Breathing Her Air (4 page)

“We should all pray to the goddess that you are right,” Bram stated quietly.

No one said anything for a long moment until finally Tanner broke in. “And what of the Guardians? Any ideas of what we should prepare for? Of where the next few days will even lead us?”

“No,” both Bram and Finn answered at once and all three brothers broke the tension with a laugh.

“There is no preparing for this. We can only watch and wait and jump in if and when we are required to.” Bram’s voice was quiet but filled with a resolve to do what their mother had prepared them for.

“And if one should die,” Finn murmured and they all looked at one another. “Are either of you prepared to die for a Guardian?”

“I don’t know,” Bram said quietly. “I just don’t know.”

And it was Tanner who looked both of his brothers in the eyes and said with no hesitation, “I would protect them with my last breath.
For my people, for my island.
Yes, I would die for them.”

And that, Bram thought, was why when the time came it should be Tanner who held the title of prince, no matter the order of birth.

Chapter Four

Alea
was content to lie between the hard, warm bodies of her lovers and soon-to-be mates. They had passed the eve exploring one another until she felt they knew her body better than she did. And she hoped to be just as familiar with theirs eventually. Drew was still in front of her though he had turned onto his back at some point in the night. She was lying with one leg bent over the top of his thigh, her head pillowed on his chest.
Sorran
was behind her, one big hand curled over her resting on her breast, and just knowing that it was there made the nipple pebble and push against that warm palm.

“Hmmm…”
Sorran
moaned in her ear. “This is the way that I should awaken every morning for the rest of our lives.” He nibbled kisses along her shoulder and neck and she turned her face to look into his grey eyes.

“Morning,” she spoke softly, still a little shy though she had no idea why.
Sorran
kissed her, a soft exploration as if he were rediscovering her.

His hand squeezed and plumped her breast, plucking the nipple between his thumb and forefinger. She tried to turn over and face him but his hands held her in place, allowing her to feel the hard ridge of his erection firmly against her buttocks. His lips claimed hers again, leaving her breathless and wanting.
Everything and more.

There was a rustle in front of her and then she felt Drew’s warm breath across the tops of her thighs. He slipped his tongue over her nether lips, teasing at her flesh without really giving her what she suddenly wanted so desperately. She moaned and tried to open her thighs to allow him fuller access but she was hampered by
Sorran’s
firm hand on her hip and by Drew’s hands on her thighs. It seemed that they planned to tease her a bit this morning.

Drew licked and sucked at her, never quite getting the nub that pulsed and throbbed with desire, but coming close several times. His tongue slicked over it once and she almost came, would have had he stayed there just a moment longer. But he seemed to know that and moved to suck and lick at her plump nether lips. She could feel how wet she was, how swollen the folds of her pussy were.
Sorran
caressed her hip with one hand while continuing to play with her nipple and breast with the other.
And his kiss.
His kiss was pure bliss.

Drew finally nudged her thighs apart and
Sorran
helped him by catching her knee in the bend of his elbow and holding her wide. Drew spread her lips with his fingers, gathering her spilling juices and coating her in them. Several times he dipped his fingers inside her and then moved them back to her anus, painting the small opening with her own fluid. He lifted his head to
Sorran
and said something about fire oil and then he dived back to her pussy.

His tongue breached her
opening,
plundering and fucking her while she bucked toward his face. He strummed her clit now with his thumb, just a gentle brush back and forth and then in a circular motion around it. She was so close to the sweetest release when she felt his tongue replaced by a finger and then two. Firm strokes in and out had her shouting with ecstasy as waves of sheer pleasure coursed through her. His tongue was there again licking softly as she came and his fingers were once again at her anus.

Her thigh was dropped and then she was turned slightly so that she lay partway on her belly. Her buttocks were spread and she felt the slow trickle of something oily being rubbed into her anus and then the invasion of a finger that pushed deeper and higher inside her. A burn began but not the kind of burn that one associated with pain. No this burn was all about hunger and need and suddenly she was thrusting back onto that finger and wanting more.

“What…what…” she tried to breathe the question out but the hunger was too strong, too heavy inside her now.

“It is called fire oil,
Alea
,” Drew answered her and somehow she knew that it was his finger exploring her flesh back there. “It is
an oil
that will work with your body, making you writhe and burn for one of your warriors to take you.
Right here.”
He thrust his fingers deeper inside her ass and gave them a slow turn before pulling them back out.

“Yes,” she cried. Yes to wanting him there. Yes to them being her warriors. Yes to anything that would ease the burning ache building hotter and higher inside her.

Sorran
lay beside her and once again she was maneuvered to the position they wanted. This time she was lifted until she sat astride
Sorran
. He grasped his cock with one hand and held it steady while Drew helped her straddle him and slide her body over it, taking
Sorran
into her pussy. She kept sliding down his length until she could feel him flush against her, his balls a tight, hot weight against her buttocks. And that only made the burn hotter while doing nothing to satisfy the aches building in her.

“Please,” she cried out, her eyes pleading with
Sorran
as she bucked against the firm hold on her hips, wanting to slide her body up and down his shaft.

“Soon, little warrior,” he crooned to her and gently eased her forward until she lay on top of him and he could take her mouth with his. His kiss was anything but gentle. He invaded her mouth, consumed and took but gave her everything of himself as well. It was a kiss of lovers, of mates. It was fire that added to the burn already building inside her.

Drew moved into place behind her and she felt
Sorran
shift his legs and then Drew’s knees were planted just behind hers and she knew that he straddled
Sorran
as well. Her buttocks were spread wide again and one finger became two as Drew rubbed her flesh, building the fire higher and higher. She screamed and bucked, wanting, needing more.

“Now,” she demanded, the pleading gone from her voice, replaced with the voice of the newly awakened woman she was. “Give it to me now.”

Husky chuckles met her ears and finally she felt the first push of Drew’s swollen cock head against her anus. He leaned into her and nipped her flesh, driving his cock against the tight ring of muscle just inside.

“Take me,” he commanded. “Relax, little warrior, and let me in.”

“Yes,” she gritted out between her teeth and pressed back into him, aiding his entry. They all cried out as Drew thrust deeper, rubbing against
Sorran’s
shaft as it rested snugly inside her pussy. One more thrust and he was fully embedded.
Alea
felt heavy tension,
a fullness
to the point of bursting. But it wasn’t enough. She needed more, needed everything that they could give her to take her back to that euphoric sensation that only came with the explosive orgasms they gave her.

For a moment, one moment that seemed like an eternity, no one moved. It was just the three of them, lost in a treasure of unparalleled delight. No one moved. It felt as if no one even tried to breathe so loathe were any of them to lose the intimacy they now shared.
Until finally none of them could stand the stillness.
First it was Drew who did a slow withdrawal while
Sorran
thrust deeper. Then they reversed and it was Drew pumping into her ass while
Sorran
pulled back from the snug clasp of her pussy. Back and forth they went while she tried to stay sane between them.

Harder and faster the rhythm grew until it seemed they both filled her as one and retreated as one. Harder and faster they stroked her flesh, building the flames higher and higher until she was afraid that her very skin would catch and burn.
Sorran
latched onto a nipple while Drew pulled her up against him and nipped and sucked at her neck and shoulder. Both of her mates bit down at the same time, just a sharp nip of teeth against flesh.
Neither one hard enough to break the skin, but just enough to send her tumbling into one orgasm after another.
They coursed through her, leaving her arms and legs trembling, her head heavy on her shoulders.

First Drew cried out and she felt the wash of his seed as it spurted again and again into her ass. Then it was
Sorran
who filled her, his fiery heat pulsing into her as he found his own release. They collapsed together though her men managed to turn them so that once again she was sheltered between them.
Sorran
was no longer inside her but Drew had somehow managed to keep his softening shaft just in her anus. She had never felt so relaxed in her life, not even after the previous night of loving they had shared.

Sorran’s
mouth nudged closer to hers but this time he didn’t try to kiss her.

“What are you doing?” she queried though she enjoyed the fan of his breath against hers.

“Breathing your air, little warrior.
Just breathing your air.”

* * * * *

“For me?
For me!”
Asme
could barely force the obscene words past her lips. “What could have ever made you think that I would wish for the death of one of my mates?”

Still he didn’t turn to her. Still he kept his back to her as if the shame were too great. And it should be. His shame should rival her anger.

“Answer me, damn you!” she demanded of him. “Why did you kill Micah, Prince of the Isle of Altair, our mate…your brother?”

Godar
finally turned and his eyes were so bright with hatred that
Asme
found herself stumbling back. But what shocked her even more was when she realized she was no longer hearing his voice in her head but with her ears.

“For you.
For us.”
His face was that of a stranger.

“You lie. You murder and seek to share lies with me. You speak when before you couldn’t?” She
sneered
the question at him. “Why the sudden change,
Godar
? Were the lies and deceptions worth where we now are?”

“Yes,” he cried. “My entire life has been spent in the shadow of Micah. Never good enough, never smart enough, never enough of a man when compared to my sainted brother. No one looked past him to see me.
No one.”

“I did. I looked into you and loved you. I did.”

“Did?” He took a step toward her and she backed away for every step he took. “Can you change your mind so quickly? Can you have ever really loved me if you push me aside so easily?”

“Push you aside easily?
Nay,
Godar
.
There is nothing easy about the blood you carry on your hands. You took what we had. You took it and threw it away for what? What do you think Micah’s death will obtain you?”
Asme
shook her head in disgust and found herself wondering if she had ever really known
Godar
at all. Had anyone?

“I get my voice back. After all these years of silence, I have a voice.”

“You always have had with me,” she spoke the words quietly.

“Do you know how I lost my voice,
Asme
? Do you know why I was condemned to walk in silence?” The burning hatred was brighter than ever before in his eyes.

She shook her head and stopped backing up, standing her ground and forcing him to come to a stop directly in front of her.

“My mother chose him.” Now there was
a sadness
there and a hurt that she didn’t understand. “I was the firstborn son. I was the first to make my way from her womb but still she looked at him and loved him more.”

“What? What lies do you speak now?” She had no idea what he was talking about. None of it made sense.

“She put a spell on me. One she knew would keep me from assuming my rightful place as heir. And in the process she handed everything to Micah.
Her chosen son.”

“You make no sense,
Godar
,” she shook her head at him but he was lost to her now, lost somewhere in a past she found hard to believe.

“His first wife was
Anje
. She was beautiful. Long blonde hair and the most gorgeous blue eyes you have ever seen. She was perfection and I loved her.” He looked at
Asme
and shook his head. “Like you, I loved her first and still it was him she turned to, him she married.
His children that grew and were born of her womb.”

“Oh no.”
Asme
was horrified at the course her thoughts were taking. “What did you do,
Godar
? Tell me you didn’t kill all those innocent women and children.”

He was cold and the last bit of the man she had fallen in love with disappeared to be replaced completely by the stranger before her, a stranger who was so consumed with hatred that he was blinded by it.
Insane with it.
And she wondered when it had happened and how he had managed to hide it so well.

“It was a lesson that Micah had to be taught. It was my job as his brother to see that he learned the lesson of loss and humility. But I failed,” there was disgust again. “I wanted to bring the great prince to his knees, to break him the way I felt broken. He should have fallen when they died. He should have died then.”

“And the mates and children of the other warriors?
What of those innocents?” She was horrified and her hand crept down to the waistband of her skirt.

“They were necessary sacrifices. There are casualties in every war, my love. You of all people must know that.” He smiled at her and ran his fingers in a brush of knuckles along her cheek. It was all she could do not to shrug his touch away. What once had set her pulse racing with desire now made her shudder in
disgust.
“We came here. I found a book in one of the homes when we first arrived here that told of the history and the Goddess of Altair. I told Micah through our connection of how he must storm the temple and seize control.”

“You knew,”
Asme
gasped. “You knew the curse that would be placed on us. You knew that the Goddess of Altair would withdraw her protection and leave us open to this war.”