I held out a hand, and he took it with a slow smile, then used it to pull me closer. We hovered there for a second, just Ethan and just Bec, sitting there, breathing the other in before we leant in close and brushed our lips across the other’s. His other hand slid up around the back of my neck, holding me close, a small rumble from his chest telling me exactly how he felt about this.
And I felt the same.
I crawled closer until I was finally straddling him, breathing him in, feeling that big hard body against mine, which only made me crave more.
Right now, I knew it was the weight of ages, of bonds formed thousands of years ago that thrust us together, hence Ethan’s fear. If we let them stay in the driver’s seat, wouldn’t we just end up in the same shitty place? But as I moved, readying myself to take him, to form our bond, to experience him, Ethan, not his other selves, I knew that was how we would move forward. We had a connection, we just had to build on that, and as he went to steady me while I brushed his cock against my folds, I felt like I was in safe hands.
“We won’t hurt each other,” I said as I sank down. “Just look after each other. Keep everyone safe, happy…” He thrust up inside me, making me gasp.
“Keep everyone happy,” he added. “That’s all I want. Nothing world changing, just a good, happy life.”
“Amen, brother,” Axel said, moving in closer, but waiting for permission before kissing me, then Ethan, my thrusts getting faster, deeper in response. I felt hands on my hips, hands on my back, as they all clustered close. Lonan and Branwen might have created their gross web of power to drain everyone in Oemis, but we were much more modest in our aims. I closed my eyes, surrendering now to the feel of Ethan splitting me open, both body and soul, forcing me to let down my boundaries and let them in.
“That’s how it’ll be,” Shaun whispered. “Our pack.”
“Our pack,” Shade echoed.
“Yes…” Ethan sobbed out, our thrusts violently fast now. We rode that cresting wave of energy now, so much greater than it was before, because it was all of us fused together, with one part still to join.
I licked my teeth, feeling the burn of my venom, waiting until his eyes flicked open, a look of the most delicious pleasure-pain creasing his face.
“I choose you, Ethan. Do you choose me?”
We slowed for a second, but that didn’t stop our bodies from exploding.
“Yes, always.”
He turned his head away, baring his neck to me, and I grabbed that gift with both hands, sinking my fangs into him without a thought, which was perhaps a mistake.
Well done, an arch female voice said inside my mind, with a low purr of approval. This is exactly what I needed.
Branwen, was the last thought I got out before everything went white.
Chapter 33
What happened next felt more like a dream than reality, but it was one I wanted to wake up from desperately. I moved differently now, something my guys didn’t notice initially, but when they did, it was too late. I swung to my feet, sinuous as a snake, and they fell about my feet. Branwen might have been a past version of me, or both of us different versions of something else, but what she was could do something with energy that I never could. I’d reached out to the guys, shared energy, but her? She used it as a leash to lash them to her side, control them so when we moved out of the room, we did so as one.
Crystals started singing as we padded down the hallway, just as they had down the broad streets of Oemis as we walked towards the dais. There were no other voices to join us here, but they would come, we knew that. The old woman rose as we passed through the living area, a small child by her side, and for a moment, we considered draining them of power as well, but something…odd held us off. The power that pulsed from them was attractive, yet it repelled as much as it lured. It was spiky, harsh, unwilling to be absorbed by us. We paid that little mind, as there was plenty of time to tackle them once we had completed ascension. We walked through the main doorways into the ceremonial space and weren’t surprised to find him waiting there.
“Sylvan…” we said, our voice filled with all the longing, need, and calculation that brewed within us. Hand reared inside the Volken camp, a true son of Lonan, he would be everything the bastard who’d betrayed us wasn’t, a new Lonan for a bright future. The men that surrounded us, they would be absorbed, used up, and die glad for the privilege. We had mistaken the violence of the process before, but not now. We smiled, and he smiled in response, Sylvan, moving closer.
“Sylvan!”
She cried his name as well. Her. Interloper. Our eyes narrowed, a snarl forming on our face as he turned towards her. To placate her, trick her, put her in her place, surely, but what we saw as we drew closer left us cold.
“Arelia, you shouldn’t be here.”
That care and concern, we did not like that at all. The selfish thrashing thing within us grew hungrier and vicious as we saw him clasp her hands, only soothed when he used them to push her away. Yessss… A hiss inside our mind as we saw her stumble backwards, a familiar expression on her face—heartbreak, loss, betrayal. We’d seen it before and quite liked it on others. We had carefully tended the Black Wolf’s conduit since birth, infiltrating his mind, binding him to us in every way but one. Our eyes slid sideways as the girl stumbled into the room, the old woman thumping along after her. Our eyes became slits as the girl faced us down, chin jerked high with an attitude of defiance we knew all too well.
Sylvan’s child.
The moments when he faltered in our grip all concerned them—Kailee and Arelia. They hooked their needy little claws into him and dragged him from the path we had set out. We should’ve made the little bitches vanish years ago, but there would be time for that. All the time in the world.
“Sylvan, my love,” I said breathily, gratified when his head whipped around, those eyes, so like Lonan’s but without the requisite megalomania, meeting ours. Whatever concerns we held settled as he relinquished his hold on Arelia, stepping away from her and towards us, towards our future. “It’s time.”
“It is.” His voice was deep, resonant, vibrating through our whole body, and then he reached for us, taking our hand. “It’s time for ascension.”
“Yes, Sylvan,” we said, almost in a sob. It felt like we had been waiting for this for so damn long.