Own Her (10 page)

Moving
toward the cliff, she made sure to keep a safe distance still, but looked over
the edge. A grand ocean of flames and lava was a hundred feet below, the
bubbling and popping of the creatures moving beneath it evident even from her
height. Lifting her gaze she stared at the sharp and jagged black mountains
that were in the distance beside them, and on the other side of the fiery ocean
was the forest of flames the brothers had talked about. She didn’t recall each
name of these parts of their world, but it was all very fantastical.

“Ready,
mate?”
Savastian
said and moved toward her. Fillip
and Viktor were finishing with closing off the ship. They turned and faced her,
and images of what they had all shared passed through her mind. The three marks
on her neck burned with passion. She placed a hand on her throat, felt the
first two marks from the brothers, and then lifted her other hand and touched
the third one.
Savastian
was right in front of her,
removed her hands, and placed his mouth over his mark.

“You
make me crazy with lust, my female.”

A
shiver worked its way through her body after
Savastian
spoke. “The three of you make my thoughts go all jumbled.” She laughed at her
juvenile words, but the heat in their gazes had her amusement at her response
drying up. Viktor and Fillip moved closer, their erections clearly pushing
against their leathers and these low growls of desire leaving them. They were
insatiable for her, but then again she felt the same way for them. It was all
very strange to feel this way, to have these strange emotions for men she just
met. But then again this was not a normal situation or claiming, and she hadn’t
led a normal life.

Savastian
wrapped his arms around her,
lifted her in his arms so she was now being cradled, and smiled down at her. It
was unusual to feel this sensation inside of her when she looked at each of
them. She felt this connection, this need that moved through her and stole her
sanity and thoughts on what was the right and wrong way to go about living her
new life. Maybe it was because they had saved her from a life that had been a
fate worse than hell, a life that was demeaning and hurtful and filled with no
love whatsoever?

They had taken her away from a
life that was slowly killing her.

The sound of
Savastian’s
wings emerging surrounded her. The feel of the wind increasing as he flapped
them had her glancing at the other two brothers. Fillip and Viktor were also
letting their wings come out, and the impressive sight of them stunned her.
Their wings were tipped with claws, dark and sharp, deadly, and she knew they
were used as weapons. The wingspan itself was monstrously huge, at least double
the size of their seven feet height. And then Viktor and Fillip were airborne.
The wind picked up, hot and dry, and she stared at the two males that were like
demons …
her
demons. Their big red
bodies, their black claws that tipped their massive, strong hands, and the
black wings that curled and unfurled as they kept airborne, was like a violent,
frightening, arousing vision.

“Are you ready to see your new
home, my female?”
Savastian
asked.

She stared at him, got lost in
the dark gaze as he held her, and knew she had never been more ready for
something in her life than she was right now. “I’ve never been more ready than
I am for this.”

Savastian
grinned, his fangs flashing at
her. And then he was in the air, too, and flying behind his brothers. She
closed her eyes, excited and anticipating the flight.

“You don’t want to miss this,
Mekenna
,” he said in a deep voice.

She looked at everything, trying
to take in as much as she could. They were high enough that the tops of the
jagged mountains were feet below them. He curled his claws deeper into her
skin, not breaking the flesh, but making sure to keep her close. The heat of
his body and the warmth of the air had beads of sweat lining the area between
her breasts. But the heat didn’t bother her, and in fact the wind on her face
and the open air had her lifting her arms out and closing her eyes again. She
laughed, feeling like she was the one flying on her own, nothing stopping her.
There was the idea that if he dropped her she could fall to her death, but not
even that could sway her happiness.

“These are the
Tartanaian
Mountains,”
Savastian
said, and she opened her eyes to see what he referred to. “Many Hades warriors
make their home in the mountains.” The moved toward the furthest part of the
ocean, and she stared at the horrendous, scary creatures that broke through the
fiery liquid. They were scaly, flames coming from their bodies, their eyes this
glowing yellow color, and their fangs like massive swords. She held onto
Savastian
harder, and he chuckled.

“I’ll never let you go, female.”
He leaned in close and inhaled deeply from her hair. He turned right and headed
toward the forest of fire. “And that is our home, deep within the
Goomata
forest of flames. There are caves buried in the
ground. It’s safe and will be all ours,
dimina
.” He dipped low, and she noticed the way he curled
his wings further into his body and turned to clear the narrow opening. He
soared lower to clear the mountains, and then he was landing on the dark, rocky
ground of the entrance at the forest opening.

Sebastian
took her hand, and Fillip and Viktor stepped beside her and behind her. They
then walked into the forest. She tilted her head back, looking at the fires
that topped these majestic looking trees with the black and white trunks. She
moved past one of the trunks and saw the smooth, almost glassy looking texture,
but didn’t dare touch anything. The further they went into the forest, the more
the heat surrounded them. Pieces of fire seemed to fall from the sky, landing
in odd places around them. She pressed closer to
Savastian
,
feeling the other two brothers move closer to her as well, and didn’t know how
she could survive a world so destructive.

An
outcropping of caves could be seen up ahead, but before they even made it
another foot all three males stopped. They caged her in, reached for their
weapons, and became deathly still and silent. Was a predator close by? Was
danger too great for them to handle about to attack them? Gods, she hated not
knowing, and she couldn’t even see anything aside from their firm, red backs as
they kept her blocked in with the protection of their bodies.
Mekenna
closed her eyes, slowly counted to regain her
thoughts, and when she got to ten she opened them once more, ready to face
whatever had altered the men. She heard the hissing and growling sound coming
closer and closer. Twigs snapped, echoing off the fire trees, and when Fillip
shifted on his feet she could see through the gap between the brothers’ bodies
this horrendous beast moving toward them. The males positioned her behind them,
their backs now this wall of flesh, protecting her from this monstrous creature
slowly crawling toward them.

“She
needs to get to the caves,” Viktor said, and he took a step closer. He had a
sword in one hand, and his wings slightly unfurled, the tips pointed toward the
front of his body as weapons. The other two brothers glanced at him, and then
Fillip backed up, grabbed her around the waist and pressed her back to his
chest. He was ten feet off the ground only seconds later, and although there
were trees surrounding them, their branches were so high in the air that they
were not an obstruction if he needed to fly. He wouldn’t be able to go very
fast, but unless that creature could fly as well it wouldn’t be able to get
them.

Fillip
stayed airborne for a few moments, and she watched in horror as the beast
charged forward. It didn’t have wings, but its body was close to the ground,
long and scaly, and the tongue that came out of its mouth was tipped with
flame. It slithered like a snake, but so much faster that her heart was in her
throat. Everything seemed to happen so quickly, and although she was not in
danger being in the air like this, she felt like she was in the thick of the
fight.

This
disgusting black substance dripped out of its gaping mouth, and when it hissed
the onyx colored goo sprayed from it. It stopped a few feet from the brothers
on the ground, but they had their weapons drawn, their wings out, and didn’t
look afraid at all. More hissing and screeching came from the creature, and it
was loud and ear-piercing.

“Everything
will be okay,
Mekenna
,” Fillip said close to her ear.
“As soon as the beast is not in that direction I will take you to the cave.”

She
nodded.

“It
can jump and spray poisonous venom that is toxic, and I won’t risk even a drop
getting on you.”

The
creature hissed, and more goo came out of its mouth to land on the rock beneath
it, causing a sizzling effect. It was toxic and could eat right through stone.
She didn’t breathe, couldn’t for that matter. But when the creature lunged
forward and swiped out at one of the warriors she made a little involuntary
cry. She’d just met them, just gotten them in her lives. She did not want to
lose them now.

Savastian
slashed out with his blade,
cutting the beast on the side of the face. The creature made this loud, blood-curdling
cry, and tried to get the brothers with its long claws. With the light from the
fires above flickering over his massive body, she could see the creature’s
blood splashed on Viktor’s and
Savastian’s
bodies.

Watching
then fight, cut into the animal’s scaly and black oily flesh, and hearing the
roars come from the beast as it was slowly dying, had relief and fear moving
through her. It was strange to have this danger right in front of her, because
all her life she had been sheltered.

She
watched the horror play out, saw the men fighting like it wasn’t anything
frightening or dangerous, and then finally exhaled when Viktor sliced his blade
through the creature’s head. The beast fell to its side, the head right beside
the body, and
its
now lifeless eyes staring right at
her.

Fillip
kissed her on the back of the head, and murmured in his native language,
“You’re safe.”

She
closed her eyes, felt her body start to tremble with the aftereffects of what
had just happened, and realized that her life could have changed once again
drastically in the blink of her eye.

Chapter
Ten

Fillip held
Mekenna
tighter as he flew over to the opening of the cave. All Hades males lived
within the safety of the mountains, all but him and his brothers. Although the
mountains offered protection against predators, it also gave them the necessary
strength and rejuvenating properties to keep them at the top of the food chain.
But the caves they called home were deep within the ground, still having the
mineral properties to aid in their strength and wellness, and they preferred to
be more isolated from others.

He lowered her to the ground, but
kept a hold on her, and pulled her closer to him. Grabbing the back of her
head, he slipped his fingers through her hair, and tilted her head back.
Staring down at his mate he took in the green of her eyes, the gentle slope of
her face and the delicate features of her cheeks and nose. She was a gorgeous
creature, and her light blue skin almost seemed luminescent as it glowed under
the flames of the trees.

The scent of fear came from her,
but the more powerful aroma was her pleasure of her freedom and her males safe.
Yes, they were hers, and she was theirs. Fillip looked at her once more, and
then leaned down and kissed her softly. He pulled away from her when he heard
his
brothers
approach. Turning and looking at them
over his shoulder, he saw the black blood of the
Garangerick
beast on their chests.

He didn’t need to ask if his
brothers were okay, because they were warriors, alive, and that was
confirmation enough for all of them. But
Mekenna
moved away from Fillip and rushed over to Viktor and
Savastian
.
She started running her hands over their chests, murmuring that she was just
making sure they were okay, and Fillip started laughing for the first time in a
long time. Yes, it had been years, decades even since he had felt such
amusement. But the looks on his brothers’ faces seemed almost like they were
shocked that this female, whom they had just met, was so worried about
their
safety.

“Mate, we’re fine,”
Savastian
said and smiled.

“Are you sure?” she asked and
scanned them over again. “There is so much blood, and that … thing looked like
it had gotten you a few times.”

“We’re sure,” Viktor said and
sheathed his sword. He grabbed
Mekenna
and pulled her
in for a long kiss. She didn’t protest though, and the fact she kissed Viktor
once more, and then moved toward
Savastian
to kiss
him as well despite all the gore on them, told Fillip she was their mate
irrevocably. It didn’t matter that they had just met, that she was abused and a
slave to a motherfucker they should have killed. She was here, theirs, and
happy.