Crius’ head jerks in her direction, his natural, pale purple eyes enlarging as he takes her in.
She lunges at one of the royal guards near her, ripping his scythe from his hold before she spins it in a graceful arch.
Taking her own head.
The fuck?
Crius’ doesn’t even have a chance to react as her body disappears in a swirl of black smoke, the blood vanishing with her.
Maddened, the God of the Underworld rushes towards Ismini. “Where in Renentr does she appear? I tried searching for her last time and couldn’t find her. Where does she go?”
Dyletri hisses at the aggressive way Crius approaches his female, but Ismini holds a hand out to stop her R’mann. “I don’t know. I don’t think she’s told anyone. We just know that’s where she reanimates everytime.”
His chest rumbling with a growl, he disappears.
Fucking great. Maleksoraniel is back, brought to life by the Aviraji and infused with the powers of the Arunasura. Something tells me we’re going to have an issue helping Crius keep it together over the next few weeks.
Especially if the spell sustaining his celibacy finishes conking out and he doesn’t take his female. He’s already on the edge of sanity; he’ll go rabid ten times faster than I began to.
Soleria curls into me, drawing my attention back to her. She’s shivering, unsteady, and the moist scent starting to come off her divides my focus.
Stay, and deal with this new round of shit, accepting the war demon crown while at it . . .
Or get my female alone in my temple and finish binding us once and for all.
“I’m guessing you were right about becoming king.”
Halamar’s comment barely sinks in, but Sol pulls away with a confused frown. “What does he mean?”
I cup her chin and bring her to me. Leaning my head down in front of everyone, I rub my lips along hers on a slow glide, breathing in the scent of her arousal.
Her needy intake of breath can be heard by everyone. Something that would normally send me into a rage, but at this moment, I want them to know how far gone she is for me.
How much she belongs to me.
As if that white-and-navy blue design on her neck isn’t proof enough.
“Gods I want my teeth in your neck,” I groan, gums and throat burning.
She shivers harder, lips trembling against my own. “N-now?”
“Now.” Looking over my shoulder, I issue my first command as king: “You’re all going to fucking get along and behave until we return. One skirmish breaks out among you, and we’ll make everyone pay.”
“What?” Multiple voices holler.
The loudest of them? Zex. “Wait. You can’t leave. Not yet—”
Love the dude, but I know what he wants and it’s going to have to wait.
First, I’m claiming my female.
Then I’ll accompany him to Earth to help him meet Izabella.
“We’re leaving,” I tell my R’ma. “We’re going to confirm if you’re pregnant. Then, you’re all mine.”
“Huh?”
But we’re already gone, on our way back to Enzyria.
First stop, Vedlyl.
Second stop? The Valley of the Gods.
Chapter 50
- Enzyria
ZEXISTR
“I can’t believe he just left like that.” Actually, I can. That doesn’t make me any less pissed off.
“Can you blame him?” Cyake asks as we walk up the steps leading into the main hall. “He doesn’t mean to do it, but his possibly pregnant female just mated to him, saving him from a death we waited his entire life for.”
I don’t blame Ianthen. I cannot. How can I when my anxiety is due to the need for a hint about my own female? A clue.
To see this human girl that looks so much like the Watcher and finally have a face to the mystery.
Finally see for myself if it could possibly be—No. I’m not going there, fuck you very much. It’s an impossibility. My Nima was human. Born human and died human.
Or so I thought.
But no one knows better than I—the force that took all the matter Creation unleashed from within the Illion and helped mold it into what it is today—that nothing is impossible in this vast universe.
Nothing.
Could mom have lied to me? Could she have hidden something this important from me?
No. I refuse to believe that. I can’t. I’ve already lost my mother, both by her doing and my own. What’s left of our relationship can’t survive this kind of blow.
I fucking refuse to believe she would do this to me.
Regardless, how would some being, any being, take a mortal dying of a Fieren and gift her with immortality?
It was done for Ismini, but she was in the very early stages. Her illness was nothing compared to the others we’ve known about.
Nythi is a prime example, and considering we’re all like family, I’ve seen her lost to those vile symptoms one too many times.
I know what a real Fieren looks like.
The kind caused when a being’s mate is out there with someone else.
When they’ve loved them.
Hell. Just fucked them.
That’s what I left Nima to. My human female.
There’s no way she’s still alive. She can’t be the Watcher. Yet, one of the few details coming through lately is that she’s a hologram.
See-through.
She’s either an astral projection of someone still alive, still out there . . . or she’s a ghost with the power to affect destiny.
Beyond my scope of understanding and I’m one of only three beings responsible for everything existing.
It can’t be her.
It just can’t.
“You’re not seriously thinking of pulling him from his female at a time like this, are you?”
My Fort’em’s question jerks me out of my thoughts. We’re at the stairs inside the hall already, the statues of us surrounding each side. I open my mouth to reply—
“Congratulations. The egg has split in three. They’ll be identical, too.”
Vedlyl’s statement is met with a sharp, male groan.
“I’m having a litter? I’m having a freaking litter?”
Soleria’s shriek shatters a wall of windows on the second floor. As glass crashes to the floor in a tinkling cacophony, Ianthen murmurs to his female, trying to calm her. “Baby, you’re immortal now.”
“I still have to deliver them, Ianthen!”
They’re having triplets. Shit.
Cyake’s brows are high on his forehead, his stare blank. No, stunned. “You honestly think you’re going to get him to step away now?”
No. I’m not. At this point, imagining the joy he must be feeling at this second round of good news, I can’t even bring myself to try.
I remember that joy. Felt it for all of twelve Earthen hours before the toxicity of my relationship with Maivera reared its head, ruining the day.
Ruining many days of her pregnancy, to be honest. It’s what led me to attempt leaving her as she neared the end of her fifth month. I couldn’t take the drama or heartache anymore.
That’s when I met my Nima.
Almost four months later, I returned to Maivera when I received the news she was in labor. I wanted to be there when my daughter was born.
That’s when she got me.
“Release me from my oath, brother. Tell those damned Fates I did my job. I know where the restaurant is. I’ll go there myself.”
“Hell fucking no. Thanks for watching out for my best friend. You’re released. Now I’m going with you.”
“As am I.” Keiros reforms at the bottom of the steps, shrugging into the jacket of one of those William Westmanscott suits he loves so much.
“That’s not necessary—” I start to tell them both.
“The fuck it isn’t,” comes the unified reply.
I should’ve never left them for two weeks together.
Keiros adjust
s the cuff of his suit, shrugging. “We do this as a family.”
Cyake’s glaring at me with that stubborn frown of his, as if he’s ready to try and restrain me—keyword being try. Unless he goes full-on God of Fate, he can’t and he knows it. “You heard him. You haven’t voiced it aloud, but we know you suspect Nylicia is your female. The one you left behind. And if that’s true, you and I are fucked. Who’s my future R’ma again? Right.”
My head shakes of its own volition, the denial manifesting physically before I speak. “It’s not her. It can’t be her.”
The way they both stare at me . . . swear to my father, if that’s pity in their eyes . . . “Let’s just go to that restaurant. Before I fucking punch both of you in the face.”
“Glad you’re seeing sense,” Keiros mumbles.
Definitely should’ve never left those two alone.
- Ianthen’s Temple, Valley of the Gods, Enzyria
IANTHEN
She’s been quiet since I took her from the compound after Vedlyl delivered the news.
I’m not too steady myself.
I’m going to be a father, after fourteen millennia in a flesh-and-blood body. I could’ve had children before now had I wanted to, but I always avoided female’s that were fertile. Partially because I figured that would lead to a long term relationship with the mother, increasing the likelihood she’d be the one from the prophecy.
The one I’d fall for.
But mostly because I was waiting for that female. I was waiting for her, the pregnant queen in her crown and skimpy dress.
We’ll discuss those outfits later. Not because of some misogynistic bullshit, but I am her male. A Hyren fully mated and bonded to her. There’s only so much I can take without snapping and killing the males that lust after her.
Soleria hugs herself as she takes in the navy blue, white, and black interior of my temple.
It was a mistake to bring her here. Don’t know why I even had the impulse. Soleria’s tense back is the only sign I need to know what she’s thinking.
What she’s wondering.
If she asks me, I can’t even deny it. I refuse to lie to her. The Valley of the Gods was moved to this dimension before I was even born. When my temple manifested, it just happened to be here, but there was a time when I didn’t care.
I brought females here, over and over.
Many of them at a time.
The shit I’ve done inside those walls . . .
“I’m sorry.” My voice is rough with regret. “The mating ritual usually takes place in our temples, but it can happen anywhere really.”
Soleria nods slowly, facing the altar towards the back. “So you have . . . yeah.” She waves her hand over her shoulder as if it’s no big deal, even as her other arm remains wrapped around her waist.
Sometimes I can’t shake the feeling that my past will always be here, between us. Not because it happened, but because I allowed it to enter our history by trying to fuck someone else.
I materialize onto the step behind her. “It doesn’t have to be here. Let’s go back home.”
Her shoulders shudder. “Home . . . I miss it.”
She isn’t talking about Sethrax. “I’ll take you there right now, if you want. But baby, I can’t fuck you on your bed, no matter how much I’ve dreamed of it. I think we’ll break your house. Possibly your neighbor’s, too.”
Her back shakes again. For a moment I think she’s crying, but then an adorable, low sound reaches me.
She’s giggling.
Fuck, I missed that sound.
“Come here.” Wrapping my arms around her, I turn her to face me and bring her close. She covers her mouth with her hand, but I tug it away, needing to see that smile. No matter how small it is. “I’m so sorry for what I did to us.” We didn’t have to be like this. We had sexual tension between us, not heartache and toxic memories.
The black in her eyes melts away, leaving only those human, baby blue irises I fell in love with. They’re shining with her withheld tears. “I’m sorry for what I did to you.” She places her hands on my shoulders, over my armor, staring at the red, navy blue, and white mark peeking out of my collar. “You were already mated to me and I—” She can’t finish, her throat bobbing rapidly.
“Shhh. Come here.” Mindful of her crown, I cup her nape and bring her lips to mine. It’s a soft kiss, in no way the kind I want to give her right now, but this isn’t about taking her.
I need her more than ever, my blood hot with the knowledge that she’s carrying three of my kids in her.
It has to wait. First, I need to make sure she’s okay. That all these new changes aren’t mentally wearing her down. “You did what you did because I tore your heart out. Shit, if the roles had been reversed, I probably would’ve reacted in a crazy way, too.”
Sol nods, lashes obscuring her eyes. “You would’ve run to someone else, too.”
I chuckle ruefully. “Actually, I think I just would’ve killed the motherfucker you were with. To be honest, I still want to kill Ricky. We’re going to need a restraining order to keep him away from your restaurant and house.” And we both know I’m capable of it. After all, I slew one human, possibly two, the night it all went down.
Soleria laughs again, covering her face with her hands. “Ian, please. Leave him alone. In exchange, I’ll leave Talila alone.” Her jaw tenses at the name.
I tighten my hold on her, bringing her flush against my cock. “This is going to sound fucked up, but I wouldn’t care.”
Her eyes fly up to lock with mine. “What—but she’s your ex.”
“Ex-lover. And it wasn’t a constant thing where she got any exclusivity from me. I don’t particularly want her to die, of course, but . . . you’re the thing I care most about, baby. I love you.”
Her eyes soften. “I love you, too, but I’m still going to ask you to leave Ricardo alone.”
That pussy ass, pathetic name. Rolling my eyes, I grab her wrists and wrap her arms around my neck. “Only if you keep saying you love me.”
Fuck. The sound of her laughing makes me just as high now as it did when I met her. “I love you,” she murmurs hesitantly, but I’ll take it.
“And the restraining order is a must. I know a guy.”
“Ian!”
I press my lips to her cheek, near her mouth. “For his safety, Sol.”
“You’re horrible.” She shakes her head, smirking lips brushing mine. “I can’t believe we’re going to be parents.”
My cheeks fucking hurt from how hard I’m smiling. “Uh huh. To three badass hybrid kids. The first of their kind. Wee vicious things like their mother.”
“I’m the one that’s going to carry them, you know,” she grumbles, pressing closer.
My hands slide down her back to cup her plump ass over the silky material of her gown. “And I’m going to be there every second of it to make it easier for you.”
She tilts her head back, eyes seeming to glow. “You are, aren’t you? You’re not going to die.”
Seeing her giddiness at the thought does insane things to my chest. “Mhmm.” Lowering my lips to her ear, I trace the edge with my tongue. “Because you’re going to take every drop of my cum while we come and gorge on each other’s blood. We’re making this official, Sol.”
Her back shoots straight, as if shocked by a current. Her feline-like growl vibrates through me, but it’s her next words that fucking floor me.
“Oh! Oh, that’s what it’s like. Oh my God. Ian.” Her nails sink into the back of my neck, securing her prey.
I squeeze my eyes shut, incisors shooting from my gums on a painful surge. I don’t need to look at Sol to know bloodlust has finally hit her.
I squeeze down on her ass, groaning against her ear.
“Ian”—her lips brush along my mating mark and my dick pulses with the urge to come—“I need . . .”
My female’s about to sink her teeth into my neck.
The moment she does, we’re both lost.
; Gods damn, I’m so needy I’m afraid of easing back and looking at her.
At her elongated fangs.
She must look so fucking sexy.
“I know what you need, baby.” Cupping her nape, I slide my hand into the back of her hair and fist it. “But first you need to understand what I need.” Rolling my hips, I slide my other hand into the cleft of her ass, tracing it over the thin fabric. “I want what’s mine.”
Sol moans nice and low, a sexy, throaty sound. “You’re only obsessed with it because I told you no one’s had it before.”
“Damn right. That’s all mine to have. I’m going to show you how good it is.” I dematerialize my armor, keeping only the leathers and boots. She shivers, rubbing along my bare chest, that purring sound shooting straight to my erection. “I know you’re pregnant, but you’re immortal now. And somehow I’ll go slow, too.” Fuck. Am I rambling now?
Sol jerks her head back into my hand, gaining enough distance to look at me.
Between her juicy lips, the tips of her incisors sharpen even more with hunger.
I tense from head to toe.
Okay. Yeah. Fuck the fact I’m a wolf. I want those fangs in my body.
All over it.
“Ianthen, you win. You’ve got me hooked on the thought of it. Just make sure you come in my pussy first.”
Laughing, I let my eyes close and take a deep breath. “My dirty talking female. You had me hooked since that first dream.” I pull her up to me and lick along her lips.
The little witch tries to nip at my tongue with her fangs, drawing a drop of blood.
One leg wrapping around my hips, Sol all but forces her tongue into my mouth.
Oh gods, this is about to get real rough. Fast.
My hand cupping between her cheeks, I lift her the rest of the way.
I make it only halfway before Soleria breaks apart both our molecules, flinging us the rest of the way inside.
Chapter 51
SOLERIA
T here’s a loud crash as his back slams into crystalline limestone, our combined weight sending huge chunks of it flying.
Neither of us gives a fuck.
Blood Drenched Conquest (Ryze Book 3) Page 43
