Authors: Gabrielle Evans
“You sound very calm.”
“Failure is not an option, that’s all. I know I’ll win, because there is no other choice.” Onyx stared out over the horizon, watching as the sun slowly sank and then disappeared.
The other warriors gathered around them, along with Gage and Craze. The last two men had forbidden their mates from leaving the house, and with good reason. If Onyx thought he could get away with it, he would have Echo locked away as well. Not only would it be one hell of a fight to keep Echo inside, but Onyx knew he needed the man’s help.
“It’s time,” Hex said tightly. “You ready, man?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
He’d no more than spoken the words when the night erupted into total bedlam. Clucks, squawks, and fierce screeches rent through the air, echoing around them on the warm night breeze. Onyx spun in a circle in the field behind their house, looking in every direction, even searching the sky, but he found nothing.
The calls of the birds seemed to surround them, coming from everywhere at once. How many were there anyway? His heart kicked hard against his ribs, his stomach turned, and his sweat slicked his palms. Could he do this?
Just when he’d began to work himself into a good panic attack, the air began to whistle around them, and something shot past Onyx’s head, barely missing him. “Everyone down!”
Feathers shot toward them at alarming speeds, flying from the tree line like arrows. There were so many! Then Onyx heard the most horrible, gut-wrenching sound on earth.
Echo screamed.
He screamed as though he’d been ripped apart and boiled in acid. The scream went on forever, then tapered off into a gurgle just before Onyx heard a loud thump to his left. Whipping around, he found his mate slumped on his side, rivers of blood pouring from his body and at least a dozen of the feather-like arrows piercing his skin.
He started to crawl toward Echo, the blood draining from his face, and his chest constricting with fear and agony. “Echo. Echo, open your eyes, baby.”
Hex got to Echo first, turning him slowly to his back. “Go,” he said to Onyx. “I’ll take care of him. You have to stop this.” That’s when Onyx looked around the clearing and realized Echo wasn’t the only one shot.
Myst sprawled on his back with an arrow protruding from his chest. Syx groaned a few feet away, clutching at his shoulder.
“I don’t know what to do,” Onyx admitted. He needed Echo’s help. He couldn’t do this alone. “I can’t even see them, Hex.” In the legends of Hercules, the goddess Athena appeared to the hero and granted him castanets to scare the birds into flight. Onyx didn’t have anything like that, and he seriously doubted Athena was going to show up and help him out.
“Use your head,” Hex snapped. “Part the goddamn trees.”
“Hex, I can’t part all of these trees! Those fuckers are everywhere.”
“Then be prepared to die.”
With a frustrated growl, Onyx crawled away from his lovers and pushed to his feet. He pulled on all the strength he had, remembered everything Echo had taught him, and threw his arms wide. The trees in front of him whipped and thrashed violently, but only those.
It was a start, though. More loud cries rippled through the air, and a dozen crane-like birds took flight, scattering once they were airborne. Now what? He could see them, but he still didn’t know how to defeat them.
Three of the birds broke away from the flock, swinging in a wide, graceful arc, then diving straight toward Echo and Hex, their metal beaks snapping menacingly. Fear and rage warred inside Onyx, and with no other thought but keeping his men safe, he dove in front of them, lifting his arms and pulling a protective barrier around them.
Dirt rose up from the ground like a great tidal wave, wrapping over the top of them and concealing them inside its earthy domed cocoon.
“Impressive,” Vapre breathed.
Maybe, but Onyx wasn’t going to be able to win this battle alone. Already, he felt exhausted, and they’d barely even started. “I need you to hurl some arrows.”
A wicked grin spread across Vapre’s face, and he nodded quickly. “I can do that.”
“I’ll help gather feathers.” With that, Craze darted out of the mouth of the dome, right into the chaos beyond, Gage following without a word.
A minute later, the men returned, both clutching armfuls of the strange feather-arrows. “How are we going to do this?” Craze asked.
“I don’t have a bow, so you’re going to toss them, and I’m going to do my thing.” Vapre shoved at Craze’s shoulder, pushing him back out into the night. “It will be up to Onyx to scatter them.”
“I think you should know that the three that dive-bombed us had their beaks stuck in the dirt when Onyx threw up this wall.”
“What do you mean “had” their beaks stuck?” Onyx asked as he ducked out of the small opening in the dome.
Craze gave him a significant look, and Onyx understood that there were three less birds he’d need to worry about. Keeping low, he crept away from the group again, pushing his energy toward the trees where the loudest noise came from.
The sky erupted with the flapping of wings and the calls of the man-eating cranes. The Stymphalian birds were every bit as vicious as the legends said. Once they took to the air, they wasted no time, converging together and diving toward them. Arrows flew through the night as the wind whipped around them in a violent dance.
Birds fell from the sky one after another, dropping to the ground with a sickening crunch. Vapre couldn’t get them all, though. A few of the birds broke ranks, circling around and speeding toward them from the back.
Onyx whirled around, punching upward at the air, and a twenty-foot wall of earth rose up to barricade them from the attack. As before, the birds flew headlong into the dirt, their beaks becoming stuck in the thick soil. Instead of waiting for Craze to do his thing, Onyx twirled his wrists, manipulating the dirt so that it wrapped around the birds and suffocated them.
Then he moved on to the next set of trees, shaking the limbs and scaring the birds into the air. His power was draining though, his energy almost depleted. Arrows still flew through the air in all directions, some narrowly missing him, and some hitting their mark.
Onyx roared in pain and frustration as his thigh, shoulder, and right flank burned from the feathers, sending scorching pain through his entire body. He didn’t have time to dwell on it, though. He continued to shake the trees, and more birds continued to erupt from the forest.
They were overwhelmed, outnumbered, and losing.
A feather soared through the air, too fast for Onyx to see it in the dim light, and pierced him in the neck. He screamed like a fucking pussy, dropping to his knees as his stomach rolled with the pain of it.
No! He would not lie down and die for these bastard cranes.
The pain stole his concentration, though, and his power slipped away from him. The dome he’d constructed to protect his mates began to crumble. His men came stumbling out just before it collapsed completely, but now they were out in the open and unprotected.
“Everyone inside,” Onyx managed to get out through his gritted teeth. He gripped the arrow in his fist, took a deep breath, and jerked it from his neck. He screamed again, and blinding heat shot through his neck, making his head swim.
It hadn’t been a deep wound, but it still hurt like the seven shades of hell. Warm, coppery-smelling wetness flowed over his skin and down his throat to soak his shirt. Onyx ignored it.
The field was littered with dozens of the white and orange birds, all dead and bleeding. At least twenty more flapped above them, dive-bombing them, throwing their feathery arrows, and screeching like mad.
He remembered Vapre saying the birds’ dung was toxic, but that was just too gross and gruesome to even contemplate. He pushed the thought away and tried to concentrate on how to defeat them instead.
The birds circled together, tumbling over one another before forming a massive
V
in the sky. It looked as though they were banding together to make their last stand, and Onyx girded his proverbial loins to do the same. “Inside!” he shouted again.
The cranes circled once more, gaining altitude, then as one, they turn and dove toward the ground like one enormous bullet. They didn’t fly toward Onyx, though. They soared beyond him, calling out as their beady eyes locked on Echo. Why the hell was it always Echo?
Onyx let the rage fuel him, stoking his gift, building the energy inside him. As the birds neared his mate, Onyx gave a loud, primal cry, and pushed both palms upward.
The ground split wide open, creating a massive gorge in the middle of the field. The birds never stopped, never varied their course. With another push of his palms, Onyx sent soil gushing from the cracked ground, shooting straight into the air and engulfing the flock as they flew over the crevice.
The dirt hit them with enough force to knock several from the formation and send them flipping through the sky. A great gust of wind blew from the south, gathering up the birds and pushing them back together.
Onyx gave a mental sigh, and reminded himself to thank Vapre later. Then with the last bit of strength he possessed, he wrapped the soil around the birds, pulled them straight down into the earth, and closed the gap.
Everything just stopped. The silence seemed almost eerie as Onyx dropped to the ground and toppled over to his side.
He’d done it. He’d defeated his enemy, protected his men, and he figured he deserved a nice, long nap. Muffled footsteps raced toward him, but he couldn’t even lift his eyelids. Gods, he was just so tired. He’d apologize for scaring them later.
“Onyx?”
Only that voice could have pulled him from his exhausted state. With a great deal of effort, Onyx dragged his eyelids open and blinked wearily at Echo. “Hey, baby,” he breathed. “How are you?”
“I’m fine, love. Hex can heal anything, right?”
“Then get his ass over here. I feel like I’ve been rode hard and put up wet.”
Echo chuckled, his eyes shimmering with unshed tears. He bent slowly and pressed his lips to Onyx’s temple. “That part comes next, love.”
Chapter Fifteen
His skin flushed and tingled, his cock throbbed heavily, leaking pre-cum from the tip. His lips stretched wide around the thick cock sliding in and out of his mouth, while his ass swallowed up the hard length pounding in and out of his constricting passage.
Hands roamed his body, stroking him, petting him, tugging at his nipples, and driving him out of his mind. Lips kissed, teeth nipped, and tongues swirled over every part of him his men could reach.
A loud groan cut through his lusty haze, and scorching lava filled his channel as bitter seed washed over his tongue. Then both were removed from his willing and eager body to be replaced quickly by two more of his mates.
Echo was in heaven.
For a week after the new moon, he’d insisted Onyx take him to the playroom almost every day. Today was different, though. Today he needed all of his mates, and he needed them with an intensity that was almost painful.
The sun beat down on his skin, warming him, and slicking him with sweat from the heated rays. Hex thrust into his ass, gripping his hips in a bruising hold as he used Echo’s body to chase his own release.
The thin leather wrapped around his cock and balls held Echo’s orgasm as bay, but he was desperate to come. If they’d only give him permission, he’d explode like a fucking geyser.
His fingers dug into the blanket beneath him, clutching at the fabric like a lifeline as he relaxed his throat muscles and allowed Myst to take control and set the pace and tempo. The other warriors gathered around them, stroking their hard cocks and waiting their turn as they murmured deliciously naughty words to him that sent his head reeling and lightning sprinting up his spine.