Tempting Ecstasy (The Guardians of the Realms Book 4) (2 page)

Within minutes Kepe was coming hard, throbbing around him. Her screams filled the night air as her channel milked him. He tightened his hold in her silky hair as her hips bucked and finally subsided. His jaw muscles twitched along with his cock as he waited for her climax to ride out. He gave a few more wet pumps into the added slickness, enjoying the feel of it coating his shaft before pulling out. She made a small noise of protest that brought a tight grin to his lips. He still needed to come, but wanted more of her. He easily flipped her around so that she faced him. With a wicked grin he said, “My turn,” and nipped at her full bottom lip. Her emerald eyes glittered in the moonlight. They had a friendship of sorts, slaking their needs whenever they chose.

He pulled her lips up to his and delved his tongue in to play along hers, enjoying the heat and excitement rolling off her in waves. Her hands trailed down his muscled arms and chest, a feathery touch that ended on his hard length and her tight nipples pushing against his chest with each labored breath. He played his tongue over hers and plunged deep as he tugged her hair, knowing she liked a bite of pain. She moaned into his mouth, and he broke the kiss and grinned knowingly. “Suck your juices off my shaft.” He needed only light pressure to guide her head down, and she moaned again as her hot mouth closed around him. His stomach muscles clenched as she made good use of her talented lips and tongue. He used his power to lift her skirts back over her hips and knew the night air would caress her wet entrance.

“They can see your well-used folds swollen and glistening with cream. Shall I call one of them up here to make use of it?”

She moaned deep around him, and his head fell back loving the vibrations that ran his length.

“Or would you like me to flip you around and take your small back hole while I hold your legs splayed wide open for the first warrior that arrives? Offer them your hot passage while I’m buried all the way in the back.”

Her suckling grew frenzied. He’d need to make good on that particular enticement or she’d be angry. Neither had claims to the other, both enjoyed and needed just what they were taking. Immortals required release as much as they did the world’s energies to survive; it was their food, fuel. Something he hadn’t been taking care of.

His priority had been training Hades’ army. That, and dealing in a much more dangerous game. He couldn’t believe the arrogant God thought he’d win a battle with only himself and mostly mortal warriors against the legions his brother and sister Gods were amassing. There were only a handful of Immortals left that Apollo had not taken from them. Arrogant didn’t begin to describe it.

Hades counted on Conn to keep the ranks from falling, knowing that fear and worry defeated a warrior before a final blow was ever dealt, and that Conn had a particular skill at calming those around him. He’d trained them as well as he could, and kept them from seeing it was all futile if they truly went to war. He clenched his jaw and shook off those thoughts.

He focused back on Kepe as he pulsed in her warm mouth. “That’s it. If you please me well, I’ll make sure you’re stuffed full. Would you like to reward my warriors’ service by giving them all that heat and warmth to slide into?”

She sucked harder, and he chuckled at her exuberance. Oh, yes, he would give her a reward. A few more hard pulls and his seed jetted down her throat. He gripped her hair as she sucked down his release and licked gently at the underside of his shaft. Her breathing was erratic, her hips undulating in the air. The scent of her wet and wanting filled the space.

He knew the moment Hades stepped onto the balcony with them.

Kepe’s reward would have to wait unless the God decided to partake. It wouldn’t be out of character. Conn turned his head to Hades, who had about six inches on Conn’s six-foot-six-inch height. He was heavily muscled and wore only black silk pants, leaving his wide chest on display as usual. His unique midnight wings were retracted, and his bright otherworldly blue eyes sparked with interest as he watched Kepe cleaning off the last of Conn’s seed.

Of all the Gods, Hades was one of only three who hadn’t succumbed to the demented madness the others had. He may be arrogant and selfish, but he wasn’t evil. He likely thought he was warrior enough to best his siblings, but that was not a gamble Conn hoped they would be forced to make. A war was coming if something wasn’t done, soon.

“Have you seen Pothos?” Hades’ voice itself held power, and he nodded at Kepe to come to him. She moaned as she moved off the table and slid to her knees in front of the God. Conn decided how to answer; he was in a deadly game he didn’t enjoy, but knew was necessary.

“I saw him not long ago, down in the courtyard.”

Hades cocked a brow. He was a God, but not omnipotent; he wouldn’t know that Conn lied unless he acted guilty. Pothos was even now searching for the box that would call back the Creators to stop the Gods before they destroyed every last being in all four Realms. Hades and his sisters Athena and Aphrodite would not be able to hold off the others, no matter what they thought. The nine other Deities were amassing too much power with every breath of darkness they fed from. They were taking in the energies of death and sacrifice instead of the world’s earthly energies, and then falling to the madness that came with it. Already Ares and Artemis’ demon-spawn children had created mass destruction and death in the world, and Apollo and Hermes were working together, abducting and experimenting on Immortals to fill their own army.

They were running out of time. If they lost more warriors before Ares and Artemis attacked, they would all fall. They may have days. Or maybe years. Either way, he’d trained Hades’ legions with precision, and it still wouldn’t be enough.

Conn stood tall in the face of the God he’d served since taking his first breath. The Creators had formed the original Immortals to care for their children when they were forced to leave this world to propagate others. That had been long centuries ago. Before their children had grown and began abusing their power for their own amusements.

“Interesting,” Hades said, but there was a hint of anger under the surface. What had happened?

“How so?” Conn stood. His pose was relaxed, completely comfortable in his nudity, less so with the lies and intrigue he was forced to deal in.

“Pothos has not responded to my calls. Why would my son be avoiding me?” Hades was not at all happy, and Conn wondered why Pothos hadn’t at least answered his father’s mental call. He hoped nothing had happened on the Demi-God’s dangerous task. All would be lost if Pothos failed. After years of training, he kept his features relaxed, amused, his expression keeping the tension at a minimum when he wanted to clench his jaw tight instead.

“Would you like me to call the others and search for him?” Conn offered. He knew his part in their actions would likely be a death sentence whether the Creators came back or not. There would be massive loss of life when the call went out, if Pothos was even able to find the artifact. The Immortals would do what they had to in order to distract the Gods and get those they could out of harm’s way.

“Yes, it seems Apollo has abducted another of my warriors.”

Conn stilled.

“Brianne was just seen taken from outside the walls.” Hades eyes flashed.

Fear and dread slammed into him, hard, painfully. Banked fury filled the God’s otherworldly eyes as sickness and fury filled Conn’s gut. They’d taken Brianne, one of the last Immortals who’d originally served Hades with him. For centuries they’d been friends. She was smart, how in the Creators’ names had Apollo gotten to her. She trained the warriors by his side. He held his features in check. They were friends, and if the reports were true, she had just entered a world of torment and experimentation, followed by becoming nothing more than a breeder for Apollo’s army. It was a fate he wouldn’t wish on any female.

Kepe had gone still in front of Hades. She knew Brianne, but more, Kepe was one of the few Immortals to have escaped Apollo’s palace, decades ago. She’d come directly to Hades and served there for all the years since. She knew better than most what Brianne would be forced to do. Knew the horrors Apollo and Hermes would inflict on their friend. Kepe’s eyes shot to his, the hard glint clear; she expected him to save Brianne. He wasn’t sure he could, but he would sure as hell try. Apollo had locked down his island to the point where no Immortal had escaped in decades. Brianne wouldn’t get out without help.

Kepe nodded before turning back to Hades’ hard shaft. Her shoulders were tense, her arousal all but gone. Hades’ gaze softened as he looked down at her and stroked her cheek. The bastard had moments where he wasn’t all bad. The God’s gaze came back up and snared Conn. He wasn’t sure what Hades knew, but he felt an itch at the back of his neck that didn’t sit well.

“Go find my son.” Power filled the air, charged it.

Conn nodded sharply and then slipped on his clothes and weapons as he left the balcony. He needed to get word to Draken about Pothos not answering Hades’ calls, and hoped the other Demi-God would not find Pothos dead and the Realms’ only hope lost.

His muscles ached from keeping them locked down. He knew what he had to do. If Pothos was dead or failed in his task, he wouldn’t chance his sister warrior being lost forever to Apollo and Hermes. She wouldn’t appreciate his sacrifice, but he wasn’t staying outside when they had her. The experiments they would conduct on him would make him stronger, make him a beast. He took a deep breath of the sea air, of the freedom he was leaving. He would take the potion Pothos and Draken had come up with. Something that should at least give him the ability to contact them from the inside.

It was meant to be used when Pothos found the artifact and called the Creators back.

The mystery of how Apollo was compelling Immortals to leave the walls had been plaguing them all. He’d soon find out, and hopefully be able to convey those answers to Pothos and Draken, preventing any others from being taken and used to strengthen Apollo’s legions. There weren’t nearly enough Immortals left outside those walls.

He rolled his neck and made his final plans.

Chapter 1

Earth Realm

Conn had started every night for the past three weeks in the same place. An empty Victorian in the small town, it held less and less of her scent as time passed. He knew from information he’d dug up in the owner’s home that there would be a new tenant soon. She was moving there. Or he hoped he was right in that guess; his gut told him he was. It could have been that she was there for some other purpose, but he didn’t believe it, not after checking all the dead-end leads for the new female tenant. The only applicant he hadn’t been able to track down.

She still hadn’t come back, but she wasn’t set to move in quite yet.

He teleported to the only other place he’d found her scent when he’d started his hunt. His booted feet stood on the dirt and rock ledge where she’d had to have lingered in the foothills. At least long enough to hold a bit of her. She must have stood there or somewhere close when he’d first detected her scent. He relaxed his body and let the night air flow over him, pushing his longish hair out of his face. He let his fingers slide through so his palms rested behind his head, and stood, anticipating finding his mate. His lips curved. She’d be there soon enough, and he’d get his first look.

He’d never imagined being given a mate, and now claiming her was all that drove him, even with the stress that ate at him regarding his sister Guardian. He took a deep breath and relaxed his tense muscles as he moved his hands to sit on his hips. He’d spent a week cataloguing every inch of his surroundings from that area down to the town below. Now he only had to wait.

He wondered if she’d come up there for the view of her new home. Standing with his feet at the edge of the steep rock drop-off, he peered down miles to the right where the corner of Cynthia’s property was visible through the trees. It was there on that side of the traitorous Mageia’s property where the cock-wrenching scent of her had hit him. Only a hint, enough to know what she meant to him, and that she wasn’t close to the danger. It had taken every ounce of will to stay there and fight when all he’d wanted to do was go to her, the female he knew in that instant was fucking his. The fight against the Mageia, an evolved human with elemental ability, had been a fucking nightmare.

His wolf’s senses were strong. One of the strongest in the Immortal races, which meant that her sweet earthy scent was now imbedded inside him, making his beast agitated as fuck at the wait.

Losing the chance to track her that night might not have been quite so fucked up if he and his brothers had actually taken Cynthia down, but the Mageia had escaped for a second time. She’d screwed with their enhanced senses and blown the place up as she’d exited through hidden tunnels below. The smoke messed with their ability to track her as well. The Guardians’ enemy was smart, had given herself an escape route, and the time to put it to use. He stretched his neck and scented the cool night air again, smelling nothing but the forest and the small creatures that hid inside it. His muscles bunched. He could use a good run, needed to let his beast have a little freedom, since it wasn’t getting what it wanted tonight.

The rock edge made for an unobstructed view of lights peeking through the trees miles below. The fight had been at night. He wondered if she’d come up there to look down at the lights and smoking chimneys that he was seeing now. The town was filled with old Victorian homes on tree-lined streets with a small park in the center. He checked out every inch. It was quiet, family oriented. He went into the businesses and homes at night; he grinned thinking about how much he would have stuck out walking around the town in daylight. Not that it mattered, but his mate had been cautious in hiding herself; he wasn’t sure if she’d run if she knew he hunted her. His size would have been memorable even if he bothered to cover his tattooed arms and removed his eyebrow piercings. He grinned down at the lights. Fuck, he couldn’t wait.