by Setta Jay
They should be grateful.
They apparently weren’t. He’d never answered to anyone and found it irritating to do so now, but he had a feeling that playing to fear was not the best way forward. If they thought he was dangerous to them, they may go against their word and imprison him again after all.
“Not likely,” he answered. It hadn’t been all that easy with Draken’s female, though mostly because she held the strength and ability of a Goddess and used it to fight him at first.
They all appeared ready to do battle, so he lifted his hands and growled, “It worked because they weren’t fully bonded, and the animals chose to be released.”
“So you took a gamble? You had no idea it would work?” Sirena gaped at him. “Removing her beasts wasn’t our only problem.”
This was getting tedious now. He had much more important things to do than deal with an irrational female.
“It worked,” he growled.
He disliked having to answer to anyone for his freedom. He looked at his son and gritted his teeth, knowing he’d never risk going back into that box. He’d deal with the Guardians.
He also wasn’t sure about this anklet matter Sander suggested, but if they wanted him to wear some sort of jewelry, it was better than being locked away in the sleeping unit again. He would look up the specifics on the Internet.
That was the reason his son had taken him to the manor in the first place. He’d gone through all the files Conn had provided with the laptop and he needed more information. This was the only place in the Realm for him to access all that he wanted to see.
His son stood just inside the room. “What do we do next?”
“My stasis unit should purge the drug’s synthetic effects.”
“Should purge them?” Sirena was grinding her teeth before snapping out the words, “Do you know anything?”
“Watch your words, female,” he warned with a lick of power. He would only take so much even from a female. “I corrected the problem. The beasts were complicating things. Now she will only get her dragon half when he finishes their mate bond. Problem solved,” he pointed out.
“How is the stasis unit going to do any good?” Pothos asked.
He was tiring of this conversation. “The Creators formed the units to contain Gods, but also to purge the darkness that infected my brothers and sisters.” He raised a brow. “If it can purge dark energies from a God, I assume it would eliminate any synthetic impurities from a mere Immortal.”
He heard faint growls from some of the occupants.
“What about the blood bonding. You said they should be fine? How do you know?”
“Cyril tested it, did he not? He wouldn’t have mated her if he thought he would be infected.”
“Another fucking guess?” Brianne groaned. “Shit, Hades.”
“Logical conclusion based on the information provided. Though I’m sure Sirena can do tests to confirm that as well,” he pointed out.
Alex, his niece, finally spoke. “Cyril was around others after mating her. There was nothing about him having the pheromones she has. I’m running back through the memories and conversations now in my head.” After a pause she added, “That doesn’t mean it won’t affect him with time.”
“I’ll need to keep testing his blood. And hers after she goes into the stasis unit,” Sirena said, seemingly to herself.
After a moment the healer asked, “How long will she need to be in there?”
He thought for a few beats. “I don’t know. I wasn’t infected with dark energies. Hours. Maybe a couple of days.” He couldn’t imagine it taking long. Compared to an infliction attached inside a soul, this was a small impurity. An apparently potent one, but small in comparison to a God who’d taken in darkness.
They all seemed to be processing the information.
“Since we’re finished, I will see the Internet now.”
“Not yet,” the healer growled. Her violet eyes had grown calculating and he didn’t like that look. “I want to test your skill with another beast who needs freeing.”
He sighed. “I agreed to help Draken. No others.”
“I don’t care. If you are going to stay out of that stasis unit, then you’ll make yourself useful. There is a female who lost her mate. The beast mourns so much she’s gone mad and I want to test this process for others.”
He growled. “If her mind is already gone, what does it matter?”
He noticed the other Guardians tensing and a few bit off remarks or growled. He looked to his son, who was shaking his head. Father, this is the shit we do. Get used to helping just because you can.
He guessed it wouldn’t hurt to have them owe him another debt or two in case Draken decided to go against the agreement his warriors made in his stead. Hades would have. Not that anyone would have been allowed to speak for him in the first place, but he was a God and this new dynamic was much different.
He bowed and gave her one of his most magnetic smiles. “Lead the way, my beautiful Siren.”
She shook her head and bit out, “Save it,” before giving him her back as she led the way through the throng of Guardians, who all dislodged from their path to gather around Pothos to start asking questions.
He would deal with his task quickly. He had far more important things to handle, and quickly. He felt for his brother again and received the same silence. Could Apollo really be unconscious still? He didn’t like the potential possibilities.
Chapter 14
Drake’s Home, Tetartos Realm
Delia loved how he held her somehow gently when he was filled with such intense strength. She barely noticed the rock tunnels he led them up. She’d been lulled by the heavy beat of his heart until she felt the warmth of the brand she’d made in his skin. It was permanent, from the healer powers inside her.
Even without the beasts it seemed the abilities were hers for good. The wolf gave her intense telekinetics, Cyril was not only a healer, but Apollo’s son, so she was able to teleport as well as manipulate the body, and as a mortal Mageia her particular element was fire. The power surges only seemed to make each ability stronger and it was evidenced on her mate’s skin. It was permanent, drawn into the skin, not over it.
Delia’s fingers traced over the mark on Drake’s chest. It ran over his shoulder and trailed around his thick left bicep. She was looking into the golden eyes of a beautifully majestic dragon tattoo. The entire thing was an outline of small scales covering a sleek curving body ending with sharp claws and a tail.
A soft rumbling growl issued from his lips as she caressed it. She felt distinct pleasure knowing she’d marked him. She supposed it was fitting that the image was a dragon, though she hadn’t intentionally done any of it. That alone proved just how powerful and animalistic she’d become. Her beasts were gone, but she still felt every deep primal instinct to claim her male. To show the world that the dragon belonged to her. She stifled the growl of possessiveness that came with that thought.
She lifted her head and inhaled the sweet-smelling smoke coming from his lips before pulling his head down to take the heat of it into her lungs. She growled with pleasure as their tongues tangled, and when she broke the kiss, it was to see his emerald eyes blazing with desire. They moved through a door and into a huge stone room before ascending a carved staircase.
“What happened, temptress?” he growled as he carried her into an immense bedroom with tapestries covering the stone walls and a massive bed she couldn’t wait to slide around in. Flames blazed to life in the hearth as he passed and the walls glowed with the soft flickering light.
She stifled a moan as he set her down on the silky bedding and followed to lean over her. She lifted up and kissed the tendons at his neck and had to force back the desire to bite. Some small part of her heeded the God’s parting warning about blood bonding now. She wouldn’t take risks with her dragon.
Her lips trailed down to the brand on his skin, pleased with how his muscles jerked for her. She’d only wanted to mark him, sh
e hadn’t intended for her power to do it. It was evidence of her lack of control where both she and her power were concerned. Still, she loved the sight of the beast’s face staring up from its resting place on the side of his chest, protecting his heart. One claw seemed to dig into the flesh as the rest of the body curled over his shoulder with unfurled wings as if it were swooping down to take him. The spiked tail curved around his thick bicep in a possessive caress that made her smile.
It was beautiful.
“You love your mark on my skin.” He growled and the sheer approval in his tone sent shivers of desire through her.
His eyes trailed over her chest, taking in every detail of the mark she felt on her own skin. She looked down and her lips tilted as she glanced back at him. She had a dragon of her own, riding her skin in emerald green that matched the color of his eyes. She turned her shoulder to get a better look; it was just as beautiful, but bigger somehow.
When her power had surged, she’d felt him somehow pulling it back, helping her to contain it, and she remembered the exact moment she felt the warmth pulling erotically from her skin. She nearly moaned just thinking about it.
His fingers went to her hair and held her head against the soft pillow as he commanded her lips. Tell me how.
When he lifted up it was to capture her gaze, demanding answers without a word.
“I didn’t plan it.” She started, “I wanted my mark on your skin, and the power just flooded in and surged back out.” Her eyes tracked to his. She wasn’t sorry, but admitted, “I don’t know how a design formed.”
“I wanted the same thing. When I tried to leash the power, this is what happened.” He growled and the emerald shards of his eyes tracked back to the deep green markings outlining a dragon on her skin. He set his thumb gently over it and the sensation and the look in his eyes were curious, yet almost reverent. She looked down at her breast and saw the tattooed claw appeared to be digging into the soft flesh around her nipple. What she could see of the face looked dangerously possessive and completely male, which she loved. It felt like having his dragon curved on her skin.
“Show me,” she whispered. His eyes shot to hers and then he was sending the image into their link. Her back arched toward him as she savored the slide of his mind along hers again.
“It’s my beast on your flesh.” His eyes sparked with intensity as his cock pulsed against her side. He definitely appeared as pleased with her brand as she was with his. Soon she’d have a dragon half inside her as well as on her skin. Once they finished the bond, her animal would manifest, but she couldn’t focus on any of that when need still rode her so incredibly hard.
Not just need for sex, she just needed to process the intensity of all that’d happened, and feeling his hands on her bare skin eased and incited her all at once. It was still almost dreamlike. She never imagined that he would ever be more than a fantasy, that she could have her true mate. She nearly growled with animal pleasure so intense she couldn’t think beyond it.
The creature she’d become wanted him with the strength of a beast. Instinct kept pushing her to bite him, to finish this, but she couldn’t. Not yet. Not until they took care of the drug in her system and ensured it couldn’t harm him.
Her eyes fluttered closed when his hands started roving over her chest and shoulder. Gooseflesh rose along her skin as her head lolled on the pillow. Incredible. He spoke in the link before setting his mouth to her throat, trailing down to bite her collarbone. She gasped as dizzying pleasure racked her body.
Yes. She wanted his teeth in her skin. She growled and lifted a hand up to run her fingers over his bearded cheek down the hard cords of his neck to his bare chest.
Hers.
He lifted back to claim her lips swiftly. Show me my brand, he demanded and his gravelly tone undid her as she sent him the image.
Fucking beautiful.
She ran her hand over his hip before grasping what she wanted, what he was pushing into her side. He was so hard and blissfully hot. He chased away the cold that infused her for months, surrounding her with such incredible warmth she wasn’t sure she’d ever get enough of it, of him.
She broke the kiss and lifted her eyes to his, panting. “I need this again.”
“Yes,” he growled, thrusting against her palm. “Tell me everything that happened, first.”
She made a low animalistic noise in the back of her throat. “About?” She couldn’t concentrate on anything but wanting his beautiful cock inside her, filling her so blissfully full.
He removed her hand and set it to his chest, and when she growled, he demanded, “Start at the frenzy.”
She could take what she wanted, it would be a glorious battle, but he’d still want answers. She groaned before telling him what she remembered, “I kept touching the link. It was like a compulsion, I just couldn’t stay away, but I had no idea it would set off the frenzy.” It had all happened so fast.
He nodded, so she continued with what wasn’t fuzzy, “After it started, Sirena came in and calmed it, briefly. She said Hades was on his way. That the God had a way to fix things for you and me.”
She snarled as she remembered it. “Sirena said it would hurt you if I didn’t let his power in.”
Drake’s eyes bored into hers as he growled, “And?”
“It was a blur, but I remember Hades coming in, and when he hit me with power, I think I hit him back out of impulse.” She frowned, trying to think of everything as her hands trailed over his chest and arms; she couldn’t get enough of just touching him. That didn’t mean she wasn’t wet and achy for more of her dragon; the fact that his come was coating the inside of her thighs only made it harder to resist taking more. He smelled so damned good, his come on her skin… lying where he slept. Her body writhed into the blankets, wanting more of his scent on her. It was sensory overload of the best kind.
She groaned, but even though his lips had tilted at her account so far, he didn’t move or speak. He waited.
She sighed and continued, “It was like the wolf pushed forward to greet Hades’ power. Then it was as if the animal relaxed and just blinked away.” She shook her head, still struck by what had happened. She didn’t know what to think, but the relief had staggered her. She felt completely free for the first time in months.
His brow furrowed at her words, but he didn’t speak as she continued, “It was the same with the shadow. The beast went to the power like it was some entrancing beacon of peace and then a second later it was gone. I don’t know what he did with them, but it was like they were glad to go.” She closed her eyes and savored the silence in her head, not caring to think about it too closely.
When she opened them again, he seemed to be processing the information. A second later his lips were against hers. It was a teasing kiss that ended far too soon.
She looked up at him before asking her own question. “Can he do something about the pheromones?” She didn’t really want to think about it. She wanted to sink into this moment of freedom and take all she could from it. She ached to love the male who was meant to be hers and take everything she could from the male she never thought she’d ever be allowed to touch. She wanted it all, but mostly she was dying for more of the blinding pleasure he’d given her in the cavern.
He leaned down and buried his face in her neck and growled in her head, He will fix it. A moment passed. I can scent the pheromones coming from your skin.
She tried to pull away, hating them anywhere near him, but he held tight. It’s not nearly as intoxicating as your scent. Yours is addicting, temptress.
She despised the pheromones, but it eased something deep inside to know that he could tell the difference. The old Delia’s time with the wolf and Cyril was fuzzy in her head, like someone else’s experiences. She saw it more in the nightmares of Cyril’s memories. The old Delia had been just one more tormented female who’d endured the experiments of the monster. She hadn’t had a moment to consider how the pheromones could have been affecting him from the moment h
e’d washed the mud from her skin. She shook those thoughts off and pulled his hair to lift him away from her neck.
He growled just before she captured his lips, feeling just how agitated he was. Later. No more talking now. She refused to waste this moment on tasks that could wait until after she savored this moment with her mate. She’d deal with whatever came afterward. The only thing that could hurt her now was losing this, and that wouldn’t happen. Once the frenzy started, there no going back.
Now that she could touch him, she never wanted to stop. She could blame her obsession on the healer’s constant tests and reports on how he raged while she was hurting. Sirena had attempted every tactic to get Cyril’s formula from her and that included playing on Delia’s animalistic mating instincts toward the dragon, coaxing them into something even more intense. Even without the female’s words, she’d started becoming obsessed with the male powerful enough to ground her when she was lost. That he’d ensured her every comfort was only icing on the cake. Clothes, luxurious furnishings and soaps, along with the ability to shower were nothing compared to sanity. He’d helped get her free of the beast. If it hadn’t been for the first scent of him, she might still be fighting a never-ending battle with the shadow.
He’d saved her.
His fingers tangled in her hair as he took over the kiss. Open for me, he demanded as he moved into the cradle of her thighs. She moaned as she slid one leg up the side of his thigh, over his hip to the firm ass she couldn’t wait to see. Her hands trailed over his back, enjoying how his muscles twitched along the way.
A moment later his mouth pulled away and trailed to her ear, biting down until she gasped. His deep growl of approval only made her twist for more.
His beard abraded her skin as he inched down her neck to her breasts, paying special attention to the marking on her chest. I fucking love this. The vibrations of this voice in her mind added another level to the need consuming her.
