Divine Ecstasy (The Guardians of the Realms Book 8) (4 page)

I get that you think that. But she will hate you for taking her choices. She was born a slave,
Pothos said. Shaking his head, he spoke the next words aloud. “Tread carefully, Father. It may take actual effort to win her. But at the very least give her a second to figure out what the hell is going on right now.”

He was Hades. Females flocked to him, begged for his touch. What made this different? They were all daft.

He flexed his wings. They were protective. That was what they were.

“Point made. Release me.”

He heard a chuckle to his left and saw Vane and his twin brother, Erik, Athena’s sons. Wonderful. More nephews. Vane was mated to one of his ex-warriors, Brianne, though the female was not at his side. He glared at Vane, who was grinning widely. It was a veritable family reunion, Hades thought drolly. Vane, light to his brother’s dark, was the one who spoke. “I never thought I’d see the day.”

Hades didn’t have time for any more of this and cocked a brow at Draken to make that point.

The dragon just shook his head as he crossed his arms and watched. The male’s long blond hair whipped in the wind still surging around them as Hades attempted to keep his temper under control.

When Vane spoke again, the words pricked at Hades’ barely leashed irritation. “I don’t even have to threaten or torment you, Hades. Brianne will literally pluck you like a fucking chicken if you fuck up with Sacha.” The amusement in the male’s bright blue eyes annoyed the fuck out of Hades. “I gotta say, I feel a little cheated. Sacha, Sirena and Brianne have been closer than sisters for years, so they’ll get first dibs when you fuck this up.”

Vane’s grin widened. “I kind of feel sorry for you.”

He felt his muscles contract, pulling against the invisible bonds holding him in place. Lucky for Vane. He knew the male was still ruffled because Hades had amused himself with making him jealous by flirting with Brianne.

He vaguely appreciated the concept of them banding together for their female warrior, but it was overkill and ridiculous not to want one of their own “mated” to him.

“I would never harm my female, so your fears are unwarranted. We’re done here,” he commanded.

At that moment Bastian and his female arrived. The Kairos, he knew from his son’s memories, was Sacha’s adopted son. Which would have made the male’s dark look endearing if Hades had not already been dealing with his own nephew’s issues.

The male stepped directly in front of Hades, and his tone was low and even as he issued his own warning. “Do not think you can continue as you have. If you think you can treat her as you do other females… don’t. It won’t go well for you. She deserves respect.”

Pothos’ voice slipped into Hades’ mind.
That means if you can’t keep your dick in your pants, you may as well walk away now. Don’t even try to win her, Father, if you can’t do that. She is one of three females we hold dear. We’re a damned family and that’s her son. Don’t fuck up, because it will end very badly if you hurt her,
his son sent through their telepathic link.

We… you and I, are family,
he reminded his son with a bite of reprimand. He wasn’t even listening to it anymore.

We are. And that is why I’m trying to help you see that your actions in this will have serious repercussions.

“Are you done?” he snapped as more power lifted from him. He glared at Draken. “You say I must let her choose, yet you keep me here so that she can’t.”

Draken nodded. “Wait until Sirena is finished talking to her.”

He growled in annoyance. The damned healer didn’t like him. And not one Guardian had left the wooded area. If anything, he was now faced with the majority of the bastards and their females as he crossed his arms and gritted his teeth in irritation.

He heard Jax snickering before the cat spoke. “So Bastian and P are going to be brothers? Damn, I feel cheated, I want to call Hades daddy.”

Hades sent a blast of power that slammed the cat into a tree. He was rewarded with the sound of the male’s harsh grunt before the snapping of wood. His lips curved when the tree fell with a ground-shaking thud. He cocked a brow at the male as he dusted off the wood chips with a growl.

Drake and Era were holding him there, but he was never truly powerless. And he was in no mood for more of their humor.

Chapter 3

Guardian Manor, Tetartos Realm

Sensation flooded through Sacha’s body in hot waves. Undiluted pleasure filled every cell to the point that her flesh ached with it. Even her skin was sensitive. The softest touch would probably make her come, but the desire kept flowing deep inside.

She lifted her lids to see an empty cavern room.

Alone.

But she hadn’t been. Power that wasn’t hers was licking over the walls, flowing inside her. There was also a faintly intoxicating scent in the room that she couldn’t place.

Dizziness hit as the warmth inside her seemed to move. Anger and frustration filled her as her body broke apart in a scattering of cells. She forced them to reform, breathing hard and gripping the soft bedding as if it would keep her grounded. Her heart rate spiked as she racked her mind for memories that were out of reach. She couldn’t focus enough to find answers as to why she was there. Why her powers were out of control.

Sirena
, she called out to her sister Guardian. The healer would know what was happening to her, even though she had a feeling what the answer might be.

Sacha slipped from the bed, and the caress of the soft material over her bare legs was its own torture. She was wet and confused. She knew she was below the Guardians’ manor, more specifically in one of the subterranean rooms with stone walls and a few soft lights filtering in from the hall beyond. These rooms had been set up for her and her brethren to refuel their energies below ground, where the Earth’s strength could replenish their own. A place to gain Immortal sustenance. And it was where they went to heal if they were injured.

I’m on my way,
Sirena said, and Sacha’s muscles relaxed. Good.

Her body started to break apart, and again she forced it back under control. Need. Emotions that weren’t her own and the unrelenting desire to port somewhere could only be pointing in one direction.

Her heart beat faster as she searched her mind. She gripped the edge of the bed when she found a bright and shining thread that hadn’t been there before. Sacha sucked in a ragged breath and stilled as she built a mental block to keep her own emotions and thoughts from seeping out to the unknown.

It seemed she somehow had a mate. She knew from the other Guardians that the first stages of a mating frenzy left your mind open and vulnerable, and she had no idea who was on the other side of that thread.

What the hell was going on? Why couldn’t she remember anything about a male, not one touch, not a face?

Her brethren had been falling to the mating frenzy one by one in the past months. Even her son, Sebastian, had found his other half in Tasha, but… her? She never imagined she’d be next, because in reality there were no truly compatible males for her to mate with. Immortal females were in a sense cursed to only mate or desire males more powerful than them. Sirena had once said it was likely a byproduct of the small amount of beast blood Apollo infused into the races with his twisted experiments all those millennia ago. As a Guardian, one of the most powerful beings left in the world, that left only her brethren as options, and those males were her family.

So, who? How?

She lifted her hands to push the long mass of dark hair away from her face and squared her shoulders.

“I’m here,” Sirena said as she rushed into the room with a smile that beamed with relief and joy. The blonde healer’s faelike features lit up as she spoke. “It’s so good that you’re finally awake.” Her sister Guardian gripped her hands, and Sacha felt warm healing power sliding through her body, assessing it.

“What happened?” Sacha asked and noticed Sirena’s intake of breath. What was her friend bracing for?

Sirena eyed her seriously for too long before speaking again. “There’s a lot you need to know.”

The urgency in her friend’s tone and mannerisms instantly put Sacha on guard. “Tell me.”

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

Before she could speak, images of a battle flickered in her mind. “I remember fighting kilt-wearing warriors with golden staffs outside a country house in Earth Realm. We’d found Apollo and were about to take him when the air charged and warriors came out of shimmering-looking air.” Apollo had been loose in the Realms because one of the Guardians’ now dead enemies, Elizabeth, had found and freed the God. She closed her eyes, trying to remember more.

She felt the beginning flicker of her cells trying to break apart again. Each time the heat boiling inside her ramped up even more.

“What are you feeling now?” Sirena was being too cagey.

“Like I’m mated. How?”

“Yes, I think you are. Do you feel a link?”

Sacha nodded. “I can see the connection. I just don’t know who it leads to.”

Her heart was racing. She’d always been able to lock down emotion, an engrained skill she’d lived with all the centuries of her life, but it felt like a dam had broken inside her and she was fast losing all the control she prized so highly.

“Drake intervened before he touched you,” Sirena said. “Or at least he thinks he did. Are you feeling the frenzy? Pain?”

She shook her head. “Desire. But no pain. What do you mean Drake intervened? What aren’t you telling me?”

“It’s going to be okay,” Sirena said, infusing her voice with Siren healing power. It both calmed and unnerved her all at the same time. If the healer felt the need to use her ability, it had to be bad. Was she mated to one of those unknown warriors who’d come through trying to take Apollo? She searched her memories, but they were still so fuzzy.

“Am I mated to one of the warriors?” she asked, holding her breath, hoping that wasn’t the case. She felt new power flowing in her veins, but she was disoriented, and her cells kept trying to break apart against her will. Not to mention the odd emotions floating inside her were all making it hard to form thoughts. “And why can’t I remember?”

The desire wasn’t getting any better as the time passed. But at least no pain. If you didn’t feed a mating frenzy with sex, it sent compulsive desire and sharp pangs of pain until you succumbed to the demands. Fate’s way of forcing a pair to complete all the bonds. Right now it was a dull ache making her nipples hard and body wet.

Sirena eyed her. “You were poisoned by a beast that came through the portal. You’ve been unconscious.” The healer softly added, “I’ll need to take blood to make sure it’s all gone now.”

She’d been poisoned? “Sirena, not telling me is only making this harder,” she pointed out before gritting out, “Who is my mate?”

Instead of answering outright, Sirena began pacing and continued. “I need to start at the beginning for it to make sense… Apollo was taken by the warriors you remember fighting. They left no clues behind and even their dead disappeared along with the portal they came through.”

Her heart stopped at the word “dead.” “Bastian?” Had something happened to her son? She’d instinctually checked his telepathic location when she’d awoken, hadn’t she? Her mind felt too hazy. She wasn’t sure if that had to do with the poison or the mating.

She saw it now. Bastian was close, near that other connection to her mate. So many other Guardians were also there. What the hell was going on? Bright lights flickered in her mind’s eye. They were in a grouping not far from her location.

“He’s fine. Everyone’s fine,” Sirena assured her.

As if her thoughts conjured him, Bastian spoke.
I’m on my way to you.

No.
She softened her tone before adding,
Don’t. I’m fine. Sirena is filling me in.
Awkward didn’t seem a strong enough word to describe the thought of having him here when her body felt so out of control. Her cells flickered again, and each time her power fluctuated trying to teleport to the unknown male, it sent a hint of anxiety and frustration through her. But she needed to give her son more of an answer so he wouldn’t worry.
I need to shake off the fatigue from being still so long. I’ll come to you soon, Sebastian.

He paused for a long moment. He knew who her mate was, she could feel it, and though she wanted information, she’d rather hear it from Sirena. When he spoke, she could sense his unease.
I’m happy you’re awake. I’m here for whatever you need.

His words were enough to make her heart ache. She felt the hint of love he sent through the mental link and shared some of her own.

She refocused on her friend, her sister. “I need answers, Sirena.”

“I know. I’m getting to them.” Sirena nodded, but her eyes were hard when she moved on. “Because the warriors took Apollo and we had
no
clues to finding him, Drake awakened Hades.”

Sacha’s entire being stilled. “What? Why? Now we have two Gods out of stasis?” She was aware that Hades had been known as one of the three good Gods, but he’d still been sent to sleep with the rest of the Deities. Hadn’t the Creators deemed all Gods too powerful to exist alongside humanity? That meant the Guardians now had one horrible God somewhere loose and another God they’d need to watch closely. She felt a dull ache behind her eyes.

Sirena nodded. “Hades has a sibling link to Apollo. Drake hopes to use it to find the bastard God.”

Brianne rushed in at that moment, a mass of fiery hair and attitude tempered with a bright excited smile in Sacha’s direction. “Oh, damn, am I happy to see you standing.”

Her sister pulled her into a tight but abbreviated hug, and Sacha relaxed a little while in Brianne’s warmth. Neither were known for displays of affection, so it was obvious to Sacha just how worried her sister had been. For centuries she and Brianne had partnered while patrolling the Realms, and just the sight of her eased Sacha. Partners had shifted around after the first matings started, but she was closest to the Geraki. Brianne’s race was half bird of prey. “It’s about time your ass woke up.”