The Avowed (Shadowed Wings Book 2)

by Ivy Asher

  Treno laughs and shields himself again.

  “First rule of battle!” I shout out, smug as fuck.

  “Truce...Truce!” Treno calls out, and I stop my attack and pull my wings into my back.

  He swims slowly toward me as I tread water and hungrily watch his languid approach.

  “Beautiful, wise and understanding, smart, and...diabolical,” he tells me, adding to the list of my qualities that he named earlier.

  “And never forget it,” I tease, booping his nose when he’s close enough.

  He reaches out and pulls me to him again. I wrap my legs around his waist and take in the feel of his large hard body against mine. I don’t know what I’m going to do without these giant sized males and all their giant sized parts if I ever get home. It’s very possible that I might be ruined.

  He has several tattoos on his arms, and I find myself wanting to trace them with my fingers and then with my tongue. He has a large symbol on the inside of both his biceps and a horizontal line of smaller symbols over his left pec. Something about them feels familiar, and I get the distinct impression I’ve seen them before.

  “Ahh, that’s better,” Treno observes as he fits us together

  A flash of Ryn fucking me yesterday and telling me that I belong with him, just like that...forever, pops up in my mind, shattering the odd sensation I have about Treno’s tattoos. I shove everything away and focus on the here and now. “It is,” I agree breathily, and Pigeon shoves her enthusiastic I’m also on board through me, and I chuckle.

  Treno’s eyes ask me what’s so funny.

  “My gryphon has plenty of favorable opinions and ideas about what she’d like us to be doing right now,” I tell him on a laugh.

  For a split second, worry ripples through me, and I wonder if Treno will think my relationship with Pigeon is strange. Sutton’s voice, telling me that I have to be one with my gryphon, fills my head. I fret that even though Treno’s connection with his gryphon seems more like mine, what if I’m wrong and he doesn’t understand?

  His answering laugh breaks through my anxiety.

  “You’d be scandalized if I told you the things mine has been wanting to do since he first saw her,” he tells me, talking about his connection as if it’s just like mine. “We’ll have to give them plenty of time to solidify their bonds just as soon as...”

  Treno trails off, and his lips claim mine. He swallows my chuckle at the gentle use of solidify their bonds instead of saying what we’re both thinking, which is gryphon fuck their brains out. My tongue tangles with his, and it hits me that I’ve never really thought about Pigeon fucking other gryphons. I mean, she’s shown me enough imagery that really her desire to do just that shouldn’t be a shock, but I guess I’m learning slowly how to be an us instead of just a me.

  “What are you thinking about?” Treno asks me against my lips.

  “That I can be selfish,” I answer bluntly, and he chuckles and pulls back.

  “Who isn’t?” he asks, like it’s that simple.

  I shrug and lean in to resume that thing he was just doing with his tongue.

  He pulls back, denying me his lips, and I squeak out a noise of protest.

  “Every time I start to play with you, you get distracted,” he tells me, his tone light but his words serious. “If you keep doing that, I’m going to develop a complex,” he razzes.

  “Fuck, I’m sorry. I don’t know what my deal is; I’m not normally this scatterbrained,” I confess.

  I run my fingers through his white wet locks and grind against him lightly.

  “I’ll stop being annoying. My body is ready,” I announce with a cheeky smile.

  Treno returns it, but he still hesitates.

  “We don’t have to...if you’re not feeling it,” he offers, his blue and purple eyes studying mine.

  Pigeon shoves her irritation at me, and I side-eye her.

  “Alright, already,” I defend. “If you’d stop interrupting, I could focus!” I accuse.

  “It’s not that,” I reassure him. “I do want you, and I am ready...so fucking ready…I promise.”

  I open my mouth to explain that I just have a lot on my mind and that a lot has happened in the past couple of days, but I shut up instead. That shit sounds lame even to me. I have a hot as fuck, body of a god, dimple-chinned male between my thighs, and I don’t know what my fucking problem is.

  Get your fucking head in the fuck game, Falon!

  14

  I release a deep breath and run my thumb over his cheek. I don’t say another word. I lean in and capture his lips with mine. I focus on the feel of his mouth and tongue. I hone in on his hands as one buries itself at my nape and the other drops low on my back, pinning me tightly against him. I revel in the feel of his hard abs between my thighs—I could probably ride those alone into an epic orgasm.

  Treno responds to my newfound focus with appreciative groans and encouraging thrusts of his hips against mine. He walks us up and out of the water, kissing me thoroughly as he takes us back to the picnic blanket. I go full koala, happy to let him do all the legwork. My inner cavewoman is a massive fan of the big strong man skills he’s displaying, and I practically swoon when he lays me back on the blanket like the delicate flower he thinks I am.

  I expect him to move slowly up my naked body, to kiss me sensually and memorize my body with his worship-filled hands. But I get a delicious lesson in how wrong I am in thinking Treno could ever be a predictable softy. He buries his face between my thighs like a ravenous beast, and I scream out my surprise and then moan my approval when he sucks on my clit and looks up at me like he’s the devil himself and I have no idea what I just got myself into.

  I thread my fingers through his hair and watch him lick me up and down, sucking on my lips and clit, and fucking me with his tongue. It’s so fucking erotic, and even if I couldn’t feel him all over my pussy, I could probably come just from watching what he’s doing. He plays my body with his mouth like he was born for it, and I splinter into pure pleasure that has me grinding against his face in no time.

  If I thought he’d go gentle now that I’ve just come all over his mouth, I’d once again be wrong, because Treno is acting like now that he has my attention, he’s never going to let it go. I mewl and writhe as he pins my hips and devours me. He grunts and groans as I fight him, and he easily puts me right back in my place. I’m stuck in this weird place where I’m too sensitive and also need more.

  Please do the vibrating tongue thing. Please do the vibrating tongue thing.

  Pigeon high fives my brilliance, and we both watch eagerly as Treno looks up, his tongue extended and pressed against my clit...and then he does the motherfucking vibrating tongue thing. I explode into nothing and everything all at once. I scream his name and feel my body break apart on a wave of ecstasy. Pigeon cheers inside of me, and it’s so loud I feel like my body is a stadium housing some kind of sporting event.

  He vibrates me into another orgasm, and then he takes mercy on me. Moving up my body, he languidly kisses the ticklish spots around my hip bones and abdomen. He cups my breasts and then forces me to lose my mind again when he does the vibrating tongue thing to my nipples. I moan and whimper and scream my approval, and then I kiss the fuck out of him when his lips are within attacking distance.

  I can taste my desire on his tongue, but I’m not even fussed about it. It’s not going to earn so much as a nose wrinkle from me, because anyone who can do what he just did deserves to be worshipped, and I am up for the task. I roll my hips against him, my pussy begging to take his cock for a ride. I wrap my hand around him and start working him slowly root to tip, while I break up our kiss and move my mouth to his ear.

  “You feel so fucking good,” I purr, stroking him leisurely, his wetness coating my palm and smoothing out my rhythm. “You want to fuck me, Treno? You want to shove this cock deep in my pussy while I scream your name?” I ask him, and he groans deeply in reply and sucks at my neck.

  He drops a hand betwee
n us and pushes fingers inside of me, and I purr and grind against the palm of his hand.

  “You make me so fucking wet. Do you feel how much I want you? I want you so deep inside of me, fucking me hard and fast. Do you want to fuck me?” I ask.

  This time, Treno nips at my earlobe and growls a resounding yes. “I need to be inside of you, flower. I need to claim you. I need to feel you clench around me as I fill you up and make you mine,” he rumbles in my ear, and even more desire flutters through my limbs at his words and needy tone.

  “Then fuck me,” I command.

  Treno snarls his approval, biting down on my earlobe, and lines himself up with me. I’m so fucking wet that his size isn’t even an issue as he buries his cock balls deep between my thighs.

  “Yes,” I shout over and over again, my praise and encouragement punctuating each deep perfectly timed thrust.

  I pull my knees back, opening myself up as wide as I can to accommodate his large body. We both shout out at the new deeper connection, and he takes over, pressing down on my knees, spreading me and using the hold as leverage. I shove my fingers in his hair and pull lightly so there’s just a hint of delicious pressure at his roots, and Treno’s sensual growl lets me know he loves it. He leans in and sucks on my bottom lip as he rolls his hips with each thrust. He gets so fucking deep it feels like he’s lighting up every nerve ending I have between my thighs.

  “Fuck yes! Make me come, just like that...make me fucking come!” I order, and he leans down his mouth to my ear, clearly taking a page out of my book.

  “You like that, flower? Like when I own you and work you into a frenzy? Mmmm, you feel so good around my cock. Come all over it like you did my tongue. Scream my name and come for me, flower.”

  Treno whispers all the best dirty shit in my ear, and I could practically cry from the massive orgasm I feel building in my cells.

  “Harder,” I bark out. “Yes, right there! Fuck, I’m going to come...right there…”

  I scream and shatter as Treno fucks me into the best fucking orgasm ever. He comes inside of me, kissing me and mumbling incoherent shit like mate and mine against my lips. I’m so fucking exhausted as release tingles through me like waves, and all I want to do is sleep and then wake up and fuck him all over again. I want to spend weeks on this dude’s dick, and even then, it might not be enough.

  Fuck, that was good!

  Treno chuckles and rolls onto his back, panting. He laces his fingers with mine and brings my hand up to his mouth and kisses it sweetly. Pigeon is giving him a standing ovation, and I get the distinct impression that she flings a my turn at me. And that throws me off.

  “You can’t fuck Treno; that’s weird, you creep.”

  Pigeon rolls her eyes at me and then flashes me Treno’s white gryphon—and a brief synopsis of everything she’d like to do with him. My eyebrows shoot up to my hairline, and I beg her to stop.

  “How the fuck is that even possible? You know what…I don’t want to know, keep your perv to yourself, okay?”

  Pigeon chuckles and flashes me an image of an Amish woman.

  “Did you just call me a prude?” I demand, completely offended. “First of all, rude. Second of all, you just watched what Treno and I did together, so you know that’s bullshit.”

  Smug satisfaction flickers through me, and I can tell that somehow Pigeon thinks I’m making her point. She flashes me another my turn and then a memory of me at the movies. I stare at it for a second until I realize what she’s trying to say.

  “It’s my turn to watch?” I ask, trying to confirm that I’m understanding her correctly.

  Images of lights and alarms sound off in my head like I just won money in Vegas. I open my mouth to tell her she’s lost it when I realize that, if I’m being fair, I may not have much of a choice in this. How can I fuck my brains out but expect her not to?

  Treno’s laugh pulls me away from the uncomfortable direction of my thoughts.

  “You didn’t hear any of that, did you?” he asks, rolling to his side and tracing the curve of my breast with his finger.

  I offer a sheepish smile.

  “What are you thinking about now?” he teases good-naturedly.

  “Gryphon porn,” I reply before I can stop myself.

  He barks out a laugh. “Why, by the stars, are you thinking about that?”

  “I don’t know, it just hit me. How does it work? Do we just hang around and watch like perverts? Does it feel good to us too? How do you keep your gryphon from humping everything?”

  I shoot out questions rapid-fire, and with each one I voice, another pops up in my head. Treno laughs hard and then kisses me softly before pulling back. “I don’t actually know what it’s like. I haven’t experienced it yet, but from—”

  “Wait. What?” I ask cutting him off. “You’ve never allowed your gryphon to let his freak flag fly?”

  Shock radiates out of my tone, and Treno’s brow dips in confusion.

  “Of course not,” he defends, like I’ve just accused him of something seriously fucked up. “When a gryphon mates, it’s for life. It’s different than when we mate in this form,” Treno explains, gesturing to my naked body and his. “We can mate in this form for pleasure, and it doesn’t create a bond, that is unless it happens after a mate call. But if a gryphon mates in its gryphon form, those gryphons are immediately bonded for life.”

  “Oh okay, that makes sense,” I state.

  “So is it usual for a gryphon to be a massive ball of lust until they mate?” I ask, thinking of Pigeon and all the fucking with my hormones she does.

  “No, the opposite is true. A gryphon’s mating instinct can only be sparked by their true mate. If they don’t find them, then that part of them stays dormant.”

  My eyebrows crinkle as I think that through.

  “Wait...but you said that your gryphon wanted to fuck mine?” I remind him, like somehow there must be a loophole.

  Treno laughs like he thinks I just told a hilarious joke. He immediately stops when he realizes I’m not laughing too.

  “Well, yes, of course my gryphon wants to mate with yours because she’s his mate,” he declares, his eyes filling with concern.

  I stare at him for a beat, just...blinking.

  “What the fuck is going on?” I suddenly demand. I sit up, and Treno mirrors me, worry etched in his features. “What am I missing here? I mean, I didn’t think I was fucking dumb, but clearly I am, because how can our gryphons be mates without us…”

  I trail off and take in Treno’s encouraging look.

  “No,” I state matter-of-factly and push up onto my feet.

  “What do you mean no?” Treno asks, his face and tone bewildered.

  “I mean, no, we can’t be mates,” I answer simply.

  A flash of hurt streaks through Treno’s mismatched gaze, and then incredulity takes over.

  “What are you talking about, flower, you just answered my mate call. How can you say—”

  “I what!” I yelp as I round on him, cutting him off.

  Shock and frustration filter into his eyes. “You answered my mate call,” he repeats like I’m simple.

  I throw my hands up in exasperation. “What the fuck, Treno, I never agreed to be your mate! You never even asked me! What are you even talking about?” My voice rises higher and higher in pitch as panic takes over.

  “It doesn’t work like that,” he states, irritation clear in his tone. “Our gryphons put out the call. Usually there’s a burning sensation that accompanies the partial bond that’s being formed. It can be very painful. The stronger the bond, the more it hurts. You passed out from the pain of ours,” he explains, and my stomach drops.

  I stare at him horrified.

  “Are you being serious right now?” he challenges, his eyes taking me in warily like this is all just a bad joke. “But you had that book about Gryphon mating,” he mumbles, almost to himself.

  “What?” I ask even more confused.

  “The book about The Ca
ll and Gryphon mating practices. I saw it on your table.”

  “No,” I answer hollowly. “I found that with all of the census records and took it so I could give it to an Archivist.”

  We both stare at each other blankly.

  “I thought you knew. I mentioned you answering the call in my note...you responded to me...your gryphon responded to us…”

  Reality sucker punches me like a fucking semi.

  Zeph.

  Ryn.

  This is what they were keeping from me.

  I gasp and try to shove the shock and betrayal back down my throat with my hands.

  This is why Pigeon was so upset...she knew.

  She. Fucking. Knew.

  I fold in on myself, and Treno catches me.

  I turn to Pigeon, consumed by hurt and betrayal.

  “Why?” is all I can ask as everything inside of me shatters.

  Our bond fractures and morphs into something painful and wrong. Everything I’ve been through since I’ve arrived, the emotions and connections I didn’t understand. The feelings inside that betrayed what was really good for me. She knew about all of it and never bothered to tell me anything.

  I clutch at my stomach and wish there was a way I could rip her out of me. I feel tainted, destroyed from the inside out, and there’s no way I can purge it. Pigeon hammers me with flashes and impressions, but I lock myself away. I reinforce steel around who I am and vow that no one will ever get inside of it again.

  Treno holds me, whispering reassuring things, but I’m too numb to care. How the fuck did I not see this? How did I not ask more questions? How could I just assume this world worked like my own?

  Rage lights me up from the inside. I’m so fucking angry I don’t even know what to do about it. I’m gutted by Pigeon. Seething over Ryn and Zeph. Pissed at myself, and I don’t even know where to begin examining how I feel about Treno. He didn’t purposely try to deceive me, but here we are in one big giant clusterfuck anyway.

  Silent tears drip down my cheeks. I look up at Treno, who looks stricken, and push out of his lap. He hurries to his feet as I rush to get dressed.