Dianthe's Awakening (11 page)

It had been a very long time since I had been surprised. And this one was welcome. My chosen was more than a match for me. The secret fear I had held that she would not have been able to hold up to the eternity by my side began to slip away.

It would take years to bring her to the point where she understood enough to grasp the realities of our life, but I would be there for her through it when I could be. And when I was not, I would ensure her other mates and her companions were.

Looking down at her, seeing the tears that streamed down her face, broke my heart. So very young, Dia was an infant in our world, but so much had already been put upon her shoulders. How much more could she handle in a short amount of time?

She's strong, and we will make sure that she survives what is to come. There will be no doubt that she is a goddess when all is said and done.

The life that she had led in the mortal world was no more.

It was time to truly introduce myself to my young mate and welcome her to her new world.

"Dia, my heart. It is time to open your eyes and see me."

*****

Dia

It was all just too much. A girl can handle only so much before she crawls into a corner to die. I was done.

The memory of my dad calling me a whore and hitting me broke the small amount of strength I had left. I had buried it so deep it was almost as if it had never happened. Now that all the angry words and uncertainty came back... Well, I just didn't want to play this game anymore.

So I just let go and an explosion of colors swept me away.

It was peaceful...waves and waves of warmth and tranquility.

I wanted this... I wanted this peace and contentment. With each blissful wave, the feelings became stronger and I let it take me further away.

"Just let go, Dia girl," I whispered to myself and I drifted away.

I didn't know how long I floated before I felt the pressure of a palm upon my cheek. Ironically enough, it was in the same place my dad had struck me. As much as I really wanted to ignore the sensation, it began to pull me back.

From a very far distance, I heard a voice calling to me. It took a few minutes before the vocals sharpened into words I could understand. The cadence of a deep masculine voice that was so very familiar called my name once again.

"Dia, my heart. It is time to open your eyes and see me."

The only thing I could compare it to was waking from a dream. I had to force my eyes to open even though I didn’t want to. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought I would open my eyes and the past months would just be a very strange vivid dream. However, once I was able to pry my lids open the whole theory was out the window.

Cernunnos knelt in front of me, his hand cupping my cheek. This was not the male that I had been living with for what had to be several weeks now. This was the horned god.

He towered above me even on his knees. Great antlers stood proudly from his head and green, brown, and gold shimmering lights played along his skin making the flesh itself iridescent.

I fell into his eyes and began to drown in their decadence. In that moment, I totally understood how some animals were able to mesmerize their prey. I was glued tightly to that hypnotizing gaze.

It took what seemed to be eons before my will became strong enough to break from his hold. The flickering glow around us finally caught my attention. Green, red, and gold blazed in a magnificent aurora. The colors danced over our flesh in licking flames that never burned but caressed in heavenly warmth.

Beyond the flames stood the Hunt. Brónach and Caomhnóir stood closest, well knelt. She was on her knees with a deer in the headlights look going on. Caratâcos and Togodumnus were directly behind her. Each with a hand on her shoulders. They were in a protective position and looked ready to pull her behind them at the slightest movement.

My eyes narrowed. Oh yeah, we would be talking about
that
later. It seemed that my Sorrow had been holding out on me.

I was rudely pulled from my plotting by the mouth nuzzling my neck. Oh, God…it felt good.

My concentration broken, I turned back to the male kissing a path along my shoulder blade.

"What are you doing," I stammered.

He ignored me but for a soft chuckle against my skin. Without breaking contact, the contact his voice whispered to me.

"Open up, my heart. Open up those wonderful senses of yours and feel what is going on between us."

Cernunnos's hand slipped into mine and lifted it up so I could see the entwined fingers. Our auras danced and played, blending the rainbow of colors into a melody of light. The light show entranced me and I began to lose myself in the dancing flames of our light.

"Open, Dianthe," his voice whispered into my mind even as he nipped the indention between shoulder and neck.

My eyes widened with the sudden sensation and with a gasp, a whole new world opened before us.

We were the flames. They didn't surround us—they were born of us. Our bodies wove and danced together, barely corporal in form.

'What is happening
,' I thought.

Cernunnos answered my thought with his own.

'We are merging, two becoming one. Our very beings are joining into one whole, just as our physical bodies soon will.'

I was still barely aware enough to feel shock at that. The fleeting thought of public sex trilled through me but disappeared when Cernunnos nipped my tendon before rising up and taking my mouth in an all-consuming kiss.

Then what little reason I had fled.

We could have been in front of Buckingham Palace at the changing of the guards and I would not have even noticed.

His deep chuckle filled me internally even as he devoured me.

"I do not think the queen would appreciate that as much as some."

The meanings of those words were beyond me, all bar the sensation of his mouth on mine and his wandering hands. Damn, the man had talent.

Somehow, we were reduced to our natural skin and the ground below us had gone from the hard packed earth of the training field to soft caressing moss.

My head fell back when he left my lips and worked his way down to my breast. The girls were definitely appreciative of his attention and stood at the ready.

He unerringly zeroed onto my right breast, which was by far the more sensitive one. How did men know these things?

With a growl he latched on to the puckered tip of my nipple, sucking hard before he drew back letting his teeth graze over the pebbled peek.

My legs were already spread wide as he leaned over me, his hips resting in the vee of my thighs.

One hand cupped the right breast and massaged, as he bent his head back with a moan and began nursing at my breast.

Ohhh hell, that felt better than good. My eyes rolled back into the back of my head and my head fell back since I was too busy arching my chest up into his mouth. I needed more.

Before, I could connect the sensations my body spasmed. "Oh God," I screamed.

I could not even comprehend the sensations ricocheting through my body. I was in the grip of a major orgasm with only his mouth to set me off.

The cheeky bastard had the audacity to laugh at me, breaking away from my nipple to grin.

"You called, my heart?"

He grinned at me unabashedly before slipping a hand between my thighs.

"Did you need more? I'm sure that's what you said..." he trailed off and slipped one, long, perfect finger into the heat of my core.

"Easy, love," he murmured when I instinctively arched into his touch.

One large hand lowered to my stomach and held me immobile while he moved further down my body to watch his slow torture of me.

"You are so exquisitely perfect, Dianthe. For months now, I have watched you. Even as you first charmed my hound, you intrigued me. I have never wanted more than simple pleasure and the duty of my Hunt until I met you."

A second finger had joined the first and he worked them in and out, thrusting deeper and upward against that perfect spot. I did not even try to hide the moans coming from me as he fucked me with his fingers, all the while telling me how we had come to this.

"It was the day in the grotto that I knew. I had suspected before then, but that day you made me yours. I understood you were still more human than not and still unready to take the next step.

"You had to let go of that last tether holding you, and today you did," he smiled triumphantly. "Do you know what that means, my heart?"

"What," I nearly cried from the overwhelming pleasure he was causing, Desperate for him to continue to give me more still.

"It means, Dianthe, that today you become mine. That your very being has joined with mine and eternally we are bound. In body and soul," he growled roughly, pulling his fingers from me and coming abruptly to his knees.

With ease, he lifted my hips and spread me wider while at the same time pulling me onto his lap.

"Tell me, Dianthe," he commanded. "Tell me that you are mine and I am yours. Swear to me your heart and soul and finish the binding between us."

"The others," I managed, holding back the words that were screaming within me to be released.

"Are part and parcel of our bond. They are as much part of you as I am." His words released something inside of me and I screamed.

"Yes, God, yes! I'm yours, Cernunnos. I bind you to me and me to you. Forever and a day until the sun shall rise no more!"

The last was a sob and a plea. However, it was drowned out with his roar as he threw his head back and bellowed to the heavens in the voice of the god he was.

"I accept your bond. I am yours and you are mine. We are bound forever and a day until the sun shall rise no more and the very stars fall from the heaven." He finished his proclamation by spearing into me.

"Witnessed," a multitude of voices rang out.

He gave no time to look for the speaker. He sank so deep I thought he would bottom out and keep on going. The pain was perfect though, so fucking good and real.

He began thrusting into me and I came. Over and over, I came until I thought I would die. In desperation, I grasped his horns, working them as I would his cock.

His measured thrusts became erratic and even harder.

"You are treading on dangerous ground, my heart," he purred.

I smirked up at him, "Bring it, deer boy,"

"With pleasure, my heart. Just remember, you asked for it."

Cernunnos pulled out and flipped me onto all fours. Once more, he dove back in, pounding into me with a focused determination.

One hand grasping my hip as he bent over me to whisper in my ear.

"Look around you, Dianthe. See what we have wrought."

Eyes glazed, I looked beyond our flames to see the Hunt before us.

All around us coupling took place. Some in twos and threes while others were just piled in a mesh of bodies that any seventies porn would have been proud of.

In that moment, it felt natural. This was how it should be outside of human nature.

My friends were there before me taking their pleasure from ours.

Our sexual energies bled into them and spilled over into the expressions of passions I was witnessing.

My gaze took in Brónach sandwiched between two brothers. Oh, there was definitely going to be words later. You just did not hold out on a bestie those kind of details.

Cernunnos laughed. "She can share her secrets with you later; right now we have more pressing matters to attend." His hips twisted and rotated deeper into me. Brónach and her lovers faded from my mind and I fell into the passion of my newest mate.

"Last," he gasped. "Last mate."

"Yeah, last mate," I moaned and came hard as with one last intense thrust Cernunnos filled me with his seed.

"Four is a good round number," I sighed.

"Five is even better," he whispered. "Count yourself, my love, for you are the center of our hearts. Without you, they would cease to exist.”

"Five then," I sighed.

'Five
,' Cernunnos thoughts reached me as he put a hand on my stomach, '
For now.'
Then I fell asleep.

Chapter Eleven

Bean, Kent…

Robin

The oak chair shattering against the wall was loud in the silence. A large dent in the plaster and falling bits of now kindling was all that remained of what had once been an antique piece of furnishing.

The enraged howl that followed was all down to my wolf.

"It's been a gods-be-damned week, Puck! Where in the hell is she?" Kale turned on me, madness playing behind his feral gaze.

I wanted to howl with him, but knew if I broke we would all be lost. Daniel hung his head in the corner looking as if the weight of the world was upon his shoulders, and he was failing under the pressure.

My mates were falling apart and if we did not find our Dianthe soon, then perhaps it would be better if she stayed in Fae. There would be nothing for her to come back to.

"You said you could find her, faery. Where is she," Kale sobbed and fell to his knees.

He tore at his hair as he bent over in pain. The withdrawal was crippling and it was affecting all of us.

Most do not understand the bond between true mates. Once mated, they could not be separated for long periods of times.

Physically, it was possible, but they needed the emotional and psychic connection or they began to weaken and wither until they delved into madness and either lay down to die or went feral. Then it was up to the pack to put them down mercifully and quickly. No shifter had ever survived the loss of a true mate.

The fact Kale could not touch Dianthe was trebled by the effect of her being with the Hunt. He could not sense her other than knowing she was alive. It was only by the mother's grace that we had mated in Fae or we would have lost him by now.

Our bond was all that held him in place. Yet, each day I could see his wolf becoming more dominate. It would not be but a few more weeks at most before we completely lost him to the wolf.