eating up every inch of my needy sex with fast, hungry licks.
