Tempting Ecstasy (The Guardians of the Realms Book 4) Read online

  “Fucking gorgeous.” He watched her intently. She lifted her fingers to her lips and licked her come, knowing it would drive him over the edge. “Son of a bitch!” The words came out on a groan as come jetted up and over his chest and stomach; his eyes never left hers even as he milked every bit of it over his fingers.

  Amazing. He was so damned beautiful.

  Her body was lifted and placed gently in the water. She didn’t fight his power, was grateful not to have to move. She was spent.

  “Rest, princess.” The words were gentle, almost reverent.

  Her eyes were barely open enough to see him use a towel to clean the come off before getting into the water. He’d been magnificent to watch. So much passion and intensity that she wanted to feel it with him. After he proved to be all that he’d said and she felt her sisters were secure, safe, then she might feel free to take him. His arms stretched out on the ledge as she leaned into a groove in the stone, a smooth area to let her body relax and take much-needed energy into her cells. She pulled them in and sighed at the sensation.

  Chapter 15

  Elizabeth’s Compound, Tetartos Realm

  Elizabeth’s muscles tensed. “What do you mean?” she demanded of Reve, her second, if she really had one.

  “When Leo and Dom didn’t come in from patrol, the warriors went to find them. Their heads were mounted on spikes down the mountain. The bodies burned a few feet away.” His muscles were tense.

  “Scent?”

  “More than one.” More than one had found them. But mounting the heads seemed like a message or a challenge.

  Her nerves spiked. It wasn’t the Guardians. If they’d found her, the entire place would already be crawling with them. It had to be Immortals hunting them. Damn them.

  “Send a hunting party of mixed races. I want them tracked and dead.”

  He nodded.

  “After that start searching for another cave system as backup.”

  She needed to up her schedule if there was an unknown threat lurking.

  An icy chill slid up her spine. She didn’t like that they’d been found. Her warriors needed to hunt who’d done this and kill them. She’d contact Cynthia and set things in motion. It was faster than she wanted, but maybe it was just as well. She was ready.

  Chapter 16

  Guardian Manor, Tetartos Realm

  Conn was lounging back in his office chair in the war room with a raging hard-on. He scrolled through some of the data and emails from the Mageia covens in Earth Realm, but concentrating was a nightmare. The Mageia who kept him informed of demon-possessed sightings still showed the numbers were down drastically from last month. They weren’t to engage the demon-possessed, but to let the Guardians know where there were sightings. It was good that the numbers were down, but they all had a feeling that just meant Elizabeth was planning something big. A month ago the surge in hell beast and possessed attacks had placed the Guardians on near constant rotation. They all knew it had been a distraction, but they still didn’t know why. The reprieve was nice, but suspicious as shit.

  He ran his hands through his hair and snagged a new pack of peanut butter cookies from his flannel pocket. He ripped into the package, hoping the treat would settle his agitation.

  He hated leaving his mate with her sisters. The four were sharing a two-room suite, when he wanted his mate with him. His mind kept replaying the sight of her at the pool. He couldn’t get it out of his head. Shit. He’d tried spending time getting to know the sisters and lasted ten fucking minutes. Her scent and those images forced him to retreat like a damned pussy. He owed the she-wolves more than ten damned minutes. He’d have to make it up to them.

  At least he’d finally seen how Mia was with Jax. His brother was trading off with Bastian when he and Dacia stepped in the room. Shit, he’d felt for his poor little sister. He’d tried to explain what he thought was happening. The she-wolves weren’t used to being around powerful males. That alone was likely affecting her animal. Her beast would calm. At least he hoped it would.

  He took a deep breath, but Dacia’s scent was still in his lungs. He ran a hand down his face and put the remaining cookies back in his pocket. The image of her licking the juices off her fingers was burned into his mind, and the cookies suddenly lacked flavor. She was the fucking treat he wanted.

  All the jacking off in the world wouldn’t solve his problem. He was in for pure torture, and damn if that wasn’t making him grin like a sadist.

  “I’m guessing all is well with your mate, then?” Uri asked, his lips curving, silver eyes assessing.

  “Yep.”

  “When do we meet her?”

  “I’m trying not to overwhelm her too soon. Maybe tomorrow in small groups. She and her sisters don’t trust me for shit, and I’m still trying to figure some of it out.” All his brothers knew he’d found her and that she and the sisters were there.

  Dorian and Gregoire walked in a second later. Dorian was a Nereid and newly mated to Rain. All three brothers were mated pairs now. Gregoire’s Alyssa was pregnant, which shouldn’t have happened for a decade or so, but he’d managed to knock her up during or right after their mating. His chest itched to be marked as Dacia’s mate. It was a soul-deep desire, and Dacia was a gift that was precious to him. Enough that he was willing to wait for her to choose the time. That didn’t make it fucking easier, but he wouldn’t do what Dorian did with Rain. His brother had screwed up everything from the start, having his own issues to work through, and ended up taking Rain for the ride. Conn was lucky, though; Dorian had been forced to do the added ceremony to turn Rain Immortal. She’d been a Mageia, and Dorian had been forced to share her with an Aletheia to change that. The addition of Aletheia blood and semen was the only way to turn a Mageia. Conn thanked the Creators that Dacia was already Immortal.

  “What’s up, man? You good?” Dorian asked, curiosity in his bright azure eyes. He wore a green Aquaman tee shirt and worn ripped jeans. His blond hair was spiked high, the tips blue.

  “Yeah, all’s good. Any idea what this is?” He turned the laptop so they could look at the screen. He’d been having the other Guardians come in after shifts, and these three were the last hope of knowing what the hell the box held. “Cynthia’s men went back to her compound and fished it out about twelve hours ago.” They all leaned over and checked out the zoomed-in object.

  “The box itself isn’t familiar. I wonder if this has to do with the distractions. All the attacks that suddenly cut off,” Uri mused.

  Conn nodded, thinking the same thing.

  “No, not familiar to me either, but I don’t like it,” Dorian said, and Gregoire shook his head, the big Hippeus, half warhorse was not one for many words.

  “Any luck tracking them?” Gregoire asked.

  “No. Stolen plates. I’ve tried tracking the explosives, and they all led to dead ends too, locations and people no longer among the breathing. Cynthia’s good at hiding. We knew that.”

  Conn rocked back in the chair. They were at a standstill where Cynthia was concerned. Again. He looked at Uri; the male was the first Guardian to find his mate, and Alex had impressive intuitive power as the Demi-Goddess daughter of Athena. “Any hints from Alex. Knowings?” He doubted anything could be that simple. Alex didn’t get advanced warning, but she’d said the power had been becoming more frequent with her and Uri’s power melding. Something all mated pairs went through, but took about a year to solidify, and Uri and Alex had only been mated for months. Uri’d said he didn’t think the power’s surge in occurrences had to do with the mating so much as the cosmic shit going down that was causing so many mated pairs to find each other in such a short time. It used to be up to centuries between matings; now there were four Guardians in a matter of months along with others in the cities.

  They all knew something big was on the horizon, they just didn’t know what it was or when it would hit. It made them all edgy, and he wondered if it was part of the reason Gregoire was even more insane with Alyssa. He was p
ossessive a shit to begin with, and now that she was pregnant, he was even worse.

  He frowned thinking about adding a mate of his own to the mix, but he’d rather Dacia become as powerful as possible before shit rolled in. He didn’t have the ugly itch of impending doom, but something was coming, just hopefully not for years yet.

  Uri shook his head. “No knowings so far.”

  The biggest worry for them was Vane and Brianne, and Uri was double-fucked on that front. Vane was his mate’s brother, and Alex would be devastated if something happened to him, and the Guardians as a whole would lose their minds if Brianne didn’t make it.

  “Alex is with Erik checking on Vane and Brianne right now.” Uri paused. “You might ask if they’ve ever seen that box.” Conn nodded. Alex and her brothers, Vane and Erik, had hidden from the Guardians in Earth Realm, working as mercenaries. They’d also killed their fair share of demon-possessed during their centuries of eluding capture. “It could be something they’ve seen in their travels.”

  Whatever Cynthia had, Conn knew they needed to find it.

  “Nothing’s come through on the police warrant I planted in Cynthia’s name. I set alerts in there in case they pick her ass up.” Hacking was fun for him. It had been the same for Vane; he mentally shook his head thinking about the male. They’d actually been working well together before this shit happened with Brianne. He rolled his neck. There was nothing they could do while the two fought for their lives. Vane’s lion and Brianne’s bird of prey were even now trying to mutate in a mating that should never have happened. The hell serpent’s bite started something that Vane’s claiming was ending. No Immortal had ever been able to hold two beasts without losing themselves. They still didn’t know why Vane claimed her, what made him finish the blood exchange that started when she sucked the hell beast’s venom from Vane’s bite wound.

  Thoughts of Vane and Brianne lying unconscious set him on edge. He wanted to see his mate. Hear her voice instead of dealing with this shit, but he needed to do his damned job. At least the shitty thoughts brought his cock down.

  He turned the topic back to Cynthia. “The only thing I haven’t set up was a reward for information on Cynthia, and Drake wants that done next. It’ll be a pain in the ass and probably won’t pan out, but I’m out of ideas.”

  He ran his fingers through his hair and left his hands there.

  Uri spoke into the silence. They were all off, it seemed. “I promised Sirena that Alex and I would go check on some more of the kids, see if we can dull a little of the trauma from their memories. The older ones had it fucking worse. No affection and very little education, they’d never even seen the damned sun. Cyril’s devoted healer in charge just did what he was told, like the piece of shit he was. I’m so fucking happy that Cyril’s dead, but shit, I wish I could have helped kill him.” Uri’s silver eyes swirled with bloodlust. The Mageia children they’d freed from Cyril’s hidden breeding lab were not going to have an easy go of it. Some had distant relatives, but the mothers were long gone. Probably casualties of the mating experiments the motherfucker was running.

  Cyril experimented on the eggs he used in breeding them. Small tweaks, but enough that the children would be different than the other Mageia. The oldest were only ten years old. The sick fuck had secreted them away for over a decade before the bastard died, and Sirena wasn’t sure how he’d affected their lifespans with his additions. “Sirena said they might live thirty years with the spikes in abilities. She said it would drain their bodies. Cyril wouldn’t have given a shit about them living much past twenty.” Mageia and Immortal majority was twenty. That’s when things clicked in to allow for mating.

  They all sat in angry silence for a few minutes.

  “How’s your little wolf?” Gregoire asked, ending the quiet.

  “Feisty and smart,” Conn said with a proud grin. “How’s Alyssa?”

  “Pregnant and ready to cut off my balls,” Gregoire said with a frown as the other brothers chuckled.

  “Where is she?” Conn asked. Gregoire pretty much tied his mate to his side if he could.

  Gregoire growled at Dorian. “She said she needed girl time with Rain.”

  “Hey, don’t get on my ass. They were BFFs well before I was in the picture,” Dorian said and flipped Gregoire off.

  Conn itched to finish his work, get that damned reward up, but a thought hit him. “Would Rain and Alyssa help settle the she-wolves? I know Alex is busy, but Rain and Alyssa both grew up here. I want to ease them into life here. I’ll need to introduce them to the Lykos clans, but I’d rather wait until we have their brother before doing it. I thought I’d start with having them meet small groups of you first, and they might trust the females more.”

  “If I’m there,” Gregoire said as he leaned against the table.

  Conn assumed as much. Any unknown females around his mate would make the Hippeus edgy. “Yeah, I figured, just keep the damned growling to a minimum and don’t fucking snarl.”

  The big male shot a glare at Conn and then snarled at Dorian, and Conn didn’t have a clue why.

  “Fuck you. It was easier to ask Rain just to come talk to Conn,” Dorian said with a smartassed grin at Gregoire. “It’s not my problem your mate thinks I called them in here so you could get your hands on her.” So that was it. Dorian had called Rain through their mental link, and Gregoire was about to get a ration of shit because Alyssa wasn’t getting time with her friend. Conn chuckled, knowing Dorian could have easily asked the question through the link instead of calling both females in; he just wanted Gregoire to suffer. He looked over, and Uri’s lips were twitching.

  Alyssa and Rain walked in. They were nearly the same size. Both a few inches over five feet, with big-assed tits. Rain had shoulder-length blonde hair tipped with a bright purple. She smiled at Dorian and looked like she was trying not to laugh. It was easy to see why. Alyssa was fuming, her long chestnut hair was up in a high tail, and she was in tan short shorts and a pink tank top. She wasn’t showing yet. It was going to be a long sixteen months for her, and it had only just begun.

  “Five minutes?” she snapped. “That’s all I get before you find a way to attach me to your ass again?”

  Gregoire lifted his hands and gave a fierce scowl to Dorian. “Conn had a damned question,” he said on a growl at his tiny mate. When she got close enough he lifted her up with one big palm under her ass. He took her lips in a long hot kiss that left her beautiful face flushed and Conn gritting his teeth. He imagined taking Dacia’s lips, her virgin fucking lips, and leaving her wanting like Alyssa. Fuck.

  Conn heard her say on a husky whisper, “That’s not going to work forever.” Gregoire set her gently on the ground, and they could all see his eyes softening as he tucked her close to his side.

  Rain was snugged into Dorian’s as well. He couldn’t wait for that bond with his own mate. His beast snarled at him to claim her.

  Rain asked, “So what’s up?”

  “My mate and her sisters.”

  “You want us to talk to them?” Alyssa asked.

  “Yeah. I didn’t want to overwhelm them. They don’t trust me yet, and they don’t know anything about Tetartos.”

  Alyssa nodded. “We can come out tomorrow while Dorian and Gregoire are on patrol.”

  Gregoire snarled. “No. We’ll come when I get home.”

  Alyssa’s eyes flashed up at him.

  Rain spoke through the tension. “What else can we do?”

  “Right now they probably need a female to answer questions. Sirena’s dealing with Vane and Brianne and the kids. Sacha’s been busy too.” He paused. “Their lives just changed in a big fucking way, and they know there’s no going back. The females can’t find out that there’s a way through the Creators’ confinement spell of Tetartos.” That was secret information only mates and Guardians were allowed to know. He wasn’t stupid enough to believe his mate, who didn’t know or trust him, wouldn’t tell her sisters. “There’s still a lot they need to learn and see,
but anything you tell my mate, she’ll no doubt share with her sisters, so keep that in mind.”

  “Is there anything else we need to know?” Alyssa asked.

  “A day ago they weren’t even aware that other Immortals were living in Tetartos.” He paused. “Dacia said they didn’t know they were supposed to be exiled. Her parents escaped Apollo’s training camp as kids and ran. They had no idea what happened to the Gods and Immortals. Her parents were obviously a mated pair, but one of them was more. I’m betting one of her parents was descended from Apollo or maybe Hermes.” They all straightened up. “I need to see if Sirena can figure it out. They’re not full Demi-Gods, but they have abilities that other Lykos don’t. Dacia can do some mental mind-control shit. No way she’s full Lykos. Her power is strong. I’m not sure they know why that is; they wouldn’t have anything to compare it to.”

  Apollo hadn’t fathered many offspring, at least not that any of them were aware of. Two to be exact, which wasn’t common knowledge. They’d never come across any children from Hermes. Gods didn’t produce offspring easily. He’d never thought about it before. Hadn’t given a shit how Athena and Aphrodite ever had children. He’d have thought the Goddesses would have had the same difficulty finding appealingly powerful males that his sister Guardians had. Maybe his sisters’ problems stemmed purely from the animal DNA they held. Sirena had once explained that even the Immortal races without actual animal forms had a beast inside them.

  “Well, that adds another factor,” Uri said.

  “Yeah, I’m not sure how that will figure in when they meet the Lykos clans. If they end up being someone’s mate, it won’t matter. There may be some petty jealousy over power. Just in case, I want to give them some time before taking them to Thalassa.” He needed to let them meet others of their race, but he was feeling protective as shit, not just of his mate, but the other she-wolves were his now too. He’d let them get used to things at the manor, maybe a trip to the other cities. If the females didn’t find a mate, he’d keep them close. No one would use his new family against him.