Chapter 20 Heron
P ain lanced every cell in my body. The agony originated with the bullet wound in my heart and spread outward, reaching with jagged claws that seemed to shred my muscles, tendons, veins, and arteries and shatter my bones until I felt like nothing of my physical form remained. And just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, I felt the heat begin to rise.
Fire. It spread into every broken, crushed piece of me that remained, scorching the nerve endings that somehow avoided destruction. I felt engulfed by invisible flames that seared and branded my soul. I cried out with the pain, shouting obscenities as the flames continued to lick and consume.
I had died. I knew that. I felt it when my heart stopped beating. But I never ceased my struggles, fighting against this ruthless, ravenous hunger that formed from hellfire. I couldn’t say how long the process lasted, but eventually, I felt the heat begin to recede.
The flames that had taken hold somehow received a command to cease. They burned to a low simmer. I felt my body become weightless, a shell forming as a protective barrier around the cells that began regenerating. My muscles, bones, and tendons reformed. My arteries and veins started to pump blood again. My vision returned, only to see my Rebel crying as she knelt beside my body.
How could I burn to ash, and no one notice?
How did I die and fucking come back?
In my head, a voice answered, one that I never heard before now. You are chosen. A bloodline that comes from the lava-filled mountains deep out in the sea. A land where fire erupts and the ash brings renewal.
Who was this?
Your true form.
What?
A phoenix.
Phoenix. That was a myth.
No. It is your heritage.
In awe, I listened to the phoenix as he explained how my Samoan bloodline descended from a powerful phoenix shifter odyssey. I hadn’t been given up because my birth parents didn’t want me. They put me with gentle humans who would raise me until I could bond with my phoenix and learn the truth.
The island where I came from had been attacked, and some of the odyssey killed. Fearing for my safety, my birth parents hid me where the enemy couldn’t find them.
Where is this enemy now? I asked, wondering if the threat still existed.
It is eliminated.
And my birth parents?
Alive. They await your return.
Wow.
And my mate? I wondered, knowing I needed to return to her.
Always welcome. Our mate. Ours to protect and cherish.
I wondered what I should call him. I felt his presence in my head and heart, a bond that nothing could ever rival except for the crow who shared space and my mate, Rebel.
Phyre.
And the crow? How did he share a bond with the phoenix and me? It seemed unlikely, yet I felt it.
Your parents shared a unique merge. They formed a special union and gave birth to the first of your kind. A Kindred with the sharp senses of the crow and the fierce dominion over fire and resurrection of the phoenix.
Life and death. Birth and renewal.
Phyre brought me back from the dead.
His amusement turned to concern when I felt pain seep into my heart, surging with so much heartbreak that I trembled inside my obsidian shell. That protective barrier kept me hidden until the moment I could rise from the ashes.
Go to her. She needs us.
I didn’t hesitate to break through the mental wall that contained me. The shell shattered as I felt my spirit soar, new wings giving me flight as they extended, combining with my crow. Not just one or the other, I became a combination of two incredible, fierce beings.
My body jolted as my eyes snapped open. My head turned, and I stared into the tear-filled sky-blue eyes of my beautiful mate.
“My Spark.”
Shocked, her mouth popped open, and she gasped. “Heron.”
“I won’t ever leave you again,” I promised, scooping her up as I stood.
“I’ll kill you again!” Hammerhead shouted, subdued by Hawk and Talon.
“You’re no threat,” I laughed, staring at him as I felt my wings burst free, breaking through the skin on my back without a hint of agony. Flames danced across the span, flickering above the onyx feathers that rippled with red and golden shimmers.
I flicked my wing, and a wave of fire hit the ground, traveling at a speed almost faster than the human eye could follow. When the flames hit Hammerhead, they engulfed his body and consumed him. He screamed as he burned alive, dropping to the ground in a poof of ash. The wind carried away the fragments, and nothing from his evil soul remained.
I glanced at Crow, and he grinned. “Welcome back, Heron.”
“Don’t wait for me,” I warned as I flew upward, holding Rebel in my arms. She squealed as I spread my wings wide, flying away from the land that held terrible memories for my mate. I kept going until we neared the ocean, and the soothing sound of the waves crashed against the shore.
I stayed high in the sky as Rebel faced me. “You came back to me.”
“Always.”
“But you died.”
“Yes.”
“So you’re a phoenix?”
“Well, I’m a crow and a phoenix.”
“Can I touch your wings?”
A grin twitched my lips. “Of course.”
She reached out, gliding her fingertips along the silken feathers. Instant lust surged inside me, and my cock hardened. I didn’t realize I was naked until now. It never occurred to me to pay attention.
“They’re beautiful, Heron.”
“As lovely and dazzling as my mate.”
“Your mate?”
“Yes. The other half of my soul. My love. My forever.”
Her gaze softened. “I love you.”
“You’re so loved in return, my beloved.”
She smiled as her hand inched downward, wrapping around my hard and eager length. With a single tug, I almost dropped from the sky. “I want you.”
“Right now?” No complaint from me.
“Yes.”
I held her as I used my claws to rip through her clothes. They pushed through my knuckles and appeared only long enough to shred her clothing and then disappeared, hiding until I needed them again. The phoenix and the crow would never allow Rebel harm. Their fierce and gentle love for her rivaled the possessiveness I felt.
But all three of us desired her. To them, she was a beautiful treasure. To me, my sexy wife. Or she would be by the end of the summer. I planned to marry her as soon as possible. In fact, I’d ask her once we returned to The Roost.
My fingers sought her slick center, sliding through her slit to find that perfect, warm, tight place I loved. Seeing her naked and feeling her wet pussy, weeping and ready for me, I couldn’t wait to bury inside her. With a hard thrust, I entered her as her legs wrapped around my waist.
I’d never done anything this erotic as watching her bounce up and down on my cock, lifting and lowering her body with my hands on her hips while my wings kept us in the air. Every thrust seemed to drive deeper into her, filling her in a way that turned us both on. Being in the air, gravity and the angle heightened the pleasure.
I didn’t think of the time. All I knew was how it felt to make love to Rebel. To hold her again. To feel her pussy tighten around me and milk my cock. She came so fucking hard that I felt our combined fluids leaking into the air.
I kissed her as she rocked into me and claimed her mouth, thrusting my tongue in the same relentless rhythm as my cock. The punishing pace kept her gripping my shaft, and when I couldn’t hold out any longer, I threw my head back and shouted her name.
My phoenix burst free as I came, flames flying from his wings and casting red and golden lights into the darkened sky. Night had fallen, and a cemetery reflected the moon’s shadow below us. Headstones lined the narrow rows, but I only focused on the onyx wings of my brethren. Crows cawed and joined us, witnessing our union with praise.
I couldn’t help but chuckle when Rebel blushed.
“Are they celebrating that we fucked in the sky?”
“Yes, and that we brought pleasure and completion to one another.”
“I have no idea what to say to that.”
“I’ll just kiss you so you don’t have to,” I snickered. My lips molded to hers, and I swept my tongue inside, enjoying her soft moan in response.
The flames shielded us from any human eyes, and the magic of my phoenix concealed us. No one would know what happened on this night except us. And the crows.
“The others are out there,” I revealed to Rebel.
“The others?”
“The phoenix odyssey. My family.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh, Heron. That’s wonderful!”
“We’re going to visit them.”
“When?”
“Soon. I promise.”
As I stared at Rebel, surrounded by my crow and phoenix, there wasn’t anywhere I’d rather be than right here, this moment, with my mate. She made me feel alive. Worthy. Loved. I’d risen from the ashes to come back to her, but I’d also crawled from the darkest depths of sorrow and anger to find her.
Like all those dreams I’d had of her kept me in a drowsy state, but I fully awakened the first day we met. Weird, but it also felt right. And now, the last pieces had fallen into place.
I had my club. My mate. My crow. And now, my phoenix.
I formed my own family and found one among the crows and the Devil’s Murder MC. I’d found my home in Rebel.
I was a lucky man.
Happiness surged through my body, and I held Rebel, feeling her soft skin against mine. We’d make babies together and form our own odyssey along with the murder. When my biological parents joined us, I’d feel complete.