Chapter 29
Guardian Manor, Tetartos Realm
Sirena met with Drake and Era outside the hallway to Alyssa and Gregoire’s new room. “They’re all fine, but we are now missing another chunk out of the manor. We’ll be lucky to have any rooms left by the time the baby comes.” And she was very worried about it.
Smoke filtered from the dragon’s lips. “When is the baby due?”
Alyssa’s stomach had gone from flat to round in no time. Sirena felt her hands shaking when she answered, “Weeks. Maybe sooner if the little one surges in power again.”
He shook his head, and she could feel the tension radiating from the dragon. “And you’re certain this is not harming either baby or mother?”
“They’re healthy, but that baby is incredibly powerful. Scarily so.”
“I thought maybe the babe was getting more agitated because of the activity with Thule, but it could be the Tria,” Era said. Her beautiful face was framed by black cherry hair, and Sirena could almost feel the power she was sending to calm her mate. Era was wearing a dark tank top showing the dragon marking on the female’s bare shoulder. It moved and seemed to settle after a moment, the tattoo was a unique and entrancing manifestation of her bond with Drake’s beast.
Sirena took her eyes off the other female’s skin and answered, “This time it felt linked to the Tria for sure. What are they doing?” Frustration welled.
Drake shook his head. “I don’t know. But I will figure it out.”
“How?”
“I don’t know yet.” Drake growled, frustrated. But she could feel his determination to find out. Era’s golden eyes went stormy and a hint of her dragon smoke filtered from her lips. She was incredibly protective of her male. It was one of the things Sirena loved about the once feral female. She also appreciated how Era was thriving as a new healer, her eyes brightening whenever she was able to help use her deadly power for something good.
It was hard for Sirena to accept assistance because she’d always been so bent on taking care of everything herself, but right now the stress of Alyssa’s baby and the fact that she was hiding something from her family was turning her inside out. “Alyssa and Gregoire would probably be grateful if you checked on her, Era.” Sirena caught the way the female’s eyes shone, and it both warmed her and made her feel out of sorts. Healing was her life. She shook it off. “Would you mind watching over things for a couple of hours while I grab some sleep?”
“I would be happy to,” Era said with a beautiful smile that made Drake’s features smooth as he gazed down at her.
“Call if you need me sooner,” Sirena said as she headed down the long hallway to the suite of rooms she’d taken to be close in case Alyssa needed her. She was lost in her own world the second the door clicked shut behind her. Her head fell back against it, and she felt numb, hollow. She’d never thought to find a mate, Immortal females didn’t generally mate a male less powerful than themselves, and that meant there were no compatible males in Earth. All the powerful males were related to her. The second she’d felt Hroarr’s power, she’d been paralyzed with the knowledge of what he was to her. He hadn’t touched her, so they were free, but the memory of his power licking at her skin, filling her senses, had ruined her. She hadn’t even seen the male; all she’d known was the sensations wrought by wild tendrils of his ability and that deep seductive voice, a voice that caused shivers of desire to run through her body even now. It was one thing to know she’d never find a mate; it was an entirely different matter to know that her mate was some autocratic, asshole warlord God of another world. She would never leave her duties, her world, or her family.
She couldn’t. She banged her head against the wood.
Slipping out of her high heels, she took a deep breath and started removing her clothes. That done, she tugged the tie from her hair while mentally turning on the shower. The warm water was just what she needed to relax her tight muscles.
After washing, she stayed under the spray until she felt her skin wrinkle. Sleep was a necessity, a deep sleep that wasn’t invaded by imagining dirty words growled in a deep, seductive voice.
When she opened the shower door, she jolted at the sight of Gefn’s cats staring back at her and barely contained her power before stopping their hearts. She’d heard they’d teleported to Vane, but they had to stop doing this or someone would harm them. She shook her head as they purred at her. “What are you two doing? I’m happy to see you’re feeling better.” When she stepped out to reach for a towel, she felt herself breaking apart.
She was shocked and then panicked when she couldn’t stop herself from teleporting away, and in moments she knew exactly where they were taking her and fought against it hard, to no avail.
She reformed in a dark bathing room filled with steam and an intoxicating masculine scent she shouldn’t know. Without looking, she knew the cats had gone, leaving her at the shadowed end of a small pool. She sucked in a breath at the sight of the massive male standing in profile under the spray of an open shower a couple dozen feet away. His black hair clung to muscled shoulders; a strand slid lovingly over his bearded cheek.
Sirena nearly moaned aloud at the sight of what he was doing to himself. One heavily muscled arm was braced against the wall as a tanned hand worked a massive cock. Harsh grunts issued from his lips as he violently thrust into his own palm. Every heavy muscle lining his body strained in the God’s quest for completion.
She braced her back and hands against the wall, unable to move or to take her eyes from him as she fought the need to touch herself. His scent was drugging her. She could see the line of his jaw as it clenched under the short beard.
Her nipples were tight peaks as the steam caressed her overheated flesh, yet she was incapable of doing anything as she grew wetter with each animalistic noise that issued from him, clenching the lines of his stomach, his ass down to his thick thighs. He was made for a female’s eyes. Every line, every dip, including the one that angled from his hip, directed her to that long, thick cock.
His bicep bunched with each hard pull against his flesh as he moved faster until finally throwing his head back on a harsh roar. She was completely mesmerized as his cock jetted streams of hot come against the wall; she’d never seen anything like it. Suddenly, he stilled. She hadn’t realized she’d been holding her breath until his head snapped in her direction and she was captured in the emerald gaze of the most ruggedly gorgeous male she’d ever seen. Warrior God.
He stalked from the water, growling a demand. “Who. Are. You?”
And then it was as if he were an animal scenting the air; his massive, muscled chest expanded. “Healer?” His tone changed from angry to that of a primal male as his hand moved back to his already re-hardening cock. “Have you come for payment?” Those emerald eyes flashed with so much blatant heat she nearly dropped to her knees.
But the sexual implication of what he’d said hit her like an anvil. If he touched her, it was over.
She teleported, but instead of going to Tetartos, she reformed back in his bathing room with a curse. He narrowed his eyes at her. His massive cock was getting heavier with every second that passed, and her traitorous eyes wouldn’t stop staring at it.
The God growled, “What game is this?” He moved so fast she didn’t see him. His arms caged her against the wall; he towered over her. She could feel his warmth, and the compulsion to touch was almost uncontrollable.
Someone hammered at the door before it was thrown open and his massive back was in front of her, shielding her. “Get out, Dagur.”
She only heard the other male say, “It’s urgent,” before she found the will to move. She broke apart and reformed in the room where she’d healed the cats. It was empty of all but the two infuriating beasts.
She stared them down, her voice shaking. “You owe me. Take me home now, or I call Gefn and Pothos to get me.” It was the last thing she wanted to do. If Pothos or the others found out her secret, it was all over. They would be the ones telling her that there was no outrunning fate.
She heard bellowing in the hallway. And was closing her eyes, getting ready to call for P when she was porting again. If the beasts took her back to Hroarr, she would have their fur for rugs.
When she touched down in her bathroom, she grabbed a towel, and one beast purred for her like they hadn’t just nearly destroyed her life. “Don’t think I will forget this,” she snapped, pointing at them, and then they were gone.
There was no sleep in her future. She’d have to be on constant guard against matchmaking cats and now potentially marauding warrior Gods.
Her skin ached with need, and she was shaking with how close she’d come to the mating frenzy. That male was a force far beyond the males she was used to dealing with. There was no give, no compromise in him. He was not someone to be mated to. She groaned and collapsed in the chair by her bed, aching with desire she’d never be able to fulfill on her own. His scent was in her lungs, and she couldn’t take a breath without having him inside her.
And now he knew who she was.