by Ophelia Bell
“Hey, Silas!”
Raj’s worried tone was also all wrong …
He turned halfway up the path toward the circle of stones that demarcated the Rainsong Portal entrance to his home. Raj was running toward him, his dark eyes wide with panic. An unfamiliar male ran beside him, easily keeping pace.
“We need to pack our things now,” Raj said. “Come on.”
“What? Why?” Silas asked, squinting at Raj and eyeing the other man.
The man, a tall, bearded male ursa with powerfully muscled legs that betrayed his Windchaser heritage, stepped forward. “The Sanctuary’s in trouble. All the Guardians are being called home today.”
A sickening rush of alarm flooded Silas’s chest as he stepped closer to the man. “What happened?” He tried to quash the dread that somehow he’d been responsible by allowing Nicholas Stonetree in with his dragon friends … with Silas’s future mate. Gavra wouldn’t betray him. He couldn’t.
“I don’t know the details. You’ll be briefed when we’re inside. I just know we had some unexpected visitors, so … put two and two together and you get dragons.”
Silas’s blood chilled and he tried to swallow, but his mouth had gone bone dry.
“Get your shit together,” Raj sneered and brushed past him to head toward the cabin. “You’ve wanted this long enough. Now you get your wish—you can be rid of me and get back home all at once.”
“Is it really dragons?” he asked. “That can’t be that bad, can it? I mean, we’re allies …”
The Windchaser shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine. All I know is they came, the weather went to shit for a couple weeks, and now things are worse. The Source has been cut off. The clan leaders have called all the Guardians home to help. All the waterfalls are dry as a fucking bone, and with the summer sun it won’t be long before things start to die from the lack of water. The portal’s only open temporarily—just long enough to get all of you inside.”
Silas stared up at the patches of blue sky visible through the trees above. The sun blazed in the East, the heat a reminder of the way Gavra’s hot breath had felt on the back of his neck while they’d fucked. The sun was a force of nature, though, its power too dangerous to take lightly.
When he turned to head back to the cabin, he couldn’t help but wonder whether it had been complete folly to fall for a creature born of fire. That heat had felt good at the time, but now he was reminded of how easily it could burn.
Chapter Five
Gavra
The silent morning woke Gavra, and a disorienting sense of wrongness settled into him. Living for the past few weeks at the Rainsong clan lodge meant waking to the pleasant rush of morning rain hitting the windows of his quarters and the din of clan life going on around him.
It was quiet. Too quiet. When he opened his eyes, bright sunlight was streaming in, but the beams refracted, casting tiny rainbows over the foot of his bed.
Muffled noises carried from outside his door. Voices, smothered in a way that made them reverberate in a disjointed drone.
He inhaled and could only smell the familiar scents of this room—pine and old ash from the fireplace’s recent use—and his own belongings. Morning should mean scents of breakfast and the accompanying din of the Rainsong clan itself converging on the lodge for the morning meal many of them shared.
“Brother, are you awake?” Aodh’s somber tone filled his mind.
Gavra rolled out of bed and went to the window. “Yes. What’s happening? Are you experiencing anything unusual like I am?”
He stared out through the glass, looking for the landmarks of the mountain peak and waterfall near the portal where they’d arrived. The view was often the first thing he observed upon waking. The placidity of it calmed him, reminded him why he was here, and kept his itch to seek out his mates in check. All in good time.
Except the view wasn’t there … or rather, it was all wrong. There was a strange haze over the glass and he rubbed at it, but it didn’t change. Everything beyond was a cloudy blur.
“Have they spoken to you yet?” Aodh asked.
“No. I just woke up.”
“We’re in trouble,” Aodh said. “Nyx has demanded our capture. Payment for Aurum’s breach of the Haven.”
“She got in,” Gavra said. He smiled, rejoicing at his sister’s victory. “Wait … is she all right?”
“She is fine. She’s no longer in the Haven … which is probably the real reason Nyx has it out for us now. Calder left the Haven with her, as did Neph. Now Nyx is after blood one way or the other and has forced the clan leaders’ hands. They’ve imprisoned us.”
“The ursa wouldn’t …” Gavra shook his head in disbelief, even though his predicament was obvious. He opened the window and stuck his hand out, only to have it meet a solid barrier of energy barely a foot beyond the sill.
“They had no choice.”
“Numa …?”
“I am here,” his sister’s rich, feminine voice intoned.
“Neither of you are harmed?”
“I am comfortable … in my quarters at the Sundance lodge, but unable to leave,” Numa said. “The barrier is Earth magic. Impervious to us without a portal built in … which they didn’t provide.”
Gavra pressed his palm against the field of magic, summoning his power and forcing it out through his skin. The barrier hummed slightly but didn’t weaken.
He inhaled and focused, pursing his lips and pushing out a narrow column of flame funneled into a single spot. With a sizzle, the flame cut through, leaving a glowing, charred border around a hole the size of Gavra’s fist. When the flame ceased, he had a clear view past the barrier to the forested mountains beyond. The view looked off, however. The lush greenery was the same as he recalled, but there was something missing.
With a pop, the hole closed, the barrier reforming as though he’d never damaged it. It wasn’t until his view was obscured that he realized what was missing; the waterfall in the distance wasn’t the gleaming white he remembered, but a dull gray of solid, sun-dried rock.
“We can burn through it with enough firepower,” Gavra said.
“Don’t,” Aodh replied. “We won’t garner any sympathy by going on the offensive.”
“I don’t need fucking sympathy,” Gavra argued. “I need to get out and find out what the fuck is going on.”
“Wait until you speak to Assana. She’s coming to you soon. You need to let her explain.”
“Assana.” He let out a breath. “She’s here? You saw her?”
“Yes, brother. She is coming to you. Don’t do anything stupid.”
“I’m not the impulsive one,” Gavra reminded him.
“No, but when you decide you want something, the world may as well burn, and Belah isn’t here to keep you in check. Our situation requires cooler heads. Promise you’ll consider the rest of us before you do anything.”
Gavra turned away from the window, irritated by his brother’s words. He grabbed his clothes and began to dress in abrupt, jerky motions. What he wanted was to see her, but not from the inside of a fucking prison.
“Fine, I promise not to get us in deeper shit, but you can be damn sure I’m finding a way out of this.”
“Your breath won’t breach the barrier without serious destruction,” Numa said. “Don’t bother trying. Just do as they ask.”
“They’ve fucking trapped us against our will, sister. I’m not going to do shit unless they can prove they’re justified.”
He turned toward the door, prepared to pound at the barrier until he got the attention of whatever ursa might be around to hear him.
When he opened the door, the sight on the other side completely stole his momentum.
“Silas … How …?”
The dark-haired ursa male stared at him, his face a mask of impassivity, his arms crossed over his broad che
st. But the pain in his gaze shoved a blade straight through Gavra’s heart.
“I should have known better,” Silas said. “The fucking seduction was all about you, wasn’t it? How many lies did you tell me that night? Begging me to let you mark me … to come with you … it was all bullshit.”
Gavra closed his eyes. “No, Silas. I never lied.”
“Then how the fuck did this happen? My home is being destroyed because of you. Because of what I …” His voice caught and he clenched his teeth. His eyes were wild and glassy and wet. He tilted his head back, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he struggled to hold back whatever rage or hurt had grabbed hold of him.
Gavra ached to reach out to him, to touch him and prove that everything they’d shared their first night together had meant something to him. He lifted a hand and pressed it to the shimmering barrier between them.
“This wasn’t us, Silas. It wasn’t me. Please believe me.”
“This isn’t how I wanted to come home,” Silas said.
“But you’re here,” Gavra said, finding hope in Silas’s presence despite the animosity. “And she is here, too. We can fix this if you just let me out. You have to trust me, Silas. There’s more to this fucking issue than you’re seeing.”
“She? The imaginary female you promised would be waiting for us, who would complete our triad? You’re as full of shit as Raj ever was, you know that? At least his intentions were always clear.”
“My intentions were always to be with you. Things are just complicated now, for fuck’s sake. You know the threat we’re under.”
Silas shook his head. “You’re the fucking threat. To my goddamn home!” He took a step closer, his eyes blazing. His gaze darted wildly around Gavra’s face, down his body, and back up. His aura was a crackling cloud of rage and hurt, and an underlying rising glow of pure lust.
Gavra pushed at the barrier, letting out a frustrated growl at how impotent he felt just then.
“Just let me fucking out and we can talk.”
“What the fuck could you say, you son of a bitch?” Silas leaned even closer, his face inches from Gavra’s. “You’ve destroyed my trust. You used me.”
“You loved it,” Gavra shot back. “You loved it because it was fucking meant to be. I’d prove it to you again, if you’d just let me.”
Silas’s aura flashed bright red, betraying his sudden arousal at the suggestion.
He gritted his teeth and said, “Oh yeah? Do it. Prove it, you fuck. Prove you’re not a filthy fucking liar.”
Within a split second, Gavra’s senses were filled with hot, angry ursa. The barrier stretched with a whining keen, like a high string had been plucked and continued to vibrate. Then Silas’s hand was at the back of his neck, his other at his shoulder, fingers digging in and pulling him tight. His kiss was hard, hungry, and hot. Gavra moaned as he took it in, not caring how the other man had breached his prison, just so long as he did.
He was here now. Talking could wait.
Silas pushed him back across the room, his hands scrabbling at Gavra’s clothes, fingers hooking into fabric, ripping with an angry growl. Gavra’s thin shirt fell in tatters to the floor as the backs of his knees hit his bed.
His ursa mate loomed above him as he stumbled back and sat, gazing up defiantly. There was no apology to be had. He had none to share, though he sensed that was what Silas wanted when he paused to look at him.
“You fucker. Why?” Silas asked.
“Because you’re mine,” Gavra said.
“That goes both ways.” Silas shoved him back and climbed on top, straddling him and grinding his hips into Gavra’s. Their erections rubbed against each other through their clothes and Gavra arched his back with a groan that was quickly muffled when Silas captured his mouth again in a brutal kiss.
“You’re mine,” Silas said when he broke away for breath. “If you meant it, then this is what it’ll take to prove it.” He reached between them and shoved Gavra’s drawstring waistband down, freeing his cock. Silas gripped him, stroking his hand up along Gavra’s length in a distracting caress that contradicted the otherwise rough treatment.
Then he stood back and yanked Gavra’s pants down, pulled them off his feet, and tossed them aside. He stripped from his own sole garment—a pair of brown cargo pants—and was on Gavra again, one strong thigh nudged between his legs. Silas’s skin was hot and smooth as he pinned him down to the bed and pressed hard against him.
Gavra itched to flip them both, to take Silas the way he had that first night, first with his magic, then with his cock. But Silas’s sense of betrayal still flickered through his aura and Gavra knew better than to discount that. As much as he hated being the passive recipient of this level of passion, he feared spooking Silas too much to become the aggressor. Not only did he desperately want a way out of his current situation, he knew Silas was the way to get it, but he wouldn’t risk the other man’s tenuous trust.
He was suddenly very unsure of the submissive role he’d chosen when Silas gripped him behind one knee and pushed his leg up, then knelt with one knee between Gavra’s thighs and his balls brushing the juncture of Gavra’s hip in a distracting caress.
Silas’s gaze roamed down his body and lingered on where his cock lay against his stomach. He dropped his hand to the length and gripped it, then slid his hand down, over Gavra’s balls. With his thumb, he traced a line beneath the center of his sack.
Gavra let out a sharp gasp, his ass flexing when Silas gently probed at his puckered opening.
“Don’t tell me you’re shy,” Silas said. “Not used to being on the bottom?”
“I’m a giver,” Gavra said, giving Silas a pleading look.
“Thought as much. This’ll mean even more when I’m finished, then.”
“Fuck, Silas. Please …” He hated the way his voice caught, the way he was helpless under this man’s touch. Never had he been at so much of a disadvantage as he was in this moment, and in the moment he’d first laid eyes on Assana.
“Is she even real?” Silas asked.
“You haven’t seen her?” Gavra asked. “She should be here.”
“What’s her name if she’s so real?” Silas asked, leaning back on his heels and gripping his cock in one hand as he toyed with Gavra’s balls with the other. “Describe her. Tell me what she looks like, tastes like. Tell me what kinds of sounds she made when you made her come.”
“Assana …” Gavra said. “But I haven’t yet. I haven’t touched her.”
“Tell me,” Silas said, beginning to slowly pump his cock from root to tip. “I want details.” He pressed his thumb harder at Gavra’s ass, the blunt tip breaching the barrier and making him groan at the sudden intrusion.
“Fuck, all right! She’s fucking beautiful … black hair, olive skin, and these big eyes that are hypnotic just to look into. It’s like she can see all your filthiest secrets, like she knows you fall asleep at night imagining having her lips wrapped around your cock. Then she smiles and licks those lips and leaves them wet and glistening. Your cock gets hard at the thought of what she’d do with that tongue. Because she knows you want her, even though you probably wouldn’t know how the fuck to handle a woman like her if you had her.”
Silas’s attention focused intently on Gavra’s face as he spoke, describing exactly how he imagined Assana, how he remembered her. He forced himself to focus, despite the distracting caress of Silas’s hands on his balls and occasional probe of his ass again.
“She’s wild, primal, and unpredictable. The first time you see her, you can’t do a damn thing about it because you’re in a room full of people, and all you can think about the entire time is whether she’s really as naked as you think she is under that useless scrap of a dress she wears. Somehow it covers everything but reveals everything at the same time. Like you can just about catch a glimpse of her sweet pussy if she’d shift her hips a little to
the left, but when she does, the dress shifts too and you can’t see shit. And it leaves you itching to just reach out and rip the fucking thing off so you can just look at those ripe tits, suck on those nipples that you’re sure have to taste like cherries, the way the pink tips look dark red through the half-invisible fabric of that damn dress.”
He paused to catch his breath, his cock aching for more contact, but Silas was too distracted manhandling himself and staring raptly while Gavra continued the description.
“And you itch to bend her over and spread her ass and slide your tongue all the way down between those cheeks until you taste her dripping honey. Then when you meet her eyes again it’s like she caught you jerking off to dirty pictures of her, and she moves in just the right way … For a split-second, you actually see heaven between her thighs. She’s bare except for the softest-looking patch of black fur right above a clit that peeks out from between her pussy’s pink petals. It’s shining and slick, and you just know she’s wet for you and that she wants your mouth on her as much as you want to take that bud between your lips and suck it until she’s screaming your name.
“You can picture it all within that split-second … you can picture her underneath you, that stupid fucking dress crumbling away like it was made of sea foam, dissolving under your heat. You can feel the way her hot cunt sucks your cock in deep and her long legs wrap around you and hold on like she never wants to let you go, and you hover over her, mesmerized by the swirling eternity in her eyes. And then she says your name for real and it’s like a fucking orgasm exploding inside your eardrums just to hear her speak it …”
Silas’s gaze was fixed on Gavra’s face, hanging on every word while he stroked his cock. He groaned and pushed his thumb deeper into Gavra’s ass, shifting his hips until their balls brushed against each other.
“Tell me more,” he said, his voice rough as his hand picked up tempo along his shaft.
Gavra closed his eyes, recalling the dreams he’d had every night for nearly the last century while trapped inside the Glade. He’d never been under Silas in the dreams, yet knew better than to take control before his mate worked out his anger over the perceived betrayal.
