Evans, Gabrielle - The Hunger [Fatefully Yours 7] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever ManLove)

by Gabrielle Evans

  Before he could get himself too worked up or depressed, the ground beneath his feet began to vibrate. It started as just a faint trembling, and Echo almost thought he imagined it. Then it began to grow, rolling across the earth in waves, and toppling Echo backward.

  Fiero caught him before he could fall on his ass, holding him tight to his muscled chest. Echo beamed as though his firstborn had just been given a Nobel Prize. He really didn’t understand why they all insisted they couldn’t do these things. They had great power—only their confidence was lacking.

  As suddenly as it began, the movement of the earth ceased. Onyx dropped his arms to his sides and turned slowly to give them all a shit-eating grin. “How was that?”

  “Brilliant!” Echo exclaimed. “I told you, didn’t I?”

  “You did, but I still don’t see how it’s going to keep anything from dying.”

  “What exactly can you grow this far north anyway?” Echo tilted his head to the side in question. The ground had only recently thawed. Surely that wasn’t enough time to plant seeds and produce yields.

  “There are a four farms east of here in Flathead County that produce mint,” Vapre offered. “I guess less than a thousand acres per farm.”

  “When’s the growing season?”

  “I think April through August, but I’m not really sure.”

  “How the hell can you grow anything here?” Echo demanded. “How can crops even survive with the snow we’ve been having?”

  Vapre and Syx shared a quick look before both turning back to Echo. “I think these snowstorms have been isolated,” Syx said at last. “There have been a few pieces on the news about it, even.”

  How sad was it that news like that didn’t even affect him anymore? Echo rested his hands on his hips and shook his head. “Flathead County is too far from here. Everything has happened right on our doorstep. We’ll have to keep looking for answers.”

  “Like Echo said, what if it’s not literal?” Myst scratched the back of his neck and looked around the group. “Maybe the harvests or whatever aren’t going to die, but it’s meant to warn us against something that could cause that.”

  Vapre gaped at the warrior for a whole minute before wrapping his arms around him and swirling Myst in a circle. “You are a fucking genius, babe!” Then he planted a loud, smacking kiss on Myst’s lips, dropped him to his feet, and sprinted toward the house.

  Syx swiveled his head back and forth between the group and Vapre’s retreating form, then gave a little wave and took off after the demon.

  “I don’t know why everyone is always so surprised,” Myst mumbled under his breath.

  “Because you’re more apt to cause trouble than fix it.” Hex chuckled and cuffed Myst in the back of the head. “You have great ideas, but you hardly ever voice them. It’s nothing personal, Myst, and no one thinks you’re stupid.” Hex pulled the man closer and kissed his temple. “Love you, yeah?”

  Echo’s heart felt like it would burst with happiness. His mates had taken to expressing their love for one another with barely a hiccup. Every once in a while he would see one of them stop and shake his head as though he couldn’t believe what he’d just said. It happened less and less over the weeks, and Echo went back and forth between smug satisfaction and wanting to knock them all upside their heads for denying it for so long.

  “Ten bucks says Syx and Vapre have already found something,” Eyce said a moment later.

  Echo grinned brightly. “Make it a blow job, and you’re on.”

  “You got it, darlin’,” Eyce drawled. “If I win, you get to suck my cock. If you lose, you get to suck my cock.”

  Echo nodded, then stopped and frowned, his eyebrows drawing together in confusion as he worked the words around in his head. If he lost…and Eyce won, that meant—“Hey!” He jerked his head up to argue, but Eyce was already sprinting toward the backdoor. Echo crossed his arms over his chest, stuck his bottom lip out, and pouted.

  The remaining demons howled with laughter, clutching at their sides and falling against each other like a bunch of damn fools as far as he was concerned.

  Eyce didn’t even make it to the back steps before Vapre came bursting through the kitchen door again with Syx hot on his heels. “Stymphalian birds!”

  “Um, bless you?”

  Vapre snorted at Echo as he jogged up to the group and thrust a piece of paper out for everyone to see. “The Stymphalian birds are sacred to Ares. Their dung is toxic.”

  “Eww.” Echo wrinkled his nose. He took the sheet of paper from Vapre’s hand and began reading the printout. “Man-eating birds with bronze beaks and metal feathers that can be shot at their enemies,” he mumbled. “Well, that sounds just lovely. No big deal, right? It should be a walk in the park. I mean as long as we don’t get eaten or impaled on flying feathers, everything is cool. Yeah, yeah, we’re good.” Echo could hear himself babbling, felt the hysteria bubbling up inside of him, but he couldn’t stop. He continued on and on, repeating the same things in a variety of different ways, but all with the same undercurrent—They were fucked.

  “Does this mean he’s not going to suck my cock?” Eyce mumbled just loud enough for Echo to hear.

  Hex growled and shoved at the man, but Eyce’s words finally broke through Echo’s panic, causing him to laugh. “Don’t worry, love. Your pecker is safe with me.”

  “My pecker?” Eyce lifted both eyebrows and looked down at his groin. Then he looked up and shrugged. “You can call it whatever you want as long as it gets me a blow job.”

  “Asshole,” Echo huffed under his breath, but he couldn’t stop the grin that spread over his face.

  “I don’t know about that one. It would be kind of hard to put my asshole in your asshole.”

  Echo blinked at the man twice before doubling over in laughter. He laughed so hard his entire body shook, and he found himself on the ground with his arms wrapped around his midsection to hold himself together.

  Myst huffed, and his next words only caused Echo to laugh harder. “And, everyone thinks I’m an idiot.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Onyx dominated, controlled, showed no mercy, and took no prisoners. One arm wrapped around Echo’s lean waist, holding him in place as he drove into his lover’s tight heat with a savage intensity.

  His other hand fisted in Echo’s hair, pushing his head forward so that Eyce’s cock pushed to the back of their mate’s throat. Eyce leaned back on the padded table, bracing himself on his elbows as his head dropped back on his shoulders.

  Echo’s arms were spread wide, handcuffed to the corners of the table, his fingers curled around the sides in a white-knuckled grip. He was completely helpless, totally dependent upon Onyx and Eyce to give him what he needed. The mere thought of it sent Onyx’s shaky control on a downward spiral.

  “Fuck!” Eyce roared a moment later, and Onyx pulled Echo back by his hair so that Eyce’s hot, sticky release painted Echo’s face.

  “Please,” Echo begged. “More. I need to come.”

  “You’ll come when I say you can,” Onyx growled and gave a sharp thrust of his hips to punctuate his statement.

  Echo’s head dropped forward on his shoulders, his fingers flexed and relaxed around the edges of the table, and his inner walls squeezed Onyx’s cock in a vise grip. He moaned and whimpered, pushing back against each invasion as much as he could. “Please, Onyx, please.”

  Oh, his baby begged so beautifully. Onyx’s cock swelled further, pulsing inside Echo’s snug hole as he slammed in and out of the gripping passage. “Again, baby.”

  “Please, sir. Please let me come.”

  Eyce chose that moment to find his bearings, lean forward, and start licking his seed from Echo’s face. The sight, combined with the delicious sounds falling from his mate’s mouth, sent Onyx leaping over the edge.

  Moving his grasp from Echo’s hip, he palmed the man’s bouncing erection and stroked him quickly. “Then come for me, baby.” The words were guttural, snarled, and Onyx couldn�
��t resist the temptation that the creamy skin over Echo’s neck presented. Covering his lover’s back, he felt his canines elongate as he trailed his tongue up the side of Echo’s throat.

  His balls drew tight to his body, aching and screaming for relief. Electricity hummed throughout his body, his head swam, and all he could think about was making Echo his all over again. “Mine,” he growled just before sinking his teeth into the supple flesh and moaning like a whore.

  Echo screamed, his inner walls clamped down on Onyx’s throbbing cock, and warm, wet seed erupted from his slit to bathe Onyx’s hand and wrist. Onyx lost all hold on his control and fell right over the cliff after Echo, emptying his balls into his mate’s silky channel.

  “Wow, I needed that,” Echo panted.

  Onyx extracted his fangs from Echo’s neck and chuckled quietly. Easing out of Echo’s quivering hole, he placed a soft kiss over his mating bite and nuzzled against Echo’s throat. “Thank you.” Then he reached over his mate, wrapped his fingers in Eyce’s hair and urged him forward into a tender kiss. “And thank you.”

  Eyce smiled dopily at him before kissing Echo’s temple. “Trust me when I say it was my pleasure.”

  Working together, Eyce and Onyx released Echo from his constraints, rubbing his wrists gently over the red marks on his skin. Though Onyx loved seeing the red lashes from his hand or crop on Echo’s ass, these unsettled him. “I don’t think we’re going to use handcuffs anymore. Padded or not, I don’t like this. You pull too hard on them.”

  Echo laughed and turned to wind his arms around Onyx’s neck. “It doesn’t hurt, and they’ll fade away in a couple of hours. Can I help it if you drive me out of my mind, and I forget myself when you do all those naughty things to me?”

  With a resigned sigh, Onyx brushed his lips over Echo’s forehead and held him close. “You are the most manipulative little shit I have ever met.”

  “C’mere, baby.” Eyce held his arms open and wiggled the fingers on one hand. In his other fist, he grasped a small white jar, holding it out in offering to Onyx.

  Echo’s ass still blazed a gorgeous scarlet, and Onyx could feel the heat pouring from his reddened skin. He reached out to take the salve, but Echo beat him to it and shook his head. “I like the burn, the ache, all of it. I’ve also noticed that I heal a lot faster now. I don’t need this, and I don’t want it.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Echo tossed the plastic bottle over his shoulder so that it bounced on the floor and rolled under one of the tables pushed against the wall. “Positive.”

  “You are something amazing, you know that?”

  “Oh, I know.” Echo winked at him and smirked. “You can keep telling me, though. I never get tired of hearing it.”

  “Only you could be that cute with cum dripping out of your ass.” Eyce wiggled his eyebrows and laughed when Echo whipped around to glare at him. “C’mon and admit it. You’re adorable.”

  “I am not adorable. Turtles, puppies, and kindergarten finger paintings are adorable.”

  “Kindergarten?” Onyx gulped. “You don’t want kids, do you?”

  Echo’s mouth dropped open, and his eyes widened comically. “Are you nuts? What do I know about raising a baby? Besides, they’re loud, they smell, and they would seriously cut into my play time.”

  Onyx breathed a little easier. “Thank the gods. I don’t have anything against kids—as long as they belong to someone else.”

  “Agreed,” Eyce said with a firm dip of his head. “They’re cute to look at, but way too much work.”

  “Okay, then it’s settled. We’re not having a baby.” Echo snorted and rolled his eyes. “I would just like to point out how ridiculous we sound.”

  “Yeah, not mention how absurd you look discussing it with c—”

  “Yeah, yeah, with cum dripping out of my ass. I’m going to the shower now.” Echo flipped Eyce the bird before slipping out of the room.

  “Do you think that was an invitation?” Eyce asked hopefully.

  Onyx couldn’t help but chuckle. The closer the new moon came, the more the hunger inside him for his mate grew until it all but consumed him. It seemed he wasn’t the only one having trouble keeping his hands off Echo.

  “Why don’t you go find out?”

  Eyce didn’t waste time. He jumped off the table and sprinted out of the room after Echo. Onyx followed at a more leisurely pace. There was no way he was going to miss this, but he was in no hurry to put himself in the crossfire.

  He followed the sounds of his lovers to Hex’s room, walking through the door just in time to see Eyce come running out of the bathroom and a shampoo bottle go flying over his shoulder. “Get out!” Echo screeched.

  Eyce stopped when he saw Onyx and grinned widely. “He loves me. He’s just playing hard to get.”

  Onyx bit his tongue to keep from laughing. “Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

  * * * *

  For the next week, Echo practiced with Onyx in honing his gift, made love to his men under the bright sun, and generally forgot all about the vampire incident that had started the month off with a bang.

  What kind of person did that make him that he’d incinerated an entire house full of vampires and then just forgot about it a few weeks later? He understood that they’d had no choice. It was either them or the vamps. The bastards had done their level best to rip his men’s throats out. But, still, shouldn’t he feel at least a tiny sliver of remorse?

  He probably would have gone right on not remembering, too, if Jinx hadn’t shown up at their door the night before the new moon.

  Echo was just coming down the stairs when the pounding began at the door, hard enough to rattle the windows. “Echo! Let me in!”

  “Jinx?” Frowning, Echo jogged down the remainder of the steps and hurried to the door. “What are you doing here?” he asked through the door. The last thing he needed was to let his bleeding heart get away from him and open the door to a doppelganger intent on destroying them all.

  “I need your help, Echo. Please, my mates are in trouble.”

  Not a minute later, tires crunched against the gravel as an engine roared up the driveway. Jinx beat more insistently on the door. “Open the door. Please, please, please,” the vampire chanted around a strangled sob.

  “Echo, step back,” Hex said quietly, coming into the room from the direction on the hallway.

  Eyce and Fiero followed behind him, and Fiero motioned for Echo to come closer to them. With no way for him to know who actually stood on the other side of that door, Echo didn’t want the responsibility of deciding to allow entrance or not. Part of him knew this to be a trick and just wanted Jinx to go away. Another, bigger part of him, though, hurt at the desperation in his friend’s voice.

  He took a couple of tentative steps back, but kept his eyes locked on the doorknob as Hex stepped up beside him.

  “Craze!” Jinx squeaked from the front porch. “No. No, please, love, it’s me. It’s really me. Craze, what are you do—aagghh!”

  Echo couldn’t take anymore. If there was even the tiniest possibility that was Jinx, he’d never forgive himself if he let this continue. “Hex, do something.”

  “Guys, it’s me,” Craze called. “Syn had a dream that you guys might have a little visitor tonight. We got here as soon as we could.”

  Hex growled and pushed a hand through his hair. “Eyce, Fiero, get everyone down here, and tell them to be on their guard. I don’t know what’s going on, but we need to deal with it.”

  The warriors hurried out of the room without a word, returning just moments later with the other demons and Gage. They all assembled in the entryway behind Hex and Echo, waiting, tense and ready to fight for their lives if necessary.

  Echo took another step back, insinuating himself between Myst and Syx as Hex opened the door. He gasped at the sight that met them.

  Craze stood just at the bottom of the porch steps, his hand locked around Jinx’s throat and holding him several inches off the grou
nd. Jinx clawed at the man’s hand, squirming and kicking, trying to pull air into his lungs. He was completely naked, his red hair dirty and matted, and his skin covered in livid bruises and deep scratches.

  Syn stood just to the side, locked in an embrace with another man that looked identical to Jinx. The whole scene was enough to make Echo’s head hurt and his heart gallop inside his chest. How did they know for sure which one was really Jinx?

  “Craze, put him down,” Hex said calmly, stepping through the doorway and onto the porch.

  Echo followed him, taking the alpha’s hand and squeezing it in comfort—more for himself than for Hex. “They look exactly alike,” he whispered.

  “He’s a filthy liar!” The Jinx standing with Syn said. “He’s come here, pretending to be me, and to hurt all of you. Thank the gods that Syn had that dream, and we got here in time.”

  Craze set the assumed imposter in his feet, but didn’t let him go far. He fisted his hand in Jinx’s hair and turned him roughly to face everyone. “What do you want me to do with him?”

  “Craze, it’s me. Please, you have to believe me,” the man in his grasp begged through his gasps for air. “Craze, I love you. Please.”

  Echo saw the hesitation in the Addonexus’s eyes, the way his features softened for just a moment before he hardened them once more.

  “Don’t listen to him,” the other Jinx said softly. “He would do anything to hurt us. You know I would never do that.”

  There was something different about the way the Jinx standing near Syn spoke. His accent was still in place, the cadence natural, but something was off. Echo couldn’t pinpoint what was wrong, but it opened up the door for doubt to creep into his confused brain.

  “Craze.”

  “Shut up,” Craze snarled, shaking the man he held by his hair. He turned to Hex again. “What do you want me to do with him?” he repeated with more heat in his voice.