Deserted (Shadow Beast Shifters Book 4)

If Reece hadn’t been confidently strolling into a giant hole in the land, I would have been more cautious in my approach, but trusting his experience with this grotto, I followed, naked and quietly anticipating what I might see in this place of myth and legend.

As we descended many steps, leading even deeper than I expected, the lights highlighted the red sands. I couldn’t see what lay below from this angle, but I noticed that as we moved into the grotto, the reds were changing tone, growing lighter until…

‘Silver,’ I breathed. ‘The sands are pure silver.’

‘Yep,’ Reece’s deep voice filtered up from where he was a few steps lower. He turned back to me, and I noted that his skin looked darker under the silver. His eyes bluer and more intense too. ‘These sands hold properties unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. Not just in this world, but all of them. It’s true power, original power, but it can never be removed from the grotto.’

‘You tried to remove it?’ Of course he’d tried to remove it.

He nodded, that cocky smile reappearing. ‘Yeah, you know how I like to best whatever challenges come my way. I’ve tried to take this power out in so many ways I lost count. It didn’t matter, though, because by the time I reached the surface, not a speck of silver remained with me.”

“You’re lucky the grotto continues to allow you entrance,” I said drily, shaking my head.

His laugh echoed through this stairwell. “I think it enjoyed my attempts. A familiar game we play.”

He returned to his descent, and after what felt like a mile into the core of Rohami, we stepped out into a field of silver sands, and I finally found myself in a grotto. For a beat, before I visually took in one part of this hidden secret, I closed my eyes and let the energy fill me up. That was when I truly understood what Reece meant by this grotto holding power unlike any he’d ever felt.

At first it didn’t flow easily with my essence, the ancient tendrils of the silver sands cold and foreign, but within seconds, it turned more comforting. Comforting and incredibly intense. A soft chuckle escaped me. ‘Feels odd that I’m naked now,’ I breathed, holding my hands out to twirl my fingers through the power.

‘I like you naked,’ Reece said, closer than before. ‘And I plan on keeping you that way for as long as possible.’

Despite this sort of possessive statement bothering me earlier, here, surrounded by silver sands, his words struck a part of me deep inside. A part that had been owned by this damn male for centuries. As my eyes opened, I found Reece before me, looking right at home in the land of the ancient gods. ‘You’re not naked,” I said, my voice breathless. “Which if you ask me, is a touch unfair—’

In one smooth motion he pulled his shirt off, and whatever I’d planned on saying next faded into the silver sands. Rich bronze skin draped over firm muscles filled my vision.

Reece let out a low laugh. “As much as I’m enjoying this moment, it might be best if I leave my pants on until you’ve seen more than the front entrance.”

Dammit… he was right. If he were naked, even a magical grotto would pale in comparison. “I’m naked though,” I noted, forcing my eyes to lift from the writing across his lower abdomen in a script I couldn’t read. “Am I not a distraction?”

His answer was to sweep me into his arms, and with a growl he buried his face in my neck and bit into the flesh there, sending trills of pleasure straight to my center. “The only reason I’m not buried inside of you right now,” he murmured, tongue caressing the bite mark, “is because this is your first chance to see a grotto, and I won’t take that away from you. There’s plenty of time for the rest…”

At this point I was dead. Just fucking dead as his words and aura caressed every damn sense I possessed. Before my soul followed me into the grave though, Reece set me on my unsteady legs, and off he went into the grotto. As I followed him across the soft sands, silver spreading out around my bare feet as I walked, I leaned over to touch it. It was silky, much finer than the sands of Earth, and the energy coursing through it was intense.

‘I see why you’ve never advertised this find,’ I said as I straightened, the sand falling from my hold. ‘It’s addictive, a true shot of power from what feels like an original source. One could grow used to having it.’

He nodded, and for the first time since entering this cave, his expression turned serious. ‘In my darker moments, I found myself lingering here, unable to leave. If it wasn’t for my own powerbase and the strength of my friendships, I feel that I might have lost myself to the thrall.’

‘Why did you bring me here when you didn’t bring Shadow and the others?”

His furrowed brow remained. ‘Multiple reasons.”

I thought he was going to leave it at that, but before the disappointment could even well up, he continued. “One, this was our adventure together. Despite everything, it felt wrong to ever bring another here. Two, none of our friends have the bond to the deserts that you and I have.” He let out a low breath. “And three, you have shown time and time again that power doesn’t addict you. You are in possession of arguably one of the strongest power sources in the worlds, and you never abuse that gift.”

This was the caring side of Reece that I’d lost, and it had almost killed me when it happened. “In the Shadow Realm was the only time I’ve powered up past my normal means in centuries,” I said softly.

A smile cracked his stoic stare. “You were lit up like a damn goddess. Shocked my old system a touch.’

‘I could tell,’ I replied drily. ‘You broke a centuries-old standoff to remind me that I’m a shitty, weak warrior.’

With an exhale, his head dropped, and I had to blink and make sure I was seeing that minute display of shame correctly. ‘It’s my turn to apologize,” he said. “I acted like an asshole, and honestly, you didn’t deserve it. It was just seeing you there, so fucking powerful and perfect—ready and determined to do whatever it took to save someone you loved—triggered the hell out of me, and I couldn’t let it go.”

Closing the distance between us, I put my hand on his arm. ‘We’re moving forward,” I reminded him, “healing the scars of the past so that we have a different future.’

His voice lowered to a gruff whisper. ‘What if I don’t want a different future?’

Now I was the one triggered. ‘I—I don’t understand. You want us to remain enemies?’

With a rough shake of his head, he growled. ‘No, that’s not it at all. Let’s just survive the next few moons, and then we can talk.’

He was driving me crazy with his back and forth, but I couldn’t argue with his statement. We were possibly going up against the ancients in a few moons, so there was no point worrying about the future until we were sure we had one.

Forcing myself to focus on our surroundings again, I nudged him in the side. ‘Okay, then. Show me around.’

With all the distractions—aka Reece not only half-naked but also emotionally opening up to me—there was no surprise we hadn’t made it far past the bottom of the stairs. As we powered on, that loose silver pathway expanded into a huge, round space. The walls and ceiling, high above, were as silver as the sands below. This ancient grotto was literally lined in power.

At first, the bright twinkling of the sand blinded me, but as my eyes adjusted, the most incredible vision appeared in the distance. ‘Liforina,’ I cried, almost bowling Reece over in my excitement. ‘There’s water down here.’

His laughter followed as I raced across the loose sand to reach what looked like a shallow lake lapping against the shore. “These are power-infused hot springs,” Reece said as he came up behind me. “If I’m seriously injured, it only takes a few hours in here to return to full strength.’

I was already naked, so there was literally no reason for me not to enter the warm spring. It didn’t look very deep, even though the water spanned out for many dozens of feet in all directions. As the heated liquid surrounded my muscles, I could feel it seeping into my energy, merging with it to repair any imperfections it felt.

I continued out, finding that it never got deeper than my thighs. After moving toward the most northern tip, I sat with my back against a hard silver wall, and the water leveled out just under my chin. Small bubbles flowed around my legs, the current helping to heal and soothe me.

From this position, I was able to see that this grotto was a simple space: the sands, this water, and some plants dotted about high on the shore. My sight of anything else was cut off as I focused on Reece, who had followed behind. He was naked now. The water lovingly caressed his thighs, which meant I had the most delightful view of every part of the desert god. Especially the hard length that was drawing my gaze.

When he stood before me, I attempted to breathe normally. ‘It’s not found anywhere else in the worlds,’ he said.

“I know,” I replied quickly, sure that his dick was absolutely one of a kind.

He laughed, and I jerked my head up, realizing I’d been a little cockmerized, as Mera phrased it. “The trees that grow here,” he said, as he dropped down to sit at my side. “And the other flora. None of it is found anywhere else, and they can’t be removed from the grotto either.”

Right. Plants and trees were the unique wood he was referring to.

As our skin pressed together down my right side, I fought to stay on point. “Do the plants have any special magic?’

I jumped as his hand slipped across my leg under the water, a smooth movement I hadn’t expected. ‘I think that this entire ecosystem,’ he said slowly, his finger tracing up my inner thigh, ‘is what makes this oasis so unique and special.’ When he hit my center, he parted the folds and slipped across the swollen flesh there. “We’re already reaping the benefits, which you’ll really understand when you leave.’

He slid his finger inside of me, and despite the water, there was no resistance. I’d been turned on for so long that I was more than ready for him. Tilting my hips, I moved against his touch, needing more. A second finger joined the first, and we both groaned. ‘How long have you been wet for me?’ he rumbled, turning his head so his lips could caress along the skin of my cheek and down to my lips.

‘I’m not sure I’ve stopped aching since the last time at the gathering,” I admitted, crying out as he moved his hand faster, fingers pumping in and out of me while his thumb circled my clit. Within seconds, the pleasure from my sensitive nerves had me hurtling toward an orgasm.

‘Tell me, Lale, did you find release without me? Over these many years?’

Even through the fuzziness of my brain, I growled at this fucker asking me questions like that when he was in the middle of controlling my body like a puppet master. With his intense gaze on me, I wanted to lie and tell him I’d moved on many times over the long years, but the truth was, in my robotic state I’d shut down every part of my body.

Punished myself in all ways.

‘There has been no other,’ I gasped, my breathing faster than ever as I lifted my hips higher and all but rode his fingers, greedy for his touch.

Greedy for the emotions he was returning to my world.

Mera had started my metamorphosis with the fires, but Reece… he was a damn rainbow, exploding color all over me. No matter what the next few days brought, one thing was for certain: I could never go back to my black-and-white existence.