by Lacey Thorn
She was wild, undulating between him and Bram. Her hair was a heavy mass of curls and when she glanced back at him her aqua blue eyes seemed to glow.
“Now,” she screamed at him. “Take me now, Tanner, before I die.”
He wanted to grin, wanted to draw the moment out just a little longer but the look in her eyes was like a match igniting a flame. He moved in closer popping his fingers free and wrapping them around his cock. He drizzled a little more fire oil on himself making sure his entire length was slick with it before placing the flared head at her anus and pushing. He watched as she flared and opened for him. Watched as the head of his cock disappeared inside, felt the give of that tight ring of muscles and groaned with the intensity of his pleasure. Hot. So fucking hot that he would be burned alive. Tight. So damn tight that she might crush him. And slick. So slick that it was far easier than it should have been to work his length inside her. Sweat gathered on his brow, dripped over his chest and down his back. His muscles were tensed and ready. He was all the way in and it was going to kill him to wait for Bram to get his cock inside her so that they could start fucking.
Reanna’s head was moving back and forth, not in a demand to stop but in denial of how intense the pleasure already felt. Tanner was buried in her ass and she was so full. She wanted to move, to feel his cock moving in and out of her but his firm grip on her hips kept her from seeking that pleasure just yet.
She felt Bram move his hands to her pussy, the slide of his fingers inside, the way they filled her and brushed against the wall that separated him from his brother. And she wanted to hit him, wanted to bite and scratch and claw. She didn’t want his fingers. She wanted the rock-hard cock she could feel against her, wanted it inside her and wanted them taking her, taking them to the heights that she could only imagine.
“Damn it, Bram,” she cried. “I’m ready. I’m so ready that I could scream.”
His eyes locked with hers and she felt the fingers move and then the rounded tip of his cock at her entrance. “Then let’s make you scream,” he said and pushed inside her.
And she did scream. She let her head fall back and felt the scrape of Tanner’s teeth along her shoulder while Bram worked his cock into her pussy. Inch by inch he pushed his way in and with each there was a slow burn that flared all the way to her clit, all the way to her womb. The fire oil had done its job. She was burning alive. She needed. Goddess how she needed. Craved that burn and the pleasure she knew that it would bring with it.
Bram gripped the back of her thighs and with one last powerful surge buried his length deep inside her. Her back arched forcing Tanner even deeper and they all held perfectly still for one timeless moment. It was the most lucid moment in her memory. She could hear the flow of the water, the rustle of the breeze, the tiny sounds of insects and noises that often went unnoticed. It was as if every sense in her body came alive and took over. And then it was gone, evaporating in a rush of pleasure as they finally began to move.
Tanner pulled back letting his cock slide almost free before surging forward while Bram pulled out. Back and forth they went one filling her while the other retreated and it was diabolical torture. The burn, the pleasure, the lines were so blurred that she didn’t know just what she was feeling. Only that she wanted more, now. She wanted faster and harder and she must have voiced her wishes because they were giving her just that.
Faster and faster their cocks stroked in and out. Each stroke landed harder and deeper. And still she wanted more. Her nails dug into Bram. She turned her head to where Tanner’s was by her shoulder and nipped him where she could reach with her teeth. The air seemed to shimmer around them. Water roared behind them. The trees swayed. Their skin seemed to catch fire, the flames of desire burning hot in them all. It was all right there, so close that all she had to do was reach out and take it.
Bram and Tanner seemed to know what she needed, what it would take to send her that final inch over. Now they fucked her as one. Both cocks slamming into her at the same time and then withdrawing as one. Within three strokes she was exploding. She could feel her muscles tightening around both of them and knew they would be joining her. She could feel her nails sinking deeper into Bram’s chest and when Tanner moved one arm up to clasp her shoulder she turned and sank her teeth into the space between thumb and forefinger.
Her orgasm blasted through her like a sudden storm. Moving through her and leaving chaos in its wake. Her vision began to fade so that black spots floated around her. Nothing should be this good, this consuming. She let her eyes flicker shut. She would just rest for a moment, catch her breath. And wonder how much better it would be on the morrow when she had all three of her warriors. Would she survive? A smile graced her lips as she let her body drift down to cover Bram’s chest. She’d survive or die trying.
Tanner slowly withdrew from the still pulsing grasp of her ass. He glanced at his hand, the one that she had bitten to the point that it bled. It stung like hell but in all honesty it had been that little bite that had pushed him the rest of the way over into orgasm. Damn but his mate was an incredible woman. He had dreamed of her for years but the reality was much sweeter.
He glanced down at her cuddled against his brother’s chest and almost laughed at the claw marks he saw there. So the little hellcat had gotten him too. Yeah, she was something else.
“We need to talk,” he whispered to Bram not wanting to wake Reanna. She looked peaceful, a look he knew wouldn’t last long with what they had coming their way.
He helped Bram to shift her so that she lay on her side on the blanket and then both men dressed as quickly and quietly as possible in their pants. They moved a few feet away and sat on the grass facing Reanna. Neither was willing to let her out of their sight just yet.
“So how did everything go?” Bram asked Tanner. “Did you run into any problems?”
“None that I couldn’t handle,” Tanner grunted. “Father’s body disappearing worked to our advantage. I told everyone that he had been removed to the palace for burial. So even if they didn’t want to go before, they all agreed to go now for the ceremony.”
“Genius, brother,” Bram smiled. “But do we actually know yet where his body is?”
“Unless Finn found him and Mother at the palace when he arrived,” Tanner stated, “I have no idea. When I left I headed straight here knowing that Finn would follow in a few days.” He looked around taking in the trees surrounding the pond, seeing it with a knowledge that was new. “This is it. This is where it will all take place.”
“What are you talking about?” Bram asked looking around trying to see what his brother saw.
“This is the Valley of Elms,” Reanna said drawing both men’s attention back to her. “This is where it all ends. This is where it all begins.”
* * * * *
Althea stood to the side, trembling with emotions that she should have never have let cloud her judgment. She had failed her goddess, herself and her people. She had sacrificed the good of all to save one. And now she must do whatever she could to right the wrong. A life would be sacrificed. Just not the one the goddess had chosen.
She took a deep breath and moved from the altar to the table with the water basin and cloths. She took her time washing the blood from her hands before she took the dagger and cleaned it as well. Blood had spilled, so much. And yet more would fall before all was said and done.
Chapter Four
Reanna stood, comfortable in her nudity and empowered by the way her men ate her with their eyes. She stretched and almost laughed at the twin groans that filled the air. They wanted her again and she could so easily give in. But for now they all needed to talk. There were things that needed to be discussed, plans that needed to be made.
She slipped into her skirt and top quickly before they could approach and stop her. It would be easy to let them become distracted again with the passion that filled them. But sex was not what would set their people free from the war that tore their home apart, that caused the shedding
of both blood and tears. Now was the time to finish what had begun so many years ago. Now was the time for an ending, a merging, and a new beginning.
“Soon, within mere days, all the Guardians will gather her within the circle of these sacred trees and together we will reinvoke the blessing of the Goddess of Altair.” Reanna looked about, picturing how things would look when that day arrived.
“It will be an ending to all the chaos that surrounds this island,” Bram said as he joined her. He stood at her side, his arm brushing hers as he took her hand.
“But was the cost really worth the lesson we were all to learn?” Tanner asked taking a stand at her other side and sliding his arm around her waist. “So much death. So much blood. So much loss.”
“Everything happens for a reason,” Reanna reminded him. “We have gone through what we went through to bring us to this point with the knowledge we need to change. For the better.”
“Tell that to the men and women who have lost children, to the women who have lost husbands. Tell that to the children who no longer have fathers.” Tanner looked down at her, his eyes fierce with a rage barely concealed. “Explain to the people of this island why they should pledge their allegiance and love to a goddess who has allowed such pain and torment to fill their lives for years without once interceding on their behalf.”
“Tanner,” Reanna began as she turned to him but another voice cut over hers before she could answer.
“It was your father who desecrated the Temple of the Goddess. Your father who set this curse in place, not me.” The woman was there but not there. Vision? Ghost? They couldn’t tell.
“In ignorance,” Tanner said. “He did not understand what he was doing. And yet you feel just in forcing an entire people to suffer for it?”
“I am justified in whatever I choose to do,” her voice thundered. “You would do well to remember that, Tanner.”
“Or what?” he demanded and both Bram and Reanna tried to silence him with looks and touches.
“Only two sacrifices have been made,” she said as if a thought were occurring to her. “The last one was denied me. Saved by a mother’s love. Such a powerful gift that love.” She glanced at Tanner then, capturing his gaze with hers and holding it. “Or a great-great-grandmother’s gift.”
“I know whose blood runs through my veins,” he assured her.
“And are you willing to spill that blood?” she asked him.
He reached down and unsheathed a blade from its spot on his weapons’ belt and with a quick move sliced his palm down the center so that blood flowed to the surface and dripped down his fingers to soak the ground. “In an instant,” he assured her.
She smiled and with a slow lift of her hand in front of her body his palm was healed as was the love bite from Reanna. He glanced over and immediately noted that the fingernail scratches on Bram’s chest were healed as well. His gaze went back to her.
“My will to do what I choose to do,” she said with a smile. “I had to know, had to assure myself that you would be prepared for the next few days.” Her smile vanished and her aqua eyes seemed to glow brighter by the second. A wind seemed to appear out of nowhere to blow in a circle around them blocking them apart from their surroundings. “The next few days will bring both joy and pain. You will love and you will lose. And someone will die. The end of the curse is near and a new beginning waits just ahead. But first the final blood will spill to feed the Island of Altair.”
Her gaze zeroed in on them, focusing on Reanna now. “Mark my words. Five shall gather, each with their own. Four shall gather around the stone. The Mystic will rise, signaling the call. Stand together, let none fall. Words spoken in love, in pain and in need. Will find treasure within the goddess indeed.”
And with that she faded away as if she had never been there. Reanna pulled free of both men and walked down to the shore of the pond her gaze darting everywhere at once.
“What are you looking for?” Bram asked.
“The stone,” she stated. “Or what might be constituted as the stone. This is the place. I have the plan figured out. Now all I need is to make sure that I know the exact spot within this place that we are to gather and invoke the blessing.”
“In love, in pain and in need,” Tanner repeated the last words of the goddess. He glanced down at his healed palm and shook his head. “I pray the end result is what we hope.”
“I believe,” Reanna said turning back to him and wrapping her arms around him. “I’ll believe for both of us.”
Bram joined them placing his hands on her shoulders, his gaze meeting his brother’s over her head. “For all of us,” he said. “Believe for all of us.”
* * * * *
Bram and Tanner had gone out once they had seen Reanna back to her parents’ home. It was funny the way everyone just accepted that she was their mate though she didn’t wear the mark of their family yet. This evening she would, when Finn finally arrived. They would go back to the sacred valley and love one another before they marked her. It was a link that needed to be complete before they joined with the Guardians.
Reanna felt a weight upon her shoulders and a need for rest. Unusual normally but she had been through a lot in the last few days. She headed up to her room and the big bed that was there. It would be soft and inviting and just what she needed for a few hours of rest. She gave a big yawn as she stripped out of her clothes and snuggled down. Sleep couldn’t come soon enough to suit her.
But sleep came with the dream, the dream of the woman she knew and yet had never met. The woman she would one day call mother as well.
“Why do you come to me in this dream?” she asked. They were in the valley sitting on the bank of the pond. Though both were nude they sat close together as if in deep conversation.
“I walk in shadow right now,” Asme answered, one set of turquoise eyes meeting another. “This is the only way that I can share with you.”
“In shadow?” Reanna queried. “What does that mean? Tell me you are not dead!”
“I am neither dead nor alive at the moment,” Asme smiled at her. “I am in shadow and mist.”
“What has happened?” Reanna wanted to know. She would need to tell her mates of this and they would demand to know.
“There is no time for that,” Asme said as she gazed around them. “Even now time grows late. Finn will be here soon to take you from a sleeping dream into a waking one.”
Reanna blushed at hearing such words from his mother but Asme only laughed. “I was once young and in love as well. One died to save us all and the other betrayed all in hopes of having one.” Asme looked sad and suddenly very tired. “But it has all played out as it was destined to. And now the final stand is upon us.”
“Yes,” Reanna agreed. “The Guardians and I must join here in this valley and invoke the goddess once more.”
“You will each stand alone, and yet not alone. You will each stand complete and yet uncovered. You will each speak though none shall hear. You will be as one and yet the fate of all rest upon your shoulders.” Asme reached over and brushed her hand through Reanna’s hair, a mother’s touch. “Look to the center and see the stone. Kneel to the goddess and arise on the throne. The heart’s journey will soon be done, and in the end the battle won.” She leaned close and placed a soft kiss on Reanna’s brow. “Be safe. Be strong. Be brave. And remember that the very power of life and death resides in your hands.”
And with that Asme disappeared blending into the shadow and mist that suddenly rose around them. Reanna remained seated as the valley became lost in the darkness. She could feel death around her, smell the scent of spilled blood in the air. There was the stench of rotting flesh, the slither of evil in the grass. A cold vise seemed to wrap around her heart and lungs as her stomach climbed higher and higher into her throat. Death was all around her, clawing its way to her. And Reanna was very afraid.
She woke from the dream in a cold sweat with a scream of terror lingering on her lips and filling the air around he
r. Strong arms reached for her and she was pulled against a warm, naked chest. Slowly the shaking stopped as he ran his hands up and down her spine. She snuggled closer to him, wanting nothing more than to crawl into his skin and be one with him. He smelled of musk and man but most importantly of life and mate. She knew who he was without asking.
“Finn,” she breathed his name into his neck and nuzzled there like a greedy kitten.
“Looks like I arrived just in time,” he spoke into her hair his hand still stroking over her back and hair. “Must have been some dream you were having.”
“Yes,” she murmured but was reluctant to speak of it just yet. She would go over it, but when they were all four together.
“Want to tell me about it?” he asked her.
“No,” she whispered finally, pulling back enough to look into his eyes.
“No?” he asked.
“Not yet,” she added. “Right now I want to be with my mate.”
“I’m here for you,” Finn said and she knew that he would be content to just hold her if that was what she wanted. But it wasn’t what she wanted. She wanted to know this final mate as well as she was starting to know the other two. She wanted to let her body love him while her heart followed more slowly.
“Are you?” she queried and leaned in to place her lips against his. Just that soft touch had his body tensing. She leaned closer letting her full breasts rub against his chest, the rigid nipples growing harder. His mouth opened on a breath of surprise and she took advantage to dip her tongue in to taste him. He tasted of wine and fruit, of sex and pleasure and she wanted to gorge herself on him. But too quickly control went to him and she found herself drowning under his carnal assault.
Finn moved them being sure to keep the flesh to flesh contact until they were both lying on the bed. He kept his weight propped up not wanting to crush her smaller frame beneath his. Reanna was everything he had dreamed of and so much more. She was all woman with her lush body and sensual eyes. Eyes that promised everything. He might be the last of the three to claim her, but he planned to take his time and gorge all of his senses on her.
