The Elemental Collective: Volume One: An Elemental Paladins Spin-off Series

by Montana Ash

  Kellan laughed loudly, looking pointedly at his older brother. “That was before he knew Dawn and her Order were coming. He wouldn’t want to miss an opportunity to make moon eyes at Willow.”

  “Willow?” Knox turned to Kai, who was, much to Knox’s shock, blushing. “You have a thing for Willow?”

  Kai glared at his snickering brothers before replying, “No more than you have a thing for Dawn.”

  “Oh, well then,” Knox said walking over to his middle son and patting him on the shoulder. “You’re doomed.”

  “So you admit you have a thing for Dawn?” Kane asked. “And not just a ‘want to get in her pants’ kind of a thing either.”

  Knox sighed, stalling by looking around his near-empty bar. It was still early, barely five in the afternoon, so he knew the real crowd wouldn’t come for another couple of hours at least. It was a Friday night, and more and more people from their society were venturing in for drinks, food, and more importantly, companionship. Knox loved getting a front row seat to seeing wardens, paladins, and chadens coming together as friends. He was beyond grateful the IDC had seen fit to bestow the bar and motel onto him and he only wished he could have known Dave, the previous owner, better.

  “Dad?” Kane prompted, shaking Knox from his thoughts.

  “Yes. I definitely like her more than that. Although, I wouldn’t be adverse to the pants thing either,” he added, smiling along with his sons. Knox then turned to Kai, “So, Willow, huh? She’s a wonderful paladin. I approve.”

  Kellan shoved Kai in a teasing way, laughing. “Your approval doesn’t matter much, dad. She turned him down.”

  “What?” Knox asked. It wasn’t every day one of his sons got turned down. But seeing the disgruntled look on Kai’s face was enough for Knox to grin. It was about time they got knocked down a peg or two. Knox was liking Willow more and more.

  “Yep,” Kellan crowed. “Told him she wasn’t interested in being another notch on his belt. And followed up by making sure we all knew she wasn’t into orgies or gangbangs.”

  “She did not!” Knox sputtered, imagining the look on Kai’s face when he heard that.

  “Oh, she did,” Kai replied darkly. “The woman is as prickly as a cactus.”

  “I prefer to think of myself as discerning in my tastes.”

  Willow’s sugary sweet voice had all four of them going still before they turned as one only to find Willow standing there with her arms crossed over her chest, a mutinous look on her face. Dawn, Piper, Reid, and Micah were also there, although their faces looked more amused than anything else.

  “Willow!” Kai practically yelled. “I didn’t know you were there.”

  Willow sniffed, “Clearly.”

  Knox watched as his son blushed for the second time in as many minutes, before stepping forward and smiled in welcome to the Adalla Order. “Hi, all. Good to see you. Can I get you all a drink?”

  Knox managed to shuffle everyone to a couple of tables he hastily shoved together to give them all some more room. He then took drink orders, unsurprised when all four of Dawn’s paladins chose something non-alcoholic. They might be in a bar with friends during their downtime, but they were always on duty. Knox couldn’t fault them for that, so he made sure to keep jugs of soft drinks, as well as water on the table at all times, and supplied them with a bunch of snacks as well. After a while, he eventually ran out of things to do and he joined Dawn at her table. His sons went to work behind the bar and Knox enjoyed his time getting to know Dawn and her Order more. He couldn’t keep his eyes from flicking to Dawn every minute or so. She would smile and he would look; she would talk and he would look; she would take a drink of her wine – and he would look. Micah caught his eye once, giving Knox a look that was nothing like the one Knox had been giving Dawn. Still, it wasn’t as guard dog-like as Knox had been expecting either. It was more of a ‘if you do the right thing, I won’t have to kill you’ kind of a look.

  Chadens, wardens, and paladins came and went as the night progressed, and Knox was startled to realise he was now alone with Dawn at their table. Her Order was over at the pool tables, taking bets with his sons about who was better at pool. Knox couldn’t help but notice the way Kai stared at Willow. Nor the way the female knight purposely ignored him. “Looks like Kai has his work cut out for him,” he said, breaking the comfortable silence that had developed between himself and Dawn.

  Dawn followed his gaze, “You sound amused.”

  “Oh, I am,” Knox assured her. “It will do him good to have to prove himself. Nothing worthwhile ever comes easy, after all.”

  Dawn gave his words some thought, before nodding. “I guess you’re right about that. Still, I hope she has more luck than I do when it comes to men. I have the absolute worst luck ever,” Dawn informed him.

  Before getting to know her this past month, he would have said that was impossible. Dawn was amazing in every way. She was educated and intelligent, kind and compassionate, charming and funny, as well as physically beautiful. But he had learned that she was completely oblivious to her own appeal. She was also awkwardly adorable with her interactions with people. She was such a contradiction, and Knox, for one, found it irresistible.

  “In what way? Come on, tell me a story,” Knox cajoled. “Otherwise I won’t believe you.”

  Dawn narrowed her eyes, clearly thinking it over, before her shoulders relaxed and she said, “Okay. The last guy I attempted to have a relationship with didn’t want to have sex with me.”

  Knox blinked slowly, sure he had heard wrong. “I’m sorry, what? Who wouldn’t want to have sex with you?”

  Dawn huffed, “Someone with a very acute sense of smell, that’s who.”

  Knox reared back, more than a little confused. “An acute sense of smell? What are you talking about? You smell amazing!”

  “You think I smell good? You know what, don’t answer that. It hardly matters. This guy sure didn’t seem to think so,” Dawn muttered.

  Knox leaned forward and took an experimental whiff. Dawn swatted at him but not before he caught her honey scent. He loved honey. “Just as I suspected. Honey.”

  Dawn raised her eyebrows in surprise, “You think I smell like honey?”

  Knox nodded enthusiastically, “Yes. And your personality is sweet like honey too. So, it matches,” he winked at her. Knox could tell Dawn thought he was joking, but he had never been more serious.

  “Well, maybe I smell like honey ham,” Dawn allowed, making no sense whatsoever.

  “Honey ham?” Knox asked. “It’s tasty to be sure, but I don’t see what it has to do with you.”

  “Because!” Dawn suddenly yelled. “He told me my vagina smelled like ham!”

  Knox stilled, absolutely positive he must have heard wrong. “Excuse me?”

  Dawn glowered at him, “You heard me – my last lover told me vagina smelled like deli meat.”

  Knox eyed the breathtaking beauty in front of him for a moment, before opening his mouth – only to be cut off before he could finish his sentence; “Can I –”

  “No!” Dawn yelled.

  “But –” Knox tried again.

  “No! You cannot smell my vagina!” Dawn practically growled.

  Knox grinned, “Why not? I happen to love ham.”

  Dawn let out a thin scream, tugging on her chestnut locks in frustration. “This is a ridiculous conversation. Besides, it doesn’t smell like ham anyway. The guy was a moron.”

  Knox smirked, “And how would you know?”

  “Because I’ve spent a good many days contorted like a pretzel smelling my cooch like any self-respecting woman would do when her pussy was compared to a cut of meat from a pig!”

  Knox and Dawn stared at each other for several moments before they both erupted into laughter. They laughed so hard that they leaned into one another for support, and Knox took full advantage, basking in Dawn’s non-ham-like scent and warm body. Completely breathless and with watery eyes, Knox pulled back. “Did he really say that?” />
  Dawn shook her head ruefully. “Unfortunately, yes. Like I said, I have the absolute worst luck with men.”

  Knox tsked at her, “I’d say you’re hanging out with the wrong type of guys.”

  Dawn snorted, “Oh? And who would be the right type?”

  Knox looked Dawn dead in the eye, and said very clearly, “Me, of course.”

  Dawn’s only response was to blink many times in quick succession.

  “Dawn? Did you hear me?” he queried, feeling nerves pool in his stomach.

  “I clearly heard you wrong,” Dawn finally replied.

  “No, you didn’t. Me. I’m the right guy,” he repeated. At Dawn’s blank look, he rubbed his forehead in exasperation. “Come on, Dawn. Do you really not know?”

  “Not know what?” Dawn was looking more and more confused.

  Knox took a chance and reached out a hand, placing it on her knee. “Do you really not know how much I like you?”

  Dawn looked from his hand to his face, opening and closing her mouth a couple of times before she said, “You like me? As in …?”

  Knox moved in a little closer, so he was speaking intimately. “I like you as a woman, Dawn. I like the way you talk to everyone as if they are equal. I like the way your hair shines with so many colours in the sun. I like the way you say my name. I like the way you laugh. I like the way you twirl your hair around your finger when you’re thinking or stressed. I like the way you look, and the way you smell, and the way you sound. I like you, Dawn. I like everything about you. How could you not know that?”

  Dawn looked so genuinely astonished that Knox simply could not resist kissing the stupefied look right off her face. He leaned in quickly, capturing her lips, and immediately tracing them with his tongue. They parted for him and he slipped inside, her tongue duelling hesitantly with his. Knox groaned, placing his hands on Dawn’s rounded hips in order to ground himself. The kiss was so phenomenal he was concerned he was going to float right off the floor. He was gratified to feel Dawn take over the kiss, her moans and gasps guiding him to what she liked.

  “I am going to break this over your head!”

  Willow’s voice reached them loud and clear and Knox pulled back, instinctively ducking, thinking the paladin was talking about him. When no blow came, he slowly turned around, only to find it was Kai whom she was threatening with bodily harm. Standing up reluctantly, he gestured toward the pool table. “I’d better go save my son from your paladin. Pool sticks are expensive to replace,” he joked.

  Dawn’s mouth was red and puffy and still in a perfect ‘O’. She was clearly still in shock, Knox surmised. Still, he couldn’t resist bending down and gently pushing her chin up. Once her mouth was closed, he placed a chaste kiss there, murmuring, “Think about what I said, okay?” before he went and saved his idiotic son.

  If only so I can kick his arse myself, Knox thought. Kai’s antics had interrupted the best damned kiss of Knox’s life.

  Chapter Eight

  The following day, Dawn was curled up on the padded bench on the patio out the back of her rental. It was mid-afternoon and she had spent a restless night obsessing over the kiss she had shared with Knox. Her lips tingled just thinking about it and she licked her lips, swearing she could still taste him there. Dawn looked at the ocean as she thought about what Knox had revealed. If she was so damned irresistible why had she been single for the last couple of hundred years? Other than Andre – aka the ham guy – not a single warden or paladin had approached her because they liked her. Sure, she had the offers and requests from life wardens for the continuation of their domain. But those offers had been for nothing more than breeding purposes. She studied Micah, who was casually leaning against the house beside her, sharpening his sickle. He was undeniably handsome with his dark hair, light blue eyes and boyish dimples. He was six-foot-two inches of naturally brown, extremely toned skin, and his abdominal muscles were an easy half-dozen.

  “Why haven’t we ever had sex?” Dawn suddenly blurted out.

  Micah looked around in every direction, even going so far as to look under the lounger she was sitting on before he answered her. “Are you talking to me?”

  Dawn huffed out a breath. “Yes, I’m talking to you.” Micah started to laugh, and Dawn smacked his arm. “I’m serious!”

  Micah stopped laughing abruptly. “Oh. I can see that. Dawn …” he looked confused as well as concerned as he sat down beside her. “Do you want to have sex with me?”

  The look of sheer disbelief on his face was enough for Dawn to feel downright humiliated. “You know what – forget I said anything.” Before she could stand and make her escape though, Micah reached out and grabbed her by the shoulders, effectively caging her in.

  “Talk to me,” he urged.

  The genuine worry in his kind eyes, had her feeling even worse. She didn’t need the Order bond to know he was wondering if she was having some kind of breakdown. Dropping her head into her hands, Dawn groaned. “I’m just so confused.”

  “If you’re confused, then why don’t we clear it up?”

  Dawn had no idea what Micah meant until he grabbed her face and fused his mouth to hers. Her eyes opened wide for a moment, before she allowed him to kiss her, even going so far as to open her lips and touching her tongue to his for a brief moment. When she finally pulled back, she had just one word to say, “Oh.”

  Micah’s smile was patient and sweet. “Yeah, ‘oh’. That, my dear liege, is why we have never had sex.”

  Dawn slouched back against the lounger, chewing her bottom lip. She could still taste Micah there – a not altogether unpleasant flavour. But it also didn’t make her want to jump his bones either. All in all, the kiss had been a pale imitation of the one she had shared with Knox. She had absolutely no spark with Micah. Whatsoever.

  “Now, care to tell me what this is all about?” Micah sat back, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “Knox said something to me, and it came as a total shock. I mean, it was good news, welcome news even. But it came out of nowhere,” Dawn explained, waving her arms around for emphasis. “It made me think that maybe I’m bad at reading signs. Like, from guys. Guy signs.”

  Micah appeared to choke a little, eyes going wide. “You? Bad at reading guy signs? He said that?”

  “See!” Dawn pointed at her Captain. “That right there is sarcasm. Again. Which leads me to believe that I am, in fact, awfully bad at identifying signals from men. And I blame my sleep deprived brain for that then leading me to believe maybe I was bad at seeing signals from you.”

  “Ah, hence the sex questions,” Micah nodded his head in understanding.

  “Exactly,” Dawn said.

  “You have not missed any signals from me, my liege,” he patted her hand, and Dawn felt herself relax. “You have, however missed signals from pretty much every other interested male – and female – since the day I met you.”

  Dawn smacked his arm, “I have not!” she wailed.

  “Oh, you have,” Reid agreed, coming to sit on the other side of her, apparently from thin air. “You missed my signals. Big time. It was hell on the ego.”

  Dawn’s jaw dropped open in shock. “You?”

  Reid grinned at her. “Of course, me. Dawn, you are an incredibly beautiful woman as well as being one of the kindest and smartest. I crushed on you hard for the first few years I was in the Order,” he revealed.

  “You did?” Dawn was positively shocked.

  Reid nodded, “I sure did. But don’t worry, I got over it centuries ago.”

  Dawn thought about it for a moment, before leaning in and kissing a very surprised paladin for the second time that night. The kiss was brief, a mere peck, but it told Dawn everything she needed to know. She was no more sexually attracted to Reid than she was to Micah. “Huh. Perhaps I don’t pick up on attraction unless I’m the one who is feeling it?” she wondered out loud.

  “Umm, what was that?” Reid asked, touching his lips with his fingers.

  “T
hat was another test. One you failed.” She patted his cheek, “Sorry, sweetie.”

  Reid stared at her for a moment, before a smile lit up his handsome face. “Yeah? Well you failed too. No spark at all. But I still love you.”

  Dawn grinned, “I love you too.”

  She was just about to delve into this newfound information about herself so she could hopefully come across as suave and knowledgeable to Knox the next time they met when she heard a growling sound. Looking up she saw Knox standing a few metres away. The first thing she noticed about him was that his eyes were completely black. Hurriedly looking down she saw that his feet were not touching the sand and she knew something was very wrong. She was about to ask him what it was when she saw the way his eyes moved between herself, Reid, and Micah. Those obsidian eyes then narrowed in on Dawn’s lips and he sneered at her in a disgusted way before his body collapsed in on itself and he was whisked away on the wind. Dawn felt her stomach drop and a lump form in her throat. She knew, just knew what had caused Knox’s distress.

  Willow and Piper hurried over, reaching for her with their hands, Piper offering, “Oh, no. Dawn, I think he saw you kiss the guys.”

  “And very likely heard you tell Reid you love him,” Willow added.

  Dawn swallowed loudly, looking around at her Order. “What am I going to do?”

  “What do you want to do?” Micah asked. “Do you like him, Dawn?”

  Dawn didn’t even need to think about it. He was the whole reason she was so confused and tied up in knots. She had been trying to clarify things for him, but instead, had made things worse. “Yes. I like him.”

  “Do you like his brain or his body?” Piper asked further.

  Dawn looked to where Knox had been standing, noting the perfect angle it had of her and the lounger and her position sandwiched between two men. “I like both,” she then answered, “A lot. The last month has been one of the happiest of my life, and I think it’s because I was with Knox.”