by Setta Jay
Rain spoke. “You have questions, so just go for it. Anyone want wine? I’m having some.” The short blonde sauntered around the bar, but they all turned down drinks. It was foreign for them to socially interact with other females, but it was even more so when talking to ones from obviously different Immortal races. The scents weren’t unpleasant, just different from those they’d come across. Even Jax and Bastian and the two others that came to the explosion weren’t the same as the two females.
“What races are you from?” Zoe asked the question Dacia had been wondering the answer to.
“I’m a Hippeus,” Alyssa offered. They all had very rough views of the Immortal races from their parents’ teachings. “We’re a race of warhorses,” she said in explanation. They all looked at her, and Dacia wondered how the tiny female could have a horse form.
“I know. It’s ridiculous. I’m the smallest of the bunch, mated to the biggest of the race.” Her eyes danced when she said the last. Dacia watched her curiously. Both females seemed to brighten at the mention of their mated status.
Rain spoke up from the bar. “I’m a Nereid.” That explained the sea air hints coming from the female. “I was a Mageia. Mageia can be compatible mates to Immortals, so Sirena, the Guardian healer, entices them to come live in Tetartos. They only gain Immortality and a beast if they mate. I was born here, but you’ll find that Mageia tend to live in the city centers, which are protected from beast attacks by Immortal warriors. In fact, Alyssa’s parents are the Immortal warrior mates in charge of Lofodes.”
“A mated pair is in charge?” Dacia wondered at that.
“Yes, mated pairs are more powerful than the average Immortal. Sirena thinks it might have something to do with the need to protect potential children, since mated pairs are the only ones able to have young.” Alyssa smiled and her cheeks flushed pink. Dacia didn’t miss the change, and neither did her sisters. They all stared at the Hippeus’ stomach. It was flat.
“Are you pregnant?” Isa asked with a hint of something in her voice. Not real jealousy, at least not the malicious kind. Dacia knew it was want. Her sister’s face brightened with more excitement and no small amount of hope. Dacia’s stomach twisted. She hoped her sister found a male that could give her that dream.
“Yes,” Alyssa said, grinning happily.
“How long?” Isa asked.
“Just starting. I’ve got over a year.”
Isa’s eyes widened. “How long is a Hippeus pregnancy?”
Alyssa groaned a little. “Too long.” Rain was laughing as she drank from her wine. “Shut up, Rain,” Alyssa snarled. “Your time will come.”
“Yeah, but Dorian won’t be a mental case like Gregoire. He won’t insist on carrying me everywhere as if the baby was going to split me in two. Also, I checked with Sirena. Nereid pregnancies are only ten months, unlike your sixteen-month nightmare.”
Isa gasped. “Sixteen months?”
Dacia remembered Isa telling her that Lykos pregnancies were only slightly longer than a human one. It seemed odd that other Immortal races had different gestation periods.
Alyssa groaned again. “Yes.”
Dacia caught sight of Bastian turning for a second, and she swore she saw a smile on his face before it was gone.
“Your mate’s worried?” Isa asked.
“Yes, he’s huge, and he worries and snarls at everyone right now,” Rain said, grinning and shaking her head. “He’s attached to her ass when he’s not on patrol, but he’s kind of cute about it at times, and the rest of us find it entertaining.”
“Cute? Ha!” Alyssa said, but she was smiling.
Alyssa cleared her throat. “So Conn was worried about overwhelming you with all of us at once. We’ll come back with our mates when they’re done with patrols, but we thought it’d be less intimidating this way. Gregoire can be…” She laughed. “Intense.”
Rain nearly choked on her wine. She shook it off and added, “Don’t worry. If you have questions, ask. Sirena’s been busy with Guardian stuff and so has Sacha, but trust me, they all want to meet you. Conn is a favorite.”
Dacia didn’t know if she liked the sound of that. Her animal wasn’t sure, but didn’t go crazy at their familiarity with him.
“He’s searched for you for weeks.” Alyssa smiled.
“How did he even know about me?” she asked.
“There was a kind of battle at a Mageia home in Earth. Conn said he scented you then. You were apparently far enough away that he was able to stay and do his job. He went in search later, but you hadn’t left many traces.” Such a chance occurrence seemed implausible, but it was the only thing that made sense. Probably when she’d made the run from her sisters’ to the new house and back. She thought of the location of that destroyed house where he’d been hurt.
Alyssa continued talking. “We’ve all been expecting you. We just didn’t know you’d have sisters too,” she said, smiling at them.
Dacia’s mind slid to her first sight of him. The shock and arousal that hit her so off guard. He’d been waiting for her.
She only half paid attention to talk of Rain’s old shop and a little about the other Guardians. Her mind kept wandering to Conn and what he might be doing. She heard a bit about an island made for pleasure, and she and her sisters just stared at the two females. Taking it in, but not sure what to make of the differences in the way cities were and that everything they were so used to hiding in Earth was out in the open here. It was so different she had trouble wrapping her head around all they said.
She felt him before actually even scenting him in the courtyard. Anticipation slid over her. She wanted to see him, but the bar was in her line of sight. Her muscles tightened and her breath sawed out of her lips. The last time she’d seen him they were circling, and her beast ramped up, ready to start the dance all over again. Her sisters said his wolf calmed theirs, not hers. She’d spent the entire run fighting her animal’s desire to start a chase. Her wolf pulling at the leash until the end. Where had he gone with Jax after that?
His dark head came around the corner, but he wasn’t with Jax, and he wasn’t alone. Her breath caught, and all her sisters jumped up at once, darting over to them. All the mental chatter in her head couldn’t mute her reaction to Conn and the fact that he’d obviously hunted her brother.
She was furious.
She turned on him and snarled. “You hunted him down!” she growled with her fists balling at her sides. “We haven’t done anything wrong in all these centuries, yet you couldn’t leave well enough alone?”
“Princess, I didn’t hunt him. He was waiting for me with a packed bag.”
She spun to her brother, her anger at Conn slowly being replaced by frustration with Gunn. He’d really just waited with a bag? She was getting bits of the chatter from all her siblings in the link. Gunn looked tense and protective with Mia and Zoe wrapped under each arm.
Where is Hagen? Isa demanded of Gunn.
He’s not coming yet, Gunn said.
“You didn’t think I’d really stay behind,” her brother said with a strained and dangerous grin. He was watchful, taking in his surroundings.
She was having trouble with the talk in her mind, only getting bits, enough to understand that Conn didn’t know about her other brothers.
I have work to do, and if I stay another second, I’ll be all over you, and your brother is snarling at my hard-on as it is. He gave her a sexy grin, and she looked down to see for herself, unable to stop the impulse. The draw was getting worse. He was close enough that his scent filled her lungs, tempting and taunting her to touch. Her beast whimpered for her to do just that, and she fought it. The last twenty-four hours had been an erotic hell, and she only felt it building again as he stayed near. His hair looked tousled, and all she wanted to do was run her hands through the dark sexy strands. She heard Alyssa and Rain walk away, leaving them to the moment.
A second later she registered her brother’s growls. Conn had heard them, but she’d been too cau
ght up in the haze of arousal to notice. It was so strong, the pull intoxicating at times.
Talk through the link if you need me.
She nearly groaned remembering the talking they’d done the night before. Her skin flushed. He winked and she felt the soft caress of his power over her cheek before he turned and left. Her eyes tracked the pull of flannel over his shoulders to the tight fit of the jeans over his ass, and she forced her eyes to close.
When she finally turned to her siblings again, she saw that her sisters were restraining a tense and snarling Gunn.
She took a couple of deep breaths to calm down. She was glad her sisters held Gunn back. She didn’t want to see him hurt, and he was no match for Conn.
It was difficult focusing on Gunn when her body still felt needy. “I can’t believe you came.” She shook her head and frowned at him. She should have known he wouldn’t stay away, that he’d try to be here to protect them.
Hagen and the others are preparing. Hagen’s setting the others up to take care of the businesses so he can come and decide whether to stay or try to get us out. I’ll look after you four until we have all the answers, Gunn said as to not be overheard.
All four sisters frowned at their brother’s choice of words.
Jax appeared next to them with a bag, which he tossed at Gunn. Her brother caught it in one hand. When Jax spoke, he was serious, not the joking male of before. “Your sisters can show you the couch in their suite. If you play nice, Conn might get you your own digs. Don’t fuck with the staff; you won’t be happy with the results.” His voice was deadly under the deceptive grin splayed on his beautiful face. “You’re a fucking guest unless you piss us off. Guns are not allowed on Tetartos. There are mortals here you could have fucking hurt. Anyone here is under our protection. Bastian and I get babysitting duty to make sure you don’t do anything stupid. I’m marginally annoyed now; you don’t want me angry. I’m a party until that happens.”
Dacia’s eyes snapped to Gunn. He narrowed his eyes at Jax before speaking. “So I should have voluntarily come to a new Realm to protect my sisters completely unarmed?” He cocked an arrogant brow at Jax.
Jax’s grin was all teeth. “And that’s why you’re not getting spanked. I get that you don’t know or trust us. Newsflash, we don’t trust you either. You’re here because your sister is Conn’s mate; otherwise you would have been set up somewhere in the Lykos clans. Which, though fine, isn’t the sweet deal you have now. You have full access to one wing, but the others are spelled, and Bastian or I will be watching. Don’t fuck up. Or do. You’re not my brother-in-law; I’ll gladly leave you bloody.”
Jax was deadly under the joking playful exterior, and that had them all staring and quiet. He didn’t look at Mia, but Dacia felt the tension coming off her sister. If she found the male attractive before, he was apparently even more so now. Shit. Before anyone could answer, he was gone.
They all stood in silence. Isa and she were stealing looks at Mia, who was trying to settle down, though her eyes still flashed with heat as she looked at the space Jax had just vacated.
They all turned to Gunn, but Zoe was the one who spoke. “I hadn’t realized how cushy we had it until you got here and screwed shit up.” Her sister shook her head and punched their brother in the shoulder. “Still love you, dumbass, but damn.”
Chapter 21
Guardian Manor, Tetartos Realm
The last four days had started the same, anticipation licking at his gut as he searched for her, finding her and spending an hour or more in fucking agony as his dick begged and pleaded for mercy. He’d work, find her again, then work some more before going to bed with her in his head.
They’d get each other off with him whispering all the things he wanted to do to her, sending her the images of all the ways he wanted to be inside her, and she’d end by showing him the come painting her thighs and demanding he show her as he shot onto his chest and stomach. She got off on the sight of come seeping from his cock. He hoped she enjoyed it just as much when he jetted all over her chest and bare little pussy. He planned to mark every inch of her, from her pouty lips to the small of her back until it slid between the sexy mounds of her curvy ass. He wouldn’t be happy until she was bathed in him.
His dick hurt just thinking about it. He couldn’t seem to get off without her voice in his head. He’d tried before leaving his room and was forced into a cold shower instead. One he needed to repeat. He cursed as he hit the last tunnel, knowing where she was.
She’d finally started asking him about his life and sharing more about hers. She told him about her parents, but he knew she was still hiding things.
She was getting close to trusting him. He could tell she was going to test him until she couldn’t take it anymore. She needed to know he wouldn’t break his word. Having that choice, that power, meant something to her. He got that much from the hints of conversations they’d shared the last few nights.
He smelled the damp rock of the pool cavern and grinned. He rolled his neck and tried to prepare his dick for the torture coming its way.
When he hit the entrance of the cavern, his body stopped dead. His breath hissed out, because nothing could have prepared him for the view ahead. His eyes followed the lines of her body from the constricting red sports bra to the tight black shorts that hugged her ass like a second skin. She was on her forearms, balancing her entire form on her bent arms. Her neck arched back, and those sexy legs were straight up in the air. She stayed in that position as he stared, arrested. One leg slowly lowered to the floor until she was spread in a way that made his cock pulse and fight for freedom. Fucking hell! She was a damned Gumby doll and now all he could imagine was how far he could bend her, how deep he could get with her cunt spread that wide. He’d get so damn buried he’d never leave. He rubbed his face as she gracefully moved into another position that had her hands and feet flat on the mat, and he growled. She was completely bent in half with her round little ass presented to the damned world like her cunt had been only moments before.
He somehow peeled his eyes away to see if anyone else could see what she was offering up. Some of the staff were in the room with them, but the only male was Jax well off to the side, avoiding Mia but smirking at Conn. Bastard knew he was fucked.
His damned brother-in-law was talking to Pela, one of the staff members charged with primping the females. She was a pretty blonde that sent the wolf a hot look as she handed him a drink. Gunn’s body language was banked interest, but his eyes kept going to his sisters. Watchful, protective. He wished Gunn would spend some time with the blonde and give him a breather.
There were a couple of other females down there chatting with Zoe and Mia by one of the pools. Mia was trying hard to concentrate, but with Jax there, he could tell she was struggling.
There were no other males, thank fuck for that. He felt his beast rising, and when he looked back down at Dacia, he saw her staring back. She was in another pose that bent her back, her breasts were pushed out, and he could see how hard her nipples were through the red fabric. Son of a bitch, they were begging for his mouth and hands. He rubbed his face again, knowing he was screwed. The stairs felt more like a firing squad. The tension flowed as he met her gaze. His body primed and tense. Hoping she’d end it, but knowing she wasn’t ready. Yet.
Do you have any idea how fucking hard it is to walk after seeing you spread wide like that? How bad I’m dying to feel you stretched around my cock, so deep your pussy swallows every inch, he growled into their bond. His eyes slid from her heated gaze to her swollen tits and tight buds. Her breathing was erratic, and she’d left him on the edge, wanting her with him while he suffered. Her muscles were tense, and his mouth was watering at the sweet smell of her wet pussy. He heard Gunn snarling, but didn’t respond. Jax had moved closer too. Not that he needed the help.
“Gunn, enough,” Dacia snapped without looking away from him. Isa came up next to their brother and put a hand on his arm.
You knew I was coming.
And I was trying to relax, she growled back.
They were both so close to the edge. He heard Gunn getting louder. They needed space, or he was going to lose his mind. The cavern was big, but not large enough when they were in such close proximity. Dacia’s face was flushed, and Conn heard Gunn getting more agitated. His sisters were trying to calm him, and Jax was sending the staff members out. He heard it all but couldn’t take his eyes from her beautiful face.
They all had some things to get used to. For Gunn it was that Dacia was now Conn’s to protect. It wouldn’t be an easy adjustment for the male.
In the last couple of days most of the Guardians had made a showing. Even Uri, Alex and their pet hellhound, Havoc, which still wore a harness so none of the staff confused the animal with a threat. Havoc had been on his best behavior. He’d been hunting possessed with Gregoire while Uri and Alex were busy with the children in Tetartos.
Sirena had finally peeled herself away yesterday and done a simple test to confirm that they were descended from Apollo. Conn would have thought their mother would have known. Her abilities wouldn’t have been the same as others of her kind in the camps. It was a mystery as to why she hadn’t told her children.
His mate and her family had already learned a lot in the short time they’d been there, but the biggest and only lesson her brother needed at the moment was that Dacia was his and he wasn’t letting her go. The minute his mate accepted him, he would take her. He would claim her, and Gunn was going to have to get used to his scent on her. Not a fun lesson for a protective brother, he was sure.
His dick was throbbing, and he heard Dacia’s breath slicing in and out of her lungs as he stood staring. He might be in agony, but it didn’t make him want to leave. Unfortunately, he needed to.
“I have to get going. Sirena needs my help with a few things. I just wanted to see you before I left.” He’d made a point of pacing his time with her anyway. Otherwise her scent tempted his beast almost to the end of its rope.
