Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Fender
Pulling Tempest behind me, I stepped through the gateway—and was instantly hit by the scent of earth and forest, of animal, of a wildness that reached deep inside me, grabbing hold of the beast with razor-sharp claws and wringing a snarl from me.
Roman shifted beside me, baring his teeth. His eyes flared, turning gold. “Fuck,” he growled out.
Zari’s head tipped back, and she scented more deeply as her eyes flashed to red and stayed that way. Kurgan just grunted and started walking.
“Are you okay?” Tempest asked me.
I grabbed on to my control and locked it down as best as I could. “Yeah,” I said, but my voice told a different story. The beast had hold of my vocal cords.
“Be careful what you touch. We don’t know if anything’s poisonous,” she said.
Animal calls, the kinds I’d never heard before, echoed around us. There were barks, roars, and squawks, as well as screams and grunts that could only come from primates.
“Best not to hang around here too long,” Roman said, and his voice didn’t sound any better than mine.
“Kurgan, you solid?” I asked, because even though he looked like he was under control, I needed to be sure.
He nodded his big shaggy head, his gaze taking us in. “More than you,” he said, not missing a thing.
I would have argued, but he was right. The male was usually more animal than any of us.
Up until recently, he’d spoken in single fucking syllables most of the time, and had been as out of control as any hound I’d seen.
Then Zari had started spending every day with him, helping him, and it showed.
I studied him again. I didn’t know why, but for whatever reason, this realm wasn’t fucking with him like the rest of us.
Zari visibly shook herself, and her eyes returned to their original color, pale gold surrounded by the same moss green as her sire’s, then she slid something from her pocket.
“Lucifer gave me this,” she said, holding up a small piece of steel.
“It’s forged from Tregan’s fire, like the weapons.
He said Kurgan will be able to track with it. ”
She handed her brother the small piece of steel. “This is what we’re looking for.”
He held it to his nose, licked it, then put it in his pocket. He stared ahead then, looking inward. A hound didn’t track by scent alone. Once we had a scent, we could see where the item was in our mind’s eye, unless there was some kind of strong magic blocking it.
“Anything?” Roman asked, sounding like he was gargling rusted iron.
I knew how he felt, my beast was so close to the surface now that I was surprised I was still standing upright. Kurgan nodded, his gaze focused ahead as he strode on. Tempest gasped beside me, and my gaze sliced down to her.
“You need to loosen your grip, Fender,” she said, her face lined with pain.
Fuck. I quickly released her hand. I hadn’t even realized I’d done it. “I’m sorry. This place, it’s…messing with me.”
“It’s okay,” she said, but her gaze was wary.
Breathing deeply, I called the beast back—the farther from the surface, the better—because this realm was continually calling to the raw, animal part of me.
We all scanned our surroundings as we walked, taking in the fertile forest. It was more like a jungle, teaming with wildlife, fruit trees, and other lush greenery, and I wanted to shift and run. I wanted to roll in the earth, bury my nose in it, I wanted to…
“What are you doing?” Zari said sharply.
Roman’s hand was gripping the back of her neck. “Keeping you close. You need protecting.”
“No, I don’t.” She shoved his hand off.
Roman growled, his eyes flashing red.
Yeah, the sooner we left this place, the better. Kurgan and Tempest still seemed to be the only ones completely unaffected.
“How much farther?” Zari said to her brother, but her gaze slid to Roman and she bit her lip.
“Half a day’s walk,” he said.
Fuck.
Strange sounds came from the trees around us, and I let my protective instincts radiate from me as aggression and noticed Roman was doing the same. It seemed to be working, though, because whatever was in the forest with us had kept their distance, at least for now.
Keeping Tempest in front of me, so she and Zari were between Roman and me, we carried on through the forest. I had no idea how this realm worked, or if Pan had been alerted to our arrival, but we had to be on full alert. I had to fight this urge to let my beast out to play.
Pan was a god, one who enjoyed chaos, and drawing his attention would be a very bad thing.
We walked for a long time, and slowly the sun began to lower in the sky.
As night fell, the trees and plants began to glow in the darkness.
All the colors became more vibrant, the smells richer, and the beast surprisingly grew languid inside me, rolling and basking as if the animal was tipsy.
I found myself smiling for no reason. I glanced up at Roman, and he had a broad smile on his face as well, and he was nodding his head, like he could hear a beat.
Then it reached out to me…
A deep bass sound that seemed to grow in the center of my chest. I liked it, a lot. Zari danced as she walked, and when Roman grabbed her hand and spun her, she threw her head back and laughed.
In the back of my mind, I knew something was wrong, but I couldn’t seem to make myself care. Why would I? This place had everything we could ever want or need.
I wanted nothing more than to follow the music. I wanted to pull Tempest in to my arms and dance with her under the stars, surrounded by the perfume and glowing lights of this forest, and I never wanted to stop.
The music grew louder, a chaotic sound that made my beast purr and my heart beat faster, feeling more like a cat than a hound, yet so utterly contented.
The sound of happiness reached us, and the heady scent of sex drifted to us on the night breeze.
The beast purred again.
Tempest
I tugged on Fender’s hand. “What are you doing?”
“We need to dance,” he said. “Come on, baby, dance with me.”
Pan’s power had somehow called to their beasts, and they’d answered. They all seemed to be in some kind of trance, well, all the hounds except Kurgan.
“Roman, can I see what we have to barter with?” I said, afraid he’d lose it or run off with it.
With a grin, Roman took it from his pocket and tossed it to me. I caught it just as the hound laughed and threw Zari over his shoulder. Her laughter joined his, ringing out as they ran into the clearing ahead.
Kurgan turned my way, his eyes red, his expression conflicted.
“We have to do something,” I said to him, not sure if he would even talk to me.
His gaze slid between the clearing where Zari had just disappeared and somewhere beyond, to where he had tracked the weapons.
I looked down at my hand, to the item Roman had tossed to me.
It was a small pipe flute made of gold. Magic radiated from it, the same magic I felt here in this realm.
It had once belonged to Pan, I was sure of it.
I tried to hand it to Kurgan, but Fender caught me around the waist and nuzzled my throat.
All I could do was throw it. Kurgan caught it.
“Go, quickly. Leave it in exchange for the weapons,” I said.
“Zari,” he snarled. “I need to protect her.”
“I’ll stay with them. I’m a witch, I’ll make sure Zari’s okay.” All of that was true, or at least I would do everything I could to keep her safe, but my magic was hobbled here. I’d tried to use it and nothing happened. “Please, Kurgan, you need to go.”
His lips curled in a snarl, but he finally nodded before he broke into a run, sprinting away and disappearing into the forest.
Fender took my hand and kissed it, his expression one of pure joy. He spun me then, and walked backwards, leading me toward the others. “Let’s join the fun.”
He pulled me into a clearing and tugged me against him, before he buried his face in my hair and began to sway.
“It’s so beautiful,” he said against my ear. “The most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. The colors, the scent, I never want to leave this place.”
Whatever it was that Fender, Roman, and Zari were seeing, I was not. There were no bright colors, only the glow from the fire that burned in the middle of the clearing offered light from the darkness.
Fender swayed, holding me to him tight. His eyes were glowing red in the darkness now, his body moving in a languid way, his cock hard, digging into my stomach as he moved.
Roman and Zari were wrapped in each other’s arms, swaying as well.
His hands were on her butt, and he was kissing her neck, while her head was thrown back.
I didn’t know what their relationship was, but I had to stop this before it went too far and the two of them did something they wouldn’t in other circumstances.
It wasn’t easy. Fender didn’t want to release me, but I managed to extricate myself from him.
I grabbed Zari’s hand, and she laughed and shoved Roman away.
He fell back with a booming laugh, something I’d never heard from him before, falling to the ground.
Fender collapsed back beside him, and they watched us with rapt attention.
Fear gripped me. There were things, things I couldn’t see clearly moving in the shadows.
This place wasn’t safe. But I had to buy us time while Kurgan found the weapons and got back to us, and I needed him to help me get them out of here.
Zari swayed her hips, striding toward Roman, and he watched her with hungry eyes as she danced for him.
There was no missing how aroused he was, because he wasn’t trying to hide it.
Zari danced faster, to a beat I couldn’t hear, and Fender grabbed for me, hauling me back to him, pulling me onto his lap.
“Fender?” I said. “You’re not yourself. You need to come back, you need to fight this.”
He laughed. “This is paradise, we’re in paradise, peaches. I never want to go back.” He nuzzled my throat. “Kiss me, kiss your male.”